street actions like the ones in d.c., seattle, and even (especially?) philadelphia are not new. you point to the civil disobedience of students in north carolina or the civil disobedience of draft card burners...very good examples of powerful symbolic actions. but what about the mayday protests in d.c. in 1969? what about the protests at the democratic national convention in 1968? these were unauthorized protests that happened in much the same way as the protests in philadelphia, with similar police response. what about labor demonstrations in the south during the depression, broken up by mounted police time and time again? we call it civil disobedience, not because the laws we disobey are the root of our cause, but the forces we disobey are agents of the root of our cause.

street demonstrations like the ones in d.c. and philadelphia are important in the sense that the disobedience is a militant response to corporate power over the democratic process. taking the streets is a sign of militancy. one which we need now desperately and one which we need to build upon with successes, both in terms of numbers and in terms of general disruption.