JK on Ferguson. Sounds legit. Refusal to die. Refusal to get out of the streets. Refusal to work. Dictatorships crumble in days in the face of mass refusal. The militarised violence of the state, the emboldening of the Klan... these are the signs of a system scared of what its provoked. Of course, refusal is only half the story. Dictatorships can crumble only to be replaced by other dictatorships: look at Egypt. But thats where the constructive side of struggle comes in. Building new institutions to supplant state power. Stuff coming out of Ferguson sounds promising here, with new grassroots organisations springing up to sustain the movement. They have to reproduce their system everyday. Theyre on the back foot. They dont want anyone to know how fragile their violent edifice is. And now theyre in a bind. Repression just makes the movement stronger. Concessions just embolden the movement. Theyre lashing out with violence and terrorism because they dont know how to put the genie back in the bottle. Maybe if things escalate, theyll throw Wilson under the bus. But would that even diffuse things? Its about much more than one racist cop. They seem to be gambling that the movement will burn itself out, but from what Ive been reading from afar, Ferguson activists are well aware that the civil rights struggle was fought over years & decades. That new organisations need to be built to express grassroots needs.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Nov 2014 09:41:10 +0000
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