Thanks for posting this. > On May 7, 2024, at 6:39 AM, Dennis Brasky via groups.io > <[email protected]> wrote: > > Pro-Palestine student protesters are being smeared as puppets of shadowy > “outside agitators.” The presence of community members and experienced > activists in the protests is nothing to be ashamed of: we need outside > agitators to build a better world.
Unless the outside agitators are working for the cops. Take the recent protests in Portland, Oregon for example. I don't recall any meeting that democratically decided to take over any building. A small group substituted themselves for the larger group. And what happened inside the Portland State University library? As soon as the authorities saw what they had, and it was propaganda gold, they ushered in the press. There are pictures of signs on bookshelves reading "don't harm the books," while in another part of the library, books got painted along with the walls and furniture. No functioning according to democratic decision making, no disciplined messaging, no agreement on what they are going to do when they takeover the library. This is an ideal environment for agent provocateurs. It's not unlike the setting 17 police cars on fire in the name of antiapartheid activist Rachel Corrie, which her family publicly rejects as something Rachel would never have supported. In other words, they're smearing the movement by imposing their tactics on it. And who they are, few know. This is not the student movement against the Vietnam War that I remember. Even though I wasn't a student, the University of Pennsylvania student groups in the spring of 1972 invited community groups to send representatives to a meeting with hundreds of people who decided to march and to take over an administration building. I remember voting. That step, the process of rebellion, is more important than the product, the takeover of the building. A small band taking over a building or setting police cars on fire turns the masses of students into spectators, isolates the protest, and makes the movement much easier to defeat. So, by all means, invite community people to your student protest. But do it democratically in a meeting that is itself the most important part of any protest, one that is representative and that represents the activists rather than a small band of people who want to fight the police rather than the presidential administration that is arming Israel. Mark -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30258): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30258 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105960119/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
