Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

Scouts should practice using communications equipment without being obvious, and while bicycling, if applicable; those recognized as scouts can count on police harassment, which wdll be all the more problematic because they are alone and critical to the success of the group. They should be particularly quick and alert. Those using radios should make sure they have decided together on a charmel to use in advance, and a backup channel should there be problems.

Barricades can be made out of anything from newspaper dispensers to burning dumpsters, and can serve to slow police progress or simply halt traffic; if you've scouted in advance, you should be able to get them in place very quickly, amid crowd confusion. Don't ever completely block off an escape route you may need! In a less confrontational situation, you can make it more difficult for the police to follow you in an organized line by simply moving the wrong way up a one-way street, provided there's still traffic coming down it. Offensive use of projectiles is serious stuff?one can go to prison for many years, if arrested?but it can serve to keep police at a distance in order to protect an area, or provoke them into using tear gas (which may actually be a tactic they hoped to avoid). Don't begin throvvdng projectiles in a small group that can be surrounded?save it for massive clashes in which the city belongs to the police in one direction and the protesters in the other. When you throw, do so as part of a large group, from the front of the crowd, and maintain a steady hail in the contested area. Those behind the throwers can provide more ammunition via bucket brigade.

If you're planning to do property destruction, come equipped with the appropriate

tools. Make sure you're informed about your targets and their weakness or strength;

Blocs Black and Otherwise if you get in position and strike that felonious blow only to find you're unable to break

146 the shatterproof glass, you've just risked a lot for nothing. Sometimes spray paint can

be more eloquent than broken glass: "Network TV, keep your eyes on the issues" across the front of the smashed corporate storefront they'll want to film?or, of course, if possible, you can always just spray paint their camera lenses! Stay abreast of the different stations' coverage, so you can offer a pithy retort to the reporter who accuses you of interfering with free speech: "We saw your coverage of the social forum last night?you know as well as I do you don't care about free speech." Then disappear into the crowd while he angrily telephones his boss.

The most dangerous weapons you should probably ever consider using in a street confrontation are molotov cocktails. Understand that if you use these, you can expect serious reprisals from the police; only do so when you've got a police-free zone behind you and a sympathetic crowd close by that you can escape into without unnecessarily endangering anyone. Best-case scenario, a small team splits from the angry mass, applies a cocktail or two, and disappears. Is it right to throw molotov cocktails at police? With the government spending thousands of dollars on each officer's special storm trooper suit, throwing stuff at cops is practically a victimless crime -?^but you might be better off throwing paint bombs at them (see "Distance and Projectile Painting," Graffiti, pg. 258}, or shooting paint gun pellets from your slingshot. If they get paint over their clear visors and shields, no one's injured, but they're rendered blind in their expensive armor and have to retreat.

A variety of police weapons may be deployed against you: pepper spray, tear gas, water cannons, concussion grenades, rubber bullets, clubs, charging horses or vehicles. Know what to expect in each situation, and be prepared. Sometimes the best defense really is a good offense: a bloc prepared to act more quickly and courageously than law enforcers expect might be able to disable a water cannon before it is employed against them. Tear gas canisters can be thrown back at the police, but they will be extremely hot when they land; if you expect to be doing this, make sure you have on welding gloves or

"'Don't give me that shit about more police officers than demonstrators going to the hospital at the anti-IMF protests in Prague ? -jirst of alt, how many demonstrators do you think felt safe going to those hospitals, arid second of all, haven't you ever heard of offensive injuries?

Blocs, Black and Otherwise M7