Many seem to be confused or angry at those who have used street fighting tactics in Genoa. By explaining the motivation behind using these street fighting tactics, especially from the Black Bloc perspective, this article hopes to sooth some of that anger. The article also suggests some ways we as a movement can move forward concerning the disagreement over forceful or non-violent direct action.

1)    I don't believe we should have a seat at the table with people like the G8, WTO, IMF etc, as you can't reform capitalism in anyway more than just blunting some of the sharpest corners.

As such that is why I don't support the lobby groups like Greenpeace who would seem to want to ride some of the wave of support the anti-globalization movement has been getting, and turn it into a place at the powerfuls table.

Further more anarchists don't think elite groups of lobbyists are any substitute for fighting towards the real and long reaching benefits that direct democracy would offer.

 

2)    I don't believe that you can use some sort of mass peer pressure on the system to be nice, as many pacifist protestors seem to think. This is because, as I said, you can't reform capitalism much, as it will fundamentally always exploit people. The only permanent change is getting rid of capitalism, not asking it to reform itself.

This is on top of the issue raised by Tony Blair, who said:

'We recognize and praise the role that peaceful protest and argument have played, for example in putting issues like debt relief on the international agenda.'

A statement which could be taken in the way he wants you to take it, or as it could mean that he likes peaceful protests because of the little to no change it bring towards the fundamentals of the system yet helps to (when used exclusively) disarms dissent by giving the system the illusion of being democratic (something we know it isn't). I, and many others, believe the latter meaning and therefore aren't content with solely street partying capitalism and oppression out of existence.

 

3)    I believe that showing people fighting back against security forces isn't in all cases disempowering or turns people uninvolved off. 

Quite the opposite to the mild to non-confrontational approach of many other activists I believe that the only way to stay credible is to be as confrontational as appropriate to our opponent (in this case the G8 ministers).

Effective, not symbolic, confrontation is what REALLY shows we are serious, and attracts more people to the movement (as opposed to counter submits, manifestos, marches etc, however these thing also have a very important role to play).

 

4) I think this movement has got as far as it has because of its diversity. The above groups that I have written above in the other points, while I disagree with them on some issues, I still welcome them to the movement, want to co-operate and agree not to interfere with their activities (a show of respect many anarchists don't get in return).

1) We must stay united; without each other we are the isolated bland force that the state and capital has out maneuvered time and time again over most of the last 50 years. Each faction needs to actively avoid a split byinfluencing the members within each that move to create a division over dogmatic interpretations of ideology.

2) We, forceful and non-violent direct actionists, need to work together to consider how to confront our oppressors in their planning our oppression, with the aim of disrupting/shutting them down non-violently ideally and primarily, but forcefully if necessary.

3) We need to broaden our actions both in membership demographics and in tactics, including non-anti-summit actions. Radical change is unlikely to come about just through shutting down these meetings (but it would be a good start).

www.infoshop.org/blackbloc.html

I am not against violent demonstrators , i'm an anarchist
grew up in a working class single parent family and used to a right fuckin hard nut. After last nights police action Today I feel like going out and driving my car into the next cop I see standing in the road.

I was at the demo on saturday and witnessed people who dressed in black armed with iron bars ect .
these people delibrately cut through the main column causing panic and confusion,perhaps these people were cops in disguise, if they were protesters they were doing the work of agent provocatuers. In future the violent demonstratersmust be kept seperate from the pacifists even if this means that the pacifists defending themselves. I for one am quite capable of that, but I reserve my right to peacefull demonstration.

