the Black bloc participants that got played by Berlusconi's strategy of tension say the same, we cannot be predictable, then we become a tool of a fascist state. Also, it wasn't just fascist hooligans, it was probably undercover, neo-fascists and certainly the insurrectionary anarchists themselves... its absolutely impossible to distinguish them in a massive demo gone feral
the same dynamic as Genoa has de-mobilise the recent Italian street mass-actions http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Italy-cracks-down-on-anarchists-after-riot-2221126.php
check-out Facebooks lovely riot-porn page, http://www.facebook.com/riot.porn
if the Black Bloc really where "revolutionary" would they have a nicely curated Facebook profile?
come-on, all this nostalgia for street spectactle is like spectator sports on TV.. it activates parts of the brain that give pleasure and fear, its a masturbational fantasy
-----------
regarding the roll-back on public education and private universities; I've spent some time at UC Berkeley lately, I live nearby and study at a much humbler community college network that feeds the great institution...
I must say, at talks I've been to, there is a kind of liberal imperialism, California-libertarian-utopianism, a neoliberal monoculture that is all pervasive. This worldview might work in a hegemonic state, but imho, 1973 was the peak, and its been all down-hill...
sure the US can destroy anything anywhere, but that only gets you so far... and for those paying 100 k for education that downloads a mindset of neoliberal fantasy, when the world is demonstrating a much more interesting and dangerous dynamic, well, they can have it
the planners and managers of empire's days are numbers, at least with a technical, place-based education/trade like mechanic, plumber etc, the pay might be shit, but the job cant be outsourced/offshored
the managerial and intellectual class in the US will soon learn that those pesky Indians and Chinese actually invented civilization, and despite the English empires success as temporary pauperization, they will be back and they will run the world -- Nicholas Roberts US 510-684-8264 http://Permaculture.TV http://permaculture.coop