A communique from one section of the black bloc of N30 in Seattle
On November 30, several groups of individuals in black bloc attacked
various corporate targets in
downtown Seattle. Among them were (to name just a few):
Fidelity Investment (major investor in Occidental Petroleum, the bane of the U'wa tribe in Columbia)
Bank of America, US Bancorp, Key Bank and Washington Mutual Bank
(financial institutions key
in the expansion of corporate repression)
Old Navy, Banana Republic and the GAP (as Fisher family businesses,
rapers of Northwest forest
lands and sweatshop laborers)
NikeTown and Levi's (whose overpriced products are made in sweatshops)
McDonald's (slave-wage fast-food peddlers responsible for destruction
of tropical rainforests for
grazing land and slaughter of animals)
Starbucks (peddlers of an addictive substance whose products are
harvested at below-poverty wages
by farmers who are forced to destroy their own forests in the
process)
Warner Bros. (media monopolists)
Planet Hollywood (for being Planet Hollywood)
This activity lasted for over 5 hours and involved the breaking
of storefront windows and doors and
defacing of facades. Slingshots, newspaper boxes, sledge hammers,
mallets, crowbars and nail-pullers
were used to strategically destroy corporate property and gain
access (one of the three targeted
Starbucks and Niketown were looted). Eggs filled with glass etching
solution, paint-balls and spray-paint
were also used.
The black bloc was a loosely organized cluster of affinity groups
and individuals who roamed around
downtown, pulled this way by a vulnerable and significant storefront
and that way by the sight of a police
formation. Unlike the vast majority of activists who were pepper-sprayed,
tear-gassed and shot at with
rubber bullets on several occasions, most of our section of the
black bloc escaped serious injury by
remaining constantly in motion and avoiding engagement with the
police. We buddied up, kept tight and
watched each others' backs. Those attacked by federal thugs were
un-arrested by quick-thinking and
organized members of the black bloc. The sense of solidarity
was awe-inspiring.
THE PEACE POLICE
Unfortunately, the presence and persistence of "peace police"
was quite disturbing. On at least 6
separate occasions, so-called "non-violent" activists physically
attacked individuals who targeted
corporate property. Some even went so far as to stand in front
of the Niketown super store and tackle
and shove the black bloc away. Indeed, such self-described "peace-keepers"
posed a much greater
threat to individuals in the black bloc than the notoriously
violent uniformed "peace-keepers" sanctioned
by the state (undercover officers have even used the cover of
the activist peace-keepers to ambush those
who engage in corporate property destruction).
RESPONSE TO THE BLACK BLOC
Response to the black bloc has highlighted some of the contradictions
and internal oppressions of the
"nonviolent activist" community. Aside from the obvious hypocrisy
of those who engaged in violence
against black-clad and masked people (many of whom were harassed
despite the fact that they never
engaged in property destruction), there is the racism of privileged
activists who can afford to ignore the
violence perpetrated against the bulk of society and the natural
world in the name of private property
rights. Window-smashing has engaged and inspired many of the
most oppressed members of Seattle's
community more than any giant puppets or sea turtle costumes
ever could (not to disparage the
effectiveness of those tools in other communities).
TEN MYTHS ABOUT THE BLACK BLOC
Here's a little something to dispel the myths that have been circulating about the N30 black bloc:
1. "They are all a bunch of Eugene anarchists." While a few may
be anarchists from Eugene, we hail from
all over the United States, including Seattle. In any case, most
of us are familiar with local issues in
Seattle (for instance, the recent occupation of downtown by some
of the most nefarious of multinational
retailers).
2. "They are all followers of John Zerzan." A lot of rumors have
been circulating that we are followers of
John Zerzan, an anarcho-primitivist author from Eugene who advocates
property destruction. While
some of us may appreciate his writings and analyses, he is in
no sense our leader, directly, indirectly,
philisophocally or otherwize.
3. "The mass public squat is the headquarters of the anarchists
who destroyed property on November
30th." In reality, most of the people in the "Autonomous Zone"
squat are residents of Seattle who have
spent most of their time since its opening on the 28th in the
squat. While they may know of one-another,
the two groups are not co-extensive and in no case could the
squat be considered the headquarters of
people who destroyed property.
4. "They escalated situations on the 30th, leading to the tear-gassing
of passive, non-violent protesters."
To answer this, we need only note that tear-gassing, pepper-spraying
and the shooting of rubber bullets
all began before the black blocs (as far as we know) started
engaging in property destruction. In
addition, we must resist the tendency to establish a causal relationship
between police repression and
protest in any form, whether it involved property destruction
or not. The police are charged with
protecting the interests of the wealthy few and the blame for
the violence cannot be placed upon those
who protest those interests.
5. Conversely: "They acted in response to the police repression."
While this might be a more positive
representation of the black bloc, it is nevertheless false. We
refuse to be misconstrued as a purely
reactionary force. While the logic of the black bloc may not
make sense to some, it is in any case a
pro-active logic.
6. "They are a bunch of angry adolescent boys." Aside from the
fact that it belies a disturbing ageism and
sexism, it is false. Property destruction is not merely macho
rabble-rousing or testosterone-laden angst
release. Nor is it displaced and reactionary anger. It is strategically
and specifically targeted direct action
against corporate interests.
