Protest Warrior

File:Protestwarrior.gif

Protest Warrior logo

Protest Warrior is a conservative political activist protest group. It is an international organization; its main focus is on the U.S. and Israel. The group was formed in 2003 by Alan Lipton and Kfir Alfia in Austin, Texas. Its slogan is "Fighting the left... doing it right". The group's website is also named "Protest Warrior".

History

Protest Warrior was founded by Kfir Alfia and Alan Lipton in 2003. Alfia's family moved to Dallas from Israel when he was two years old. He attended Hebrew school at Akiba Academy and proceeded to J.J. Pearce High School before attending the University of Texas at Austin. As a teen, he read many libertarian texts by writers such as Friedrich Hayek and Ayn Rand, as well as conservative publications such as National Review. He was a fan of talk radio and he was a published source at Contumacy.Org [1] as well as the Austin Review.

In February 2003, Alfia was working as a computer chip designer in San Francisco when he reunited with Alan Lipton, a childhood friend, and crashed that anti-war protest. in San Francisco on February 16, 2003. The two carried their own signs. Alfia's sign showed a woman in a burqa tied to a pole with a leash around her neck, and was captioned "Protect Islamic Property Rights Against Western Imperialism. Say No To War!" Lipton's sign said, "Saddam Only Kills His Own People. It's None Of Our Business."

Motivation

Protest Warrior believes that liberal politics are flawed and constitute a threat to the future of freedom and individualism, and that these ideas could lead to totalitarian police states. Seeing "liberals" (in the U.S. usage of the term) as "morally and politically bankrupt" and having a monopoly of media attention, Protest Warrior believes that voices of the left "are heard disproportionately, demoralizing our troops, and emboldening dictators around the world."[2]

Generally accepted ideas in the Protest Warrior community include support for the War on Terrorism and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the state of Israel and opposition to Islamic fundamentalism as dangerous and oppressive. A newsletter on the site published by Alan and Kfir expressed objection to Islam itself, rather than fundamentalists in particular:

"What's becoming clear is how the religion of Islam is addicted to war and mayhem. Not a radical minority, not a rogue sect, but its very essence is about submission and sacrifice and proving your worth by worshiping death in this life to gain a paradise of orgies and drunkenness. Their entire history is of warfare, and any accomplishments of their so-called Golden Age has been proven to be merely parasitic off the cultures they've conquered and reduced to dhimmi servitude. That every country under sharia is corrupt, belligerent, desolate and barbaric obviously gives them no pause, except to constantly drive them into further psychotic rage as they refuse to ever accept any responsibility for their conditions. They are akin to the powers in Orwell's 1984; there must always be an enemy. It's no surprise that women are treated like property in these countries as that's the only way Muslim men can feed their egos, to dominate others rather than ever actually produce something." [3]

Most members also express opposition to illegal immigration and current immigration proposals of the Bush administration, support for free enterprise and fiscally conservative economics, general support and respect for U.S. military institutions as defenders of freedom, and support for Israel.

Methodology

The group's primary method of activism is crashing liberal events, chiefly anti-war protest marches, and counter-demonstrating within their ranks. For instance, Protest Warriors have attended rallies against Halliburton, Caterpillar Inc., Israel, and U.S. President George W. Bush, displaying support for these entities. When doing so, the Protest Warriors carry large signs often designed to appear similar to those held by the participants of the event they are crashing, enabling them to mingle until observers are close enough to read their signs' sarcastic fine-print. [4] This has caused problems: counter-protesters supporting George W. Bush during a protest in Crawford, Texas failed to notice the sarcasm and clashed with the Protest Warriors.

Examples of Protest Warrior Signs:

• "Saddam only kills his own people. It's none of our business!" [5]
• "Except for ending slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, war has never solved anything!" [6]
• "Islam - Religion of Peace" accompanied with pictures of (presumably) Muslim children holding weapons and the World Trade Center under attack. [7]
• "Black Children Belong in Black Schools - Say No To Vouchers" [8]
• "End the unjust occupation of Muslim lands by Israel" accompanied by a map of huge Islamic regions in North Africa and the Middle East with a tiny Israel pointed out by an arrow.

