PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Was the "convergence" a sucess.
by Smoky the bear Monday, Apr. 28, 2003 at 6:40 PM

Hoping for some discussion about how effective the weekends convergence was.

Curious what other people think about the weekends convergence.

My own initial feelings are it was a giant failure, but I'm open to others convincing me otherwise. It's pretty disturbing to me that there hasn't been any discussion about what seems like a huge failure and waste of resources. Why is it there is only self analysis when the cops attack?

To focus only on the negatives.

Numbers- all accounts I've seen seem to say between 300-700 people. The organizing for this event took over 2 months of almost exclusive work by the Anti-war committee. This was billed as a regional convergence which seemed a giant mistake given there was little to no "regional" participation.

Media coverage- The Post Gazette had almost no coverage what so ever. I saw one picture near the back of the paper. All other print coverage I say was sparse and listed 500 people at most.

Guidlines and direct action- There was no diversity at this event. Is this the type of event those opposing the diversity of tactics framework are looking for? I'm all for people taking part in events they are comfortable with, but people need some reason to come to things. There wasn't one single instance of direct action over the weekend. There were no drums, no blocs, no puppets, no convergence center, almost no workshops, and the list goes on.

Program- The speakers were bland and uninspired.
Each seemed to be fiting a specific demographic. We've had enough pep rallies. What is the point of coming out? Where are we going as a movement? What's next? Does anyone have ideas (not just rhetoric) for how we can move forward and create real opposition.

March and energy- The chants were all the usual. How many times are we going to say this is what democracy looks like at a permitted demonstration?

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