Oakland Commune Move-In Day

On Move-In Day:

From Applied Nonexistence:

There is something to be said about the response of state apparatuses against an escalation in what is being billed as a popular, broad-based movement’s progression of objectives.  This afternoon was a rather sobering experience for the activist-left in the East Bay – and it’s probably for the better in terms of the evolution of tactical praxis which will ideally follow today’s events.  This afternoon’s action can be read in multiple ways yet we believe that the two most pertinent points are as follows:

ONE:

The sheer impossibility of Occupy taking and the immediate defense by OPD of the Kaiser convention center, proves that the timbre of Occupy Oakland’s demands moving into the realm of the acquisition of private property (indoor space in particular) is much more confrontational, and by extension more desirable, than the tamer stages of Occupy’s initial forays into the repurposing of the public commons.  If the implicit threat of taking an abandoned building was enough to warrant such a response which, tactically at least, completely nullified any potentiality which may or may not have existed in seeing this objective to its fruition, then it is telling that it is precisely along these lines which such energy needs to be propelled and proliferated.  In national states which have a much more visible squatter’s culture (The Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Greece for example) the actual laws around the legitimacy of squatter’s rights and the legality of acquiring previously dormant physical spaces are actually much more lax than what we have here in the US.  Seen within this context, in the United States the occupation of private property with the aims of creating spaces for a distinct sociopolitical body is at once almost guaranteed to be impossible – but nonetheless desirable precisely because of this impossibility.

TWO:

Aside from the obvious critiques in terms of errors in the “on-the-ground” tactical maneuvering (i.e. bottlenecks at Laney/bridge-crossings, self-imposed kettling on E. 14^th, linear confrontational exchanges in front of the Oakland Museum) we’d still like to make the case (the same redundant shit we here at AN always say) for “exploring” sites on the periphery.  While the carnivalesque atmosphere can often fulfill latent psychological manifestations for some individuals it often is not the most tactically sound site for engagement.  If anything it creates a veritable vacuum around the locus of contestation itself – and this is not something which has yet been explored in conjunction with high-profile events like today’s (this would look like “X” happens here, while “Y” happens there – where “X” is the much more high-profile and accessible action which commands ALL the resources of the authorities, and “Y” are a disparate number of smaller yet higher-stakes actions happening far away from the main spectacle).  While the locus always has an undeniable magnetism, laden with the desire to participate in narratives of resistance, the periphery is always more vulnerable and higher-stakes during such carnivalesque moments.  Explore the periphery.

Solidarity to the friends arrested and hurt. Solidarity to the FUCK THE POLICE 5 march about to pop off right now.

From Oakland with Love,

TEOAN

A letter from some friends in Oakland regarding the Jan. 28th events:

Let us start by apologizing; that our words may be incoherent, our thoughts scattered and our tone overly emotional. Forgive us, because the ringing in our ear continues to interrupt our thinking, because our eyes are bleary and we’re weighed upon by the anxiety and trauma of our injuries and the imprisonment of the ones we love. As most of you are well-aware: after a full day and night of street battles in Oakland, we were defeated in our efforts to occupy a large building for the purposes of establishing an social center. We’re writing, in part, to correct the inaccuracies and mystifications spewed by the scum Media. But more so as to convey the intensity and the urgency of the situation in Oakland to comrades abroad. To an extent, this is an impossible task. Video footage and mere words must inevitably fail at conveying the ineffable collective experiences of the past twenty-four hours. But as always, here goes.

Yesterday was one of the most intense days of our lives. We say this without hyperbole or bravado. The terror in the streets of Miami or St. Paul, the power in the streets of Pittsburgh or Oakland’s autumn; yesterday’s affect met or superseded each of these. The events of yesterday confronted us as a series of intensely beautiful and yet terrible moments.

