BLACK BLOC ANARCHISTS AND OTHERS
Commentary By Lucy M Warner
February 2, 2017
Who were those black clad, masked men at the Trump inauguration? They weren’t chanting or carrying placards, but smashing windows, from buildings to private automobiles. I did pick up on the idea that they some sort of anarchists, but the term black bloc wasn’t mentioned as I can remember. Black bloc isn’t a group so much as a type of activity; read the occupy story and then the Wikipedia article. Their level of violence isn’t just fury, but a protest technique. The occupy article speaks of “organizing a black bloc” as well as “being” a black bloc. The fighting technique began in the 1980s in Germany and has spread since to the US and other European nations. Their goal is to “protect” squats and other actions from police assault. They are much like the role of the clown in a rodeo when the bull is endangering the life of the rider.
This information makes me feel safer. I don’t fear an organized group that targets only property, though property damage is not an innocent action by any means, especially when they are essentially random in their targets within certain categories, such as banks. They aren’t punishing the actions of individuals, but of groups. The group who used the tactic in the US within my memory was “Occupy.” These articles are both excellent, and I do believe we need a real push now. Trump needs to be pushed out of office, by one means or another, and protests will help. The less violent groups actions are really more effective, however, because it makes the destructive groups into “the bad guys,” rather than the original target of the protest. Nonetheless, I hope this black bloc activity will help the cause .
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-threatens-berkeley-yiannopoulos-hits-social-justice-left-and-campus-apologizes-for-riot/
Trump threatens Berkeley, Yiannopoulos jabs "social justice left" after campus protest escalates
CBS NEWS
February 2, 2017, 2:06 PM
Photograph -- Milo Yiannopoulos, the polarizing Breitbart News editor, speaks at California Polytechnic State University as part of his “The Dangerous Faggot Tour” of college campuses, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017, in San Luis Obispo, Calif. DAVID MIDDLECAMP/THE TRIBUNE (OF SAN LUIS OBISPO)/AP
Photograph -- Protestors watch a fire on Sproul Plaza during a rally against the scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. The event was canceled out of safety concerns after protesters hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and started a fire. AP PHOTO/BEN MARGOT
Play video – Violent protests at UC Berkeley over Breitbart editor’s visit
President Donald Trump issued a social media threat early Thursday to federal funds allocated to the University of California-Berkeley in the aftermath of a riot that forced the cancellation of a speech by polarizing Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
Could Trump yank UC Berkeley funding over Yiannopolous incident?
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Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?
6:13 AM - 2 Feb 2017
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Meanwhile, Yiannopoulos told Fox News Thursday that the protest, which escalated into vandals breaking windows and looting storefronts, was “heavily ironic and very, I think, self-defeating for the social justice left.”
ap-17032202985348.jpg
Milo Yiannopoulos, the polarizing Breitbart News editor, speaks at California Polytechnic State University as part of his “The Dangerous Faggot Tour” of college campuses, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017, in San Luis Obispo, Calif. DAVID MIDDLECAMP/THE TRIBUNE (OF SAN LUIS OBISPO)/AP
UC Berkeley officials said the protest was infiltrated by a group of about 100 vandals who were not students at the university.
“UC Berkeley condemns in the strongest possible terms the actions of individuals who invaded the campus, infiltrated a crowd of peaceful students, and used violent tactics to close down the event. We deeply regret that the violence unleashed by this group undermined the First Amendment rights of the speaker as well as those who came to lawfully assemble and protest his presence,” university spokesman Dan Mogulof responded.
Yiannopoulos was making the last stop of a tour aimed at defying what he calls an epidemic of political correctness on college campuses. On Wednesday, he spoke with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.
“No one’s safety is at risk from different opinions,” Yiannopoulos said in a phone interivew.[sic] “No one’s physical safety is endangered by political ideas from a speaker on campus, but universities have sort of allowed this stuff to happen, and even in some cases encouraged it.”
ap-17033125284839.jpg
Protestors watch a fire on Sproul Plaza during a rally against the scheduled speaking appearance by Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Berkeley, Calif. The event was canceled out of safety concerns after protesters hurled smoke bombs, broke windows and started a fire. AP PHOTO/BEN MARGOT
Protesters armed with bricks and fireworks mounted an assault on the building hosting a speech by Yiannopoulos Wednesday night.
Several injuries were reported and at least four banks were vandalized after demonstrators marched away from the scene of a violent protest at the canceled speaking event by controversial far-right writer and speaker Yiannopoulos on the University of California at Berkeley campus.
Violent protests at UC Berkeley over Breitbart editor's visit
Play VIDEO
Violent protests at UC Berkeley over Breitbart editor's visit
As the gathered crowd got more agitated, masked “black bloc” activists began hurling projectiles including bricks, lit fireworks and rocks at the building and police.
