When the Chicago activist group Pink Bloque invited me to tag along on their Valentine’s Day action, I did not know what to anticipate other than their wardrobe, which is entirely pink. There was also a chance of the action being canceled due to the weather forecast that predicted several inches of snow. However, the snowstorm spared Chicago and Pink Bloque braved the bitter cold to spread what they describe as their message of “fun and justice.”
In
the spirit of Valentine’s Day, the emphasis was on making love not war.
The five members who were present at the action made 200 valentines to give
to Chicagoans on lunch break in the Loop. The magenta pink, heart-shaped fliers
were embellished with candy and had catchy anti-war slogans written on them
and some advertised for the anti-war march held in Rogers Park the following
day.
The five women in pink sweat suits certainly stood out from the gray Chicago
landscape and the herds of people wearing dark, heavy winter coats. They looked
like they could be handing out promotional fliers for an online company, and
their smiling faces aren’t ones that are normally associated with war
protesters. But this is how Pink Bloque attempts to reach the masses —
by making activism fun and accessible.
Accessible they were. Before we had even made it to the action site, a cabby pulled over and asked if he could have one of their valentines. While on our way, an older gentleman smiled to himself after receiving one of the cards. Once there, a little boy demanded some candy and hammed it up for the group’s camera that was documenting the demonstration.
The recipients of Pink Bloque’s Valentine’s Day cards were average
people who may feel like they wouldn’t fit in with the anti-war movement,
or are perhaps intimidated by political demonstrations, which are sometimes
portrayed as being hostile. Pink Bloque’s goal is to attract more people
to activism in order to make protests and demonstrations more effective.
To accomplish this, Pink Bloque member and School of the Art Institute of Chicago
student Dara Greenwald said, “We came up with the idea that we wanted
to be a dance troupe; and that ... we’d do popular songs, and that’s
really how we came together.”
And, as Pink Bloque member Rachel Caidor explained, “The group was [formed]
because we felt that there was this kind of gap in the protest culture of not
only fun but accessibility.” She added that the activist community is
not “really a closed community, but ... full of the regular suspects,
and we felt that if we wanted to make protests effective, [and] public demonstrations
effective, part of it is attracting more people. And plus it was starting to
become a drag for us too because it would be the same men, the same marches,
and the same people.”
Kate Dougherty, also a member, joked: “The typical anarchist group tends
to be a big sausage party.”
Even though the group stands out in a crowd, Caidor believes that their group
has its place within the larger activist community. She said, “I think
that with the rise of people doing different things with media and people doing
different things with aesthetic protests like puppets, and what not ... it’s
a perfect climate for something like the Pink Bloque.”
However, the group has been met with some resistance. Caidor said, “at
first people were skeptical and I know that I personally got a lot of flak and
people were like, ‘That’s kind of dumb’ and people were questioning
our analysis.”
Commenting on a Wicker Park action in which the group distributed date rape
information fliers and danced to Nelly’s “Hot in Here,” Caidor
said, “We got heckled by some people and then we got a lot of accolade.”
Dougherty also mentioned how being in Pink Bloque has increased her awareness
of social problems she didn’t know that much about beforehand. She said,
“There’s so many things to be pissed off about.”
Pink Bloque has also found out that they aren’t the only activist group
who identify themselves with the color pink. Greenwald said, “There’s
a pink group that’s queer oriented. In the last big national protest in
San Francisco there was this huge contingent of drag queens all dressed in pink.
And then there’s this Code Pink — it’s actually a funded group
in some way, and they’re women against war, and I think their demographic
is an older age. But we’ve communicated with them and they’re supportive.”
Pink Bloque is all women yet they don’t limit their actions to only women’s
issues. However, they do approach all of their actions through a feminist lens.
Pink Bloque’s history of actions demonstrates their broad social interest.
Their first action was in May 2002, which was a Mayday action regarding labor,
gender, and race.
Caidor said that the group danced to “She Works Hard for the Money” and “handed out fliers on gender and race pay inequity in the U.S.”
Caidor added, “After that we did the Fourth of July where we went to the
Taste of Chicago and handed out fliers on the illegal detention of Arabs and
Muslim men, the U.S. Patriot Act, and also things going on at home.”
Although they were spreading a serious message, the group did manage to have fun while at the Taste. Caidor said, “We got into a dance-off at the Bally’s ... stage and won.”
In addition to the Wicker Park action, the group was also present at the Trans
Atlantic Business Dialogue protest this past fall.
But for now the group says that it is focusing on the impending war on Iraq.
Their new message is “Drop beatz not bombs” and they hope to choreograph
an entire song that will communicate an anti-war sentiment. And, like any respectable
dance troupe, they hope to go on tour this summer and bring the pink to the
East coast.
