Re: [pf] Multinationals take aim at protesters

by prichter1

18 December 2000 13:30 UTC

In a message dated 12/17/00 3:12:23 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
twbounds@pop.mail.rcn.net writes:

> In These Times
>  
>  December 25, 2000
>  
>  THE WATCHERS
>  Multinationals take aim at protesters
>  By Bill Berkowitz
>  
>  http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2501/berkowitz2501.html
>  
        [snip article text]


This is like COINTELPRO but much more sophisticated.  COINTELPRO effectively 
shut down the civil rights movement and prevented effective linkages between 
that movement, the antiwar movement, and the feminist movement from happening.

It scares me that corporations are taking the lead on this. What prevented 
COINTELPRO from being even more deady was its bumbling and sometimes almost 
laughable errors. This was largely played out through the FBI.  Over the 
decades, right wing conservatives have been working quietly and steadily to 
quash anything that the left might come up with. We have not paid much 
attention, and the tactics they are using scare me a lot.

It is time for groups on the left to put aside our more petty interests and 
take these threats seriously and find our own, hopefully nonviolent, ways to 
work against this.  We have lost decades, but that doesn't mean that we must 
necessarily lose out in the end. 

I know that I sound like a crazed loon sometimes, but I was involved deeply 
in the civiil rights movement and *know* what happened there.  And I know how 
hard many conservatives have worked over the years to keep the upper hand. 
What Tom shared is part of the fruits of their long-haul labor.

 I'd be interested to see what strategies we could discuss to begin our work 
in an organized way. I'm thinking more and more that, as we focus on our 
lifestyle issues that we are missing the big picture. I guess I'm turning 
more radical again, but complacency isn't hacking it any more. I see these 
issues as deadly serious.

Blessings, Priscilla