>________________________________
>From: SA <s11131978 at gmail.com>
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2011 1:42 PM
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Occupy Oakland's imminent implosion and the wider effects
>
>On 11/5/2011 2:10 PM, Nicholas Roberts wrote:
>
>> you can see on Indymedia how unpopular this unplanned action and criminal
>> activity masked as radical politics is
>> http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/04/18697383.php
>> http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/11/03/18697018.php
>
>In the first link, the writer says:
>
>> The setting on fire of the barricades was totally unnecessary, and may make it necessary for the city to call for the camp to be cleared; the breaking of windows and vandalizing of businesses which supported the strike was utterly stupid and counterproductive; and watching black bloc-ers run from the cops and not protect the camp their actions had endangered, an action which ultimately left behind many mentally ill people, sick people, street kids, and homeless folks to defend themselves against the police onslaught was disturbing and disgusting in ways I can't even articulate because I am still so angry at the empty bravado and cowardice that I saw.
>>
>> I want people to march on the police. I want them to engage in significant and strategic property destruction, I want them to march on the police station, I want them to show the riot cops that they are not afraid, but I do not want them to do these things at the expense of the truly marginalized. That is what I saw happen last night, and it has made me incandescent with rage.
>>
>> I want to win. I want our building occupations to last. I do not want them to be cleared within hours because a bunch of wild, fucked-up, selfish and wantonly destructive people, not all of whom identify as anarchist or black bloc, need to burn a bunch of shit to get an adrenaline rush by fighting with the cops.
>>
>> Some of our own, including a fellow medic and friend, are in jail today because of their actions, and while I blame the arrests squarely on the cops, I want the black bloc to acknowledge that they created the conditions for that sort of thing to happen.
>>
>> I want better tactics, and I want accountability to the communities that may be impacted by our behavior, and I saw none of that last night.
>>
>> I saw black bloc kids running from the camp while it was under police assault, and as someone who spent about two hours negotiating and assisting in the care of an ostensibly homeless man from the camp, hit by a rubber bullet in the camp, while black bloc kids ran away to their safe homes and made comments like "at least we crushed the place" and "we'll just take it back," I want those kids to be held accountable to the damage that they did, damage made possible by their class and race privilege.
>>
>> This letter was born out of anger and disgust at what I saw, but it also comes from a place of wanting to engage on these issues. I think that there is a place for these sorts of tactics in our movement, but they must not be guided by grandiose notions of anarchist glory, mob rule, and unfocused rage.
>
>So what should be done? Have there been any practical ideas about how to put a stop to this kind of thing?
>
>SA
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