—

An abbreviated sequence:

Beautiful words are delivered at Oscar Grant Plaza, urging us to cultivate our hatred for capitalism. Hundreds leave the plaza and quickly become thousands. The police attempt to seize the sound truck, but it is rescued by the swarming crowd. We turn towards our destination and are blocked. We turn another way and are blocked once more. We flood through the Laney campus and emerge to find that we’ve been headed off again. We make the next logical move and somehow the police don’t anticipate it. We’re closer to the building, now surrounded by fences and armed swine. We tear at the fences, downing them in some spots. The police begin their first barrage of gas and smoke. The initial fright passes. Calmly, we approach from another angle.

The pigs set their line on Oak. To our left, the museum; to our right, an apartment complex. Shields and reinforced barricades to the front; we push forwards. They launch flash bangs and bean bags and gas. We respond with rocks and flares and bottles. The shields move forward. Another volley from the swine. The shields deflect most of the projectiles. We crouch, wait, then push forward all together. They come at us again and again. We hurl their shit, our shit, and whatever we can find back at them. Some of us are hit by rubber bullets, others are burned by flashbang grenades. We see cops fall under the weight of perfectly-arced stones For what feels like an eternity, we exchange throws and shield one another. Nothing has felt like this before. Lovely souls in the apartment building hand pitchers of waters from their windows to cleanse our eyes. We’ll take a moment here to express our gratitude for the unprecedented bravery and finesse with which the shield-carrying strangers carried out their task. We retreat to the plaza, carrying and being carried by one another.

We re-group, scheme, and a thousand deep, set out an hour later. Failing to get into our second option, we march onwards towards a third. The police spring their trap: attempting to kettle us in the park alongside the 19th and Broadway lot that we’d previously occupied. Terror sets in; the’ve reinforced each of their lines. They start gassing again. More projectiles, our push is repelled. The intelligence of the crowd advances quickly. Tendrils of the crowd go after the fences. In an inversion of the moment where we first occupied this lot, the fences are downed to provide an escape route. We won’t try to explain the joy of a thousand wild-ones running full speed across the lot, downing the second line of fencing and spilling out into the freedom of the street. More of the cat and mouse. In front of the YMCA, they spring another kettle. This time they’re deeper and we have no flimsy fencing to push through. Their lines are deep. A few dozen act quickly to climb a nearby gate, jumping dangerously to the hard pavement below. Past the gate, the cluster of escapees find a row of several unguarded OPD vans: you can imagine what happened next. A complicit YMCA employee throws opens the door. Countless escape into the building and out the exits. The police become aware of both escape routes and begin attacking and trampling those who try but fail to get out. Those remaining in the kettle are further brutalized and resign to their arrest.

A few hundred keep going. Vengeance time. People break into city hall. Everything that can be trashed is trashed. Files thrown everywhere, computers get it too, windows smashed out. The american flags are brought outside and ceremoniously set to fire. A march to the jail, lots of graffiti, a news van gets wrecked, jail gates damaged. The pigs respond with fury. Wantonly beating, pushing, shooting whomever crosses their path. Many who escaped earlier kettles are had by snatch squads. Downtown reveals itself to be a fucking warzone. Those who are still flee to empty houses and loving arms.

—

A war-machine must intrinsically be also a machine of care. As we write, hundreds of our comrades remain behind bars. Countless others are wounded and traumatized. We’ve spent the last night literally stitching one another together and assuring each other that things will be okay. We still can’t find a lot of people in the system, rumors abound, some have been released, others held on serious charges and have bail set. This care-machine is as much of what we name the Oakland Commune as the encampment or the street fighting. We still can’t count the comrades we can’t find on all our hands combined.

We move through the sunny morning and the illusion of social peace has descended back upon Oakland. And yet everywhere is the evidence of what transpired. City workers struggle to fix their pathetic fences. Boards are affixed to the windows of city hall and to nearby banks (some to hide damage, others simply to hide behind). Power washer try to clear away the charred remains of the stupid flag. One literally cannot look anywhere along broadway without seeing graffiti defaming the police or hyping our teams (anarchy, nortes, the commune, even juggalos). A discerning eye can still find the remnants of teargas canisters and flashbang residue. At the coffeeshops and delis, friends and acquaintances find one another and share updates about who has been hurt and who has been had. Our wounds already begin to heal into what will eventually be scars or ridiculous disfigurements. We hope our lovers will forgive such ugliness, or can come to look at them as little instances of unique beauty. As our adrenaline fades and we each find moments of solitude, we are each hit by the gravity of the situation.

