Anti-NATO protesters march in a "black bloc" with linked arms on May 20. (Photo: Marcus Demery, Creative Commons)
It’s exhilarating to have power. Exhilarating, really. It makes sense, then, why women and men sign up to do repressive jobs, like policing—with a badge comes power, a tacit “okay” from the state and fawning public for any acts of violence you may commit. The police aren’t all bad: Many a burglary victim, for example, will be eternally grateful for police help. At the same time, however, for every heroic deed this power begets, there is a rape, a murder, and a coerced confession.
Power, or the perception thereof, is not limited to the badge. Participating in a “black bloc” likewise grants a sense of invincibility. The uniform is different—more black than blue—but some elements of the same code are present. Leave no one behind. Protect your people. Have no fear. Take no shit.
The 10 days I spent with #noNATO protesters in Chicago, more often than not as a participant, caused me to consider the nature of the interactions in the streets, and the thinking (or lack thereof) behind police and black bloc actions. This is my assessment.
Smashy Smashy
An analogy that I like for the relationship is that of a playground fight. Let’s say that there’s a child on a playground (5′ 8”, 160 pounds). And that child decides to charge someone who outclasses them by 6 inches, 80 pounds, and several friends. Let’s say more that the larger child is carrying a stick, and that their dad is the principal of the school. Is the initial charge violent, or foolish? Certainly. Does that mean that we forgive or even praise the bigger child if he proceeds to beat the shit out of his smaller counterpart? Certainly not.
One thing that is absent from the breathless idol worship of the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the NATO summit is context. Frequently, the clashes between police and Occupy are presented as if they were equals: “police face down protesters”; “CPD, black bloc clash in Loop.” These depictions unfortunately leave out one fundamental fact: The police hold (almost) all the cards in the deck. Protesters have camera phones, hoodies, and sometimes the occasional balsa-wood pole or trashcan lid; the police enjoy millions of dollars worth of riot gear, guns, helicopters, clubs, and the certainty of pre-emptive forgiveness for their actions by the state. It is the furthest thing from a fair fight.
I won’t spend much time with thoughtless critiques of black bloc, like Chris Hedges’ inexplicably misinformed “diagnosis” of a few months back. I will, however, say that some of what blocs do, or what they are blamed for, is described most accurately as “stupid as fuck.” How does smashing a window help anyone but the participant?
I tell this to friends both conservative and radical. “Don’t you see?” I beg, desperate to occupy the position of Reasonable Participant. “When someone breaks a window, as much as I totally get it and don’t really personally mind, it justifies the bullshit narrative we hear daily! It gives a reason for repression! Why would we do that? It doesn’t make sense.”
This critique—of the “smashies,” as Lisa Fithian has termed them—is, I think, a self-evident one. 500 of 15,000 people in a city of 8 million and a country of 315 do not themselves a revolution make, as much as they might wish to strike back at the violence of the state by destroying its property. It’s arrogant and obnoxious, and virtually indefensible. Putting a rock through someone’s window is a masturbatory act of self-gratification, and more often than not is (predictably) the act of a teen or 20-something boy drunk on power and deprived of foresight.
To be fair, I saw very, very little of this during NATO: On Sunday night, during a five-mile march from the loop to jail solidarity, one person who began pulling furniture from outside a small restaurant on Milwaukee Avenue was quickly confronted by two marchers. “The small shops aren’t the enemy, man.” While a bank is the enemy in a way the cafés are not, smashing is still stupid. Sorry bros.
What Else Blocs Do
What isn’t stupid, and is much more interesting, is all the other functions a black bloc may perform, and the almost complete lack of attention paid to them in all but the most sympathetic of sources. As I see it, the essence of a bloc is solidarity. You have solidarity because your neighbor does. You put your ass on the line because no one will leave you behind, because they will grab you if you are taken by police and you will do the same. You are protected in your anonymity, invincible in your mind, and dangerous (to Power) in your daring. There is no fear, no weakness, and no division, and in that is strength.
To modify a truism, “with great power, comes great jubilation.” More often than not, I found the most energetic and enjoyable sections of the marches to be blocs. I experienced few moments more memorable than a mass of people in black spontaneously chanting “Dance for that Anarchy, dance for that Anarchy. Dance for that Anarchy, d-dance for that Anarchy!” We danced! Even my workers’-state-loving self danced. That glee, while devoid of concrete reminders of NATO’s astronomical costs in both dollars and lives ruined, was an essential part of my first summit. I would not and could not imagine it any other way.
