Sure they did. Uh huh. Right.

Just wait till the day where we won't be waiting for big corporate meetings to take place before taking over our land.

Just to set the record straight, the "NeoClowns" act was:

"The MONKEYPANTS COLLECTIVE Presents: 'NeoClowns for War and Impoverishment' performing 'The Capitalist Parasite.'

The Capitalist Parasite was a very useful tool of cannibalism that through its one eye was able to eat its own...while it was designed to eat the poor and swallow the world in destruction, last night it turned into a barricade aimed squarely at those who gave it birth.

Whether you were dressed as a clown or whether you simply are a clown, the distinction was blurred on the streets of DC. And, while the homeless and the workers continue to suffer at the hands of a rotten system that only continues to produce such foolish farce, we are all made clowns trapped and used by the system, unable at times to distinguish friend and foe.

But, lest you think this was all just low farce and that there is no hope, little by little, through communication, solidarity, love, and creative yet deconstructive resistance, the tide turns. One moment we are clowns; the next we help a stranger, whether friend or foe, in a moment of need. Our friends in New Orleans have been doing that, where the lines between left and right, radical and conservative blur, as basic needs are met. The next we are clowns, guilty of racism and genocide, de-personalizing people, hiding in masks, and thinking the worst of everyone, devouring each other inside and outside, both friend and foe. Hope is in the recognition and the resistance to the system that allows this, a resistance born through the love and creativity that a different kind of clownishness might offer.

Believe me, all were on display this morning. We turned on each other, picked each other up, picked on others, showed a different face to others, lightened the mood, yet took part in an extremely serious effort to draw light to an extremely serious problem.

We just need more of it, and the work as always is only in the beginning phase.

Jim

As one of the activists who had been involved in this action, I have to say that this one should go down in the history books.

I was worried when, at around 4 A.M., I gathered at Dupont circle to meet with my AG. Until 4:45, no one showed up, so we (the three of us) began marching towards the hotel. We figured that we might as well attempt to block one intersection. Little by little, we met up with groups of other activists/anarchists, many of whom I had met at the previous day's block bloc (I'm surprised no-one has written an article about it yet).

When we arrived at our four intersections, we saw one of another groups members being run over, than thrown into the cop car. We rushed down and yelled at the police. Officer Hallody (I can't recall his exact name) allowed us the block off one alley. I recall an officer yelling out "You can sit there till next Thursday, we don't care!", to which I replied "You are not our targets! Don't flatter yourselves!".

Slowly, we began to take intersection by intersection (a full four in all, completely sealing off the hotel). For our first real intersection, we utilized pre-placed wooden blocks and traffic cones to block all traffic. I will be the first to admit that the begginning of the action seemed to be very disorganized. Such is why, when we went to secure the second intersection, the police moved in and disposed of our road block. Over the next hour or so, we fuly took over the streets. All in all, we held our position for around 3 1/2 hours (Even longer than the previous day's 400-500 strong black bloc).

Though they were able to smuggle the IMF members out, we delayed some of the delegates from leaving until 8 a.m. I believe we can call this a success. I do wish that I had my digital camera with me. No one has posted media yet, however it was only just this morning. :-D

-Ardeo

Real Sad you got up early and sat down and hoped and wished to stop it, but once again you stopped NOTHING. Your lucky the police only moved you out of the way and disposed of our joke attempts of roadblock and didn't dispose of you instead.

"I believe we can call this a success".
-Ardeo

This must go down with all the other success you have had in the last few years, lets see we'll start with some of my favorites:

1-The big prize, Bush doesn't get re-elected well even after you cry foul he did, I know many of you say he stole it but get over it he won just like the Redsox beating the Yanks in game 7 last year it hurt but Yanks fans had to accept it even though some belief the fix was in. Also just a side note and a reality check for you lefties he is still the Prez. I guess since your little movement protested about his election and that he is still in office that could be consider a success?

2- We will Stop the Iraq War well we did go to war in Iraq even with all you protest before it started and were still in Iraq. Nice concert and all the marches were fun great sign and puppets but DC stay open even had a book festival next to your protest, the Nats got a home game in as well but we lost and are out of the playoff DAM! Truth be told that got more coverage then your protest BUT still it was a success for the left.

