You remember that one don't you? It was in all the papers.
- Remember stephen harper, before blowing $16 billion on new fighter-planes to protect us from Al Qaeda's X-acto knives, spent $1.something billion dollars on security for his two-day summit to announce his $2.5 billion over FIVE YEARS on women's health?
- Remember how this one-billion plus was being spent to prevent maybe a million dollars in property damage?
- Remember how the property damage happened anyway?
- Remember how the two-day summit that cost over a billion dollars decided to announce a new policy of government austerity?
- Remember how the police responded to the riot by arresting 1,000 people at random 24-hours later and brutalizing them?
- Remember the largest numbers of mass-arrests in our country's history?
Yeah, right. No big deal.
Anyway, I went to the rally at Queen's Park yesterday, just to stand and be counted. I figured Canadians are pretty blah-zay about innocent fellow citizens being tortured. They're pretty nonchalant that our soldiers are dying to prop-up a government of unelected, torturing, drug-dealers and pedophiles. They're indifferent to the fact that in the war to impose this government their country has been implicated in torture. Canadians can only yawn and stretch and scratch their bellies when stephen harper prorogues Parliament to avoid having to be accountable for his war crimes.
So, it's not like I expected to see one-million people at Queen's Park.
But I had HOPED to see more than a couple of hundred people. Alas, alack, all there was were a few hundred people. At one point, they were insisting "Never again!' but it didn't seem to have much resonance. I got the opinion that our elites know damned well they can do this as much as they want.
Because it's true. They don't brutalize everyone all the time. They mainly brutalize the tiny minority of people in this country who care about anything. The ones who come out to protest. And make no mistake about it, they'll brutalize us whether we're violent or not.
And that's why I had some sympathy for the Black Bloc, to the extent that they said they were prepared to fight-back when the police brutalized protests. I liked the fact that the Black Bloc weren't so totally sold on this non-violence in the face of psychopathic sadism shtick that most progressive Westerners have swallowed hook, line, and sinker.
On that note, Cathie From Canada has a post today with some good links to sink one's teeth into about the Black Bloc and their tactics.
For my part, I agreed with Canadian Dimension's Ritch Whyman (who Cathie links to) when he says that THIS TIME, peaceful, non-violent protest would have been the smartest tactic in the face of harper's one-billion dollars worth of security spending and that the Black Bloc's antics were counter-productive. I also thought that this random violence is pointless and as much empty ritual as most left-wing peaceful protesting is.
But back to the rally. On the one hand, standing to be counted isn't too much to ask people even if going to these things just so you can say that you did and feel good about yourself doesn't solve a lot of the world's problems. On the other hand though, I can't blame other people for thinking that these demos and rallies are a waste of time. They're not going to achieve anything. They're not going to do anything but allow progressives to get together, discuss, strategize, and look around and realize how powerless and impotent they are.
I think the status-quo, both the present hegemonic political order AND the progressive alternatives are dissatisfying and I'm determined to try and change that.
13 comments:
There was one in winnipeg, and I should have gone, but I had tickets for the fringe festival already.
I did consider giving up my tickets, but I was afraid of taking flack from onlookers that I was supporting the black bloc and wasnt sure how to respond.
However, I will be volunteering for my MP, anita neville come election time. Not enough, probably, but its what I have time for.
Well, it's practically impossible for someone to think that the Black Bloc was responsible for
1) The complete inability of the police to do what they were paid one-billion dollars to do.
and
2) The insane brutality against innocent bystanders that the gutless incompetents inflicted the next day
Not to excuse the crushing apathy and rank, bovine idiocy that afflict far too many Canadians, but I really think a demonstration needs a target—and by that I mean a person or corporate agent, rather than just a cause.
In the case of the Queen's Park protest, I think a rally against David Miller, personally, might have gotten more people out. Even the fat-assed bourgeois who despise the Black Bloc would agree that Miller's total failure to provide leadership before, during and after the G20 fiasco is a disgrace that he should pay for by having his severed and salted balls served to Toronto on a platter. He should under no circumstances be allowed to serve out his term with dignity; he should be forced to resign in disgrace, immediately. I think you've a better chance of mobilising people if you offer an opportunity to execrate and punish a specific member of our degenerate elite.
We need to start putting the fear of God into the actual personalities behind disgraces like the G20 and stop protesting for abstractions like "justice", "democracy", etc., none of which mean jack shit to a decadent populace that takes them so much for granted that they've forgotten how to value and fight for them.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that only the people who showed up at that rally are the only ones who care.
Montreal only had about 200. However, we got caught in a major thunder storm and many more than likely ducked out as soon as the weather turned. The July 1 one yielded at least 10 000, but the union people were there.
In Quebec, I've noticed that in order to have a large turn out at these things, union people have to show up.
