Abhi: I’m not sure why you’ve assumed that this doesn’t happen. I’ve seen it a thousand times: during the protest, and after it, groups of people standing around talking to each other and discussing politics, strategy and tactics. Some of them already know each other, some just met at the protest, or at the organising meeting, or whatever. Does this not happen in America?

PS: “admonishing” isn’t really so good. Talking to people about their politics like grown-ups is much better.

Here are a few excerpts from an interesting article by Sarah Baxter who wonders why feminist ideals have become twisted into support for groups like Hezbollah..

Women pushing their children in buggies bearing the familiar symbol of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament marched last weekend alongside banners proclaiming “We are all Hezbollah now” and Muslim extremists chanting “Oh Jew, the army of Muhammad will return.” Kira Cochrane…has noticed that todayÂ’s feminists are inclined to keep quiet about the march of radical Islam. “ThereÂ’s a great fear of tackling the subject because of cultural relativism. People are scared of being called racist,” Cochrane observes. “The compassion for people of colour has been translated into feminists standing with terrorists who are terrorising their own women,”

To me the most troublesome aspect of the protests is the increasing presence of children at these protests. Why must kids be drawn into all this?

Mark Juergensmeyer (who wrote the excellent Terror in the Mind of God) had a recent short piece in Outlook asking what Gandhi would do in the current “war on terrorism”

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060821&fname=LJurgensmeyer+%28F%29&sid=1

the protests in the area of hiv/aids, especially w regards to homosexuality and women’s rights are bearing fruit. is every single indiavidual aware of the complexities and underlying facts etc etc… no. becoming more aware is always good, but does that necessarily matter? i see the purpose of protests as bulding towards critical mass and they accomplish that purpose in large. the effects of a protest are observed at a large scale… one gandhi figure may not be noticed in the grand scheme or matter to the overall cause. awareness building is different as it is more exact and detail-specific where one can carefully outline causes and distinguish between them. it can be approached in many ways, like blogging, but is also very subjective.

Uhh- are we still talking about the same thing?

Jokes aside- while I agree that media is key, and clearly, blogging has become a great tool to debate and spread information- the blogging world should be careful to see their role in context. It’s just one tool or just one piece of a larger framework for fighting injustice (if that’s the purpose of your blog of course, as opposed to say, for example, discussing how f*cking awesome the DETROIT TIGERS are!!!). The goal of that framework being the building of people power. Which only really can be achieved through movement building- mobilizing for mass protest is an essential component of that.

Basically, I’m just saying that dismissing protest culture, and saying that you’re gonna blog instead is not an effective substitute. You can do all the blogging you want, but without mobilization, it’s very difficult for normal people to impact an issue.

Also, don’t read this as a diss on bloggers- I totally think that bloggers are generally doing an important and essential thing.

I like my in ‘n out burgers animal style.

I’m doing it right now. And last night See you soon brown fury. An In-and-Out Burger will take that fury right out of you.