I was told that it may lead to easier or faster release, and I imagine I might be targeted to be imprisoned if I push it if I don’t bring an ID, but I feel like that’s bullshit but I don’t think I should leave it to chance
Would you bring an ID to a protest?
(Did I accidentally start a struggle session?)
Did you just ignore the words in the parentheses? Getting arrested is not “reasonable protest”, while Palestine Action is “reasonable” action because they weren’t just handing themselves over, they successfully pulled off illegal effective sabotage.
Also, the Russian Revolution featured quite a lot of effective reasonable protests, before it devolved into a civil war.
Yeah they actually did something
And that something, and many of the other effective somethings, have literally been protests. Protesting doesn’t just mean standing around with a sign.
Okay i agree if we re define “going to a protest” to mean “doing something useful instead of wasting time at a protest” then i agree with you 100%
Yeah, doing something useful is better than wasting time.
But the thing is that even going to a “No Kings” protest can be “doing something useful”, if you show up with an org and a plan (this seems to be the core of our disagreement). Beyond the obvious of recruiting or intimidation, many successful violent revolutions started off as milquetoast protests. If you want protests to be that something useful, communists will have to organize and participate in the protests so we can have hope of shaping them in our own image. Ideological communists generally aren’t anywhere near the majority at the start of revolutions, but there’s many, many normal people that could recognize and act on class differences.
In my opinion, besides the obvious like health or working hours, the only reason not to show up to a protest is if there’s better org work to do in that moment. That’s why what people are doing instead is such an important question.