This is a partial report back. I wasn’t able to make it by 6:00 but I did make it to the ICE Headquarters in time to see the following event by the Party for Socialism and Liberation. I knew from the moment I arrived that nobody holding a megaphone that night would be keen to hand it to such a radical as myself and so I fell into a mode of operation I’m comfortable with around Marxist organizations- that of a reporter. Maybe this time I was in a ski mask, but I dedicated my time there to forming an analysis of their tactics and organization in light of my experience witnessing political movements from across all of the possible political spectrums (from economic to social to schizophrenic).
First, a play by play of the event. Please note that I’m not an omniscient narrator and my tone is to avoid inputting judgment as much as possible until later on in the memo. Please do not confuse this with objectivity and I urge you to corroborate what I say with what evidence and testimonies you can find.
After a speaker finished up at their sign-up table, a chant started to break out of the familiar “who’s streets?”. The PSL members circulating around were encouraging it, much to my enjoyment and surprise, but the actual state of affairs was still uncertain. People were moving into Central while unsure if this was planned or spontaneous, what our route would be, and why we felt it necessary to march when we were already highly visible in front of the ICE facility downtown.
As police lights appeared to our rear, the crowd turned off into a narrow side street. The status incommunicado experienced at the onset had not been cleared up, and a couple hundred people were being marched with hesitation through locations that would be disastrous to be surrounded at. As a dozen patrol cars crossed our restricted line of sight ahead and the rear police element had turned behind us there was a murmur of breaking off and returning to the start location at the back of the crowd. The air of uncertainty stopped any actual splintering, until we reached our next intersection.
Someone approached one of the motorcycle cops pulling traffic control, talked with them for a moment, and punctuated the visit with a hug. I have no idea what that necessarily was but anything good is ruled out just by what I was witness to. The crowd got waved along, with the pig’s permission, down the next segment of their little square. The rest of the march proceeded similarly, though the next dark and enclosed space was slightly less intimidating since I knew the face of this demonstration had cut a deal with the enemy. Things quickly dissolved upon the return to the ICE facility, and in all maybe half of the time spent was actually along central and in front of their building.
Tactically my suggestions are as follows. A safe route should have along its entirety ample room to disperse in the case of an escalation or emergency. Being steered away from the eyes of the public and towards narrow and fenced in parts of downtown jeopardizes everyone’s safety. An ideal route to replace what we saw on the eighth would have been up and back down Central where the north, west, and south all give room for dispersal or hiding in the event of a violent police response.
Secondly, all collaboration with the police is unnecessary and incurs risks for the most vulnerable members of our crowd. Our police have used trivial excuses to escalate at even planned demonstrations. Giving them hugs out in the open and allowing that person to come back into the fold with their trust (or teeth) intact is beyond seditious for any group claiming liberation and abolition as their goals. The police will do traffic control if they find it necessary with or without notice, historically protests here could avoid permitting and achieve the same result with their groups integrity left un adulterated and their autonomy in choosing the route intact. When police have not responded, like at the autonomous assembly the night after No Kings, people managed to do traffic control on their own without resources or help from the police. Thankfully even downtown not every vehicle is a Waymo, and we can generally trust drivers to try and comply with hand signals- but a group with the resources and graphic design chops of the PSL has no excuse not to have signage for that occasion which would give them total in-house control over their own demonstration.
Looking back at what has just been established, it wasn’t a protest, it was a parade. The PSL failed at communication- nobody on the ground knew the route and as we discovered what it was we realized how it was blatantly unsafe, their cadre were running around like chickens with their heads cut off as we all got walked into what could have been a kettle trap laid by police in a tight alleyway… but fear not! The collaborationist Party for Stagnation and Liberalism was out there showing their appreciation for Phoenix PD by making sure their event got piggy approval. That’s why they got no resistance from the police state, because this is nothing but a mockery of all legitimate resistance against the police state. Takeaways: National orgs with national ambitions will not address or fight for our local priorities and safety. Work with local, autonomous, and decentralized networks of organizers to avoid these pitfalls, Mutual Aid and Mutual Defense networks built around emergent community needs will adapt and outpace a political party which has half a mind on the coming revolution but half a mind on CCP apologetics or harboring sex pests.
Be safe and be free out there,
– Maxwell E.