News
Activists seek civil disobedience from students
BEN CLASSON/Herald photo
Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.
Also by Chip Krachmer:
- Author calls for border reforms (April 11, 2008)
- Group takes aim at card sign-ups (April 4, 2008)
Sharing tools:
E-mail this article:
Two longtime activists speaking at the University of Wisconsin Friday urged their audience to start engaging in direct action such as protests and civil disobedience.
Norm Stockwell, an independent journalist and media project organizer, and Lisa Fithian, a community organizer, spoke in the Humanities building about building community power through direct action.
Stockwell, who covered the 1999 World Trade Organization protests in Seattle and the 1993 Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico, explained the importance of independent media in building community power and promoting social change.
Stockwell said the independent media’s value lies in its tendency to “tell the story from the bottom-up, instead of the top-down.”
“We go to the grassroots and report the stories of ordinary people,” Stockwell said. “All of these individual stories are pieces of a story.”
Stockwell also talked about the rising importance of independent media coverage in the face of increasing consolidation of national media.
“For people to truly make informed decisions about their lives, they need to know these stories,” Stockwell said. “People around the country are aware that corporate media is not giving us the true story of what’s going on, and they are desperate for alternatives.”
Fithian spoke on the vital importance of individuals in social movements and urged the audience to start making use of the power they have.
“Power is one of the most misunderstood concepts; we are taught that politicians and rich people have power. We are not taught that we have power,” Fithian said. “But power is simply the ability to do something. In many cases, individuals can do something, but they choose not to.”
Fithian said direct action is fundamental to social change and an important outlet for individuals to exercise difference-making capabilities.
“Direct action is a plan on how to get from here to there,” Fithian said. “Things like protesting and civil disobedience help stop and expose injustices, and create an edge for building support.”
Fithian also discussed the past movements she has been involved in, like the 2003 protests in Cancun against the WTO, the 2006 Justice for Janitors campaign to increase custodian wages in Houston, and the efforts to aid in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
UW freshman Eric Tervo said he agreed with Fithian on the importance of direct action in facilitating change.
“It is an effective step towards making change and building community because it draws attention to the issue,” Tervo said. “It is a main source of change.”
Fithian also discussed the dangers facing individuals engaging in direct action like police violence or arrest.
“Each and every one of us has to make the choice for ourselves,” said Fithian. “You have to accept your fear and decide whether you have enough courage to act anyway.”
7 Comments | Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Herald Blogs
The Beat Goes On
Brother Ali makes an ‘Exclusive’ stop
Muckrakers
Report: Barrett to make decision by the end of the week
Extra Points
Top Classified Ads (view all)
HOUSES FOR Fall 2010. All houses are on W Dayton or N Bassett. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 bedrooms. All have parking. madisoncampusrentals.com
Fithian is a terrorist in every sense of the term. Even the briefest of internet searches will reveal her long and sordid background. It is Fithian’s avowed intention to bring about revolution by destroying the system.
As Fithian told the funsters at International Socialist Review, she wants to accomplish this through destruction and intimidation, just like every other terrorist. And just like them, Fithian is eager to use violence to get her way.
“I have no issue with property destruction. I think sometimes it’s appropriate, sometimes it’s not. Again, I look at it strategically. Does this help us or does it hurt us? Does it help us achieve our goal, or does it not? We’re in a society where property is idolized, so a lot of people don’t get it yet that it doesn’t really matter. It’s just glass or products.”
12:16— you’re an idiot. She has never advocated violence against persons.
idiotarian @ 2:48pm nattered: “She has never advocated violence against persons.”
And if someone should get injured or killed during the ensuing mayhem, what then?
Don’t be a terrorism apologist your whole life, moron.
“Don’t be a terrorism apologist your whole life, moron.”
WTF? I still fail to see how she’s advocating terrorism, or violence against persons. She advocates non-violent, physical control of space. In a word, civil disobedience. You’d call Martin Luther King a terrorist, jackass.
idiotarian @ 7:11pm shrieked: “She advocates non-violent, physical control of space. In a word, civil disobedience. You’d call Martin Luther King a terrorist, jackass.”
Read her words own words. Fitch is an self-identified anarchist who advocates “property destruction.”
Putting anarchists of Fitch’s ilk in the same category as MLK slanders both the man and his legacy.
Intentional property destruction to intimidate or coerce Americans (or their government) is domestic terrorism, dimwit.
Domestic terrorism [Title 18 USC 2331]: “the term ‘domestic terrorism’ means activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”
Q: How many civilans, firemen or peace officers must be injured or killed as a result of planned acts of “direct action” mayhem before her useful idiot toadies become accomplices to domestic terrorism?
A: Zero. Mere intention to coerce or intimidate is sufficient.
So, go ahead and plan your property destruction, you Marxist idiotarian. Now, having been advised (in writing) that you’re a known domestic terrorism apologist, I’d be very careful about who you associate yourself, Mr./Ms. URL-isolated-by-NSA.
Good luck with that, useful idiots.
See also, Misprision of Felony [Title 18, Part I, Chapter I, Section 4]: “Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
Of course, Fitch’s domestic terrorism apologists will claim that their acts of mayhem don’t hurt anyone. That’s exactly the kind of specious rationalization used (at first, anyway) by the miscreants of the Weather Underground and the SLA.
Always they claim the mayhem is justified by their politics. In fact, a few unrepentant miscreants (like William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn) still make that specious claim.
And what exactly are the politics behind this? These Marxists who throw rocks, commit arson or block fire exits want to overwhelm peace officers and firemen to disarm the nation while it’s under attack by violent jihadists— and (at the same time) they want to stop young men and women from exercising their own free choices at recruitment centers. Since Fitch’s anarchist contingents can’t possibly achieve their goals through the democratic process, they want to engage in intimidation (“direct action” in their parlance) to frighten people into acquiescence.
When this fails to achieve their goals, expect their property destruction to find human targets.
Yes - time for direct action…. against terrorists like Fithian and Stockwell. The next time they hit campus, be prepared to disrupt their meetings, occupy their space, and prevent them and their miscreant audience from having a moments peace. If they discover their car, moped, bicycle, and skate board tires are all flat when they are leaving, too bad.
They seek civil disobedience from students? Give it to them, Badgers! You have the power! This is the “justice” they advocate.
Invictus Maneo