XPost: uk.politics.misc, alt.politics.british   
   From: banana@REMOVE_THIS.borve.demon.co.uk   
      
   In article , Stephen Glynn   
    writes   
      
   >banana wrote:   
   >> In article , banana > HIS.borve.demon.co.uk> writes   
      
   >>>Radicals in France have been planning a big confrontation in Paris   
   >>>tomorrow. [...] The rulers are scared. [...] Who knows...maybe if   
   >>>momentum builds up, the authorities will look weaker still, and   
   >>>insurgent popular hope will rise?   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> The intelligence shown by the insurgents over the last fortnight makes   
   >> me optimistic that the insurgency will continue to rise.   
   >>   
   >> Unsurprisingly, the rulers are now making a big effort to protect   
   >> important sites in central Paris, e.g. the Eiffel Tower and the Champs   
   >> Elysées.   
      
   >In what sense, other than the purely symbolic, might the Eiffel Tower or   
   >the Champs Elysées be considered *important* sites for any potential   
   >French insurgent to occupy?   
      
   First off, the idea that these sites are considered important is not   
   just my opinion - the authorities have explicitly declared as much, and   
   both sites are, as I type, under heavy protection.   
      
   I wasn't thinking of 'occupation' of these sites. Fast mobility has been   
   a great quality of this movement.   
      
   I am usually against symbolically-focused stuff, and the doing of things   
   with a view to 'using' the bourgeois media, but in our present context   
   the term 'purely symbolic' does not apply. It will raise loads of   
   people's spirits if important places in Paris where the rulers flaunt   
   their might, and where they flaunt the supposed 'stability' and   
   'eternity' of their rule, and their vile regime, get 'violated' by the   
   joyous poor in revolt.   
      
   The spread of the movement to numerous places across France has been   
   excellent - it's about time for it to spread to central Paris too... To   
   take the struggle to where the enemy flaunts itself as being so   
   'strong'...and to show it to be weak...   
      
   And what is great is that loads of people obviously know this.   
      
   The Champs Elysées is the site of the presidential palace, and many   
   bourgeois restaurants and shops, and leads up to the vile military   
   monument known as the Arc de Triomphe... It is, in short, a place where   
   the France-based part of the bourgeoisie flaunts both its luxury   
   lifestyle and the power, 'sovereignty', and military achievements of its   
   State.   
      
   As for the Eiffel Tower...well, if radicals want to put out the message   
   'DOWN WITH FRANCE AND ALL NATIONS' (and they do)...   
      
   I want to see the State and the bourgeoisie look and get weaker and   
   weaker, get put on the run, and solidarity, hope, will-power, and   
   strength rise and rise among the insurgent poor - maybe this answers   
   your question?   
      
   I imagine BTW that since the above-mentioned sites in central Paris are   
   so well-protected, others will soon be making the news...   
      
   --   
   banana     "The thing I hate about you, Rowntree, is the way you   
               give Coca-Cola to your scum, and your best teddy-bear to   
               Oxfam, and expect us to lick your frigid fingers for the   
               rest of your frigid life." (Mick Travis, 'If...', 1968)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)