I think that shag & Eric have provided ample information that it was _not_ the Black Bloc, in this case, that violated democratic legitimacy, since the GA had approved a diversity of tactics. And that is central. (I don't think this has always been the case in Black Bloc actions, but that is irrelevant here.) And Mike is certainly wrong in a fundamental way when he attempts, in the abstract, to judge any tactic, whether letter writing or using machine guns, in abstraction from a particular context. There is nothing useful one can say about any tactic considered by itself.
Carrol
--- This is my comment at Malcolm's blog post:
Last time you wrote on this topic, I commented: "Over the years I've read or heard many variations on this theme - about 'cowardly' or co-opted organisers trying to repress militant civil disobedience or confrontations with the cops. But I've read very few good statements about what it's supposed to achieve, even though this strategic gap has been a much more common criticism of black bloc or 'insurrectionist' antics than that they are just too militant or radical."
And now here we have yet another displacement of the argument. It's just not true to say that 'Reluctants' are liberals and window-smashers are 'anti-capitalists' or 'communist invariants'. (See para 10.) Many, many socialists are critical of the tactic. And I'm yet to see an argument for how "smashing up a bank" or the window of a supermarket or whatever is objectively 'anticapitalist'. If you think it is, tell us how. It seems to me that if you think a few masked people "smashing up a bank" is a threat to capitalism, or even to the bank, you don't have a good understanding of how capitalism works.
I should reiterate, as I did last time, that "I'm all for standing your ground to defend the right to protest, and I know it's usually the police that start these things." I can also see the logic of occupying an abandoned building in the right circumstances. It's the deliberate escalation of conflict with police that seems stupid.
Mike
-- http://cleandraws.com Wear Clean Draws ('coz there's 5 million ways to kill a CEO)
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