Yiannopoulos, 32, is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and a self-proclaimed internet troll. He was banned from Twitter after leading a harassment campaign against “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones.
His visit to Berkeley was sponsored by the campus Republican club. The university has stressed it did not invite Yiannopoulos and does not endorse his ideas but is committed to free speech and rejected calls to cancel the event.
UNDER “BLACK BLOC ACTIVISTS” ON THE INTERNET I FOUND A NUMBER OF INTERESTING AND PRESUMABLY IMPORTANT ARTICLES, GIVEN HOW VIOLENT THESE GROUPS ARE, AND THE FACT THAT THEY ARE ATTACKING THE TRUMP/ALT-RIGHT ASSEMBLIES. AT LEAST, I ASSUME THOSE IN WASHINGTON DC DURING THE INAUGURATION WERE THE SAME GROUP, SINCE THEY WORE THE SAME ALL BLACK CLOTHING AND BLACK FULL FACE MASKS. I COULD SEE FROM THE PHOTO THAT THE AREA AROUND THE EYES AND CHEEKBONES BEHIND THEIR MASKS SHOWED THEM TO BE WHITE AND NOT BLACK. THEY ARE ALSO NOT DEMOCRATS OR ANY KIND OF PROGRESSIVES, DEFINITELY NOT BERNIE SANDERS FOLLOWERS, BUT ANARCHISTS. THEIR CAUSE IS TO DESTABILIZE AND MAKE PEOPLE CALL THEIR REPRESENTATIVES OFTEN ENOUGH TO CAUSE A MOVEMENT TO IMPEACH AN ILLEGALLY ELECTED AND UNDEMOCRATIC PERSON FROM THE PRESIDENCY; THE IMPEACHMENT OF RICHARD NIXON FOR CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR MAY HAVE BEEN TRAUMATIC FOR THE NATION, AND IT WAS, BUT IT GAVE US A CHANCE TO START OVER WITH A BETTER MAN. WE NEED TO DO THAT AGAIN. SO, WHILE I DON’T APPROVE OF THE VIOLENCE, FROM MY OBSERVATION SO FAR, WE MAY WELL NEED VIOLENCE TO OUST HIM.
http://www.occupy.com/article/unmasking-black-bloc-who-they-are-what-they-do-how-they-work
UNMASKING THE BLACK BLOC: WHO THEY ARE, WHAT THEY DO, HOW THEY WORK
THU, 12/18/2014 - BY DEVON DOUGLAS-BOWERS
“The Black Bloc always defend the demonstrations when the police come here.” - Ariane Santos, 26-year-old Brazilian student
“The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement.” - Chris Hedges
The Black Bloc: some love it, others hate it. Many condemn Black Blockers for engaging in property destruction and lack of central organization, yet others appreciate them and see their divisive actions as a positive, arguing for a diversity of tactics. However, what many are lacking is an understanding of the Black Bloc, it's history, the types of people who are in it, and the problems within.
While this is a brief exploration of the Black Bloc, those who are interested further should read "Who's Afraid of the Black Blocs? Anarchy In Action Around the World," by Francis Dupuis-Déri (translated by Lazer Lederhendler), which not only provided the research for this article, but also explores on a deeper level what the black block is, the tactics and beliefs of black blockers, and criticism of the Black Bloc.
To begin to discuss black blocs, there must first be an understanding of what a black bloc is. Black blocs are “ad hoc assemblages of individuals or affinity groups that last for the duration of a march or rally” in which members retain their anonymity via head-to-toe black clothing. While there may be uses of force, “more often than not they are content to protest peacefully” with the main objective being to “embody within a demonstration a radical critique of the economic and political system.” A black bloc can be one person or thousands. It should be noted the black bloc isn't a group, but rather a tactic to allow for radicals to engage in direct action without fear of arrest; while many black blockers are anarchist, not all of them are.
Origins
Black blocs came out of the autonomous movement in Germany in the 1980s, specifically West Germany where “radical feminists had a profound effect on the Automen, injecting the movement with a more anarchist spirit than was the case elsewhere in Western Europe.” The Automen expressed their politics via “rent strikes and re-appropriating hundreds of buildings which were turned into squats” that doubled as spaces for political activity.
There is no definitive moment when the term black bloc came into usage, although there are different stories. The first major arrival of a black bloc was in 1986 when a massive black bloc was formed to defend the Hafenstrasse squat where 1,500 black blockers and 10,000 other demonstrators confronted the police and saved the squat.
Black bloc ideas and tactics soon spread to North America via fanzines, personal contacts and punk music groups, but there is also a more interesting reason as to how black bloc tactics spread. Sociologists Charles Tilly, Doug McAdam and Dieter Rucht, all of whom specialize in social movements, have shown that “for different periods and places there exist repertoires of collective action deemed effective and legitimate for the defense and promotion of a cause. These repertories are transformed and disseminated over time and across borders from one social movement to another, in accordance with the experiences of militants and the changes in the political sphere.”