If there were not 200.000 pacifists prepared to stand in the street and have the shit knocked out of them under a cloud of tear gas . The black bloc would not have even
got into genova let alone been able to take to the streets.
Let's work this out so the next demo does not have all
these problems , you smash up one side of the town and
we demonstrate peacefully on the other side , that way the corporate news editors will have great difficulty faking their their virtual news programmes...

all the best to everyone involved in the struggle
for freedom. black bloc included

I think using violence on summits is not gonna change the system. I don't condemn the violence as it is nothing compared to the violence from the system (Palestine, Colombia and Genova). Caus how is it possible to compare a human life against a smashed window. But the strategical use of violence is not good cause it will create a distance to the ppl who can change the system and our cause. With non-violent direct action we create sympathy and support for our cause, because the police are then the bad guys. Then ppl get the confidence to change the system where lies it weakness. The places where we are exploited, factories, offices and the farms. When ppl take over the power with the use of violence within these places and replace the hierarchy by a system similar to the soviets, communes of paris and the councils in the spanish civil war. Using violence on summits gives the media a chance to make us look like extreme terrorists, where so the state violence is allowed. We have to got to get ppl at our side, that is a thing wwe have got to keep in mind. Violence is certainly not going to do that.

The use of violence on summits has another negative side. It creates a very elite group of streetfighters where other fysical weaker radicals cannot in participate. Only ppl who are trained can participate in these actions or they have to act like an ordaniry army or raging savages which is even worse. If we fight like armies or guerilla tactics i think it's quite impossible to change the system because they are better equiped and control almost everything, including the minds of millions of surpressed ppl

We have got to win the minds of the ppl back. We have got a world to win.

The black bloc is the secret face of police who can stop a powerfull movement.
The violence is made by police an black bloc togheter!!!!I've seen it.

So, fuck you. You are a like a policemen, you ARE a policemen.

Seattle= trashing stores while blockader shut down WTO
quebec= throwing molotov at police
genoa= throwing molotovs at police, burning cars, etc.

it's hard not to see the black-block-heads as provocateurs.

or as violent, macho assholes who want to outdo each other, and escalate the level of violence as much as possible & as mindlessly as possible.
we used to hear, 'violence against property isn't violence' because 'we only attack corporate property.'

since now you're trying to burn police to death, i guess we won't be hearing last month's rationalization for
adventurist, dangerous,stupid, jerkoff, thuggish violence
& yes if I were a cop, the blackblockheads is where i'd want to be. . .

"This single biggest issue that needs to be addressed is one that concerns committed non-violence activists themselves. Since Seattle they have, mostly, failed to come up with new non-violent direct action tactics that maintain confrontation between us and our oppressors and adapt to the current way summit are organized.

Those committed non-violent direct action desperately need to abandon the blockade model, and to dismiss the protest march/street party approach as their only response as both are ineffective in disrupting these summits."

you can't develop a movement based on noviolent tactics & confrontation when other people--in the same place, same time are trying to launch the most violent struggle they can provoke, basically trying to kickstart some kind of armed struggle. you haven't realized how both dangerous and PARASITIC on a larger movement your unrestrained, ever-escalating violence really is. . . what's next? bombs? machine guns? & if not, finally, WHY NOT??? what forces or movement are you even morally or politically accountable to, beside your own self-adrenalized circles?

this is a global struggle. so you should learn about resistance from different cultures.
only a few activists' groups recognize the strength of *sound*. in their long and lasting struggle against oppression afroamericans have developed sonic strategies to fight back.

use sound to get the message to the people.
use sound to make them stronger.
use sound to frighten those in power.

learn about the force in the sound of detroit.

whay not call an action all by yourselves?
see who comes.
a blackbloc days of rage.

then you wouldnt be divising by doing violnece in middle
of otehr doing non violents things

ghandi was in no way an anarchist, but the chief of the indian state. he can shove his teachings up his peaceful ass. anyonewhoqoutes ghndi is for me either ignorant or a member of labour party.

1968 failed protest ..... was evryone has a cop within. lets kill him.

2001 seems everyone has a vandal and rioter within. lets turn him in.

progress? dont think so.

i am proud to be a vandal. vandalism is an attack on space that is hostile to man, were it the projects, sky crapers, or streets filled with pigs.

anyone believing in peace revolution, has their eyes glued with corporate media sleepiness.

motloch48@wp.pl

First, a small story:In Gothenburg, when we were surrounded by police cavalry, we were rescued by a samba-band that marched through the police-lines. It was a very strong moment to me, and defined the turning point of that battle,use it marked a counterpoint to the militaristic structure of that demo up til that point. In military terms: We took the initiative, and changed the substance of the demo, became actors instead of stupid reactors to the policeforces obvious wish for *hard confrontation*.

