File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_2001/aut-op-sy.0107, message 444


From: "Neil (practical history)" <practicalhistory-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: AUT: Genoa, black blocs, etc.
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 21:00:39 +0000


I agree with Angela that we must oppose the post-Genoa witch hunt of 
anarchists. Working class people have been fighting the police for centuries 
before the words ‘Black’ and ‘Bloc’ ever appeared in the same sentence, and 
this need no apology or ‘justification’.

Sometimes this can put other people in danger, sometimes it can protect them 
by blocking police attack. Last week in Brixton, South London, a man was 
shot dead by the police which resulted in a (smallish) riot. The fact that 
trigger happy cops know their actions will be held to account in such ways 
undoubtedly acts as some deterrent. We would all (pacifists included) be in 
a lot more danger if police assassinations were viewed with indifference.

Many of those who are quick to label streetfighters as violent fascist 
provocateurs, such as ‘Third World Charities/NGOs’, are strangely silent 
when the state sends its planes to drop bombs on people or even provide it 
with a humanitarian cover for its murderous ‘peacekeeping’.  Their 
criticisms are of little consequence, but there should be serious debate 
about tactics include criticism of actions that put people at risk.

I don’t know how what happened in Genoa relates to the above, as so far I 
have heard very contradictory accounts. But I would say it foolish for 
people to blame the Black Bloc for police violence. The state is quite 
capable of violently attacking opposition, even where people are 
scrupulously non-violent (look at the example of the civil rights movement 
in the USA). There is a naivety in believing that a declared global movement 
against capitalism will be safe from state violence so long as everybody 
behaves themselves. Equally there is a naivety in believing that if we 
seriously defeat the police the state will back down. Somebody said recently 
that if there had been more molotovs in Prague people could have broken 
through police lines and breached the summit – but what would have been the 
result? Most probably a massacre if world leaders were perceived as being in 
danger – the police are the first line of defence not the last.

My criticism of aspects of the Black Bloc phenomenom is not that they fight 
the cops or break windows, but of the danger of this becoming a strategy in 
itself.  I can also see the argument for people with a common tactical 
approach sticking together in some situations, but this must be balanced 
against the danger of the notion of the Black Bloc (like any other bloc) 
being internalised as a political/personal identity, in which those who are 
part of the Bloc see themselves as separate from  (and maybe in some cases 
superior to) other proletarians, or unite with dubious Maoist/Stalinist 
outfits just because they too are up for a punch up.

Neil


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