What to do when the government turns criminal... 

The questions are difficult to answer. The tens of thousands of protesters who showed up in each of these cities came from a variety of backgrounds and places. Their willingness to resist and be arrested for that resistance is rooted in a strong conviction that what they are protesting against is ethically and often legally wrong.

In November last year, the leaders of the World Trade Organization held a conference in downtown Seattle. In the streets outside, student organizations, religious groups, labor unions, artists, politicians, and concerned individuals converged to let the WTO leaders know that thay disagreed with the decisions being made behind closed doors.

In fact, U.S. politicians attended the conference in support of policies defined as illegal in the United States. Surprised? Don't be. Our government has a thorough history of breaking its own laws. Ask the Sioux where their treaty went.

Or ask the residents of Mendocino County where their redwoods are going. To learn about a suspect relationship between the government and the timber industry, read "This fish does not exist" by clicking on the Greenwood Watershed Association logo.

http://www.elksoft.com/gwa/fish/

So some of the protesters were there to stand and be counted, to simply have their disagreement noted. Others went to actively resist what they disagreed with, to follow a course of direct action.
 

Two videographers, Tim Ream and Tim Lewis, have documented the citizen uprisings of the southern Oregon anarchists. Their work provides an up close and personal view of a group whose members repeatedly put themselves directly and literally onto the gears and wheels of the apparatus of injustice.

Their reasonably priced video documents are available from pickAxe productions at http://www.pickaxe.org/. If their work intrigues you and you have a group you would like to show it to, these folks will come to your town, university, grange hall, or wherever. They will show the video and speak to you. This is probably the only way you will here their message undiluted and unspun.

So what issues are people taking to the streets in your area? Log on to Protest.net, click your region and find out. Protest.net provides an international calendar of activist protests, meetings and conferences. If you delve into the issues, I guarantee you will find something worth marching for.

   http://www.protest.net/

Create a sign and get in line. They need us out there.

When you're ready to take it to the streets, a little training goes a long way. These two organizations have been training activists in our nation for many years.
 

Direct Action Network	http://www.directactionnetwork.org/
The Ruckus Society	http://www.ruckus.org/

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