What's the point in a black bloc?

Sunday the 3d October the Tory Party conference took place at the
Birmingham ICC and yet another time those who want to rule our lives could
go about their business without being disturbed even in the slightest.
The main demo attracted around 8,000 while the anarchist bloc called for
numbered about 40. The callout for this bloc on the web had been put
together by a few individuals and was named 'Toffs Out' (which in itself
does not reflect the anarchist perspective). They had put together a map
with the different restricted and non-restricted venues and information on
the different events going on that day. A convergence space had been
advertised but eventually fell through and those who turned up beforehand
had to be on the lucky side to find cover for the night. Anyway most of the 'masked up in black' people had come on the same SWP buses that take thier members to the beginning of an A to B march and then pick them up again at the end.

After getting together at the official fenced in meeting point the 'black
bloc' went along among the other protesters not really knowing what to do. We didn't want to do what the cops were telling us to do but we did not have much of an idea what we were going do instead. We did not plan and very few of us had looked at the route of the march.
Of course they had planned ahead and, as scared as they are of those who's
best interests they supposedly have got at heart, put up a heavy metal
security fence to prevent any unauthorised access to the restricted area
of the ICC. If the idea would have been to get past the cops and get into
the place it was futile. So what else could have been done than trodding
along the march trying to avoid being kettled, to then split off at a
random point just to get kettled without much resistance anyway? While
the kettle was forming the main body of the black block huddled together
in the corner instead of expanding and breaking out while the police line
was still weak. Once it was formed and police with dogs were surrounding
it little scuffles with the cops seemed futile and as they moved us on
with their arrogant politeness we lost all the will to fight the power
they want to impose on us. The little resistance we had showed had
evaporated and apart from a very small group of people staying on for the
sake of it most were happy to be searched and photographed just to get out
of there and move on to the pub.

It seems the prevailing attitude was to go to an event and see what happens
seemingly without questioning what our aim for that day was. While it is
great that on the march people that aren't affiliated with the anarchist
circles find the little that happened a radicalising experience, we need
to be aware that no thought was put into whether it was enough to have a
visible anarchist presence on a basically reformist march without even any
related literature to give out or whether we wanted to create a situation
that would put the power of the state into question nor how that could be
achieved. As long as we keep on reacting to the state's power without being clear about our aim nothing will happen and everything we do will feel just as disempowering as this demo did.