blocs
Autor: Bem-Te-Vi | Publicado: 2012-02-12T04:19:00-02:00

First, to get some terms clarified right away, "black bloc" describes most specifically a tactic, not necessarily a group of people. In an article like this one, where he talks about "Black Bloc anarchists" being the cancer on the occupy movement, the person is referring to a shifting group of people who have participated in actions using this tactic there and/or elsewhere. Many of these people might be anarchists, several others might not, there are sure to be a couple of undercover cops there in large groups, and ultimately, we might agree that it is not a particularly successful tactic at organizing a mass movement. The problem is that there is an un-specifiable contradiction in the occupy movement being at the same time leaderless and horizontal, and shunning then a commitment to diversity of tactics as one would for free speech. So, there stands the fact that as long as occupies around the place continue to refuse organizing, an organization for political organizing, there will be "black blocs" and all kinds of other things, anarchist or not. Organizing does not restrict itself to the formation of political organizations, by any means, in fact it applies most directly to organizing one's own social activities, housing and nutrition for every family, productive role in your community (something similar but better to what most people think of as "employment"), so forth and so on. Different and better ways to use all the great things we have learned and accomplished so far, and this time in a direction of our choosing for the common benefit of all. This could be anarchy, but I digress. The point is that there are many very serious anarchists in Oakland and elsewhere who get a very bad rep from badly construed generalizations of diatribes like this one against "Black Bloc anarchists". Indeed, the occupy movement has suffered much from getting used as background for vanguardist and spontaneist attempts at struggle using such tactics sure to instigate a riot by the police. But so have many occupies suffered much from harassing, driving away, and even turning in to the police many serious anarchists, being accused exactly along the lines of this article against the cancerous "Black Bloc anarchists", when in fact most of the people they marginalized were far more experienced and dedicated to organizing than the white-breat spring-chickens that just budded with the occupy movement. They were running soup kitchens for years for the homeless community, they were running CopWatch and medics for years before any of these people knew that police brutality could happen to them, and they were the only ones organized to provide legal and jail support (e.g. in Denver) when the occupy camp was raided the first couple of times. But the ones who shunned "cancerous" anarchists of all stripes because they opposed only taking actions with permits, opposed a cordon of peace-police around every march that would impinge even on people's freedom of speech and shout them down from using "violent" language, and so on... So, let's get serious now. A blogger is not going to contribute one iota towards the cure for this "cancer" bitching about it the way he does. The use of "black bloc" tactics is a resort of generally well-meaning young people who are given neither support by the majority of people who generally agree with the occupy movement but refuse to escalate their taunting into a popular uprising (as in Tunisia and Egypt, for example), nor are they given the training and courage or necessity to use more effective tactics that are less about building a movement than inflicting direct damage on the opponent. In places where movements take shape alongside more well established organizing around certain issues or places, for example the anti-nuclear movement in Germany, you might find "black blocs" being deployed for years of confrontation with the transportation of nuclear material to supply plants that still cause significant economic costs and political embarrassment for the political-economic elite, and similar tactics used in a variety of other struggles, sometimes tapping successfully into the broader movement that ultimately forces a political compromise of policy reform at the state, or if the hole is even lower (as we say in Brazil), then certainly the people resorting to this kind of action would need a serious organization, training, or dire need to cultivate their spontaneism and vanguardism into something truly revolutionary. So.... it is time to get organized! :)