Protests/Meetings/Events
 

Simple thread concept

Share experiances that you have had of Protests, Meetings and Events, for instance anti racism festivals, Anarchist/Socialist/Communist meetings and protests no matter how trivial.

Share the wealth of your experiances!

(And if you have not been to any of the above and are actually an ignorant fool who has nothing to contribute to the thread, please feel free to spam in the community thread, thats what its there for, keep this topic on and around its original point)

I've been to feminist protests.

They're interesting in meeting cool people but, just like in any group, there is a wealth of dumbasses.

The ones I've been to were for pro-choice and the usage of the abortion pill.

I used to go to Anarchist meetings before the whole thing was destroyed as ive explained before, I personally blame the current fad but whatever. Idiots tend to kill off the attendence of good speakers.

Various protests, think im learning that if you stick out in a crowed when your at a protest they tend to label you as a trouble maker and make an example of you, the coppers that is.

Anti Facism events are actually a rarety in the south west of the uk but i try to attend them when they are on.

I went to this teenager's protest against the Iraq War but all the people there were idiots who wanted to get out of school and look cool. I wish I'd had a "You're all stupid posers" placard with me. It was terribly organised, there was no structure and some idiots broke into some places leading to the inevitable quasi-fascist editorials in the local paper about 'kid's today'. I just got annoyed with the idiots so I left.

Since I live in Oxford there are quite a few political meetings but most are just boring. It's like the People's Front Of Judea and the Judean People's Front.

Notice how [i]s[/i]it threads prosper in these forums, and the meaningful ones are lay to rest.

I've been to peace protests a few times.

Care to illabirate on the protests, inform the people who don't know what goes on at such events what it is actually all about.

Protesting is actually one of the lowest forms of politicial involvement.

Take that time to do direct action in your community, help the homeless, animals, clean up parks.

I goto monthly DuPage Democrat meetings, those are pretty boring.

I used to make sandwiches for homeless people in DC with my church. But I don't participate in that youth group anymore.

[QUOTE=Jedi Jesus]Protesting is actually one of the lowest forms of politicial involvement.

Take that time to do direct action in your community, help the homeless, animals, clean up parks.

I goto monthly DuPage Democrat meetings, those are pretty boring.[/QUOTE]

Yes but some protests are neccissary, Like the closing of local libraries just to build a [i]f[/i]ucking nght club in its place. Got in a bit or trouble at that one and the [i]c[/i]unts still went ahead with it.

Few christmas's back i bought a few crates of beer with a mate and took it to the homeless shelter, They have a crap little dinner n all, we walked in and announced free ber for all, haha the religous knobs that ran the place were furious but nothing stood between the homeless dudes gettin a beer for with their meal.

Protesting is often the only way to get a message through to local councils, Protest's, Partitions and leaflet/poster campaigns.

A fair few people who go to protests are so shallow, they feel they are doing good in the world by turning up and standing about for a day, then going home around 5 for their tea. Makes them feel better about themselves, makes me [i]f[/i]ucking sick!

[QUOTE=sketchyjoe]I went to this teenager's protest against the Iraq War but all the people there were idiots who wanted to get out of school and look cool. I wish I'd had a "You're all stupid posers" placard with me. It was terribly organised, there was no structure and some idiots broke into some places leading to the inevitable quasi-fascist editorials in the local paper about 'kid's today'. I just got annoyed with the idiots so I left.

Front.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, we also had a school walk out against the war but like you said, kids thought it was cool to skip class so it kind of defeated the purpose of protesting the war.

I went to a World Bank and IMF protest which was good because there were so many different people protesting one thing, and I learned a lot more about the subject then I knew previously before I went to the protest.

[QUOTE=IFlogMyMolly16]I used to make sandwiches for homeless people in DC with my church. But I don't participate in that youth group anymore.[/QUOTE]
I'm in this school club SFSC-Students for Social Change and we did that a lot last year where we would make food and buy drinks and hand them out to homeless people.

