anonymous submission –
The October 22nd Coalition (O22), well known to be an RCP front group, has controlled anti-police discourse in Seattle through their many rallies and demonstrations over the past months. While there has been an anarchist presence in this discourse, it has been largely dominated by the O22. With this in mind anarchists in the Puget Sound decided that it was long overdue to exhibit our own collective force at the most recent O22 rally on February 12th.
The demonstration began with a rally at Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, a busy pedestrian shopping district. About 100 people were present while members of the RCP, O22, and unaffiliated organizations spoke. As the rally was wrapping up more and more anarchists in black began to appear leafleting* and holding a dozen black flags and two banners reading, “Cops=Murderers, Judges=Executioners” and “Police Violence is Not an Accident, All Cops Are Bastards”.
O22 called for a march on the sidewalk after the rally but as they waited for the crosswalk to turn green anarchists formed a black bloc and pushed the march into the streets. The black bloc was composed of about 40 people, flanked by the two banners mentioned above. The march headed toward Pike Place Market. The black bloc drowned out the O22’s chants and whining, despite the O22’s two bullhorns, with “ACAB-All Cops Are Bastards”, “Cops, Pigs, Murderers”, “Seattle to Oakland-We Ain’t Jokin’-Cairo to Greece-Fuck the Police”.
Upon arriving in Pike Place Market hundreds of anti-police fliers* were thrown into the air landing among crowds of curious onlookers and angry yuppies. Cries of outrage were heard from the latter who were more concerned with littering than the recent police violence. Moving away from the Market the march had grown to about 200 people. The O22 stopped to wait for a green light, while the anarchists moved forward into the intersection and up toward Niketown.
Going up the hill anarchists began to pull newspaper boxes, metal fencing, and other objects from alleyways and sidewalks into the street. These acted as small barricades against the police cars that were tailing the march. Onlookers joined the march, some of whom asked to carry black flags and shouted “Fuck the Pigs!”, vocalizing and demonstrating their rage against the police.
By the time the march headed toward the East Precinct the march had decreased to about 75 people. Bike cops began to flank the march at this point. Just before the Precinct an unoccupied police car’s front window was smashed out with a hammer. The police, evidently shocked by this act, responded two seconds too late, while people in the vicinity blocked them from grabbing the window smasher who was then able to escape. Two people were beaten and arrested in the mayhem. Their charges are unrelated to the window smashing. They were both released on bail that night, charged with misdemeanor obstruction.
*Text from flier:
Regarding the O22’s call for justice:
The O22 and other reformists called for justice in the face of police violence on February 12th. As anarchists we know we cannot find justice under the State and Capitalism. Instead, we seek vengeance. Vengeance for those whose lives can never be given back and vengeance for our own lives constrained by the tentacles of social control. We do not want a better system because, in fact, better only means more efficient for those who wish to kill and imprison us. We do not strive to reform those who love to see us on our knees. Instead we seek the total destruction of this system of domination, with our feet planted firmly on the ground.
Regarding the arrests:
While it is unfortunate for comrades to have to endure the isolation and degradation brought down upon them by the police in such incidents, it is critical for us to remember that we are currently engaged in an everyday war. The lines are drawn, we have chosen sides, and the larger, better equipped, and more powerful side (the police) will take hostages.
If we let the threat of going to prison determine our actions then we enter a kind of mental prison in which our own fear becomes just as useful to the state as four concrete walls and a door made of iron bars. If we instead realize the position we have placed ourselves in, as enemies of the State and Capitalism, then we realize our trajectory as always leaning toward the possibility of arrest and imprisonment.
It is important to demystify the prison experience. This can come in many forms, from continuing the struggle in prison to sharing experiences of imprisonment with those who have not been jailed. First and foremost though, it must come with the acknowledgment that an arrest or a prison sentence does not imply failure or defeat in our struggle against domination.
If we are going to take ourselves seriously as anarchists, then we must take our position in society seriously and realistically as well. We are not activists who willfully march into the hands of the state for a chance at martyrdom while neither are we anti-social vanguards only acting at night, leading a double life. We are anarchists who wish to communicate socially but also realize that the State and Capitalism will never just disappear and that the time to act is now.
