tbh its absolutely infuriating when people who exclusively protest
without doing any foundational or sustainable work and never take a
moment outside of the spotlight to assume a supportive role for somebody
else act as if they are entitled to not just the services of those of
us who generally work in supportive positions (and frankly, put a lot
more time, money and effort into providing that support than they do
just showing up for their Weekly March To Yell At A Building), but also
to our complete adoration and gratitude.They act like rude
customers who tell you that you wouldnt have a job if it werent for
them. Yea, its true, I wouldnt have to do jail support if nobody got
arrested. Why do you think thats something I /want/ to do? how much
unpaid labor do you think im capable of throwing out there for you?of
course I’m still going to do it, of course im going to show up at your
march and walk from union square to trump tower with my medic kit for
the four-millionth time. But I have personally known so many protestors
who show up to every single march they can cram into their schedule, and
who do their god-damndest to get themselves arrested every time.
Literally playing “im-not-touching-you” by walking with one foot on the
sidewalk and the other in the gutter and yelling at cops daring them to
arrest them. I’m all for risking arrest to accomplish a goal, lockdowns
and blocking traffic and all that jazz has its time and place, but these
guys will get arrested on purpose and six hours later when they get out
of the precinct they will laugh and brag about how many times theyve
been arrested, while the medics and legal who just wanted to go to bed
get no thanks for the effort they put into making sure your arrest was
something you’re apparently happy to brag about later, rather than
ending with your ass getting beat or a jail sentence.Why do
yall feel the need to waste our resources and our energy without cause?
How come you think trying to break each other’s records for who’s been
in handcuffs more times is a fun game to play when it creates so much
work for your comrades in support positions? Why dont you ever take a
turn at the dirty work? and why the fuck do you think that /I/ owe /You/
for getting yourself arrested when im the one who camped out in front
of the precinct with coffee and chips and cigarettes and checked yr
wrists to make sure your handcuffs werent on too tight? you aint leading
this movement, and “putting your body on the line” is not what you’re
doing. When you literally jump in front of a scooter cop for no reason
other than to look cool, thats not helping anyone and its creating
unnecessary work for those of us who are actually trying to keep your
ass safe. You are not more important, you are not more at risk, you are
not the face of the movement, you are not a hero.The most
frustrating part of this is watching young people and first-time
protestors get swept up in the moment watching you yell and be all cool,
and then when the cops feel the need to scare the crowd by swooping in
and doing some random arrests, they get arrested because they didnt see
it coming. I keep going to this shit for the sake of the young people
who are vulnerable and mothers with children and elders and people who
genuinely need medical and legal support, but every time I get one or
two newbies, and then wind up having to deflect time away from caring
for their traumatized asses for some dipshit who’s been arrested twice
already this month. Its absolutely selfish and incredible that theyve
managed to create a clique where they reinforce their reckless,
ridiculous, harmful behavior and congratulate themselves on being more
radical than the people who have to clean up their mess.I really loved reading this and I want to share it, not because my experiences with black block are often like this (they’re generally not but types like this definitely exist.) or because I think a ‘you’re not the real radical, I’M the real radical!’ conversation is productive (it’s not). I see a lot of value in the work my local black blockers do.
I love this text because it is such a powerful raw expression of the rage and pain that being a member of the support system in an anarchist movement can involve and the neglect of those activists that happens in some, though certainly not all, communities.
I want everyone to read stuff like this because I believe improvement comes from hearing each others rage first, really listening and then moving from a place of compassion towards doing better as an anarchist community.im not even talking specifically about black bloc in this post, although I’ve certainly seen many black bloc folks throw themselves into harms way without evaluating what the cost/benefit of their action is. but when you’re in a high stakes action like j20 or berkley, its very easy to misjudge because you’re full of adrenaline and its chaos around you and black bloc tactics arent a thing you use during your daily life so its easy to forget common sense and regret it later. i have the highest respect for people who bloc up for the right reasons, but i expect them to make mistakes or simply be overwhelmed by opposing forces and thats what im here for.
my anger isnt directed at an honest mistake or getting decked by a pig. im angry at people taking unnecessary risks in order to look cool, which i see happening allllllllll the time and often its not even in a black bloc action, its at yr average rally or sidewalk march. doing dumb shit like refusing to move on to the sidewalk even tho there’s only three of them in the street, and then getting cut off from the group and arrested when there was no reason for it. because they know legal and medical will have their backs because we always do and they’ve come to expect us to save them every time.
the double whammy, of course, is next time they try that shit and someone suggests their tactics can barely be called that, they will shout the person down and declare themselves the frontline of resistance and say we should all be thanking them for taking so many risks, as proven by how many times they’ve been arrested.
Nevermind that the reason they’re able to keep coming back to get pointlessly arrested again is because a pro bono lawyer spent days working on their case in order to get them off with an ACD. one of my good lawyer friends started asking a particular group to put her on retainer because they kept calling her directly instead of the NLG hotline, and as soon as they realized she was getting fed up with spending so much of her time on their cases and was actually asking to get paid for her work, they stopped calling her. And suddenly they ceased getting arrested every other week when they realized they might have to face actual consequences if they didnt.
Honestly its like they forget that most of the movement lawyers charge next to nothing for the cases they take, even ones that “arent political” (tho we know most cases are very political even when the person being persecuted by the state isnt involved in any activism), and many are public defenders. so getting yourself arrested unnecessarily forces them to spend time saving you from your foolishness, instead of working on the case of the 23 year old who might go to jail for 15 years because theyre black and got caught with a bag of weed.
And obviously, street medics are risking the /same/ arrest and charges as whatever group they’re running with, in addition to paying for equipment and supplies and classes to be trained in order to run as medics.
its a combination of seeing protesting as a way to earn street cred and self importance, taking support for granted, and sometimes the cherry on top is actually being disdainful of legal, medical, organizational, etc for asking that they chill the fuck out so we can have a goddamn break once in a while, and acting like we’re the ones who should be thanking THEM.
it takes an entire team to accomplish shit, and the labor of the protestor or black bloc isnt any less valuable than the behind the scenes work, but i dont wanna team up with someone who doesnt acknowledge that.
^^^^^^^^^^
QueerAnarchism 