A Response to State Terrorism in Toronto

Six hundred arrests and half a dozen journalists have been assaulted. The excuse given for this brutality being the actions of a handful of Black Blockers. If the BB was the issue why the arrests and beatings of peaceful demonstrators? Why the assault on the media? There are two possible answers. One is that the Harpocrit wants to rationalize his squandering a billion on "security", especially at a time when he is demanding cut-backs. The other is an attempt to show to the populace what the state can really do if the people step out of line, that the velvet glove is off and Canada is as thuggish as any other country. (Of course, the First Nations knew that all along!)

A lot of effort and money will have to be spent defending the 600, even though the vast majority of charges are bogus. This is another tactic favoured by a repressive state – keep 'em tied up in court, whether the charges stick or not.

But the result will not be to drive people into passivity. The 600, their family members and friends, and all the people who will learn the truth through the alternative and social media, will be radicalized. And when you are first radicalized you become very angry at the cruelty and lies of the authorities. The mass media with their whorishness towards the state will further this radicalization. (The CBC has been little more than a propaganda outfit for the terrorists. Email them and give them hell. They should at least try to be a bit objective, after all, we are taxpayers too.).

The question naturally arises after this repression. "where should we go from here?" Now I don't claim to have any answers and could be way off base, but there is one thing I do know. The cops may love beating on skinny students and community activists, but they are scared shitless of the organized working class. I have been on big worker demos in both Vancouver and Montreal and the police are like little mice. Initially, it made sense to break off from the trade union marches and directly confront the authorities. Indeed, that tactic was what made Seattle a success. But it has become less successful as the authorities have figured out ways to combat demonstrators. I think Toronto shows such tactics to be almost suicidal.

Maybe we need to exchange minority militant actions for numbers but less militance? Let's face it, 300,000 people marching against the G8-20 would be far more meaningful than 300 fighting the cops. The latter can be written of as a fringe and "criminals", but the great mass of "ordinary folks" are harder to ignore. At the same time, activists from the various organizations could dialogue with the rank and file. There is a lot of latent anger out there and when the so-called recovery fails to materialize and more cut-backs are demanded, it could manifest openly.

For Toronto coverage see http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/

UPDATE

It appears that the arrests totaled 900 - which is about double during the October Crisis in Quebec, 1970! And according to the Civil Liberties Assn. the Black Bloc consisted of about 50 to 100 people. See mollymew.blogspot.com/2010/06/canadian-politics-toronto-amnesty.html

FURTHUR UPDATE – It appears that at least some of the Black Blockers were cops – like in Montebello. see:

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19928