A-Infos (en) US, Washington, DC: Black Bloc Marches for Women's Reproductive Rights

[Chuck0 <chuck@tao.ca>]

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Washington, DC: Black Bloc Marches for Women's Reproductive Rights

by Chuck0 for Infoshop.org News
April 22, 2001

Washington, DC - It was a hot and sunny day today, but that didn't deter
50 anarchists from Baltimore and Washington, DC from donning their
famous black-clad gear and joining the NOW Emergency March for Women's
Reproductive Rights. We joined over 4000 other supporters of abortion
rights for several hours of speakers and music. The rally was followed
by a feisty march past the Supreme Court and around the U.S. Capitol.

The black bloc became the center of attention as soon as it entered the
park where the rally was being held. In another typical example of
activist profiling, several worried Capitol police surrounded the bloc
as we marched through the park and came to a stop so people could see
our banners. After determining that we weren't going to be rioting
today, they left us alone. Meanwhile, several hundred people attending
the rally took pictures of us and posed for pictures in front of our
banners. We had several banners, including the Class War banner from the
Inauguration black bloc, as well as one that said, "We're Pro-Choice and
We Riot." The latter banner was quite popular with the crowd, but some
D.C. cops later came by and verbally warned us that the word "riot" on
the banner could give them grounds to arrest us for inciting a riot.

After several hours of boiling under the sun and listening to an endless
platform of liberal speakers, the crowd surged into the street for a
permitted march around the deserted Sunday streets around the Capitol.
Along the way, we had fun heckling the die hard anti-abortion guys who
had set up billboard scale displays of aborted fetuses. The black bloc
drew the wrath of one guy who started yelling at us to remove our masks,
to which we responded, "Your God is Dead!" We made up a few chants as we
went along, which included "No church, no state, no one else will decide
my fate," "whose uterus? my uterus!," "The feminists united will never
be defeated," and "george bush, we hate that man, we don't like his
abortion plan." We even managed to get some non anarchists to chant that
first one.

The march ended in another rally, but we had one more thing to do before
we called it a day. A foolish Pro Life couple came walking through with
their signs, which prompted several anarchists to chase them up the Mall
in order to tease them and give them a tongue-lashing anarchist style.

It was great to see such a nice turnout of local anarchists on short
notice, including some folks who had come straight from Quebec City. The
next anarchist event in D.C. is the May Day picnic, catered by Food Not
Bombs, which happens on May 1, at 3 pm, in Lafayette Park.
 
<< Chuck0 >>

This was the year *everything* changed.
      -- Commander Ivanova, 2261

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop    -> http://www.infoshop.org/
Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/
Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/

Homepage -> http://flag.blackened.net/chuck0/home/

"A society is a healthy society only to the degree 
that it exhibits anarchistic traits." 
        - Jens Bjĝrneboe


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