7. "They just want to fight." This is pretty absurd, and it conveniently
ignores the eagerness of "peace
police" to fight us. Of all the groups engaging in direct action,
the black bloc was perhaps the least
interested in engaging the authorities and we certainly had no
interest in fighting with other anti-WTO
activists (despite some rather strong disagreements over tactics).
8. "They are a chaotic, disorganized and opportunistic mob." While
many of us could surely spend days
arguing over what "chaotic" means, we were certainly not disorganized.
The organization may have been
fluid and dynamic, but it was tight. As for the charge of opportunism,
it would be hard to imagine who of
the thousands in attendance _didn't_ take advantage of the opportunity
created in Seattle to advance
their agenda. The question becomes, then, whether or not we helped
create that opportunity and most of
us certainly did (which leads us to the next myth):
9. "They don't know the issues" or "they aren't activists who've
been working on this." While we may not
be professional activists, we've all been working on this convergence
in Seattle for months. Some of us
did work in our home-towns and others came to Seattle months
in advance to work on it. To be sure,
we were responsible for many hundreds of people who came out
on the streets on the 30th, only a very
small minority of which had anything to do with the black bloc.
Most of us have been studying the effects
of the global economy, genetic engineering, resource extraction,
transportation, labor practices,
elimination of indigenous autonomy, animal rights and human rights
and we've been doing activism on
these issues for many years. We are neither ill-informed nor
unexperienced.
10. "Masked anarchists are anti-democratic and secretive because
they hide their identities." Let's face it
(with or without a mask)--we aren't living in a democracy right
now. If this week has not made it plain
enough, let us remind you--we are living in a police state. People
tell us that if we really think that we're
right, we wouldn't be hiding behind masks. "The truth will prevail"
is the assertion. While this is a fine and
noble goal, it does not jive with the present reality. Those
who pose the greatest threat to the interests of
Capital and State will be persecuted. Some pacifists would have
us accept this persecution gleefully.
Others would tell us that it is a worthy sacrifice. We are not
so morose. Nor do we feel we have the
privilege to accept persecution as a sacrifice: persecution to
us is a daily inevitability and we treasure our
few freedoms. To accept incarceration as a form of flattery betrays
a large amount of "first world"
privilege. We feel that an attack on private property is necessary
if we are to rebuild a world which is
useful, healthful and joyful for everyone. And this despite the
fact that hypertrophied private property
rights in this country translate into felony charges for any
property destruction over $250.
MOTIVATIONS OF THE BLACK BLOC
The primary purpose of this communique is to diffuse some of the
aura of mystery that surrounds the
black bloc and make some of its motivations more transparent,
since our masks cannot be.
ON THE VIOLENCE OF PROPERTY
We contend that property destruction is not a violent activity
unless it destroys lives or causes pain in the
process. By this definition, private property--especially corporate
private property--is itself infinitely
more violent than any action taken against it.
Private property should be distinguished from personal property.
The latter is based upon use while the
former is based upon trade. The premise of personal property
is that each of us has what s/he needs. The
premise of private property is that each of us has something
that someone else needs or wants. In a
society based on private property rights, those who are able
to accrue more of what others need or want
have greater power. By extension, they wield greater control
over what others perceive as needs and
desires, usually in the interest of increasing profit to themselves.
Advocates of "free trade" would like to see this process to its
logical conclusion: a network of a few
industry monopolists with ultimate control over the lives of
the everyone else. Advocates of "fair trade"
would like to see this process mitigated by government regulations
meant to superficially impose basic
humanitarian standards. As anarchists, we despise both positions.
Private property--and capitalism, by extension--is intrinsicly
violent and repressive and cannot be
reformed or mitigated. Whether the power of everyone is concentrated
into the hands of a few corporate
heads or diverted into a regulatory apparatus charged with mitigating
the disasters of the latter, no one
can be as free or as powerful as they could be in a non-hierarchical
society.
When we smash a window, we aim to destroy the thin veneer of legitimacy
that surrounds private
property rights. At the same time, we exorcize that set of violent
and destructive social relationships
which has been imbued in almost everything around us. By "destroying"
private property, we convert its
limited exchange value into an expanded use value. A storefront
window becomes a vent to let some
fresh air into the oppressive atmosphere of a retail outlet (at
least until the police decide to tear-gas a
nearby road blockade). A newspaper box becomes a tool for creating
such vents or a small blockade
for the reclamation of public space or an object to improve one's
vantage point by standing on it. A
dumpster becomes an obstruction to a phalanx of rioting cops
and a source of heat and light. A building
facade becomes a message board to record brainstorm ideas for
a better world.
After N30, many people will never see a shop window or a hammer
the same way again. The potential
uses of an entire cityscape have increased a thousand-fold. The
number of broken windows pales in
comparison to the number broken spells--spells cast by a corporate
hegemony to lull us into forgetfulness
of all the violence committed in the name of private property
rights and of all the potential of a society
without them. Broken windows can be boarded up (with yet more
waste of our forests) and eventually
replaced, but the shattering of assumptions will hopefully persist
for some time to come.
Against Capital and State,
the ACME Collective
"Peasant Revolt!"