Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 10:33:21 +0100
From: Erik <anarchie-AT-buelinckx.net>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Mike Flugennock's Account of the Black Bloc


At 18:43 -0500 29-03-2000, brian callahan wrote:
>colin writes:
>>> yep, i've gotta echo those remarks erik.  if being an anarchist is about
>> dressing up in black and losing all sense of individual thought and action
>> then i don't know if i want to be part of such a movement.  the black bloc
>> seems to be something dangerous and intimidating, and is that really what
>> we want to be perceived by the community at large?  there's an element of
>> mob mentality is such a bloc, and flugennock's reference to a military
>> analogy just makes me worry.  if the shock troops of the anarchist
>> revolution wear green berets then you can count me out.
>>
> I'd have to disagree. While I wasn't in DC, what I have read about
>makes it sound like the bloc was behaving like the much smaller group
>here for the biodevestation protest last month but with the advantage of
>larger numbers.  Solidarity and organization do not require a loss of
>individuality.  Heck, I was wearing black and marching with them here,
>but nobody tried to tell me what to do.  They did offer advice, like
>putting on a mask.  That is the essence of a successful anarchist
>movement, IMHO.  It's simply qualitatively different than a fascist
>march.

I want to believe that too, and i do in fact, but I just wanted to point
out where the dangers lie. Better too soon than too late.

Besides that i wish we would have had such numbers during demonstration in
my younger days instaed of the 50 odd or so anarchists we mostlywere. And
wearing black is practical: i t helps to find your friends.

Erik