> It seems like a small thing, I know. It's tempting for we leftists to say
>"Hey, cool, the Black Bloc was too tough for the cops in Seattle." But the
>problem is that the cops are saying the same thing. Then they use that logic
>to deny people their right to assemble, cordon off legitimate protest and
>reduce it to a sideshow. Not only that, our accepting the police mantra of
>"we need more force" encourages them to forget about real policing and just
>turn more military. When people see cops in riot lines they should not
>think "attempt to maintain order"; they should think "bad policing,
>oppression and incitement".
That's what people did see in the civil rights protests in the 60's. Because faced with a police force that responded to protests with violent repression, the strategy was to stage exaggerated pacifist style protests. People saw this on the TV and were horrified by the "violent repression". I imagine history would have been somewhat different if the Black Bloc had turned up to the civil rights demos and decided to run around breaking windows, frightening old ladies and small children.
The purpose of public demonstrations is always to positively influence public opinion, sometimes provoking the people in power is a good way to do that. But obviously if the provocation itself merely serves to re-inforce negative public attitudes it is counter-productive. The Black Bloc tactics does provoke the authorities to reveal their true repressive nature, but unfortunately in the process it also goes a long way towards actually *justifying* such repression. From the cops point of view, if the Black Bloc didn't exist, they'd have to invent them and it seems they sometimes do just that - getting a few undercover cops to dress up in Black and wander around indulging in threatening behaviour.
I'm familiar with this tactic of corralling demonstrators and using massive police numbers to prevent protests though. I was in Queensland during the 1970's, where a minority right-wing government had banned all protest marches. It was a fascinating experience for a young fellow like me, every few weeks another big rally would be called and Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen's government would mobilise thousands of cops from all over the state to come into Brisbane to prevent us from marching down the street.
Joh was a phenomenon. His government (politically somewhere to the right of Pauline Hanson, except that Joh's people were quite fond of attracting Japanes money) held power for about 30 years with never more than just under 40% of the vote, sometimes as little as about 27%. Due to an electoral gerrymander first put in place by an earlier Labor government early in the 20th century. (That may have been Red Ted Theodore's Labour government, can't recall exactly. Queensland was the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party.) As a matter of fact my missus went to school with Joh's daughter and like a lot of people from Joh's home town of Kingaroy she had a sneaking admiration for him. (She was also a fellow Lutheran, so I guess that helped.) Joh's government was not brought down until after an expose of of police corruption and kick-backs from the Brisbane sex industry, but that's yet another story. Joh was a bit brighter than George W Bush, but that isn't saying much, his relationship with the police was his downfall. It seems likely that he was somewhat taken in by a a copper that everyone in Queensland knew was corrupt, one who had been exiled to remote Charleville by the top brass. This cop appealed to Joh, promised to do his dirty work for him and Joh finished up making him Commissioner. But Joh needed a compliant police force, so of course it was very much in his political interests to believe this cop who was happy to comply with Joh's politically corrupt misuse of the police.
Anyhow, Joh's chance to save his political bacon by banning political protest marches came as a result of protests against a touring South African football team. There had been some very rowdy protests in the southern states I seem to recall. Then some organiser made an off-hand remark something along the lines that there would be "blood in the streets" if the Springbok tour went ahead and Joh saw his chance to grandstand as the saviour of Queensland. Queensland had to endure another 20 years of Joh's corrupt and repressive minority government, due at least in part to a careless remark.
Loose talk does cost lives. Ill-considered tactics can have serious consequences. Perhaps ChuckO can explain what the strategy and objectives of the Black Bloc is then, if I've got it all wrong?
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas