RNC commentary by ralowe

Okay, firstly, this document is reactionary and irrational... because I'm both at times irrational... and reactionary, too...
and, this isn't meant to undermine anyone's organizing, or deter anyone from their going to... (another) mass mobilization, or influence the decision of those already that have planned, strategized and booked themselves to fly to go and take part of the RNC. This is merely a half-rational suggestion for those in the future.

First, hi. I'm ralowe. I'm involved in gay shame, a little with the sf bay apoc (anarchist people of color) group, hopefully more with qapoc (queer anarchist people of color), used to do stuff with the autonomous collective, and i barely, just rarely ever go to general membership branch i.w.w. meetings at the grass roots house.

Speaking from what i've seen lately, two or three groups in particular have been suffering from a severe and almost debilitating drought of participation. meetings dwindle, dwindle, dwindle. i don't know: i haven't been organizing like since the 70s, or even the 80s, or even the 90s, so perhaps it's supposed to just flow like that and i should just go along with the flow, as it were. or maybe i'm not seeing this from enough angles in the activist community... i know nothing about daylaborer organizing, or how to salt a potential shop or offshore drilling thingie in the ocean, or animal liberation, etc.

i've worked mostly on the direct action of things, in my limited experience, which brings me to the grand, tantalizing and firm RNC protest in NYC that's happening a month or less or something. you see, i'm not a hundred percent sure, because i've been trying to blot it out of my skull because nearly every tom, dick and stokley has been rattling on and on about it, literally, ad nauseum (fuck!: ad ulcer, ad tumor):

"...so, when are you going? are you going on the same day as me?"
"no... i think we're going different days...but i'll meet up with you (among a billion people)"

"so you got a place to stay?
"um, no not yet...i'm still lookin on craigs... something will come up..."
"yeah, me neither..."

"so what are the police like?"
"um i don't know... i was in new york once..."
"i don't think i want to get arrested..."
"yeah...i'm not planning on it...i guess i'll just go and see..."
"isn't the national guard going to be there?"

"so what are we going to do?"
"yeah... i don't know... i'm still waiting to see what people are organizing..."
"i'm just gonna go and plug in... i'm sure there's something to do, somewhere..."

"do you have tickets yet?"
"i might get a ticket... but i don't know..."

please, respond to this and let me know if i'm talking out of my ass, but i'm just not convinced that this is effective organizing. true, everytime you do something you acquire skills and knowledge to further draw from in future organizing. groups owe a substantial debt to those who help out with a little contribution here and there, law of attrition, strength in numbers, sun tze, yatta-yatta, all that. fine. beautiful.

i urge those all st. elmo's fired up to trample elephants to measure these valuable attributes against, well, a couple of things i've...well, "bitches," is the word, really, that i've had...bitches against this heartpounding, um, "globalization of the liberal activist product...":

(becomes markedly less genial here:)
(again, the honest-to-god last thing that i want to do undermine the gorgeous multicultural morale that's being harnessed from willing convergence-seekers at all; just drawing attention to something that can be kept in mind for the future if, gasp, another such international node be conjured up by direct action thinktanks for election day...:)

1. what the fuck are you going there for? do you even know what the fuck you're doing? do you know the streets? do you know the police? do you know your rights there? do you know the... okay, enough.

2. how much is your going there going to take away from where you ordinarily organize at? are things slow, and you're just looking for something to do somewhere? there's probably loads of things that aren't going to get done. are there other direct actions being planned where you're at, concurrently with the RNC?...(which segues nicely into: ...)

3. why the fuck are so many people going to this shit? was the mobilization as large for the DNC? (i've been... avoiding the papers...sorry) wouldn't it make sense to take all those people and organize an effective action somewhere else, where there won't be assault rifles with the scope like jason bourne, security-level plaid, hummer hovercrafts and shit? where they won't be expecting a mass convergence of crusty demonstrators?

hence, "the globalization of the liberal activst product (copyright ralowe 2004... during, yet slightly before, the great Reclaim the Commons thing here in san francisco, which drained many of the other groups i was working with because everybody was in a tizzy to get involved with that: which was THAT. I don't know what to make of THAT. To be clear, i avoided it like the plague. all i could see was that there were a plethora of worthy local issues around which one might organize which were left completely out in the cold... while i sat and looked at pictures on indymedia of some joyous c.d. revelers getting swallowed in a circle by s.f. mayor gavin newsom's massive over-compensative policemanpower and protest budget in frothing, delicious riot gear. why? why? i thought. it feels like everybody is spending all their time trying to figure out how they're going to get to some protest thing far, far away from me. maybe i just feel left out. maybe i have separation anxiety. but from what i could see was that when you receive an influx of outsiders, it's really difficult to pull it together into an action that is effective, useful, or memorable. which is why i use the term "globalization" because it's just like corporations function, or maybe it's in reverse: tapping local resources to be transported elsewhere, transmitting the idea of one "struggle" globally; which is why i use the word "liberal," because the concern always seems to be trying to pull everything together around one huge, monolithic, abstract "cause" instead of recognizing how varied the needs of many different experiences, places and people may be--which to me is exactly the same way in which those who are in power think: centralize, converge, consolidate. strength in numbers is good, but also is the element of surprise, and it's obvious every police chief is looking for the next seattle; or maybe even miami, meaning an opportunity to put their fascist tactical anti-insurgent accomplishment on their resume...and set a global precedent for quelling direct actions. and everybody seems to be fetishizing seattle: true, from what i've heard, numbers were key, but more importantly, so was "surprise." as we saw at Reclaim the Commons, law enforcement can match and even ridiculously exceed our numbers, but they have great difficulty responding to surprise (i think it's still possible, despite security culture, small numbers, etc.)

so i guess this is my closing paragraph...but i don't know how to close. i support those going to the RNC, and all people working to fight all this goddamn fuckin bullshit everywhere or wherever you are however you do it (even more so if you do it in the street), but i support with my critique...you know what i mean? so good luck...

love,
miss ralowe t. ampu