Those Crazy Anarchists By Rachel Wallis Why those kids in black are your friends The Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Brigade was on the tongues and minds of almost everyone attending a16, but few people referred to them as such. Instead, countless conversations took place about the “black bloc” or “those anarchist” and while many of the comments were positive, quite a few of them were not. For those not familiar with the RACB, they are the current incarnation of an anarchist coalition from the Seattle protests whose members took responsibility for the property damage there. I was not in Seattle, and quite frankly what happened there has been discussed to death. I was therefore surprised to see the RACB back in DC, and was shocked to hear what the other protesters had to say about them. For those of you who did not attend a16, you might not have heard much about the black bloc presence there, which is surprising considering the fact that it included as many as 1000 people at various points during the protest. Sadly, the media is not interested in unbroken windows. Regardless of the media blackout, the RACB played a huge part in the Sunday protest. They traveled in a large mobile group, building blockades, facing off the police, and protecting protesters holding intersections. When riot police rushed the Wesleyan blockade, the RACB poured out in front of us, and succeeded in pushing the cops all the way back down the street. Time and time again, black-clad protesters placed themselves between blockades and batons. Yet the word on the street about the black bloc was often harshly critical and occasionally disturbing. They’re not with us When a group of protesters I was with was confronted by a DC citizen, angry with one of the blockades built by the bloc, everyone in the group responded by insisting, “they’re not us, we don’t approve of what they do.” Time and time again, I listened to protesters trip over themselves to criticize the bloc in an attempt to appear more reasonable to the mainstream. We are made strong by the diverse group of people that are a part of the movement, but when we start deciding who is and is not US, we lose a lot of that strength. Curiously, you didn’t hear anyone claiming that right wing allies like Pat Buchanan are “not one of us.” We are only willing to ostracize groups without large chunks of conservative voters behind them. Those black masks are threatening Other people remarked that members of the block, regardless of property destruction or their participation in the rally, shouldn’t have worn all black and covered their faces, as it created an image that was threatening or aggressive. WHAT? Since when have we become the fashion police? Clothing in itself is not threatening or aggressive; that power is reserved for actions. By asking people not to dress in a way that represents their beliefs and affiliations because the mainstream media has deemed it “violent,” we have become the very state that we’re trying to change. How different is it from criminalizing certain styles of clothing because they may denote gang affiliation? While puppets and street theater are great, they are not the only forms of expression that should be encouraged in the movement. By outlawing anger or mandating festivity we are alienating our allies. Rushing the police is not non-violent Regardless of what you might have learned in your trainings, there is not one end all, be all type of non-violent protest. Theoretically, none of the members of the RACB attacked the police; they simply moved forward, protecting themselves with garbage can lids and fences and forcing the police to retreat. Is this aggressive? Yes. Is it violent? I don’t think so, and neither do they. We are not trying to enforce our concept of non-violence on the entire movement. There are a lot of gray areas where tactics are concerned, and these need to be discussed and explored. We cannot, however, begin handing down definitions of right and wrong behavior without deciding on them within the entire community. Their actions caused the police to beat the protesters Sadly, the only people who caused the police to beat the protesters were the police. While the police might have used the bloc as an excuse, the violence would have happened regardless. Consider Seattle, where protesters were being beaten and tear-gassed hours before any windows were broken. We need to hold the authorities responsible for their brutality, and not punish their scapegoats for them. It’s all those anarchists Arrghh! While the RACB identify as anarchists, they were by no means the only anarchists attending the protests. In fact, by referring to them as “the anarchists” rather than by their name, you ignore all of the other anarchists in attendance, without whom the protests could not have happened. The non-hierarchical structure of the movement is a concept straight out of the anarchist movement. Food Not Bombs, who provided much of the food for the event is a predominantly anarchist organization. There was even an anarchist soccer tournament that took place on Saturday as a part of the convergence. It is an insult to the thousands of anarchists that are a part of the movement to be either lumped together or ignored completely. Their actions overshadow our media coverage This is the most difficult charge to discuss. We all want to be covered well by the media. That is, in fact, one of the main reasons for the protests. But we have to realize that we have no control over the mainstream media coverage, and no matter what, it is unlikely to be favorable. In Seattle they focused on property destruction. Deprived of that focus in DC, they simply pronounced the protests a failure, and lavished the police force with praise for keeping the demonstrators “in line.” While we can decide that we will not as a group participate in property destruction, we need to decide how far we are willing to go in order appease the gods of mainstream culture. In DC, around 1000 members of the RACB signed the Direct Action Network’s code of conduct, which included statements against property destruction except in the case of police barricades. Thanks to the agreement, there was an extremely limited amount of damage at the protests. One police car’s window was smashed, air was let out of police car tires, fences were used to build barricades, and there was some graffiti; almost all of the destruction was directed at the police. Nonetheless, many protesters were suspicious and hostile towards the brigade. These protesters are fighting the wrong battle. While we may not agree on tactics or dress codes, these people are our allies. Don’t let the mainstream press convince you otherwise. Anarchy 101 by Adam Hurter The members of the Black Bloc, who earned fame in Seattle and D.C. for their so-called "violent" actions, were certainly not the only people at either action who considered him or herself an anarchist. Additionally, by no means do all or even most anarchists support property damage. In fact, anarchism, the name fifor the political philosophy -- itself, is just that, a philosophy often well-respected in the intellectual realm. Harvard professor of philosophy David Nozick wrote about these concepts in his book Anarchy, State and Utopia, an intellectual runaround on anarchism. Some classic anarchist literature includes Guy DeBord's Society of the Spectacle, Taz by Hakim Bay, Social Anarchism by Murray Bookchin, Raoul Vaneigem's Revolution of Everyday Life, and Bob Black's The Abolition of Word and Other Essays. A good overview is Anarchy by Clifford Harper. There are presently, and there have been historically, many famous anarchists. The list includes Noam Chomsky, Ayn Rand, Emma Goldman, Rage Against the Machine vocalist Zach De La Rocha, the entire band Chumbawamba, and Global Exchange co-founder Kevin Danher, among many others. Oxford defines anarchism as "doctrine that all government and laws should be abolished." Anarchists believe in non-hierarchial society. They believe that people have the ability to self-govern, that authority is intrinsically unneccessary, that it is within the nature of people to be able to exist peacefully without a system of government. Of course, anarchists do not necessarily believe that society would be able to make a change towards such a system in the near future, but, nonetheless, they have a vision for society which few would argue would be very positive, but which most people would consider an unreachable Utopia. Hence, anarchists are in many ways the greatest idealists of all. However, while most anarchists are leftists, others, including the Unabomber and Ayn Rand, could be considered far right wingers. They too believe in absolute personal authority and responsibility, but with a different set of ideals. There is a broad range of anarchists, and their numbers are growing significantly in North America.