STORY about Solidarity posted on February 16, 2010 by
In defense of the black bloc: A communique from Olympic resisters
A communiqué
Also posted by :
Also in Solidarity:
February 14th, 2010 – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories
On February 12th and 13th, 2010, thousands of courageous individuals came
together to resist the 2010 Olympic police state and to attack the
corporations plundering the land and deepening poverty. We write this
communique as participants in and organizers of the black bloc presence at
these demonstrations, known as “Take Back Our City” and “2010 Heart
Attack.”
On February 12th, the Vancouver Police Department pacified us with a force
of mounted police. The next day during 2010 Heart Attack, they deployed
riot police armed with M4 carbine assault rifles. They claim this was
necessary in order to stop the march from “jeopardizing public safety” – yet the
only threats to public safety were in their own hands. Participants in the
demonstration only undertook strategic attacks against corporations
sponsoring the Olympics and did not harm or attack bystanders.
The media are now busy denouncing the political violence of property
destruction, such as the smashing of a Hudson's Bay Company window, as
though it were the only act of violence happening in this city. They
forget that economic violence goes on daily in Vancouver. People are
suffering and dying from preventable causes because welfare doesn't give
enough to afford rent, food or medicine, and because authorities routinely
ignore the medical emergencies of poor or houseless individuals. This
economic violence has gotten worse as we lose housing and social services
because of the Olympic Games. In response to this assault, thousands took
to the streets, hundreds joining what is known as a black bloc.
The black bloc is not a formal organization; it has no leadership,
membership, or headquarters. Instead, the black bloc is a tactic: it is
something people *do* in order to accomplish a specific purpose. By
wearing black clothing and masking our faces, the black bloc allows for
greater protection to those who choose active self-defense. The majority
of people involved in the black bloc do not participate in property
destruction. However, in masking up they express their solidarity with
those who choose to take autonomous direct action against the
corporations, authorities and politicians who wage war on our communities.
Participation in the black bloc is an act of courage. With only the
shirts on our backs and the masks on our faces, we took to the streets
against Canada's largest ever “peacetime” police force. Protected only by
black fabric and the support of our comrades, we stood in front of
antiriot cops armed with assault rifles, pistols and batons. We proved that $1
billion of “security” couldn't prevent us from clogging the heart of
downtown Vancouver and crashing a party of 100 000 people -- and getting
away with it.
You won't ever know who was in the black bloc this weekend, but you *do*
know us. We are the people who organize community potlucks, who dance
during street festivals, who make art, defend the land, build co-ops,
bicycles and community gardens. When we put on our black clothing, we are
not a threat to you, but to the elites.
Whoever you are, one day you will join us. As long as government and
corporations attack our communities, we're going defend – and that means
attack.
Signed,
Two organizers and participants in the anarchist presence of the “Take
back our city” demonstration and “2010 Heart Attack” street march,
February 2010, Coast Salish Territories
//Read a response to this post here//
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
Comments
How far over the edge must people go...
"Actually we need the opposite
Actually we need the opposite of that. We need full enforcement and punishment of the law in this case. Idiotic violence and beating of innocent bystanders who just happen to disagree should not be tolerated.
Their parents should pay for the idiots they have raised."
How do you sleep at night after typing something like that out? Do you feel empowered? Do you feel strong, right and reasonable? The only thing that those young protesters are being charged with is assault on an officer. That means that they were arrested when they were standing in solidarity. Standing up for what they believe is right. I hope that everyones parents stand in solidarity with their children. If my own child were to protest something, anything really, I would never reproach them for it. Shame on you.
I insist that you're one of the saddest smallest idiotic people in this city. There were no beatings on innocent bystanders, the only bystander who had an altercation with some of the people of black bloc was an older man, over 50 who came running at a group of protesters from the mcdonalds and started to punch and grab them.
"Idiotic violence" ?????
That is ironic, incase you didn't know.... The word violence is defined as the expression of physical or verbal force against self or other, compelling action against one's will on pain of being hurt. Windows, mail boxes, cars? OBJECTS, not beings.
BLACK BLOC LONG MAY YOU RUN!!
After reading some of the
After reading some of the "violence is stupid" rhetoric, I thought this would be the typical hippie pacifist mutual masturbation about how much "more moral" we are. Then I read the same, LYING, cliches, that I felt needed correction.
I fear I'll drop the knowledge and you won't hear it through the ear wax plugging your ears, or through the hippie dreadlocks covering your eyes...
