It’s called “black bloc,” and it’s a tactic — sometimes mistaken for a group or a movement — that protesters have long used to give themselves anonymity at demonstrations, to achieve both violent and nonviolent ends. “In response to violent state oppression radical activists developed the tactic of the Black Bloc,” Young wrote in 2001. Demonstrations began peacefully, but several hundred “black bloc” activists – described by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the time as “masked anarchists wearing black” — smashed windows, looted stores and vandalized buildings. “When we smash a window, we aim to destroy the thin veneer of legitimacy that surrounds private property rights.”But for demonstrators seeking to protest peacefully, “black bloc” activity is at best a distraction. Young, the author of the “black bloc” history, questioned the future of the tactic in his 2001 essay for A-Infos.

Source: National Post February 02, 2017 18:01 UTC