A report back from the people who put out the call for the march on 4/17/2021 in Denver for Adam Toledo, the 13 year old boy who was murdered by Chicago PD.
Regarding the march on the evening of April 17th for Adam Toledo and others murdered by police in recent days, we have heard criticisms– a lack of clear targets, long distance, and accessibility issues. We are trying to learn from this, and, among other things, have reconsidered Cheesman Park as a gathering area, and are thinking about ways to communicate approximate marching distances to potential targets.
Most importantly, we are not trying to be protest leaders. We wish to, foremost, help build a culture of autonomous demonstrations and direct action that “Colorado” is in desperate need of. Going forward, this means that any actions publicized by us will prioritize community planning and consensus building. Disagreement and satisfactory compromise are vital to autonomous movements, alongside a culture of respect for diversity of tactics and honesty about acceptable risk for individuals and collectives.
Accessibility – No space or action can be accessible for everyone, so we recognize it is important to give people enough information to know if it will be accessible for them. We aren’t going to demand “more bodies in the streets” and shame people for not doing things that are damaging or impossible for them. Potential solutions include having multiple contemporaneous actions with different tactics and purpose.
Action – Autonomous movements rely upon individual decision making, and we recognize the importance of those choices on the attitude of any collective engaged in direct action. We encourage the use of any direct action or march as an opportunity for any sort of antistate or anticapitalist actions — collective energy is important to the impact of direct action, and is built up from small acts of defiance to the oppressive system.
Every direct action, especially new protest routes and strategies, creates flak for DPD – every new scenario they have to plan for and respond to dilutes their overall repressive capacity. What are we accomplishing if we keep rattling the fences at the Capitol and the District 6 Precinct, getting gassed & arrested again and again? We aren’t saying nobody should ever mobilize at these places. But there is a difference between risking arrest and seeking arrest. As such, we are going to encourage creative and smart plans and actions that minimize harm to our community while most disrupting the system as it stands.
Arrests (& lack thereof) – We believe that posing a material threat to power can be worth risking arrest. However, mass arrests are (in most cases) no longer a beneficial end in themselves. In the words of Kwame Ture, “In order for nonviolence to work, your opponent has to have a conscience.” Tear gas is a weapon that police use against us and that we prepare to defend against; it is not a necessary badge of a successful action. State violence is spectacular and has been touted as an effective means through which to affect change, but relying wholly upon direct and dramatic confrontation with state forces often plays into their hands. As with electoralism, autonomous movements cannot be sucked into a belief that pitched battles with state forces are a meaningful route through which to abolish the police; we must embrace our strengths while denying the enemy theirs.
On a related note – there were too many cameras last night. This is in part our fault for not specifying that cameras are not welcome on the flyer. Let us all do a better job of stopping surveillance of direct actions. (see: “In Defense of Smashing Cameras”)
We think some things last night were very good – we appreciate the protective cars at the rear, and the art people created, and are very happy no one was arrested. Thoughtful critique helps us all grow and we look forward to seeing the community learn, iterate, and experiment with future actions.
– some anarchists