if you can't see fascism in the modern neoliberal state, well, then, good luck to you. Personally, I think we are sinking in it, its maybe more like Peronism. But its creeping throughout Europe and what is the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Fox News, constant war breeding? Nothing, if not fascism. Perhaps the country is proto-fascist. But there are aspects and elements and sectors of the society that would have to be considered fascist.
No, Oakland is not Genoa. The European Black Bloc are serious operators, the black bloc here, are amateurs. As evidenced by Wed night. They didn't even hold the building. The ones that didn't get arrested ran back to the camp and hid among the homeless people and others in the camp.
As I have said ad nauseum, they used the good will of the camp and the OO coalition to try to flip realestate, to upgrade, to gentrify into a nice warm social center. They where looking to move from a campsite that was previously occupied by mentally ill, homeless, alcoholic etc to a former homeless shelter. So if that's not opportunistic I dont know what is. Black activists are on KPFA complaining that their very worthy anti-prison work, anti-eviction work, etc etc is losing out to the better advertised OO.
The reason I am even talking about this is, 1. I was at the demo and I am pissed off, like many people, that I am now associated with a secret and failed action that had no real community support 2. there where already loads of internal contradictions in the OO camp, the broader coalition, and to discover that a Black Bloc, riot porn machismo has taken hold of toughs of the camp, well, its the activist equivalent of letting a drunken teenage boy and his mates get into a car, you'd try real hard not to let them do it, to the point of physical restraint
The OO Black Bloc have done exactly what the cops and business leaders and reactionaries have wanted all along, for them to fuck up, smash shit (or at least create a space for other kids to do it), loot, burn, and get sloppy. They've not just done it alone. They implicated everyone else who was there i.e. 40 000 people.
The Berlusconi's Mousetrap points out that the Black Bloc (the real Black Bloc, not the Bay Area Black Bloc lite) play an important role in a reactionary state. They are the bogey man, the internal enemy, that will destroy the country from within. So the cycle of provocation, the damage and violence, has an important function. The Black Bloc are used to justify reactionary fascist statism. And in that movie, they very clearly say that themselves.
>From the OO Black Bloc, we are still getting high-school bullshit like the
cops hit me first, or they are the really violent ones, or, its just a few
windows, those capitalists are scum anyway. etc etc
Glenn Beck must be stoked. Its a whole new world for fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Isn't it obvious ? I am done.