Reported by Al Jazeera
Anarchistic activists who dress in black and clash with police are a regular feature of protests, from France to Albania.
From France and Italy to Spain and Albania, a regular feature of European protest movements has been the presence of a few hundred young people fully dressed in black, often engaged in physical violence with law enforcement.
They have been seen smashing public and private property and setting fire to cars and buildings, and are accused of break-ins and stealing consumer goods – anything from food to jewellery.
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Known as the “Black Bloc”, they have aggressive energy that can upend otherwise peaceful demonstrations by student groups and professional unions. While some say they bring attention to social, political, and economic inequalities, others condemn their violent methods, saying they distract from protesters’ legitimate demands.
“The movement started in the 1980s in Germany and came from a social movement called autonomia, or autonomy,” political science professor Francis Dupuis-Deri, at the University of Quebec in Montreal, told Al Jazeera. “They were against the state, capitalism, political parties, even communists and unions. They were more or less anarchists. They believe in living outside the system.”
Dupuis-Deri, who has authored a book on Black Blocs, explained that the anarchists’ idea was “simple”.
“You wear black suits, which was a punk fashion at the time, black leather jackets and cotton hoodies, motorcycle helmets, sunglasses and bandanas. This was a way of making sure they could not be recognised by the police … There is no leadership, no hierarchy, no superstars, no spokesperson, no press statements,” he said.
But he warned against associating the group with any political ideology, left or right, as there have been episodes of right-wing nationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Poland and Germany using Black Bloc attire and violent tactics, although not in recent years.
France has for weeks seen mass student and union demonstrations and is grappling with a high level of violence and property damage.
Al Jazeera contacted the office of a left-wing French member of the European Parliament (MEP), whose party has organised and supported recent nationwide rallies, about the…