At one point on an heavily blocced-up anti-capitalist march, I was asked by a slightly shell-shocked mainstream media reporter: “Do you know where we’re going?” “No,” I responded. “That’s the beauty of it.”
What I wish I’d added: “They’ve slowly taken our liberties away. This, though, they can’t stop.” I wish I’d added it because it’s true, and because it’s maybe the best argument for black blocs. When a march is led by the leaderless, it is unstoppable. Movements without leaders cannot be beheaded; a march with a black bloc is not stopped by one arrest, or ten, and not by the horses charging up the other side of Michigan Ave., either, because there’s probably a group of anarchists holding them off.
Why is it so lively? Is it the simple satisfaction of knowing that your very existence threatens the state? The joy of group cohesion? The exhilarating mixture of danger and unpredictability? Any is a good answer, I think, but the point is: It’s not boring. And while all should feel free to rally and publish until the cows come home, the revolution won’t come with a permit or a printing press—it will come with defiant people who excite until there is no choice but to join. Look at the manifencours in Montreal—when they were told 50 people comprised a riot, they responded, “here’s 500 thousand.”
It can be said, and accurately, that blocs are devoid of politics. This is true, though, only at the most superficial and reactionary level. The signs read red and black instead of “Reinstate Glass Steagall,” yes, but the critique of the broken capitalist system is there, whether or not it is explicitly stated. And why must it be?
It is also not mentioned often enough that blocs are not devoid of compassion. I have read countless lamentations about the violence associated with black blocs, but precious few about the care. Many of those so called “troublemakers,” are the same people protecting marchers or spooning food to released arrestees at 6am. Despite their name, the story is never black and white.
If It’s Leaderless, It Still Bleeds
A major Occupy Chicago hope for NATO was that 10 days of action highlighting the myriad ways financially and morally that interventionist war hurts people would translate into discussion of these issues in the mainstream media. As it inevitably does, however, summit coverage skewed substanceless, preferring handjobs of Supt. Garry McCarthy and scripted videos of delegates hugging rather than drones, violated nations and the fact that NATO is an unaccountable misery machine whose stated purpose died twenty years ago with the Soviet Union. Expected, but depressing.
Black blocs, however, reminded the people of Chicago and the huge contingent who follow independent Occupy media that dissent is not dead. With every “march for marching’s sake,” as they were sometimes dismissively described, came for those involved a steeling realization that police power is not absolute, and for those witnessing it a spectacle that (hopefully) forced them to challenge their preconceptions about what is possible. “We are unstoppable” carries considerable weight when it is shouted after facing down police lines, bikes, batons, and bullshit.
By the end, though, conflict was a given. Sunday afternoon, after much ballyhooed kvetching about the bloc’s placement in the permitted march, the dreaded “clash between protesters and police” took place. At Cermak and Michigan, hundreds drew close to the tension, clad in many different colors, in blocs and not. Was the eventual charge East advisable? Was it led by agents provocateurs? I can’t and I won’t say. What I will say, though, is that watching CNN anchors ask on air about the beatings, “does anyone deserve that?,” I was reminded who my enemy is. The NATO cowards protected by Rahm’s Army, the ones shelling and murdering from afar—they are the problem, not 150 kids who are fed up with being fed shit and decide to defy authority to show it. No way in hell.
I know a kid that got the shit beat out of him just for calling police “Nazi stormtroopers.” I watched from five feet away as a CPD van purposefully ran down Jack Amico, then had its tires slashed. And I have seen my friends, my brothers and sisters, shell-shocked by the week, traumatized and shaken by the violence that should never have come to them.
We are a country founded on dissent, but many people on the left seem to forget that Thomas Paine did not have a monopoly on direct action. Far from it, in fact—I’m sure the Brits would have been just fine with proto-Americans reading Common Sense endlessly, so long as those people didn’t physically defy the colonial authority. The same goes for the current oppressors and The Socialist Worker.
