Black Bloc protesters: Are violent groups targeting Brisbane G20

SOME of the world’s most powerful leaders are coming to Australia, and a notorious group of anarchists might follow them. Should we be worried?

SOME of the world’s most powerful leaders are coming to Brisbane in a couple of weeks and violent and dangerous high profile protest groups are planning to follow them.

Brisbane is being warned international anarchist cooperative Black Bloc — the masked anarchists who set police cars alight and smashed banks windows during Torontos’ G20 — could be heading their way when the conference comes to town next month.

The 2010 G20 meeting in Toronto was overrun with Black Bloc protesters. Picture: AFP Photo/Geoff Robins

The number of groups that have formally registered their intent to protest has skyrocketed from six to 24 in the past week, and police are on alert after local groups have posted about plans to “destroy property” and unleash “waves of destruction”.

Associate Professor Janet Ransley, who heads Griffith University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, told the Brisbane Times there had been evidence that the high-profile Black Bloc anarchist protest group is among those using social media to organise a presence in the Queensland capital.

“I think it would be naive to think that Black Bloc and some of those groups are not mobilising,” Professor Ransley said.

WHO (or what) IS BLACK BLOC?

Australian National University security and terror expert Professor Clive Williams describes the Black Bloc movement as “the best known international anarchist cooperative”.

“It was probably the first to use the internet and social networking to encourage ‘flash violence’,” he wrote in a piece earlier this year.

Riot police push against a crowd during a street demonstration on the closing day of the G20 Summit in Toronto, Sunday, June 27, 2010. Picture: AP/Carolyn Kaster

“Those who subscribe to their views are encouraged to dress in black, wear hoodies, sunglasses and ski-masks, and bring motorcycle helmets to protests.”

Black Bloc protesters are ready for violence, Professor Williams explains, armed with fingernail clippers ready for cutting off plastic handcuff zip-ties used by arresting officers.

The Black Bloc movement, as Associate Professor Mark Lauchs from Queensland University of Technology points out, is a tactic employed by anarchist outfits, not a particular group.

A G20 London summit riot in 2009. Picture: AFP/Leon Neal

Originating in Germany in the 1980s, anarchist groups have dressed in black and protested at economic forums, joining the movement and becoming known as ‘Black Bloc protesters’.

They commonly mobilise in Europe, Britain and North America staging anti-capitalist protests, and were present at Melbourne’s G20 summit.

The most recent and frightening round of Black Bloc protests came in 2010 at the last G20 conference in Toronto — which is what has Brisbane organisers worried.

The gathering of world leaders in Canada was the scene of the largest mass arrest in the country’s history and saw more than 1000 protesters thrown in a detention centre.

Black Bloc protesters travelled to Toronto from all over the world to disrupt the meeting with protesters beginning a week ahead of official proceedings.

Protesters smash police vehicles in Toronto in 2010. Picture: AFP/Geoff Robins

SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?

There are conflicting warnings from experts over whether violent protests are expected or if Black Bloc protesters are likely to cause trouble but it’s certain that there will be protests ahead of, and during, the G20 conference starting on November 10.

Anarchist community group Autonomous Action Radio has created an online poster that depicts hooded and masked protesters who appear to be holding molotov cocktails, hurling objects and overturning a bin.

Smash the G20 protest poster and DIY gas mask.

A protest movement calling itself “Plan B” has called for attacks away from security zones, and has detailed attacks on property.

“We do not see property destruction as an inherently violent act,” a post on its website reads.

“There are a number of protest groups that have registered and promised to protest peacefully in Brisbane,” Professor Lauchs says.

“Anarchist groups tend not to register because they don’t like organisation in general, but I don’t know of any groups planning violent protests.”

While violence isn’t the objective of protesters, Professor Lauchs says it’s inevitable.

“In Toronto, there was a lot of violence, a lot of police cars burning, windows smashed, people hurt in riots, but these groups aren’t violent in nature,” he says.

“We shouldn’t be worried because they dress in black they’ll be violent, but it’s human nature that the violence will come, and it will come from angry young men, who join all sorts of groups and get caught up in the moment and participate in violence.”

G20 Police exercise at the Oxley Police Academy in Brisbane. Picture: Marc Robertson

But whatever violence erupts, police have been at pains to assure the public they are prepared to deal with protesters, telling the Courier Mail the Queensland police will swoop on anyone who incites violence.

“There are some groups we know who will come to this to create disorder and to basically wreak havoc,” Ms Carroll told the Courier-Mail.

“From the very outset, we have said we will not tolerate that.

“We’re working with our state and international counterparts to see who is coming and how they’re coming.”

In addition to keeping watch on potential troublemakers, the state has announced a 24-hour court will be operating from throughout the duration of the conference in preparation for potential mass arrests — a similar strategy to that used by Toronto police in 2010.

G20 Police exercise at the Oxley Police Academy in Brisbane. Picture: Marc Robertson

While local groups are likely to clash with police and incite some sort of violence, Professor Lauchs says the Brisbane G20 would be “a bit safer” than Toronto.

“If protesters are planning on travelling internationally, Brisbane is quite a far way to travel, plus they will need Visas, passport checks — if there is any history of violence they won’t be allowed into the country,” he says.

“The protest numbers will be naturally lower, plus it’s storm season in Brisbane it’s stinking hot. If you want to come dressed ankle to wrist in black and a balaclava, good luck to you.”