{ texts for nothing }

Charles Johnson celebrates the Ides of March.

Posted here not because I necessarily agree with the message or the tactics it defends, but because most folks who read this blog won’t see it otherwise:

In defense of the black bloc: A communique from Olympic resisters

February 14th, 2010 – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories

On February 12th and 13th, 2010, thousands of courageous individuals came together to resist the 2010 Olympic police state and to attack the corporations plundering the land and deepening poverty. We write this communique as participants in and organizers of the black bloc presence at these demonstrations, known as “Take Back Our City” and “2010 Heart Attack.”

On February 12th, the Vancouver Police Department pacified us with a force of mounted police. The next day during 2010 Heart Attack, they deployed riot police armed with M4 carbine assault rifles. They claim this was necessary in order to stop the march from “jeopardizing public safety” – yet the only threats to public safety were in their own hands. Participants in the demonstration only undertook strategic attacks against corporations sponsoring the Olympics and did not harm or attack bystanders.

The media are now busy denouncing the political violence of property destruction, such as the smashing of a Hudson’s Bay Company window, as though it were the only act of violence happening in this city. They forget that economic violence goes on daily in Vancouver. People are suffering and dying from preventable causes because welfare doesn’t give enough to afford rent, food or medicine, and because authorities routinely ignore the medical emergencies of poor or houseless individuals. This economic violence has gotten worse as we lose housing and social services because of the Olympic Games. In response to this assault, thousands took to the streets, hundreds joining what is known as a black bloc.

The black bloc is not a formal organization; it has no leadership, membership, or headquarters. Instead, the black bloc is a tactic: it is something people *do* in order to accomplish a specific purpose. By wearing black clothing and masking our faces, the black bloc allows for greater protection to those who choose active self-defense. The majority of people involved in the black bloc do not participate in property destruction. However, in masking up they express their solidarity with those who choose to take autonomous direct action against the corporations, authorities and politicians who wage war on our communities.

Participation in the black bloc is an act of courage. With only the shirts on our backs and the masks on our faces, we took to the streets against Canada’s largest ever “peacetime” police force. Protected only by black fabric and the support of our comrades, we stood in front of antiriot cops armed with assault rifles, pistols and batons. We proved that $1 billion of “security” couldn’t prevent us from clogging the heart of downtown Vancouver and crashing a party of 100 000 people — and getting away with it.

You won’t ever know who was in the black bloc this weekend, but you do know us. We are the people who organize community potlucks, who dance during street festivals, who make art, defend the land, build co-ops, bicycles and community gardens. When we put on our black clothing, we are not a threat to you, but to the elites.

Whoever you are, one day you will join us. As long as government and corporations attack our communities, we’re going defend – and that means attack.

Signed,

Two organizers and participants in the anarchist presence of the “Take back our city” demonstration and “2010 Heart Attack” street march, February 2010, Coast Salish Territories

Warning: the following video contains swearing, vandalism, riot cops, and activists articulately explaining why they oppose the Games. (I didn’t make the video — it’s from the Vancouver Media Co-op, which is producing and aggregating lots of good coverage of the anti-Olympic protests.)

I’ve already shared my thoughts on the rioting and protests in Greece. If you want to know what the participants think, you should read CrimethInc’s interview with an anonymous Greek anarchist, which focuses on how the actions were organized and who was involved in them. Here are just a few points from the interview:

• Actions have been undertaken mostly by affinity groups, While these groups are often affiliated with larger  federations (which makes it easier for different groups to communicate and coordinate), they’ve been acting under their own initiative rather than taking orders — making them flexible, responsive to the situation “on the ground,” and difficult to suppress.
• There have also been daily General Assemblies in occupied spaces. These assemblies build on a 30-year history of collective discussion and decision-making, not to mention a lot of recent work around creating neighborhood assemblies.
• The majority of the participants in the rioting have been anarchists (the interview subject claims there are 20,000 of them in Greece). But there are also plenty of high school and university students, who have been radicalized — and influenced by anarchist ideas — through years of struggle against the privatization of education, and who are following a tradition of successful student revolt in Greece. They’re taking action because they’re angry with the police, fed up with a failed political system and the exhaustion of mainstream political ideas, disenchanted with a culture that talks down to them and excludes them, and excited by the empowerment of taking to the streets and taking control of their own lives.
• Greek anarchists have worked hard to reach out to the broader community — for example, by organizing neighborhood assemblies and participating in struggles that already mean something to non-anarchists, rather than symbolic, ineffectual protests. They’ve also learned to cooperate with one other despite their differences, and to overcome the “subcultural identity politics” that too often dominates North American anarchism.

In its response to the CrimethInc interview, the Center for Strategic Anarchy (which has done a great job covering the news from Greece day-by-day) is talking about what the Greek riots can teach anarchists in the US. It’s aimed at anarchists, of course, but still worth reading for anyone interested in creating anti-authoritarian social change in North America.

Earlier this month, an American living in Slovakia renounced his US citizenship and became a stateless person.

“I was disgusted to be associated through citizenship with the most dangerous gang of criminals in the world, the United States government. Renouncing my citizenship is a means of achieving a political divorce with that vile institution,” [Mike] Gogulski said. “American politicians extol their state in terms of liberty, human rights, free markets and the rule of law. Examination of the country’s history and present actions reveals nothing but lies and hypocrisy. The genocide of Native Americans, slavery, nuclear slaughter at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, support for brutal dictators, the torture of innocents at places like Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the massive robberies for the benefit of big business in the name of ‘rescuing’ the economy, the world’s biggest prison population, the growth of a domestic police state and the brutal wars of oppression underway in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia paint a rather different picture. America, via its government agents, is truly exceptional – exceptionally evil,” he stated.

Gogulski says that when he receives the Certificate of Loss of Nationality he will apply to the Slovak Interior Ministry for a Travel Document – similar to a passport – under the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons, which Slovakia signed in 2000. He says that he has no plans to leave Bratislava until then, and that he recognizes that his life without citizenship will be more difficult, especially with respect to travel. But, “if the Schengen Zone is to be my cage,” Gogulski states, “I think it’s large enough for me. There’s enough to explore within Europe to last a lifetime.”

Now that’s commitment to your principles! If you’re curious, Gogulski has extensively documented both his rationale and the process itself on his blog.

Interestingly, it’s not actually possible for a Canadian to do something like this. You can renounce Canadian citizenship only if you are or will become the citizen of another nation. No statelessness for us.