Fw: Report from A16 and Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc

["Jay Moore" <research@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 00:53:37 -0400
From: Chuck0 <chuck@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Report from A16 and Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc

Report from A16 and Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc
April 17, 2000
Washington, DC

by Chuck0

We did it! Anarchists from all over North America descended on Washington,
DC
today to help with the April 16th and 17th days of action against the World
Bank and IMF. We were strong today and did an excellent job working with
other demonstrators in disrupting the IMF/World Bank meetings. We did this
despite a week of police harassment and a day of batons, tear gas,
motorcycles, tanks and police horses.

If the black bloc entered a marathon, I think we would win it. The RACB
marched around downtown D.C. today for over 9 hours.

The RACB got started around 6:30 am, at the same time other demonstrators
were locking down at numerous intersections. In the early hours the RACB was
in fact several unconnected blocs, owing to late arrivals. But eventually
most of us hooked up. Eventually the RACB grew to over 1000 people.

We started off from Washington Circle, on Pennsylvania Avenue and near
George
Washington University, and headed south through the university neighborhood.
We visited several intersections that activists had secured. We didn't
realize until tonight that this was the same neighborhood that they were
trying to drive the delegate busses through. They were staging the buses
from
the Watergate Hotel and the Kennedy Center. The RACB wasn't bothered by
police, but they were monitoring us from rooftops and a helicopter which
floated above us the entire day. We found out later through a police scanner
that the chopper pilot was relaying RACB reports to the cops on the ground.
Our parade through these neighborhood was pretty jerky, but apparently this
made it difficult to get delegate buses through the neighborhood. Eventually
we swung around to an intersection to the west of the northeast corner of
the
Ellipse, where the cops started putting on gas masks. We hung around for a
bit and then started swinging around the perimeter in a clockwise direction.

At one point, near the Foggy Bottom Metro station, we started running to get
around a corner and some cops formed a line with batons. We were smart in
ignoring them, because our numbers were needed on the east side of the White
House. We proceeded down a deserted K Street and eventually made our way to
14th and New York. The RACB quickly built barricades using newspaper boxes
and chain link fencing from a nearby construction point. These barricades
stayed up in some form or another for several hours.

The RACB swung through the blocks near the Treasury Building and then headed
back up 14th Street. Along the way we blocked off I street going eastbound.
A
bunch of folks picked up several sections of chain link fencing and headed
north up 14th. Our numbers at this point were between 700 and 1000.

Then all of a sudden everybody started running forward, with the fencing up
front, A squad of motorcycle cops at 14th and K were taken completely by
surprise and they charged the RACB. They started hitting people with batons
and chased several people into the park. At some point they launched several
canisters of tear gas or aerosol pepper spray. Several people were overcome,
but it wasn't too bad. A few minutes after the situation simmered into a
standoff, I talked with 4-5 Pittsburgh anarchists who had gotten beaten by
the cops. One guy had been hit in the face and a woman had been held down
and
beaten on the face (with gas mask on) and on her leg. She had a pretty bad
bruise when I looked at it.

The black bloc moved on after about 10 minutes. After this point I lost
touch
with them for several hours because I stayed behind with Adam to hand out
RACB statements to the media who were interviewing a spokesperson from the
Mobilization. They were pretty interested in our skirmish, but the
spokesperson did a great job of keeping them focused on the WB/IMF and
capitalism.

I understand that the black bloc marched around the perimeter westward for
several hours and may have taken gas at an intersection. After the noon
hour,
most of the activists started partying in the streets. Many of the delegates
had gotten through, but we had held this huge perimeter fairly well, thanks
to our comms team and our network of intel bike messengers. We were also
pretty exhausted. The day had gone from drizzly to sunny and humid. We had
been marching around downtown D.C. for 7 hours.

About mid afternoon we hooked up with the other activists for a victory
march
around the GWU neighborhood. We rested several times and many anarchist were
involved in some pointless standoff with the cops at the intersection of
17th
and Constitution.

The police presence was heavy, but we in effect owned the streets around the
World Bank conference. Despite what has been reported by several media
outlets, we outnumbered the cops today.

For our efforts today we got a big thumbs up from the rest of the
mobilization. Many of them have acknowledged the key role the RACB played in
disrupting the streets, keeping the cops distracted, and providing
solidarity
to other activists holding intersection.

While the RACB block included around 1000 anarchists, there 500-1000
anarchists involved on other perimter actions including puppeteers in the
Art
and Revolution Parade, Food not Bombs and Reclaim the Street activists,
Mobilization organizers, and the anarchist IWW members and Anarchist Soccer
League players who held intersection in the southwest quadrant. Everybody
did
an excellent job!

The RACB block was fairly diverse, which should shut up many of our critics.
Unfortunately, the critics can't see the people of color beneath the masks.

I did hear an uncomfirmed rumor tonight that the IWW meeting in Logan Circle
was jumped by police hiding in the bushes. More info hopefully tomorrow.

Tomorrow is day 2. Expect to see a different strategies will be used. The
cops have extended their perimeter, which means that we won't be able to
encircle it like we effectively did today.

The reality of what we did hasn't sunken in for me yet. But I was rather
psyched that several hundred of my comrades barricaded a street not two
blocks from my office.

Whose streets? Our streets!

Graffiti of the day, painted on the Lafayette Square bathrooms:

"FUCKING WHITE HOUSE"

- --
<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.
      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

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