06/18/05

The following is an account of activist experiences of being arrested for stickering, biking and other misadventures with civil disobedience in the post-Patriot Act era. The first part of the essay looks at my experience of being preemptively arrested for stickering during the RNC. It is followed by an account of the struggle against the attack on Critical Mass bike rides before and after the RNC. ... In this year after the RNC protests, the need for creative protest, art and other expressions of joy has remained an imperative ­especially as activists seek to articulate visions of the world they hope to create rather than one they merely oppose. Like any form of direct action, such practices still face countless threats today. In this era of the Patriot Act era, such forms of playful, unthreatening, yet still subversive engagement become more tactically useful for political messaging and fun for political actors and bystanders alike...

http://www.counterpunch.org/shepard06182005.html

from CounterPunch, by Benjamin Shepard