adopt an Intersection- Coordinated Direct Action in DC

From September 23-26, thousands of people will descend upon DC to resist the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the capitalist war in Iraq. The Adopt an Intersection Campaign (AIC) is a coordinated, decentralized direct action campaign with the goal of interfering with the delegates’ ability to get to the World Bank by shutting down all or part of downtown DC. This can be done by creating space for a diversity of tactics, not favoring nor condemning any tactic. Adopt an Intersection is solidarity in the streets, blockading for a brighter future. <!--break--> As part of the Adopt an Intersection Campaign, affinity groups can "adopt" intersections that are strategically located throughout downtown DC to block. Each group is able to do what they wish with the intersection with diverse messaging and tactics. The AIC group will help coordinate the intersections. Affinity groups can let AIC know what they're needs/desires are and we can help to facilitate that. Please visit adopt.septemberaction.org for more information. Please distribute this information far and wide, the more people who participate in the AIC, the more successful it will be! Some Motivations for Creating the Adopt an Intersection Campaign: 1) Strategy: Contemporary social movements for global justice and peace and against war have come to a stand-still in the past few years.  Strategy has been replaced by tactics and time and time again mass mobilizations have materialized into little more than rallies and marches.  Consequently, our messages are not getting out.  We need to find new and effective ways to seize opportunities for mass convergences and transform them from mere marches into something bigger, more creative, and targeted. Moreover the debate of diversity of tactics that accompanied the organizing against the FTAA() in Quebec City in 2001 has been almost all but forgotten.  Instead of spending precious organizing and networking time at consultas and spokescouncils debating mass direct action tactics, we can use this time to move on to discussions of building a movement beyond just mobilizations, while respecting everyone's choice of tactics. 2) Accessibility: It can be very difficult to organize autonomous direct actions in a city you do not live in and will not be in until, at most, a week before the action.   It can also be frustrating to organize a small action that ends up having no support, and being ineffective.  The Adopt an Intersection Campaign is an effort to allow for a diversity of tactics and a large variety of organizing levels, ranging from just showing up to putting together a larger scale action under the AIC framework. Also, the action creates space for both legal and illegal activity, lower and higher levels of risk.  This diversity lets more people participate and ties up police resources in a variety of ways, as well as more effectively blocking up the downtown area. 3) Allows for Contingency Plans By figuring out the scope of the actions based on the amount of responses, AIC will be able to take the most effective form possible given the number of people interested.  If lots of folks are involved then more space can be held.  If the turnout is smaller, the actions can be more concentrated, focusing on one particular area. Ideas for this have included waiting until we know where the gates into the WB/IMF() perimiter are and just blocking the critical intersections to these gates, as well as targeting specific key delegates and blocking them from leaving their hotels. These ideas can be worked out through spokescouncils and conference calls over the coming weeks

<p> From September 23-26, thousands of people will descend upon DC to resist the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the capitalist war in Iraq.</p> <p> The Adopt an Intersection Campaign (AIC) is a coordinated, decentralized direct action campaign with the goal of interfering with the delegates’ ability to get to the World Bank by shutting down all or part of downtown DC. This can be done by creating space for a diversity of tactics, not favoring nor condemning any tactic.</p> <p> Adopt an Intersection is solidarity in the streets, blockading for a brighter future.</p> <!--break--><p> As part of the Adopt an Intersection Campaign, affinity groups can "adopt" intersections that are strategically located throughout downtown DC to block. Each group is able to do what they wish with the intersection with diverse messaging and tactics.<br /> The AIC group will help coordinate the intersections. Affinity groups can let AIC know what they're needs/desires are and we can help to facilitate that.</p> <p> Please visit adopt.septemberaction.org for more information.</p> <p> Please distribute this information far and wide, the more people who participate in the AIC, the more successful it will be!</p> <p> Some Motivations for Creating the Adopt an Intersection Campaign:</p> <p> 1) Strategy:<br /> Contemporary social movements for global justice and peace and against war have come to a stand-still in the past few years.  Strategy has been replaced by tactics and time and time again mass mobilizations have materialized into little more than rallies and marches.  Consequently, our messages are not getting out.  We need to find new and effective ways to seize opportunities for mass convergences and transform them from mere marches into something bigger, more creative, and targeted.</p> <p> Moreover the debate of diversity of tactics that accompanied the organizing against the FTAA() in Quebec City in 2001 has been almost all but forgotten.  Instead of spending precious organizing and networking time at consultas and spokescouncils debating mass direct action tactics, we can use this time to move on to discussions of building a movement beyond just mobilizations, while respecting everyone's choice of tactics.</p> <p> 2) Accessibility:<br /> It can be very difficult to organize autonomous direct actions in a city you do not live in and will not be in until, at most, a week before the action.   It can also be frustrating to organize a small action that ends up having no support, and being ineffective.  The Adopt an Intersection Campaign is an effort to allow for a diversity of tactics and a large variety of organizing levels, ranging from just showing up to putting together a larger scale action under the AIC framework.</p> <p> Also, the action creates space for both legal and illegal activity, lower and higher levels of risk.  This diversity lets more people participate and ties up police resources in a variety of ways, as well as more effectively blocking up the downtown area.</p> <p> 3) Allows for Contingency Plans<br /> By figuring out the scope of the actions based on the amount of responses, AIC will be able to take the most effective form possible given the number of people interested.  If lots of folks are involved then more space can be held.  If the turnout is smaller, the actions can be more concentrated, focusing on one particular area. Ideas for this have included waiting until we know where the gates into the WB/IMF() perimiter are and just blocking the critical intersections to these gates, as well as targeting specific key delegates and blocking them from leaving their hotels. These ideas can be worked out through spokescouncils and conference calls over the coming weeks</p>