The Black Bloc and Antifa

Whether the Black Bloc is anarchist is a question I can't answer. Has the Black Bloc read Proudhon? Anarchism has a history of interesting thinkers and different schools of thought. Anarchists have come up with compelling ideas about education that made their way into our discussions of how to learn. Does the Black Bloc concern itself with education? I don't know. Probably not. It doesn’t have the usual political platform.

I first saw the Black Bloc during a San Francisco demonstration opposing the second war against Iraq. There were 200,000 of us marching peacefully on Market Street, and then about 30 men and women dressed in black and wearing black masks broke off from the march. They ran down a side street breaking bank windows. 

The movement roots, like those of Antifa, are in Germany. These are not protest groups but direct action groups like those developed in Europe. The Black Bloc will come to someone else’s protest and then may physically attack the KKK or Nazis or corporate entities--direct action. 

A related action movement is called Antifa (Anti-Fascist Action). Antifa also is not a political protest group with a platform. It does oppose fascism, capitalism, racism, sexism, class discrimination, etc.  And there are several more action groups with different names. They seem to be very loosely organized. They don't hold marches but do attend counter-protests. On paper Antifa and the Black Bloc and others seem similar. 

The public rise of the KKK and Nazis seems to be directly related to the campaign and victory of Donald Trump, which let them out of the closet. The public rise of the Black Bloc and Antifa seems directly related to a loss of faith in our governing political parties. When governments fail, vigilantes appear. 

The Right is attempting to pitch this conflict between Nazis and the Black Bloc as a freedom of speech issue. I’m not an attorney, so don’t take what I say seriously, but when I talk about freedom of speech, I’m saying that the government has no right to silence me, but my wife can tell me to shut up. Somewhere between those extremes we deal with real life. I don’t want Nazis or the KKK marching on my street. We’d be crazy to put up with that. My ancestors won the Civil War and defeated Hitler. I also don’t want a lonely, sloppy racist beaten with sticks and spit on by a crowd. What is the right thing to do?