The rally at Larsen Park started off very uninspiring. Seemed like the organizers wanted us to be spectators instead of participants, they tried to dissuade people from marching to the border, asking people to walk like good quiet slaves. When it became obvious that alot of people where going to march regardless, they co-opted it. At one point the police took someone aside and were immediatly surrounded by people chanting "Let him go", which they did.

The march went well, I would estimate 1-2000+ people. Riot police ran along to protect Nike. When we got to the border, there was a long line of riot police on the highway side of the fence concentrated opposite the black block. We didn't have any problem getting accross the border. In Tiajuna there was a diverse group of Mexican & American activists listening & dancing to speakers and live bands into the night. The San Diego paper reported 500 people at the event, and that anarchists through rocks at police and spray painted several stores, I saw nothing of the sort. It was also reported on some indymedia sites that they were turning everybody away at the border, I know people were coming across as late as 5pm. They were confiscating all banners though.

Just to set the story straight Black Bloc Anarchists were throwing rocks at the police and spray painting worthy targets.

most of the speakers at larson park were real inspiring to me. especially all the people who were talking about connecting community struggles in the United States to the global economy cause this is where the movement has GOT TO go if we want to move away from being a movement based on privilege and traditional white male hierarchy. especially an amazing sister who was talking about welfare reform as a structural adjustment policy and the way black and latino youth are co-opted into being in the military or police force because the economic system in the US is only designed to serve white youth. She was talking about how the movement has to deal with all the racism and sexism within itself and i wholeheartedly agree after reading some of the judgemental comments on this page. for example-the reason why organizers were asking people to march peacefully to the border was for several strategical reasons--one being that they wanted to make it safe for those without green cards or citizenship (i was with some undocumented people who had to bail once the blac block started throwing rocks)

another reason was that the mexian organizers who set up the tijuana actions were working in solidarity w/ us on the condition that there be no police confrontation

my goal right now is nothing more or less than liberation and self-determination for all oppressed peoples in this world. i ask myself--how are we going to get there? i know we are not going to get nowhere without full respect for oneanother and a conscious attempt to build solidarity. we have got to recognize the dividing privilege in this movement.

The cops were shaking in fear,Just an indication of what's to come,it won't be mere rocks next time

When did the rock throwing occur? I was there at the march to the border. I went across to Mexico when the march headed back to the park.

I saw a tense standoff, but no rock throwing.

Was teargas used? Anyone arrested?

There were only a few rocks thrown, sporadically. A few bottles too. I found the behavior of the Black Bloc to be juvenile. In Quebec City, they were awesome, tearing down the fence and such. But in San Diego they were just calling the cops pigs and throwing rocks completely unprovoked. Throwing teargas canisters back at the cops is one thing, throwing bottles without cause is different. They were flipping off the cops (oohh, there's some intelligent discourse on free trade.) The Black Bloc, as far as San Diego was concerned, came across as a bunch of kids that like dressing up in masks so they can feel like guerrillas. In Quebec City I think they actually accomplished something by tearing the fence down.

Otherwise, the protest was great. The march to the border was great. The chalk drawings in the street and the flag burning was great. Prescott and Benjamin were great. Morello had good words. As an interesting side note, I saw him drive off in a huge SUV.

There were only a few rocks thrown, sporadically. A few bottles too. I found the behavior of the Black Bloc to be juvenile. In Quebec City, they were awesome, tearing down the fence and such. But in San Diego they were just calling the cops pigs and throwing rocks completely unprovoked. Throwing teargas canisters back at the cops is one thing, throwing bottles without cause is different. They were flipping off the cops (oohh, there's some intelligent discourse on free trade.) The Black Bloc, as far as San Diego was concerned, came across as a bunch of kids that like dressing up in masks so they can feel like guerrillas. In Quebec City I think they actually accomplished something by tearing the fence down.

Otherwise, the protest was great. The march to the border was great. The chalk drawings in the street and the flag burning was great. Prescott and Benjamin were great. Morello had good words. As an interesting side note, I saw him drive off in a huge SUV.

