SF Black Bloc Thoughts : Indybay

WHAT WE THINK
SOME THOUGHTS FROM SOME SAN FRANCISCO BLACK BLOC PARTICIPANTS

WHAT THIS IS: We are an anonymous group of friends who have participated in the recent black bloc actions in San Francisco anti-war demonstrations. We're concerned that newcomers to the struggle against the U.S. government and the global rich elite are not familiar with black bloc tactics or the need for unpermitted demonstrations. We want to show that there are solid ideas behind our strategy, that we are not unthinking hooligans and that we will show respect to everyone who shows respect to us.

CHALLENGE TO SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE & ROB MORSE: While we understand that many people who feel passionate about stopping this war against Iraq might not have heard of black bloc before, we are convinced that major news organizations like the San Francisco Chronicle know exactly what it is -- even if some of their shoddy reporters do not. We support the Challenge to Rob Morse to publicly debate the black bloc participants who he attacked in his poorly-written newspaper column.

Black Bloc Thoughts:

We don't think they care about permitted protests.
The recent anti-war protests have historical importance and we recognize the excellent work done by organizing groups. But at the end of the day, we don't think they care about our permitted protests. When the U.S. goes to war anyway, spitting in the face of millions of protesters worldwide, we think a lot of people will understand what we mean. If there is widespread and uncontrollable domestic unrest the night the U.S. goes to war, we have the opportunity to substantially impact the US's diplomatic strength. In the longterm, we have the ability to shake this system to its core and stop the US murder machine forever.
We think that now is the time to shut this system down.
Has it ever been more clear? The economy is destroyed, white collar thugs are stealing billions from us every day, world war is once again breaking out, the police and government spooks have more power than ever before in history, innocent people are being "disappeared" by the feds right in our own cities, and we are living under an ignorant tyrant who is ready to turn the world to ashes. We in this country are the only ones who can monkeywrench this system and save the world from our way of life. If not now, then when?
We think things are fundamentally screwed up.
While we agree that our goal right now must be to stop George Bush's war on the world, we think there's a lot more wrong than that: a society where the richest people are prioritized over everyone else to such a degree that starvation and desperation are the rule, not the exception; armed occupations of places like Colombia, Palestine and working class neighborhoods in the U.S. by paramilitaries funded with our tax dollars; unprecedented environmental destruction; a system where we spend all of our lives at jobs we hate so that rich people can get richer. We are against the war on Iraq but we are for a war against the violent rich thugs who hold us all hostage.
We are not an organization.
"Black bloc" is not a group, there is no "leader," and we don't have meetings. Black bloc is a protest tactic that began in Europe and spread to the U.S. in the 90s in places like Seattle, SF & LA, Washington DC, etc. The idea is that everyone wears black clothes and black masks and then security cameras and police cannot track protest participants. We encourage everyone to wear masks -- the more people who participate, the more anonymous we are. In a city where most of the police commanders are under criminal indictment, with Office of Homeland Security stooges running around everywhere spying on people, do you really trust the Hearst-controlled Chronicle when they tell you that masks aren't necessary?

The next few weeks will be history-making. For those of us who know in our hearts that Bush/Cheney's plans must be stopped, will we make history or be rolled over by it?