In Defense of the Black Bloc
>
>by crimethinc collective, old line division
>9:50pm Mon Jul 30 '01
>old_line_bloc@yahoo.com
>
>This is a response to an article published yesterday about past and
>upcoming protests.
>
>Main theme is the increased separation between protesters and those
>at the receiving end of the protests.
>
>In Sunday's article, "I'm On Their Side, To A Point"
>(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64195-2001Jul28.html)
>), Noreena Hertz takes issue with what she terms 'flaws in the
>movement' against corporate globalization. She questions the
>efficacy of a movement that refuses to oust the militant 'black
>bloc', best known for property destruction. But the black bloc is
>far more than 'a group of thugs', as Chief Ramsey of the D.C. Police
>has called us. What we are, and what we do, is the embodiment of a
>system of beliefs that refuses all authority. In D.C. last April at
>the World Bank/IMF meeting, the black bloc did not engage in property
>destruction. Instead, the bloc moved swiftly between blockades,
>reinforcing those blockades, protecting vulnerable members of the
>community, standing in front of buses and trucks at considerable risk
>to ourselves and our own well-being. Why? Because, like the
>pink-haired girl quoted in Hertz's article, many of us are willing to
>'die for the cause'. Not because we are some kind of misguided,
>over-idealistic rebels, but because we know that a world controlled
>by corporate elites at the expense of the poor, the working class,
>minorities and the environment is not a world in which life is worth
>living. The only world in which life is worth living is one in which
>every person has the possibility and the opportunity to live free.
>That is what we are striving for, and, at least for those of us in
>the black bloc, that is how we live. We make decisions by consensus,
>no one is forced to do anything against her own will, and everyone
>contributes her unique abilities and talents to build the community
>and makes sure no one is left behind or unnecessarily put at risk.
>
>Too much emphasis has been placed on the fact that we do not denounce
>property destruction as a tactic. We are trying to build a world
>based on care and community. There is no place for chain
>super-stores in such a world! There is no place for McDonalds, with
>its destruction of the Andean rainforest, its exploitation of both
>producers and consumers, and its massive profits for an elite few at
>the top of its hierarchical executive structure! Whether we destroy
>McDonalds now or later is irrelevant, whether we destroy it chain by
>chain, challenge its legitimacy through the publicity of a libel
>suit, or burn the corporate office is unimportant. What *is*
>important is that McDonalds does eventually disapppear from our
>world, along with the other mega-corporations that exploit and
>manipulate people by their very existence. What *is* important is
>that we recognize the value of groups like the black bloc, who hold
>together and stay strong when everyone else is panicking or falling
>apart. And what is *especially* important is that we do not lose
>sight of the goal: a world without suffering.
>
>Surprisingly enough, this is a goal that is shared by many employees
>of the World Bank and IMF. The difference, however, is that those in
>the World Bank do not have faith in people to bring about such a
>world for themselves. Like European missionaries sent to Africa in
>colonial times, they have set out to eradicate poverty by imposing
>economic models and theories that were created in closed conferences
>of rich, white men. They consider themselves to be the authority on
>poverty, and will not deign to consult with the impoverished people
>they claim to be helping. Even Joseph Stiglitz, former Chief
>Economist for the World Bank, admits that Bank bureaucrats hardly
>step out of the five-star hotels they inhabit when visiting debtor
>nations. He says that they do not bother to learn the history or
>intricacies of the country's economic situation, but merely impose
>the same economic prescription for every ailing country. In such a
>context, indebted countries soon find themselves paying up to half
>their annual budget for debt repayment, while the needs of their
>people continue to go unanswered.
>
>At the end of September, Washingtonians will face the massive
>militarization and increased police presence that has begun to
>accompany every major World Bank/IMF meeting. The question we should
>be asking is, "What are these trade ministers really so afraid of?"
>Black-clad youth who serve as scapegoats for both right and left
>alike? I think not. I think the real fear, and the reason the World
>Bank and IMF continue to refuse dialogue with these malcontents, is
>the fact that they know their institutions are failing to ease
>poverty, and rather than trying to listen to what the opposition has
>to say, would prefer to barricade themselves inside their newly-built
>modern building and demand that the people of the poorest countries
>sacrifice even further, cutting back on health and education budgets,
>raising prices on staple foods, and selling off state enterprises to
>multinationals, to be able to pay more money to the richest of the
>rich.
>
>http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=56415&group=webcast
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