It is important that women’s protest voices be heard from movements with different strategies: we all have something to exchange with each other. Our activists are interviewing representatives of the Militant Anarcho-Communist Organization to remind us that the phrase “women’s place is in resistance” is not just a beautiful metaphor, and sometimes women make the choice to protest radically. For the initiative, whose representatives we interviewed, it is important to damage public infrastructure, not civilians, so all actions are designed so that no one gets hurt. You can read about the women partisans of the past, whom our heroines inherit, in a beautiful text by Maria Rachmaninova.
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Do women take part in your guerrilla actions? If so, in what capacity? Does gender affect camouflage and security, maybe women arouse less suspicion and so on?
Yes, we take an active part in guerrilla actions at all stages, from plan formulation and scouting (note: intelligence) to direct action and media coverage. To some extent, the distribution of responsibilities may be due to physical ability, but it often depends not on gender, but on a person’s individual characteristics: some people find it easier to carry a 15-kilogram bucket of igdanite, some can see better, some run faster, and some shoot more accurately.
Gender certainly affects disguise and security: the very presence of a woman in the collective transforms (in the eyes of the public and the police) a dangerous gang of shady types into a harmless group of friends walking late into the night. Because of the sexism ingrained in the ranks of the police, women tend to be less likely to be stopped on the street or in the subway, and less likely to be searched. We’ve had quite a few cases where, for example, when we pass through a metal detector frame, a signal goes off, and the subway policemen and janitors come running and start meticulously checking a young man (who, of course, has nothing to hide), while a girl with a gun stands quietly nearby. So it turns out that sometimes the man is carrying something heavy and the woman carries something dangerous (like a detonator) in a small purse, without arousing suspicion.
Also, in our experience, it is much easier for women in terms of disguise themselves – changing their appearance. At the action itself everyone looks about the same: as blackblock kids, but before and after the action, when it is necessary to look civil, a woman needs to dissolve her hair (wig) and roll up a dress, when as a typical male image, which should not attract attention, allows only minor changes, for example in the color of clothing.
Editor’s note: We clarified here whether we should publish such details and whether it would hurt disguise strategies, but we were allowed to publish in full to share with others.
Continue reading “Russia: Women partisans – interviews with BOAK group members”
Public communiqué of anarchist, subversive anti-authoritarian, nihilist anti-speciesist and anarcho-feminist affinities in the face of the current situation of comrade Alfredo Cospito in the Italian fascist prisons almost 90 days after the beginning of his hunger strike.
As comrades who support the anarchic struggle against prisons, prison society and the system of domination, we express through these words our unwavering support for comrade Alfredo Cospito, kidnapped by the Italian state in the prison of Bancali, Sassari, Sardinia; a center of extermination in which the nefarious regime of 41 bis has been applied to him, with the aim of destroying him as a subject and preventing him from maintaining any kind of contact with all his comrades inside and outside of the prisons.
Alfredo has been on hunger strike for almost 90 days demanding the end of the application of the damned regime, which extorts our comrades through the torture of isolation to induce them to give information or die, only in these two situations 41 bis ceases to be applied.
As like-minded comrades we repudiate the torture applied to Alfredo and other comrades, we know that they fear us because of our unrestricted commitment to end the system of domination, a commitment that does not end with torture, nor with prison, nor with death itself, and for this reason today Alfredo is risking his life firmly and without hesitation.
From the territory occupied by the Chilean colonialist state and from different territories of Abya Yala we tell you that the struggle of our comrade is also ours and that the consequences of a bad end to it will be seen and felt everywhere. Continue reading “$hile/Abya Yala: Communique from different territories of Abya Yala for Alfredo Cospito almost 90 days into his hunger strike against the 41 bis punishment and isolation regime” →