submitted to Philly Anticap
As solidarity with Ferguson demonstrations have taken place in Philly we’ve noticed more and more people attending demonstrations wearing masks (some in all black, some not). This always makes us smile; the more of us wear masks the stronger our anonymity, and the more normalized anonymous attendance to demonstrations in Philly becomes. As we already know, there’s no point in having a face at these events. Maybe we’re wrong, but, part of why seeing more masks in the street is exciting to us is because we see it as building a more combative street presence.
Even though it seems that more people are wearing masks at demonstrations, we’re scattered throughout the demo. As we continue to attend demonstrations masked it can be useful to congregate and march together as a masked bloc. There are a lot of potential benefits to this. A bloc allows for people to more safely change into their disguises in a complicit and non-hostile crowd, away from cameras. A bloc acts as an opaque place where we can coordinate action, share relevant information, generally communicate quickly, and act together. By coming together we can collectively push demonstrations we take part in in more radical directions; chanting revolutionary slogans, antagonize the police, and creating space for people to take other action from within a sympathetic crowd. Within a bloc we can create a culture of autonomy, resistance and direct communication within larger demonstrations and during our own events.
See you in the streets,
masked comrades
