May Day Mayhem: Swiss Anarchists Riot

Armies of anarchists clashed with Swiss police following the May Day labor marches in Switzerland last week, in a very under-reported series of dramatic battles on the streets of Zurich and elsewhere.

Front and center in the melee once again were the violent vandals of the Black Block; regular Covenant Zone readers may remember these goons' barbaric behavior during the Swiss election last October, which we covered here.

My translation of the French version of the story carried by Switzerland's 20 Minutes news site on the Swiss May Day Mayhem:

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Rubber bullets, water cannons, fiery containers, rains of bottles and stones, May 1st lived up to its reputation in Zurich. The "Chaoten ["brawlers"] of "Black Block" clashed with police around 5:00 pm in the neighborhood of Langstrasse. Calm returned in the early evening. The police proceeded with 200 arrests. The skirmishes erupted shortly after 4:00 pm between separatists and the forces of law and order. The latter had previously encircled 300 protesters of "the revolutionary alliance" in order to avoid the habitual outbursts following the official parade through downtown.
...

The situation degenerated at Lausanne as well. Some 200 anarchists took on a McDonald's in St-Laurent around 5:00 pm. The fast-food restaurant had three windows and two garbage cans broken. It had to be evacuated and closed, said the ATS. The clashes continued around the Place de la Riponne and de la Cité. "The police proceeded to make many arrests and identifications", explained Anne Plesz, spokesperson for the Lausanne police. No rubber bullet or tear gas was fired.
....>>>>>>

McDonald's. It's always McDonald's.
In their perennial targeting of harmless little McDonald's restaurants for their pathetic McAnarchism, I think we see the real target of these feral brats: the bond of family.

Say what you want about the food, but McDonald's caters its business to Families, offering a family-friendly environment for parents to take their kids; parents can be confident that the restaurant has taken pains to be of support and service to the challenge of parenthood itself.

How many members of Black Block have spouses and children, I wonder? How many would be capable of the kind of commitment to self-discipline, self-sacrifice and self-awareness necessary to form a family and attempt to function as the societal unit it is meant to be?



How many have the minimal skills required to even work in a McDonald's?

They must see the multitude of citizens meeting more civilized objectives, and envy them their ability to place enough faith in themselves in order to start businesses, let alone families... what other motives beyond simple envy could account for their summoning such fury to smash so innocuous a target as a McDonald's restaurant?
They must see that the bridge of hope that family life offers, requires undiminished effort and unending renewal of purpose if it is to lead to a far better world than the self-imposed dark age paralysis the nihilists select for themselves.

They must see it, and somewhere under their masks acknowledge the truth: that for all their puffed-up rage, they are simply scared to grow up. For all the "guts" they portend to put on display, they don't have the fortitude to achieve the simplest of goals: to be a husband, a father... a Man.

Just who are they hiding from, as they cower behind their cowls? From us... or from themselves..?

Building a family, like running a restaurant, takes a degree of courage and faith that must truly frighten these juvenile delinquents if they feel they must participate in such theatrical performances in order to avoid surrendering to the obvious truth: that they cannot measure up to the simplest standard expected of them...

...to grow up and act like adults.

Violent riots demolish Swiss political rally

A planned parade and political meeting by the Swiss UDC party (Swiss People's Party, or "Democratic Union of the Centre") was stopped in its tracks by a violent army of masked far-left rioters over the weekend.

The conservative party, headed by Christoph Blocher, saw several of its members physically attacked by the anti-free speech protestors, while waiting for the police to arrive. Several stands at the planned rendez-vous point were overturned before being set on fire... while the UDC members were still within them.

An account from Yahoo France [my translation]:

Violence erupted Saturday afternoon in Berne, leaving at least 20 wounded, of which 17 were police officers, according to local authorities. Hundreds of extreme left protestors destroyed the equipment installed in front of the Parliament for an electoral meeting of the nationalist UDC party, and played havoc until the police dispersed them with tear-gas.

