It’s kind of like the protest names not working sometimes. There has to be a better way to say this.
This is the meaning behind it:
Do not split.
But what is happening in Hong Kong is they come up with a slogan, which is translated as Do Not Split, which is, we know that some people are willing to be confrontational with riot police.
And when they are, that’s going to cost the state in terms of not only resources, but it’s going to cost the state in terms of political capital and support. And we know that there are some people who are not willing to do that. And we are going to abide by the protocol of Do Not Split, which means that we’re not going to criticize them openly, and they’re not going to criticize us openly.
If we’re the pacifists, we’re not going to have them criticize us for being sort of like, I don’t know, limpid or flaccid or not courageous or whatever. And we’re not going to criticize them for being more confrontational. And the thing is that the support is also tacit.
Yeah, not at all awkward to me. It sounds so consistent with other labour or civil rights related organizing messages like “hold the line”
“No Kings” and “Black Lives Matter” are larger statements about the aims of movements. “Do Not Split”, “No Cracks” seem like smaller-scale strategies rather than manifestos (outlining the nature of the entire movement). So, if they don’t feel comparable, I think that makes sense.
I too appreciate that this is all discussion. I think “Do Not Split” is good because it makes the desired behaviour very clear, and it speaks to a strength in numbers. Usually, more sinister language than “a crack” is used when trying to discourage people from acting against collective interests, like “don’t be a scab”. Psychologically, I think the former is more effective than the latter, especially when it’s not as clear as crossing a picket line or not whether one is “cracking” or “splitting”. People will often deny that they’re a ‘crack’ or whatever, so I think the clearer messaging is to describe desirable behaviour. Good discussion :D!
I guess we could sort of do a testing. I post “Do Not Split” a lot because there are a lot of trolls trying to split any kind of protest. It comes up a lot. I’ll try “Do Not Split” and “No Cracks” and see if people respond to either one more or less. It won’t be a definitive answer, but it’s a start. Feel free to do your own testing, there’s lots of testing ground even here on lemmy.