Shutting Down the Streets: Political Violence and Social Control in the Global Era

Appendix B: Of Stones and Flowers: John Holloway and Vittorio Sergi on Protest Tactics

155 Appendix B Of Stones and Flowers1 This is an electronic mail dialogue between John Holloway and Vittorio Sergi, both of whom are involved in the alterglobalization movement. The dialogue was initiated following the Heiligendamm 2007 G8 summit. We include the entire correspondence here because it demonstrates the complex perspectives on violence in the alterglobalization movement. It is reproduced with permission of both authors. Nothing has been removed. Elipses, where they appear, were used in the original text. “‘Of stones and flowers,” a dialogue between John Holloway and Vittorio Sergi around the events in Rostock on June 2, 2007. Dear Vittorio, The events at the end of the anti-G8 march in Rostock on Saturday 2 June, when there was an outbreak of prolonged and violent fighting between some of the demonstrators (the so-called “black block”) and the police, disturbed and challenged me. I felt critical of the violence of the black block, but also felt the need to discuss and understand. I think a lot of people on the march felt the same way—critical but wanting to talk and understand rather than condemn (there were, of course, others who simply condemned the action, but that is not my position). I wanted to discuss with you in particular because I know you were in the middle of the battle and because I have a very great respect for you and I think we can discuss honestly and without disqualifications. The aim for me is not to win an argument, not to come to an agreement, but to understand. (1) Let me explain the way I experienced the march: 156  Appendix B My friends and I did not have a pre-established place of affiliation on the march. We walked along the march before it started, looking for an attractive place to insert ourselves. We walked past the large block of people (generally young, mostly men) dressed in black, many with hoods and many with their faces masked. We inserted ourselves finally near the front of the march, just behind the samba group with their drums and their dancing. From our perspective, the march was very big, colourful and fun. There was a massive, but at that stage inactive, police presence at the side of the road. We were particularly impressed by the clowns and the way in which they went up to the squadrons of police and made fun of them, imitating them, blowing bubbles at them, dancing around their cars and so on. When the march reached its end-point, the harbour, I felt it had been a successful, enjoyable and colourful march. The “black block” arrived shortly afterwards and a friend I was with remarked that it looked as if they were ready for a fight. A minute later the fighting broke out, with columns of heavily-armoured police rushing back and forth and lots of young people dressed in black throwing stones at them. This was the first I saw of the violence which would dominate both the reports in the media and many of the discussions in Rostock over the next few days. (2) I think there are three main reasons why I found the violence disturbing . Firstly, I felt that it was the unfolding of a two-sided, predictable ritual. There were two sides prepared for battle, two sides who knew that, once the preamble of the march was completed, there would be open, violent conflict, in which the majority of people present on the march would be mere spectators. What was disturbing was the predictability and the symmetry of the conflict. In this there was a sharp contrast with the clowns who confronted the police in an unpredictable and absolutely asymmetrical way: in terms of sexuality, movement, dress, behaviour, solemnity and so on, the clowns were the opposite of the police, whereas the black block, in terms of uniform, sexual composition, disposition to violence, solemnity were very like the police. Secondly, I was disturbed by the macho tone of the black block. Although there were some women and perhaps some older people, the block was dominated by young men, and the atmosphere generated was of the sort often associated with large gatherings of young men: aggressive, boastful, insensitive to the feelings of those who surrounded them. Appendix B  157 Thirdly, the action was divisive. It seemed to me to go against the wishes of the great...