arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Loesje, a Dutch action group, put it this way: 'all the people who are here have different opinions, but we come along because we all have idealism and love for freedom and justice in common.'
True. In the demo, there were Turkish people next to Kurdish people, dancing and singing, catholic believers with wooden crosses next to labour union people, and anarchists in the middle of communists - a multiplicity of colours.
In my opinion, this means a breakthrough: we are no longer a shallow niche at the edge of society, we are members of a society, and one day, perhaps society in general will see us for what we are: persons with different ideas, but all demanding freedom, justice and peace, for all.
And diversity means power. We all felt it. But I fear the police must have felt it too. I saw only limited vandalism next to usual tagging and the unfortunate bank bust, but someone, somewhere, was frightened enough to turn our multicultural feast into a show of force – and a massive violation of our rights.

I would like to correct a mistake in my article: not one, but many banks and cars were damaged. I did not know this yet when I wrote the articles.

To the ones who did this: go back to where you come from and never ever show your faces again. Did you see the news? You gave the media the opportunity to ignore what we are.

For this, I vow: next time I see one of you doing this, I will personnally flush my non-violence and break you arms. Your disguises and sticks will not be able to cope with the absolute loathing I feel for you. You are as much responsible for the injure towards innocent people than the police and just as responsible for making us a bad name than the media. Fuck you!

Hey Amigo,
When the anarchist are marching you respect their diversity and when they apply class war tactics - you go against them-
you respect their diversity as long as they keep the lines
the media allows them, once they get out of it, you put yourself as a cop that would brake their hands.

Why not try it once? It's so clear from your 2nd comment that you have inner violence, so use it so smach banks.
Try is alone, at night. Catch the fun of hitting the institution without hurting no one but the insurance company, give your instincts some freedom.

Media, Police, fuck them. we are winning. It takes time, but with solidarity we will get rid of capitalism and the state.

Look at the smashed banks, can you enjoy it?

Love and Solidarity

I certainly have this inner violence, but I prefer to put it to better use!

An anarchist friend of mine (yes) said it this way: there is a difference between power and strength. Power is given to you by others and corrupts, strength comes from within and is more honest. I agree to this.

Everybody is, in his inner soul, a warrior and a wolf, not a dog. Society has polished us over, but this true human being still exists! I believe that is the supreme task of the anarchist vision to tell the world that they can be free. I believe that this is what you are saying to me. I can tell you: I am trying. At least, my eyes are open to this fact.

I just do not see why I should destroy when I could also build.

BUT! This is a totally different topic!

I detest the way many banks play with the money and the lives of people, just as you do. But anyway, I have a bank account too (mostly empty), and, hell - you use money too!

The inner wolf of every man is more honest than to first destroy a bank, and then buy some beer in a supermarket. It does not feel alright with destroying a car after coming to Belgium in a car! Or does it?

I dare to say that the people who act like this, are not true to their vision. I have seen lots and lots of anarchists who are in your demo's too, and who squatt just as well, but whose inner strength is much more consequent. And their kind of creative direct action delivers!

What does destroying a bank mean? Does it even hurt it, with their billions of dollars? Do you even know the background and the sympathies of the owner of the car you destroy? Perhaps he is even a friend! So what is the value of it?

The streetparty was a very strong psychological message to the world. If you were there, you have seen the ordinary people dancing along, understanding! They want a peaceful life, and they do not deserve the society they get or the people who lead it. They know at least that! Just look at election results!

Your enemy - please tell me exactly who it is you are aiming at and why - does not play fair. It is not stupid. It controls advertisement and PR and keeps the people you want to free locked up in a pseudo world, buying shit and eating shit, leading a shitty life, kept docile and controllable. These ordinary people are NOT your enemy. They buy the cars you destroy and go to the banks you bust. They have never seen us protest for peace, solidarity, freedom - whatever - because its has never been shown to them. They have never understood what you try to say, but they do not like violence in the streets.

But in these masses, there is diversity, with totally blunt minds next to free-spirited people. Who - and this may perhaps shock you - have multiple reasons not to like what you are doing.

As is clearly shown: we are being criminalized. The media shows you and your friends fighting, destroying, and happily ignores the message of the other thousands. Me and the others are driven into your camp, so that one day, if we do not stop you, you may have you war. I will - against my longing for FREEDOM (know this feeling???) - be forced to either walk away or fight along. A war we will lose, instead of win. And even if we win, the ways of it would not suit me.