Now, I am not a pacifist, and in the light of what has happened in Genova, it is becoming increasingly hard for anyone to be so, I think. Even my reclaim-the streets friends, who are what most crusty punks would scoff at as middleclass yippies, are beginning to reconsider the fact of the violent spectacle as a necessary part of protest. HOWEVER,I think there are some points that need to be discussed if the Black Block is to have the right to dominate other demonstrators in forms of expression:

1) What exactly are you fighting *FOR*? I know a lot of my friends are sick and tired of sourfaced anarchistic rigidness and face-judging behavior. This movement is not composed of any elite-troops, but is rather a conglomeration of forces and methods, but I do think that we need to have some more focus on what it is we hope to achieve in practical terms. (If we go for Utopia, I think that we might be a wee bit naive).

2) How are we fighting? In Gothenburg the smashing of the Aveny was a obvious tactical mistake, as far as the relations with the locals are concerned. How much of the Black Blocks real politics lies in testosterone, the ravaging horde mentality? Or, in other words: How much of its motivation lies in the actionists pleasure in the moment of combat, and to what extent is it possible to impose some sort of order? This last is important, if the Black Block is to cooperate with any other group and not be pressurized by the fascists to become a terrorist group (as is their obvious intention), we must remain diciplined, and avoid causing physical damage to civilians and as far as possible, to policemen. THE POLICE ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES, the bastard fascists who give them orders, who pronounce the terms "use all necessary force" as part of the order is our enemy, and if we want to fight to win, it is necessary that we do not fall for every police provocation, as we did in Gothenburg on the Friday engagements.

3) At what complexity level are we fighting? This last is of course the strength of the new movement, that we have creativity and beauty and truth on our side, that we are the young and wild who are fed up with their system of ugliness and brutality and evil, we are the smell of flowers against their stench of death, but it is on operational levels we need to examine our actions. In Gothenburg, 100% of the action was focused on the centre, one could propably have had splintergroups holding demonstrations and streetperformances in the trams/satelite towns? One could have had wall-newspapers, and so on?

What I think is necessary also, is to have units of militant non-violence protesters a la Ya Basta, who are capable of turning an offensive action into a defending action. This, as I have understood it, was the case in Seattle, where the area was being defended, not attacked, and that makes a whole different set of tactics available.
This is what I see as the role of the Black Block in the coming demo, if there is to be cooperation with the non-violent, that the block takes areas by direct action, and then the non-violents hold it and get arrested in all their beauty.
What is also important is smiling actions among the local populace, explainiong why things are happening, doing positivist propaganda stunts not aimed at anyone but the recipients (i.e. not the media) so as to hopefully set up a rapport between demonstrators and locals. WHAT SEPARATES US FRONM THE FASCISTS IS THAT WE DO NOT HURT CIVILIANS. That is very important, wich is why Im opposed to destruction of private property in the open hours of the day: If you come to work in the morning and find your work destroyed, then well, its a day off and a case for the insurance, but if you have it smashed around you, it is a personal attack *on you*. And that is something else.

Thats about it, I think ;-) Comments would be appreciated.

Next time, I hope that police will do things right and wipe out shit, black or pink bloc or whatever. Because bloc is just looking for it. If they want violence the police should serve them. WHAT DID THE POOR PROTESTERS EXPECT? IF YOU WOULD COME TO MY TOWN WITH TORCHES AND CLUBS AND MOLOTOVS I WOULD PERSONALY BEAT THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU!!!!!!!! GLOBALIZATION OR NO GLOBALIZATION!!!!!!!!! GO STRUGGLE IN YOUR OWN HOMEYARD!!!!!!!

