<< What exactly happened Thursday night? I've been pretty outspoken about
the ISO because I saw this coming. They are like the vampires of the
Left. They smell fresh blood (i.e. new radicalism) and have to suck the
energy out of the host. They are so focused on their goals that they
don't realize what they are killing. >>
To this day I'm not quite positive what happened. However, when we all marched to the jail (an already anti-climatic evening-did we even wait for the departure of the delegates?) there was a point in which two men tried to push us back (the Black Bloc) and at the time it caused total confusion. We kept pushing forward and broke free of these guys. The rest of the marchers were kept back by yellow tape and we decided to wait for them. The two men were telling the rest of them to stay there and leave the Black Bloc.
I wasn't sure at first whether they had been just trying to keep the whole group from going or they were trying to separate the BB from everyone else. Later, I found out it was the latter for some reason. On the d2k listserv I understand that it was the ISO that was doing this to us. At the jail, the "leaders" refused to let the BB speak until someone basically just got on stage and plead for people stay at the jail for vigil. The "leaders" told everyone that people could stay if they wanted but made it pretty clear they were leaving (and a lot of other comrades left too). The cops had us surrounded so it appeared the organizers wanted out of there ASAP.
Now, I guess the ISO is targeting the Black Bloc and many within it are calling for the movement to push the BB out. I understand some of the criticism of the water bottles, etc. that were thrown Monday night--many people didn't think it was fair anarchists brought all the concert goers into the melee by doing that--but it's also unfair for the authoritarian groups to decide who stays and who goes...and to try to feed us to the pigs in order to appease its hunger.
Overall, as you can tell by the message, the entire night was confusing. What exactly was happening I still don't know--just trying to figure out what the ISO is up to. Mike