Essentially, tactics and ideas spread over time from one social movement to another depending on their effectiveness and how the tactics will work within the context of each movement. Two modern day examples of this could be the physical encampment of spaces from the Occupy movement and the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" gesture from the anti-police brutality movement that has recently sprung up surrounding the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
The first time the black bloc made a major move in North America was during a January 1991 rally against the Persian Gulf war where the World Bank building was targeted. Black bloc tactics were also used by the militant anti-racist group Anti-Racist Action, which focuses on directly confronting neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Who They Are, How They are Organized
While the black bloc may be made up of militants, they are consistently categorized as hooligans, thugs and youths who take joy in private property destruction. Thus, there needs to be further exploration of the types of people under the masks.
It should be noted the black blocs, at least in the U.S. and Europe, are generally overwhelmingly white and male. However, there is some diversity. In a communiqué published days after the demonstrations against the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, Mary Black (a pseudonym for a protester who took part in the protests) noted that most of the people she knew who used black bloc tactics “have days jobs working for nonprofits. Some are schoolteachers, labor organizers, or students. Some don't have full-time jobs, but instead spend most of their time working for change in their communities.[...] These are thinking and caring folks who, if they did not have radical political and social agendas, would be compared with nuns, monks, and others who live their lives in service.”
Dupuis-Déri himself stated that in interviews he has had with black blockers, many had been involved in the social sciences and that “in a number of cases, their research projects dealt with the political significance and consequences of demonstrations and direct actions,” suggesting “that their political involvement was grounded in serious political thinking.”
Thus, those who involve themselves in black bloc tactics are not necessarily people who are at protests solely to break things, although such types of people do come in and cause problems.
Before discussing the issue of property destruction, it would be pertinent to know how black blocs are organized. Black bloc groups attempt to function in a horizontal manner, with each person having equal say in deliberating issues and where the goal is consensus rather than voting. In order to do this, black blockers form affinity groups, which are groups “generally composed of between a half-dozen and several dozen individuals whose affinity results from ties that bind them, such as belonging to the same school, workplace, or political organization.” By having previous ties to one another, members in affinity groups are able to coordinate much easier.
The Issue of Property Destruction
Not all black blockers engage in property destruction. While one may use black bloc tactics, there are different roles one can play. Groups take into account things such as a person's immigration status, health problems, previous arrest record and the like, and at-risk individuals can engage in low-risk tasks such as being “in charge of legal support in the event of arrests, or responsible for transportation, lodging, water and food supplies, media contacts, psychological support” and whatnot.
Black blocs meet to plan and organize before hand, but also during protests as well. One black blocker who took part in the protests against the G8 Summit in 2003 noted in her reflection of the events:
"I found it extraordinary that we could hold delegates' meetings right in the middle of the blocking action. There were barricades, fires had been lit, the police were slinging a lot of tear gas. And still, a meeting was called with someone yelling, 'meeting in ten minutes near the road sign.' The meeting took place barely a few hundred meters from where the police stood, and it allowed us to decide on our course of action. [...] The police officers see you as a crowd and assume you're going to act like a crowd, The affinity group model disrupts that dynamic: you don't act like a crowd anymore but like a rational being."
With regards to property damage, for black blockers, the target is the message. Targets are often chosen for their symbolic value. “On principle, Black Blocs do not strike community centers, public libraries, the offices of women's committees or even small independent businesses.” While this may be true generally, the use of property destruction by some black blockers can cause problems, such as can be seen in the recent Berkeley protests, where people were protesting the death of Eric Garner and individuals came and broke the windows of a number of banks. This is deeply problematic as it took the attention off the death of Eric Garner and the larger issues surrounding police brutality against the black community, and put the attention on banks. Actions such as these can potentially create a space for the police to justify a crackdown on all protesters.
The fetishization of property destruction is a problem with the black bloc, as in some cases “violent direct action becomes a means for a would-be militant to affirm [their] political identity in the eyes of other militants. This makes it very tempting for that person to look down on and exclude those who do not equate radicalism with violence.” Yet, not all black blockers engage in this fetishization and are aware of the dangers, such as with a participant of the Quebec city black blocs who stated: “I have no patience for dogmatic pacifism, but there is also dogmatic violence, which sees violence as the only and only means to wage the struggle.” The protester Sofiane noted that “We don't advocate violence; it's not a program... Because you can easily acquire a taste for violence, you get used to it... But when it comes to doing militant work, not many people show up.”
