We might look like a spectacle to leftists who are frustrated by their continued marginality. Like it or not, the militant tactics pursued by anarchists at protests, along with our more boring activism, have drawn many new people into anarchism and radical activism in general. We are out their building a movement instead of sitting on our asses waiting for the "right historical moment" to arrive.
> The public vandalism strategy isn't designed to convert people to the
> left, but to recruit existing leftists to the anarchist fringe.
Nope. From my discussions with anarchists involved with the BB, conversion of leftists from the leftist fringe is not a big priority.
> Of course its a problem for the wider left, in the sense that the
> purpose of the larger demonstrations often subverted by Black Bloc
> tactics are undermined. That wider left strategy of course is to
> generate public support for various particular causes. The anarchist
> Black Bloc is at odds with that because its demonstrations are not aimed
> at influencing the public, but the participants in the demo. They are
> preaching to the choir.
This is nonsense. The people who use the black bloc tactic are interested in communicating to the public to some degree. Just read any of the communiques issued by black blocs. In fact, right now I'm trying to edit and slim down a 500-page book of black bloc communiques and articles down to something which can be published.
Chuck Infoshop News