Better, then, to win over the hearts and minds of the actual people – the 99%, isn’t it?

How would the 99% – the actual people – know about your cause without the media reporting it?

Asking if MLK and the civil rights movement that he helped lead succeeded or failed is putting it in too simplistic of terms. He contributed to very real, tangible progress in a righteous struggle that continues to this day.

The “joy” of Italian culture is that it’s all been done before, and better that you’ll ever do.

Jasamina’s identification of these bombings as being” Red & Black” bombings does not survive  scrutiny at all.  Links to Gladio have been found in almost all of the important bombings and even the Italian justice system jailed a neo-fascist for the Bologna bombing and not a left-wing terrorist as it was painted by the media and the Italian state at the time  [and unfortunately still *is* being painted by Jasamina].

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladio_in_Italy

To state that some group is involved in bombings is a very serious charge, and I would expect a greater level of knowledge about a subject before one says such things publicly.  I think that the particular paragraph…

Italy remembers very well the violent “Years of Lead” (late 60′s to early 80′s), when red and black terrorists planted bombs in public places, blasting innocent citizens in the name of their distorted concept of supreme justice. For years they rampaged beyond the reach of police, courts and other institutions.

..is so factually incorrect as to warrant a retraction.

The real amount of damage caused by these corporations/farms/banks is considerably more than a burning car or two.  I hope every occupy demonstration leads to this or worse (without injury or death…though it probably would) because this isn’t going to change unless people are scared.

I support a lot of the message and I absolutely 100% support the right to demonstrate.  Come and smash my car, my local pub, my coffee shop, or any one of my local businesses, and I’ll be the first guy screaming for police to kick your face in and help them do it.  Destroying the lives of innocent people is a pretty fucking surefire way to convince them that you need to have your head stomped.  You will certainly get attention, but it won’t be the kind that you want.

Any person that can watch innocent people having their lives ruined by some assholes who are angry and feel good about it is a shit head.  The fact that you think  the corporations/government/whatever are doing the same doesn’t make suddenly make it magically okay for you to kick the shit out of some innocent folks.  It isn’t like some shop owner is going to look at the ruins of his business and go, “Oh, but the corporations, so I guess it is okay”.

The second OWS descends into this kind of stupid, the movement is on its death bed.  OWS protesters should grab anyone that acts like this and drag them to the police.  Shitheads like these dicks is what makes people happy to see otherwise peaceful protest movements crushed.  You are not going to “win” a confrontation, but you sure as hell are going to piss off a lot of people who might support you and help get otherwise peaceful protesters dispirited if the police don’t stomp them first.

Unless you plan on some sort of violent revolt lead by the minority, victory is achieved by convincing the majority to be with you and voting.  If you plan on some sort of guerrilla revolt, expect to get your ass kicked and the vast majority of citizens happily lending a hand.

What makes you think MLK Jr. succeeded?

I see what you did there.

However, on this point :
Successful movements generally have great breadth, from people in balaclavas blowing up bombs to people in rainbow suspenders blowing bubbles. The Powers That Be will choose the most credible but least threatening person in the movement and direct their media to anoint that person as the spokesperson for the entire movement. Even if the bombers are the real agent of change, history will record that it was the humble man speaking words of peace that did it all. It’s bullshit.

What makes you think MLK Jr. succeeded?

Success often comes in the form of a series of small victories. It doesn’t hurt to look back at the battles you’ve won once in a while, especially if it helps keep you from getting too dispirited to keep up the good fight.

Nor was it a particularly Italian phenomenon. The Spanish state pursued a similar strategy in post-Franco Spain, e.g. the false accusation that the anarchist trade union the CNT planted bombs in a disco (La Scala) which turned out to be the work of the security forces. The British state was up to their eyeballs in such activities during the recent conflict in Northern Ireland, in particular in the 1970s and 80s when the conflict was its most intense. Perhaps the FBI can be viewed as having engaged in a strategy of tension with the likes of the Black Panthers, although I’d be less knowledgeable about that.

There is no doubt sections of the Italian left did commit atrocities of their own, but the situation cannot be understood if the state is seen as a neutral arbiter rather than as a very active player on the side of the capitalists in 1970s Italy. The extent of their provocateur actions are, to this day, difficult to gauge as when the state pursues such a strategy, usually via informers or outsourced accomplices such as fascists, the whole arena becomes very murky indeed. 

We could do with Wikileaks getting its paws on some old time archives. That’d make for juicy reading.

Also, just a suggestion; if violence will be the way to go it should be directed towards the institutions/people that the protest initially started against, not towards cars/shops of fellow citizens or otherwise you risk being stamped as scary aimless anarchists.