3-Yes we all saw the Iraq War Vets against the war at you event. Lets be real for a second how many actual IWV not vet but IWV were their lets be generous and say thirty, and that's being real generous. Thirty out of how many that have served in combat since 2003? Once again the left will claim victory as they have about 0.05 percent of the IWV turning against the war, that would be 1 in every 200 soldiers, VICTORY, SUCCESS!

4- Side not to all young wacky little anarchist, just in case you didn't notice all the restaurants in DC stayed open and even made money on many of your fellow protesters, boy you radical anarchist really shut down the city and stopped capitalism in it's tracks this weekend, but as always you will claim success is ours cause you were able to walk down the middle of the street for four hours, that really worked man stop the press anarchist and protester cause traffic jams in DC just drive in metro 5 to 7PM any weekday you'll see the same thing. VICTORY I TELL YOU!

5- Impeach Bush NOW I thinks it a safe bet the old man will finish his last 3 years in office but I'm sure when he does leave on his own two feet you'll claim victory as well as it was your cause that had him leave. I hope for your sake Hillary get's in our you lefties will really have to gear up the protest machine, please do not respond with any Nadar or Green Party 2008 hopefulls. Only someone running that can get more then 4% of the vote can really be taken seriously, and to claim victory it not the person that get 10% (Nadar 2000) 48% (Kerry 2004) it's the one with the most votes stolen or actuall votes but whoever has the most wins and if he did steal him well the other side is to stupid to stop it from happening.

5- Safe the Supreme Court No Conservative Judges! NEWS FLASH Roberts is in and he is young. Man I can't wait till next month when old man Bush names his next Supreme Court nominee and gets you lefties really crying foul. You better pray old Ginsberg heart keeps ticking before Bush is out or the left will really have to organize, protest, and cry foul just to claim success after another lost cause.

6- Last and not least the IMF did have the meeting this weekend AGAIN, and your little adopt the intersection had how many people 100, and you stopped no you stopped nothing you may have delayed an hour or two so they worked through there lunch break and cocktail time. VICTORY.

With all these success the Left should feel pretty much in control.

4- Side not to all young wacky little anarchist, just in case you didn't notice all the restaurants in DC stayed open and even made money on many of your fellow protesters, boy you radical anarchist really shut down the city and stopped capitalism in it's tracks this weekend, but as always you will claim success is ours cause you were able to walk down the middle of the street for four hours, that really worked man stop the press anarchist and protester cause traffic jams in DC just drive in metro 5 to 7PM any weekday you'll see the same thing. VICTORY I TELL YOU!

5- Impeach Bush NOW I thinks it a safe bet the old man will finish his last 3 years in office but I'm sure when he does leave on his own two feet you'll claim victory as well as it was your cause that had him leave. I hope for your sake Hillary get's in our you lefties will really have to gear up the protest machine, please do not respond with any Nadar or Green Party 2008 candidet comments. Only cadidets that can get more then 4% of the vote can be taken seriously.

5- Safe the Supreme Court No Conservative Judges! NEWS FLASH Roberts is in and he is young man can't wait till next month when old man Bush next Supreme Court nominee gets in you lefties really crying foul. You better pray old Ginsberg heart keeps ticking before Bush is out or the left will really have to organize, protest, and cry foul just to claim success after another lost cause.

6- Last and not least the IMF did have the meeting this weekend AGAIN!

I can't believe someone bothered to type all of this.
let's be realistic: what segment of the population currently is of the radical left? 10%, and that's being generous, so small successes really do matter.

what would you do different? sit back? okay! do it. Keep complaining/noone will listen, I read through about the first paragraph and said 'this is stupid rhetoric.'

Looks like the previous poster got a little stymied.

Aaaaargh! What about this is likely to persuade people to change their political opinions about the IMF and World Bank? If anything, you're likely to shift those whoe who are ignorant or indifferent about them toward thinking that those in opposition to the IMF & WB are militant loons.

This is minor disruption for the sake of disruption. It's not activism.

suggest a different approach.

I'll suggest a different approach, but nobody will like it.

To me, it's a framing problem. We should not be asking how do we stop the IMF/WB, we should be asking how do we challenge the systems of oppression, specifically economic oppression, that hold down the people of the world. Framed that way, it's clear that targetting the IMF/WB is too small. The struggle in the Americas, for example, is 500 years old- a good 440 years older than the IMF/WB.

