'Situationist' says:

'The permitted march model of protest is boring and doesn’t draw new people into any movement, except a movement away from the march and towards home.'

'Boring' to whom,'Mr. S'? Most people marching on Michigan M18 were having a great time. And, along, with the feeder marches earlier, new people were drawn in. I marched along a mother with two 14-year-old girls, at their first demo ever, and they were jumping up and down with excitment all the way down to the Plaza.

Then you say:

'A model of protest that was fun creative and had an element of actual liberation would be a much more likely candidate to getting people into the progressive scene.'

You know, anyone can make assertions about anything. But this is supposed to be 'assessment,' which means, in my book, a little seeking truth from facts. An assertion, along with a bus pass, will get you on the CTA.

If you're so certain about this, show us how its done, here, in this day and age. 1930s Spain is far away and long ago.

Here's what I think. I have a map on the wall here of some 120 Chicago neighborhoods. About 20 of them have some sort of 'neighbors for peace and justice' group. That leaves the remaining hundred. I suggest we work out a plan to grow neighborhood antiwar groups in all of them. It's called 'organizing,' as in the abolitionist movement, the suffregists, Joe Hill and the IWW, and so on.

If you want to see what's involved, what you're up against, go hang out with the Anti-War Majority folks at Irving Park and Hamlin for a few days this week. Get out of the hot house romanticism of your affinity groups and take a step into America. If you're serious about change, you're going to have to organize them, the great numbers opposed to the war but have yet to march, and who think it's a bit weird to see kids running around with masks on.

('Why are they doing that, one asked me, don't they realize that'll just attract the cops to them?' 'Naaawwh,' I said. 'They're just playing a kind of 'kids dressup,' having fun after watching movies about the Zapatistas in Mexico. Don't worry, unless there's a cop among them, I don't think they'll provoke a fight.' )

Here's a closing thought. The true test of militancy is not the shrillness of your slogans or glitter of your spectacle, but how many new organizations are built and how deep their roots go.