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Home Front: Culture Wars
BBC Asks....Where Did All the Protesters Go?
2005-04-23
EFL

Just a few hundred people picketed the latest IMF-World Bank spring meetings - a far cry from a few years ago when it seemed no summit of world financial institutions was complete without thousands of protestors on the streets.
And the giant puppets! Don't forget the puppets!
Over the next couple of years, protests and policing dominated the headlines at a string of major summits - in Prague, Davos, London and Quebec City. The complaints of myriad groups - loosely arraigned against unaccountable, corporate-led aspects of globalisation - came to the fore.

But what has happened - where did all the protests go?

Outside the World Bank building in DC, activist Sue Frankel-Streit, 41, prepared to take part in a public temper tantrum street theatre show with the Cardboard Chaos group.
At least it wasn't a barf fest...
Some police officers were redeployed after their commanders noticed there were more cops than protesters fewer than expected protesters showed up. "What happened in the wake of Seattle was that many people went into the community and organised from home," she said. "It isn't that the movement has got smaller, people are just taking action in their communities - which is where they are making the most difference."
Uh, right, Sunflower Moonbeam.
So why are you out here today, Sunflower?
Another reason protests have gone off the boil is that some protesters graduated and had to get a J-O-B believe that while the problem have not been fixed, the international community is moving towards addressing the big issues.
Yessir, Senator, Kofi's right on it.
In January, protests planned for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, were called off. Many who may have attended were at a rival event: the World Social Forum in Brazil's Porto Alegre.
"Switzerland is too cold, man! Can't do a nude protest in the snow, dude!"
Also marching in Washington on Saturday was Preston Duncan, 21, unemployed slacker looking for the hot chicks part of the DC poetry insurgency collective.
Some unsoliticed advice, kid....keep it off the resume. No one will be impressed. Not even Soros.
"Some people break windows, we use the emotional appeal of what we are doing 'cause chicks really dig sensitive guys - I think that's more likely to make people want to rally round."

Inevitably, the post-9/11 war on terror has also shifted the focus. Some say it has led to more effective oppressive policing of protests. When leaders from the G8 group of industrialised nations met for their annual summit in 2004, they did so on a secure island off Georgia. The first protest took place more than 100km (62 miles) away.
Well, at least it was closer than Porto Alegre...
Longtime underemployed and former hot chick Activist Theresa Reuter, 64, a veteran of scores of protests since the 1960s ain't that a shocker!, told the BBC: "It has been scary this weekend - there are a lot of police officers around, they have closed off the streets. You, know, a lot of my friends are not here because they couldn't get the day off at the Quickie Mart do not want to end up on some list as a suspected terrorist."
Posted by:Desert Blondie

#21  After they got the shit beat out of them in England and Italy I'd say most of them figure it just ain't worth it. Sod of, Swampy. Best line of the year.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-04-23 9:09:26 PM  

#20  T.S. Eliot as well.... for weirdness, if nothing else
Posted by: Frank G   2005-04-23 4:16:19 PM  

#19  Guess I will have to check-out your recomendations,most of the poetry I've read was about how terrable the writers love life,etc is.
Posted by: raptor   2005-04-23 4:08:27 PM  

#18  Of course, approaching this mystery from another perspective, perhaps they all just went home and crashed on their parent's sofa.
Posted by: .com   2005-04-23 4:04:16 PM  

#17  I'm really gonna miss the pink tanks. *sniff*

If Sea is right, we should dedicate satellite time to search for where they will be rebuilding and rearming. I'm thinking NSA experts will prolly recognize a farm field full of pink tanks fairly quickly... Of course, they may employ some of the doper tactics, since so many of these addled tools are stoners, and put up netting to shield their army from observation. Shhhh, nobody tell them that the netting shouldn't be a gazillion pair of used pantyhose... both visual and olfactory sensors will pick it up, methinks.
Posted by: .com   2005-04-23 4:02:26 PM  

