Color of Anarchism Re: Protest ISO...

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 8:05 PM -0800 1/2/03, Brian O. Sheppard x349393 wrote:
>  > When blacks truly riot violently on their own as in Cincinnati, white
>>  anarchists, many of whom relish the mystique of street battles with
>>  the police, are nowhere to be found in the riot.
>
>Actually, this isn't exactly true. Before I knew much about 
>anarchism, my main contact with anti-capitalist culture was, as 
>Chuck0 has mentioned, through the US punk scene. When the LA Riots 
>happened, the long-running leftist punk journal, Maximum 
>Rock-n-Roll, carried an issue of photosfrom the riots, and actually 
>did document scenes of white, crusty punk rioters in the thick of 
>it, ripping up cars and such (kind of funny in retrospect, and it 
>did reek of the kind of tokenism justly assailed on the list 
>recently). The Cincinnati riots also did prompt a fast mobilization 
>by the mostly white ARA of the area.

The LA riots and the Cincinnati riots were quite different in the 
demographics of rioters: the former were multiracial (the largest 
majority of the arrested were Latinos, with a significant white 
participation) whereas the latter were practically all-black.  It 
says something about the difference between Los Angeles and 
Cincinnati.  The Cincinnati riots prompted much discussion of 
non-participation of non-blacks in the riots, among anarchists and 
other leftists in Ohio.  Non-black anarchists and other leftists did 
mobilize in response to police brutality, but not during the three 
days of riots in the midst of Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati.

At 8:05 PM -0800 1/2/03, Brian O. Sheppard x349393 wrote:
>Historically, as even you have conceded, the anarchist movement 
>developed most fully in Latin nations - Spain, Italy, Mexico, on the 
>periphery of white European capitalism. In these peripheral areas 
>where anarchism developed, the peoples were regarded as "swarthy" or 
>Mediterranean and just downright inferior by the eugenics-influenced 
>whites of the time. The well-known anarchist figures from that era - 
>Sacco and Vanzetti, Ricardo Flores Magon, Praxedis G Guerrero, 
>Enrique Magon, buttressed the commonly held idea that anarchism was 
>an "immigrant's" philosophy, a dangerous foreigner idea that 
>threatened Americanism.

Those were the days when anarchists were mainly anarcho-syndicalists. 
Outside the USA, anarcho-syndicalism may be still the main form of 
anarchism.  Within the USA, though, syndicalism does not appear to be 
the dominant tendency -- nay, it appears to be a marginal tendency in 
anarchism.  That may be in itself a problem.

At 8:05 PM -0800 1/2/03, Brian O. Sheppard x349393 wrote:
>  > Folks in the black bloc appear to show up at demos mainly populated
>>  by others who don't share their ideology and use the crowds as cover
>>  for their vandalizing, maneuvering themselves so they won't
>>  (hopefully) get arrested, leaving the crowds to fend for themselves
>>  when the police riot.  It's the non-anarchist crowds who are left
>>  holding the bag.  The boy who was killed in Genoa, Carlo Giuliani,
>>  was not a member of the black bloc.
>
>What you say is true (I share this criticism of black blocs, that 
>they often parasitically use the mass of the protest as a 
>springboard for their own unaccountable activites) - except for the 
>absurd insinuation that black blocs caused Guiliani's death. 
>Guiliani was killed by violent Italian cops, not black boc'ers.

I didn't mean to imply that the black bloc _caused_ Giuliani's death. 
The police riot all the time -- even in response to non-political 
crowds, like out-of-control party-goers after OSU football games here 
-- with or without provocation from the crowds.  I'm just saying that 
black-bloc-style maneuvers didn't help, when the police meant 
business.  Black blockers and other anarchists might have to 
reconsider their tactics.  Are their tactics related to any long-term 
goal and strategy for social change at all?
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>