[lbo-talk] nuts watching nuts (smashing windows)

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Tue Jul 12 08:26:27 PDT 2005


----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck0" <chuck at mutualaid.org>
>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.

And accomplishing what? Drug gangs have recruited more people than the anarchists with their attractive, riske illegal actions, so I guess they are far more important than anyone else?

The criticism of the black bloc tactics is that of course they are attractive to people. It looks like typical juvenile antics and the public treats it as such.

The reason Martin Luther King Jr. et al civil disobediance was so effective is that it DIDN'T look like fun, but showed political and moral discipline that sent a strong political message.


> 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.

And who will bother to read it outside the anarchist fringe itself? It was precisely because of the discipline of MLK et al that people wanted to read his Letter from Birmingham and other communiques of the civil rights movement.

Who wants to read the perceived rantings of what are seen as juvenile deliquents? That's the image you choose to cultivate in the public mind and that's how you get treated.

-- Nathan Newman



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