Dn the major mobilization against the pension reform in France, imposed by the government of Elisabeth Borne through the use of article 49.3, the excesses of the movement are attributed to a certain “black bloc”. Either a generic term, often poorly defined but used almost systematically during demonstrations. It designates the methods of ultra-left militants located at the head of the procession, dressed in black and equipped to face the forces of order. In rare articles, it is used as a shortcut to evoke the demonstrators themselves, maintaining the vagueness on its exact definition.
The first time that The world uses the concept, on April 23, 2001, during anti-globalization demonstrations in Quebec, Canada, during the Summit of the Americas, journalist Patrice de Beer writes it with capital letters. The special envoy quotes the Canadian Mounted Police who affirm that these « “provocateurs” » are part of a group “American anarchists”. Reaction of then US President George W. Bush: ““From what I understand, there are people who don’t like trading. I completely disagree with them.” »
In July 2001, the black bloc went down in history in Genoa, Italy, during the G8, following police violence that left hundreds injured and one dead, Carlo Giuliani, a member of these ” autonomous groups » et “violent” that shake and disrupt the anti-globalization movement, reports the daily on July 27, 2001.
To analyze this way of protesting in the public space, The world look towards San Francisco, “the disobedient”, where the anti-war movement, organized against the invasion of Iraq, opens new reflections on civil disobedience. “The face masked by a scarf, often helmeted, sometimes armed with iron bars and slings, the militants of the Black Bloc, who define themselves as some as anarchists, others as communists, see in the “destruction of private property” a legitimate mode of expression, summarizes Patrick Jarreau in the “Horizons” pages of the newspaper dated April 9, 2003.
“Thugs”, “thugs”, “unemployed”, “precarious”, “students”?
In France, this type of demonstration is only mentioned at the end of 2009, after the declarations of the Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux on the dissolution of ultra-left groups. Passed into everyday language, the word black bloc is now written in lowercase letters. In their investigation published on November 9, 2009, Caroline Monnot and Isabelle Mandraud detail what a demonstrator calls “the strategy of disappearance” : black clothes, mask, balaclava, gloves to prevent DNA fingerprints and spare clothes for “disappear in nature”.
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