Why? The people whose cars and banks you destroy, they too do not like being lied to, they too have had dreams that were blanked out by society, they too have been careless children who were told to shut up when the adults spoke. They are the ones who are the police, the media, the soldiers. They do not MAKE the orders, they FOLLOW them. Against us, because you turn them into enemies, since you give your enemy the chance to ignore the things the masses could use to wake up!

It is a psychological warfare, which also needs - in my eyes - inner violence and strength to win. But most of all, it needs resolution, resilience, strength of will, intelligence and lots of honest communication. The people who were watching the d14 march were sympathetic towards us, one after the other, until they saw you rampaging through their city... I know - I spoke to them.

I dare to say: we cannot win without these people. Because you know what? A person who suddenly realizes he has been lied to all his life is freed, but someone who is conquered into seeing he has been lied to, is enslaved. And I will not have you conquer them. They must wake up themselves.

Unless a debate is being dealt with openly and honestly, I will stick to my former statement that not the PEOPLE but the BLACK BLOCK is the enemy of freedom. We can fight together - do not start a war we people who love peace and freedom do not want to fight. You will be on your own then, and if you don't win it, the world will be a smothering ruin in two generations.

Thanks for your reaction. I hope this debate is possible.

Maarten,
you state clearly and unequivocally that "[..]the next time that I see one of you [damaging banks and cars] I will personnally flush my non-violence and break your arms."

You are saying that you will use violence to defend property.

This surely is the job of the police and the armies. The police defend the property of the ruling-classes (and their elite slaves), that they have stolen over the centuries and are stealing now, from the ruled. The armies get called out when the police are no longer able to do it by clubbing and tear-gassing.

You are proposing to do their job for them. You are a defender of the ruling-classes.

You talk a lot in your next post about inner-wolves and other obscure, esoteric garbage. It all means nothing to me, it is some weird fantasy of your own.

The point of property destruction is to make the cost of holding these un-democratic meetings of the elites untenable. We want there to be nowhere for them to hide. We want there to hit them where it hurts. In the pocket by disrupting economic activity. Practically by preventing the logistics of their meeting. Psychologically be demonstrating that we are not supporters.

This tactic of non-violent property destruction and direct confrontation has been shown to be succesful in Prague and Seattle and Quebec. On the other hand in demonstrations where there have been a majority of people who are committed to so-called peaceful methods there has been little success in disrupting the business of the day and STILL we get labled as "fringe", "non-democratic" etc. Guess why? Because the media is owned by people who are the ruling-class. It is staffed by people who have got the jobs because psychologically they are "good" slaves.

Your tactic seems to be (and correct me if I am wrong): demonstrate peacefully that we oppose the IMF/WB and then the media will favorably report on us. This is a naive expectation. Even if there are "favorable reports" the fundamental interests of the Capitalists _require_ that they starve people. Naturally those people will rebel and then our armies will bomb them.

You are looking for reform. The best that this can deliver is a modified social-democratic/liberal government in which there are still stratifications of society with people being forced to work at demeaning jobs in order to line the pockets of those that have the luck or skill to rise to the top of the competitive heap. Note: that is the VERY best. What is _likely_ to happen however is that the power structure will result in ever-greater accumulated power and wealth in the hands of those at the top. This is natural in a structure whose fundamental principle is competition and accumulation.

Finally, on your comments on the Black Block (sic) I have this to say: The Black Bloc is not a static organization. It is a spontaneous association of people that wish their identities to remain hidden because of police surveillance. This may be because they intend to engage in property destruction. Or it may be because they wish to cross borders without trouble. Or it may be that they wish to keep their jobs. Or it may be because they think it looks cool. Or it may be because they are afraid that if the changes that they long for in society look possible then the police will target them. Repeat after me please "A Black Bloc is a tactic, not an organization".

You make all sorts of rainbow-coloured, pretty and meaningless statements about diversity. Then you threaten violence against people that are not part of your diversity. Imagine if Black Bloc participants were to have threatened violence to you Maarten because they thought that you were endangering their form of demonstration? But they don't. They do their own thing. They look after themselves. And frequently (from the demos that I've been on) they look after other people and defend them from police violence. I've seen both sides of the coin. My worst experiences including imprisonment come from being on "peaceful" demonstrations. On those the only people that got any peace were the pigs that attacked us.