[QUOTE=Nihilism'99]I'm in this school club SFSC-Students for Social Change and we did that a lot last year where we would make food and buy drinks and hand them out to homeless people.[/QUOTE]
Our community service thing at school is mostly just helping out with the Special school that's next door. I'd rather go out and help homeless.

[QUOTE=Widerstehen Sie]A fair few people who go to protests are so shallow, they feel they are doing good in the world by turning up and standing about for a day, then going home around 5 for their tea. Makes them feel better about themselves, makes me [i]f[/i]ucking sick![/QUOTE]
There are a lot of people like that in Oxford. Upper Middle-Class hypocrites who support the welfare state and equality before sending their kids to a £3000-a-term private school. A lot of my parents friends are like that and seem to treat the fact that I go to a school that has 30% A*-C passes at GCSE and 40% ethnic minority students as some kind of mental handicap. What pisses me off is that whenever there is a council-funded program in the council estates for working class kids with single mothers it's full of these parents who come down to these community centres they'd usually never go near in a 1000 years to take advantage of something aimed at giving kids more likely to turn to crime/violence etc a chance to express themselves. It makes me sick. Their attitude seems to be "Save the Iraqis but Bomb the Pakis"

I went to an Iraq war protest when it was first being discussed. Some Australian representative was in Aus and talking to Australians about it. The protest was really small, about 30 people, but we were interupting his little speech thing. Someone in the media asked him if he could do anything about the protesters, what would he do, and he said he'd shoot as us. A couple of pretty radical guys then got up in his face about being a fascist and got arrested.

I have yet to go to a protest. I was going to go to one of the many in San Francisco about the war, but I saw how many morons were there, just to defy authority because it was cool, or to skip work/school.

Some kids walked out of MIDDLE SCHOOL for the war in Iraq, just to look cool, and it was ****ing sickening. Because all it did was get you suspended, and it proved or changed absolutely nothing. And if you asked these kids why they did it, it was usually some **** answer about Bush that made no sense.

i'd like to get involved with the hunt sabs, but i don't know if their are any groups or hunts near where i live.

also, there was a BNP mp who came here a few weeks ago, and a big protest was organised. I would've gone, but it was a school day :(

im involved in a little thing called MMYAC(milton[the place where im from]mayors youth advisory council)
as far as i know we dont correspond with the mayor, but we organize stuff for youth, like meetings with a-hole store owners who all think were gonna steal stuff.
Its a good time though.

i went to a huge iraq protest before the war started. it turned out to be pretty useless, since the war started shortly after that

[QUOTE=refuse_amen]i'd like to get involved with the hunt sabs, but i don't know if their are any groups or hunts near where i live.

also, there was a BNP mp who came here a few weeks ago, and a big protest was organised. I would've gone, but it was a school day :([/QUOTE]

[url]http://hsa.enviroweb.org/hsa.shtml[/url]

thats's the site for the hunt saboteurs association, click on the groups section and it gives you links to a lot of the sab groups in the uk, hope it helps

[QUOTE=redstainedeyes]im involved in a little thing called MMYAC(milton[the place where im from]mayors youth advisory council)
as far as i know we dont correspond with the mayor, but we organize stuff for youth, like meetings with a-hole store owners who all think were gonna steal stuff.
Its a good time though.[/QUOTE]


Milton in New York, near Ballston Spa?

[QUOTE=DK44][url]http://hsa.enviroweb.org/hsa.shtml[/url]

thats's the site for the hunt saboteurs association, click on the groups section and it gives you links to a lot of the sab groups in the uk, hope it helps[/QUOTE]

yeah i know that site, the nearest ones are about half an hour away. thanks for the help anyways.

I haven't been to a protest in a long time, mainly because noone at any protests around where i live gives a crap about what their protesting and i don't want to be seen with people like that. i do try to make the city a better place by helping out at soup kitchens/habitat for humanity, things like that. but since im homeschooled i probably miss out on lots of youth oriented activisim projects

Protesting For A Better World
 

I've protested against the GAP a couple of times. In different places around Philadelphia, we hand out these leaflets in front of the store or building. It was relatively successful. If you're interested email or aim me and i can send you the leaflet we were handing out.