You can't have it both ways. You can't support and be inspired by the courageous resisters in Quebec or anywhere and call youth chucking bottles or flipping cops off juvenile.

They were doing the same thing in Quebec they just had a whole lot of people. I'm sure there were people there calling them "juvenile" and dividing people up as "good" protesters and "bad" protesters.

Unprovoked? UNPROVOKED??? How much more provoked do you have to be? Hundreds of people dead on the border ins't provocation enough to you? Cracker vigilantes lynching Mexicans with Sherriff support isn't provocation enough for you?

Turning the whole western hemisphere into one huge sweatshop to benenfit fat cat US imperialists isn't provocation enough for you??? Please. The cops were out there with shot guns, side arms, tear gas, police horses, batons, full riot gear--that's not provacative.

How come the cops can come out and carry out all kinds of brutal acts against the people but when the people step out to confront it through words or actions WE'RE THE ONES WHO ARE PROVOKING SHIT? Not true.

You support Seattle, Cancun, Quebec, DC, the Czech Republic then you support people rising up with words, fists and yes even bottles and rocks. They were right in Quebec to tear down that fence!!! We need to fight for unity and defend each other on the same side of the barricades. Would you call slaves who burn down the plantation "juvenile"? Hell no!!!

There's no such thing as a bad protester in a good movement!!!

Those of us who are willing to stand up for justice and put our bodies where our mouths are should all try to keep an open mind and accept that others may decide to use different tactics than we do. This has been an evolving understanding for me, as I think it has been for a lot of people caught up in this "movement." I remember following the protests in Seattle via indymedia (when there was only one) and I was elated, excited, thrilled that some real muscle was finally being flexed in the good 'ol U.S. of A. against the C.O.F.E. (Commodification of Fucking Everything).

Ever since I learned about Gandhi at the age of ten, I have believed in non-violence, not just as principle but also as strategy. And when I was following the Seattle action online, I remember being upset by the "black bloc," by those who vandalized and smashed up windows. What bothered me wasn't even that they were damaging property -- fuck it -- but that they were distracting the public from the bigger story, which to me was 50,000 people incensed enough to stand together and say, "Hell, no!"

(CUE "A Day of Outrage, Operation Snatchback" from X-Clan: To the East, Blackwards)

Unfortunately, the press doesn't give two shits if people go and march. Like they say in the local news circuit, "If it bleeds, it leads." This is the big media approach to news: it's either sexy, or it explodes -- preferably both. Broadcasters know how to catch our eye -- look at these huge breasts, these rock-hard abs, this car chase, these anarchists and the police gettin' it on. It's all about how much money they can make out of showing it to you, how likely showing it to you will keep you sticking around for a word from their sponsors. And thus far, it appears, statistically, that nothing has proven more persuasive than women with amazing breasts -- and that even thousands of people marching is not as interesting to the vast majority as the Super Bowl.

UTOPIAN INTERLUDE: Imagine if the Nielsen families were all activists and progessives. By controlling the "market forces," we could literally compel media corporations to either give us the programming we want -- or face economic ruin. There aren't that many Nielsen families, you know ...

I was just starting to perceive the depth and breadth of the mass media problem when I watched Seattle happen from my computer. It took being physically involved, which in my case meant the Democratic National Convention protests, to understand the difference between a demonstration, and the coverage thereof.

The police basically deal with demonstrations like this: they do whatever they have to do to assert their control over the situation, whenever they decide it is necessary (and they are mighty sensitive.) And hey, as long as no one dies -- the courts, and the City budget, and ultimately our taxpayer dollars, are there to clean up whatever mess they make. Even IF someone dies, it's no big deal. A reprimand or two, maybe somebody's got to rotate to a desk job for a while. And if the public protests this: rinse, repeat.

