Yeah, I would concur. I was pretty surprised at the gender and ethnic make-up of the black bloc. The ethnic make-up was probably better than the Mobilization as a whole, although the gender ratio was perhaps a bit smaller. Folks should keep in mind that the Mobilization for Global Justice had a gender ratio that tilted in favor of the women, which I found very refreshing.
It's not exactly easy to tell who's who in a black bloc, with all the masks being used. One of the women in my affinity group, Lyn, is a 40-something activist from upstate New York. I'm sure that many of the women were from Philadelphia and New York City. Right after the incident with the fences on 14th Street, I ran into a small affinity group of young people from Pittsburgh. One of the guys had been hit across the face. There was a young woman with them who stood there in her gask mask trying to chill out after the cops had held her down and hit her repeatedly. She'd been hit in the face, but she showed me an ugly bruise on her shin. If I'd gotten something that bad during soccer, I'd be whining for an ambulance.
On Monday, I ran into the remnants of the black bloc near GWU. At this point, a young latino woman from Los Angeles seemed to be coordinating things.
While the black bloc had a male majority, you can't argue that these men have a lot of male privilege. These are guys who are mostly punk rockers who have probably been pushed around throughout their lives by other guys.
-- << Chuck0 >>
This was the year *everything* changed.
-- Commander Ivanova, 2261
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