Even though this is a bumped thread, March 19th is the anti-war protest around the whole U.S., if I remembered correctly from the inauguration protests. I may check it out at Central Park, if it's not on a school day.

[QUOTE=mole]Even though this is a bumped thread, March 19th is the anti-war protest around the whole U.S., if I remembered correctly from the inauguration protests. I may check it out at Central Park, if it's not on a school day.[/QUOTE]

I might too. Do you think you could check that date?

I'm pretty sure it's March 19th, nation-wide.

I went to a protest of the IMF World Bank last year. It was pretty cool a lot of people, a lot of chants. Had the hippies, anarchists, speakers, and reporters-usual stuff.

i had a school walkout once i was the only one that walked out....................

Just today I acctually went to Freedom Uprising festival at the Santa Monica College bell tower. It was cool, they had a few performers there, some food, a bunch of workshops. Just a cool little place to chill out.

I went to the Pasedena Anarchist Federation thing on the Iraqi war fanniversery and we all took an area and passed out pamphlets, stood infront of supermarkets, etc, it was their "mobilize like cats, not sheep" protest strategy.

I've been to a few meetings at the Anarchist Cafe that they do every so often, and I've been to a couple things at the Black Book Anarchist Bookstore, as well as a few random Food Not Bombs gatherings. On friday got invited to a vegan potluck at a new anarchist space, The Gaian-Mind in Longbeach, but unfortunatly could not attend.

I might go to the Mayday Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Authoritarian gathring thing tomorrow in LA, if I can gather some gas money or find a carpool. I went to the Zapatista Festival last Saturday too, and I've done a few random marches at times.

On friday I went to a critical mass bike ride. Critical mass is bicyclists things done all around the world. It's where bicyclists get together (usually on the last friday of every month) and ride through the streets during rush hour together. It's to show that bikes are a good source of alternative transportation. Also some people protest in need of bike paths, and others want to show car drivers that bicyclists are part of traffic. Then there are a couple people who do it for the sake of being assholes, but there are very few of them.

It was really fun. I did it 4 years ago too. We get both honks of anger and honks of support from car drivers. It's a really fun expirience if you're a bike rider. Even more fun if you want to meet new people in your town.

[url]www.critical-mass.org[/url] see if your town has one.

How can you differ between a honk of anger and a honk of support?

[QUOTE=TheNowhereman42]How can you differ between a honk of anger and a honk of support?[/QUOTE]
Sometimes you can see the person in their car. If they wave happily or shout "woohoo!" out of their car, it's for support. Other then that I just assume it's pissed off people.

the finger is a good sign of a honk of anger

Ah cool cool, I'd go to one in LA, but I'd have to drive to it so that would kind of defeat the purpose. I'd love to be able to bike everywhere, but my school is 20 minutes away and if I ride the bus I have to wait in the freezing cold for an hour or get there late.

[QUOTE=TheNowhereman42]Ah cool cool, I'd go to one in LA, but I'd have to drive to it so that would kind of defeat the purpose. I'd love to be able to bike everywhere, but my school is 20 minutes away and if I ride the bus I have to wait in the freezing cold for an hour or get there late.[/QUOTE]
A couple of people biked to the critical mass in my town from far far away. It took them 4 hours to get there, they claimed. As soon as they got to the meeting spot, one of their tires popped. I felt so bad for the guy :(

I do bike everywhere because I'm too poor for a car, I have no interest in driving, I was raised to hate cars, and I don't really have anywhere to go that I can't bike, walk, bus, or freeload a car ride from a friend to.

That's really cool.

During the bike ride we all got into single file (probably 40 people) and biked through the vallet parking at this nice hotel. I heard some kids laughing, and saw the vallet parkers being confused. good times.

That really sounds fun, actually. Except I'm not really to much of a biker.