Ted Stolze: Resources of Hope, Logics of Struggle
3/23/03: "Whose airwaves? Our airwaves!"
I have to disagree with some of the strategy regarding targets of
much--obviously not all--of the recent direct action. I think that it's fine initially
to inconvenience commuters in their cars and force them to contemplate the horrors of
U.S. bombing of Baghdad. I happily took part in such emergency efforts on Thursday.
But I also think that by now most commuters know what's going on--and a very high
percentage of them agree with us! So I am left wondering if this approach hasn't already
exhausted its shock value. What about the next stage of direct action?
For example, why don't we in the Bay Area anti-war movement go after such local conduits
for U.S. class and state power as the television stations? An Oakland station like KTVU
uses Fox News and, when criticized, management invariably makes the excuse that they're
contractually obligated to show this right-wing propaganda. When I called up KTVU (channel 2)
today to complain especially about Brit Hume's ravings, I was told by the guy in the news
department that he didn't "give a rat's ass" what I thought. And why should he
care when I or even thousands of people at most make angry phone calls? It struck me, too,
that his reaction sounded a lot like Nike's and Gap's claim that they just can't do anything
about the working conditions of their sweatshop subcontractors.
We in the anti-war movement should demand that these local stations sever their contractual ties
with the national news programs and do exclusively local news programming that reflects public
opinion in the Bay Area. In order to press such a demand, I'm not advocating personal harassment
of reporters or vandalism of vans and equipment. Rather, I'm talking about direct action against
local station management (and their prominent local advertisers?).
Note, too, that KTVU is located in Jack London Waterfront: an ideal place for creative anti-war
disruption.
"Whose airwaves? Our airwaves!"
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- Code Pink's nationwide protest against Fox News
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