----- Original Message ----- From: "info" <info at j12.org> To: <aut-op-sy at lists.village.virginia.edu> Sent: Sunday, July 22, 2001 4:01 AM Subject: RE: AUT: Re: Black Bloc attacks Cobas, Rete Lilliput?
"Franco wrote: i personally thing they should be isolated in any expression of the anti-capitalist movement. I hope I'll be able to send a description of yesterday's battle from my perspective tomorrow.
My response: I am amazed by the stuff I am reading here. What do you want, Cheka officers liquidating them? They are as much a product of the antithesis to capitalism as other parts of the anti-capitalist movement? Where do you people live?"
Franco wrote: Listen, man, no one is talking of liquidating anyone here, and if you want to criticise me you are appreciated to do it on what I have actually argued
My response: Well what do you mean by isolation in any expression of the anti-capitalist movement? Does this not mean identifying such people throwing them out of meetings, social centres, demonstrations. And should an anti-capitalist movement succeed denying them access to the wonderful new society so created???
Franco wrote: (by the way, in the past two days I have lived in Genoa, which can't be said of you, judging from your level of theoretical abstraction).
I am sure the fact that you have 'lived' in Genoa for the past two days is no excuse for your patronising attitudes.
The police shot a man in London on Monday. At a protest in Brixton there was a confrontation with the police and shops were looted. I don't think cars were set on fire this time. Certainly this happened in 1981 and 1985 and also during the anti-poll tax rising of 1991.
Franco wrote: As for what to do with these guys of the BBs, what I wrote is based on the *practice* I saw there: when they materialised they've been kicked out of the demo. Period. The fact that they are 'produced by the contradictions of capitalism' (and, BTW, how many anti-global capitalism from the far right are produced in the same way as well? Do we 'understand' them also?) is quite little to justify their presence in contexts where they fuck up actions, collude with the police, jeopardise the lives of comrades on the ground.
My response: Why do you use such juridical words as 'justify'? After Seattle, Prague and Gothenburg anyone with any political nous could work out that they would be there 'justified' or not. Therefore it is necessary to work out how to deal with them and their politics. (BTW it is equally necessary to understand the far right, particularly those sections who are currently trying to nussle up to the anarchists).
Franco wrote: Really, REALLY, two days ago Genoa's streets were not the best place to chat on what the antitheses of capitalism produce.
My response: The separation of action from theory which permeates your posting is a recipe for an uncookable cake.
As regards your later posting I feel this is much better considered - although I feel that the term 'demential' more appropriate than fascist. Clearly the links between anarchism and fascism have been long established and the shenangins of the Black Block fit in with a Bakuninist agenda - a shadowy unidentifiable group constituting itself as the invisible pilot in the eye of the storm. Combining a refusal to have any dealings with the press, this tendency revels in their ability to grab the headlines with pictures of torched cars and smashed windows. Then they applaud themselves as their mythical enemies in the press glorify/vilify the anarchists as the most important tendency in the protests. i.e. they use the very media they profess to despise to promote the shallowest depiction of themselves into the social imagination.
As for cop infiltration, this is a standard line which is produced time and time again. Where is the evidence? Without some real evidence why waste time on this discussion. It is the Black Block's double standards which are troubling here: now they constitute a collectivity, now they deny it disavowing actions they do not like as the work of different individuals. Just as they use other demonstrators to hide behind, their masks may or may not provide something for the others to hide behind. The excuse that individuals want to hide their identities from the authorities when engaged in confrontation displays their lack of a 'theoretical abstraction' which goes beyond having a punch up with the police.
In Prague there were three columns marching on the meeting, with the Blue including the Black Block. This at least had the merit of allowing the Black Block to take responsibility for its own actions (which showed not least their failure to grasp even the rudiments of street fighting). Your proposal of isolation will only serve to perpetuate their political infantilism by institutionalising them as outcasts.
Fabian
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