Companeros, stop to polemic violence vs non violence. It's this anacronistic tradition that exactly has led to present situation of globalise insatisfaction against the horrific religion of money, THE REAL RELIGION, that spread misery of lives not only in 3rd,4rd world but everywere, in places socalled rich countries. Rich for ten percent. NO SOMOS TODOS IGUALES y entonces a los que va de hacer de una manera mas fuerte le van a dar la cara los medio sumetidos, a los pacifistas le dan a de que lagnarse SOLAMENTE. In this moment the capitalism global is without money, there are no dramatic crisis into dramatic countries but at the heart of capitalism: the united states of texan president, the great japan of senor koizumi-richard gere and finally europe that is walking like a drunked in economic term. ES LA HORA DE HACER PROJECTOS CONCRETOS puisque les messieurs qui gouvernent le monde ne sont que la masque du poivoir economique. La lucha sigua!

Yes!! One thing that WILL change things is decisive thought.
Every movement needs a catylist for action, something that gets our collective asses up off our comfortable sofas and starts us DOING something. The catylist for this movement revolves first around a forum - a worldwide forum in which people can interact and bounce their ideas off other thinkers, WITHOUT being limited by the subscriptions of mass-media and their corporate overseers. A worldwide public forum will need to be set up.
There is finally paradigm change on the way. The people of the world, the collective masses no longer have to be force fed what those in power want to feed them. We are getting the power, it is coming slowly but surely, to interact with each other in real time, discussing worldwide situations and their implications on each of us, AND if need be, orchestrating plans for action, both active and passive in conjunction that CANNOT be stopped.
We are all using the key right this very moment - the INTERNET. It's powers of mass forum interaction will need to be expanded exponentially, but the drive that is causing it's expansion now is strictly capitalism and greed. It's powers are almost limitless, but it needs to be pointed in the direction of being a TRUE forum for public discussion enmasse, and having FREE access everywhere, for all people.
Heretofore, each nation has been run by a small, educated minority, among who's principle concerns are keeping themselves in power. With the power of the internet, we can start a system, nation by nation, where the PEOPLE DECIDE WHAT IS BEST FOR THE PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT, and not be dictated to by a very small but awesomingly powerful minority. We may soon have the means to upset the balance of power in favor of the masses. In the US, next election they may try voting for the president by the internet. If that can be done, then it makes sense that the people can also vote in real-time forums on anything that needs to be decided by the government. Heretofore, "government by the people for the people" has been a complete farce. The house and senate can be replaced by a public internet forum, furnishing all the same info to the ppl that congress themselves use to decide things, and then all ppl can vote on those subjects accordingly after reviewing the information at hand.
The present government, the whole juggernaut of people in wash DC, whose profession is politics would not like that transfer of power one bit, and will fight any ideas like the above-mentioned tooth and nail. But 250 million people that have thrown their apathy aside would be an overpoweing force!
So would six billion!!
Apathy sucks!! For anything positive to happen apathy must be substituted with something the people can believe in. Information can be fuel to change people's minds, and jump start them to action. Information that is not watered down by corporate/governmental media systems. Seems a worldwide internet forum where people can discuss how to put such plans into action is needed NOW.
The INDYMEDIA concept is a great start. It shows the potential, but it needs to be carried further...much further. I guess, in essence, it is time to begin.
......PWR2thePPL.......DredLox.

They have all the weapons. Even if those working for global justice did unite in tactics, it is fruitless to try to commit violent acts, i.e. street fighting, in a large demonstration because the police will always win in physical confrontation, and many people get hurt. We can never win as long as any one group (concept, idea, or whatever the hell you want to call the black bloc) is determined to commit acts of violence against anyone at the same time we are all gathered to deliver a message peacefully. Violence wins. Just look at the coverage from Genoa.

Look at us fighting like kids. Snap out of it. We have more important stuff to worry about than how the other one expresses disaproval. We need to stick together.

