Posted on 08/29/2005 7:46:19 AM PDT by conservativecorner
Have you heard of Lisa Fithian? A veteran of the Seattle WTO riots and scores of other protests, she’s been with Sheehan from the start.
A notice on Cindy Sheehan's website, meetwithcindy.org, asks for donors who might be able to offer a camper, or an RV, or just money, for Sheehan's upcoming cross-country tour, scheduled to begin Wednesday in Crawford, Texas, and end in Washington at the big antiwar demonstration scheduled for September 24. At the end of the note, readers with something to offer are asked to "please call organizer Lisa Fithian."
To anyone familiar with the world of professional protesting — protests against globalism, capitalism, war, police tactics, and dozens of other causes — the presence of Fithian is a sign of how far Cindy Sheehan has strayed from the roots of her "one mom" crusade against George W. Bush. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is a sign that the "one mom" crusade was never just one mom. Fithian is a legendary organizer who operates in the world of anti-globalism anarchists, antiwar protesters, and union activists; an advocate of aggressive "direct action" demonstrations, she protested the first Gulf war, played an important role in the violent shutdown of Seattle during the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting, was a key planner in protests at the Republican and Democratic national conventions in 2000 and 2004, and organized demonstrations at trade meetings in Washington, D.C., Prague, and Genoa.
Although she has received virtually no attention from reporters covering Sheehan, Fithian has been part of the Crawford protest from the very beginning. In a telephone interview with National Review Online on Sunday, she explained that she was with Sheehan in Dallas at a meeting of the antiwar group Veterans for Peace during the first days of August when the decision was made for Sheehan to go to the president's ranch. On August 6, when Sheehan went to Crawford — in a bus with the words "Impeachment Tour" emblazoned on the side — Fithian went along. "I came the first day and helped her [Sheehan] set up the initial encampment," Fithian said. With the exception of one brief absence, she has been there ever since.
Switching back and forth between talking to NRO and giving out orders — "When's your meeting? 5:15? Can you get your people together for that?" — Fithian was modest about her role in the Sheehan protest. "I vary from janitor to facilitator to action organizer," she said. "There's not any one person in charge." In general, she explained, her work involves "a lot of coordination." But Fithian's history suggests it is unlikely she is playing a subordinate role.
In November 2003, Fithian was profiled by The New York Times Magazine as she prepared to take part in protests at the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in Miami. As she did with NRO, Fithian demurred when asked if she was a leader of the demonstrations — she claimed that the movement was "nonauthoritarian" and "nonhierarchical" and had no leaders at all — but the Times was not convinced. "To say that Fithian is not a leader is an admirable political idea, but it's not entirely honest," the paper reported.
And she was a tough-minded leader, not at all a peace-and-love type. Her specialty was action; she wanted to break in, cut through fences, and shut things down. "You don't go to Fithian when you want to carry a placard," the Times profile said. "You go to her when you want to make sure there are enough bolt cutters to go around." Asked for a fuller explanation of her role in the protests, Fithian said, "When people ask me, 'What do you do?' I say I create crisis, because crisis is that edge where change is possible."
That sometimes involves breaking things. In an July 2001 interview with The International Socialist Review, Fithian — who told NRO she's been arrested "probably at least 30 times" — spoke of moving beyond the tradition of civil disobedience as practiced by Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.; her inspiration, she explained, was not so much those leaders as the anarchist movement in Spain in the late 19th and early 20th century. And that meant different ways of doing things. "Nonviolence is a strategy. Civil disobedience is a tactic," Fithian said. "Direct action is a strategy. Throwing rocks is a tactic."
"I guess my biggest thing is that as people who are trying to create a new world, I do believe we have to dismantle or transform the old order to do that," Fithian continued. "I just fundamentally don't believe it will ever serve our interests as it's currently constructed."
These days, Fithian's tactic for dismantling the old order — at least her tactic for the moment — is Cindy Sheehan. On Wednesday, Sheehan will begin her cross-country tour, winding her way toward Washington. And Lisa Fithian will be with her.
— Byron York, NR's White House correspondent, is the author of the book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President — and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time.
Bump for later
re: "anti-globalists"
911 was indeed the work of the anti-globalists, only it was the Al Qaeda branch rather than the Seattle or Berkeley branch.... the anti-WTO 'militants' usually limit themselves to wild rampages of vandalism, thievery, and thuggery.... hope they won't start imitating their Al Qaeda brethren, but they are definitely in a loose anti-USA alliance as described in "Unholy Alliance" by David Horowitz.
"Am I angry? Yes, he was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel."
Well, now we know from where Cindy came up with this piece of anti-semetic drivel.
This Lisa is one scary communist.
Bless them and you. Please give them our love and let them know we are fully behind them. You'll all be in our prayers.
Absolutely. That is why I keep stating Hillary doesn't have a lock on the '08 nod. They feel they compromised with Kerry and lost. They want to be open and honest about who they are, and really think they'll win by being so. In most cases, that would be the way to go, but when you are this extreme it sentences you only to wins in San Francisco and Seattle to name two exceptions.
The DEM base is the one to watch, not Hillary. Just as it is the base to watch from our side. Each base will determine how THEY wish to be represented.
Apparently, she's Starhawk's "right hand"--
http://www.ithacareclaiming.org/2003/11/this-ny-times-article-is-about-lisa.html
Starhawk is the wiccan who founded Code Pink...
HHmm.
Methinks Lisa Fithian could be a witch.
http://www.reclaimingquarterly.org/89/
ping to article and posts 20, and 21
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I have a theory about these enormously unattractive leftist "women" which I'll keep to myself lest I be banned forever. |
Blessings to you for raising such a fine son and Godspeed to him. And thank him for us, please.
I listened to Byron York talk to Brit this evening and these two posts flesh out just how reprehensible she actually is. We used to put people like her in prison, especially during a time of war.
bttt
It's well beyond theory and now qualifies as a Law of Social Physics: The uglier the woman, the more strident the feminist.
BTW, I think you're right that ol' Starhawk probably isn't in the front pew at the neighborhood Baptist church each Sunday.
VERY eye-opening. Talk about repression of free thought and speech!
Her fascade of "just a grieving mother" falls apart with each new report like this, prairie. And now, with the internet and FNC and Rush, etc., it's harder and harder for the left to hide their little tricks.
They got away with it in the 90's but not anymore.
 "If I truly was a media whore do you think I would like maybe get myself fixed up a little bit before I went on?" Quote and pic of Cindy Sheehan - August 24, 2005 |
Sheehan and Fithian: They look like each other's uglier sister! 8-D
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