I hate black blocs because they lack foresight, and that because of this they end up being used to discredit the movement I bleed for. I love them because they refuse to be repressed, they refuse to accept the status quo, and because they care deeply about their comrades, in the bloc or not. My relationship with the black bloc is one of highs and lows, fun and frustration. I believe we would be foolish to write it off. Dance for that Anarchy.
By Daniel Edward Massoglia
awesome article. Having walked in several marches with the bloc, having spoken to many of them, seeing them have my back when the only goal of the police is to put a billy-club to the skull, I can honestly say I would rather have them than the CPD protecting me. They have souls, they have solidarity, they are for freedom. they are human, much more so than the CPD.
I have not seen the care and compassion you describe. On Sunday, a black bloc (though it was probably infiltrated by police) tried to undemocratically take the front of a march that they had no role in organizing, and afterwards chose to confront the police despite objections from peace marshals (not that the police brutality was in ANY way justified, but not necessarily unexpected). This action threw the mass media the bone it wanted (“violent anarchist protestors”) and gave it a perfect excuse to NOT report on the Veterans who gave moving anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist speeches before throwing their medals onto the street.
Although it may be true that distribution of literature doesn’t match “physically defying” authority, the radicalisation and support of the broader working class is necessary for any revolution. Is that going to come from seeing the media-demonized, deliberately confrontational black bloc being brutalized by police, or seeing thousands peacefully join decorated war Veterans who express outright their disapproval with a fundamentally wrong system?
i think it’s hard to describe that march as democratic, even without the CPD pacecars in front. the most powerful part of the march was the medal ceremony, and i don’t mean to say with this piece that ppl shouldn’t publish or apply for parade permits or any of that. I just mean that writing off a tactic that has care for others at its crux (in the individual if not the collective) and that is often successful in favor of, let’s face it, occasionally if not often tame activism is ill advised. I hate that the media grabs at bloc (maybe probably undercover led) violence at the expense of the real story, but that’s why we build our own…
thanks for reading and commenting, i neglected to mention
I’m sorry but the media, no matter how badly you want them to, will never be on your side. It’s the corporate media owned by the 1%. We are literally protesting the system that makes this kind of media possible. You may get a positive story here and there but don’t be deluded into thinking avoiding all confrontation, forever is not only impossible, but going to help us win a revolution or even major changes. In fact, the local papers were talking about the lack of “violence” AKA protesting constituted a win for heavy policing just as riots require heavy policing.
You’re not going to win by always worrying what your enemy might do.
I did not get into the March on Sunday, but I did see what appeared for the most part the police acted “appropriately” much of the time as put out by the media. But I feel these non-aggressive moments were most probably something to show the media and print what a good job the police did in handling such a massive protest. Which seemed the way it was in San Diego when the Wobblies marched the streets. I have read enough and have seen videos of egregious police brutality, a lot just for the sake of brutality, to believe how well the police have handled any protest..
Chris, I really enjoyed your very intelligent viewpoints of what you, yourself, have witnessed. I do not know much about the blocs, but intend to go back and read the articles, especially the one written by Chris Hedges. For the life of me, I cannot understand why any of the blocs think destructive actions, breaking property, etc. accomplishes anything. Instead, I can only see more from the military with their costly war machines pummeling the protestors, lending them further justification for their brutality. The militarization of our local police, and with their training in Israel is just stunning and unbelievable.
I’m going to guess this more or less comes from the anti-anarchist leanings of many Marxist-Leninist. I could be wrong, but at least I don’t assume you’re a cop!
I saw the same fight break out Sunday after the medals were thrown and from my vantage points, it was the cops who started and finished the violence hands down. I took off for my life after images of terror merely two feet away from me. Great article about the black bloc says me
Three thumbs up 
We are witnessing the birth of a new movement, one that will ideally do more that just tolerate the tactics and efforts of others but respect and applaud everyones efforts. It’s the collective action on many fronts that makes a revolution; not one single strategy, nor one single initiative but the synergy of actions within and without the movement. This is not how we learn history — but this is exactly how history is made.
Black Blocs are in a formative state. Whether they mature and strengthen into a positive force for social change remains to be seen.
If they need uniforms to bolster and motivate themselves, that’s okay but regrettable since it smacks of elitism. I expect us all to aspire to be Black Bloc in our hearts as we walk bare face into the fray.
