It’s not a coincidence that people don’t usually liberate animals from fur factories in Black Blocs (although this did occur once in Brazil). On the other hand, if you intend to engage in serious organized illegal activity, you might be better off doing so outside the traditional Bloc format, in a totally closed group, with the element of surprise and so on. The Bloc tactic is best for conditions in which the action called for occupies the grey area between overt and covert, and as such it must be applied carefully: if you participate with a Bloc in an entirely legal action, you may make a target of yourself unnecessarily, or needlessly frighten bystanders. Many militant activities are better carried off in a way that attracts less attention, but there are situations in which it is necessary to step outside the limits in public. When everyone in a group looks the same, it is difficult to single out individuals. Those who practice direct action would do well to keep in mind the wide range of scenarios in which a version of the Bloc approach can be useful.Īcting in a Bloc is especially useful when the participants in the action expect that the police, fascists, or other adversaries will wish to identify the participants-which is to say, very often, nowadays. The Boston Tea Party, for example, was a perfect example of a Bloc at work: the participants organized secretly, wore matching disguises (though their choice to costume themselves as “Indians” wasn’t exactly politically correct), and engaged in a mass act of provocative property destruction presumably their strategies for communication and mutual defense weren’t much different from those used by the famous Black Blocs that, a couple hundred years later, attacked similarly noxious coffee corporations in Seattle.
The specific cultural characteristics that are associated with the Black Bloc tactic today can make it easy to overlook the long history of the Bloc tactic and the wide variety of applications for which it can be used. This tactic has won some famous victories in the past couple decades, and failed more times than anyone can count, too. You may have heard of the notorious Black Bloc, a venerable, if not doddering, anarchist tradition in which a mass of direct action enthusiasts gather, all wearing black clothing and masks, and engage in some level of confrontational activity. Transportation: bicycles, enough change for the subway, keys to your SUV (easy there, killer, it’s just a joke!)Īction What is a Bloc? Are there other kinds besides the Black Bloc?.Communications equipment: hand radios, cell phones, police scanners, flags, drums, shared codes for making internal announcements.Offensive gear: spraypaint, projectiles, slingshots, signs or flags on thick poles (or just plain poles), molotov cocktails, bright lights (to obscure police or camera vision during night actions), ladders and/or bolt cutters for scaling or breaching barriers, etc.Defensive gear: banners, shields (possibly disguised as puppets or placards), steel-toed shoes (should still be comfortable for running!), body armor or padding, gas masks or goggles and bandannas soaked in lime juice (store in ziplock bags until necessary), rain coats or chemical protection gear (if there is a risk of chemical attack), whatever relevant medical supplies you know how to apply, etc.Camouflage: different layers of clothing for different purposes or stages of the action.Provisions: water (plenty, especially if you’ll be dressed in hot gear or expect chemical weapons attacks), food (don’t rely on shops or shopkeepers in contested zones), etc.Matching clothing that conceals the wearers’ identities.
As one middle-aged mother observed while members of the Quebec Black Bloc hugged each other before going off to battle the cops, “I always thought this was going to be sinister, but these are just brave kids!”įor a more specific consideration of dressing for anonymity, consult Fashion Tips for the Brave.
0 kommentar(er)
