ClockTower at High Noon?

Same experience here. I left a comment already. Here it is again.

It looks like NOTHING significant happened in Santa Cruz today.

I did not see ANY of this:


Meet in downtown Santa Cruz 12noon.

Bring: Signs/banners, food to share, a friend, instruments, memorials, etc.

Things to do before September 11th:
- make extra signs/banners
- convince a friend to join you in the strike
- convince a local business to close its doors the day of the strike
- organize your own music/pink bloc/street theatre affinity group.
- download a flyer at http://www.strike911.org and make as many copies as possible

I did not even see a flyer around Santa Cruz. If you call for a protest, at least have the decency to call it off if it is not going to happen.

Thanks for nothing.

I never saw anything that said to converge at the Clock Tower, but that is where I looked as well. There is construction going on there. I heard they are fixing or replacing the engine which powers the clock. The only time given with a location seems to be: "Converge on city hall 6pm." as posted here:
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/28/18444368.php

You can go see a film at 7pm at the Rio, or head to City Hall where there will be a Council meeting. Robert Norse posted this: "As a long-time Portland, OR homeless activist before coming to Santa Cruz, DeMon recommends mass protest. She plans to peacefully confront the Mayor at the Council Meeting tomorrow Tuesday September 11th at 7 PM. Activists will be gathering at 6:30 PM in front of Council chambers to discuss support for a rumored sleepout at City Hall that night."
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/09/10/18446665.php

Or, Terrorstorm: A History of Government Sponsored Terrorism, at 7pm at the Rio.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/08/12/18440300.php

Too bad about today's General Nothing.

I didn't go to work on 9/11 just on general principle. If someone calls a general strike, I'm there. Any excuse to step out of my life as a wage slave.

But honestly, I didn't expect much to happen here. Perhaps the strike is part of the learning process of people who are relatively inexperienced with such things. And I support that. Experience with lots of bad and mediorcre actions is required to hone people's organizational skill to create a real and effective brouhaha.

And maybe the folks who called the strike -- earnest and fumbling though they might be -- were simply mad as hell and wanted to do something, anything. Fuck, I think most of us feel like that every single day we read the news.

But therein lies the rub...

An effective campaign, can't consist of just anything and something. The fliers called for Autonomous Direct Action, and it was about all these half dozen issues and more. In other words, do anything you can, for all the reasons you can think of. This was a DIY event in the truest sense: Bring your own activity, support, affinity group, coordination, context, and meaning.

But for an effective anything, there has to be a focus. A context for people rage and frustration. People want to know what is going to go down so they can decide whether it is something they want to take part in. "Today on 9-11, we're going downtown for a march." "For a picnic in the street." "To burn cars." "To break windows." "To pass out tepid literature to irritated shoppers." Whatever.

What context you set may not appeal to everyone, but nothing appeals to no one quite like "anything."

Or at least that's what it seems I've learned from my own mediocre and fizzled brouhahas.

Keep learning. Keep trying everything. And keep risking failure.