Notes on the Toronto G20 Black Bloc

 Update: Watch this fucking video from the Stimulator. Anarchists started a riot in Toronto, not cops.

The Black Bloc against the G20 summit in Toronto was one of the fiercest, ruthlessly efficient and effective Blocs seen in North America in a considerable amount of time. This, of course, was brought by the momentum and experience gained by the anarchist movement in North America (under insurmountable odds in most circumstances) within the last fifteen years. Several police cars were set on fire, corporate property destruction and looting were rampant, and the pigs were fought in the street. This is what happened in Toronto.

There are a number of people denouncing the tactic and groups and individuals employing it, as per usual after these sorts of things. Some, like Judy Rebick, have gone far enough to claim that the Black Bloc is pretty much full of police officers committing the majority of the damage. This is just ignorant and clearly Judy is not well versed in the tactic or history of its deployment. There are always a small percentage of undercovers in the bloc, mostly planted for observation and to single out folks for the snatch squads. I'll quote the great essay on the matter by Oshipeya:

"To bolster her Toronto conspiracy theory, Rebick bring up the Montebello incident where masked cop infiltrators were exposed and the cops admitted the infiltration. She neglects to mention that it was the real black blocers who exposed the cops, not the union leader who couldn't understand the word “police” in French. She also, of course, doesn't bring up this year's March 15th anti-police demonstration in Montreal, where masked police attempting to infiltrate the demo were physically attacked and driven out.

Rebick uses the term “agent provocateur”, as others have. But do the cops really need to “provoke” the black bloc or others into burning cop cars or smashing corporate windows? You can't provoke a group to do what it is already doing and wants to be doing. You can only provoke people into doing what they wouldn't otherwise do. This is what the cops are concerned with most of all about the black bloc. That the bloc will inspire others who would like to riot but who feel isolated and unable to. That the black bloc will “provoke” others into doing what they already want to, joining in the fun."

In closing, SnitchWire would like to denounce the police state as well as breathe a short sigh of relief that there were no Brandon Darby/Anna/Andrew Darst scenarios unfolded before the summit went down. Hopefully, it stays that way. Solidarity with those arrested and to those that waged war on capitalism, the police, and the ruling class. If anyone has video/photos of undercover police officers from the demos, please email us to contribute our upcoming hot video jam of the summer: "Badly Disguised Swine Attempting to Infiltrate Resistance Demo."