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LP writes: "Instead, it is a deliberate strategy carried out by small groups with absolutely no commitment to mass action. Their only interest in mass actions is how they can be used as an opportunity to launch "exemplary action". The anarchists, especially those that employ black bloc tactics, are anti-Marxist in the sense that they oppose organizing the masses." That is certainly the strategy of some; it is certainly not the strategy or the reasoning of all who engage in violent confrontation in Toronto, no more than it was the strategy of all who participated in the 1999 struggle in Seattle; the battles in Genoa; etc. etc. The question really does become one of organization. Since I'm dredging up my personal memories, -- I forgot to include another part of my experience-- in Chicago in the summer of 1966 with the open housing drive [think it was 1966]. There demonstrations were held in "tough" white neighborhoods of Gage Park, Marquette Park, and Belmont-Cragin. The violence visited upon us was.... scary, scarier than any subsequent violence from the police I ever faced BTW. We, the demonstrators were completely non-violent-- because we were trained to be that way-- we were organized to be that way, and we were also organized and trained to protect each other. The point being-- without such organization you cannot expect ALL demonstrators in confrontations to exercise non-violence as a tactic. [I'm sure Lou and other separate legitimate self-defense from their issues with the black bloc. My point here is the importance of organization.] The burden then is on Marxists to provide a level of organization that can confront the bourgeoisie, defend the demonstrators, and threaten the exercise of repression at a level that makes the tactics of a "black bloc" obsolete; that isolates those whose, in Lou's words, "only interest in mass actions is how they can be used as an opportunity to launch "exemplary action". " ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
