Call for internationalist solidarity for the Release to the Streets of comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda, an anti-authoritarian prisoner in the Chilean prisons still held captive by the military laws of Pinochet.
Week of Agitation from December 9 to 16, 2024.
– From the Marcelo Villarroel Anti-Prison Solidarity Network to the street RSAMVALK in Chile together with a group of Like-Minded Individuals in different places and territories of the planet, we make this call that seeks to maintain the visibility of a very serious legal-political situation very serious since it expresses all the hatred and vengeance of the power that, above its own legality, keeps our brother and comrade who, since December 2023, should already be on the streets for having fully served the 14-year sentence that was imposed for two bank robberies that occurred in 2007.
Let’s remember that Marcelo was arrested in Argentine territory on 15 March 2008 and expelled to Chile on December 15, 2009, and
from then until today, his captivity has been maintained under the pretext of having to serve the sentences for which he spent another period in prison between 1992 and 2005 when he was granted parole.
“The state kidnapping of Marcelo, which is specifically a life sentence” covered, is sustained in the most rotten filth of the legacies dictatorial: the putrid Military Justice of Pinochet still in 2024. Something that seemed unthinkable 51 years after the military coup and the beginning of the civic-military dictatorship.”
Today’s call is to put everyone’s efforts and emphasis on each one to put an end to one of the most abhorrent situations from the legal-political situation that affects one of our own.
A comrade who is part of that list of siblings who in different territories of the planet have had to pay with long decades of imprisonment their decision to fight with arms in hand against the nefarious social order imposed by the ruling class, never renouncing their ties and convictions rooted in the multifaceted anti-authoritarian spectrum, subversive anarchic that unites him in different languages but with the same language of war against the world of power, hierarchies, and all authority.
We urgently call to express and mobilize all wills and initiatives to bring our brother to the streets and thereby end the nefarious legal legacy of the late Pinochet that is still in force in Chilean society.
May all Active Minds be able to express gestures wherever they find themselves for the achievement of this longed-for objective.
For the annulment of the sentences of Pinochet’s military justice Marcelo Villarroel on the streets now!!
As long as there is misery, there will be rebellion!!
Revolutionary anti-authoritarian prisoners of all tendencies to the street!!
– Late November 2024 – different territories.
-Affiliated Individuals
Marcelo Villarroel Anti-Prison Solidarity Network to the streets!!
11TH JUNE
INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LONG-SENTENCED ANARCHIST PRISONERS
At a time when the long arms of power seek out and strike hard at our comrades and surroundings, it is up to us to respond to these blows with greater strength and determination. And one of our most dangerous weapons is anti-prison solidarity. Those concrete acts of support for those who, accused of going on the offensive against this world of bars and cages, have themselves been locked up in the prisons we seek to destroy. But the prison is not only sustained by concrete walls, closed spaces and gendarmes; it is also sustained by the annulment of the wills of those it imprisons, and by intimidating through fear those of us who declare ourselves in open war against all forms of authority.
Therefore, on this new 11th of June, a date that has managed to establish itself as a day of anarchic anti-prison solidarity, we invite you to meet, inform ourselves, discuss and nourish ourselves about the different ways to confront the imprisonment of our comrades and to make our solidarity one more trench of combat against prisons and the society that needs them.
– Judicial update Marcelo Villarroel
– Judicial Update Francisco Solar
– Conversation
– Screening
In addition:
– Vegan collection for prisoners
– Fair and anarchic propa (bring your own – no food)
Tuesday 11 June 2024 – 18:00 hrs.
Juan Martínez de Rozas 3091, metro Quinta Normal, Santiago Centro
11 DE JUNIO
DÍA INTERNACIONAL EN SOLIDARIDAD CON LXS PRESXS ANARQUISTAS DE LARGA CONDENA
En momentos donde los largos brazos del poder buscan y golpean con fuerza a nuestrxs compañerxs y entornos, queda en nosotrxs responder a esos golpes con mayor fuerza y determinación. Y una de nuestras armas más peligrosas es la solidaridad anticarcelaria. Aquellos actos concretos de apoyo hacia quienes, acusadxs de pasar a la ofensiva contra este mundo de barrotes y jaulas, han sido encerradxs ellxs mismxs en las prisiones que buscamos destruir. Pero la cárcel no se sostiene solamente en muros de concreto, espacios cerrados y gendarmes; también se sostiene sobre la anulación de las voluntades de quienes encierra, y de amedrentar a través del miedo a quienes nos declaramos en guerra abierta contra toda forma de autoridad.