Look, kids... it's like this. The cops/state/corporations are gonna kill this movement if the Bloc doesn't stop trying to fight on the cops/state/corporations' terms. Sooner or later someone's gonna kill a cop. Now, I am not going to sit here and say there's an absolute moral objection to this action. It will depend on the situational circumstances (self-defense, etc) and one's own beliefs. However, history tells us what comes next.

What'll happen is they'll do the same thing as in the old Haymarket riot where some clown killed a cop and the Man had an excuse to smash the whole left. We still don't even know for sure whether the killer in that one was an agent provocateur. It didn't matter. They executed innocent people over that one. They rounded up every activist they could find. The popular image of anarchists (true of false) dates from the propaganda following this riot.

Like I said on some other IMC, i'm sick of the more violent fringe of the Bloc's hip-hop/punk rhetoric (because that's all it is), and its tough-kidz-rule ageism, and its attitude that only dumbshit street fights against cops with machine guns are acceptable leftist tactics. This is youth/rap culture with a political overlay, not politics with a young outlook as they say.

I don't buy into the Bloc's violent rhetoric for a second. The Bloc has done some good things, and I'm still in solidarity with them, but I keep reading on these IMC's that violence is how real men settle real issues, and how everyone else who says anything else is deluded. What kind of solidarity is it when one group disses another one with the same social goals? That's what I meant when I said grow up.

In this 1/4 super-industrailized society acts of violence by the state should be exposed for what they are, TRAGIC ACTS (ALL OVER THE WORLD) COMMITED BY PAID COWARDS, STEMMING FROM THE GREED OF THE ELITE. When we are forced into violent confrotations with the state we sometimes become a distraction for them. We can't win if they drag us down to there level.
You don't have to resort to violence to get confrontational, to disrupt things. It doesn't make you "fluffy" DON'T FORGET WHO THE TRUE COWARDS ARE!!!

i think everybody knows this ill say it anyway...
PROPERTY DAMMAGE IS NOT VIOLENCE
silence is violence, a life sectence is violence.

remember, ye raging, that this conflict is not a simple local one. it goes far beyond Genoa. nonviolence is not "peer pressure" - it is a viable strategy of *war*. as Ursula Le Guin wrote, "the prize thrown away by the aggressor is compassion...the game is loser take all." this is hard to accept while watching comrades gassed and beaten, but to succumb to anger is to play into the hands of the machine behind the police. whenever that machine gets the chance, it promotes *violence.* it promotes direct, violent confrontation. what little the mass media decides to say about these protests must not be filled with tales of smashed banks and crowbars. with protest, you do not seek to change the minds of the police, or the Hideous Eight...you seek to alert and influence the masses; those who are far from Genoa. think of yourselves as you will be portrayed. think of yourselves as crowds of public relations officers, all striving to portray an exaggerated truth...because in the long run, your factions will be forgotten, and the bloc will blend with everyone else, lumped into "protestors." already the 'bloc' is too complex and diverse to be referred to as a whole.
as for ousting capitalism on a global scale (a humorous idea, do you plan on accomplishing that this week or the next?), i would have to agree, it's not going to happen through peaceful protest events. it won't happen with violence, either. and you say that those of us who remain nonviolent refuse to adapt, so it is up to the violent to create immediate confrontation. what a load of tripe! adaptation is always constant; a protest is a living thing, a womb of seething interplay, as it were. and while diversity of tactics has its place, so does tradition - the foundation of some tactics by which our goals can be recognized. (think of the simple draft-card-burn - a lasting image in american culture). always remember that this is not a war of turf, or of personal, localized conflict. it is the clash of ideas - something far less concrete. adapt your tactics accordingly.

you make a good point James. the movement's tactics need to evolve with police/govt. tactics. I don't have too many answers to those questions, but I would recommend the following books. You can find them used as http://www.alibris.com.

Peter Ackerman & Christopher Kruegler wrote Strategic Nonviolent Conflict: the Dynamics of People Power in the Twentieth Century. It goes over a number of case studies of non-violent social movements that were successful and not and why. The histories they relate give some good ideas for what strategies and tactics worked and why.

