splinter from the breakaway

I have heard that today, March 20th, during the breakaway march, there was actually an undercover police guard infiltrating the so called black bloc. This individual tried to mislead the group by telling them to march straight towards the police barricades. Next time, we should keep a watch out for these guys.

This is a major part of why I think that these breakaways/black bloc marches can't work here in the Bay Area- we don't all know each other. We don't have public meetings, and very few people are invited to the private meetings. Sometimes before we start marching it looks to me like people are having a meeting (maybe those are just affinity groups that are meeting?), but I can't tell. They don't announce the meetings or invite people to them. And, I mean, people know me. I am an experienced organizer, and I am actually a useful member of tactical groups for this sort of thing. It makes me feel alienated and nervous about what these people who I am by default trusting with my safety and time are going to subject me to.

When we were in the streets today and as the cops closed us in on Market people chanted "This is what democracy looks like," I was like, what? Did they mean that the brutality of the police shows that democracy is a farce that requires regular violence and brutality in order to maintain itself, or did they mean that the "people" being in the streets is somehow "democratic?" And what do they mean by "democratic?"

yes today people were disorganized. I dont blame anyone, but next time we should have a spokes/meeting before hand since so few of us know eachother personaly. And if people had tightened up and "bloc"-ed up better, (there were a ton of people that weren't experienced in the tactic so they didn't know what to do) things might have gone better.

wow. san fran is messed up with the police brutality. I marched here in new york and i must say there were no confrontations with the police at all hardly. I mean, yeah NYC is tamer than san fran becasue NYC is more mainstream crowded, but nevertheless we had massive police brutality last year. My guess is, after last years rally, there was major press about police brutality and the organizors made a big case about it; so the police today were probably purposely told not to confront us. Later in the evening, around 6, there was a breakaway march up broadway ave. a year ago, and indeed in the future we will see it again, a spontaneous march up broadway would have prompted about 200 riot police within a minute to beat up and rush the marchers. But this time all they did was follow and not intimidate the marchers. Now all this nonconfrontational action on behalf of the cops today was for political reasons. I'm convinced they were told to hold back today to look good. but it goes to show you that violence is always brought on by the police. i mean, just let the people be able to walk down the street for what is only once or twice a year (and this when there is a war going on.) police are stupid. I heard two NYPD talk today and one was telling the other that he felt in the air a confrontation. he then cracked his nuckles. he really really wanted a confrontation. the cops are just there for the rush and of course they have the power to beat us but if we brush up against them we have a felony on our hands. powerfreaks hiding behind the law.

it's a shame really. this world. . .it's a fucking shame.

It was interesting on the streets. At the very beginning at polk and grove the police sent in a wedge squad to fuck with the beginning of the breakaway. They were all over the breakaway march through out the day, and they let the most vicious dogs out to deal with the crowd. They showed that they had learned from their previous tactical errors. Their stategy of divide and conquer and intimidation and brutality worked.
Maybe open source publishing is not the best way to organize these type of things. Gives the police a serious heads up and time to run their game plan. Maybe the police are very hip to the breakaway march logistics, like it will odviously start from civic center, it will obviously try to go to union square, and certain more provocative people might be all dressed a certain way.
There can be a lot more tactical game from the breakaway side and I am hoping that people start thinking out of the box, it has got to happen. Learn from tactical mistakes.

small groups organizing amoungst themselves is not the problem. decentralized planning is the best way to avoid infiltration. groups *should* splinter and split. tiny actions of disruption by multiple groups compounds things.

there's NO reason that ANY american city should have business as usual as long as there are wars of invasion going on. the best way to do that is decentralized mass actions.

don't give in to your authoritarian commie leanings. that's what ANSWER, etc is all about. that kind of organizing isn't what black blocing is about. we don't need leaders. we don't need central planning and central committees, dammit! each and every one of us knows what is to be done - disruption disruption disruption! no business as usual while the killing of innocents continues!

I agree with the above person on decentralization. Large numbers of people are quite important, but the police have shown that they will surround and arrest hundreds of people (think 7th and Mission) and even surround thousands of people on Market street. I think it would be difficult for them to do this if even actually were spread around where there are tons of shoppers (below 5th st) or spread over several blocks in an area with lots of thin streets. Spreading out can provide as much creative space as blocking together. I think this will be especially crucial in New York next summer.

Why couldn't there be public meetings on break away marches and black blocs? It would probably help a lot if people discussed what went wrong and what went right afterwards. My impression has been that the people in the bloc plan very little befor marching and no one really knows where they're going or what they're trying to do. Someone should really get some sort of meeting type thing going.

You're speaking to anarchists. While I agree there SHOULD be meetings, I urge you to seriously think about what you just suggested. Meetings on breakaway marches? Why, that would be like a government or something!

Most of us have friends right? And most of these friends share a mutual distaste for __________. Call it an affinity group. Call it a tribe. Call it a fuckin' gang for all I care. Personally, I went to the breakaway march with five close friends. We had a plan and were well prepared (cell phones, water, first aid kit, ect...). We stayed close and kept an eye on each other at all times. The more passive members of my tribe kept the more agressive ones from getting too overzealous. As a result, we participated in nearly every aspect of the march, except the getting arrested part (to my dismay). THE POINT IS. Where do you draw the line "Captain Anarchy"? Tribes are not governments. I see no harm in connecting and communicating between tribes via meetings. After all, isn't a meeting just that, a meeting? Meeting people, making friends, and communicating thoughts, ideas and strategies to each other. WAIT A SECOND! That's what we're doing right now here on indybay! Ahhh! Communist Russia all over again! Just kidding :) Anyway, if anybody agrees with me and wants to contact me... please do BASTA!