first off, i thought it was a very good protest. great attendance (for chicago), good spirits throughout, too much police control, plenty of other things to criticize, but overall, im happy with how it turned out. but on the other hand....

indymedia is just upsetting. sometimes we act like college yuppies coming home late from the bars. and anarcho-testosterone competitions, name calling, and other mierda ruin nice posts.

lets get to it. the numbers were 1100-1400. i did overhead pictures and got lots of different POVs. thats a pretty damn good number for chicago regardless of being in the middle of a workday- a city where we should regularly have tens of thousands but we're lucky if we can break into quadruple digits. and part of the turn-off to people? our sectarianism, angrier-than-thou self-righteousness, and authoritarian organizing.

hee heee, a, kludge, counter, REAL ANARCHIST, In Living Color: you guys should be ashamed of your posts. pathetic. we are in a struggle against global systemic oppression, some of us incessantly harassed by police, FBI, DHS. we are fighting a system that commits genocides every day of the world's poor (30k children die every day of malnutrition and cureable causes), that wages wars, and all u can do is lash out at those around you.

please, help make both protests AND our forums (be they alternative press or indymedia) safe places where we can be open and respectful. let the PWs, the cops, rightmarch.com, and other rightists do the spamming and trolling. i was also offended (as a known critic of both the RCP and phony anarcho-hoodlumism) when, after two US flags, some kids decided to burn a World Cant Wait sign. what does that accomplish.

as for WTF? we have got to remember that demonstrations are one tool in the arsenal. we cannot step on each other's toes or attack the tactics of our allies when we are on the same side. if you dont think yesterday's protest was your style of resistance, do something else. but perhaps we can try to support each other in our efforts. does it take that much?

no amount of distasteful spamming or sectarian hoodlumism can turn me off of the struggles i am committed to, but many others are hurt by it. please, cant we all just get along?