Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

At this point the bloc had become a very loose cluster of affinity groups, most folks not even spatially near each other, which played into the hands of the cops. When calls to "bloc up" were made, it soon became apparent most people didn't have any idea what we were talking about, and had little grasp that by gathering together as a larger group we could stand off the cops. Still, when cops came out on bikes, protesters nimbly jumped over fences to avoid them, leading one cop to a near-collision with the fence! For a good fifteen minutes pure pandemonium reigned, with cops unsuccessfully chasing protesters and protesters swarming outside the cops' grasp without evacuating the premises of the company. The farmer chose to be arrested non-violently while the person who was pepper-sprayed was finally cuffed after a considerable battle. Finally, the cops settled down and agreed to let us move our protest off the premises. Rescuing our giant banners, we managed to regroup our scattered forces and make a quick getaway to our cars. Altogether, out of fifly-some people at the action, there were three arrests.

We tried to make it back to our secret hideout, only to find out the city had sent undercover cops after us. After some quick driving, we escaped the police and pulled into a truck station?^we had to dispose of our biotech suits, which we were still wearing! We went around back to an isolated dumpster and began throwing our biotech suits and other incriminating evidence inside. Then, to our surprise, we noticed a trucker watching us through his shades. He gave us a thumbs-up and a shady smile. Our victory was all over the CB radios!

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Blocs, Black and Otherwise i6o

Reunited at our secret hideout, we decided to march downtown to the jail. Everywhere, people were talking about our action, at diners and in shopping centers, old men and young women?no one had seen it coming, and people got the message! Not only that, but almost everyone was supportive: "I don't believe they're putting that in our food," "They're messing with God's creation," "That company's just out to make money regardless of the cost to this town or the world." I had never before seen such a positive reaction to an action. When we finally got to the jail, our boring little tovm was scandalized-?as was the biotech company!

A lawyer agreed to represent the defendants for two hundred dollars, and we raised the money through benefit concerts in which every style of music fi:om punk to blue-grass was played. In court, the cops admitted that due to everyone wearing white biotech suits they were unable to identify exactly who did what, so they couldn't really make any charges stick. At the end, the defendants were let off with community service and the cops even apologized!

As in any action, there were things that went wrong and things that went right. We definitely had free run of the place for a while, and could have inflicted much more serious damage on the biotechnology company than we did?at the risk of possibly ahenat-ing some people. Given the weight of the issue, it probably would have been worth it. We definitely should have done more unarresting trainings?the methods we used, like jumping and wrestling with cops, may be courageous, but are not recommended. We also could have used a good bloc training, which became distressingly obvious when people didn't respond to calls to "bloc up." The fifty of us together definitely could have stood up to the cops, but when people panicked and began running around as lone individuals, the cops managed to nab them. Lastly, we should have had a lawj^er ready ahead of time (see Legal Support, pg. 329}. Still, hindsight is always clearer than foresight, and the creative use of bloc tactics with great public outreach made this an action people in

our small town will be talking about for years?and one that's caused the biotechnology company considerable grief and expense.

There are some that say the bloc tactic is dead, but it is only as dead as the ideas that give it life. Trying to repeat Seattle is going to fail: those ideas died after they were employed, but they were well and alive at the time because they were new and creative, and the cops couldn't see them coming. Don't just think about previous blocs, look around you for living inspiration. The real question is not whether the bloc is dead or alive, but what new ideas we can dream up for striking the next blow against capitalism. May that blow be a killing one!

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