Macho posturing. Sort of ironic coming from someone who claims to be "anti-authoritarian." It's not just Daleyites, Democrats and Republicans who can be hypocrites. Hello, is our movement so backwards that we're still taking the class on Sexism 101?

Am really sick of reading these posturing ex post facto criticisms of organizing efforts each year, this one so lazy and ill informed that it doesn't even bother to figure out who paid for the buses, yet launches a diatribe springing from that issue. If the poster had bothered to find that out, had bothered to be involved in organizing that day (rather than just showing up), s/he might also have found out that the tactical team for Saturday's demo (some of whom are still facing charges from last year's demo) was having a running shouting match with the police all day long over everything from where (if?) those buses would be allowed to pick people up to whether or not people could use the park's bathrooms to if we could have stage/sound at State & Walton. All while the police were carefully taping and taking notes on all of these confrontations in hopes of using them as evidence against the organizers later in court. Not exactly street fighting in Seattle, let alone barricades in Petrograd, but the kind of clashes that are necessary to win back some of the rights that have been taken away from us over the past few years. That's walking the walk.

The sad reality is that the balance of forces in Chicago right now is such that those who want to engage in more militant direct action are far outnumbered by the police, not to mention generally out-organized. In such situations most direct action is about as effective as the Polish cavalry's charge against German tanks at the start of WWII. And being effective, advancing your issues, is the name of the game, right? -- Or is it keeping oneself entertained, which is self-indulgent to say the least, not to mention a real insult to people like Juan Torres who are genuinely trying to advance their issues and who've paid a far higher price for this war than you or me.

When the other side has the numbers that we don't, direct action works only with careful planning and stealth -- a minimum of the bragging macho talk which just tips off the other side and is a magnet for spies and agent procateurs. Some recent examples include Chicago CodePINK's protest against Hillary Clinton (which helped put the kabosh on her coming out party for the '08 Prez race) or the Gay Liberation Network's banner drop from the roof of City Hall/County Building in favor of equal marriage rights.

It's all very fine to talk about "breaking out" from Daley Plaza Saturday night. You honestly don't think they were waiting (and hoping) for that? Why do you think they had the hundreds, if not thousands of green fliers printed up ordering a dispersal from the Plaza? Duh. Maybe said breakout would not only have had to deal with the publicly advertised 200 riot clad cops who ringed the march down Michigan, but also the hundreds waiting in the wings from juristictions as far away as Indiana, with lock-up buses on Lower Wacker Drive, etc. Talk about walking into a trap and playing right into the other side's hands. "Spontaneous" direct action in that circumstance is just utter stupidity.

Finally, as "redux" pointed out, direct actionists pimping off another group's legal action doesn't exactly win one future adherents to your cause. At any large legal action there will likely be people with legal issues already (immigration, parole, etc) who would pay a far higher price for a "spontaneous" confrontation with the cops than you or I would. Moreover, at this partricular demo the careful documentation that the police conducted of the earlier negotiations/shouting sessions was done precisely so that the organizers could be held legally and financially liable for any "trouble" that might come later. Believe me, making other people pay for your actions won't win you any friends and will set back the movement as a whole.