We receive and disseminate this urgent appeal for Marcelo Villaroel, who needs financial support for the judicial proceedings that could finally set him free.
That solidarity… doesn’t remnain in your pocket! Free Marcelo!
Today we are going through a crucial moment in the legal situation of comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda in Chilean prisons.
An appeal will soon be filed to try to annul the convictions of the military justice that persist on the comrade.
This is a legal work that has taken months in addition to the incessant work of the group that – with more desire and conviction than resources – has supported a commendable work.
In order for the appeal to be accepted, the participation of another lawyer is required who, not being a comrade or a supporter, will have to defend in the highest instances our position that demands freedom in the coming months for Marcelo.
To do this, we have to shell out economic resources that we do not have now, hence the call for direct material solidarity in order to be able to bear the costs of the crucial legal moment we face today.
Until we see our comrade free again in the streets, we will not stop!!
From different territories.
April 2024
Individualities akin to Marcelo Villarroel, free him now!!
If the streets of this city could speak, they would tell us stories of barricades and fire, mixed with sweat, blood and tears. In those stories would be the petite and resilient figure of Luisa Toledo, who with a couple of words moved generations, and who, no matter how many years passed since the murder of her sons Eduardo and Rafael by the police, never stopped taking to the streets to commemorate their death and above all their lives as young fighters.
Today, March 29th, new stories of barricades and fire will emerge, those that will rise up for Eduardo and Rafael, and in turn for the dozens of young fighters who decided to take the step towards the offensive attack against domination.
The stories of yesteryear of the young people who fought the dictatorship give us a rich and nourishing path, in which today’s young people grew up and lay new paths for those to come.
If the streets could speak, they would tell the stories of the young fighters of yesterday and today, and we must do our best to make them tell the stories of those to come. Just as Luisa Toledo did with blood, sweat and tears.
Only those who forget die die. May the barricades never stop burning.
After the 86-year sentence against the anarchist comrade Francisco Solar was ratified and became final, the gendarmerie made a new maneuver in the comrade’s intrapenitentiary situation. After being held in Maximum Security Module 2 of the Rancagua prison, what would have been appropriate would have been his transfer to High Security Module 1 as a condemned prisoner along with the rest of the anarchist and subversive comrades. But this time seeking to deepen the legal revenge the comrade is taken to a floor in the same maximum security module 2 to serve his sentence in an exceptional regime of punishment and isolation.
Solidarity and complicity with those who attack the powerful!
Let us fight against the life imprisonment and solitary confinement of the anarchist comrade Francisco Solar!
On April 16, hooded students of the Instituto Nacional confronted with Molotovs against the presence of riot cops, responding to the harassment and internal repression that they have suffered lately and in particular to the events occurred on Friday, April 12, where a group of students, after going out to demonstrate, officials of the establishment closed the access gate. At that time, some students tried to open the gate to protect themselves from the cop attack, to which the officials responded again by closing it. In that moment of struggle, between pepper spray and other chemicals, a student was seriously injured in the left index finger, having to be taken to a health care facility and end up with the amputation of the distal part of the finger.
CALL TO ACTION AND PROPAGANDA 15 YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF ANARCHIST COMRADE MAURICIO MORALES
“Before going to sleep I embrace chaos as an idea that frees my body and my mind because at the end of the day it makes me feel alive. I do not want the search for the grail that emanates freedom in future societies. My fingers seek the bloody flight of the destruction of the chains of the rhythmic fire, of the nearby fire rhythmic fire, of the nearby fire of power and its masters. And my actions when I sleep are directed in that tomorrow when I wake up, I will break with the routine with the routine and in the individual action with the chest like stone swollen by the destruction of this and any destruction of this and any society. Do me a favor: see to it that anarchy lives.”
-Punki Mauri
In the early morning of May 22, 2009 the anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales, Punki Mauri met his death after the early detonation of the explosive device that he intended to install in the Gendarmerie School in Matta neighborhood, Santiago.
Fifteen years have passed since his death in action and we continue to persist in his memory, remembering his warrior life, spreading anarchy in multiple ways and vindicating the insurrectional political violence that is still alive, that manifests itself in the proliferation of the idea and the facts with varied force and intensity, but always alive.
This call invites to a month of black memory, propaganda and action, to the concretion of public and anonymous gestures, without half measures, that the imagination flies, that we feel the blood in our veins, that the heart beats with emotion when we remember our loved ones.
Anarchy is dangerous and for it to continue this way we must endow it, empower it day by day, with discussion, feedback, with contagious propaganda and violent action, each one decides how to put into practice the ideas he/she propagates, the question is to do, without leaders or leaders, without hierarchies, in autonomy.
This humble contribution seeks to be one more contribution to the expansion of the memory of a comrade, positioning himself from the sidewalk of anarchic conflict against order, law, power and all authority.