Having failed to take a building, our search continues. We continue to find the perfect combination of trust, planning, intensity and action that can make our struggle into a permanent presence. The commune has and will continue to slip out of time, interrupting the deadliness and horror of the day to day function of society. Threads of the commune continue uninterrupted as the relationships and affinity build over the past months. An insurrectionary process is the one that emboldens these relationships and multiplies the frequency with which the commune emerges to interrupt the empty forward-thrust of capitalist history. To push this process forward, our task is to continue the ceaseless experimentation and imagination which could illuminate different strategies and pathways beyond the current limits of the struggle. Sometimes to forget, sometimes to remember.

—

We’ll conclude with a plea to our friends throughout the country and across borders. You must absolutely not view the events here as a sequence that is separate from your own life. Between the beautiful and spectacular moments in the Bay, you’ll discover the same alienation and exploitation that characterizes your own situation. Please do not consume the images from the Bay as you would the images of overseas rioting or as a netflix subscription. Our hell is yours, and so too is our struggle.

And so please… if you love us as we believe you do, prove it. We wish so desperately that you were with us in body, but we know most of you cannot be. Spread the commune to your own locales. Ten cities have already announced their intentions to hold solidarity demonstrations tonight. Join them, call for your own. If you aren’t plugged into enough of a social force to do so, then find your own ways of demonstrating. With your friends or even alone: smash, attack, expropriate, blockade occupy. Do anything in your power to spread the prevalence and the perversity of our interruption.

for a prolonged conflict; for a permanent presence; for the commune;

some friends in Oakland.

Thanks to R. for passing along this eerie photo of the authorities arresting folks outside of the YMCA on Broadway.

Occupy Oakland – Livestream

Other coverage:

• What really happened at Occupy Oakland on Saturday January 28

• 300 Arrested at Occupy Oakland — Corporate Media Dutifully Report City Officials’ Version of Events

• Police Use Teargas on Occupy Oakland; 300 Arrested

• Occupy Protesters and Police Clash in Oakland

• Occupy Oakland: Police Teargas Protesters, Use Flash Grenades (PHOTOS)

• Occupy Oakland protesters clash with police (PHOTOS)

• Support the Occupy Oakland Bail Fund

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On Summit Demonstrations, Solidarity Actions and the Necessity of Consistency

A Position Paper From the IMF Resistance Network

The problematic aspects of summit demonstrations have been made clear. In the current climate of action in antiauthoritarian circles we have run into a little bit of a bind, both conceptually and practically. Militant demonstrations at the sites of trade summits have done a lot to break the image of the “Washington Consensus” as well as mount actual destabilizations in the functioning of the apparatus of the State in certain areas for periods of time But summit demos have become something of an abstract anarchist threat that comes to take up a lot of energy and only engages for a short period of time, only to see that energy dispersed after the last dumpsters are rolled back down their respective alleys and the last windows replaced.

But we want to push beyond the absurdities of the recent debates around large scale confrontation. The absurdities of claims to our addictions or speculation about the psychological motivations beyond confrontation aside, we need to move beyond understanding our actions within the borders of spatial divisions of local and global. If we can say one thing about capitalist globalization it is that these divisions have been eliminated and have become part of global commodity flows.

But most recent debates around how to engage in anticapitalist actions have fallen either into an understanding of attacking capitalism as some sort of entity or focus on the local level where it is actually enacted. But all action is localized to a time and place within a wider context that frames that “locality,” and yet a reliance on this localism or globalism, or the position of only “local organizing” or “global movements,” relies on an arbitrary definition of “local” or “global” as a geographic location, as if we only act geographically. We need to understand that capitalist markets operate as a conjunction of local circumstances that, through their mechanizatons, frame the limits and possibilities of localized actions.