More of your bizarre logic comes out when you verbally assault black-bloc people for "coming to the demonstration in cars" and say that that is hypocritical. Here you are (aside from begging the question how do you know what way the masked, anonymous BBers came to D14?) falling into the trap of asking for religious purity of lifestyle and saying that no-one can challenge this society unless they eschew and avoid living in it. This is ridiculous. We wear clothes, eat food and work jobs that are available to us in this society. Some of us are too poor to buy handmade clogs created from perma-cultured trees by indigenous Belgian artisan collectives. Some of us have jobs working for evil corporations because we need to support ourselves and our families. Some of us even _like_ to have CDs and stereos and bicycles and coffee. We would prefer that those things are not made in a way that enslaves people or destroys the environment and we work to change that. But we are not necessarily going to live lives of unhappiness because not consuming those things will not automatically or inevitably bring about change. Sure, there are some things that we can easily do with out and we should try to limit that. But merely deciding that I drink only fair-trade coffee is not going to change things. Protesting ineffectively and peacefully is not going to change things. "Reforming" the WB/IMF is not going to change things. We live in Capitalism which means exploitation. The only solution is to remove Capitalism.

Please note, that although I dismiss the extreme view as suggested by your "car" statement that only those that live in a "pure" way can make change I do not totally dismiss the idea of ethical consumption. I try to purchase fairly traded goods, don't use a car, don't have a TV. However in itself that doesn't change much. It just makes me feel better. In order to make the surplus profit that I (as a small pawn in trickle-down Capitalism, advantageously situated compared to slaves in 3rd world countries) spend on the fair-trade coffee someone else is getting it in the neck somewhere else. Also it's expensive. I can't possibly shop like this for everything. So it's not a solution. However, I don't have much liking for someone that drives a Mercedes and says they're an anarchist. It is logically possible but aesthetically disturbing.

Absolutely finally: Black Blocs have a reputation for violence because they are sometimes willing to defend themselves against the far greater violence which is offered and initiated by the police. To buy into that description of them as "violent" (especially when they have merely destroyed banks and cars) is to accept an equation of property and people. That is a very inhumane attitude. You should be ashamed of it.

The title says a lot.

Do you think that this fight you fight is winnable? The people working in the bank may be blind, but they are not the enemy. They do not know what we fight for.

I just hold the goal in my thoughts: I want an open democracy that is more than a dictatorship of the masses with some Ivory Tower people crushing who they want for money on top. I have got no intention whatsoever to fight with means other than those that accord with human rights values. I just do not feel the need! Direct action can be very powerful and I am in favor of it, but must it be this shallow? What do you think of the splendid squatting of the chemical plant on d12? That was marvellous! And more than that: it did not give the media an argument to turn the positive message of thousands into the destruction of a few. That is the main issue why I was so furious! It was as if the long hours we worked to do our job right, was washed away in split seconds! I could feel it: instead of walking away proud of what we had accomplished, I was ashamed. How many more were it with me???

If you want to destroy things: pick the right targets! Not just wanton destruction please! It could be my car, and the last time I looked in the mirror, I was still no slave of the system! If I was, I would have a job in that system, OK? Those are real choices and they hurt like hell, but I made them because I thought they were correct! I could be writing for Het Laatste Nieuws too, you know?

I was furious when I wrote this, only minutes after hearing what had happened. I feel a lot calmer now. Let me rephrase my vow: next time I see veiled guys destroying whatever they want to destroy and I do not believe it to be a valid target or something that will promote our goals, I will try to gather my nerves and guts, and will intervene to try to talk it over with them. Because I do not agree!!! Is my opinion of no value then? Must I walk away because you want to destroy something???

Perhaps I was a bit blunt. I was certainly angry. And all those 'esoteric crap' you talk about, is no crap to me.

A second on 'reform': these are the options according to me: either a small group makes extreme measures, or a large group refuses to be lied to anymore. What do you think works best? And how do think we will ever get our movement to grow so that it will get enough power to brush the owner of that bank you bust away in one blow of breath? By giving footage of violence to a media machine? Or by destroying their lies one at a time and uniting behind dignity for all?

'Rainbow-coloured, pretty and meaningless statements about diversity'? So that is what I do?

I am at a loss for answers. I guess we are both talking about different things and have different opinions and visions. I have never met an opinion I have not been able to understand at least a bit, so I would be very much interested if we could continue this discussion and try to find common values to win this struggle once and for all. I do not do this for pleasure - I would like to have a world in which I can just build things that are valuable and minding my own business. Agreed that this is my right? Can we continue this discussion, perhaps on email? I am less of an enemy than you might think. I just want us to remold this world in a fair way. I guess you want the same.