Notes on Our March 15th

via MTL Counter-info

Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info

I want to remember how it felt to be shook by the beauty of the crowd. Fear and anxiety dissipate as a hundred-strong black bloc takes the street, realizing its collective power that compels police units to maintain a safe distance. It’s happening. We can do this.

Attacking luxury cars, hotels, and banks when the police have been made unable to defend them is an attack on the police, which depends on the perception that it can maintain law and order to be respected by good citizens and feared by the excluded. A call-and-response of shattering glass echoes down Peel Street, as projectiles fly at bank windows in quick succession. Not to worry, several rocks, flares, and at least one decent firework are reserved for the SPVM.

Spontaneity works pretty well sometimes, and it’s cool when people roll a dumpster out of an alley, someone else drops a flare in it to start a small fire, an “ACAB” gets tagged on the front, and others decide to charge with it at some cops up ahead, all in the span of sixty seconds, as though carefully choreographed. Our time together is limited, yet expansive.

Riot cops arrived from behind on Maisonneuve and quickly shot tear gas, which had its usual effect on such a relatively small demo. Two people were arrested, and some people were hurt. This brings us to the requisite tactical suggestions for next time:

Making dispersal dangerous (for the cops): when a demo splits into multiple directions after the police attack, we could try to keep our composure, check in with our friends and new surroundings, and see if we can regroup with the others who turned the same corner. We may be smaller in number, but the cops’ attention is divided, and they are unlikely to be positioned to attack us again right away. We might even come across isolated groups of police that are unprepared for a hostile crowd. The state is using chemical weapons and blunt force to cut short a joyous departure from the devastating routine of a prison society, and it might be injuring our friends: let’s respond to the height of their aggression.

Accelerant: let’s bring some/use it? The aforementioned dumpster would have made a better battering ram if it was more fully on fire.

Review of Black Bloc Manual 13th Edition, Chapter 12: choosing the right tool for the job. Not everything is a substitute for a good hammer. Secondly, covering your face isn’t enough to be anonymous. If your mask or something else about your attire stands out amongst the crowd, it could help the cops track you (via undercovers, livestream, or video footage after the fact), which could put you in greater danger as the demo is ending or afterwards.

The rear of the demo: the dispersal tactics on Friday and in the election night demo last October were identical: riot cops arrive about a block away behind the demo and shoot tear gas. The panic that circulates can allow them to drive vehicles straight into the running crowd, accelerating the dispersal. What could a combative crew of people holding down the rear of the demo accomplish? No specific proposals to make here, but we think this is an area for improvement.

Warm greetings to all the other crews and individuals who came out, and to everyone who was there in spirit. Let’s take care of each other and destroy all authority. We would like to hear how you experienced this March 15th.

Sending love to all the rebels behind bars. Fire to the prisons.

We also remember the sacrifice of Anna Campbell, an anarchist who fought with the YPJ in Rojava, who was killed along with four comrades by the fascist Turkish army one year ago, on March 15, 2018.

See you on May Day, or sooner! Fuck the police.

There are 13 Comments

I can't remember the title, but there was a great piece once written by a user named shadowsmoke about how the ability of the cops to fuck up a demo hasn't changed since the hard times of 2013. For understandable reasons, people always like to put a positive and empowering spin on things, saying things like: "oh, that was WE who defeated the kettle-regime in 2016 with our streetwise bb tactics, nigga! Gangang!"

But we finna keep it 100 idgaf who don't like it:

They were so fuckin good at smashing demos with that pre-emptive kettle shit, they was literally over-loggin the dogshit outta the courts to the point where all the candyass council politicians were asking them to play the game a little different since this shit wasn't cost-effective in the longrun (altho it was super effective at makin bbs in the demo fold like a deck of cheap lawn chairs loc). So, they let the kettlegame down and fucked hard on the tear gas which made a lot of people in the street feel aight cuz now they felt they could atleast get they bb on and tip some cows youknowmsayin?

But yo... Should they ever change their policy one more again and go back on that shit, what y'all finna do? They know the bb ain't shit till they get they mask on in big numbers. Like, theoretically, they could just be comin thru... settin up a perimeter in full tac and passin everybody thru a filter, checkin for contraband and shit... and striking with a kettle before the bb even has the opportunity to get in formation.

Re: vandalism

It's like this, mayne... You know how stores have, like, an annual budget for shrinkage? NA cities known for their demos got the same shit, loc. Ain't nuthin for a massive multi-billion $$$ city like mtl to swallow a few g-notes of plate glass window and graff removal. Plus, it's the same shit happening all the time. You take the type of shit that happens in mtl on the reg and transplant it to some town in butthole canada like Hamilton and its like, yeah, ppl are gonna flip tf out. But in mtl...

The @-team like: "FUCK YEAH RITE DAT KOMUUNIKAY MAH NIGGA! DIS SHIT FIRE!"

err'body else... cops, mafia, citizens and politicians alike all like: "meh... call my insurance, bih".

And yo, we're not even talkin here about what acab could be doing to motherfuckers in short order with their semi-autos strapped wit infrared beams loaded w/ plastic bullets if they feelin it... Like, what Im trynna say here is that acab still just playin wit you, man. Think about it. And obviously, ain't none of that amount to a hill of beans next to what the 81 would do if you ever fuck with their gravy in urban realestate past the point of what their insurance cops out, feel me? And those boys don't play fair or according to some set of rules like the cops (mostly) finna do: I'm talkin' hidden microscopic cameras wired all up and down your hood and anti-gentrification warriors waking up to some real fuckin gangsters in they kitchen.

lets keep it real

"HOLE UP! HOLE UP! YOU AIN'T GANG! TAKE DAT FLAG OFF!"
-china mac

IGTT 10/10

100% agree

bb game is stale. overdue for a big switchup in tactics
time for a “paradigm shift”

gov already did coin->counter-terrorism->(currently switching to) real-time joint m-force multi-domain operations

leftists still got their same old shit on replay

imagine if no one showed up to demos year after year until they cut back funding and personnel

a lame idea that can’t be implemented

but let’s think outside the box

So ... You folks just ignored everything in France in the last 4 months? The old rules haven't actually changed at all.

Kettles require tons of manpower and they only work for the dinky little marginalized leftist ghetto demos.

I ain't interested in trying to convince everybody to fight but it's basic math.

if u still doin basic ass arithmetic wit ur finger calculator when they doin machine learning wit markov chains n simulations...i aint even gotta say it

And my toes too!!! And like, stickynotes for when I'm high.

Dig dat sheeeet!

APAB!!!

They still ain't STICKIN IT UP TO THE MAINE, that's the prob. THINK ABOUT THAT, y'all!

Yeeeaaaa... they shoulda listen a bit more often to that lumbersexual desperado who's been riding his bike thru town insulting yuppies around, so maybe that woulda given somethin better to do.. Now that the persona's gone (but not the man behind the mask) what will u doooo now!? Quantum multidimensional reframing of the paradigm?

Good for you, the donothingism in praxis!

The end justifies the means my friend. Hogshire for instance, Bob Black was never a snitch, he was merely amorally Machiavellian in dealing with a homicidal madman.

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