We need to see beyond the local/global dichotomy to begin to understand actions against capitalism as a matter of consistency. It is not that markets are things that are damaged by broken windows, in fact I bet plate glass companies love anarchists. But really it is a matter if disrupting the very possibility of the functioning of markets, the flow of commodities. In other words, it is not a matter of striking at sites but of disrupting operations in a consistent and wide spread basis. On this level there is something to be said for completely dispersed tactics that attack at a variety of sites all at once. But again, this reduces disruption to sites of capital rather than the possibility of their operation. What is traded away in these widely dispersed tactics (organized under the banner of Plan B and a variety of different names) is the sheer magnitude that presents itself in convergence, the ability to disrupt and rupture police strategy, the space generated in widespread disruption. We need to look beyond the summit as a singular action, and also beyond the summit as a collection of widely dispersed singular actions that have no resonance or magnitude to them. Rather we need to understand these phenomena through the lens of a flow and deployment of energies, on the level of magnitude, on the level of resonance. In other words, we need to look beyond the summit demonstration as a thing or a space, beyond the institution as a target, and begin to understand it as a convergence, as a coming together. In this framework it may seem odd to focus on the International Monetary Fund, and it would be if that were the focus. It is not that the IMF does horrible things that create poverty through austerity (although it does), but rather that what the IMF presents, and how it has operated, is in the capacity of making capitalism possible through enforcing privatization, monetarization, and the standardization of economic relations around capitalist models. This is what has been recognized in this current round of financial crisis, the IMF makes capitalism possible. And it is within this understanding that we can begin to see something like the IMF not as an institution that is central in itself but as another manifestation of capitalism to be confronted.

The importance of solidarity actions needs to escape this odd format of global referendum on the popularity of our politics and become a way to understand global resistance to capitalism as a convergence of anticapitalist actions, actions that can be more or less coordinated, more or less in concert with each other. But the spectre of the solidarity action is a vast modification in the way that we have understood demonstrations in the past. With the dispersal of action, not in a single urban space necessarily (although there is a lot to say about the tactical advantages of this as well), but on a wider scale, we are able to mount disruptions not only at the site of the summit but within the global flows of markets. But solidarity needs to be seen beyond simply the dates of a meeting and needs to be understood as a constant stance, a constant series of actions in widely dispersed sites over a consistent period of time.

In other words, it is time to get serious about this! Trying to appeal to the better ethical notions of capitalists and politicians, trying to shame cops out of beating demonstrators, trying to appeal to global financial institutions to “find a heart” are all approaches based in an understanding of capitalism as some sort of cabal. What we need to understand is that markets only work if economic situations are “stabilized”, smooth, without disruption and that these minor disruptions, these singular actions, pieces of graffiti, broken windows, are nothing compared to the constancy of the flows of global capitalism. Solidarity actions are pointless if they are about “speaking with one voice” or appealing to “decision makers”. They are about making a decision ourselves. Deciding that we will not allow our existence to be limited and defined through the flows of markets, and that we will do what is necessary to create the space to live a life that is worth living. But that decision must exist outside position papers like this one, it must exist as an active, alive convergence of the energy generated by anticapitalist actions. It must exist as an expansion, a multiplication of disruptions that operate beyond the arbitrary borders of the global and the local, and every confrontation is part of the development of this destabilization. It is not about smashing capitalism, but about generating disruptions of enough magnitude, in enough places, consistently enough to make its operation impossible. That means that confrontation must feed confrontation, on whatever scale possible, at whatever site possible.

The Oaxaca Commune and Mexico’s Coming Insurrection

From Antipode: The Journal of Radical Geography

Was the “Oaxaca Commune” an ephemeral insurrection, an explosion of popular rage, without enduring consequences? Was it a specific expression of autonomous movements, an experiment anticipating the direction some of them are taking? Or was it an isolated, singular episode of people’s struggles? As yet we do not have enough of an historical perspective to fully appreciate the nature and impact of the events of 2006 in Oaxaca that attracted the world’s attention. But it is worth exploring them and discussing a tentative hypothesis about their nature and meaning for autonomous movements in Mexico and beyond, when the gap between means and ends is closed and the shape of the struggle is also the shape of the society the struggle attempts to create. These provisional notes can thus be seen as an introduction to a research agenda.

