Re: RAT Hello Seattle, i must be going...

[Chris Jeffries <cjeffries@seanet.com>]

>Just as a clarification, why are these words the last thing you would expect 
>a labor union spokesperson to say?

I was afraid it wasn't clear enough.  I'll try again:

All week a barrage of commentary has divided the demonstrators into two 
camps: the representatives of organized labor who are "peaceful," and the 
people getting gassed and shot at who are "rioters," or at least 
irresponsible.  Even independent broadsides handed out on the streets of 
Seattle have been (less judgmentally) drawing these kinds of distinctions 
between the activities and attitudes of different protest groups.  
Therefore, as I said, I've been suspicious of some grandiose claims of 
real bonds being formed between previously separate interests who happen 
to be sharing anti-WTO sentiments and the streets.  The very rally I 
attended was described in the media, before and after it took place, as 
certain groups' answer to "their" message having been overlooked -- 
reinforcing the consensus view of different groups and different 
"messages" in competition with each other.  

Therefore, it was refreshing to hear someone on the inside of the 
"peaceful camp" refusing to recognize the distinction.  It was surprising 
and inspiring, to me, that this speaker cut through the rhetoric and put 
_all_ the protestors under the same umbrella sharing the same message.  I 
was also exhilarated by the very positive effect those remarks had on the 
crowd; I had read that, only the day before, there'd been mixed and even 
tense reactions to similar sentiments expressed at a similar event.

By the way I did _not_ mean to imply that as a hard hat, the speaker I 
quoted was unlikely to sympathize with more left-leaning causes and 
tactics.

Hope this helps.