Ghandi, did NOT liberate India. For goodness sake, read a book. The British over-streched their empire, and after two bloody world wars, and several occupations, had to cut some losses. Further, though the military occupation ended, neo-colonialism, a far more effective system of domination, was installed and still is today. Just ask the peasants drinking farm chemicals in suicide, because they can't afford to feed themselves anymore, only ten miles from some of India's "economic miracles". The major point for those that can't get off their high horse because their too fucking high to connect the dots, is that the British left India because they couldn't sustain the occupation, not because Ghandi pushed for liberation.
Further, to say MLK single handedly won the civil right struggle is the most pompist shit written by pacifists to date. You marginalize and do injustice to the massive Black Panther movement, which put just as much pressure if not more on government. Most polls at the time said a majority of the African American community was given pride by the activity of the Panthers.
Who the fuck are you to rewrite that history?
Now put down the joint please, and gather all your brain cells for one last tidbit. Violence doesn't work? Really?
How does the U.S. maintain control over the world?
Maybe you want to get together in a big fucking circle and sing kumbaya, and spin revisionist lies, but that rest of us are fighting a class war here.
Not the poverty pimp David Eby, or white boy Chris Shaw, but real poor people.
I ask this as a bystander:
I ask this as a bystander: What has legitimate and legal protest accomplished? Anything? Look around you: more poverty, more unemployment, more cuts to vital services.
Maybe you have to break a few windows to make an omlette. LOL. The powers that be stopped listening to mainstream protest decades ago.
I'm not saying the anarchists have the solution, but nobody else has it either.
The coming insurrection will
The coming insurrection will arrive. shouting and marching and singing does nothing. We are not the People we are the multitude and we are not living in a Fordist society. Aggressive movement is needed to bring down a capitalist society where corporations have more rights then us the so called people. Please read some political philosophy before assuming we are hooligans .I suggest The Coming Insurrection and Virno's A Grammar of the Multitude!! Forget your love sitin and take action.
Fear and vandalism works for France
I wasn't at the protest with the Black Bloc on Sat, but I fully support them. I will go next time. I was at the peaceful protest the day before that didn't get any media coverage in comparison. I think we need to take a lesson from other countries like France who protest en masse and with vandalism, and because of this the government LISTENS. The government is afraid of the people, as it should be. Our government isn't afraid of us. Who would be? Other than small pockets of feirceness we are a pathetically passive group... including our usual protests.
Not that this should matter, but I want to put this in perspective... I am an educated, professional working person who is appalled at the lack of respect our government pays to it's citizens. I will risk arrest from now on and will not be afraid to voice my opinion.
This link is from the telegraph of France's latest protest on Feb 23. Millions attended!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/5018308/Millions...
Another perspective
Another perspetive might be to say that "we need to take a lesson from other countries like France who protest en masse and with vandalism, and because of this, the government listens." The media, particularly visual media that goes to the far reaches of the world in our time has created an environment where government actions are (slightly) more transparent and governments don't as a rule want to BE SEEN killing or beating people to death, etc as in times past, when such behavior has erupted in the world. So most of the us fearing governments is "bred out of us."
So huge masses of people destroying property is effective? And you would like to incorporate this here in Canada? Okay. Do you want your business where that protest is happening? After all, it makes perfect sense to destroy someone else's property because of a completely unrelated to you or your pollitics issue. What property is theirs, is all the worlds, too, right? I mean to be fair. So, if you can't afford to replace the glass, the stock you have, or pay the employees to run a now nonoperating business, that's fair too, right? Now, naturally, given your enthusiastic support for property destruction and it's where YOU live, you won't mind not having your computer, your tv, your stereo, your food as none of that is yours, it's all okay!!! Just because your door has been beaten in and is in tatters and you have no windows, and all your belongings are ruined, thank goodness you helped achieve a different tax rate proposal on property, for instance!!! You won't mind, will you, when your car is destroyed, as are all the cars for many blocks around.....because though it took you 4 years to save up for a big enough down payment to be able to afford the car payments, and it's the only way you can keep your job, it's all for a good cause, right?
Go look in Los Angeles and see that street after street after street have had to be abandoned there because of the response to a probably biased court sentancing on an alleged racial beating by the police.....see how many people became homeless and still are because of it. Count the number of businesses whose family owners will never have the money to start another business, and are back working for poverty wages.
Think a bit about all people's rights before you think about affecting all peoples rights, Vancouver Anonymous.