Introduction

From June to October 2006, there were no police in the city of Oaxaca (population 600,000), not even to direct traffic. The governor and his functionaries met secretly in hotels or private homes; none of them dared to show up at their offices. The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) had posted 24-hour guards in all the public buildings and radio and TV stations that it controlled. When the governor began sending out his goons to launch nocturnal guerrilla attacks against these guards, the people responded by putting up barricades. More than a thousand barricades were put up every night at 11 pm, around the encampments or at critical intersections. They would be taken down every morning at 6 am to restore normal traffic. Despite the attacks, there was less violence in those months (fewer assaults, deaths and injuries or traffic accidents) than in any similar period in the previous 10 years. Unionized workers belonging to APPO performed basic services like garbage collection.

Some observers began speaking of the Oaxaca Commune, evoking the Paris Commune of 1871. Oaxacans responded, smiling: “Yes, but the Paris Commune lasted only 50 days and we’ve already lasted more than 100.” The analogy is pertinent but exaggerated, except in terms of the reaction that these two popular insurrections elicited in the centers of power. Like the European armies that crushed the communards who had taken over all the functions of government, the Federal Preventive Police of Mexico, backed by the army and the navy, were sent to Oaxaca on 28 October 2006 to try to control the situation. On 25 November those forces conducted a terrible repression, the worst in many years, with massive violation of human rights and an approach that can be legitimately described as state terrorism. The operation, which included imprisonment of the supposed leaders of the movement and hundreds of others, was described by the International Commission for the Observation of Human Rights (which visited Oaxaca in January 2007) as “a juridical and military strategy … whose ultimate purpose is to achieve control and intimidation of civil population”.² For the authorities, this strategy would dissolve APPO and send a warning to the social movements in the whole country.

This same strategy has been employed since then and has had a profound impact in Oaxaca. The results increased and exacerbated polarization. Some activists are in jail and others exiled out of Oaxaca or even Mexico. It has been impossible to identify all the disappeared; their families are afraid of revealing their names. Many professionals are now joining the usual migrants, out of fear or for lack of economic opportunities. Some people are afraid of exhibiting any support to APPO or participating in autonomous initiatives. People of different sectors of the society blame APPO for whatever economic difficulties they are confronting. Some others take for granted that the movement is over and the tyrannical governor will remain in office for the rest of his term, and are thus trying to accommodate themselves to that prospect. All this is true; there exist many symptoms of intimidation. However, the opposite is increasingly predominating. Marches are growing, as are sit-ins. Everywhere there is intense effervescence. Oaxaca is boiling. There is an increasing risk of violent confrontations in this highly polarized society, which may be used as a pretext for more authoritarianism. Many factors, however, may block this option and nourish the hope that the movement will be able to peacefully evolve and consolidate. The impulse for a profound transformation is very deep and strong and perhaps inevitable.

On 23 November 2006, a week before Felipe Calderón took office as the new, rightist and contested President, subcomandante Marcos, the speaker of the Zapatistas, declared that he “is going to start to fall from his first day” and that “we’re on the eve of a great uprising or civil war”. When asked who would lead that uprising, he replied: “the people, each in their place, in a network of mutual support. If we don’t accomplish it that way, there will be spontaneous uprisings, explosions all over, civil war …”

He cited the case of Oaxaca, where “there are no leaders, nor bosses: it’s the people themselves who are organized”. That’s how it is going to be in the whole country; Oaxaca serves as an indicator of what’s going to happen all over. “If there isn’t a civil and peaceful way out, which is what we propose in the Other Campaign”, Marcos warned, “then it will become each man for himself … For us, it doesn’t matter what’s above. What matters is what’s going to arise from below. When we rise up, we’re going to sweep away the entire political class, including those who say they’re the parliamentary left” (La Jornada 24 November 2006). This is a clear definition of the challenges that lie ahead.

