Occupy Oakland General Strike - Banks Smashed Up in Afternoon, 11/2/11: photos, 2 of 2

save a window, break a protester

Having been at 61 years of marches of all kinds, right here in the Bay Area, literally since Day 1, it is clear that the broken window gang is a police gang. We only assemble to air our grievances; breaking windows accomplishes nothing good. These banks are all insured and can easily replace windows and continue to maximize their profits. It also takes tremendous strength to break these plate glass windows, even with a rock, something the police have but most of the rest of us do not have. Anyone who is not a cop and participates in this stupidity is harming all workingclass struggles. Putting a mask on one's face is a good cover for an agent provocateur. Violence is ALWAYS a downward spiral and only the ruling class benefits. THE GOAL OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT MUST BE TO ELIMINATE THE PRIVATE PROFIT SYSTEM WHICH CAN ONLY BE ACHIEVED BY ORGANIZING LABOR FOR A GENERAL STRIKE TO END THE PRIVATE PROFIT SYSTEM, CAPITALISM. That goal is not achieved by breaking windows; it is achieved by LABOR ORGANIZING. That means you have to live among the workingclass, and hand out the union cards everywhere. It certainly means that you are a peaceful, non-violent person.

I agree with some of the last poster's comments re the counter produtivity of breaking Bank windows . After all they're usually just branch banks anyway , hardly where the high ranking execs have their offices . And yes as the Anarchist truism goes (which at least some anarchists seem to have forgot ) '' You can't break a Social relationship ''.
But i am amused by his assertion that since bank windows are hard to break anyone doing so must be cops !
I don't know what activist circles the poster frequents but many Leftists i know work in the Building trades, Ports, Home repair /construction , play various types of ball games, work out , pump iron etc.
So yeah we have a few Wimpy Woody Allen type radicals but quite a few of us are capable of breaking windows !
The question is where it gets us tactically and politically .

Most women, intellectuals and seniors, men & women, cannot possibly break these windows. All the construction workers I know would not be so stupid as to break windows. All that is left are the police and their agents. Did it occur to you that many writers on this website are women, intellectuals and/or seniors? Woody Allen is a movie producer and actor, with more intellect than any window breaker. He also happens to be of Jewish descent, a fact known to all who know him, as is this writer. I recall an excellent movie he made exposing the witchhunts of the 1950s, The Front, in 1976.

I have been around a long time, and I am absolutely opposed to these activities under the present circumstances, when we have a real opportunity to build a mass movement. Smashing windows serves absolutely no purpose and it scares the hell out of a lot of people who would really like to join us.

It's a disgrace that we are having to devote our time and energy to debating tactics that serve no purpose. Arguing over the black bloc is a total diversion from the hard work we need to be doing.

Debating whether or not the black bloc are infiltrated is a rabbit hole we don't want to climb down. I would not be surprised to find out that there are agents provacateur in our midst, but honestly we don't have any evidence on which to base such speculation. And it misses the point that there is a sizeable minority of our movement, who are not cops, who are hellbent on repeating this stuff. If we blame it on the cops, then we are suggesting that we don't have an internal problem that needs addressing. And we do have a very fucking serious internal problem that needs addressing.

As much as i disagree with the antics of the '' Black Bloc '' i agree with Karaoke that we shouldn't be tossing around Cop-baiting allegations . Are there some Cops and/or informers among their ranks ? Probably . And probably within every other political faction within Occupy . Is that ''breaking news '' ?
But we would only compound the damage they might do by engaging in a paranoid internal witchunt .
And this new development of some Law and order liberals who have phyisically threatened some people and called on people to ''turn in '' suspected ''anarchists '' is as damaging if not more so than any thing misguided '' Black Bloc'' street fighters have done
PS I like Woody Allen flicks . And BTW what's with the reference to him being Jewish ? I hate to break the news to you Senior Citizen activist but there are '' Tough Jews '' in the world . (and not just within the ranks of the iDF )

WTF does Woody Allen's ancestry or the whether a specific person can or cannot actually break a window have to do with whether people SUPPORT militant property destruction? It is sexist, ageist, and ableist to believe that women (hunh-what part of liberation don't you get?), seniors, or disabled people can't do property destruction or self or community defense. I know women who have participated in the Black Bloc. I am a disabled man, and i have not broken any windows recently, but i have participated in and support community and self defense. I have seen disabled people break things with their wheelchairs.

Most of the black bloc are as intellectual as any college professor. The statement about intellectuals being a category that can't do physical things is very anti-intellectual, and divides up the world into people who work with their brain and people who with brawn. I thought people who support the 99% were beyond that division, but sometimes, i guess, old ideas and habits never die.