Authored by: Admin on Tuesday, February 27 2007 @ 10:19 AM CST

On Sunday, people should make an effort to either attend the book fair or the BASTARD conference. There are plenty of other days in the year for anti-war protests.

Chuck

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, February 27 2007 @ 01:30 PM CST

It's this weekend that the rest of the world is protesting the anniversary of the war, and there's going to be a ton of anarchists milling around, so it only makes sense...I'm coming to the bookfair from a couple hours away, and I'd like something anti-war to plug into (answer doesn't count)

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, February 27 2007 @ 02:21 PM CST

Argh. Why don't they make plans for a post-bookfair anarchist contingent in the march? With thousands of anarchists in SF, we could do some major damage.

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Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, February 27 2007 @ 04:12 PM CST

it is possible to do anti-war stuff other days and other times. they might even be more effective than a parade.

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Authored by: Admin on Tuesday, February 27 2007 @ 04:23 PM CST

I really, really would hope that anarchists in SF would have their priorities straight. Supporting and attending the anarchist events on this weekend is very important. Organizing another "march" to stick your noses up the ass of ANSWER demonstrates a significant confusion about what's important. There are many other days where anti-war protests can be organized by anarchists. If anarchists don't support events like the conference and the bookfair, our movement will be diminished, which will put our movement into an even shittier position when it comes to organizing a mass movement over time.

People should attend anti-war protests if they really want to, but organizing anarchist anti-war protests on this weekend in S.F. is seriously misguided.

Chuck

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Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, February 28 2007 @ 11:04 AM CST

Well the thing is, the core part of the marches is really just 2 hours long. ANSWER always suggests getting there about two hours earlier than necessary, and then staying around until 4pm i.e. using up about 6 hours of your weekend that could otherwise be spent on a lot of things.
If you show up and find your contingent right when the march is leaving, and then only hang around 15 minutes at the end before moving on, you can go right back to the bookfair. It's a quick busride over from Golden Gate park, and often even faster on a bicycle. Not to mention, the bookfair lasts two days this year. Getting to and from the Bastard conference would take more time on BART.
I think a better critique could be made on the direction that the 'breakaway' marches and radical clusters within these marches has been going since 2002. There is always something that develops, but maybe they've become repetitive or lackluster. I can't remember any antiwar marches in 2006 for some reason, but there was one in late 2005 that didn't work well at all. Let me see if I can find one of Josh Wolf's neat little films of that. Basically, a directionless group of anarchists wearing black got isolated and the police arrested them and there was little coverage, and little accomplished:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/09/24/17701121.php

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