Por ello en este nuevo 11 de junio, fecha que se ha logrado instalar como un día de solidaridad anticarcelaria anárquica, les invitamos a encontrarnos, informarmos, discutir y nutrirnos sobre las distintas maneras de hacer frente al encierro de nuestrxs compañerxs y hacer de nuestra solidaridad una trinchera más de combate contra las cárceles y la sociedad que las necesita.
– Actualización judicial Marcelo Villarroel
– Actualización judicial Francisco Solar
– Conversatorio
– Proyección
Además:
– Acopio vegano para presxs
– Feria y propa anárquica (trae la tuya – no comida)
Martes 11 de junio 2024 – 18:00 hrs.
Juan Martínez de Rozas 3091, metro Quinta Normal, Santiago Centro
15 years after your death in action. MAURICIO MORALES YOU LIVE IN THE FIRE.
“On my back lying on the floor of the street, with the frozen cement, I see my fall pass close by and I see myself lying on this very spot… with my heart beating in a hurry and the rain washing hard the blood from my surroundings”
Mauricio Morales
“We keep our dead in our hearts. We carry them with us in wild moments when the anarchist attack disturbs the order of this world. Anarchy has neither victims nor heroes.”
Conspiracy Cells of Fire
On May 27, 2024 at a few hours before midnight we stormed a public transport bus. With a clear objective, to break the monotony of the city’s rhythm and illuminate the cold night of May in memory of the anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales.
15 years ago… on May 22, 2009 around 1:30 am, a roar shook the silent and cold night of the Matta neighborhood. The wit that transported in the direction of the damned school of gendarmerie of Chile had detonated in advance, the Punky Mauri as he was known in the anarchist environments, died at the instant of the detonation melting with the device that had been arranged to place in that nefarious institution.
Today we remember you with action. That bomb in which you met your death resounds in every complicit gesture that attempts against domination.
We want to contribute to the call for a Black May, an anti-prison May, an anarchist May. It is still time to generate and strengthen offensive complicities, to keep alive the anarchic action. To keep alive the memory of those who went on the offensive, to be an embrace in solidarity with those who are in the dungeons of capital, to contribute in some way to break its precious social peace.
More than a year after their arrest, we embrace the anarchist comrades Aldo and Lucas Hernandez, this also goes for you.
We call for action and to make visible the prison situation and the attempt to bury through isolation the Anarchist comrade Francisco Solar.
Freedom for: Juan Aliste, Marcelo Villaroel, Mónica Caballero, Joaquín García, Aldo and Lucas Hernández, Francisco Solar, Juan Flores, Anti-speciesist Prisoners, Political Prisoners and Mapuche Political Prisoners.
FIRE AND DYNAMITE TO THE JAIL. FIRE AND LEAD TO THE JAILER. TO MULTIPLY AND INTENSIFY THE ATTACKS, BY THE EXPANSION OF THE ANARCHIST URBAN GUERRILLA. AGAINST THE PRISON AND DOMINATION SOCIETY. LONG LIVE ANARCHY!
Incendiary cell for the individual action Severino Di Giovanni
BLACK VENGEANCE /FAI-IRF
Words by Mónica Caballero for the Memory and Counterculture day
15 years after the death of Mauricio Morales, it is always necessary to remember.
15 years ago, the media of the powerful were feasting on the news… the one that spoke of the death of a young man who was about to place an explosive device in the Gendarmerie School. This young man was one of the suspected anarchists that the police already had among those possibly responsible for the approximately 200 bombs that had been placed in the city of Santiago in recent years. That young anarchist was Mauricio Morales.
With the identification of one of the explosive planters, the lines of investigation of the police and prosecutors were reduced, and in turn the urgency to go hunting for seditious criminals grew. It did not take long after the death of Mauri for the Chilean state to let fall all its power and bring the first anarchists before a court, a matter that had not happened since about 1920.
