Outline of an Occupy-Acceptable Black Bloc

Taking "Zuccotti Park Is Everywhere" Literally

The Occupy encampments themselves were peaceful protests. They were necessarily non-violent, as any violence could be used as a pretext to end the protest. Not only were people encouraged to be non-violent, but also keep the places clean. This was a particularly heavy concern for the camps, especially NYC, where the evictions were carried out under pretenses of unsanitary conditions. Combined with free food, de-escalation teams, and safe spaces, these were places parents could bring their children. A march however, even one connected with an Occupation, has no underlying presumptions of non-violence. Just as Occupation is a form of protest with a set of practical concerns particular to it, marching is a different form of protest, and has its own set of underlying assumptions and practical concerns.

The language of "violence/non-violence" or being "peaceful" or "non-destructive" shouldn't apply to protest marches, as the oversimplification may prevent us from considering tactics that are beneficial to their success. There are certain actions that may be categorized as "non-violent" that interfere with the success of a march. These can include marching on the sidewalk as to not confront the police, or creating dangerous conditions when trying to film an arrest. There are also actions that might be categorized as "violent" that can make a march successful, such as kettle-breaking. Hurling projectiles at the police could fall into both categories. If an individual uses the cover of the march to throw a bottle at a cop, then he very well may endanger the safety of peaceful marchers or cause the police to move in and start making arrests (to say nothing of the reports of this in MSM). However, if there is a clearly established no-man's land between a march and a line of police, projectile throwing can keep police at bay while protesters escape from the rear, or a group of militants can mobilize behind a police line to throw projectiles in an attempt to break a kettle.

This is not to say that marches or large gatherings are inherently "violent." The October 5 Union March, the October 15 Convergence on Times Square, and the November 17 Convergence at Foley Square and subsequent March over the Brooklyn Bridge were by and large peaceful affairs. The march after the attempted October eviction of Zuccotti Park, The First and Second Oakland Solidarity Marches, and the March on the night of the actual Zuccotti eviction, all saw confrontations with the police and the application of certain Black Bloc tactics. Of these marches, all of them with the exception of the Second Oakland Solidarity March were more hampered by "peaceful marchers" than those using Black Bloc tactics.

In all of these instances there were people who generalize the assumptions that belie Occupy encampments to the realm of marches. They literally fear militant tactics of any kind, and see garbage bag roadblocks in the street as a Rolls Royce smashed to bits and set ablaze by black-clad anarchists to be hidden away from view before FOX News can capture an image and beam it into the heads of their viewers, forever and irrevocably destroying their precious liberal tea-party. For them a bottle or two thrown from a crowd is tantamount to someone shooting a police officer and scrawling #OWS on their forehead with a switchblade. A flaming trashcan may as well be a terrorist bomb. My point is that their concern with PR trumps the tactics that are widely seen as beneficial. This concern with how we appear to the public via the MSM makes events that are unfortunate but should be overlooked as anomalies (and not manifestations of the more controversial tactics employed by the Black Bloc) become the locus of the success or failure of the movement as a whole.

In light of this I will present a sketch of what may be an Occupy-acceptable Black Bloc. This is a compromise without a doubt, and doesn't even reflect my own views.



