Thursday is Protest Day. What should I do?

[thatcrazycajun]

According to the website for The World Can't Wait/Drive Out The Bush Regime, this Thursday, October 5, the organization is staging a massive nationwide day of protest. TWCW is urging all citizens opposed to the abuses committed by the regime of Junior Bush, including but not limited to the newly-passed legislation authorizing torture, gutting habeas corpus and the Bill of Rights etc., to refuse to attend work or school and join in massive public assemblages to demonstrate opposition and galvanize a movement to remove Bush and his minions from power NOW, rather than wait for the elections this November and in 2008. They are also asking for donations to pay for the placement of a full-page ad in The New York Times that same day outlining the call to action for the movement.

I am in a mental and emotional state of conflict regarding this. On the one hand, I am wholeheartedly in agreement with them that Junior and his neocon buddies in every branch of government need to go, and NOW, not in a year or two. But there are several points of conflict for me:

1. The TWCW disdains any hope of using the existing political process to effect change, insisting that only disruptive social upheaval will work. I can't buy into the notion that working within the system offers no real hope at all, despite their (fairly) pointing out the Democrats' inconsistencies with their stated opposition to Bush vs. their actual votes and publicly documented statements. Nor can they agree, apparently, on what coherent and practical alternative to offer to electing either Republicans (never!) or Democrats (no good either, they say): a new third party (ask Ross Perot how well that works), voting Green/Libertarian/you-name-it (ask Ralph Nader about that one), or something else altogether. I agree that there is great value in bottom-up activism, but there is also something to be said for actually getting yourself or someone you support in a position to move the levers of power. Both are necessary, in my view, and neither can succeed alone, nor ever has.
   
   
2. I work for a Bush-supporting, Rush Limbaugh Republican (the guy even uses liberal-baiting quotes from El Rushbo as his laptop screensaver, fercryinoutloud) who is certain to refuse to allow me time off for such a protest and/or threaten me with loss of my job if I go anyhow. In addition, I an paid by the hour and even if he were willing to give me time off, it would be at loss of that day's income. Given my own checkered-at-best employment history and the fact that my partner faces the very real possibility of losing her job because of the current internal political shenanigans at her workplace, I cannot afford to screw up my livelihood. Or is this a sacrifice a real, hairy-chested political activist would not be afraid to make?
   
   
3. I am very uncomfortable with the strident, absolutist, no-compromise-whatsodamnever tone the group takes in its statements on its Web site, up to and including the Adolf Hitler analogy. Take-no-prisoners 'tude and rhetoric may feel good, but they can often be a stumbling block to real progress in politics, which has often been described as the art of compromise. When two people or parties oppose each other and neither gives even an inch of ground, the usual result is that nothing gets done for either side.
   
   
4. I do not want thousands of people to suffer disruption of vital services, especially in places like hospitals and burning homes or crime scenes, simply so medical personnel, firefighters and police officers can have a day off to make a political point. (My father and younger brother are both firefighters, so this is not just an academic question for me.) And then there is the always-present possibility that the protest marches may turn violent, especially if police and/or military forces are sent against them. If we bemoan the current regime's killing thousands with its policies only to kill thousands more with our protests, how then are we any better?

So what should I do? What would you do...or what will you do? Should I even give money to these people, knowing what may result in the way of unintended consequences? Is it time to go all Malcolm X on the status quo and say the end justifies the means? TWCW's leaders and sponsors seem to think so; I'm not so sure.

Comments

Let you conscience be your guide

[baggette.livejournal.com]

Dear Matt,

I don't knwo about the particular organization you are quoteing, but I knwo I am willing to do a little more to get that person out of the oval office. This country started with a grass-roots revolution and that has worked pretty well so far. I am deeply distressed by the direction our country has been taking since 2000. I am unconvinced that MY vote made any difference in that election or the one since. I do not believe that our government is responsive to the will of the people; only to the bottom of certain pockets.

One does what one can. I can stay home from work on that day, because I have no job-- another circumstance I can lay at the feet of little georgey. In the current economy, where no job is certain and there seem to be too many wolves to count, no one can take employment for granted. Those who are able to make such a committment should certainly do so, if they think it will make a difference. How much difference can YOU make from the unemployment line?
Firefighters, policemen, nurses, and teachers aren't in those jobs because they pay well and have lots of time off. For those of us in circumstances that do not allow that kind of flexiblity, I would recommend setting aside a few moments to write of call our so-called representative legislature and our senators, to express our views and maybe even ask a few pointed questions. Keep in mind that there IS an election coming up. How many of the signers of the most recent offensive tripe are up for re-election??

Just my two cents, Thanks for Asking!

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Given the state of the election scene right now, I'd bypass it and put my money and effort into contested Congressional races in various parts of the country, if you haven't got a local one that's realistically in play.