1st May 2004 berlin kreuzberg heavy riots expected

You've posted some pretty riot porn, but the question is what the hell do you achieve each year, with your annual stone fest? Why is what you are doing OK?

Perhaps you legitimise such riots by weighing the damage capitalism against the damage caused by riots? And then maybe you say: "Well the System does more harm than we do, and so it's OK that we trash stuff." Or perhaps fetishising riots is some kind of existentialist expression to you, your answer to capitalism, but using your languages, not theirs?

Two wrongs, however, seldom make a right. If you choose to speak through action, you'd better think through what your actions actually are saying. And for brave men and women of deeds, an annual riot in Berlin doesn't seem like doing very much to me.

Riots of this kind are wholly negative, and above all utterly pointless. On May 2, what is your legacy? Some arrests, a couple of bruises, a bit of damage to the city where others live and some spectacular headlines to boost Bild's sales. Oh, and of course some pretty porn for the IMC's. Yippee skippy..

If you truely believe capitalism a threat, and think there is still good stuff worth fighting for, I suggest you stop wasting your time with such juvenile crap.

Stone throwing and the usual jives are not acheiving anything, only attrition with the police, but with enough resistance and even concerntrated violence I think it is possible to meet your aims. Look at the damaged caused to the Docklands Light Railway @ Dsei, it stopped further business-type arms dealers from getting to the event.

But the media tend to use material like throwing stones against protesters - not saying it shouldn't be done, its just when it comes to damaging stuff is often the only pro-active way of resisting. Importantly though, there should be focus and often it is difficult when in the midst of battle to know exactly what you are hitting.

Thats why its important for communities to defend their own as oppossed to middle-class kids taking it into their own hands and stoning their nearest McDonalds ...

I'd have to agree with the comments above. So what is it that you hope to achieve? I think there is nothing "revolutionary" about throwing stones at cops or burning cars. Remember G8 in Genoa? I know people who live there. Some of them are pretty pissed off, too. Who do you think will have to come up for everything that's been damaged there? They will, of course. The same people who went to the march and demonstrated peacefully. There is something seriously wrong about this violence that is supposed to be "good" and "justified" only because it is directed against the system. The trouble is: no one will listen to you. By doing what you're doing, you came across as a troublemaker, and nothing else. Who do you think will listen to you and what you've got to say? Nobody will. And do you even know what you want to say? What you're throwing stones for? Do people still believe that anarchy is the way forward? Newsflash: it will never, ever work. Ever looked around?

Thought not.

Well, the Mayday riots usually happen in Kreuzberg, which is a mainly turkish/ kurdish area, and a lot of people from this community join in rioting with the autonomist types. why? Maybe cos they hate the police, who often give people shit for being "foreign", and this is an opportunity to have a go back at them? Also the Neo-Nazi's are planning a big march there on Mayday. Maybe everyone should realise that throwing stones doesn't achieve anything and leave them alone to advocate the return of the Third Reich and atttack any "foreigners" or "reds" they can get to? Certainly, a riot isn't the "revolution", but neither's anything else so-called radical people do, whether its selling newspapers or playing samba. But perhaps left radical people joining up with the inhabitants of a poor immigrant area to resist the fascists (both in and out of uniform) isn't so bad though?

In the end, the type of people attracted to fascist groups, and even the police force, are the same who are attracted to this type of 'lefty' violence. There are things in all these type of activities that seem to be accepted without question; the lefties have the right to destroy capitalism, and hang the consequences, the police can be violent and filled with contempt for the 'underclass', and fascist groups also have their 'watertight' reasoning for their hatreds and agendas. Throwing stones at policemen will not overthrow capitalism!!! And just what sort of people can afford to fly around Europe at a whim engaging in self-appointed battles with right-wing society???

The fact that the West is socially, morally, intellectually and philosophically, and even religiously, bankrupt, whilst economically many of us ride on the crest of a wave is proved by trendy lefties, playing at being underclass revolutionaries, attacking McDonalds and etc, instead of trying to genuinely change the unjust wage structures and the economic apartheids that are more and more a part of Western European and Modern Western countries. Perhaps questioning the growing divisions between the rich and poor in the West is a bit too much like reality though hey? Throw stones at police, attack a McDonalds, and blame 'those' capitalists is a much safer bet?!!

Most working class people, the average person from a poorer background, are so far from these sort of activities, it is almost alien to them. What sort of person really wants to put someone in hospital or even leave them for dead anyway? Whether police, fascist, or trendy lefty revolutionary, these are the activities and reasons of people who are a little sick in the head. Violence begats violence; and will solve nothing. Look at Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Palestine, and any big American and even European city to see that.

In all of these activities, and political philosophies, be they extreme right or extreme left, I see no real sense or reason, just an attack and attack hard mentality. The same people engaging in these activities, with their self-righteousness and arrogance, are the same people who would have said the world was flat, without ever actually questioning or thinking about anything!! And here is the nub of the jist; it is all done in an unquestioning environment. Fascists think they are right; lefties think they are right; the rich and powerful think they are right etc and ad nauseum. Most of them seem to be absolute arseholes to be honest, whatever persuasion or 'thinking' they hold to!!!

Where are the normal people who want to live in a sane, and economically fairer, world??