Why Occupy Needs a Black Bloc 

1. Black Bloc has the resolve to take and maintain the streets. Marching on the sidewalks is not only counter-revolutionary, but also dangerous. Sidewalks are tighter than roadways, making it easier for police to attack/arrest Marchers, and any attempt to do so puts a stop to the march as a result. The freedom of movement of the marchers and spontaneous application of tactics is all severely limited since the police are already dictating the terms on which the march can take place. Your more timid marcher may be reluctant to take the streets, but the Black Bloc is enthusiastic about it. 
2. Black Bloc protects peaceful marchers. Varieties of shields can be used to counter ranged attacks by police (tear-gas, less lethal rounds) as well as melee attacks by police (batons). Banner-holders at the front and sides of marches can prevent the police from entering the march and arbitrarily picking people off for arrest or brutality. Alternatively, Black Bloc could create a distraction for the police, allowing peaceful protesters to escape unharmed and not-arrested. 
3. Black Bloc breaks kettles. Kettling as a practice is supposed to suppress dissent in both the short term and the long term. Its short term effects are obvious, it puts an end to the march, but its long term effects are more insidious. Once hundreds of people are successfully kettled and placed under arrest they have to be processed and loaded into police vehicles, which can take hours. In this time one has no access to bathroom facilities and it could be in inclement weather (bitter cold, heavy rain/snow, extreme heat). Then there is the ordeal in jail where in the light of the mass arrest the time spent incarcerated before arraignment could be longer than usual (I personally spent over 44 hours awaiting arraignment after my arrest on Zuccotti Eviction Night). One may be charged with a violation or a misdemeanor for having been kettled. All of these factors combine to make people not want to go to protest marches, not only if this has happened to you, but also if you take these things into consideration as a possibility beforehand. This is why it is important for Black Bloc to do what they can in recognizing the formation of kettles and helping people get to safety before it can close around them, and in the event of its closure do what they can to physically break the kettle. 
4. Black Bloc Unarrests People. There can be few things as demoralizing on a March as watching people get arbitrarily plucked from the crowd and arrested. There can also be few things as infuriating as watching a cop knock someone over only to pick them up, put them in zip-tie handcuffs, and lead them away. The act of unarresting not only saves a comrade, but also invigorates everyone who sees it happen. 
5. Black Bloc Slows Down the Police: The best way to keep a March safe is to keep it away from the police. Being a block or two ahead of them means they cannot attack you, and cannot attempt to arrest you. This can be achieved by stopping traffic, and having the ability to accelerate and change directions quickly. These may indeed be recognized and catalyzed by Black Bloc members, but the more Black Bloc specific method of slowing down the police involves building barriers or placing obstacles in the path of the police. Anyone who doubts that placing bags of garbage in the middle of the street is effective in slowing down the police has never seen advance police officers come down a barricaded block and move everything to the sidewalk to make room for the motor vehicles coming up the rear. 

How Black Bloc Can Change to Co-Exist with Occupy

1. Drop the Black in Black Bloc. The point of this is obvious: if there are no black clad individuals getting together at a march to engage in militant activity then there is no Black Bloc. The reason for Black-Blocing in the first place is one of great tactical and practical concern, and by eliminating this aspect of it the tactic is less effective in many ways. This has to do with both maintaining anonymity and the psychological effects of this anonymity. On the positive side one is willing to take far more risks than one would be willing to take, but on the negative side one must fight engaging in reckless behavior brought on by this feeling of empowerment. After all, this is the psychology behind riot police. The psychological aspects apply not only to the people in the bloc, but those outside of it who perceive it as something frightening. Wearing all black at a protest march is in some ways asking to be arrested. Police know good and well what a Black Bloc is and what it does, and so black-clad militants might be singled out for arrest. This could be beneficial for "peaceful" marchers, as Black Bloc can be a distraction take the heat off them. But one credo for the Black Bloc is "do the right thing, just don't get caught doing it." Avoiding arrest is something that everyone should be concerned with, not only Black Bloc. This shows the strange nature of the all black: we wear it for privacy and anonymity, and yet it makes us even more of a target for arrest. We attempt to play this to our advantage by being a distraction, yet wish to hold on to our provisional freedom (time not spent in jail). To compound the problem the color black carries great symbolism in militant movements. It is the color traditionally associated with Anarchism, and is worn in solidarity with prisoners and other oppressed people. To give it up is not so easy for many reasons, but in doing so a great many tactics can be elevated to the level of acceptability and we can shed some of the connotation of the Black Bloc with property destruction and vandalism.
2. Refrain from Wanton Property Destruction and Vandalism If there's one thing Americans love more than violence it's property. Property destruction is seen as something that goes against the core values of the movement, and the worst kind of fodder to give the MSM. This is a pervasive view, especially among the moderates of the movement. Traditionalist Black Bloc defends property destruction as a latter day propaganda of the deed which seeks to smash the internalized capitalist psychology that property is more sacred than life in both fellow marchers and the outside world. However many modern militants, especially those associated with Occupy, would agree that these actions are alienating and divisive within the movement and most likely don't present a good image to the average American. Moderates will say that besides being terrible PR, actions such as smashing windows draw police attention and put "peaceful" marchers at risk. To anyone with experience in or of a Black Bloc this is patently ridiculous. Property destruction can be used as a tactic to divert the police from attacking peaceful marchers, and even if the goal of a particular Bloc is to be destructive (to make a point), they usually break off from a march to do it. Some acts which might qualify as vandalism or property destruction can be completely uncontroversial, an example of which would be when masked militants disabled NYPD vehicles by releasing air from their tires on Eviction Night in NYC. Having considered this we really have more of a reason to refrain from these tactics than to totally disavow them.