Glenn Beck’s Rally

There is quite a bit of discussion on the news, on talk radio, and the blogs of course, concerning Glenn Beck’s rally on the National Mall. There were, according to CBS News, which actually has an algorithm to estimate the size of crowds, 87,000 people there. That’s a good-sized crowd, and of course, Dick Armey and the Koch’s were behind the scenes providing the buses and potty-booths for them.

But I wonder what it means. American right wingers will scoff at the notion that French and Greek workers will pour into the street when there is an attempt to undo their system of wages and benefits. From their point of view, those kinds of people are on welfare and are merely afraid of losing their easy money.

But when Greek and French people pour into the streets, it has an effect. It stops things from happening that the majority of people in those countries do not want to happen. When Bush was preparing to attack Iraq, there were huge demonstrations in France and Spain and Germany, and it was so bad that the leaders of Spain and Great Britain had to meet with Bush on a ship in the Canary Islands to discuss the war plan. It was too dangerous elsewhere, the security needs were too much.

And in the end, Germany and France and Turkey stayed out of Bush’s war. The Bushies were furious. “Old Europe”, they called it: Countries where popular rule actually causes governments to behave themselves.

Crowds of people can be dangerous, in that an excitement can take over and violent things can happen. Beck’s organizers had a long list of requirements for attending his rally, including prohibition on alcohol, guns, and pointed and sharp objects. Signs had to be approved. They wanted a peaceful gathering. And when it was over, they went home. Nothing changed.

In the United States, workers don’t pour into the street anymore, and even if they did, it would not change anything. They have no power. They seem to know it. And that is the key to understanding why French and Greek workers do hit the pavement – it has an effect. They do have power.

Why? Unions. They are organized. We were in Barcelona a few years back on May 1, May Day. There was a parade, but it was not a “parade” like we have here, floats and celebrities and horse shit. It was just miles of people, locked arm-in-arm, walking down the street. They had bands and banners, but the only point of the parade was to make a statement. “We are one.”

Power – that’s all it is. Power. Unions don’t have all the power over there, or even most of it. They only have some power. And that is enough to make their lots better than that of most people in this country.

So what did Glenn Beck’s rally accomplish? I don’t know. It was done for the sake of television images. Beck is trying to draft a little bit behind the civil rights movement. He’s got a massive ego, and though there is disagreement among those who know, and I don’t know, I suspect he is a master showman, and that when goes home at night he is a regular guy, a bit off-kilter, dry drunk and all of that, but knowing that he is stroking fools for his own ends.

I only know this: In the United States public rallies have no impact on public affairs. We don’t have power in the streets or at the ballot box. We are not organized. Our lives will continue to get worse until people realize that there is power in numbers, but only if arms are locked. Massive crowds at football games do not affect real power centers.