Direct Action
Here is an article I found about the ‘black bloc’ activist group. They have caused much debate in the past as to their tactics of direct action during protests. My personal experience of them at the G8 protest in Genoa in july 2001 was less than pleasant (chains, petrol bombs, looting and enticing nastier riot police into peaceful protest zones) but this article attempts to justify some of their tactics. I would be interested in hearing your views…
The article in question.
What exactly are they doing to improve their society? What are they trying to achieve?
I think they share much of the same ideology as many other anticapitalist/socialist parties of the left, but differ in their tactics during protest. I believe in non-violent direct action such as mass sit-downs, marches and reclaimation of the streets, but I cannot see how burning a bank or attacking a policeman is going to help the cause of highlighting the oppression caused by the International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and various multinational corporations in developing countries.
I cannot say I have ever understood how anarchism can work in pratice, and without writing off the movement, I can see how it can attract many angry young boys and girls who want to see immediate results. Can anybody contend or illuminate this somewhat limited perspective?
“True” Anarchism is very similar to the ideal of “true” Socialism. Both depend on the idea that humans are essentially benevolant beings who can naturally live in freedom and harmony once the oppressive regimes that cause wars, divisions and greed are disposed with. An idea I’d love to believe in, but am still too horrible and suspicious to contemplate.
So they all wear black, as the name suggests? Isn’t this a very misguided statement? What place does solidarity have in Anarchism? What place do a unified, agressive core of people have in an organinsed non-violent protest? I would feel in better company protesting with people who didn’t start fires or use ‘found materials to create road blocks’. Are these tactics actually tactical?
Onto the riot police: indeed some of them are nasty, but doesn’t generalising all of them into this image lead to more aggression and violence? Aren’t they all just men trying to do their job, and trying to save their bacon?
There are many questions and violent people get in the way of the answers.
The black bloc are not an activist group. A black block is a TACTIC.
Black is the color of anarchism, which is one reason it is called the “black” bloc. Anarchists wear black to dramatize the color of our politics. Black is also worn during street demonstrations because it helps provide anonymity. With the terrorist police forces videotaping and recording every protest, the only way some of us can participate is to wear black, including the black masks.
Anarchists from around the world organized and participated in black blocs at the 2001 G8 protests in Genoa. However, the Italian police also organized a fake black bloc using undercover police officers and neo-fascists from around Europe. These fake black blocs attacked other protesters, set cars on fire, and vandalized small businesses. It is suspected that the police organized these fake blocs to drive a wedge between moderate and militant protesters. Another goal may have been to demonize anarchists as “terrorists” in the eyes of the general public.
Tactics vary from black bloc to black bloc. Some common ones include unarresting and arm-linking. Unarresting is where the bloc frees people who don’t want to be arrested. This usually works if you outnumber the cops. It also works because most cops are shocked that activists would try and free someone. Arm linking, or locking, helps a bloc maintain cohesion and makes it harder for the police to disperse members. It’s kind of like a police formation, although more fluid and organic.
During your typical street demonstration, the police inevitably show up and start causing problems. People might be exercising their rights to march down the street, or they might be hanging out in front of some building, but the cops can be counted on to show up and start causing problems. When you see violence in the streets during protests coming from protesters, most of the time this is in response to police violence. The police have attacked numerous black blocs without provocation and some participants in these black blocs have opted to fight back. Not all Black blocs use violence, but there is a tolerance of different tactics.
Well who are the Black Block and why don’t they seem to be smashing chain store windows all of the time? Most damage on my local highstreet is done by fat drunks. BORING.