wade tillett on Thu, 31 Jan 2002 00:37:01 +0100 (CET)


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[Nettime-bold] wartime stratagem: cut out the middle


Look at the opposition of words taken from a recent Village Voice
article (out-take below):

The mainstream, the reformists, the unions, the nonviolent

(separated from)

the radicals, the anarchists, the direct action types, the violent
(vandalizers), the revolutionaries (implied).



A binary has been inherently set-up in the preparations for the nyc
wef protests. There is an actual division that is occuring WITHIN the
preparations for the protest. The radicals are separated from the
reformists. That is, a saturation of radicals free from reformists has
been encouraged and established. Perhaps this will aid in the painting
of all protesters as a unified group of terrorists that cannot be
appeased. The middle, the left, the neoliberal element, the bridges to
the mainstream have been cut off.

I am not lamenting the absence of the neoliberal factions. I am simply
saying that, consciously or unconsciously, an explosive situation is
being encouraged through and by not only painting the protestors as
radicals, but by actually facilitating a division within the
protestors between the reformers and the radicals. In other words, the
empire's stratagem is one of divide and conquer: Divide into two
factions: one for appropriation, one to conquer. Divide the radicals
from the reformers, incite the radicals, portray their violence and
crush them, appearing justified. Appropriate the reformers with petty
facades of moral righteousness and minimal concessions, and further
colonize the world with this newly acquired and appropriated moral
justification.




...
from the VILLAGE VOICE :

...
The cries of the anarchists may echo loudly in this
post-9-11 world. In a climate where dissent has been
called un-American, and the Patriot Act has granted
the government new powers to eavesdrop, arrest, and
detain, many of the global justice movement's more
mainstream players have decided to lie low. The Sierra
Club has completely bowed out, while at the fair trade
outfit Global Exchange, says cofounder Kevin Danaher,
"we are still dusting ourselves off" from the blow of
9-11. The group will conduct only teach-ins. The
AFL-CIO had hoped to march, but was denied a permit.

So the anarchists and direct action types like Warcry
have been left to lead the charge....


The reformist perspective is likely to retreat further
with groups like the Sierra Club absent from WEF week
and the AFL-CIO presence reduced from a march to a
rally. Danaher says Global Exchange will focus instead
on the alternative World Social Forum in Brazil.
Shooting more from the hip, Public Citizen staffer
Mike Dolan, an architect of Seattle, says his group
has not yet endorsed the one permitted march because
the sponsor, Another World Is Possible, "can't
guarantee that the event will be nonviolent, and that
the movement won't be marred by vandalism." At press
time, Drop the Debt, Earth First!, Rainforest Action
Network, and the Ruckus Society had all not signed
onto the march, either.

With these significant players sitting it out-or
penned in by overzealous police-who's left to
distribute schedules, run listservs, host
spokescouncils, paint banners, and coordinate legal
and medical support, food, and housing? The anarchists
are making do....
...

As Moderate Groups Turn Down the Heat, Anarchists
Light a New Way for Dissent
Keepers of the Flame
by Esther Kaplan
Week of January 30 - February 5, 2002




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