Blocking Roads as a form of Protest

What are your opinions on this as a tactic? Im fairly new to the left but its something I always thought was the kind method which does get attention but doesn't get positive attention especially as its indiscriminate. I would appreciate the input of more seasoned peopled.

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Clearly it gets wageslaves nuclear level mad but that's kind of the point, it disrupts society and makes people notice you, a protest that is non disruptive is pointless. Motorists will just drive by, if you stop them they will have to take notice. Obviously, ambulances/fire vehicles should always be allowed through (but not porky pigs).

Cant it go the other way though as well in that if its too disruptive it turns people against it kinda of like anarchists and their propaganda of the deed killings?

Peasant in Thailand does that for several decades when they really want gov to rise sugar cane or cassava prices.

It's disruptive but not excessively violent. You could argue it's ineffective but I don't know enough to make a judgement on that. However, something I have noticed about the kind of people who make a fuss about road blocking is the rhetoric they employ. It's usually shit like "I'll get fired for being late to work!", and thus they readily admit the precarity of their existence and how capitalists hold us hostage yet their wish is to be able to slave away without any disruptions. That's class cuckoldry at work.

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Even for general strikes it is useful. It prevents scabs and transportation companies from doing business.

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Protests are perfectly compatible with the capitalist superstructre in 2019. It's even as asset, it gives you the illusion that free expression of will is possible.

any kind of protest done needs to be palatable and not overly obnoxious to the everyday working class people who are going to have to play a central part in any kind of meaningful left-wing movement. I've worked in construction and maintenance jobs, and the last thing on earth I want to deal with when commuting home and my entire body aches and Im trying not to fall asleep at the wheel is a bunch of college anarkiddies with dreadlocks and anfem flags standing in the middle of the freeway, screeching autiscally. people who do this are only sabotaging themselves, and making the left look even worse, if thats even possible at this point.

to add to my post, I agree with the other user who said It should be used in general strikes to prevent scab activity

they don't do a good job at actually blocking streets

whats the legality of smashing into angry rad libs on the road?

Obviously gentrification works to the advantage of this tactic, basically block the traffic in areas with where real estate is expensive, and you will be more likely to inconvenience the people that deserve it. If you want to do this for more than protest obviously we are taking with interrupting supply chains, which is a giant weakness that is particular to highly developed economies. The question here is what are you intending to achieve with this. If it's a demonstration of power to be able to improve your bargaining position in a negotiation, well you would try to maximize the interruption of the economy, meaning shipping, truck-transport railroads airport access etc. The problem with this is that this doesn't really affect finance that much because they usually are adaptive and have enough diversification to be able to wait you out. Another angle here is targeting personal projects of the ruling class to maximize their personal frustration, basically target the perks of the ruling class. Here you need a legal arm as well, to hit them a second time when they try to misallocate police forces for personal defence. This can be useful for getting ruling class member knocked out of political positions. You do need to have your political project ready to fill the void though, or risk being outmanoeuvred by some other faction. Remember that allot of political projects are run by people looking to get into power for stealing public funds to get rich, you do not want to be the enabler of that. If you do want to use this to build a mass-movements, it is somewhat questionable that annoying other workers will act as factor for growing your movement, although stuck in traffic might be preferable to being bossed around, it's hard to say. Also consider that the yellow vests to some extend find cathartic release in this activity, and that is very contagious and effective way of growing a movement, especially in highly alienated societies.

This tactic is used so much in my country it has become ridiculous. I really don't think it works as effectively as most leftist claim.

This will do nothing.

If the proletariat are giving wealthy people a hard time it won't be long until the police show up to correct it

Where do you live?

What are you even thinking about here, standing on roads chosen at random? You can block off specific roads and a blockade made of people can discriminate between trucks and cars.

Block railways, metros, trams, buses. These constitute the bloodstream of capital.

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t. scab

The only people that are going to take notice of what you're doing are the people at the very front of traffic. Everyone else won't see shit and be stuck traffic way down the line. If you're doing it in a general strike after building support around it, sure. But if you're just doing so to highlight some cause you want someone to hear, it won't work in the slightest. Nobody in today's society wants to hear a bunch of whining and preaching in their face, they want solutions that will objectively improve their conditions and an actual vision of and path to those solutions. Again, if you're blocking traffic with the intent of distupting capital as you march with several other groups towards keys point with goals in mind, then no problem. But if you're just trying to do so to gain support for a singular cause you want people to hear, it won't do anything. No one will cares for your signs unless you have some backing to it and a willingness to go further and obtain actual power.

You want to block the life blood of capital you are gonna need to block container ships. Porky gives no fuck about public transit. Rail is irrelevant (at least in the 100% all beef bastion of reaction and the vanguard of capital)

Fright trains are widely used by Porky for moving raw materials and gasoline. Also Labor aristocrats (at least in New York) commute via Amtrak.

Yeah and the point is to exploit this politically, because then it can't be claimed as "maintaining order"

The one time I've seen it be effective (in my limited experience) is during student protests a few years ago over tuition hikes in Montreal. A few hundred students would march around the city every night blocking roads and causing traffic chaos while playing cat-and-mouse games with the cops. The thing is, they did this for like two months straight and it was coupled with a larger political strategy + a major fuck-off monster demo one day that shut down the financial district with support from the unions.

This doesn't happen ever where I live. I was visiting as a tourist and got caught in the middle of it. Pretty inspiring. Lovely way to tour the city – you just walk down the middle of the street; they went all over!

If I ever meet a leftist from Quebec I mention being there for that, if only for a few days. Good way to make a friend though they might suspect I'm CIA.

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This. Protests should be disruptive yes, but also targeted. It depends a lot on where the road block is, but just blocking major roads is damaging to image and won't give you any leveragable power. In countries where the working class don't depend on roads as they do in the US this might be a viable tactic for targeting elites without alienating workers.

Blocking roads is a very good way to hurt porky, but ANY PROTEST WHERE YOU'RE GUARANTEED TO GET ARRESTED IS FUCKING STUPID.
INSTEAD of chaining themselves to barriers, the protestors should just drive around and dump old flaming sofas and barrels of concrete out of pickup trucks. This way they can cover way more ground and not get caught.

Gilet jaunes started by blocking roads

It should always be done with an eye towards a specific impact. Not just "forcing people to listen" which is stupid and patronizing. Set it up around a transportation hub, a defense plant, or an anti-union factory. Run it as a checkpoint rather than an out-and-out blockade. Allow any commuting worker to get through, but turn back charter buses, limousines, freight trucks, and commercial vans.

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it's the only way you can actually disrupt the system in a place like the US. You shut down a highway you've cut off supply lines.

radlib faggotry

it is lazy.
why not set fire to a supermarket or something? if you got like 30 organised comrades then you can take on the fat security guard.

What would setting fire to it accomplish? Break in and take all the essentials to redistribute to the poor if you're gonna do something.

this


Break in and steal shit (boost) instead

What did he mean by this?