As usual, the most interesting peace movement news comes from those uppity women who just won't let patriarchy get them down. Cindy Sheehan's already back from her five week vacation from the peace movement. She paid off her debts by selling off her "Camp Casey" property in Waco, Texas and is rearing to go..
As Cindy wrote on her blog at CampCaseyPeaceInstitute.Org in an article called "Call out the Instigators" (from Tom Petty's song "Something in the air" - i.e., revolution): I’m not backing off. I tried to remove myself from the political realm of the US, what BushCo is turning into an Evil Empire, but the blatant audacity of George commuting Scooter’s sentence (he’s not ruling out a full pardon ---and you know he will) has dragged me kicking and screaming back in. I can’t sit back and let this BushCo drag our country further down into the murky quagmire of Fascism and violence, taking the rest of the world with them!...It has been recently reported that Nancy Pelosi said that impeachment is not “worth it.” Her faulty reasoning is that impeachment would take too much time because they don’t have the votes. If they could “whip” their own Democratic caucus into shape to defend and protect our Constitution and the people of Iraq and our soldiers as they whupped, cajoled, threatened and browbeat the caucus into attaching “non-binding” time lines onto the last war funding bill, then impeachment would not only be possible, but likely. If Congress won’t dig BushCo’s political grave, it is the People’s job to do so. Thomas Jefferson said that we need a Revolution every 20 years, or so, to keep our Republic honest. Over 225 years have passed since our last Revolution (if you don't count the War Between the States) and we are long overdue for one.
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Cindy also announces a march: "We are going to walk from Atlanta, GA to Congress beginning July 13th and ending up in DC on July 23rd to send the mis-leaders back home to face the music of justice in their own districts. It is about time us “peasants” (in the eyes of the Fascist Ruling Elite) march on DC with our “pitchforks” of righteous anger and our “torches” of truth to demand the ouster of BushCo. I have a dream of the detention centers that George has built and filled being instead filled with Orange Clad neo-cons and neo-connettes. Read the rest of her rousing rant at her site.
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Oh, did I mention? Cindy is threatening to run against Nancy Pelosi in 2008. As I noted in a 2006 blog entry, Cindy calls herself an anarchist. But she's one willing to use the state's electoral apparatus to fight the state. As a long-time libertarian, I mostly have supported using elections to publicize the evils of the states. So I hope Cindy runs and wins. We need an anarchist in Congress!
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Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Global Exchange and the womens' peace group Code Pink, is another woman a little too uppity for the taste of some males. While I don't necessarily agree with her statist solutions and may have some nits to pick with some aspects of her organizational style, I admire her dedication to busting the Democrats and the Republicans chops in congress. Not to mention her ability to raise funds and mobilize people to do it. And I am delighted that she continues to speak out against Black Bloc street violence (as I do in my e-book The Return of Street Fighting Man)..
It largely was for the latter speaking out that a member of some little quasi-anarchist clique calling itself "Bakers without Borders" pied her during the U.S. Social Forum. See photos and video here. Medea's reply here. The group had several gripes, but doubtless the main one, listed first, was her vocal criticism of Black Bloc street violence during the 1999 Seattle "riot." Her response shows that the others are plainly ludicrous. Medea writes:
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But the pie-flingers were not interested in fruitful dialogue, but tasteless condemnations. Their leaflet went on to say: 1. I sided with police and municipal authorities against direct actions performed at the World Trade Organization protests of 1999 (Truth: I disagreed with the tactic of smashing windows and helped gather an activist clean-up crew to show our goodwill to the people of Seattle. And after eight years, this grudge is mighty stale!) 2. My organization Global Exchange hordes funds raised for community organizations in Guatemala (Huh? I have no idea what this one means. We promote fair trade and have helped channel millions of dollars to producers all over the world, including Guatemala. See http://www.globalexchange.org) 3. Global Exchange solicited the economic dependency of residents in Cuba and then abandoned the project, pushing the Cuban participants deeper into poverty. (Truth: We have organized hundreds of people-to-people delegations to Cuba, and even with the Bush administration coming down on us, we still take groups to Cuba to build ties of friendship.) 4. I publicly refused to endorse a call for Israel to unconditionally withdraw from Southern Lebanon in the 2006 war. (Truth: I always called for unconditional withdrawal, and even went to Lebanon in the midst of the bombing to show my commitment to an immediate ceasefire.)
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These Black Blocers really are parasites on larger movements. They know they can't do their "Black Bloc" actions of smashing things and fighting with police safely unless they can find cover in some larger demonstration where they can disappear into crowds of people who mostly do not agree with their tactics. And they know police will be close on their heels, beating anyone who gets in their way. That's fine with the Black Bloc types who hope the police violence they themselves instigate will "radicalize" the "stupid masses" who only can be "educated" by being beaten by police.
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Now if that's not the lowest level of consciousness in "political education," I don't know what is! Worse, the Black Bloc tyeps use intimidation tactics like pieing people to try to shut up anyone who criticizes their tactics. And a lot worse, as I can attest from my seven years of criticizing these macho idiots. Read my article. The video will be coming soon!
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