Maybe I should make a thread about this, but I don't think it's important enough to warrant it. There was a small anti-fascist demonstration not that long ago, but among the crowd someone decided to stand out and literally call the counter-protesters a bunch of animals. Which then gets plastered over the news, as you'd expect.

Am I wrong to find this unwise? Aren't you supposed to build forces before you start poking at the tiger?

[–] woodenghost@hexbear.net 1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Let me guess, that person was white and privileged? Not immediately threatened by facism and likely to survive an encounter with police without any trouble? I've seen it before in a pro Palestine thing, where a single white guy escalated beyond what the others were willing to risk and got everyone in trouble. He was even a leader, luckily he stepped down after that, remained in the movement as a normal participant and everyone was happier. Including him, because he had been way too stressed out from the responsibility.

That's why only the most affected people should be allowed to lead any such open movements with many participants where anyone could join. They need to decide how far to go, because they bear the most risk. For a protest: set rules for what to say, for signs, how to escalate, how far to go when encountering fascists and enforce them by throwing out anyone who can't follow them.

People who want to escalate beyond that can do so in small independent cells, clearly separate from the legal above ground org.

To determine, what's worth a risk, compare the potential negative outcomes with your goals. Because any action, even a protest, should be planned to achieve clear goals, that need to be decided on beforehand: do we want to create publicity? Then what's our story? Which news outlet do we want cover it? Can we send them a press release beforehand? Who will speak to reporters and what will they say? Or (and that's completely different) do we want to actually stop the fascists? At which point? How many people do we need? What if things get violent? What are our escape routes? Where do we regroup? Does everyone have an affinity group? What if someone gets arrested?