I think that our movement is being a tad reactionary, but understandably so. We are reacting to what we perceive (correctly) as capital using its power to change laws to favor its expansion, growth, and further oppression of folks. As such, we are certainly not wrong to oppose the IMF/WB.

But because of our framing of the problem in this reactionary way, we are stuck fighting a battle that is not feasible to be solved via direct action. The fact is, the IMF/WB could have its meetings via teleconferencing, or carrier pigeon, and it wouldn't be terribly different- maybe less fun for the delegates, but fuck 'em. The decision making power isn't the delegates, it's capital.

I think our fundamental approach needs to shift from being anti-capital to pro-people. It is very hard to stop significant capital flows with direct action. What we can do, however, is work to erase the physical borders that separate us. We can establish systems that will allow people to move freely. We can open up borders with our bodies.

Will that be enough to smash capitalism? No, of course not. But it will allow us to challenge the nationalism and racism that lives in a symbiotic relationship with capitalism. And it will free us from reliance on the state- when we are fighting against the IMF/WB, we are doing nothing more than overglorified lobbying to states to withdraw. If we challenge something like immigration, we're fighting the state at a lower level.

That being said, I was totally at AIC this weekend and totally loved it. It's better than nothing.

I took part in this action and I see it as just about a complete failure.

There were not near the number of people to pull off a really good blockade as planned. Many who were out there were reduced to cursing at the delegates in a hysterical manner which just made no sense. There are better ways of getting a message across.

Many of the people there were kids who were excerszing white privilege. They were poorly organized and reduced to banal typical "rebel against your upbringing" ravings.

In contrast, the clown brigade was AWESOME and was the one light spot on the morning. More like that was needed.

In the future, when an action like is planned, if the numbers needed don't show up, then the plan should be retailored to be effected given limited numbers.

Jessica,

We all know how disappointed you are in the people who put themselves on the line to make up for the diminished numbers. We all know how justified you aren't in accusing these kids of blind rebellion without apparently even speaking to them. We all know that the only constructive criticism you have is that the plan should have been change to fit the numbers. Perhaps next time you should be solely responsible for organizing a direct action.

what segment of the population currently is of the radical left? 10%

Spend much time looking at public opinion polls and I think you'll downgrade that number a lot. Of course it's tough without an operational definition of "radical left", but I'd guess the group you're talking about is more like 2-4%.

Some good public opinion survey sources...
www.pollingreport.com/
poll.gallup.com/

Why is Indymedia so desperate to prevent people from visiting 911Hoax.com, or to know that the authenticity of the networks' video from 9/11/01 is in doubt? Maybe Indymedia is infiltrated by Homeland Security. Maybe the conclusions brought up in 911Hoax.com are...correct.

All of us really cool progressives and members of the angry bitter left know that Bush Lies and People Dies. This is the mantra that the A.N.S.W.E.R. and MoveOn.org people have been telling us to shout out online and at our anti-Amerika protests for years now. The socialist/communist propaganda of the anti-war/anti-Amerika movement is taking hold now, and the pawns (meaning the angry, bitter left) are now marching in goose-step with Dr. Dean.

Bush based his illegal war for oil in Iraq in part on the official propaganda of 9/11. I am surprised you could not see that, unless the corporate controlled media already indoctrinates you.

The really cool progressives do not accept the corporate controlled media propaganda of 19 hijackers and jet airplanes. There are many really cool progressive Web sites that show it was squib charges and holograms used on 9/11.

The Web Fairy and me question authority and use Internet chat boards to show others that the 72 dpi images we use certainly disprove the months of detailed study by engineers from the National Science Foundation.

As long as we keep up with our really cool postings to let the world know the truth, I would have to assume that we will in fact stop the illegal war in Iraq, have Rummy and Bush and Cheney arrested as war criminals, force Halliburton to give all of their illegal war profits to the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal fund, and overturn the marijuana laws in the U.S.

Peace. -- Scott Laughrey

My guess is that Indymedia sites might be resistant because you spam your material endlessly to their newswires, abusing a community resource.

You know that arrogant, inevitably white guy, who hogs the platform at open mic protest events? Who refuses to follow the simple rules that are put there so that everyone can have a voice? And who then starts screaming that he's being opressed or that there's a conspiracy against him when they take the mic away after he's run waaayyyyyyy over time.

Your group is that guy.

The problem isn't homeland security infiltration, or censorship, it's just that you're having to face the consequences of your bad behavior.