Diversity of Tactics
However, there are solutions to the problem of those wanting to engage in direct action and others who want to peacefully protest that should be quoted at some length. Around 2000, there were a few mobilizations in which it was proposed that certain areas of a city be identified by colors in order to allow different types of protests simultaneously:
"This was done at the Reclaim the Street rally in London on June 18, 1999; at the first Global Day of Action called by the People's Global Action, an anti-capitalist network founded in Geneva in 1998 and close to the Zapatista rebels.[...] Color coding made it possible to distinguish among three separate marches: blue for the Black Bloc, accompanied by the Infernal Noise Brigade band; yellow for the Tute Bianche [a militant Italian social movement]; pink for the Pink and Silver Bloc."
The organization Convergence of Anti-Capitalist Struggles used a similar tactic at demonstrations in which there were three zones: green, yellow, and red. "The green zone was a sanctuary where demonstrators were, theoretically, in no danger of being arrested. The yellow zone was for those undertaking nonviolent civil disobedience and involved a minor risk of being arrested. The red zone was for protesters who were ready for more aggressive tactics, including skirmishes with the police."
This allowed for the concept of a diversity of tactics to be respected, as well as for protesters to have spaces where more or less militant tactics were accepted, all while maintaining the safety of peaceful protesters.
Though the debate surrounding property violence is the largest and loudest of all, there are other problems within black blocs such as sexism and accusations of alienating the working class.
With regards to sexism, many critics of black blocs argue that militant direct action “partakes of a macho mystique and does not encourage women to join in” and that expressing one's anger through destruction “simply [confirms] and [amplifies] aggressive masculinity.” Furthermore, the sexual division of labor is often reproduced, with a woman who took part in a number of black blocs in the 2012 Quebec student strike saying that it was women who often did the shopping “when fabric was needed to make flags and banners.”
Dupuis-Déri noted that the situation hadn't changed, writing that “more than a decade earlier, during a meeting to prepare a black bloc in Montreal, the men ended up in the backyard of an apartment honing their slingshot skills while the women were in the kitchen making Molotov cocktails.” Thus, masculinity is not only reproduced in many black bloc circles, but also creates a space that rejects the participation of women and devalues their labor and thus their importance to the movement.
Some argue that black blocs alienate the working-class “with their clothing and lifestyle choices, which are associated with the anarchist counterculture.” While some may argue that there are those in the working-class who support and take part in black blocs, it should be noted that these are not fully representative of the working-class; there is a lack of people of color and women and so the black blocs are more representative of the young, white working-class.
Black blocs tactics are divisive and create a large amount of tension, even within far-left circles. Many condemn black blockers as being nothing but hooligans who want to break things. But by unmasking who they are, one can better understand them and their tactics and ideas, even if one disagrees.
NOTE: Occupy.com does not in any shape or form support or encourage property destruction or other violent activities associated with the Black Bloc.
Black Bloc, Automen, Hands Up Don't Shoot, Michael Brown, Ferguson protests, Anti-Racist Action, Francis Dupuis-Déri, affinity groups, property destruction, diversity of tactics, Eric Garner, anti-police brutality protests
Black BlocAutomenHands Up Don't ShootMichael BrownFerguson protestsAnti-Racist ActionFrancis Dupuis-Dériaffinity groupsproperty destructiondiversity of tacticsEric Garneranti-police brutality protests
Comments
Mike Osman replied on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 20:20
Autonomen
The German anarchist group I have heard of was called Autonomen, perhaps translatable as autonomists, and not Automen, which I have never heard of.
reply
Mike Osman replied on Sat, 01/21/2017 - 20:25
Autonomen
The German anarchist group I have heard of is called the "Autonomen," which sounds more like autonomists, not "automen," which sounds like people who have something to do with cars.
reply
Will Shetterly replied on Sun, 01/22/2017 - 00:37
Police provocateurs love black bloc tactics. There's nothing easier than putting on masks, turning peaceful protests violent, then having an excuse to shut them down. Bonus: instead of talking about the issues, the public talks about violence instead.
- See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/unmasking-black-bloc-who-they-are-what-they-do-how-they-work#sthash.qGPshZQS.dpuf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomism
Autonomism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Autonomism (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with antinomianism.
Raised fist, stenciled protest symbol of Autonome at the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus in Vienna, Austria
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Georgy Katsiaficas summarizes the forms of autonomous movements saying that "In contrast to the centralized decisions and hierarchical authority structures of modern institutions, autonomous social movements involve people directly in decisions affecting their everyday lives. They seek to expand democracy and to help individuals break free of political structures and behavior patterns imposed from the outside."[4] As such this has involved a call for the independence of social movements from political parties[5] in a revolutionary perspective which seeks to create a practical political alternative to both authoritarian socialism and contemporary representative democracy.[6]
Autonomism influenced the German and Dutch Autonomen, the worldwide social centre movement, and today is influential in Italy, France, and to a lesser extent the English-speaking countries. Those who describe themselves as autonomists now vary from Marxists to anarchists.
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