The media, meanwhile, chastened by their corporate sponsors who demand civic order, keep their coverage of the larger protests minimal. They focus not on the turnout, or the march itself, or what the protesters are there to PROTEST, but rather on the "official" news as defined by police reports. The police have nothing to say about the rallies themselves, and hence, neither do the big media companies; but the police have plenty to say about confrontations, and the ydelight in relaying even the most incidental encounters that somehow manage to result in an arrest. The big media do not overtly take the side of the police in their coverage; but generally the stories of protests in mass media are told from the perspective of the police, i.e. "Police responded to ..." etc.

And Fox News really seemed to go out of their way in Quebec City to find the dumbest, most uninformed protestesr they could find. In all likelihood they hired some shill to ACT like a dumb protester just so they could curse the foul enemies of capitalism once more. Assholes.

Anyways. I got arrested at the DNC. For riding a bicycle with a few hundred other folks in the Critical Mass ride. It was total horseshit and everyone knew it. But they still held us for thirty six hours. And the media coverage was terrible. The news ran with the police report, which included serious fabrications and exaggerations to make us look bad. They always run with the police report, and never fucking mind if it's true -- the police have "plausible deniability," and apparently the journalists don't owe it to the protesters to ask them about their side of the story.

I know it's taking me a long time to explain this transformation, but months later I got a documentary from the Battle in Seattle made by a group of Eugene anarchists. They recorded some amazing footage, both of what they had done and what the police did. I did not agree with all of their tactics, and they did things that I would either be unwilling or unable to do -- but nonetheless I saw that while my approach might be different from thiers, we were after exactly the same thing: overthrow of the existing system of privilege and oppression.

It is not the same thing as saying that the ends justify the means when I say that I accept strategies other than my own. A better way to look at it is to see that my strategy is one among many, and that if we all pull, from wherever we're standing, we can yank this beast down to the ground.

In a comedy improvisation class, the instructor taught us that good improv comes not from changing the situation to your liking, but from building on what has already been established. This is the principle of "yes, and ..." -- adding to the reality that your scene partners have already created -- and I think that "yes, and" will be far better for the growth of this movement than "yes, but ..." and certainly far better than "no." Instead of disparaging the approach other people take in attacking the behemoth of multinational corporations and their governments for hire, we should concentrate on our own approach, and commend those who travail alongside us.

We're all in the same little boat.

It is sure nice to hear that this really happened in Quebec. The Black Bloc worked in tandem with the larger mass of protesters, earning their respect by attacking the universally loathed Fence and hurling back the police's canisters of tear gas. The residents of Quebec City, in turn, came out on the protesters' side. A strong consensus started to form against these out-of-towners in their fortress.

That's when the press kicked their shit in to high gear. If you've thumbed thorugh the AP photos, you'll find plenty of exciting protester-cop tear gas fiesta pictures ... but you know how many you'll find of the march on Saturday, which involved as many as 60,000 citizens of all the Americas? I found one. One photo, out of maybe 400 -- and it didn't even begin to include the whole march.

The pundits, meanwhile, pulled out the biggest rhetorical guns they could find to make Free Trade sound like the Lord's gift to the downtrodden, starving children of the Third World. Of course this was all bullshit. But the media are subject to corporate rule. And corporate rule demands civic order.

So it's back to titillating, sensational programming with no benefit, no information to benefit you. The media are in it for the money, they make money off what we'll watch, and they know what hooks us: If it bleeds, it leads.

And that brings me to my conclusion, which is also the title of a Rolling Stones album: Let it bleed.

If we must pay with blood, then so be it, but we will win back control of this world. I for one plan to use no violence: but if they must take my blood, I am prepared to lose it in defense of my world, and the people who live in it. Others may choose violence: they may be brighter -- or more foolish -- to make that choice, but it is theirs to make. I can control only my own choices.

We all will have a role in this. This is a global revolution, and every one of us is already taking part. It is all about how each and every one of us chooses to live our lives. And no, it doesn't start now -- it started a long time ago. It is still happening. And now it's your turn.

Start something. For great justice.