The anarchists from last Wednesday's march posted a report of the march on their website. It shows a disconnect with reality as large as I saw at the march. I prefer their company to the generic liberals, but their integrity is severely lacking.

Points:

• Their use of the term fascist to describe their foes is questionable
• There was more than one police officer
• Security did not violently assault anyone. They were quite restrained.
• Security did not make any attempts to grab the anarcho-feminist flagpole or anything of the sort. They ignored the props.
• The anarchists were always the first to start any scuffle. They were not "fighting back"

I don't see the point in fighting with the cops. If one has something very specific in mind that involves overwhelming them, it's worth it, and one has a shot at it, then one should go for it, but the lying and playing victim is pathetic. I agree with their characterisation of the christian groups that protested at the same time as being both lame and parochial though. At the same time, I don't kno in the end which will have a greater practical effect, or indeed if either protest would do anything. The limited good I think the protest served was to exert social pressure on the fundies that people strongly oppose their actions. Whether the anarchists or the generic liberals were more effective in that, I'm not sure. If the anarchists wanted some other effect or had some other tactic, they certainly didn't show it. I would rather be in a tight corner with the anarchists because their defiance is backed by a willingness to do more than sing kum-ba-yah at opponents, but I am not convinced that they're particularly intelligent in planning or having clear goals. If they instead were aiming to shut down the convention, and were willing to make the sacrifices and risks involved, things would've been much more interesting. I similarly imagine that if police were coming to arrest someone for homosexual acts in some dystopian future, the anarchists would at least put up struggle to protect their members from arrest.

The anarchists need better leadership, and more clarity on what they're trying to do. I regret that they're not a Marxist group instead -- otherwise I'd feel comfortable trying to fill that role at least temporarily.