Where is your CVC code?
A question worth exploring is how the Egyptian pro-democracy protesters can nonviolently deal with agents provocateurs – which is what the pro-Mubarak “demonstrators” appear to be. The use of agents provocateurs is a very common tactic employed by governments to try to discredit their nonviolent opposition and justify state repression.
The protesters in Cairo today unfortunately responded at least in part by fighting back, which led to chaotic images like the one above. But what can be done when directly confronted by violence like this?
During the nonviolent independence struggle in India followers of Gandhi were trained to not react violently when assaulted, but to respond to their opponents as best as possible with love and compassion. This approach not only made it more difficult for the British to use violence, but it dramatized the injustice they were struggling against and helped mobilize support for their cause both within India and abroad. The same dynamic could clearly be seen at work in the civil rights movement in the United States.
I have no doubt that if the pro-democracy protesters in Egypt presented a more nonviolent, disciplined front, the pro-Mubarak crowds would find it more difficult to use violence against their fellow citizens. If they accepted blows without responding in kind – as difficult as that would be – the protesters would also be doing much more to discredit the regime and mobilize supporters.
Alternatively, when the state appears ready to use violence against mass demonstrations, it may be time to consider other tactics, like a general strike or boycotts, that would make repression more difficult. While leaving Tahrir Square now could be dangerous because it has taken on such symbolic significance, it may be a wise strategic move to guard against a larger massacre and to ensure that the campaign against Mubarak can, if need be, endure in the days and weeks ahead.
Since the use of agents provocateurs has been so common, I imagine there must be stories and research that I’m not familiar with from other nonviolent campaigns on how activists have dealt with similar challenges. I would be very happy to hear your thoughts on this important question, and what other options the protesters may have, in the comment section.
I am a Life Member of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). In 1972, members of the VVAW were arrested and indicted on charges of conspiring to disrupt the Republican National Convention with “slingshots, crossbows, fried marbles (to hurt and unnerve police horses) and automatic weapons.” We were arrested during the Democratic National Convention, and 8 of us were eventually put on trial in the last Guy Goodwin-prosecuted political show trial of the Vietnam War era, i.e. the Gainesville Eight Conspiracy Trial.
These charges were based upon the fabricated testimony of one William Lemmer, a psychologically damaged Vietnam veteran working as an FBI agent provocateur. The Nixon Administration blamed the VVAW for being the “radical group” with which the Democratic National Committee was corresponding, thereby necessitating the Watergate burglary.
Lemmer did his best, at the National Steering Committee Meeting in March 1972 in Denver, to incite violence. Failing that, he fabricated the testimony which he eventually gave to the government so that they could arrest the VVAW members. After more than a year of legal struggle, the trial took place, and one Barbara Stocking, a Boston University graduate student with whom Lemmer had been (at least) familiar, testified that Lemmer had told her all about his business. The jury took 20 minutes or so to acquit my brothers of all charges.
Agents provocateurs continued to try to disrupt the VVAW, even at the defense encampment in Gainesville. I was on security most of that encampment. At one point, two men attempted to enter the encampment, claiming they were VVAWs from Pennsylvania. They did not show VVAW identification.
But what really gave them away was sheer luck. I recognized one of these men as a fellow who, the year before, had been in the Plough and Stars, an Irish Republican pub in Cambridge, MA, claiming to be an IRA boyo and gunrunner! I turned them over to the chief of security, who turned them over in turn to the Gainesville PD. We never saw them again.
It is extremely important to have sober, experienced, and calm people working security– and as many of such as can be mustered!– when you are trying to effect political change. We VVAWs had a partial advantage over the current Egyptians in that while we were not friends of police– far from it– we were confident that the Gainesville PD and Alachua County Sheriff’s Departments were not going to come into our camp and break our heads, much less direct live ammunition against us, as the police have done in Cairo. And besides that, in any dealings we had with them about legitimate police business, we were helpful to them.
I was also at the moratorium marches on April 24 and May 1, 1971. I watched agents provocateurs, posing as leftist front groups, attempt to indure the crowd on the Mall to get into violence and trashing of property. I was part of a contingent of 5,000 people who surrounded what must have been a group of 25 or so and completely shout them down. “Peace– Now!”