Click here to read the full article…

Mosque ado about Nothing

By Nathaniel Mayer

I’m putting this thing to bed now.  It needs to stop.  The “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy is a bait and switch tactic being used by mainstream media and our government to take our attention away from the issues that really matter. They would rather have us focus on trivial nonsense.  After all, this is an election year and if we’re “withdrawing” from Iraq than we need some reason to go deeper into Afghanistan.  So, I am putting the final nail in this coffin, getting the facts in order, and we’ll agree never to discuss this nonsense again.

The new 15 story building at Park51 is to be a hub of worship, culture, and education. The Cordoba Initiatives’ plan is to create a place where people of all can work in harmony and enjoy their community. The Cordoba House (funded partially by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf), named after the Spanish City, is supposed to invoke a “model for peaceful existence” between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Daisy Khan, executive director of the project said, “It’s going to be a place not only for Muslim activity, but interfaith activity of the highest order… Most of the resistance we’ve encountered has been from people who don’t know the Muslim community”. Khan went on to say, “It’s just fear of the unknown, and it’s our job to approach and reach out to those people, and try to show them what our community and what our message is really all about”.

The Crisis as Pacification

by Peter Gelderloos
Cascades: Conversations in Crisis

Coming back to the US after four years living abroad, I’ve been surprised to see a proliferation of tent cities, foreclosed home occupations, squatting, university occupations, illegal urban gardening, immigrant solidarity rallies, and anti-police riots from one coast to the other.

On the one hand, there seems to be a country-wide level of resistance, a potential boiling-over, not seen in this country in decades. On the other hand, the collective feeling of being in a revolutionary moment, the emotional reality of participating in a strong and global struggle, seems suspiciously absent. People don’t dare to get their hopes up, when precisely what a struggle needs to have any hope of accomplishing anything is to be bold. Yet the reality of the NGO-style activism to which many people consign themselves, and which has controlled social movements in this country for years, is nothing if not demoralizing.

Many people have pointed out that “crisis is business as usual”, or that crisis is a normal part of the ebbs and flows of capitalism. Another good way to understand crisis is as the pacification of social movements. Capitalism is always exploiting us, and the government is always trying to pull one over on us and increase its powers. Perhaps the most tragic element of the current crisis is how much they have been able to get away with, precisely because we have been pacified.

In Barcelona, where I currently live, the practice of squatting abandoned buildings for housing and social centers has coalesced into a major movement with an evolved ability to defend itself. Nearby in Greece, a deeply rooted anarchist struggle has gained ground time and again in urban land occupations, workers’ movements, immigrant struggles, responses to police brutality, and more.

Contrasting the situation in the US with the situation in those two countries, one can tease out a number of lessons that could be helpful here.

2012 RNC Press Release

Tampa Bay Action Group Announces Opposition to the 2012 RNC in Tampa Bay Florida, Reclaims Tea Party’s Anti-Imperialist Legacy of Property Destruction

Contact: tampabayactiongroup2012rnc@gmail.com
Website: http://no2012rnc.blogspot.com

July 2, 2010–Tampa Bay, Florida–The Tampa Action Group (TBAG), a decentralized collective of anarchists and neo-maroons from across the urban and swampy reaches of Florida, has begun organizing to confront the Republican National Convention when it arrives in Tampa Bay, Florida in August of 2012. “We intend to shut the event down. The Republicans, like their Democratic counterparts, have carried on the tradition of wholesale exploitation of the planet, costing the lives of millions of people and other critters for the sake of profit, greed, and consumerism. The powers that be have left us with war, deforestation, exploitation and a techno-dystopia far worse (and especially far more boring) than any sci-fi book could foretell. We promise to confront them in the streets of Tampa Bay armed with the ferocity of a swamp panther in heat,” said Barley Barber, a self described leftneck alligator whisperer and feminist philosopher from the bottom-lands of South Florida. “Where we once had biodiversity sits a strip mall with an army recruiting office and a doughnut shop full of cops. That’s enough to fill any gal with a hint of life in her with piss and vinegar.”