Black-masked tactics earn attention, now need to build support
The black-masked rioters have done a good job of drawing the attention of the mainstream public. It's now time for others to frame the claims we are making in a way that is both compelling and informative to wider society. We need to thank our black-masked brothers and sisters who put their safety and security on the line. We now need to make the best use of the focus and attention they have won.
Dear Black Bloc children...
Breaking insured property doesn't strike fear into anyone's hearts - least of all corporate leadership.
Grow up. If you don't like the system, break it. That'll take years of work, brains you don't have, attention spans you haven't demonstrated, and offers very little in the way of chills, thrills, and wanton destruction of plate glass.
If you want to fight a war, fight a war. If not, fuck right off.
You Noticed.
I believe that is the main point of the black bloc. Would anyone outside of Vancouver have heard of these protests besides "there were scattered protests" from the MSM. Very doubtful. I have seen quite a number of protests in Ottawa that go completely ignored by even the local newspapers. Why do they slip beneath the radar? It is due to the fact that we are "authorized" to participate in these protests. No one is uncomfortable, everything goes according to plan and the citizens can easily ignore those "hippy/commie/enviro weirdos".
Not that property damage is the only means of making people notice. Gandhi was noticeably disruptive by refusing to move from high profile areas. While it is nice to be seen as passive and peaceful, the fact is that by and large, no one gives a damn! No one notices. No one cares. While I think that the Black Bloc needed more self management (the example being targeting TD instead of RBC), I suspect that the more radical actions of this sect probably was the leading factor in the protests being mentioned both nationally in internationally. This movement has been so marginalized as "outcast nutters" that no one listens to us unless we get right in their comfortable little consumer faces. So we need all types to make this work in my opinion. Black blocs make people notice, pacifists make people care and everyone in between helps out how they can.
If you wish to do away with the criminals you must first do away with the causes which create the precedent for such action. These people are not fascists, white supremacists, NAZIs or other intolerantly dominant and authoritarian groups. They support (for vast majority) egalitarian/benevolent principals of equality and freedom for all. If they are angry enough to combat heavily armed police with only black cloth, there is certainly an urgent reason behind it other than "trouble making". As far as I know gangs don't even go up against fully armed devisions of police.
Why are they so radical? What are these massive wrongs that they feel they need to let everyone know about in any way they can? These are not fundamentalist religious extremists, militant totalitarian rebels or disaffected youths. These are people who see wrongs being committed and are making people take notice. Please don't dismiss them because of a bad rap or simply out of laziness. Look into what they have to say, look into the ideas behind the philosophy and tactics.
Someone has said that it requires less mental effort to condemn than to think.
"Strategic Attacks Against Corporations"
I've never heard that actions such as throwing newspaper stands, etc referred to as "strategic attacks against corporations" sponsoring an event. That would be a long term boycott, perhaps. The behavior outlined instead would be what my Grandmother would of called "just plain having a fit." The behavior itself if looked at from a developmental model is typically behavior exhibited by toddlers, when frustrated.
Too Much Ignorance
I am a peaceful protester who fully supports the black bloc. My only concern about joining them was whether I might have to cross the line some day with illegal activity. After reading some ridiculously ignorant comments here, I'll be joining them for sure. I don't mind people saying the black bloc is wrong if that's what they think but to hear people stating opinion like it is fact tells me the black bloc needs more support. For the record, black bloc people have jobs so stop telling us to "get a job", many of us hide our faces to protect our jobs and the companies we work for, most of us hide our faces and wear black to show solidarity for the people we respect, not the police but those who stand up to the police and others in authority that abuse their power. Yes, some are concerned about legal action because of previous protests and illegal activities but I admire the courage it takes to stand up against insurmountable odds for what is right. We must loosen the grip the police and government have on our lives. I want to be free and I will be proudly wearing a mask the next time I have the honor of marching with the black bloc.
I think the whole Olympic
I think the whole Olympic fuss is creating huge problems for people , people especially from the working class . I think that the government should take over the situation calmly and manage this problem really soon because if the people revolt against the government than it's going to be hard to handle all the pressure all at once , it's not even regular problems like Tax Problems and daily basis problems . This is a life time opportunity for both the people and the nation at once , so lets get together and go through it all calmly .
Do you people not understand
Do you people not understand how the media works? Are you really that clued out? So long as there are burnt cars and smashed up shop windows the media will cover NOTHING ELSE about the protest. Why would they? Destruction is dramatic and telegenic.
The ONLY way to get the actual issues on the news is to have nothing that distracts from them - like violence.
No wonder social change is so hard - half the people advocating change are utterly clueless when it comes to actually affecting anything.