We're working to be free from oppression, free from the state, free from a society and culture of fear. We cannot do so without each other, without the love and frindship that has banded us together. It has been said that flaws are the welds of perfection, and on the macro level I'd say that disagreement is the bond of democracy.
Consensus is achieved not through an easy process of getting everyone on the same page, but through the difficult acknoledgement that we will sometimes fundamentally disagree. And we must also acknoledge the need for dissent and dissensus as a decision making tool.
Given this, I'd like to talk about the BlackBloc, which until recently I was very opposed to. Not everyone agrees on tactics, or strategies or goals or visions, but that's alright. The fact that the Black Bloc contingent has survived and even managed to gain popularity in Chicago means they're doing something right. I didn't see any property damage in person in Chicago.
What I did see was leaderless horizontal charismatic organizing with a purpose, protecting the protest. And that's where blackbloc succeeds, in sticking with the movement, protecting it, and sometimes diverting attention. Given the events in Chicago, I'd say that we have to acknowledge that the Blackbloc element lends our demonstrations an ominous feel and can make some uncomfortable, but when push comes to shove, they empower us. The Blackbloc is the organic underbelly of this rising peaceful movement, and we need each other because our goals are the same.
The Blackbloc element scares the powerful, because average citizens are collectively organizing to express not just a mild dissatisfaction but sometimes rage, soemtimes love, sometimes a desire to protect each other. Bloc culture varies from demonstration to demonstration, but it's that very elusiveness that makes it invaluable.
When I think Blackbloc from here on out, I'll always remember Woodie Guthrie's quote: This Machine Kills Fascists.
Blackbloc does just that, it undermines authoritarian control of the occupy movement's demonstrations and brings a spontaneity that we need. Many of us have become drawn together in solidarity and while that's a good thing, some of us fall into roles predetermined by social stature etc. whereas the Blackbloc undoes this by bringing an element of the unknown into our street demonstrations. I personally am grateful to all the BlackBloc protesters who joined us in Chicago to protect us from police who weilded batons and clubs against mostly women.
BlackBloc allows us the room to question ourselves and interact with our own movement in a way that creates a sense of otherness from within, allowing voices from both sides to shape a new discussion and a new way forward that isn't colonized or appropriated by one ideology or another.
Black Bloc Kills ideological, physical and organizational fascism when done correctly, because it's a tactic. And it's working.
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