February 09, 2012

PREVIOUS POST
Interview With Chris Hedges About Black Bloc | Truthout JAM: I have seen black blocs de-arresting their comrades (stealing people back from police custody), without hurting anyone or anything. I have seen them win a tug of war with the police and confiscate their kettle netting. I have seen them returning tear gas canisters from whence they came in order to mitigate the suffering of children and elderly protesters in their midst. CH: Let's not paint these people as the Boy Scouts, come on. JAM: Obviously, there is smashing and burning, but I wonder if tactics like those, which are also part and parcel of black bloc protests, are also cancerous. CH: First of all, let's be clear. I don't have a problem with anarchism. The problem is they're not tactics I would engage in. I wouldn't classify them as "violent." I would classify violence as the destruction of property and vandalism, the shouting of insulting messages to the police, physical confrontations with the police. Those are very clear cut acts of violence. The issues that you raise are more nebulous and circumstantial. Throwing a tear-gas canister back that's been fired at you I would not classify as a violent act and yet it was something that probably would not have been done during the civil rights movement under King. via www.truth-out.org What a strange remark. Why would one call "shouting insulting messages to the police" and "physical confrontation with the police" violent? Shouting insulting messages seems a perfectly fine way to register political anger and discontent. If police...

Jodi Dean

Jodi Dean is a political theorist.

DSE
The Typepad Team

Recent Comments