After large operations, videos are posted documenting the events. The videos include confrontations with other protesters and the reactions of those protesters. Protest Warriors claim that these videos demonstrate that liberals' "true feelings and agendas...have nothing to do with hating war, and everything to do with hating America." [9]

Reactions

Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh featured a Protest Warrior action in San Francisco on his website and complimented the group on its work. [10]

Criticism

Protest Warrior has been a target of criticism on many "anti-authoritarian" and "leftist" web sites and forums such as Indymedia. Critics have contended that liberals support the ruling class and do not form the bulk of most protests; so Protest Warriors stance against liberals should really be directed at anarchists and Marxists. They also point out that most of the left are not pacifists nor do they support the authoritarian regimes that the United States overthrows. The left has long been critical of the military aid that the United States government has given to governments such as Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Critics also observe that protesters welcome the overthrow of dictatorships, but do not support the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process, nor the imposition of United States backed oligarchies in their place. Critics also claim that right wing counter protests are always much smaller than the actual protests, yet they often get equal time in media coverage.

Website

The group maintains a website as an organizing and information hub. It also acts as a source for the many slogans and signs presented by Protest Warriors at protests, as well as offering a sign creation tutorial to registered members. The website also includes an online shop. The website also featured numerous forums, but they were shut down without explanation[11] on September 13, 2006. The Protest Warrior Website is currently back online, but not the forums.

The website has been the target of various attempts at politically motivated hacking in the course of its existence. Most notably, in January, 2005 the site was hacked by Chicago native and anarchist Jeremy Hammond, affiliated with the website HackThisSite.org, to steal credit card numbers and shut down the web server. Hammond was indicted in May, 2006, and sentenced to two years in prison on December 7, 2006.

Past operations

Local and National chapters of Protest Warrior have carried out operations in the United States and abroad. Examples of past Protest Warrior operations include:

• On January 20, 2005, "Operation Hail to the Chief" drew thirteen Protest Warriors to Washington D.C. to oppose those protesting the second inauguration of President George W. Bush. [12]

• During the 2004 Republican National Convention, a group of Protest Warriors staged a counterprotest, "Operation Liberty Rising".[13] [14]

• On August 27, 2005, a group of three Protest Warriors led by co-founder Kfir Alfia was the target of animosity at a conservative counter-Cindy Sheehan rally in Crawford, Texas. Despite the Protest Warriors' assurances that they were on the same side, the conservative protesters repeatedly shouted at them, destroyed the Protest Warrior signs, and forced the Protest Warriors to leave the rally, mistaking them for anti-war protesters.[15]

• During the Sept. 24, 2005 Anti-War Protests in Washington D.C., Protest Warrior, along with Move America Forward, RightMarch and Free Republic counter-protested those opposed to the war, and also demonstrated in support of the war and troops. [16] [17]

Current status, future campaigns

Kfir, the founder of Protest Warrior, was quoted: "We're going to be protesting abortion more and more, and we'll probably get involved in the defense of marriage, too." in an interview he gave to the Dominionism proponent Lee Duigon from the Christian Reconstructionist Chalcedon Foundation.[18] Kfir claimed, on the Protest Warrior forum, almost two years after the article was published, that he had been misquoted.

The current status of Protest Warrior is unknown:

• "ProtestWarrior, LLC", formed as a limited liability company in Texas in 2003, is currently listed by the state as "Not In Good Standing", meaning that Protest Warrior has failed to file its annual paperwork and pay due taxes/fees.

• The main discussion forums for PW closed in September 2006. after a continuously declining amount of community discussion and an increasing number of political analysts predicting Republicans were going to lose the 2006 midterm elections.

See also

• Irony
• Satire
• Civil disobedience
• Protest

External links

• Official Protest Warrior Site
• MSNBC: "Partisan Protesters" Newsweek, 2004-08-13
• Washington Times: "Protest Warriors fuel rage on left" The Washington Times, 2004-08-24
• Protesting The Protesters, The Washington Post, 2005-01-20