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Knowing Who Your Friends Are
By David Glenn Cox
The city of Pittsburgh has been the scene of many riots in the past. The recent organized assault on peaceful protestors was the act of the paranoid and fearful.
In 1877 the Pennsylvania Railroad cut workers wages by 10%, the second pay cut in four years. They also announced that they would begin double-heading trains, meaning two locomotives, twice as many cars and only one train crew. The workers sought meetings with company management but were rebuffed. The workers responded by stopping the trains and wildcat strikes spread up and down the line.
In Pittsburgh the workers occupied the railroad yard and roundhouse. Management answered by asking the governor to call out the militia. That plan might have worked except the militia was also made up of workers. Many of the militia went over to the strikers side; others just faded away not wanting to get in the middle of an explosive situation. Then, in a move that even today was incredibly stupid, they sent for the Philadelphia militia to break up a Pittsburgh-based strike. Kind of like sending the Hatfields to break up a McCoy strike.
They charged the roundhouse and successfully fought their way in only to find themselves surrounded and trapped inside. The strikers began to push burning boxcars towards the roundhouse and before long the roundhouse was itself a well-involved fire. The strike had brought to a head the plight of suffering workers who rushed in to support the cause. In the end a truce was negotiated and twenty-five were killed. The Pennsylvania Railroad yard in Pittsburgh was totally destroyed with over ten million dollars damage.
It is clear from the actions of the protestors in Pittsburgh this week that they were a disorganized group that though brave were totally without tactics and/or logistics.
They were fighting the wrong battle, and I’ll add to that, what were their goals? To shut down the G-20 meeting? Sun Tzu said, “All warfare is based upon deception.” Headlong charges into over-staffed, over-armed policemen are acts of stupidity. It gives the media an easy day and an easy way to frame a propaganda victory. Look at these wild anarchists in the street! Oh my, those brave policemen.
This is an aspect of war that Sun Tzu never had to deal with. So let me add my own corollary, “The media is never your friend.” You can have a hundred unarmed protestors gassed and beaten, but the policeman who pokes himself in the eye with his own Billy club will be made a hero. So if the media are not your friend, how can the media be best used?
When the media can’t control the story or report the story they want, they take on an air of panic. It is their professional desire to be the firstest with the mostest of the story. When the story eludes them or they cannot understand it they become confused and begin to report anything that they are told. Like Hurricane Katrina it becomes a fiasco or is perceived by the public as a fiasco, and remember perception of the news is everything.
So mobs being assaulted by riot police accomplished what? Sun Tzu said, “If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him.
“If his forces are united, separate them.
“Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”
Sun Tzu had as a basis for all conflict the understanding of Earth, meaning topography, mountains, rivers, valleys, anything that might give your side an advantage. So let's look at Pittsburgh, sandwiched into a spit of land between the Allegheny and Manongahela River on its south side it has only seven bridges crossing the river. Seven bridges which if they had been controlled by the G-20 protestors would have stranded the over-armed police and cut Pittsburgh in twain.
Like the militia they would have been trapped in the roundhouse, prisoners where they once were guards. Rather than draw attention by shutting down a meeting, the protesters could have instead shut down a city. The media would have quickly abandoned downtown and moved towards the bridges. They would have effectively put themselves between the police and the protestors. When do the media side with protestors? When they get gassed and beaten, that’s when. And where would the media have found themselves?
How would the police have responded? By dividing their forces? They still had the bridges on the north side to worry about. As Sun Tzu would advise, if you defeat their plans you defeat their army. Junked cars, jackknifed trailers on the bridges would have made a crossing nearly impossible. The bridges would have put distance between the demonstrators and police, making tear gas and sonic weapons useless.
Suddenly it would be the demonstrators on the defensive and police on the offensive with the media trapped in the middle.
What I'm describing here are, of course, tactics made possible by an organized group with leaders willing to take the initiative, rather than just bravely walk into an ass kicking. This is just an exercise to think about and to contemplate before the next G-20 meeting, with the same number of people and probably fewer injuries to innocent bystanders.
In 1932 Charles De Gaulle published a book on the tactics of an armored military. In the West it was roundly ignored. In Germany it was read and studied and refined because they understood that tanks don’t win the battle, tactics win the war. As the invasion of France began, the French had more men, more planes, and more tanks, yet the battle was over almost before it started and only De Gaulle understood why.
“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” (John F. Kennedy)
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” (John F. Kennedy)
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