from Anarchistnews
In spite of everything that has been happening, it’s inspiring as fuck to see all yous out there building connections and finding your place in this struggle against policing. No matter how you tie into things, how you get down with it, we love you. We believe this is a crucial time for anti-authoritarian perspectives and methods to actively engage in a struggle against this racist pig state. We, as a medium sized affinity of individuals from Philly decided to push for a space for this to happen. There have been ongoing assemblies and smaller events happening. These are great, but we feel the best way to build connections and learn is on the streets. So, this is the official call to action to bloc against the police state!
“Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I’m tired of it. It stops today.” – Eric Garner
THERE IS NO JUSTICE, ONLY WAR, THEY DO NOT WISH TO VALUE BLACK LIVES AND WE HAVE NO WISHES TO PLEA WITH A SYSTEM THAT WILL LEAVE US FOR DEAD THE MOMENT OUR BACKS ARE TURNED! FTP! FTL!
Thursday, December 11th, LOVE PARK, 5pm.
(This is intended to reach a wide audience, and be inclusive to all except those who wish to control others. While Anews may not be the best place, most of us are disconnected from the internet most of the time and it is our only source for communication outside of our circle. We have little to no ties into the activist scenes. We ask all of you to use the resources you have to spread this information, create event pages, fliers of your liking, and promote this shit like crazy.)
[Legal number: (484) 758-0388 this number should be written somewhere discreet but accessible on your body, call in case of arrest.]
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is there an event on FB to invite people with? glad there is initiative in the city of brotherly love.
We haven’t made one ourselves, but anyone should feel free to make one if they want to. The original call can be found here: http://www.anarchistnews.org/content/bloc-police-state-philly-1211-5pm-love-park
someone has made a facebook event to promo https://www.facebook.com/events/417118801777158
this is a facebook event page with the same info, if that helps: https://www.facebook.com/events/417118801777158/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular
this is probably part of the strategy, but just in case i wanted to give a quick heads up that xmas village is at love park these days. i just want to be sure people know, because it changes the logistics of the park
From the event page created on Facebook:
A note to the white anarchists I’ve been seeing at #Ferguson solidarity actions: honestly ask yourself whether your actions are accountable to the desires and demands of the Black folks doing this organizing work. I too used to proudly sing “Baby, I’m an Anarchist,” and I too am suspicious of ~*the state*~ and its role in systematically shortening and ending the lives of Black folks, POC, trans folks like myself, and others. But it seems as though y’all keep starting or showing up to actions ready to black bloc and yell at cops when Black folks are neither doing nor asking for these things. And who suffers when you do, but Black folks, because these are the people that suffer at the hands of police, not you. If you’re truly concerned with police brutality and want to show up for those who regularly suffer from it, use the fact that you as a white person are not likely to be brutalized by police in the same way that POC and especially Black folks are to lessen the brutality experienced by protestors at actions organized by Black folks.
There are a lot of problematic criticisms surfacing in Philly currently.
1. By using a blanket term of “White Anarchists” you are undermining the risks Anarchist/Anti-Authortarian People of color are currently engaged in. This includes those in Ferguson, and right now in the Bay Area (Berkeley,Oakland,etc.)
2. By saying things like “this action is not what black people want” you ignore the fact that a diversity and mixture of thoughts/interactions exist within black communities. There are debates that have occurred among black communities themselves to back this. No single activist group or affinity group should claim to represent every individual within a community. The struggle is stronger when it nurtures a greater solidarity in spite of the inevitable diversity of approaches.
3. By saying people confronting systems of oppression makes things harder is a failure to understand the multiple forms that police repression takes. Police getting overtime, while engaging in surveillance on mostly people of color is not safe. The existence of police in general, in any context of a demo is not one that breeds safety. They may appear to be using kid gloves, but they are there to subvert resistance, to control you, and to make sure everyone stays in line. If they have everyone subdued this is not safe, it is business as usual. Business as usual means police continuing to feel comfortable in their roles of policing people of color. Many people blamed the militancy of youth in Ferguson for the state of emergency crack downs. This is not acceptable.
I suggest all critics who engage in these problematic approaches to debate check themselves, and observe what has happened in Ferguson, and what is happening in Berkeley/Oakland right now, where people of color and white allies are both behind masks in total solidarity.
Dear medium sized affinity of individuals from Philly,
The call you put out to bloc the police state, was exciting to see. The event itself was disheartening. This is the third time that a call has been put out without follow up in any form by those putting out the call, whether you all were present seems irrelevant in light of the fact that if you had a plan it never came to light. This creates all kinds of problems in what I would call a budding conflictual anarchist milieu. This is not meant to implicate you in the last two calls for blocs, only to point out the contribution of your lack of action to what, unfortunately, seems to be becoming a pattern in Philly.
It’s important in Philly to understand that there hasn’t been any anarchist conflictual street activity at least five years, probably closer to ten. There are other cities where a call with a location and time are enough to mobilize a combative force against the police, but Philly is not one of them right now. If we want to see insurrectionary momentum here, we’ll have to create it. Taking half measures seems to set that momentum back more than forward.
Calling for blocs without following up on your own call creates a number of problems. By calling for a bloc and then doing nothing, you expect people to reveal themselves (even if as masked individuals) and potentially some parts of their networks to police surveillance, a necessary risk for all public and semi-public activity, but one that should be considered a risk of doing something as opposed to a risk of doing nothing. People who may be attending with criminal intentions and tools are taking risks, that seem totally useless in hindsight.
Calling for a bloc without showing up, creates a distrust and resentment. This surfaces as a distrust of anonymity, of “white anarchists”, informality, a fear of police manipulation, a distrust of calls for blocs, or any other founded or unfounded critique, that surfaces in the wake of such failures.
It’s really not difficult make a banner, look at a map, and develop a plan to carry out before making a call. Do better.