manifestacion

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Last weekend, I may have taken 'stupid' to a new level. I cannot be completely sure as I am

rarely certain what I am saying or what other people are saying to me, but I think I may have

come out in favor of Neo-Nazis last Saturday night. Although there is some chance that this

odious affirmation was interpreted as a product of linguistic limitations rather than personal orientation, you

never can tell. Of course, by the time I was enlightened to what I had said, the

conversation had hurtled by, and I was left in the Neo-nazi camp. hurray! another stunning

victory for linguistic ineptitude and further bolstering of my doubts that I will indeed talk

pretty one day. Language aside, Neo-nazis had naturally entered the conversation through the

vehicle of the necessity of 'free-speech' in democratic society and the Chilean past time of

protesting. Living downtown, we are one block from Plaza Italia, where one occasionally

exits the metro to the remnants of tear gas floating through the air and the Alameda

twinkling with fragments of glass. It is likely that Chile's recent emergence from the

shadow of the dictatorship is what fires the Chilean will to protest. Every segment of

society -gays, neo-nazis, school children, pro dictatorship, workers, communists, crazy

Catholic conservatives, indigenous indians, anarchists, environmentalists etc.- has taken to

protesting with great vigor. So much so that now, it is a right of passage for the youth.

If you haven't been tear gassed, you have not yet lived. It has now evolved into a

choreographed dance where the principal participants, carabineros (police) and protestors,

know their roles and the steps necessary to successfully satisfy the rules of engagement.

Generally speaking, it goes as follows: the protestors get their permits and either begin or

more often, end in Plaza Italia. The carabineros deploy the water cannon trucks and a few

police buses with chicken wire over the windows. The riot police pour out of the green buses

in their green GI Joe gear and line up on various corners. There is a lot of marching, flag

waving, random spray painting of walls, and then everyone convenes for the line dancing

denouement. Protesters take one side. Carabineros take the other. People not interested in

getting tear gassed go home. Then the dance begins. The protesters surge forward, recede,

surge, recede: a great rocking wave builds till enough momentum has gathered and then in a

fit of exalted 'isn't it great to get tear gassed and maybe batonned' enthusiasm, they cross

the magic line and out comes the tear gas and the water cannons. A melee ensues where

everyone fulfills their part: defiant verbal jabs, wave flags, throw smash and break things,

graffiti walls, get tear gassed, water cannoned and maybe truncheoned and arrested, go home.

I don't think anyone ever really gets seriously hurt, and probably fortunately, they don't

all play out so dramatically. However, May Day comes every year and everything else is just

practice for the big dance. May Day, of course, was once primarily a beloved 'thank god

winter is over; lets get drunk and fornicate' pagan holiday. Then in the 19th century

overly-enthusiastic Chicago cops and your everyday run of the mill miscarriage of justice

created the Haymarket martyrs and May Day got its 'workers of the world unite / down with the

man (or the United States as 'the man' is often interpreted in Latin and South America)!'

flavor. The delicious irony of the United States being the impetus for International Workers

Day is rarely savored, but nonetheless, May 1st promises to be a fit of civil disobedience

glee.

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Comments

[Judy]

Tossing the tear gas canisters
The teargas dance with local cops was standard operating procedure in the late 60's and early 70's in Berkeley. Phil and I watched the same street play (from a safe distance, of course). ;) The "pigs" would throw the tear gas at the students, and one of the students would run and grab it before it let out much of the gas, and toss it back at the cops. It was very entertaining.