The blac bloc is not an organization (as in something that you join which has bylaws and a clearly defined
            membership boundary). It is a tactic used by anarchists and egalitarians in opposition to government-backed
            corporate control of peoples lives and the economy that we all exist within. During the week of the
            Democratic Party National Convention in LA many persons masked up and wore black clothing to join the
            marches as a large and visible contingent of invisibles. We marched under a banner with a circle A (anarchy)
            and a circle E (equality) which said "Whoever They Vote for We are Ungovernable."

            Someone asked us, "so do you think you got your message out?" I wonder what that message would have
            been. We can only speak for ourselves as four individual participants in the blac bloc (many blacblokers felt
            they were sending a message), but to us we werent a message. We just were there.

            And maybe that confused some people.

            Black masks provide anonymity and safety for individuals yet visibility as a group. When we stand in front of
            the police, the government, politicians, and their bosses in the corporations, they can not question our
            legitimacy (are we "good" protestors?) because we don't care what they think.

            And they know it.

            Is that a message? What message is being sent by 9000 police in black and blue riot armor with clubs and
            teargas?

            If you've never noticed someone and then they put on a black mask and you can suddenly see them, that isn't
            necessarily a message, but something has changed.

            Every organism, life itself, will fight to stay alive. It is healthy to be willing to protect yourself to stay alive. Our
            presence represented a growing healthiness of the movements to end corporate dominance. By no means is
            the blac bloc the only indication of this growing healthiness or the most significant, just one of the most visible
            [Note that as the week went on and we discovered we were being treated as a message, we worked hard to
            prevent the police and the media from wielding our image to eclipse the many other messages of the protests.].
            The blac bloc is no different from the rest of the protest movement in the same way that my liver is no different
            from me. My liver is a part of me and having one makes me healthy. Just so, the protest movement isnt any
            different from the general public. Were a part of you (the part thats willing to defend yourself) and that makes
            you healthier.

            Personally (speaking as four individuals), we don't think the phrase "class war" is a very good metaphor for
            what protestors do. Rich people can romanticize war, reach out and touch the danger, feel the thrill, and tell
            the tale. The rest of us get killed or maimed. War sucks. Immunology offers a better metaphor, because the
            democratic wellbeing of this nation has become diseased. Corporations are a cancer that will kill us if we let
            them. The blac bloc is just one tiny element of the growing movements dedicated to bringing health and
            strength to the body of the nation and healing to the community of peoples throughout the world. We'll do our
            bit to eliminate the cancer.

            Anarchists never problematise the relationship between collective strength and individual freedom (why would
            we?) so therefore we can end this letter with the traditional anarchist salutary

            Solidarity and Autonomy,
            Antibody, Spazz, Sketch, & Entropy
            of blac bloc D2KLA