Radical Frustration
May 2, 2008I am a radical. I believe in Revolution. Our country was created by it. I also believe in Democracy, even though I look for it but can find it no where. I feel the frustration that people who smash windows have for the system, I also feel the frustration that people in other social movements have when they find people who smash windows in their midst.
I believe there comes a time when smashing windows is appropriate. But I also believe in peaceful marches and I don’t think that a May Day march is that time.
May Day is about Workers rights and the march in Olympia this year was also supposed to be about the rights of immigrants who make up a large part of the working class. But those issues got lost in the chaos.
I participate in movements in hopes of affecting great change. Great change can not happen without participation by the masses. Smashing windows in broad daylight doesn’t win “hearts and minds” of the people of Olympia.
There where a lot of different people who marched on May Day in Olympia. And of those just a few decided to smash windows. Then they got angry when the police came and arrested people. Does anyone really expect cops to let us march around busting windows without coming to arrest people? Again, only a few of the many who marched broke windows and it sucks that the whole march got violated as a result of their actions. With that said, police brutality is never excusable even though they seem to always get away with it. Who will police the police?
The same thing happened at WTO in Seattle. I wasn’t an activist at that time in my life, so my perceptions of the events where shaped by the corporate media. I thought like many people think that everyone there were crazy anarchists until I watched the documentary, This Is What Democracy Looks Like. It showed me that the actions against the WTO were actually part of a mainstream movement. Even the AFL-CIO was there! The police used brutal tactics against everyone, not just anarchists.
I witnessed the same thing May Day in Olympia .The tactics of some alienated the masses. I suspect some don’t care. Some are complete nihilists who have no hope in bringing along the masses in the creation of a better world. There goal is anarchy, the opposite of a police state. It is ironic that the actions of some anarchists could be used to justify the further movement of our nation towards a police state.
I know our current government is horribly flawed. We don’t have a real choice on Election Day. Both the parties who hold office today are corrupted by corporations. Corporations control the media and our government. Clicking on opensecrets.org will show you which politicians are corrupted by which corporations.
When corporations commit crimes, who do we appeal to when the same corporations have financed the campaigns of our elected officials? I bring this up to illustrate the point that where the power of the ballot ends the power of stones begin.
I can not ask an anarchist not to throw a stone through a window. He is an anarchist. He won’t listen. I don’t mean to compare anarchists to terrorists because some anarchists are my friends. However, what anarchism and terrorism have in common is that they can never be completely suppressed. They are just ideas, tactics, or philosophies–abstract things. Abstractions can not be destroyed. Nouns can not be destroyed.
As long as power corrupts there will be anarchists. And as long as our government supports a foreign policy of corporate imperialism, there will be terrorism.
So, Don, you were right. May Day turned bad, and I am almost sorry for inviting folks like you and Dr. Walton. But I see it as just a symptom of the broader disease of injustice and corruption in our government that has caused young people to be completely disillusioned
To prevent the next May Day from turning bad the authorities can outlaw marches and destroy the freedom that makes this country what it is, or we the people who still have hope can work to solve the injustices of our government before it’s too late.
Posted by humblestudent