“In the early hours of this morning, April 26th, we carried out a propaganda action in support of our comrades kidnapped in the jails of the Chilean state. We vindicate each one of their struggles against this system of death that only seeks exploitation in pursuit of its economic interests, destroyers of land and life.
We call for solidarity and action in the face of this punitivist scenario that imprisons those who struggle. In addition to the above, we call to be present in a concrete way with the families in struggle in the different land seizures of the Chilean territory.
Opening the tensions of dialogue, we present the following section of interviews with individuals, collectivities and related spaces that make up the anarchic body in different parts of the world.
The interviews are a valuable contribution to the observation in detail and depth; they come, in a certain way, to broaden the view to give us feedback among comrades and to debate with perspectives and projections, that although they may be different, they converge in the ideas and practices of freedom against all authority.
Without further ado, we have in this first venture of dialogues the comrades of Espacio Fénix.
1-How and when did Espacio Fénix arise, and what projects converge in the space?
Espacio Fénix was born in the middle of the pandemic, at the beginning of 2021, in the midst of a series of ridiculous mobility restrictions and increased police intervention under the excuse of controlling and preventing the spread of covid-19.
Thus, a group of compañerxs got together, seeking to open a crack, a fissure within the asphyxiating panorama that was regulating everything, imposing the rhythm of power and where many seemed to be accommodating or waiting for the authority to give us “permission” to resume our lives.
We embarked on the idea of opening a physical space where comrades could converge, where anarchic material could circulate and where new comradeships could be woven and articulated. Thus in May 2021 we opened the doors of the space, we began to set up its infrastructure and in July we held our first activity in memory of compañero Santiago Maldonado.
Claustrofobia Ediciones, the Biblioteca Antiautoritaria Sacco y Vanzetti and various anarchic individualities converge in the space.
2-The “Ciclos de Cine” (Film Cycles) is the tool you have used the most to carry out activities. What is the significance for you of the screening of films, documentaries, etc.?
We started with the film cycles in October 2021 and we have not stopped every Tuesday, month after month, grouping the films by specific themes, seeking to stress our ideas and nourish our arguments with content, it is the beauty of the feedback between colleagues with diverse experiences and views.
From the very beginning, we proposed the screening of films as an excuse to sit down and converse, because after each screening, the central part of the activity comes to life, which is the discussion about what has been screened. There the words run, without leaders, where everyone can expose their dislikes, their liking or the results and analysis that is made of what we have seen. With this gesture we also seek to break the logic of passive spectators, of consumers, very typical of socially imposed roles.
In this sense, we have screened diverse audiovisual material, industry films, documentaries made by compañerxs, films that we like or dislike, always aiming at the discussion and tension between compas.
We do not seek to fill the cultural gaps of authority, nor to be the free panorama for those who lack resources; we seek, by different means and tools to spread our anarchic and anti-authoritarian ideas/actions, therefore the film cycles are just one more tool we choose.
Ciclo de Cine March 2024Ciclo de Cine November 2021
3-Regarding the written material, what is the importance and power that you perceive in it?
The written material certainly has another power, another depth and transcendence, of course the spoken thought is important, but writing allows the ordering of ideas, so as to be able to reflect more carefully on what is going to be exposed and to assimilate/discuss more deeply on what is read.
In a present where immediacy, image culture, the digestible and pyrotechnical, where almost the medium is the message, emptying of content many of our tools, writing/reading is a weapon, which can also serve as a refuge, where to continue polishing and sharpening our ideas.
The written material is an instrument that impels us to grow, to argue and continually revise our positions, widening our views, shining light where there was darkness.
On the other hand, it is necessary to say that written material has always accompanied anarchists, as propaganda for the dissemination of ideas, it is an effective tool to enter into dialogue with more comrades wherever they are: in the street, in prison, or other territories. It is important because it nurtures individual thinking, as well as possible collective discussions.
The written material as propaganda can bring together comrades and depending on the objectives and projections that we have, we can realize initiatives of various kinds. In the same way that we can find ourselves on the path of anarchic struggle, we can also distance ourselves from people who spread anarchist propaganda of other tendencies, for us those who are called to participate in the electoral circus, appeal to platform organization, dream of unity and large federations and those who reject legitimate political insurrectional violence – to give just a few examples – puts us in another place on the sidewalk and in several cases as enemies.
4-There are political-cultural spaces that coexist peacefully with power, while others attract police attention. Why do you think this happens? Are there more dangerous ideas-practices? If so, what would these be?
We don’t think this was the intention of the question, but it is worth clarifying to avoid pejorative atmospheres. For us, anti-power spaces/ideas/practices (truly anti-authoritarian and anarchic, leaving out and fighting the bullshit of “popular power”) by definition do not coexist peacefully neither with power, nor with authority, nor with the police and their investigators of all kinds.
