May Day; May Day!

Some cities saw otherwise peaceful May Day demonstrations disrupted by anarchists using a tactic called the Black Bloc. (AP/Seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo)

Some cities saw otherwise peaceful May Day demonstrations disrupted by anarchists using a tactic called the Black Bloc. These are actually white males who dress in black, and carry metal poles which they use to smash windows of what they consider corrupt businesses.

And of course we all condemn this, but it turns out, the anarchists themselves are debating the Black Bloc. Yesterday some of them even chanted “This is not helping.”

So I started searching anarchist websites:

And I found a debate among Canadian anarchists:

“If we’re going to talk about violence, we need to be talking about corporate sponsors. We need to be talking about the police,” said activist named Harsha Walia, who’s been quoted on anarchist sites for her passionate defense of window smashing, even though she knows it tends to backfire.

“In terms of the fact that the Black Bloc reinforces and legitimizes the police state, the resistance will legitimize the police state, and if that argument is going to be used then we may as well never be on the streets,” said Walia.

Plus, she says, the Black Bloc actually IS peaceful:

“As far as we know not a single individual and not a single animal has been harmed in Black Bloc tactics, what has been harmed is lifeless windows,” said Walia.

Personally, I believe that anarchists were put on this earth to remind us what de-regulated young males are fundamentally like.

And I think anarchists would be much more impressive if they roamed the streets creating jobs.

Although I suppose, if you’re in the glass replacement business that’s exactly what they did. For a day anyway.