Well its probably because they arent really all that serious about it . Oh yeah way to show you are serious against the war in Iraq, instead of writing some letters and ringing up the media what you do is threaten not to go to school [which you dont want to go to anyway]. Oh noe step back, little jimmy isnt going to go to school unless old dubbya immediately gives in to his demands, including disbanding the standing military and reverting to a peaceful coexistance with mother nature.
These people do write letters, do petitions and do media spots (like organising protest actions to gain publicity
). In addition, they also protest...What's your point?
Lets be realistic here, i support peoples right to protest but i dont support their movement. I think they are being stupid crazy irrational lefties
What's irrational about their beliefs now? I mean, apart from maybe the idea of a violent revolution that the socialist alternative seems to like, I'd say most of their beliefs and policies are fairly rational. Perhaps you were speaking about their belief that protesting is a good form of action? That brings us to...
who wont really acheive anything, except to maybe get themselves locked up for a bit.
They know they probably won't acheive anything, but I fail to see why that's a deterrent. As I said above, these people do everything they can to bring about change (such as an end to the Iraq war) and nothing really seems to work. Writing letters, ringing talkback stations, signing petitions blah blah blah. What does it all achieve? Not much. On the other hand, taking advantage of APEC and the inevitable publicity that it will bring to the action groups will achieve something. Certainly, it's unlikely to influence Howard or Bush to pull out of Iraq immediately, but it will at the very least show the general public that people still care. With that increased awareness of these issues, I don't think that it's a far stretch to claim that these protests will influence public opinion towards their point of view on matters such as Iraq. In any case, it will acheive a lot more than writing a letter to the herald at any old point throughout the year...
Protesting yourself is one thing, dragging kids into it who dont really know better is another.
No-one is dragging any kids into it. Use some common sense.
