[I originally posted this in chapotraphouse, but it was deleted for being “pro-cop” even though that very much wasn’t the case. (I believe PSL was actually involved in organizing the protest if I’m not mistaken.) The mod that deleted it openly broke the sectarian rule too.]
Been seeing a lot of people hating on what the protest marshals did during the pro-Gaza protests at the DNC and I feel they definitely did the right thing. Instigating stuff like going up against the cops under the guise of “revolutionary” action just gets a lot of people arrested and doesn’t accomplish anything.
EDIT: Users who were present at the protests have said, counter to what is claimed in the screenshot, that the protest marshals did NOT call for the police. Thank you for clearing this up, comrades!
The student encampments occurred nationwide and lasted months. I would hope a much larger-scale protest would have more of an effect than one march. The student protests were not organized to fight police, either.
What concessions did they get, anyway? Maybe some disinvestment from some schools, but zero major policy changes, and some places got no concessions at all.
No tactic works every time, or even most of the time. Getting arrested or worse is a real cost, and if we’re going to ask people to pay it we should carefully examine what it actually accomplishes.