November 15, 2010
The Institute for Applied Autonomy’s article “Defensive Surveillance” discusses the tactical methods employed by anarchists and activists during protests and other interruptive activities.
As the article states, “activists counter police tactics with increasingly sophisticated tools and strategies.” With today’s current state of technology, it is somewhat possible for anarchists and activists to monitor those meant to be monitoring (if that makes sense?). Activists are able to utilize communications devices (cell phones, internet, radio, etc) to disseminate information throughout their group. Lookouts can inform other activists about police presence, barricades, unmonitored areas, and can also exploit any signs of weakness.
This type of sophisticated defensive surveillance was embodied by the Black Bloc style of protests during the G20 summit in Toronto. The Black Bloc protestors utilized a style of “swarming” which is defined in the reading as “the dispersion of command among many small, autonomous units that are able to collective attack an enemy from all directions.”
These protestors placed themselves in plainclothes amongst the crowd. Almost instantly, however, a well orchestrated attack occurred from all angles. The black bloc members were able to seize a centralized protest from al angles, confounding police efforts to control violent protestors.
The following video shows the well orchestrated (and instantaneous) seizure of a prominent protest by black bloc activists.
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