A Callout and a Challenge for O25

A CALLOUT FOR SELF-ORGANIZATION AT THE OCT 25th ANSWER MARCH

ANSWER has called for a mass protest against the occupation of Iraq, on Saturday, Oct 25th. We will be there in solidarity at the Civic Center at 11 o'clock and at Jefferson Square Park at 1 o'clock. We believe strongly in the power of numbers and in the importance of congregating together as a mass of people opposed to the policies of this current government.

But too often, we have woken up the next morning wondering why the newspapers say the same thing whether we have 300,000 in the street or 1,000. Perhaps it is because the 300,000 of us do exactly the same thing we would have done if there were 1,000 of us. Is there a better way to make our voices heard through democratic expression, and self-organization? We think so. Is there a way to let our numbers speak for us when we leave the civic center on Saturday, and actually have our numbers WORK for us when we are in the streets? We think so.

We march in the streets to bring our message to other people, and we march in the streets to shake the elites and government officials out of their complacency. Thus, our dissatisfaction with the policies of the current government must be felt as well as heard at all levels of government, from local on up to national. Because if the business and political leaders of San Francisco don't squirm when we march in the street, then why should Washington care? And if the matter can wait for the ballot box (and look what it does for us!), then what is the point of marching in the street now?

Although we value the work of ANSWER, our current status quo is not working: we are not getting the attention we deserve, nor are we making officials or elites squirm. The status quo is the following: ANSWER chooses a protest day, plans a primary rally point (point A), a march route (one of 2 or 3 they always use) and a destination (point B), and then submits the plans to get a permit for the protest from the city. If the planned protest were problematic for the business interests of the elite or city officials, the city wouldn't give ANSWER the permit to do the protest, and the protest would not happen. ANSWER gets the permit because the city gets a guarantee -- that it can manage the protest with minimal effort for a few hours, after which the city will be back to business as usual.

Certainly, noone is squirming in this arrangement. And since part of keeping protest "manageable" means constraining protesters (whatever their numbers) to the same old routines, spaces, and times, we feel the status quo is dampening our message. So we think this needs to change. When our numbers reach into the tens of thousands, we say our protest belongs in every street. When our numbers reach into the tens of thousands, we say we don't need permits from the city, and we shouldn't ask for them.

We call out to all people participating in the anti-occupation protests. Let's expand our protest spaces rather than constrain ourselves to the same routines. Let's allow protest to be disconcerting to the powers that be. Let's make our presence felt by the government and heard by as many people as possible. We can and should take our message all over the city, wherever we want, without asking for anyone's permission. Therefore, we propose the following modification to the status quo and issue it as a challenge to other protest blocs in the hope that they will participate in this and other upcoming protests in the following capacity:

Those of us who organize our communities as 'blocs' or 'contingents' in the larger ANSWER marches, should also plan our own march routes from point A to point B:

1. The first part of your march route should coincide with the ANSWER route so everyone leaves together.
2. Some later portion of your route should break off from the main march and spill into adjacent streets.
3. Breaking away can mean anything from simply moving one street over or it may involve a greater amount of deviation. Bike blocs (and there need not be only one bike bloc) can get all over the city and cruise right back to catch the protesters on the main march route!
4. Blocs that breakaway can (and should) rejoin the main march as often as they wish.
5. If a bloc doesn't rejoin protesters on the main march route, planners should make sure it still ends up at point B.

Please do not confuse this callout with the callouts for breakaway marches or "black blocs" or any particular bloc at previous anti-war marches. We are not asking for anyone to join ANY bloc unless they want to and are already planning to! We are asking people who are already coming or convening large groups to do their own thing, to exercise a measure of autonomy and self-determination for a short period of time on Saturday, to bring an atmosphere of vibrant, simple, irreverent, true! democracy to the streets of San Francisco.

See you in the streets on Saturday!

~the BIKE bloc!