Anarchists Prepare to descend On Downtown Los Angeles
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As FTAA protests come to a end the anarchists prepare to launch a new battle in the Southern California area. May Day 2001. Anarchists say that it is a international day of militiant action. Anarchists claim that this year they will get revenge for what happend in Haymarket over one hundred years ago. How will they get it? They will not comment. Even the exact location is kept secret though they hint that it will be close to downtown Los Angeles. Instead of a location, they put a hotline number on the flyer, as well as a web site. One thing is known, the black clad anarchists made a damaging impact on last years October 22nd protests in Los Angeles in a scene right out of Monday night at the Democratic National Convention. Their website tells people to get protective gear, and where to buy it. It even has a link to a group called "Ya Basta!", where they tell you how to make shields, and disarm police. What will they do next? How far will they go?
It was the police that had a "damaging effect at Oct 22 last year" not the anarchists. What kind of victim blaming, movement dividing line is that? The anarchists LIKE EVERY ONE ELSE were shot at, charged by police horses, hit with billyclubs and so on. The police attack was not caused by the anarchists any more than any police beating or murder is caused by the victim. Look at Cincinatti--they murder the families of victims of police murder 3 times -- once when their child is ripped from them by police bullets; again when their good names are dragged through the mud when they attempt to decredit and criminalized the victim and their families; and a third time when they attempt to silence these families through further police brutality when they attempt to speak out and demand justice. This is what happened at October 22nd--people fighting for justice came smack up against a whole agenda of the state--of more cops, more prisons, more brutaltiy, an entire generation of youth criminalized and you aint got not say so! Black people have come up against the state before--we saw that during the civil rights struggle where people were hosed, bitten by attack dogs, beaten bloody, locked up, shot and lynched. Did the people "start" that? Was that "instigated" by the demonstrators? Guess what? Black Block wasn't there.
People have a right to step out and speak up against injustice and we have a right to defend ourselves and each other when attacked. Just as the people of Cincinatti have a right-not given by the state!- to march in the street, violate the curfew and throw back tear gas cannisters that are shot at them and in general fight back in ways they see fit. You cannot compare the violence of the slave with the violence of the slavemaster. We have to respect diverse forms of protest. Frederick Douglas said, "Power concedes nothing without demand." We should support the actions in Seattle and else where to SHUT DOWN meetings of IMPERIALISTS planning the plunder of the world's people and resources.
We should support the courageous resisters in DC, Cancun, the Czech Republic and Quebec. There are people fighting for liberation all over the world, many with arms. Do you blame the Vietnamese people for the genocidal war against them waged by the US governement? Of course not!
At October 22nd the LAPD amassed what could only be described as a military style arsenal to carry out a pre-planned attack on march. We had permits for the rally AND the march--we got these permits from the LAPD! They opened fire on us without warning. Children were shot, family members of people murdered by cops were shot (ON THE STAGE! THE POLICE FIRED AT THE STAGE!!!!). A young couple was beaten and arrested (check for yourself on the tv news coverage) for throwing their bodies over a baby carriage in the path of rampaging riot police.
The anarchists along with the students from Mecha, the Black Student Contingent, the Youth Student Network of the October 22nd Coalition, youth and students from high and university campuses from all over LA, youth with baggy pants and shaved heads, the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, Religious folks, family members, the Watts Contingent, Immigrant rights groups, queer rights groups, Critical Mass, Amnesty Interanational, Aztlan Underground, Ozomatli, legal observers, journalists, activists and so on -- EVERYONE out there in the streets that day acquited themselves with courage and bravery. People had each others backs; many sat down in front of police horses, so that the rally go on and the families could tell their stories. When the cops started firing people didn't panic and scatter. We retook the streets and refused to let them divide us up and shut us down.
Refuse & Resist has a sticker that reads, "There is not such thing as a bad protester in a GOOD movement." How true. The gathering and march at the Border to protest teh FTAA was a beautiful mix of people. We need more like this--all different types of folks coming together in struggle and protest. We also need as a movement to set terms that unite rather than divide; that stregthen rather than weaken. Term that recognize that we are all on the same side of the barricades.