There are plenty of opportunities everyday for direct action, physical confrontation with illegitimate authority i.e. eviction solidarity work... but instead its the opposite, its occupy, occupy, occupy. Its a form of left fascist (national anarchist) colonization. Gentrifiers call it homesteading, the black and colored communities have other names for it. Remember homesteaders where settler-colonists who took aboriginal land, following genocide.
I think the fetish for property damage is demonstrating a racist contempt, in a doctrinaire cloak, for the real problems of real Oaklanders. My guess is, next time it happens, you will see a lot more peace police action, i.e. union men, and everyday people taking direct action to stop it, physically, and it may even mean handing over these idiots over to the police. I witnessed a anarchist crying about this possibility and imploring a crowd and another accusing the peace police (i.e citizen protestors who dont want criminal action and are prepared to stop it with force) of violence. Well yes, it is violence, against criminals posing as anarchist making a political statement, I even had an anarchist exhort Cuba as an example of violent revolution. Kind of embarrassingly I had to tell him, that there isn't much anarchism in Cuba, or much of the socialist states in Latin America. In Cuba, Che removed them.
Its cowardly, stupid and racist behavior, which makes me think they are either fools or provocateurs. In the Bay Area, being an infiltrator or provocateur would be one of the easiest beats in all of US counter-intelligence. It would be so easy. There is a cliquey, insider, sub-culture that is impervious to reality. Its racist because the respressive police response is felt by the wider community and that community is people of color.
The OO camp needs to take a firm position on solidarity and democratic accountability to the larger OO coalition and to the non-strike-participant community. Teacher's Union's would never support property damage, its too close to looting and criminal behavior. But the OO website has kids protesting and smashing bank windows all in one page. I'd be furious if my child was on the same page ! I'd demand accountability and reparations.
In the community meetings of West Oakland, before OO, the black community have been saying they don't want any more white homesteaders, hipsters, squatters etc. It's understandable, they are occupying foreclosed property or property depressed by general economic depression. The real estate market forces this dynamic, and its hard to blame an individual homesteader who wants to fix the roof, put in a rainwater tank and have chickens and an organic garden, nice middle class white people. But the hipsters (many of whom are former or latent "anarchists") have an white middle class economic advantage. i.e. Money (from jobs and parents) and jobs (from education), and debt, lots of debt. Hence the need to buy-in cheap neighborhoods i.e. Occupy
The Phone Hacking Scandal in the UK - which could of taken out Murdoch and the Conservative Coalition, and made a massive reform in policing - was completely sidelined by the degeneration of anti-police-violence protesting into widespread apolitical looting and rioting (largely by youth) and an almost race war. The potential for this trajectory in Oakland is massive.
Property damage leads to vandalism and looting, in fact its almost always impossible to distinguish. Often the police let it happen and the use it as justification for oppression which provokes further violence
White kids who think they are the Black Bloc and understand history, are playing with fire and they could bring down the entire city and maybe the country.
Watch Berlusconi's Mousetrap for an stark example of the Black Bloc very openly stating that property damage as anarchist statement is a failed tactic and they they are tools of a fascist state, I cannot recommend this movie enough. http://vimeo.com/8672001