'Black Bloc' at an 'End of an Era'?

international | summit mobilisations | news report Sunday July 03, 2005 18:36 by an attempted transcriber

Dissent Ireland Activist discusses his own views

'...the Black Bloc, if that has any sort of substance to the meaning anymore or whatever - an old term now, has come to the end of an era...'

[note: Please download the audio .mp3 - it was difficult to transcribe because of noise in the background. If someone else wants to do a better transcription, please do.]

Download the .MP3
http://tinyurl.com/ctjyf

Transcription Excerpts:

This is Andrew from http://www.anarkismo.net - We are going over to 'Aidan' [from Dissent Ireland] who is on the train coming back from Edinburgh after the Make Poverty History march - on his way back to the Dissent Camp and he's going to give us a general overview of how he thought the day went.

[....skipping ahead....]

...when we got to Edinburgh [...] people were doing some interviews and all that for Indymedia people were having discussions of what they wanted to do basically. We got to Edinburgh - I am going to give my own perspective on this, obviously - as soon as we got off the train alot of those who might perceive as the Black Bloc, if that has any sort of substance to the meaning anymore or whatever - an old term now, has come to the end of an era. I think after today a lot of people would see as an end of an era or as something that is quite infantile and not really productive.

A lot of people [garbled] and they did was because the tactics of the cops they were followed around for the whole day. Nobody in the whole city would bother except for the Black Bloc who basically made it their own specific agenda. There was no specific purpose, there was no attempt to blockade, or an attempt at direct action - all there was was an attempt to walk around.

[....] We met outside the university.... A lot of people were masked up, so was asking why are you masked up, what is it that you have to hide, you know? You're an anarchist - I'm an anarchist. I'm not hiding my politics - I'm for openess, tolerance and inclusion, I have nothing against them [garbled] and I don't need to hide anything under a mask, you know? That kind of idea.

So basically, that's kind of... they had us all walk around basically - it was just random walking for absolutely no purpose of where people were going. [garbled]

Eventually we settled in the park and there was a lot of music etc and it was good craic...[garbled] I don't think anyone expected more than that, because it stated what the agenda was, it was Make Poverty History day, etc. A lot of people stayed in the camps and didn't bother going to Edinburgh [garbled] I got the impression from those one would be consider as 'Black Bloc' are much younger sort of crowd, ... at one stage we were walking through the park and there was about 15 lads leaking and were leaking in [???] Park where there was women with buggies and people there watching music and stuff, was approaching a police line or anything. And for me at that stage, this shows that this has become ....[garbled] looking for some direct action, there is a time and place and sometimes it is necessary, but in a place like that it was completely unnecessary and all it is attention seeking, as far as I am concerned.

[....]

There was no attempt to do anything. So as far as I am concerned, it was symbolic and egotistical and more machoism more than anything else. My opinion on it is, it [Black Bloc] has come to the end of an era - and the end of the era is now. Because basically, I am an anarchist, I'm proudly anarchist, my politics are about democracy, and [what happened today] just gives off a bad impression to all people that were gathered today - if we want to put forth an agenda... then we have to do it in much better manner, especially when its in a context like that. Everything is context now, and the Black Bloc had no place - if that's what you even want to call them. Any talk of subversion of authority or sort of subversion of a cop line that was going to happen today was definately going to bump into the Clown Army. Because they were able to approach the cops and they were able to ... 'kick them in the shins' and get away with it!

[....]

Also, the great thing today was the Indymedia Centre which became a focus area - a few downstairs, a DJ on the street, everyone was dancing - it was an RTS style thing. I think that was what today was about. And the role of the Black Bloc just had not [garbled] they just did not have a role. People dressed up fully masked up, black clothes, OK do a blockade, do a direct action, - what's the point of doing that if you're just walking through a street? It made no sense to me whatsoever.

=.=.=.=.=

Indymedia UK Photo Links
•Pictures from the train arrival, and the july 2 anti-capitalist march.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315769.html

•Clown Army Press Conference
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315358.html
•Clown preparations before the July 2nd actions...
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315762.html
•Pictures taken of the clown army action Jul 2nd
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315757.html
•Clown Army marching in Edinburgh
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315535.html

The Other Clown Army
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/315722.html

more at
http://scotland.indymedia.org/
and
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/

http://www.clownarmy.org/