Black bloc:
Black bloc at 2007 G8 demonstration in Rostock, Germany
A black bloc refers to a tactic, developed in the 1980s by anti-nuclear activists autonomists, whereby participants attended protests and marches wearing black clothing, ski masks and motorcycle helmets with padding, steel-toed boots and often carrying their own shields and truncheons.[1] The clothing is used to avoid being identified by authorities, and to theoretically appear as one large mass, promote solidarity, and create a clear revolutionary presence.
Black blocs gained broader media attention outside Europe when a black bloc caused damage to property of GAP, Starbucks, Old Navy, and other retail locations in downtown Seattle during the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations.[2][3]
[edit] Tactics
Black bloc participants lighting molotov cocktails in Chile in September 2008
Tactics of a black bloc can include vandalism, rioting and street fighting, demonstrating without a permit, misleading the authorities, assisting in the escape of perpetrators arrested by the police, administering first aid to persons affected by tear gas in areas where protesters are barred from entering, building barricades, and attacking police.[4] However such blocs are not inherently violent; participants often use peaceful methods of protest as well. Although black blocking is usually connected with some form of direct action, some black blocs also participate in wholly symbolic action, as well as actions that fall entirely within traditional definitions of nonviolent protest. Property destruction carried out by black blocs tends to have symbolic significance: common targets include banks, institutional buildings, outlets for multinational corporations, gasoline stations, video-surveillance cameras, and private property.
There may be several black blocs within a particular protest, with different aims and tactics.[5] As an ad hoc group, they share no universally common set of principles or beliefs.[5]
[edit] History
[edit] German origins
This tactic was developed following increased use of police power following the 1977 Brokdorf demonstration[6][7][8] by the German police in 1980, particularly aimed at squatters and anti-nuclear activists. These were social spaces occupied by dissidents, who preferred to create their own social institutions based on communal living and radical community centres, seeking to create non-coercive, non-hierarchical social relations. Key areas for this development were Hafenstrasse, Hamburg and Kreuzberg, Berlin. In June 1980, the German Police forcefully evicted the Free Republic of Wendland, an anti-nuclear protest camp in Gorleben, Wendland. This involved the largest mobilisation of the German Police since the demise of the Third Reich in 1945. This attack on 5,000 peaceful protesters lead many former pacifists to become willing to use violent methods. By December 1980 the Berlin City Government organised an escalating cycle of mass arrests, followed by other local authorities across West Germany. The squatters resisted by opening new squats, as the old ones were evicted. Following the mass arrest of squatters in Freiburg, demonstrations were held in their support in many German cities. the day was dubbed Black friday following a demonstration in Berlin at which between 15,000 to 20,000 people took to the streets and destroyed an expensive shopping area. The tactic of wearing identical black clothes and masks meant that the autonomen were better able to resist the police and elude identification. They were dubbed by the German media as der schwarze Block.In the Netherlands, similar militant resistance developed, however the wearing of ski-masks was less prevalent and the phrase Black Helmet Brigade was used.
In 1986 Hamburg squatters mobilised following attacks on Haffenstrasse. A demonstration of 10,000 took to the streets surrounding at least 1,500 people in a Black Bloc. They carried a large banner saying "Build Revolutionary Dual Power!" At the end of the march the Black Bloc then engaged in street fighting that forced the police to retreat. The next day fires 13 department stores in Hamburg were set alight causing nearly $10 million in damage. Later that year, following the Chernobyl disaster, militant anti-nuclear activists used the tactic, promting the comment "In scenes resembling 'civil war' helmeted, leather-clad troops of the anarchist Autonomen armed with slingshots, Molotov cocktails and flare guns clashed brutally with the police, who employed water cannons, helicopters and CS gas (officially banned for use against civilians."
When Ronald Reagan came to Berlin in June 1987, he was met by around 50,000 demonstrators protesting against his Cold War policies. This included a Black Bloc composed of 3,000 people. A couple of months later police intensified their harrassment of the Haffenstrasse squatters. In November 1987 the residents were joined by thousands of other Autonomen and fortified their squat, built barricades in the streets and defended themselves against the police for nearly 24 hours. After this the city authorities legalised the squatters residence.
When the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund met in Berlin in 1988, the autonomen hosted an international gathering of anti-capitalist activists. With numbers around 80,000 the protesters completely outnumbered the police attempted to maintain control by banning all demonstrations and brutally attacking any public assembly. Nevertless there were riots and the destruction of expensive shopping areas.
[edit] International development
The first recorded use of the tactic in United States of America was in 1989 at a protest at the Pentagon. Other early use of the tactic in the US are the Earth Day Wall Street Action in 1990 and the February 1991 protests against the invasion of Iraq during the Gulf War. These were initiated by Love and Rage, a North American revolutionary anarchist organization active in new York. Black blocs gained significant media attention when a black bloc caused damage to property of GAP, Starbucks, Old Navy, and other retail locations in downtown Seattle during the 1999 anti-WTO demonstrations.[9]
[edit] Modern usage
National Socialist Black Bloc in Germany, 2007
Recently, Neo-Nazi national autonomists[10] have begun openly to use the black bloc tactic, such as National Socialist Black Bloc in Germany, 2007 and National Anarchists in Australia, 2008.[11] Previously their involvement had been covert.[12]
Other groups that have engaged in similar forms of action include Radical Anti-Capitalist Blocs, Anti-Racist Action, and Anti-Fascist Action. During the 2003 G8 summit in Evian, militant demonstrators rejected the name "Black Bloc" and chose instead to be called the "Anthracite Bloc" or the "Charcoal Bloc."
Because the black bloc tactic involves anonymity, black bloc practitioners are susceptible of being infiltrated by government provocateurs. In August 2007, Quebec police admitted that "their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators." However, they were easily recognized by the genuine protesters as cops, as they were still wearing their police-issue footwear.[13]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- A Communique On Tactics by the Green Mountain Anarchist Collective & Anti-Racist Action
- The Black Bloc Papers, by Xavier Massot & David Van Deusen
[edit] External links
[edit] News items
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