Reflection on the tactics of the Portland J20 black bloc

Submitted to It’s Going Down

It has been a little bit since I have seen a good anarchist bloc at a march in Portland, so I was happy to see the call that Black Rose put out for an anarchist bloc at the J20 march. I think however it is important to look at what went right and wrong for this bloc, so we can do more next time.

I think a positive step was that there seemed to be more planning, and more care for good bloc dress. Fewer folks were in the half-hearted, ineffective bloc I am used to seeing at protests in Portland, and more were in good t-shirt masks, which cover your hair and ears, and had goggles. These goggles were a good choice based on the amount of pepper spray and tear-gas deployed. Additionally, there were several folks with a good shield design, made of soda crates and bike tubes, easily gotten for free. There was also good bloc cohesion, with clear tactical guidelines going out about tightening up, about photos, and good enough coordination to push at the cops with linked arms, another rarity in Portland. We also ejected two snitches asking us to de-mask early in the rally, which saved us time and energy. We also seemed to have a good number of medics who provided crucial support

We could for sure improve upon what we did. More projectiles are important. While I was handed an egg to throw, I’d have preferred it to be a rock, and the few hammers I saw earlier never seemed to come into play. We should have been gathering projectiles while we were relatively left alone by the cops. It would have been better to throw rocks than to have to make a push, and less costly in terms of injuries to our own. At the Broadway bridge, it would have been good to have larger shields, and perhaps longer flags or poles to hit the cops with; as it was we could only push. I think the bloc was too far back in the march. We should have been closer to the front, because frankly the decision to bypass the more vulnerable  bike cops to move towards the Broadway by those at the front of the march probably cost us the chance to get the bridge and the highway early. Anarchists seemed the most ready to push for heading to the east side, which we never accomplished. Perhaps marches should start on the east side, since we ideally wanna take the highway.

The Portland police were far more heavy-handed during this protest than before, deploying large amounts of tear gas and pepper spray, perhaps trying to avoid another situation like November. However, this crowd seemed much older, while much of the strength and energy of the November protests came from youth still in high school. That may have tempered police reaction compared to last night. Liberal pacifiers seemed smaller than usual, and more masks were present on non-bloc folks. All good signs and signs of places to build. I observed far less hand-wringing about violence from people than usual. Next time, lets be back with twice the fury and twice the preparedness!

-A gay participant in last nights march and bloc.