If you think you have an agent provocateur, or more than one, the best thing to do is know there’s a problem immediately and then physically surround the offenders such that they can not escape the necessary questioning: who are you, where are you from, who do you represent– and as much indepth probing as possible, under the tactical circumstances.
I could talk about provocateurs in the anti-nuclear movement, but I will only do that if you solicit me to do so.
William P. Homans
Clarsdale, Mississippi
Thanks so much for sharing your experience William. It’s exactly what I was looking for – stories from folks who’ve dealt with this problem directly. It seems to best guard against provocateurs, activists need to be very familiar with who they are working with so that when a new person tries to move the group towards violence that its more clear they are outsiders.
When actions get large quickly though, it would seem that doing this can become difficult if not impossible. What do you do when you have hundreds of thousands or millions of protesters, many of whom may be taking action for the first time? Very difficult.
Thanks again for your story and if you have the time and feel like sharing, hearing about your expereince with provocateurs in the anti-nuclear movement would be great.
Really helpful, Bill. Your description of 1972 charges against VVAW is amazing history:
In 1972, members of the VVAW were arrested and indicted on charges of conspiring to disrupt the Republican National Convention with “slingshots, crossbows, fried marbles (to hurt and unnerve police horses) and automatic weapons.”
It is so outrageous the charges. Like, why would you fry the marbles?! How would you realistically get crossbows into a convention hall? I guess the idea was to just accuse VVAW of any crazy thing and hope some racist judge would believe anything? Or was the idea that pro-war people wanted to believe crazy stuff about anti-war vets and the RNC folks were trying to provoke regular pro-war folks into attacking VVAW/antiwar vets? Or RNC folks did this so you couldn’t get permits to demonstrate? Or couldn’t mobilize regular antiwar activists because they’d be scared of you? I’m sorry to be so dense, but I wasn’t around then and love to know more about how the RNC (or Republican politicians in general? or?) relate to now.
More please! Thank you.
hi
i don’t believe “agents provocateurs” is quite correct in describing the pro-government thugs who attacked the protestors of tahrir square.
generally speaking, “agents provocateurs” refers to those who would infiltrate or otherwise worm their way into a group, while pretending to have the same goals and sharing the same belief systems (or nearly enough), while in fact doing everything in their power to provoke the group into committing their own acts of violence (in the case of “pacifist” demonstrators e.g.).
sometimes the agents provocateurs will set up alternative, competing groups and attempt to divide the movements. a perfect example of this was the so called “united slaves” group of ron karenga, who were apparently a ‘pseudo gang” (cf. the “mau mau war” – i disremember the orignator’s name at the moment, tho he was a high ranking british officer who later was the aid d’camp to the queen of england – basically “false flag” gangs which are another type of agent provocateur)
anyway, these pro-mubarak thugs were more along the lines of the pinkertons or the college students (from harvard, among other places – obama’s alma mater) who would spend their summers or spring breaks working as scabs and “gun thugs” for various capitalists involved in labor disputes with their workers. these types are not really “provocateurs’ in that they don’t pretend to support “democracy” or whatever – they are the active, *militant* representatives of a particular class – in this case the class of people who were benefitting one way or another (relatives of the security services, or those who were dependent on various factions within the mubarak government).
i would recommend to the author a book by leon trotsky titled “the russian revolution” – trotsky was a central figure in the 1905 as well as the 1917 revolutions (tho the brits tried to keep him away from russia locked in a concentration camp in newfoundland). while you may not agree with the politics or ideology of the author, it is still a worthwhile read as an eyewitness account – it is in some respects comparable to thucydides’ writings on the peloponnesian war in so far as it is an accurate depiction of events while still taking a particular “side”, and at least unlike most historians who fake “neutrality” the author is quite up front about which side he is “on” and his prejudices are not hidden behind fake “npv” postures – at any rate, it gives a good example of the State’s use of agents provocateurs against the bolshevik (RSDLP) party – there was even a agent provocateur on the central committee – and lenin himself is said to have remarked on how even the provocateurs and spies were still made to perform useful “work” for the party and revolution.
at any rate, i’d like to offer up this definition from mssrs merriam and webster
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agent%20provocateur
regards,
ws
THanks so much for explaining. After writing this piece I realized that I wasn’t using the word or phrase as it should be used. You did a great job of clarifying.