> I disagree that that's the only possible solution, though it is a good one.
> I've had a fair amount of luck persuading such brickthrowers of their
> counterproductivity by way of personal discussion away from the barricades.
> No one likes to be seen as a coward, and conveying just how the mass of
> activists see those who toss bricks from the back of the crowds, leaving the
> Mothers Against Whatever on the front lines to walk on the broken glass and
> eat billy clubs, is, I've found, an effective thought-provoker. And the half
> dozen or so people I've talked to aren't much compared to the mass, but who
> knows how few we might have to persuade to deprive those mobs of critical
> mass?
What are you, some kind of peace nazi? There are perfectly legitimate reasons to throw bricks at windows. This tactic can be part of a short term or long time strategy. Yes, there is a time and place for these tactics, but it is a tactic that is effective and used around the world.
> Given time, a few in the Black Blocs will become long-term, committed,
> effective radical activists who've rejected the cartoon cult bombthrower
> image. (The majority of their peers will likely go to work with Dad in a few
> years.) I was one of the brickthrowers twenty-five years ago: I'm glad a
> couple of old folks in their early thirties sat me down for a lesson in
> history, rather than consigning me to Enemy Of The People status.
I find this cartoon characterization of the black bloc to be extremely offensive and totally inaccurate. I know many of the people who participate in black blocs. Most of them are long-term committed activists, who do lots of activism work when they aren't marching with the black bloc. What's more, your suggestion that black blockers are all young rioters is false given that many of us are older, perhaps your age. Of course, most of those that do the black are younger, but in my experience the hotheads tend to be older. When you get older and have been fucked around enough on the job or by the police, more militant tactics become more palatable.
I can't tell you the number of times I've wanted to go out and trash something during my current job search.
Let me describe what your attitude really represents: a patronizing ageist attitude based on your comfortable life as a citizen in an advanced Western country.
I dare you to take your "lesson in history" to the Philippines and Argentina and explain to those people who are trashing banks and capitalist outlets that they need to grow up.
Chuck0
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the left is still trying to form committees."
-- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)