Peter Ackerman has recently written "A Force More Powerful: a Century of Nonviolent Conflict" that may be good.

Gene Sharp has written extensively on civilian non-violent defense. Some of his titles are:

The Politics of Nonviolent Action series
Part one: "Power and Struggle", Part two: "The Methods of Nonviolent Action" Part three: "The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action".

Exploring Nonviolent Alternatives.

Gene Sharp was at The Program on Nonviolent Sanctions and Cultural Survival (http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/ponsacs/index.htm). They might have some info.

peace and solidarity,

Jamie

MK is right. Holding information meetings localy is vital to the progress of the movement.

i see myself as a anarchists as well - and i am still not decided about future tactics - its nothing about ideological violant or strictly non violant - i am sure we will neither win as peacefull ducks nor violent streetfighters only - we have to to find and work on a mixture of strong and working actions and movements - addapted on a 21 century world - with fast comunication, coordination, protection and fightig groups and so on - for this time i see genova as a big step for many people and even not so bad - at last it was the most beautiful demonstration of the world - the corso italia - the nice italian palaces on one hand and the see with a lot of little ships on the other hand - even helicopters around us ... well until we had to face some foggy conditions ;)

and we have to know us in a way, that "police friends" will find it harder next time to "infiltrate" - i am still not sure about this - but i think italian police (like all police) did use this element trying to influence movements ...

just let us never forgett what we felt there - this is the most important thing - it was energy! (especially when we got new cold water)

genova libera ;)

HEY FUCKING SELFISH STUPID HIPPIES, HAVE YOU EVEN READ THE MESSAGE THAT STARTED THIS THREAD. IT SEEMS LIKE EVERY FUCKING PACIFIST THAT POSTS ON THE IMC IS NOT EVEN READING WHAT OTHERS WRITE. THEY ARE JUST PREOCCUPIED BY THEIR THOUGHTS AND ARE SO SURE THAT THEIR WAY IS THE BEST THAT THEY ARE READY TO DIVIDE THE MOVEMENT (MAKE US LOSE THE WAR) TO PROVE THAT THEIR MARTYR TECHNIQUE IS BETTER THAN FIGHTING BACK.
IF YOU'RE NOT READY TO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS THAN FUCK YOU AND DIE IN YOUR COMFORTABLE HOMES IN THE WEST! YOUR MESSAGE WILL SPEAK NO LOUDER THAN IT DID.
they(the state) don't listen to you anyway. They don't speak the same language. They speak with violence, only violence will they hear. They don't understand compassion, respect and love just because they don't speak with it. If you want to dialect with them, you must use the same language they use and if it's violence, well violence will be our language. THAT'S WHY THEY REACTED TO OUR TACTIC (BB).

my anger against some hippies may have brought you some exagerated thought of mine, but that do not in anyways affect the principle idea behind this message: READ AND LEARN OF WHAT OTHERS WRITE AND BE CONSTRUCTIVE. STOP HATING US CAUSE WE DON'T THINK LIKE YOU CAUSE YOUR NO BETTER THAN RACIST COPS.(white societies... always) YOU MUST BE ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH EACH OTHER OR ELSE, WE'RE DAMNED!

although i am not at all active in the fight against captalism (at least not yet) i attended the ftaa summit in quebec where i chose to remain mostly with the "peaceful protestors." however i respect and support those who feel it is neccesary to directly confront the police. i also think i do believe a geniune and real change, not just "a softening of the sharpest corners," will come around only when all people can see our world for what it really is. i admit to knowing still very little about anarchism but to me it's potential will only be realized providing people have a true belief in it and determination to work towards it. i'm just afraid (and in most of the protests i've attended i'm always left with the feeling) that focusing on the enemy's stick deflects our attention from fighting their ideas. won't the world's elites just find more and more remote places to conduct their affairs? what then do we do?

Violent and non-violent alike, we gotts to stay united to the end... do what you feel convicted to do... just do not hate your sisters or brothers.