VIDEO BELOW SHOWS THE PEACEFUL MARCHERS, THEN A CONTINGENT OF THE BLACK BLOC.  JOURNALIST SAYS AFTER THE ARRESTS, THE MARCH BECAME PEACEFUL AGAIN


Link to YouTube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBpS0QtXHYM
From EarthKeepers:  "Environmental reporter, Olivia Zaleski, and filmmakers, Gabriel London and Peter Buntaine, report as violence erupts during an otherwise peaceful protest at the United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen. An unidentified anarchist group of several hundred--most covering their faces with ski masks and hoods--began to converge, shooting explosives at nearby buildings and police. One homemade cannon launched cobblestones over the crowd, breaking the window of a nearby police van."

UPDATE:  After watching this video several times, it finally penetrated that these young fools were using "cobblestones" as projectiles.  There is a shot of one on the the sidewalk.  These things are deadly.  

Dear Readers,

Yesterday, Saturday, December 12, 2009, some 30,000 to 100,000 people marched peacefully in the center of Copenhagen.

Well, almost all of them, anyway.

Many years ago, I lived in Europe (1977-1986:  two years in Greece and seven years in Holland).  I was born and raised in a very small town in deep southern Illinois, so obviously 9 years in Europe were an eye-opener.

In the States (at least before the Cheney/Bush years), my generation didn't think all that much about anarchy. Times were reasonably good.  The middle class was strong.

But Europe has always been different.  There has always been a radical, albeit small, undercurrent of anarchism going back more than a hundred years.

I can't go into a history lesson of the 19th and 20th centuries, so let's just look briefly at one of the latest incarnations of this undercurrent -- the Black-Bloc, self-professed anarchists, intent upon uprooting capitalism, and overturning the "system."

[I have to admit that I have never understood what they meant to replace the "system" with, once it had been overturned.]

I do have some sympathy for radicalized youth in Europe.  I grew up in a place so small that you could walk out to the countryside in 5 or 10 minutes from almost anywhere in town, and it was the largest town in the county.  Now, I live in Brazil, and in an area where it is still possibly to throw out your arms and stretch.

Europe, on the other hand, is cramped.  It lacks adventure, space to create new things, to stick your elbows out.  I felt sorry for the young Dutch -- everything in Holland was already done, organized, arranged, efficient (mostly).  I was back there for a visit in 1996, and it had only gotten more crowded, but worse, it had become very commercial.  Germany can't be much better.  If you want to stretch out your arms in Scandinavia, you have to move up to the Arctic Circle (they give you wonderful tax breaks for living up there).

So, in spite of wonderful national health care systems, great public schools, a highly literate population, and an incredible standard of living (that would make most Americans keel over if they knew about it), the youth are dissatisfied.

I am not excusing them -- I'm just trying to give a little background.

These radical groups were very, very much a tiny minority at the march in Copenhagen, yesterday, but the press being what it is (oops! capitalist, thus need to make money), the reports of violence during the march were blown way out of proportion.

Press reports said there were 700 to 900 marchers arrested.  By all accounts, almost all of those arrested were marching legally and peacefully. (The fact that innocent, legally marching citizens were arrested has disturbed quite a few people.)

In Part II, I will post up some videos, photos, and links with more information about the Black Bloc.  For now, it is time to rest my sorry eyes a bit.

Tenney