Callout for a Black Bloc to Defend Anti-Racists in the Twin Cities!
"Nazis...I hate those guys." -Indiana Jones
There's a really great workshop scheduled at the YWCA this saturday. October 3rd (10am-5pm) about dealing with white priviledge and white supremacy. This is useful, important and, frankly, long overdue for many in the twin cities. White folks should definitely try to be there.
The Nazis are coming out as well. Having heard about the event, the National Socialist Movement has announced plans to protest the workshop.
We need to show them that this is unacceptable. This workshop is a good thing and deserves the full support of this community. If you're not planning on participating in the actual workshop, come out in your finest bloc gear to stand in solidarity with the participants and organizers and tell the Nazis to go home.
"All you fascists are bound to lose." -Woody Guthrie
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It is important that militant
It is important that militant anarchists attend the demonstration to defend the community against the fascists. It would be better politically, strategically, tactically to take part as members of the community, rather than a seperated, alienated bloc.
It would be far superior for a broad working-class crowd including anarchists to outnumber, surround, intimidate, and push the nazis out, than a smaller masked up group that is not seen as part of the community.
A Black Bloc in this situation will isolate militancy, what we need to do is root militancy in the community, in the neighborhoods we live in.
I hope comrades consider this argument.
solidarity,
Kdog
anti-fascist anarchist
Good point, kdog. But I can
Good point, kdog.
But I can also see arguments for a black bloc as well.
It is highly visible, intimidating, and sends a fairly straightforward message of "do not fuck with this workshop or there will be consequences." Plus it has the added bonus of not showing the Nazis who all the active antifascists are.
Everyone should come out to this, whether they choose to bloc up or not.
Fair enough. I also think
Fair enough. I also think though that Kdog's points are really important though. A highly visible and intimidating message is gonna come from a united community, not a smaller group that can be easily identified as "militants." Minneapolis is militant and our actions should show that. I don't think this demo is gonna be a liberal "Nazis are bad guys" kind of thing, I think it's going to be really clear that they're presence is not tolerated in our communities and that they should be frightened.
The NSM has a strategy - and we should too.
Thanks for engaging. Important we learn to talk to each other about strategy.
A couple points:
1. While the NSM surely hate the workshop against white supremacy and white privledge and the people promoting it, if there main goal was to fuck with it, why wouldn't they just suprise bumrush it?
Their main goal is to use the workshop as an opportunity to do three things (in my estimate):
- Continue to raise their public profile as the out there straight-up white-supremacist outfit
- Try and do a little ideological polarization around the whole white priviledge concept. They know that most working-class whites don't feel very priviledged and they know the left/radicals have done a shit job of articulating what "white priviledge" is while still relating to the stress, exploitation, and fears most white working-class people experience.
- Most importantly in my view, they wanna test the waters in Minneapolis. We have a hard won tradition as a "no-go" zone for the fascists. The NSM its self tasted defeat from ARA (essentially a popular black bloc) in '97 (?) when they tried to take the streets in St. Paul. If they can establish an ability to do open political work in the economic, cultural and media center of the state - and a city known nationwide as anti-fascist they will see that as a significant victory and something to build on.
2 . Soooo, if those are their objectives, what should be ours? Lets look at this both short term and medium term. Lets be strategic. We definitely wanna stop them on Saturday from achieving their objectives. All of their objectives.
We need to prevent them claiming turf (and we need to claim it)
We need to prevent them from having a succesful media event (and we need to have one *)
We need to prevent them from begining to build a base in working-class communities (and we need to begin building one)
Now if you agree with all/or most of all this (and if you don't thats cool, but i wanna hear what you do think) than is the Black Bloc the best answer? I don't see how. It will isolate us from our base (and sooo many anarchists and other radicals live in south Minneapolis, and have a right to bring their militancy to a community defense operation and not just do the tourist summit-hopping outsider thing). It will make it easier (not harder) for the police and liberals to identify us and seperate the crowd into "good" and "bad" protesters. It wont challenge us to engage others who come to the action, with our miltant anarchist politics.
We have an opportunity to deal the fash a defeat and start building our own strength.
* By succesful media event, I dont mean that the media says nice things about us. They won't. I mean that the essential story iof a community standing up to the fascists comes through and is seen by millions.
Hmm, I can see valid points
Hmm, I can see valid points on both sides of this question.
On the one hand, I agree that a broad-based, transparently militant community response to this is a worthwhile goal. Nothing demoralizes nazis more than hearing their recruiting pool (pissed-off, working class white folks) telling them to fuck off. Not masking up means you're attending as a concerned citizen of the twin cities, able to connect with other sympathetic citizens and begin a dialogue outside of the usual activist channels. It also says, "I'm not afraid of you; my neighbors have my back."
On the other hand, the presense of a black bloc, in my mind, symbolizes a contigent of folks ready to throw down for serious if matters escalate that far. Hopefully this intention will be obvious to other supporters and help transform public perception of the bloc from the media's image of "masked vandals" to that of committed folks willing to defend people and places that need defending. If I were a nazi, I would definitely think twice about starting shit around a group clearly ready and willing to bust my skull if necessary. And, finally, I'm frankly a bit scared of nazis and would be much more willing to stand toe-to-toe with them if they couldn't take my picture and track me down later.
