[lbo-talk] Seattle redux

Chuck0 chuck at mutualaid.org
Sat Oct 4 08:06:06 PDT 2003


Bill Bartlett wrote:


> As I said, the other protestors are the target audience of the black bloc. There's apparently no interest whatsoever in the wider aims of the protest.

To some extent the other protesters are the audience, but black blocs are organized to promote the goals of the protest, to show that anarchist are involved, and to create visibility in the media for the protest and the movement. Black blocs have also provided support and solidarity for other protesters. And black blocs smash some stuff up every once in a while.


> Yes. It seems we don't have any disagreement about the basic facts. The promotion of "more militant tactics and attitude" by other protestors is what I said. Obviously it would be pointless for a black bloc to stage a stand alone protest, the whole strategy as Chuck explains it only makes sense in the context of a larger protest comprised of people from other tendencies. It would seem silly to stage a protest merely to promote "more militant tactics and attitude" by yourself, or to "provide solidarity and mutual aid" to your own people.

Right. Black blocs are mostly used in the context of bigger protests. I'd just say that what you are saying is the purpose of the black bloc is one purpose, but not the most important one.

<< Chuck0 >>

Homepage -> http://chuck.mahost.org/ Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Monumental Mistake (blog)-> http://chuck.mahost.org/weblog/index.php Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ MutualAid ISP -> http://www.mutualaid.org/ Infoshop Portal -> http://portal.infoshop.org/ Infoshop Science -> http://science.infoshop.org/ AIM: AgentHelloKitty

"...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)



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list