Milwaukee, WI: Anarchist Action at No War Protest

Report back from recent anarchist intervention at anti-war protest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A wave of protests against the potential war with Iran kicked off across the country today, many of them organized by communist organizations such as ANSWER, FRSO, and the PSL.

Here in Milwaukee, some anarchists took this opportunity to share some information that the protest community might be interested in. In addition to wanting to protest the war, our goal was to normalize black bloc and decrease the hostility that people have towards these tactics, especially with the DNC coming to our city.

The first handout is a condensed, one-page overview of Harsha Walia’s 10 Points about the Black Bloc. On the backside of that, we put information about an upcoming public hearing on Wisconsin Assembly Bill 617, which seeks to increase the penalty to a Class A misdemeanor for any person who commits a crime while wearing a mask.

These efforts to further criminalize anonymity are no doubt linked to the DNC coming to Milwaukee. In addition to consistent media smears about the black bloc, this continued effort by the state to criminalize protest (or any meaningful form of it, at least) and stifle dissent are not actions we should be ignoring.

We also made the recent article by Hawzhin Azeez Killing Sulaimani- How The Butcher of the People Became an Anti-Imperialist Hero into a zine, specifically to give to the tankies who were representing FRSO and the PSL.

As for the protest itself, we crossed the streets with our giant “No War” banner and started a couple anarchist chants, such as “No Borders, No Nations, End the Occupations” (which was successful briefly, until one of the members of FRSO asked the person with the megaphone to stop) and “No War, No Government,” which many of the older peace-action groups seemed happy to embrace.