- At any given permit march there will be hundreds of police both in uniform and undercover.

- HLS, DIA, FBI and other federal agencies will also be there to monitor and gather intelligence.

- Every square foot of the parade routes typically granted permits are covered by video surveillance cameras.

- Anyone who stays in the street after the permit time expires will be subject to arrest.

- Corporate media coverage will be poor. Corporate media may be there but mostly likely to distort the message

- The organizers of the event may side with the police if there are any incidents of police violence. (May Day 2007)

In the city of Los Angeles for example it costs $312 to apply for the permit and permit holders must also be bonded meaning they need close 1/4 million in funds to back up the bond. In addition applicants must sign an indemnification and hold harmless agreement, which means the applicant signs away to the right to sue the city for any claims against the city related to the event. The applicant also needs to provide proof of insurance. This insurance can cost 1,000s of dollars.

The high cost of permits effectively shuts out true grassroots groups from getting permits and allows only larger national organizations with connections to well funded political parties to be granted permits.

Activists should recognize that the permit requirement for protests is a violation of the first amendment of the US constitution in that it abridges the right to peaceable assembly. The permit process does precisely what it is designed to do: render authentic spontaneous protest illegal.

True grassroots activists should never take out a permit or “work with the authorities” in any manner. There are some important reasons for this: first, permit marches are not protests, a protest is when you do something in protest, something not approved by the person or institution you are protesting against.

The idea of asking for permission to protest is absurd. Permit marches are police controlled parades from start to finish. To ask for a permit to march and to follow the police approved route is to say the police have the power over the protest not the protesters.

By adhering to the permit process the protest is rendered impotent and ineffective before it even occurs. If you have to ask for a permit to exercise a right, you have already lost that right.

If the police feel for any reason they are not in control of the event they will attack it. The police define control has the capacity to deploy overwhelming force and end the event if so ordered.

Those who truly want to protest should consider NEVER attending any police controlled permit marches. Instead they should work within their local community to organize and prepare for meaningful authentic protests at sites where the policy they are protesting against is being instituted.

Symbolic protests at government buildings or heavily policed commercial sections of the city do not develop community solidarity the way local vigils and demonstrations can. (There are also many tactically and logistical reasons why the locations granted by the police are bad places for demonstrations.)

National organizations who seek the formation of a mass movement for peace and social justice should consider changing their tactics and stop repeating themselves by continuing to plan protests at the same sites and same seasons of the year.

Non-aligned independent activists should consider forming their own community based protests and never attending permit marches organized by others who are working with the very authorities they claim to be protesting against.

Activists need to be more creative in identifying and organizing protests at sites that pose the greatest potential for preventing or impeding the government/corporate policy they are protesting against. To be effective a protest needs to work in some way to directly negate the injustice at hand otherwise the protest is merely symbolic protest and should not be considered an effective or worthwhile action.

What, like one day out of the quarter year is going to subvert the more "real" actions we can all take?

Unless you happen to have some pre-scheduled direct action that you're doing that afternoon, why not go? I don't think anyone is under the illusions about the demo. At least I hope not!

If any other non-profit but ANSWER handled these demos, they would have some impact. but ANSWERs got no credibility on the street, possibly because of the racism that they tolerate at their events

I agree with your comment regarding ANSWER. However, I have one more to add: ANSWER is connected with the Police, FBI and powers in control. You would be more effective if you spent the day knocking on doors and talking to your neighbors about organizing a grass roots community to stop the war and change this government. We need to take the power back and use it to benefit the common good.