
I was in San Francisco yesterday when I ran into some fellow anarchists staging a protest against police violence. According to one of the guys I spoke with, there were about 300 people who walked down Mission Street, eventually ending up in Union Square, where police arrested a few people for smashing some windows at Macy's. *Note: It is actually not clear that anyone smashed windows. This is only what I heard from one person, and others contend that no windows were smashed.* Many of the police I saw were decked out in riot gear with batons. No tear gas, fortunately. It seemed like a pretty standard black bloc protest. Here's
a story from
Indybay, a Bay Area independent media website.
The insurrection in Greece has entered its second week. There was a solidarity march and general assembly in San Francisco on Saturday, December 20th. Protesters marched to New College, the Mission Police station and then up Market to Powell Street. The protest ended in Union Square. There were 5 arrests as police in riot gear moved in after protesters entered the Westfield Shopping Center.
Breaking News From 12/20:
7:11pm The protest officially ended at the Christmas tree next to the ice rink with an announcement that 5 people had been arrested. Riot police continued to line up in front of Macys screening all of those going in even after the protest had dispersed
6:56pm: About 25 protesters ran past 3rd Street and turned onto Geary St., while hundreds of cops in riot gear marched and drove behind them. The cops blocked Geary at Grant and arrested at least one person. Protesters then went up Grant to Post and into Union Square.
6:29pm: The march moved quickly down Market Street to the Powell St. area. Some of the protesters appear to have gone into the Westfield Shopping Center. At least one person was arrested. Crowd outside of mall mostly surrounded by police, but there are also hundreds of shoppers outside the mall while the protesters are holding banners and playing music on a sound system. After arrest crowd pounded on police van chanting "let them go."
5:00pm:The crowd stopped outside of the police station on Mission at 17th Street for speeches about the situation in Greece and about police brutality.
4:35pm: Crowd moves up 22nd to Valencia and stops at New College where two banners are dropped reading "Burn the Banks Smash The State" and "Solidarity With Greek Uprising"
4:15pm: About 200 people marched down Mission Street from 24th Street. Chants included "Repression? No thanks! We'll burn your fucking banks!".
My thoughts? To begin, smashing windows does nothing of value. If anything, it is counterproductive. Property destruction is what makes people associate anarchy with "chaos and destruction" and the state with "safety and stability". We need to avoid property destruction and look toward other forms of protest, ones that resonate with normal working-class people and encourage them to join in. The best kind of protest is one that attracts people on the side of the street to join in the protest themselves, and I doubt that this protest did that.
That being said, I definitely support the actions of the protesters and applaud them for their work. Despite my criticisms, they have done good work.