Brings back memories.
Nov. 18th, 2006 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clappamungusHold on to your hats, boys and boyettes. A trip down memory lane regarding my politics.
I read that protesters at the G20 summit today have turned feral.
I remember when I was a Trotskyite, a member of Socialist Alternative, barricading buildings, marching, chanting. I remember blockading the North Ltd building in St Kilda Rd with a whole group of socialists, hippies, Aboriginal activists and the like, and vandalising the building when we heard that the traditional leader of the Jabiluka area had been found guilty for trespassing on her own land. At least, I think that's what happened. It was so long ago and I was consuming so many illicit substances at the time that I can't be sure of the details.
Now? No, I'm not like that. You'll not find me holding a placard, or beating bongos and flinging my dreads over my shoulder.
"What do we want?" "Fuckin' everything!" "When do we want it??" "Now!!!! Actually, no. We wanted it fuckin' YESTERDAY!!!!!"
No. I shudder at how naïve I was back then. And I wonder to myself, how much of this protest and the violence is being perpetrated by a small group of wankers who just want to destroy something, how much have the media outlets beaten it up, what are the cops doing to the protesters that we won't hear about. Most of all, I wonder, what the hell is the point?
Not that I think protest is necessarily a bad thing. In spirit I agreed with the marches against the Workplace reforms. I marched years ago with the East Timor crowd and I still think that it achieved something, even though East Timor is a basket case nowadays. But now? It's the converted preaching to the converted, to the disgust of the opposed. Especially when riot police are involved. It was like that with S11, and from then on every big summit or event.
And what are they talking about in that building that's so enraged people? As far as I understand, this meeting is basically about the state of the global economy. This includes, at least at this particular meeting, topics such as climate change and energy distribution. Not to mention the state of some of the world's poorest countries that are being propped up in terms of aid by some of the wealthiest. In other words, some fairly important topics. So I really see no point in this form of protesting. I really don't think these protesters, at least the majority of them, have any idea of what they're actually protesting about. Sad, really, that they're expending so much energy.
Yes, as I have said before, I have leftist leanings. I also realise that not very much is accomplished by protesting at the fact that the meeting is taking place. If you disagree with something that's happening in the meeting, lobby the relevant groups. Write letters. Form interest groups and research rather than scream with vitriol, take out ads in the paper, inform people why you're angry. Don't just converge on the place and use your agenda to cause chaos. It's counter-productive and absolutely meaningless.
Ah. The way I used to be. Even angrier than I am now, misdirecting that anger towards any cause that pissed off the Trotskyists and their dream of a workers' utopia.
Memories.
I read that protesters at the G20 summit today have turned feral.
I remember when I was a Trotskyite, a member of Socialist Alternative, barricading buildings, marching, chanting. I remember blockading the North Ltd building in St Kilda Rd with a whole group of socialists, hippies, Aboriginal activists and the like, and vandalising the building when we heard that the traditional leader of the Jabiluka area had been found guilty for trespassing on her own land. At least, I think that's what happened. It was so long ago and I was consuming so many illicit substances at the time that I can't be sure of the details.
Now? No, I'm not like that. You'll not find me holding a placard, or beating bongos and flinging my dreads over my shoulder.
"What do we want?" "Fuckin' everything!" "When do we want it??" "Now!!!! Actually, no. We wanted it fuckin' YESTERDAY!!!!!"
No. I shudder at how naïve I was back then. And I wonder to myself, how much of this protest and the violence is being perpetrated by a small group of wankers who just want to destroy something, how much have the media outlets beaten it up, what are the cops doing to the protesters that we won't hear about. Most of all, I wonder, what the hell is the point?
Not that I think protest is necessarily a bad thing. In spirit I agreed with the marches against the Workplace reforms. I marched years ago with the East Timor crowd and I still think that it achieved something, even though East Timor is a basket case nowadays. But now? It's the converted preaching to the converted, to the disgust of the opposed. Especially when riot police are involved. It was like that with S11, and from then on every big summit or event.
And what are they talking about in that building that's so enraged people? As far as I understand, this meeting is basically about the state of the global economy. This includes, at least at this particular meeting, topics such as climate change and energy distribution. Not to mention the state of some of the world's poorest countries that are being propped up in terms of aid by some of the wealthiest. In other words, some fairly important topics. So I really see no point in this form of protesting. I really don't think these protesters, at least the majority of them, have any idea of what they're actually protesting about. Sad, really, that they're expending so much energy.
Yes, as I have said before, I have leftist leanings. I also realise that not very much is accomplished by protesting at the fact that the meeting is taking place. If you disagree with something that's happening in the meeting, lobby the relevant groups. Write letters. Form interest groups and research rather than scream with vitriol, take out ads in the paper, inform people why you're angry. Don't just converge on the place and use your agenda to cause chaos. It's counter-productive and absolutely meaningless.
Ah. The way I used to be. Even angrier than I am now, misdirecting that anger towards any cause that pissed off the Trotskyists and their dream of a workers' utopia.
Memories.
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-18 05:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-18 11:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-18 11:24 am (UTC)More seriously, I do kind of still see how people can be pissed off to the extent that rationality doesn't come into it much. Not that it helps to smash up random things, but when people aren't getting the chance to state their opposition no matter how well researched (and a lot of people don't, or are shouted down by really stupid but 'famous so we have to listen to them' people- a tory paper here was recently running a bunch of articles by some mentally backward celebrity about how the Stern report was wrong JUST because he thought so- no research whatsoever- it's a double standard for the left and the right).
But fuck, kicking horses is thick as shit (apart form anything else, they have harder feet to kick back).
no subject
Date: 2006-11-18 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 10:39 am (UTC)I think the thing that weirded me out the most today about the protesting was arriving at the museum to pick up some supplies for fieldwork tomorrow - yes, after hours - and finding an enormously long line of police outside the front door and being stopped when I went in with my swipe card... it was all fine, but when I finally interrogated the PhD student Julian upstairs as to what the fuss was, he said that apparently people were protesting outside the museum.
What. The. Fuck.
What the hell has the museum done to offend anyone?! It's hardly a bastion of the right wing! Its business is knowledge and public education... sheesh. "Stop researching the natural world! Stop teaching Australian history! What do we want? Ignorance! When do we want it? I don't know, where am I again?"
Anyway, that confused me.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-19 10:42 pm (UTC)Damn straight.
Date: 2006-11-20 12:19 am (UTC)Umm......
no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 08:18 am (UTC)