2021-04-14 20:35:57
Some on the ground analysis from Minneapolis right now:
"The thing that's lacking from last year is the variety of roles and the participation of people from outside the leftist milieu. Namely, there needs to be a more tactical approach to this protest instead of just using the aesthetics of militancy (the shield wall) without the actions that back it up (light mages, ranged attacks, fire mages, barricades). I keep hearing on the stream "stop throwing shit" people don't realize that even sporadic projectile usage can make cops hesitant to move forward. When facing a long line of riot cops, your best friend is distance. It's what exhausted the police outside the 3rd precinct.
Also the sideshow crowd that came out to the uprising was very effective, the cars blocking streets and doing burnouts to generate smoke provided a diversion and helped boost morale, almost like a "mounted bloc" if you will
Bottom line is the uprising last year was effective because it was an incredibly diverse cross section of the south Minneapolis population representing many different walks of life and bringing many different tactical approaches, and the collective intelligence that was developed organically in the streets
This time around I fear there's been too much specialization of the role of "front line militant" and it's making it easier for the cops to drive a wedge between that militant frontliner identity and the "peaceful protester" and the complete isolation of the looters as being entirely apolitical and outside the insurgency entirely instead of active participants in it and its most avant garde section. The looters have taken the mantra "Be water" to heart and decentralized the action allowing it to spread into all corners of the metro area, never staying in one place long enough to be apprehended by police while still expropriating thousands upon thousands potentially millions of dollars in products and doing just as much if not more in financial damages.
We need to avoid specialized roles, we need to get ahead of the badjacketing and white washing, we need to continue articulating why looting is good, why barricades are good, why throwing stuff at police defensively is good, we need to remind people that "be water" means we don't stay stuck at one location but move and flow freely, staying out of reach of the law when we need to and crashing like waves on them when the opportunity strikes. We cannot possibly hope to defeat the largest police mobilization in Minnesota history with symmetrical warfare tactics, we must fight them on our terms. The state has nothing but time, we have nothing but numbers, we win by attrition. We exhaust them, we waste their time, we deceive them, we distract them."
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