Police eyes and ears are always there, to believe otherwise is naive and dangerous. They let themselves be seen or directly attack depending on conjunctures or panoramas that mark a change of rhythm.
In this sense, it is not the police harassment that defines our comrades’ ties -it is defined by our ideas, values and projections- because valuable initiatives that are undoubtedly a contribution to the anarchic tide, may not receive the police onslaught in an evident and grotesque way and not for that reason be considered “legal”, “innocent” or in any way aspire to coexist peacefully with the power. For example, at present there are activities that do not receive police interference, but that 3 or 4 years ago were seen as a danger and received harassment; we are talking about common pots or self-defense activities. It does not change the activity or the background, but it changes the perception of power or the effect it seeks to achieve as a chain reaction (fear, disarticulation, etc.).
Now, it is important to emphasize that these types of practices carried out by those in power are part of their work, and must be understood as such. They have always existed and will continue to exist, we do not say this in an alarmist way, much less to call for immobility or to “disappear” from certain spaces. Simply because it must be clear, those who consciously decide to undertake a confrontational path to power and propagate it in multiple ways, may encounter those enemy dynamics, therefore, the consequences must be assumed. Continue reading “Chile: Interview with Espacio Fénix EN/ES”→
After more than a decade, the publication Refractario comes to an end, and with it we close the door to this project.
We have delayed these final words and the necessary closure of this project, thinking about resuming it or giving it new formats, but it is imperative to leave some words next to the door before closing. A project built with so much effort and affection deserves a decent closure.
In July 2012 we started this counter-informative project. We generated a materiality in paper that lasted eight issues (from 2012 to 2014), and we also published 5 special issues. Undoubtedly, the heart of our project was the website. In it converged various dimensions of the anti-prison field: news, contingencies, calls, propaganda, reflections, material of interest, memory and practical information.
Throughout 11 years, the project operated, far exceeding the initial objectives. We maintained the rhythm of publication, the space for reflection and positioning at different junctures, while on the other hand the feedback from comrades who translated texts, sent communiqués and fed informal discussions within the anarchist movement made Refractario a useful, current and active tool.
Throughout this period we rejoiced with the release of several comrades from prison, accompanied the trial of many and maintained strong solidarity agitation with several who are still behind bars. Several campaigns managed to internationalize thanks to projects like this one, which allowed us to inform, disseminate and position the urgency in other latitudes. The intention was always to become a space to find accurate information, as well as to open the discussion on so many issues that in these years have strained the anti-authoritarian environments linked to prison, trials and repression.
At the end of January 2006, the counter-information web page “Palabras de Guerra” (Words of War) said goodbye to the virtual world at that time. We highlight some of the reasons that led to its closure, as expressed in its farewell communiqué:
– Excessive volume of information, in most cases superfluous, a reflection of the Western society of excess.
– Accelerated publication rhythms, confronted with natural rhythms.
– An immediatism that generates the need to be constantly informed.
– The emergence of a revolutionary subject whose militancy is based primarily on the Internet.
On Sunday, January 28, 2024, a commemoration was held for Jorge Mora, better known as “Neco”, who, on the same date but in 2020, was run over and killed by a Carabineros car in the context of a riot outside the Monumental Stadium.
On this occasion -similar to previous commemorations- there were confrontations with Molotov cocktails and barricades around the 55th Police Station, ending with four people arrested; this situation was preceded by police controls and harassment by civilians in the sector of Pudahuel Sur during the whole afternoon, sector where Neco lived.
Banners and murals read: “If I die for something I want to die defending our cause”, “Neco in memory until victory” and “We go forward with the people, with the people. Neco Immortal”.
Two Teslas were set on fire in Rummelsburg on February 7 and two Tesla charging stations on Vulkanstraße on February 8.
We think that Tesla is an ideal target for our attacks.
Because:
> Several armies use Tesla’s Starlink satellite system in their wars. Including Israel in Gaza. Also Ukraine. Tesla’s Starlink infrastructure is an important military player and attacks on Tesla can be a sign everywhere: against every war!
> Tesla is a symbol of “green capitalism”. But it is anything but green: the lithium batteries come from toxic mines in Chile and devour other rare metals, which means misery and destruction for the mining areas. “Green capitalism” stands for colonialism and land theft!
> Tesla wants to further expand its Gigafactory in Grünheide near Berlin. We want to defend ourselves against this! We don’t want any more Teslas on the roads! The Gigafactory became known for its extreme exploitation conditions. In addition, the factory contaminates the groundwater and consumes huge amounts of this already scarce resource for its products.
> Tesla is militarizing our roads. Their cars are equipped with high-resolution cameras. In “guard mode”, they film everything and everyone. Make sure to make yourself unrecognizable during actions.
> Elon Musk is an arsehole!
Therefore:
Let the air out of the tyres of expensive cars? great.
Even better: let Teslas burst into flames everywhere!