Another member of the group Clinton Tyree has called for an all out human barricade of the streets of Tampa Bay. “I’m tired of the right-wing fat cats who live in cookie-cutter suburban homes and work as advertising reps in mind-numbing cubicles calling themselves tea party protesters. The tea party was all about destroying the commodities of the imperialists in order to overthrow the imperialists. These idiots are the ruling class. We are gonna take back the legacy from these whimpering bourgeois racists and make property destruction sexy again!”

While the RNC 8 face felony charges for organizing against the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, the Tampa Bay Action Group takes hope from their fight against the repression of police state tactics. We continue to believe that creating a space to directly confront the world’s oppressors (and their investors, and puppet heads, and apologists) is a key to opening the doors to liberation.

xxx

Test Their Logik: Crash the G20/G8 Toronto

Black Bloc vs. Liberal Shlock

A Critical Review of Denouncements of the Black Bloc at the Heart Attack Demonstration, 2010 Anti-Olympics Convergence in Vancouver

“I have yet to be convinced that these actions got us closer to where we want to be. Anonymous communiqués that build up the romance of arriving, attacking the cops and then taking off are all we have to understand the intent of this group” –David Eby.

The following is a response to ‘Safe Assembly’ where David Eby, head of the BC Civil Liberties Association, Chris Shaw, author of Five Ring Circus, and Derrick O’Keefe, chairman of Stopwar.ca spoke against the use of the Black Bloc at the Heart Attack Demo as part of the No 2010 Olympics Convergence in Vancouver.
Which can be seen here

Counter to Eby, Shaw and O’Keefe’s statements, the Heart Attack Demo, and the Black Bloc Action received enormous support from a much broader range of activist society Vancouver has seen is the past 10 years. This is due, to the monumental efforts of the No 2010 Convergence organizers to create a space and an atmosphere where people who are in support of direct action –whether they engage in it or not- to come together in a more integrated culture of resistance.

This article is based on news reports, personal interviews and observation. My intention with this article is to dispel myths perpetuated during this panel and add to already existing responses without too much overlap. It is also a general response to all denouncers of the Black Bloc and direct action.

Vancouver: In Defence of the Diversity of Tactics

By Alex Hundert, Infoshop News

Judy Rebick, from her office in downtown Toronto, complained that “when a spontaneous anger against the Black Bloc emerged on social media, people berated us for ‘dividing the movement.'” She says that, in fact, “it is the Black Bloc that is dividing the movement.” She is wrong.

I have been involved in a wide array of coalitions on various issues over the past half decade, and never have I witnessed cross-movement solidarity like I have in the anti-Olympics campaign. In southern Ontario, as in Vancouver, radical groups from a variety of locations in the broader movement have come together to start to develop a shared anti-colonial analysis. This solidarity and unity, on the anti-colonial front, is deeper and stronger now than it has been at any point in the last 10 years.

Games Over! Resistance Lives!

Celebrating Unity & Solidarity

Sunday FEB 28th, 2010 at 1:00 PM
Smithe and Cambie

Followed by celebration at 4:30 pm of 2 weeks of dignity, hope and freedom at Olympic Tent Village. [info below on tent village]

Bring the NOISE! Pots, pans, drums and noisemakers welcome! Join us in a noisy public festival to celebrate our communities and our resistance. Just because the IOC says the games are over doesn’t mean it’s over.

Our struggles for justice as indigenous, migrant, poor, working class and queer communities existed before the olympic and paralympic games and will exist after. The games have also provided a spark that we hope will inspire all effected communities to bind together in our coming struggles to attain justice.

These were not the greenest games – they were the corporate greenwash games. They were not the socially responsible games – homelessness tripled as billions were spent on highways and convention centers for the rich. And these games occurred on un-ceded territories where the indigenous communities continue to be on the front lines defending lands from industrial expansion.