IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE TO ASK THE STATE FOR PERMISSION TO PROTEST ITS ACTIONS
10/15/09
After spending more than eight years watching troop redeployments cycle through the Middle East we are here today in anticipation of a massive military surge in Afghanistan. While more and more of the economic sector becomes enveloped in the war industry, and our peace prize-winning president ushers in a new era of American imperialism, we have come to understand that our very participation in the US economic, social, and political system allows war to continue. With each anniversary, each meaningless policy shift, and each death toll milestone, we have responded in a uniform way: we join together to ask the state for permission to take part in protest. We hold signs, we sing songs, and chant to ourselves as the police escort us down one lane of the road, ensuring that the normal functioning of our cities remains undisturbed. When we shout “who’s streets?” while flanked on either side by pigs on horses, the answer is clear. It is passed time to ask ourselves why we continue to oppose state military action with state-sanctioned demonstrations. When we are given permission, then this is no longer dissent—it is a government-sponsored masquerade of free speech, which serves only to disguise the true implications of public objection to US policy. And when we participate in this type of protest, we invite the state to appear as a benevolent democracy rather than as the violent and repressive bureaucracy that it is. This is not a call for apathy and non-participation—it is a call for active non-cooperation with the state. We must demonstrate that we will not remain obedient and law-abiding while our country commits endless war crimes for the profit of the few. If we are going to take to the streets, then we should take over the streets and stop business without pre-approval. If we don’t want a military surge in Afghanistan, then we need to shut down recruitment stations and weapons producers. It is time to be honest with ourselves about the state of dissent in this country and to break the cycle of docile symbolic protest. No more permission, direct action now.