I wish the Black Blocs could act with the same fierce disciple that the Panthers did. The Panthers stood up to authority as a lifestyle. Black Blocs do not. As we are experiencing them now, Black Blocs act selfishly, not selflessly and we recognize the difference. We can’t depend on them to protect nor to deliver a meaningful message. I hope they one day live up to their ideals.
Solidarity!
Black Bloc isn’t a movement, it’s a tactic that started in 1980′s Europe.
A welcome contribution to this ongoing conversation that occurs at many sites and will continue cropping up. Experiences vary, .and thus opinions. I think the world of Mr. Hedges, and his perceptions substantially match my own. That includes my experience of being at the rally/march in Seattle on May Day. I wrote a short piece about that, but the sites I offered it to didn’t want it, so my description thoughts are private to our Occupation’s forum (in Tacoma). In short, I think the black-and-blue blocs (A’s vs. cops) are at best a sideshow. “Street fighting” is *not* going to achieve anything at all for the 99%. It is, however, ideal from the standpoint of those who want more repression and “proof” that our efforts are just vandalism. The author here clearly understands that danger.
So far as dancing and spontaneity so, it’s fun–but as the author also recognizes, it ain’t politics. Take care.
A comment towards the “socialist occupier”: Is a line of “peace marshals” holding hands with the cops to keep people from getting in front of them “democratic”? I personally was in the Bloc, and I personally handed out water to everyone that was holding the banners. You might refuse to show solidarity with your “peace marshals” but I refuse to be drowned by that and let anyone choose my comrades for me.
I had a Marxist-Leninist friend come to NATO and he was really excited about it because of Freedom Road having their hands in the organizing of the CANG8 march, Carlos Montez was going to speak ext. And he was with the Bloc as well. He was horribly disappointed in how the organizers of the CANG8 march acted and now has hard feelings towards other socialist because, where are they?
People of the lower classes need action, not organizations. The proletariat need to organize themselves and they do not have the privilege of permitted marches and non-violence. Black Bloc tactics and anti-authoritarian organizing fits into this for the worker class.
Well said!
While I appreciate the author’s attempt–likely in the face of the reality at NATO–to give black blocs a fair treatment, I feel as the criticisms of property destruction come off more as “I don’t understand why” than “I’ve thought this through”, as no real argument is given other than it all seems “self-evident” to you, which doesn’t seem so to myself upon further inspection.
The police don’t need reasons to be violent. That’s why something like the black bloc even exists at all, not the other way around. The police were violent, by design, and look what happened. Even when there was no smashy-smashy, what was the MSM’s narrative? There are different accounts of who started what on Sunday, but what did the media report? You guessed it: the authorities side.
You’re not going to win this war by trying to use the 1% media to back you. That happens by organizing on the ground. Stay focused on the real violence: war, poverty, police, etc., and let’s put this to bed and stop attacking our comrades and fight the real enemy!
I was at that march on Milwaukee. Even then they only moved the bench into the street to sit in it, then moved it back.
I’ve seen more “violence” in Atlanta than when I was up in Chicago. And we’re talking a bloc party made up of people from all across the nation. No, the violence this time was state-owned, though they will not own up to it.
It seems like there’s more and more demonizing of black blocs, but more and more people are drawn to it.
As far as violence goes, I think that has decreased in the past decade inversely with the amount of free media, social connection, and perhaps less isolation therefore…. I’m still trying to figure out the relations, but things are changing.
Wow, nice logical foresight! Here’s an idea, lets all challenge the state with no plan or organization and ruin other groups plans just for the stake of it! Lol, oh i forget that happened already! Talk about about a complete disrepsect of all the people, who put their lives on the line for this movement! Tell me how does it help the occupy movement, when we have people covering and hiding their faces! I mean come on, most people having takening part in this movement have put alot on line for joining the occupy movement! The least you block bloc people, could do is follow what the groups want? Regardless on your political viewpoint, you’re looking for a quick answer for the issues and all you’re doing is hurting the movement! We have enough fronts to fight as it is, and we don’t need too be fighting each other!
Every time I hear the black bloc criticized, I hear knee-jerk reactions and can-dried reformist drivel. When I hear a member of the black bloc speak, I hear someone who cares about their cause more than their own reputation. The black bloc are serious and earnest, instead of being contrived, obnoxious and narcissistic like so much of the rest of the left.