ABSTRACT
A justification of provocation tactics resulting in repression was in terms of its ‘radicalization’ of movement recruits through an experience. The concept of ‘confrontationism’ was based on a theory of change stressing the need to delineate, through praxis, the contours of repression. Faced by such a possibility, confrontationism and provocation tactics looked imitative, a revolutionary pose, and irresponsible and dangerous to many critics on the Left. Just as in 1964, the preparations in Mississippi against Freedom Summer had given the impression of totalitarian efficiency, there was increasing support for a violent official response such as that which greeted the ghetto rebellions. Yet although millions saw, on TV, Mayor Daley’s police run amok, beating young middle-class participants and doctors, priests and newsmen on the periphery, there was some sympathy, but little widespread popular response nationally. Confrontation tactics, particularly on international issues, were divorced from ordinary life and felt issues and needs in the community.
