Westwood Parade

The Westwood Pep Rally, followed by the ANSWER Anti-inaugural Parade went almost exactly as intended. There were about three thousand people in Westwood, mostly from UCLA, who participated in an anti-bush parade. There were a few protestors there, but the ANSWER coalition, supported by the police officers, that I suspect ANSWER paid to do security at the event, were able to marginalize them before they had any real effect on Bush’s war machine. The people watching the parade were few in numbers, probably due to the area that the police/ANSWER team chose, and the police’s success at keeping pedestrians away. Nonetheless, there were a few conservatives that did attend, drinking their cappuccinos from the windows of the several Star Bucks along the parade route. Below are pictures from the night’s festivities.

Though my critique of the leadership of the last four years of the anti-bush movement is not yet complete, I will say this. I have no doubts that groups like the ANSWER coalition has created a system of protesting that marginalizes the movement and keeps political dissent in the background. It is one thing for ANSWER to say that they cannot and will not condone an action, but when ANSWER openly criticizes direct action, they reduce the effectiveness of the entire movement, and marginalizes everyone; they become agents of the repression that many of us stand against. It is through a diversity of tactics that gives strength to a movement. This city, these streets, this government, it is ours. We cannot expect our government to change itself, and we did not come out on the streets to go to a parade. This is our democracy, and we need to take it back. When I criticize the march, as I did above, I fully understand that ANSWER has its purpose. It is a place that parents can bring their children to. It is a place for college buddies that are more worried about a misdemeanor on their record than the Palestinian kids that are being shot with our bullets can come and voice their opinions. But this really is our country, and these types of gatherings by themselves are not going to change a thing.

Just ask yourself, why did Ukraine get a new election? Was it because they listened to the police and the government? Something tells me that if the people that stole their election to disperse because a permit expired, they would still be there.