#16  Stephen - IIRC Saddam was funding anti-US/anti-war groups, including the nimrods that went as human shields. You are right...
Posted by: Frank G   2005-04-23 4:00:35 PM  

#15   Seafarious raises a good point. Organizing large protests costs money. Soros and his ilk poured alot of money into the 2004 campaign,there's been a crackdown on charities(Islamic ones esp.),and the Tsunami sucked up a huge amount of charity money that might have otherwise gone to lefty umbrella groups that organize protests. There is also the fact Saddam is no longer in power-we know he was bribing governments and reporters,how much anyone want to bet aginst him funding the anti-war,anti-US,anti-capitalist ptotests?
Posted by: Stephen   2005-04-23 3:47:07 PM  

#14  Maybe they all just grew up? Or discovered the blogosphere and had their leftie illusions shattered...
Posted by: anon1   2005-04-23 2:59:39 PM  

#13  Jackal - that was my smartass comment!
Posted by: Raj   2005-04-23 1:54:57 PM  

#12  Thanks, Angie. I was wondering why those two spectacularly fine poets hadn't come up yet. Kipling is my all-time favorite poet, closely followed by Service.
Posted by: mac   2005-04-23 1:32:21 PM  

#11  ...the rest is just too damn whiny...

I commend Kipling (my favorite poet) to your attention, and Robert W. Service. The latter's "The Law of the Yukon" is the antithesis of whiny.
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2005-04-23 1:18:22 PM  

#10  Q: Do you think your movement's appeal is declining?

A: No. No. No... It has just become more selective.

From This is Spinal Tap the Anarchist Movement
Posted by: Jackal   2005-04-23 12:10:54 PM  

#9  a far cry from a few years ago when it seemed no summit of world financial institutions was complete without thousands of protestors on the streets

Here's what happened: the majority of protestors graduated, got jobs and moved on. And the cause is too "been there, done that" for the next generation to adopt. Plus, the gloom and doom predicted 10 years ago has, surprise surprise, not come to pass. So the "few hundred people" left are just the hangers-on.
Posted by: PlanetDan   2005-04-23 12:09:52 PM  

#8  My thinking is more practical. After getting the Italian treatment, very few of these professional protesters are willing to travel to get the shit beat out of them or run the risk of getting shot.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom   2005-04-23 11:59:37 AM  

#7  Sea, does that mean they're going to start seething? I likes to watch seething. ;)
Posted by: Desert Blondie   2005-04-23 11:45:22 AM  

#6  In the interviews on teevee, the protesters solemnly swore The Movement was growing, real soon now. My personal opinion is that they spent a LOT of dough and energy last year trying to defeat Bush, and that this is basically a time of hudna.
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-04-23 11:41:13 AM  

#5  Milton, Tennyson, and Masefield are all great, too - though Tennyson tops them all. Although I think "Light Brigade" might be above these absent idiots . . . it contains themes of war and bravery in the face of death . . .
Posted by: The Doctor   2005-04-23 11:35:59 AM  

#4  Probably, raptor.

Or maybe you're just smart. ;-p

[Though it sounds like you haven't read much Frost, Sandburg, or Robinson. No whine there.]
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-04-23 10:46:17 AM  

#3  The Mayor should point out right now that he's a visiting Mayor not The RB Mayor, I'm here to share and lern from the Master.
Posted by: The Visiting Mayor   2005-04-23 10:43:47 AM  

#2  But what has happened - where did all the protests go?

The Mayor loves good lyrics. Perhaps Big Mary Travers could lend a hand with the melody.
Posted by: The Mayor   2005-04-23 10:42:03 AM  

#1  Just about the only poetry I like are things like"El Cid" and"Charge of the Light Brigade"(the rest is just too damn whiny).Does that make me a barbarian?
Posted by: raptor   2005-04-23 7:54:39 AM  

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