In the early part of the afternoon, some 10,000 of sympathizers of the [UDC] had assembled in Berne for a parade in the streets of the old city up to Federal Place, where a large party had been planned, 15 days before the oct 21 federal elections. Yet several hundred counter-protestors dressed in black prevented them from attaining their rendez-vous. Sympathizers of the “Black Block” then moved over to Federal Place. The installations there were destroyed.

Restaurants were damaged, windows of banks were broken and cars set on fire. According to witnesses, several people were wounded. Several dozen members of the "Black Block" [group] were arrested, according to municipal police spokesperson Thomas Jauch.

UPDATE: For some reason I was difficulty posting video today. Below is a german-language news account of the violent extreme left rioters trashing the UDC rally in Berne.

(With great thanks to Bafweb for all their ongoing coverage of the riot and its aftermath. Bafweb has assembled many of the more striking personal videos filmed during the event and placed on Youtube, as well as a few media accounts of the story.)

Swiss Leftist Riots Run Like Clockwork

Following up one of the many links from Bafweb's coverage of last weekend's war on the Swiss People's Party, we find this report on the make-up of the violent group behind the rioting and destruction over the weekend: Black Block.

Who are the Black Block that are surging throughout Switzerland? [my translation]

The rioters surging upon Switzerland’s four corners constitute an organized and hierarchical movement, whose number of members are constantly increasing.


They’ve made themselves talked about three times in seventy days. After passing through Geneva and Lausanne, the leftist rioters known as “Black Block” spread into Berne, last Saturday. Same scenes of combat, same equipment, same strategies: the gatherings of the rioters have become well-oiled rituals. Who hides beneath the hoods? Who is dressing themselves in black? “Soldiers” commanded by small groups of “old professional revolutionaries”, confirm intelligence service experts.
…

First lesson: the Black Block assaults are more often than not methodically organized. It doesn’t always appear so, but, backstage, prepare all well and good, the actions to be carried out. The Service of analysis and prevention (SAP) of the federal Office of police describes four hierarchical echelons of activists.

Leaders over 50 years of age

One “command” – made up of a dozen militants based in Zurich and regrouped within a movement called “Revolutionary Reconstruction” – preside as éminence grise [grey eminence, “the figure behind the throne”]. Longtime activists, over 50 years of age, they maintain links between several european terrorist groups. “They never take risks, always leaving the scenes of the riots when violence starts”, notes Jürg Bühler, second-in-command of the SAP.

The anti-OMC Coordiantion situated in Berne sometimes plays the role of directing the Black Blocks. Ideologues delegate to a “core” of hundreds of militants the organization of the deployment of the troops onto the field. These “operational cadres” pass on the adopted plans – the hour at which certain Black Blocks must find themselves facing the UDC’s procession, for example – by internet and by [instant messaging]. They are themselves in command of a “network of personal acquaintances”, divided into two categories of activists more or less politicized over all of Switzerland, often very young. “In general around 20 years of age, these activists serve as soldiers that are sent into the streets”, explain Jürg Bühler. Last May, the SAP estimated the number of potentially mobilized Black Blocks in Switzerland at 2,000. They were only 850 three years ago.



Who are these soldiers adept at Molotov cocktails and broken windows? That’s the second lesson: one finds a bit of everything within the ranks of the Black Blocks. “Today, all the groups – punks, anarchists, redskins [Not natives; slang for communist skinhead], squatters – are mixed together”, says "Sandro", 35 years old, a veteran of the Lausanne alternative rock scene.

A glance at the rioters’ mode of dress proves it. Behind a uniform appearance of jackets with black hoods, a litany of dress codes appears. The only common denominator for the majority of these violent leftists: an anti-racist, anti-fascist, if not anti-globalization, leitmotif. “But there are also youths that have nothing to do with politics”, hints "Juliane", an ex-squatter with several protests to her credit. A statement corroborated by bernese police.
“Between 50 and 60 rioters came without any political ideology, as if they were going into the forest to let off steam upon some trees”, observed officer Jürg Gabi. ...

In the future, the forces of law and order are prepared to deal with a greater and greater Black Block front. “Even if”, says the SAP deputy Jürg Bühler, “it is one that is not influential or powerful enough to menace swiss society.” Reassuring?