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
I showed up straight from work in my normal clothes… but noticed the same thing. The best way to get more people ready to support a bloc of anonymity and get everyone who already plans to do so together, is to call for a bloc when a demo is going on so everyone knows whats up and who to stick by. It rlly aint safe for everyone to be scattered. The philly undercover game aint that great but a friend still got some unwanted cameras in his face before masking… luckily nothing that criminalizing went down but still if anonymity is going to be a relevant and sturdy defense it needs to be unified through call outs.
example back when i was in my home city there’d be a large convergence, and a call for a bloc at a specific location within that convergence and all the right peeps would know to find eachother and stick together. other people were also more compelled to use anonymity when it was a collective force of anonymity vs. scattered individuals.
i think even in smaller protests where there isnt a specific call for a bloc, it would make sense for masked people to walk together. it’d be a good practice to get rolling here.
Best thing is to look out and invite people yo see to bloc up. dont be a stranger even if anon to eachother. The call out only works to get more ppl interested who otherwise think there no place from them there at a demo. The callouts no longer needed when things become heightened and everyone know how to show up prepared to every demo. anyway solidarity from spain.