Tactically speaking

Certainly, their side is paying attention.

The international ruling class is watching each round of protest carefully, and adjusting their repressive tactics in an effort to stop us. At each major demonstration against the meetings of the world's corporate elite, the level of violence against the protesters has intensified.

When the leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group met in Vancouver in 1997, the public was shocked to see police use pepper spray to blind the young people who stood outside in protest.

Then came water cannon and rubber bullets in Quebec City in April 2001. Then live ammunition in Gothenberg, Sweden in June. It was mere chance that the serious injuries from the police bullets did not kill a protester.

In Genoa, the police shot and killed Carlo Guiliani, and seriously injured hundreds.

Our side similarly has to learn the lessons of the international movement. We have to ensure that we remain united and continue to challenge the capitalist system.

One key question is the role of violence or non-violence.

Some activists fear that the violence of the state is being mirrored among elements of the movement.

Susan George, for example, a leading member of the French ATTAC organization and a prolific economic analyst, has argued for a de-emphasis on demonstrations at global summits mainly because of the high profile taken by anarchists.

It may be tempting to look to the ‘peaceful’ demonstrators and isolate the ‘violent’ ones, but making this the central issue for the movement is a terrible, divisive mistake.

It is simply not accurate to presume that acts of individual terrorism that target a McDonald’s restaurant or a Starbucks coffee shop are comparable in any way to the violence of the state.

This is not to ignore the fact that there is an argument to be had about how to operate on mass demonstrations. But this is an argument that has to find expression within the movement, as part of the development and maturation of the movement.

This same error can turn in the opposite direction, raising the tactic of direct action to a principle. While it seems to come from an opposing perspective, to see direct action as a principle has the same divisive effect.

Mass, direct action has been at the centre of the challenges to the summit meetings since the WTO forum was successfully stymied by the Seattle protests in November and December of 1999.

A new generation of young activists have been trained in the politics and practice of direct action, joining ranks with experienced trade unionists well schooled in leading strikes, stopping scabs and holding down picket lines.

But direct action is not a principle, any more than is non-violence.

Direct action is a tactic, and its impact on building the movement depends on the wider political context. For example, when challenging large international summits, direct action taken up by a small self-selected minority does not have the same impact as mass direct action that involves thousands or tens of thousands.

Some anti-capitalist activists – including some who are ideologically committed to anarchism, and some who are not – have wrongly drawn the conclusion that a commitment to direct action is a pre-condition to participation in the movement.

Keeping a clear focus on the overall goals of the anti-capitalist movement is the key to avoiding these divisive outcomes.

We need to build a movement that challenges the capitalist system at its heart – its dependence upon profits.

The key to the effectiveness of mass direct action tactics in the anti-capitalist movement has been the link between young environmental activists and the organized trade union movement – the Turtle-Teamster alliance.

This is the strategic heart of the anti-capitalist movement. The next step is to determine how to preserve and deepen this alliance.

We need to do two things.

First, we need to determine effective strategies to continue to challenge the ruling class. To retreat from mass protests in the face of police repression would be to back down just when we have them on the run.

These mass demonstrations have been an enormous inspiration to working people, students, NGO activists, and everyone – young and old – who hates capitalism and wants to see the greedy corporate big-wigs put on the defensive.

And second, we also need to deepen the roots of the anti-capitalist movement locally. The inspiration of the anti-capitalist protests has already found resonance in workplaces, on campuses and in communities, far removed from the cities where the mass protests have occurred.

The political discussions of the anti-capitalist movement – about how to move forward, how to organize effectively, where to build support – need to be taken into local areas of work and expanded.

A large minority of working people and students who have heard about the events of Genoa are appalled by the violence that left a young protester dead on the streets. They also want to ensure that the movement is wide in its appeal, peaceful, and safe.

We need to keep our eye on the prize – replacing capitalism with a system where production is for human need not corporate greed. And we need to ensure that the Teamster-Turtle alliance is strengthened and deepened as a means to get there. If we do this, the better world we know is possible will be, in time, much more than a slogan.