As the resistance to President Donald Trump’s regime begins to organize and distinguish itself from the Democratic Party, it faces a question of tactics. Marches can be energizing, especially for newcomers, but when they don’t lead anywhere (in a larger sense), they can turn dispiriting. Property destruction — anarchists sometimes jokingly call it “smashy smashy” — gets media attention and can shut down a fascist recruiting party, but broken glass and fire sometimes scare the wrong people too. Even though we all agree on stopping Trump, can the resistance work together if we can’t decide on how to resist?
For a couple of decades, American left-wing organizers have settled into an uneasy accord called “diversity of tactics.” During the 1990s anti-globalization movement, warier organizations agreed not to condemn property destruction to the media (or to the authorities), as long as they had some plausible deniability. If a demonstration has endorsed a diversity of tactics, that’s supposed to mean that everyone agrees to a certain amount of participatory variation in the interests of unity. In practice, it usually means that some people might want to bloc-up and smash windows. The compromise has enabled real achievements (like slowing the blind spread of free trade), but this diversity of tactics has become unsatisfactory to everyone involved. At most demonstrations, the Black Bloc is too small to protect itself, and moderate marchers — some of whom have the experience to know better — are crying over broken windows. Now the first smashed Starbucks or looted convenience store or garbage can fire is the center of the action, for participants, the media, and the public. But the uneasy accord isn’t really headed anywhere, and the most vibrant actions (like the airport demonstrations) have been reactions.
[For more of this story, written by Malcolm Harris, go to https://psmag.com/tactical-les...db5873d86#.dujnkbbyc]
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