(en) Britain, London, The anti austerity demo - Alt Media,
Blocs – How to do them Better!
The anti-austerity march on June 20th saw a bloc of 150+ anarchists marching together in
London – more than we’ve had in a while. (not sure what a bloc is? See note at the end of
this article…) Big flags meant that people could find each other, and the masks handed out
by NetPol meant that almost everyone had their face covered. Sadly, the actual action that
happened was a bit shit. The bloc started off as part of the main march, with NO uniformed
police in sight. Flares and smoke bombs were let off. But even though it walked past
plenty of obvious targets, there was only minor damage caused. Although the flags and
banners meant that the bloc kept together a lot better than normal, people were still
often spread out and in danger of getting separated completely. Then came the breakaway –
people were led away from the centre of London, and on a long walk south of the river.
This was tiring but didn’t lead to any actions. Not only was there less obviously worth
doing, the bloc also picked up a big following of riot vans and police. After what felt
like a long and pointless walk, the bloc ended up back at the speeches of the main march.
(apparently the target in South London was a property developer, which people
spray-painted then left really fast when police moved in)
While it was a good show of force, and better than just walking from A to B, there was SO
much we could have done better! This article has three ideas on that…
More Banners
Black bloc at the Rostock anti-g8 protests
Police try to get people on a bloc to panic so that they start running too fast and leave
people behind, splitting the group into smaller and smaller sections. We need to bring
more things that help us to defend ourselves and stay together. In Germany, it’s common to
do this using banners – not just at the front of a bloc but around the sides and at the
back. This helps stop the bloc merging with the rest of the protest, and makes it harder
for police to snatch people. Banners are something that protesters who have taken action
can hide behind.
Smarter Breakaways
Because the breakaway on Saturday walked so far, people got too tired to take any action,
and police had plenty of time to bring in reinforcements. If we break away at all then
there needs to be a goal nearby – the police could have stopped us if they’d tried harder,
and then the whole thing would have been pointless. The breakaway also only seemed to have
one target. This is a problem because our advantage over the police is speed – we need to
be flexible and change our plans at the last minute, and that means picking a route that
leaves many options open. In the circumstances, we would have been better off staying on
the official route – which went past businesses responsible for austerity, a major private
bank, and the largest commercial property company in the uk! (see this map)
Make Plans
The biggest problem on the day was that most of us didn’t take the initiative to do
anything. This is despite being a decent size, with hardly any police! It’s not enough to
wait for other people to start something before joining in. If everyone had that attitude
then nothing would ever happen! Ideally, every anarchist going on a protest should get
together an affinity group beforehand and plan to take action on the day. This guide to
protests and affinity groups is worth a read.
On Saturday it felt like most of us were “self-policing”. Police have been so heavy handed
in the past that no-one expected to have the chance to do more than just tussle with riot
cops. The only way to get out of this mentality is to just do it – find like-minded
people, get organised and make a plan!
Protesters smash the Ritz (posh hotel) during the March 26th anti-austerity protests in 2011
(note – a “bloc” is where a group of people with similar ideas get together on a protest
march, holding a “protest within a protest”. Anarchists normally use these to gather
people that want to take direct action in one place, so they can back each other up and
defend themselves against police. Most anarchists use black bloc tactics to protect their
anonymity. This leaflet explains some of the reasons we aren’t happy with normal protests)
Links at: https://theviolentminority.wordpress.com/2015/06/23/blocs-how-to-do-them-better/