Repression is the natural response of the State. They will not simply slap the wrist of those who stand in their way. We do not wish to appeal to the courts nor to their police dogs. We express full solidarity with those who acted on their individual rage against the police on February 12th. As anarchists, we are neither innocent nor guilty, simply their enemies.
anonymous submission –
The October 22nd Coalition (O22), well known to be an RCP front group, has controlled anti-police discourse in Seattle through their many rallies and demonstrations over the past months. While there has been an anarchist presence in this discourse, it has been largely dominated by the O22. With this in mind anarchists in the Puget Sound decided that it was long overdue to exhibit our own collective force at the most recent O22 rally on February 12th.
The demonstration began with a rally at Westlake Center in downtown Seattle, a busy pedestrian shopping district. About 100 people were present while members of the RCP, O22, and unaffiliated organizations spoke. As the rally was wrapping up more and more anarchists in black began to appear leafleting* and holding a dozen black flags and two banners reading, “Cops=Murderers, Judges=Executioners” and “Police Violence is Not an Accident, All Cops Are Bastards”.
O22 called for a march on the sidewalk after the rally but as they waited for the crosswalk to turn green anarchists formed a black bloc and pushed the march into the streets. The black bloc was composed of about 40 people, flanked by the two banners mentioned above. The march headed toward Pike Place Market. The black bloc drowned out the O22’s chants and whining, despite the O22’s two bullhorns, with “ACAB-All Cops Are Bastards”, “Cops, Pigs, Murderers”, “Seattle to Oakland-We Ain’t Jokin’-Cairo to Greece-Fuck the Police”.
Upon arriving in Pike Place Market hundreds of anti-police fliers* were thrown into the air landing among crowds of curious onlookers and angry yuppies. Cries of outrage were heard from the latter who were more concerned with littering than the recent police violence. Moving away from the Market the march had grown to about 200 people. The O22 stopped to wait for a green light, while the anarchists moved forward into the intersection and up toward Niketown.
Going up the hill anarchists began to pull newspaper boxes, metal fencing, and other objects from alleyways and sidewalks into the street. These acted as small barricades against the police cars that were tailing the march. Onlookers joined the march, some of whom asked to carry black flags and shouted “Fuck the Pigs!”, vocalizing and demonstrating their rage against the police.
By the time the march headed toward the East Precinct the march had decreased to about 75 people. Bike cops began to flank the march at this point. Just before the Precinct an unoccupied police car’s front window was smashed out with a hammer. The police, evidently shocked by this act, responded two seconds too late, while people in the vicinity blocked them from grabbing the window smasher who was then able to escape. Two people were beaten and arrested in the mayhem. Their charges are unrelated to the window smashing. They were both released on bail that night, charged with misdemeanor obstruction.
*Text from flier:
Regarding the O22’s call for justice:
The O22 and other reformists called for justice in the face of police violence on February 12th. As anarchists we know we cannot find justice under the State and Capitalism. Instead, we seek vengeance. Vengeance for those whose lives can never be given back and vengeance for our own lives constrained by the tentacles of social control. We do not want a better system because, in fact, better only means more efficient for those who wish to kill and imprison us. We do not strive to reform those who love to see us on our knees. Instead we seek the total destruction of this system of domination, with our feet planted firmly on the ground.
Regarding the arrests:
While it is unfortunate for comrades to have to endure the isolation and degradation brought down upon them by the police in such incidents, it is critical for us to remember that we are currently engaged in an everyday war. The lines are drawn, we have chosen sides, and the larger, better equipped, and more powerful side (the police) will take hostages.
If we let the threat of going to prison determine our actions then we enter a kind of mental prison in which our own fear becomes just as useful to the state as four concrete walls and a door made of iron bars. If we instead realize the position we have placed ourselves in, as enemies of the State and Capitalism, then we realize our trajectory as always leaning toward the possibility of arrest and imprisonment.
It is important to demystify the prison experience. This can come in many forms, from continuing the struggle in prison to sharing experiences of imprisonment with those who have not been jailed. First and foremost though, it must come with the acknowledgment that an arrest or a prison sentence does not imply failure or defeat in our struggle against domination.
If we are going to take ourselves seriously as anarchists, then we must take our position in society seriously and realistically as well. We are not activists who willfully march into the hands of the state for a chance at martyrdom while neither are we anti-social vanguards only acting at night, leading a double life. We are anarchists who wish to communicate socially but also realize that the State and Capitalism will never just disappear and that the time to act is now.
Repression is the natural response of the State. They will not simply slap the wrist of those who stand in their way. We do not wish to appeal to the courts nor to their police dogs. We express full solidarity with those who acted on their individual rage against the police on February 12th. As anarchists, we are neither innocent nor guilty, simply their enemies.