November 28 was the The Night We Shut Old Bibi Down! We prevented Benjamin Netanyahu from speaking in Berkeley! And Marty's critique of left protests and their public image notwithstanding, it was a great happening, and yes, there were plenty of signs, slogans and raised fists and people were peacefully militant. Every TV channel gave us coverage as did the local papers, some of which was very good. The irony was that this was a hastily put together protest since news of Netanyahu's appearance had not been publicized ahead of time in the press, yet it was unquestionably more successful than those typical marches, with their rallies and speeches that the media ignores. Several hundred protesters turned out to protest his appearance at the Berkeley Community Theater and we were successful in preventing the event from happening, much to the consternation of a press-estimated 2000 would-be audience members, many of whose mindsets no doubt reflected the sickness that is prevalent among that sector of the Israeli public who believes that Barak has not gone far enough in his suppression of the Palestinian uprising The Berkeley cops were not fully prepared for the large protest and were unable to do anything when protesters broke through the lines and went up to the gates through which the ticket holders had to pass. The latter compounded the problem for the police by following the protesters toward the gate which resulted in the protesters and ticketholders intermingling in the blocked off street. Some of ticket-holders who had actually bought tickets to hear the original speaker--Henry Kissinger(!) took the situation with a bit of humour but those wanting to hear Netanyahu, were not happy campers. That's how you were able to tell the ticket-holders from the protesters. Only one group was smiling and whoopin' it up. As a a San Franciscan, I grudgingly had to admit, Berkeley was back on the map. But for its residents I expected an attack by Israeli helicopter gunships before dawn. Out of fear of subsequent demonstrations, and for Bibi's"security," Netanyahu and his sponsors canceled his appearances the following night in San Mateo and the following day in San Rafael. No doubt, an important factor in this decision was the high cost of bringing in hundreds of outside police to these communities, a cost that the taxpayers of those communities would have had to bear. And I am sure the local police in those towns balked at that. Jeff Blankfort Marty Jezer wrote: (Re: Hitchens and Nader) > SNIP > In my > never-ending but frustrating (and Abbie-Hoffmanish) effort to > prod the left into seeing how other's perceive us, I thought it a > useful exercise to look at the right-wing demonstrators (separating > them from their politics) and see what messages the act of waving > placards, shouting slogans, and being in the camera's face conveys. > > Demonstrations should be organized as theater so that the action of the > demonstrators conveys the message intended. Signs, slogans, raised > fists, etc. don't necessarily do the trick and sometimes even undercut > what we're trying to convey. > > This was one of Abbie's lessons of the sixties, and something WIN Magazine and > the NY Workshop in Nonviolence (both of which I was involved with during the > sixties) > were experimenting with. The left, in its public demonstrations, often wanted > to be > seen as "militant." That was the goal. But militance can be a real turn-off to > the public. > And reaching the public is one, if not the only, reason to demonstrate in the > street. > > The GOP in Miami was pretty ugly (in a petty kind of way). I would suggest that > that is what the left also looks like to the general -- even the sympathetic > - --public. > > Marty > > Marty Jezer . 22 Prospect Street . Brattleboro, VT 05301 >
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