But the low turn-outs scare me too.
bill, Perhaps you're right, but like not going to vote on election day, not attending or doing anything is tantamount to apathy and perhaps even condoning what happened or telling the state, ok, do your worst.
I attended the rally in Vancouver and was prepared for the low numbers because I had previously felt your disappointment when I attended the rally against Prorogation.
Personally, I believe that everyone who agrees with the issue needs to attend and stand up for justice but that's not a reality.
But don't be disheartened - the numbers on Facebook prove people agree, they just aren't able (or willing) to put their actual 'Face' on the line. It doesn't mean they don't agree.
As I read more and talk further about the black bloc tactics, I am reassured that we can fight a fascist government that disguises itself as a democracy:)
Power to the people is the rallying cry and it always will be! Hold the banner high and there will be someone to carry it after you fall!
:)
Sir Francis,
I'm not sure that limiting things to going after one of the criminals would have improved things.
I think the real thing is that whether it was going after McGuinty, or harper, or Blair, or a public inquiry, the truth of the matter is that there is nothing backing-up our "demands" and therefore, all of our rallies are just bitch and whine-fests.
And while I think that this time the Black Bloc's tactics were counterproductive, I also am sure that had it been a day of peaceful protest and harper was left trying to explain his one-billion dollar extravagance, the "crisis" would have passed, the arguments of the peaceful protesters would have been completely ignored, and we would just be waiting for the next harpercon abomination and the inevitable subsequent demonstration of opposition spinelessness.
At the end of the day, us protesters have got nothing more than an afternoon of sloganeering and then we're all out of ideas.
Whether we stay home, show up, vote, don't vote, ... it doesn't matter and they know it.
I stopped reading after "brutality". Give me a friggin break. The OVERWHELMING majority of Canadians support the police actions, even Torontonians (where support is even HIGHER). The only ones crying over this are the bleeding heart liberals. I'm glad there's a NDP party, it keeps out all the wackos from ours!
That's right, LJ—let other people do your moral thinking for you. There's a good boy. Thanks to useful idiots like you, Harper may yet get his majority.
And, if you ever get a chance to be tear-gassed, bludgeoned and detained in a cage without charge for committing the crime of walking down a sidewalk, please take it. Have a concussion on me.
Advance notice of the Jul 17 Vancouver rally for a public inquiry was rather dispiriting.
Black bloc tactics not welcome at upcoming G20 protest in Vancouver, organizer says
"We’ve asked the Vancouver Police Department to do a statement as well, just to show that it’s a separate issue and that we don’t necessarily blame the police.
We’re going to have marshallers, in accordance with police, to make sure if anyone shows up wearing a black bloc mask that they’re asked to remove the mask. We’ve taken a very strong stance that violent protesting is not okay, and creating destruction in any way does not help further the democratic process.”
The cognitive dissonance of marching with police to defend civil liberties against anyone wearing a mask was just too much and I didn't go.
hi thwap...good post. And I know how you feel. But I'm not as worried as you are. In the Great White North it's the height of summer and it's pretty near impossible to compete with that. Secondly, in Toronto at least, I sense that people need a bit of a break to recover from the G20 experience. The network to keep the protest alive isn't going anywhere, and can be cranked up again. What does worry me is that I think there has been too much emphasis on the actions of individual police officers, instead of on the people who have the orders. And the man who brought this Gorilla Show into the heart of Canada's largest city knowing very well what might happen. Blowing bubbles won't get us anywhere, using the network to prepare for the upcoming election sounds to me like a better idea. It's one thing to preach to the converted, the challenge is working the G20 and all the other stuff into a coherent narrative, that can be used to move more apathetic Canadians. I'm a deranged optimist of course, but if it works I'm for it, if it doesn't I'm not...
"Liberal Justice" does not speak for me or most Liberals I know, or most Liberal bloggers, and I'm not sure he isn't a Con plant on Liblogs frankly. What a tool.
I enjoyed your piece Thwap. I am not as disheartened - I say to myself, civil rights rallies held on a nice July Saturday got hundreds out? That's pretty good..
It's not over. And the good guys always win, in the end.
PS. I despise the Black Bloc. Just for the record.
PS. Spread the word: Best bet for a decent inquiry is through complaints to RCMP, which would permit top to bottom hearings, from RCMP-OPP-T.O.. It only took 52 complaints in 1997.
http://eugeneforseyliberal.blogspot.com/2010/07/if-hughes-apec-inquiry-in-1998-why-not.html
"Following the November 1997 APEC Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, some 52 complaints were made about RCMP conduct at events that took place at the UBC campus and the Richmond RCMP Detachment. On December 9, 1997, I initiated an investigation into the complaints. I subsequently determined that it was in the public interest to institute a hearing into the complaints and did so on February 20, 1998. I assigned a three-member panel to conduct the hearing. That panel resigned in December of 1998 and I then assigned the Honourable Ted Hughes, Q.C. to conduct the hearing."
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