So What's Up with the Masks?: Anarchists, the Black Bloc, and Working Together

SO, WHAT’S UP WITH THE MASKS?:
THE BLACK BLOC, ANARCHISTS, AND WHY WE LOVE YOU…
Who we are: We are living breathing, caring, and loving people just like you. Like you, we want a world that is full of justice, cooperation, peace, and sustainability. We are anarchists, and we are working for a society that is free from all hierarchal structures; social and political. We believe in democracy in it’s most direct form, and we also strongly believe that a truly democratic society must be especially democratic in the workplace. We want anti-authoritarian decentralized communities, and worker owned, controlled, and run workplaces, schools, and institutions.

What we are not: Violent, fascist, stupid, belligerent thugs. Anarchists (mainly), are against all forms of violence on humans, the earth, and animals. We want a world where people are not threatened by force to act or produce, and a society without the coercion of brutal systems of control. We consider ourselves to be open and thoughtful, and you may have heard a well respected anarchist speak/talk named Noam Chomsky. Most anarchists you meet, are constantly on a unending journey, trying to find the inner and outer forms of domination and control that not only exist in the world, but within each of us.

“Anarchists do nothing but destroy”: What about the effect of the anarchist movement and the fight for the 8-hour day? Where would America be without the anarchista Emma Goldman’s struggle for reproductive freedom and the forming of the ACLU? What about the anarchist influences on Zapata, and the 27th amendment to the Mexican Constitution? Have you seen us on your street corners, helping the homeless and hungry in our collectives of Food Not Bombs? Have you seen the brave women and men that risk it all to tell racists, “Not in our town!”, in Anti-Racist Action groups? Have you heard of the fearless people that put their freedom on the line to liberate animals in research labs, as part of the Animal Liberation Front? Anarchists wish to create within the shell of the old. We wish to falsify all that which has no validity within our communities, and destroy that which makes us nothing more than the labor force we rent ourselves out as. We do, and will stand up to power and capital and not simply be happy with “reform”, we will except reform, but we will only be satisfied with liberation, revolution, and freedom. Our tactics in getting there may unfortunately cause a problem within the community working for social change, and for this, we are sorry. But we stand firm in our belief that human beings are not meant to be used as pawns for people that by birth our are equals. Our goals may be lofty to some, but to us, they are simply logical. We stand firm in our belief that we have grounds for revolutionary struggle, and the freedom to uproot, disband, and if necessary break down forces that seek to coerce, control, or hold illegitimate authority over our lives.

TACTICS, QUESTIONS, ANSWERS, AND WORKING TOGETHER:
“But why the masks? Why the Black?” : The black bloc wears masks, and dresses mainly in black to avoid police detection, and identification. In the wake of 9/11, the US government has passed into law such acts at the Patriot Act, and the Homeland Security Act. These laws will make it easier for the federal government to detain, hold, and prosecute you, without due process of law. Also, we have seen the amount of video documentary that police engage in, and see this as a way of them identifying activists. The masks and black allow us to stay anonymous. Although some would say we are cowards for not showing our faces, we are simply afraid of the legal implications of our arrests.
What is the black bloc goal?: That is up to the people inside of each group. Goals for different blocks may vary. It may be as simple as handing out flyers to a certain group, or as complicated as setting up barricades to help protect people from rubber bullets. Black blocs generally want to raise the level of the protest to becoming a revolutionary setting, while making sure not to endanger those that do not want to participate. In doing this they have to protect themselves and others from police, and create an atmosphere of revolutionary possibility.
How do Black Blocs help in large protests?: So your group has just locked down, and things don’t look so good. The cops are coming fast with the pepper spray and you have no help, or your friend has just been arrested, or you have been standing outside this fence in front of this meeting for two hours, and not a thing has changed…Who is going to help you? Black bloc like tactics, can and do help people. Black blocs can help people doing CD by protecting or distracting, help older and less nimble folks out of the fray of police violence, “un-arrest” people caught by police, and create an environment that will move a boring protest on to a possibly revolutionary setting.
“But isn’t property destruction violent and wrong, and bad PR?”: If you ask most anarchists this they will probably say, “Property destruction isn’t violent, because it’s destroying a non-living object”. Property destruction in black blocs, is a way of hurting corporations and state institutions, and/or a way of getting a message across. Anarchists at the WTO protests in Seattle targeted corporations that had put on the non-democratic meeting, anarchists in England destroy property belonging to Huntington Life Sciences while protesting it’s killing of 500 animals a day, and anarchists in San Francisco smashed windows of the INS building in anger of the deportations of Arab-Americans. We know that mindless destruction isn’t going to help us, and there are fools in “black” sheep clothing out there, but for most of us we are trying to get out a message, and to hurt the ever centralizing political and economic powers that are gaining more and more power over our lives. On one hand we want to hurt a target economically by causing it physical damage, and on the other, we want to bring attention to it. We believe in non-violence, this is why we only destroy property!
“I still don’t think that we can work together”: No, we must! For we must see as activists linked by many common goals, that we both fill niches in the grand scheme of liberation. “It is a good thing to take up the struggle for freedom, it is also a good thing to make mistakes, and learn from them in that struggle. How else would we come to know ourselves?” See you on the other side my friend, either in the darkest dungeons, or staring at the bluest skies. We’ll meet together one day, and we’ll forget all of our silly quarrels, because on that day, we’ll be free.
FOR A RE-CONECTION TO LIFE VIST: http://www.crimethinc.com http://www.raisethefist.com http://www.nocompromise.org
http://www.indymedia.org http://www.directaction.info http://www.infoshop.org