I think we can agree on the above-stated goals. To me, the choice becomes one of tactics to acheive those goals. Do you want to create a media image of the (unmasked) community standing together against racism or do you want to chase nazis away as soon as they show their faces? Do you want to talk to potential allies and build new connections over a pretty easy issue (fascism? bad! antifascism? good!) or do you want to protect yourself and your existing network against enemy surveillance? There's no easy answer, as far as I can tell.
I think that black blocs are
I think that black blocs are a useful tactic in certain limited circumstances, but I'm pretty skeptical of the suggestion that they have any place at Saturday's anti-fascist demonstration. Saturday's anti-fascist, anti-racist event promises to be huge and empowering, and it'll be taken seriously because it will actually be representative of the community.
Yes, the NSM is comprised of a lot of scary, violent, hate-spewing people, and I don't want to downplay the legitimate fear that people might feel at the thought of confronting them in any way. But, if the justification for masking up at Saturday's demo is to hide your face to avoid retaliation for whatever you planning on doing with your bloc, I think it's pretty important to acknowledge that all the other people who'll be out there to confront them without obscuring their identities will be taking the brunt of recognition for you. I don't know where the idea that the black bloc should show up to defend other people came from, but it's highly problematic. As far as I know, no one asked for that defense- it sounds like most people are willing to show up and defend their community themselves, without the help of some black-clad savior-types. Minneapolis has a proud history of militant anti-fascist work, and folks here have fully demonstrated their ability and willingness to defend themselves, with the courage to do it openly.
The concept of obscuring your identity and blending into a mass of people can be really important in certain situations. But let's be honest for once: those situations generally involve the specific intent to get away with a crime. And that's ok. But Saturday isn't about that- it's about holding our ground. If you feel that your "militancy," and your willingness to stand up for your community, are confined to the times that your face is hidden, then you should probably hold off on the action and, instead, think seriously about whether or not you're committed enough to the struggle to be taking serious risks at all.
Anonymity can protect individuals against retaliation and prosecution. But, unfortunately, the feeling of anonymity often undermines genuine accountability and can embolden people to do things that don't jive with their own sense of right and wrong, let alone any community standard of conscience. The irony running through this thread, of course, is that these very truths are a significant aspect of the machinations of many fascist organizations, and part of why we find them so abhorrent.
well said
well said
This call for a BB sounds
This call for a BB sounds suspicious AND dangerous. A BB has it's place for sure, and it is not at community event like this. Erik Flann(igan) of Lino Lakes and his ilk are trying to provoke a response and would love nothing more than a fight with a bunch of masked kids, as much as the MPD would love to show up and crack heads because a few folks are in Bloc. They are coming to OUR turf, THEY should be hiding their faces, not us. The old ARA folks fought just as hard as any masked antifa and did it openly and proudly. That's why the community had their backs when the State came a crackin' down.
Show up, be militant, be proud. Save the BB shit for another time.
The more people that come out
The more people that come out to protest the Nazi's, the more motivation you will give them to come back out! These guys feed off of negativity, when will you learn!
Leaving them alone empowers
Leaving them alone empowers them, making them feel weak demoralizes them.
"Making them feel weak
"Making them feel weak demoralizes them."
Correct. These folks have a heroic image of themselves. They want to feel strong, not weak. They want to look smart, not foolish. They're prepared to be martyrs, but not to be humiliated.
However, it is humiliation itself that leads to violence. If you humiliate someone, be prepared for the backlash. It's liable to be physical and violent.
humiliation leads to
humiliation leads to violence... violence leads to suffering.... suffering leads to hate... this is the path to the Dark Side!
Even the star wars characters
Even the star wars characters knew when to pull the trigger on the death star ;)
http://submedia.tv/stimulator/2009/09/10/star-wars/
I am frightened of nazis. My
I am frightened of nazis. My family fleed from germany becuase of them. Some of my family was killed by them. Others killed for them. Personally, I feel a lot better about the possibility of coming out to this knowing that there will be a bloc prepared to put up a defense against nazis.
threats from the nazis
fyi y'all
they have said to our "intelligence" inquirers that they will have heavy police protection and that they are ready for anything in terms of violence and opposition. Something to consider when thinking about tactics...
Thank you last post
Thank you Mr. Brick for letting me know who you are now!
Hail Victory!
I am very glad to see such an outcry for the one political party that will fix this country. I have read some good points and ones that are making me and my unit burst into laughter. You have no idea who we are and what we are fighting for and yet your hearts are filled with pure hatered! How does it feel to be mindless coulprets for the United States govt.?
I hope I have the chance to have an intelligent conversation with some of you this weekend. For too long the American public has gone without opening their eyes to the truth and we will have the perfect oppertunity to try and change the minds of the blind on Saturday. This will be the first of many events throughout the entire metro area; so lets get a good communist turn out so we will have even more motivation to continue our efforts thoughout the great state of Minnesota!
Cpl. Erik Flann
NSM Twin Cities unit leader
Do you want attention? Did
Do you want attention? Did you parents not hug you enough, perhaps? It's okay, if you stop acting out maybe people will accept you for who you are!
much love
Hey buddy, looks like you misspelled a few words.
Not to mention the general ambiguity of all your arguments...
You're the NSM Twin Cities Unit Leader and you sound like a dumbass? Way to prove my bias for you.
nazis intend to show up @ 10
nazis intend to show up @ 10 am, erik flann told me so via email =)
thanks, douchebag.
be there @ 930, aint no fucking nazis even gonna get out of their cars in my neighborhood.
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