SF G8 breaking news

Yes, it's my suggestion that regardless of differences of position, every protester or activist really needs to read a copy of The Economist, Fortune, or the Wall Street Journal, plus NYTimes business page on a monthly, or even daily basis.

If you already think that Shoe Biz and Sketchers are bad, you will be shocked to learn that they rank about a 1.5 on a scale of 10 of corporations with unethical conduct, and there are much much worse companies that transnationally have more power than governments or actually run governments, and engage in killing people overseas (such as Shell in Nigeria, Unocal propping up the military gov't of Burma and slavery), not to mention running modern colonialism (Halliburton/Bechtel). Just to name a few.

Riot Control: Material and Techniques by Col. Rex Applegate (U.S.A. Ret.).

The Mission was chosen because there are a lot of different kinds of people out in the evening. There poor people and there are YUPpies. In the Mission there are poor people stores and there are Yuppie stores. No poor persons' store was attacked. Attacks did occur at Skeeechers, a national chain of expensive footwear, KFC, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, A SHELL gasoline station, and Shoe Biz, a locaaly owned sttore that caters to Yuppies.

Even tho poor and working people do patronize some of these instiutions, they have no stake in them. Being a customer is not having any kind of real stake in them. I was once a customer at Bank of Apartheid/America, and was still very happy when anti-apartheid activists attacked the BofA branch in Berkeley. I would be happy if anti-capitalist rioters smashed the windows in the bank where i have my account now. These are fuckin multinational cororations. BofA and Wells are competing to become the biggest bank in California and the U.S. No poor or working perosn should shed a tear for the banks even if they might have an account with them. And no one should shed a tear for Shell oil. There is no good oil compnay, except for possibly CITGO (owned by the Venezuela governent with profits going to social programs in Venezuela). And Shell has a long record of human rights abuses.

No folks don't shed a terar for anything that was trashedx last nignt. not for the busineses, not for the cop cars, and not for the police persson. That incident sounds very much like self defense or defense of others who were under attack obyu that same piece of shit cop.

And folks, if we didn't get a business that you think should been hit, write your suggestions here (anonymously of course) and maybe next time....

I'm trying to figure out why peaceful protestors assault police, and destroy property.



I guess I just don't understand the whole protestor mentality

I invite all of the people who are reading and thinking and writing about last night's protest to organize and carry out better actions than we were able to come up with. Sounds like you all have plenty of good ideas and the world needs them. If you already are doing things that you are pretty sure are more effective in ending poverty, exploitation, and war than our tactics of confronting the government's agents in the streets and destroying corporate property and raising hell, please share your ideas and make proposals. But in the meantime, we will continue to raise as much hell as possible.

Aside from my agreement and sympathy, I have to comment upon your choice of the Mission for this type of protest and destruction of property. In choosing a locale one should consider the outcome from institutions you attack.

Consider this, if Wells-Fargo were to close its branch, people with limited access to banking services would have to either walk farther to get to a branch, change banks incurring a penalty or abandon banking altogether and use check-cashing businesses that are far more predatory on the poor.

However great the larger struggle, we should remain cognizant of the immediate effects of actions on those around us, especially upon those on whom life's burdens already weigh heavy.

Think globally and (think before you) act locally.

i live on 23rd and valencia. why add to the stereotypes of violence in "poor" neighborhoods, when you have a choice? why give the cops more excuses to be in the mission? why not take it to pacific heights, tiburon, ross, belvedere, the marina, downtown, noe valley, nob hill, sea cliff, and sorry i don't know the rich neighborhoods of the east bay. those are the capitalists, confront them face-to-face and provide information in the mission instead. if this was about community, did you have mission neighborhood community approval (or something similar - agreance or whatever) before-hand, for a 'community' movement? not that that's necessary, but call it as it is - what community. i'm thankful for protests against the g8... but even though i live on 23rd and valencia and watched what was happening last night, i could only see a big sign for anarchists, nothing against the g8 was visible... maybe next time less self-promotion and larger signs about the issues at hand being protested... so that those of us not 'in the know' can be in the know for real about what's going on. it was not until i saw a news 'commercial' later that i found out it was a g8 protest happening outside my window. my boyfriend and i, watching the whole thing, thought it was just some random anarchist group outburst, for no reason making sense to us being held the day after the london bombings and the 16th and guerrero fire. i'd love to see a protest in a rich neighborhood, staged according to research done on what (corporate person etc) lives there. the closest this protest/march will touch the richies is through their entertainment systems. and maybe they'll use the parking garage or dolores street instead of mission when they come to eat on valencia - but probably not. i support to the movement, but i feel like the real bad guys are those in elite communities and not the cops... sorry for the long comment. oh - and thanks to the random people who put up the news stands again, that would suck if one caused an accident.

i attended the march and was very angry at the choice of the neighboorhood and the tactics of the "anarchists" I want to make the following points:
1. the mission is mostly a low-income neighboohood (albeit becoming a bit gentrified) and their was trash everywhere, the boxes for the guardian and onion were thrown in the street (damn those alternative newspapers) and buisnesses were smashed. Most of the locals i encountered were scared and had no idea why a bunch of young anachists were tearing up their neighboohood. The mission is mostly independent buisnesses (along with showbiz a local sf buisness)
2. The messaging and oplanning was bad. you do not trash peoples neighboorhoods and give them 12 page pamphlets to do outreach and get people involved.it just aleinates local community members. What it comes down to is,organizing is hard it takes time and its usually pretty boring. its fun to break shit and put rocks through wellsfargo and pg&e but it dosent really do anything but piss peolple off in the neighboohood and now a cop is in the hospital and a bunch of kids may be in jail for the next twenty years ...that sucks. Why not create a long term campign and target something strategically?

It alienates some and attracts others.

How about we have the next black bloc thing in the financial district? Don't you think it would be more effective?

And if instead of showing up at night in hoodies and bandanas carrying signs, people showed up in the middle of the day dressed like yuppies, carrying brief cases, the financial district could be taken by surprise, especially if there were dozens of little blocs, all striking at the same time, without warning, then fading into the crowd and dissapearing.

Or would that be too complicated a maneuver?

that soundz like an xellent idea but where would we get the yuppie clothes and stuff? would I have to cut my hair and like take a bath to pull this off or could we move fast enuff that they wouldnt sniff us out? like, bust some things, then run away - but looking at your watch so you look yuppy. that is so coo!!!

From yuppies.

Citgo is a subsidiary owned by Hugo Chavez. Unocal may be bought by a state owned Chinese oil company. Do we want this either?

Anarchists are not the only ones who have fought cops. There is a very long history in this area of what happens to cops when they run into protests or groups of people swinging their billy clubs.

Please, get a hold of yourselves.

See:

http://movies06.archive.org/3/movies/ssfWhitent1/ssfWhitent1.avi

I'm sure if anarchists put their mind to it they could assemble a vast collection of khakis and other yuppie clothes, which could be given away after the redecorating of the financial district. Damn that white night video is even better than i remembered..