Paxety Pages

ANSWER plans what it calls "An Emergency Convergence on the White House" on March 15th with concurrent marches in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

ANSWER also plans direct action against any US attack on Iraq. It is planning protests for 5PM on the first day of the war (the next day if bombing starts at night) in major US cities. On its web page, ANSWER advises protesters to pick a busy intersection or federal building for the site of each city's protest.

One of the organizers in San Francisco was more specific in a radio interview (NPR Weekend Edition today. There does not appear to be a direct link, but scroll down from  here to the story headed Peace Groups Plan Anti-War Demonstrations.) He says the goal of the protest is to bring down American cities by clogging rush hour traffic and blocking corporate buildings.

One protester says she personally plans to carry along tea and cookies to hand out to motorists stranded in their cars.

O.K. Let me see if I understand this. At 5PM on the first day of the war, I'm going to be in my car trying to drive out Butler Boulevard, which, as always is packed with more cars than it can handle. At the intersection with St. Johns Bluff Road - the location of the University of North Florida, the only place around her I've heard of any anti-war protests - the ANSWER crowd plans to have protesters causing even more congestion problems and stopping me from getting home.

I suppose the protesters will be carrying their "No Blood For Oil" signs and chanting. Feeling empowered by their bold opposition to the war, they decide to surround, scream at and, perhaps, rock an evil SUV. Inside is a Navy wife and her children. The protesters similarly treat a 4WD pick up containing what the protesters view as an ignorant red neck.

Then along comes a protester serving tea and cookies expecting smiles and thanks from the imprisoned motorists. I expect she's more likely to be greeted by pepper spray and firearms.

I predict big trouble unless ANSWER is very careful. Will there be blood in the streets? Will there be treason trials for the survivors, if any?

A Paxety Pages Update - They're also making plans in Europe:

LONDON, March 2 -- The people who helped organize the largest worldwide peace demonstration in history last month say they are not through yet.

More than 120 activists from 28 countries emerged from an all-day strategy session here this weekend with plans not just to protest a prospective U.S.-led war against Iraq but to prevent it from happening.

And here's more - from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Since Vietnam, a number of groups have added levels of sophistication to how they protest, from Greenpeace and the environmentalists on the left to antiabortion activists on the right," said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California-Berkeley. "But it hasn't been mass scale. Now they are taking those tactics and bringing them to the debate about the war."

Some disruptions have already started: Eight antiwar protesters were arrested in Seattle on Feb. 18 after blocking the eastbound lanes of Highway 520, halting the morning commute.

In California, dozens of protesters plan to infiltrate Vandenberg Air Force Base on the central coast, hoping to disrupt work. A San Francisco-area collective called Direct Action to Stop the War plans to blockade the TransAmerica Pyramid, the Pacific Stock Exchange and the Federal Reserve in San Francisco.

Following up on this story for you - it appears I may not get to witness any violence. The authorities in my city can't seem to find any signs of protest organization.

"We don't know of any planned here," said Sharon Gogerty, spokeswoman for the Jacksonville office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

FDLE's role as part of a domestic preparedness task force is in intelligence, Gogerty said. "We are first responders going after the intelligence to prevent violence from happening," she said.

I'm not sure I understand that last sentence. Perhaps it's not a sentence but a cliche string.