Non-violent protests of success baby!
The unions may have bailed on the plan to occupy the Golden Gate Bridge, but the Black Bloc faction of Occupy got an early start as chaos erupted (including Molotov cocktails and chants of "f**k the police") during a direct action called The Strike Starts Early Street Party.
“Street Party” is an innocent sounding euphemism for a direct action on the street, similar to the anarchists describing the groups taking violent action to attempt to shut down the Republican National Committee as “The RNC Welcoming Committee”.
A crowd of about 50 protestors gathered at San Francisco’s Dolores Park, most wearing the now familiar black masks of the Black Bloc. Police were stationed at the perimeter but made no attempt to break up the gathering mob of mask wearing hoodlums. Then the group left the park and broke windows, threw garbage cans and painted anarchist symbols on street signs, businesses and cars in the area of Mission and 16th Street. The group was shouting “Fuck the police” and “Here, piggy piggy!” They were met by a phalanx of riot police, who caused the group to scatter.
The event was advertised on the website StrikeMay1st.com:
We call on our comrades from every corner of the Bay to descend upon Dolores Park, 8pm April 30th, for a ruckus street party to counter gentrification, capitalism, and the policing of our communities.
Everyday should be strike day.
They’ve stolen our lives. They’ve stolen our health. They’re taking over every inch of our cities and pushing us nowhere. If there is anything we have learned from the last six months it is this: May 1st isn’t the only day for striking, and isn’t only a day for workers. April 30th kicks off a string of actions in the Bay Area against all who would take our lives from us.
San Francisco, once a stronghold of the dispossessed, has become a playground for the rich and a living hell for those of us who can’t keep up or have no interest in capitalist relations. Homelessness, gentrification, racist police murders, the displacement of all that is queer, outrageous rent prices, our list is endless: it is time to reclaim our playground.
No word yet on whether any arrests were made.
