Police infiltration is a problem, but can also backfire on them.
Already, as things are heating up in Genoa, there are accusations and reports of police infiltration of the "Black Bloc". There is no doubt that these reports are likely true, but the most damaging effect they can have is to create distrust between the various groups thaking part in the actions.
Contra to this, provoking violence is a poor strategy on the part of police. Since Seattle, the Black Blocs (aka the Revolutionary Anti-capitalist Blocs) have continually embarassed police attempts to protect the various gathers of the ruling class, helping to keep attention focused on the problem of "globalization from above", while advocating a working class "globalization from below" to smash capitalism and create a world community based on the autonomy and solidarity of communities and the "free social individual".
So, in this sense police acting as provacatuers within the Black Blocs can only be counter productive, as more and more people ignore the corporate media and seek out the truth via the internet, autonomous community centers, activist gatherings, etc. because of continued focus being put on the workings of capitalism in its new supra-national global phase.
Without the spectecles created by the Black Blocs, it is likely that the corporate media would have long ago started ignoring this movement, and fewer people would know that there are other alternatives. And it is important to keep in mind, when discussing the corporate media and its attention on us, that if they pay any attention to protests they always try to make the protesters out to be naive and simple, even idiotic. So it makes no sense to argue that our "message is being distorted by violent protests"... our message will be distorted no matter what we do. So, if they are going to make us look bad anyway, it makes a lot more sense to focus on distruption and possibly sutting down these meetings, or other similar actions.
However, the ways in which police infiltration helps destroy the present movement is by creating an air of distrust and suspicion between protesters and between protesters and their communities. The police are able to effectively play on the emotional rsponses of pacifists against the "violence" of the Black Blocs in an attempt to drive a wedge between pacifists and non-pacifists, thereby damaging the movement's effectiveness by diminishing the numbers, disabling communication and isolating non-pacifists.
This isolation is itself highly problematic for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that pacifists and non-pacifists each make up a minority within the movement, while the majority seem to be either undecided or tactically attuned to either way of acting depending on the situation. So, by isolating those prepared to be violent, a sort of witchhunt is created within the movement that makes violent action taboo. The most likely result of this is that the movement as a whole will become marginalized as it ceases to be a threat to the workings of capitalism and gets bogged down in the reformist hamster-wheel.
Now, how can we avoid this problem? The answer is simple: Understand that the true agent-provacatuers are those who seek to divide the movement. Create a security culture within your collectives and affinity groups, but do not let this security culture isolate you from others. Find ways to work with people you disagree with on common projects, while agreeing to disagree on others. Keep open the channels of discussion and debate, without letting them degenerate into name-calling forums full of baseless accusations (i.e. "everyone participating in violent action is an idiot", or conversely "everyone participating in non-violent action is an idiot", etc.). This is the essence of autonomy and solidarity.
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