So it was that 14 years ago I first set foot in the prison where I am currently held.
It can probably seem annoying and even unnecessary for some people who still exist to commemorate the death of a comrade who fell in action. But what would have happened if Mauri’s death had not been commemorated in these 15 years? Most likely, May 22 would be an important date only for those of us who knew and loved Mauri. In this way, your memory, your ideas and most importantly… Your practices would not have transcended.
Today, May 22, I remember and commemorate Mauricio Morales because doing so is part of my own history. Because I loved him and above all I do and will continue to do so because he was a like-minded comrade who until his last breath tried to put into practice his ideas that are also mine.
15 years ago, today and tomorrow. Long live anarchy.
¡Mauricio Morales pte.!
Mónica Caballero Sepúlveda
Anarchist prisoner
CDP San Joaquín
Words by Marcelo Villarroel for the Memory and Counterculture day
15 years after the death of Punki Mauri, an eternal call for offensive resistance with fist raised from confinement, maintaining the memory of the insurrection, as a living manifestation of an anti-authoritarian struggle that is neither extinguished nor stopped by the state, the prison and the capital.
The daily combat inside the prisons manifests itself in millimetres. Breaking apathy and silence, contributing to the transmission of experiences and stories so that our experiences are not submerged in oblivion and are also a real learning tool for all those who are exposed to confinement as a result of a life choice in struggle. It is about making a concrete contribution in all possible and imaginable initiatives that maintain the link between prisoners and active comrades in the street.
Along these lines, Mauricio Morales maintained a permanent exchange of ideas and actions, as prisoners and with those who had gone through confinement, thus evidencing a freely assumed commitment of active solidarity and insurrectionary complicity for the destruction of prison society, inherent in his anarchist position of offensive against domination.
Fifteen years ago, in this territory, the attacks sustained to the social peace of the rich also expressed a solid disposition of combat of different anti-authoritarian, subversive and anarchist tendencies. It is in this context that Punki Mauri took his flight to some place in the universe and the stars to continue pushing the combat from there, helping his brothers in struggle scattered around the world and thus renouncing us that he has never left the side of those who do not give up, for convenience or accomodations, to the inescapable path of the conflict.
Nothing is over, everything continues!!
Memory, Resistance, Subversion!!
Punk Mauri you live in the social/anti-social war!!
Until the last bastion of prison society is destroyed!!
As long as there is misery there will be rebellion!!
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!!
Regarding my convictions and trial charges and the nexus of non-systemic revolutionary struggle action practices and “my” meaning of the anarchist vision
“(…) The reality is precisely this complex thing that cannot be traced back to the results of a judicial proceeding. This will always be arbitrary and will be based not on evidence but on force, not on logic but on domination. Difficult reasoning? Maybe so, but reasoning that once done can never be forgotten” [Published with the title “Noterelle su Sacco e Vanzetti. In margine a un convegno di studi”, in “Anarchismo”, n. 63, July 1989, pp. 36-40].
Alfredo Maria Bonanno, A mano armata, Pensiero e azione, Edizioni Anarchismo
In remembrance, and a warm greeting and see you soon comrade Alfredo!
Note:
To facilitate the writing of the text, I chose to use mainly the masculine as a gender ending. Aware of the importance of rejecting and countering gender abuses (as of any kind), I trust in the reader’s understanding so that no one feels discriminated against.
Premise:
Hello to all, compañeras and to all, compañeros
I am Juan Sorroche, an anarchist prisoner arrested on May 22, 2019 and I write from the AS2 section of the Terni prison where I have been locked up for 5 years.
After my heavy sentence on January 26, 2024 in Rome in the Court of Cassation trial for the action against the Lega Nord, a party that was and is part of the government of the Italian State, a strongly racist, misogynistic and xenophobic party.
As an anarchist prisoner I would like to make clear to comrades, revolutionaries, outcasts and oppressed the connection of the causes of the struggle for which I am here in prison today as an anarchist prisoner.
In the first instance, even though the prosecutor had removed the charge of “political massacre” (285), I was sentenced to 28 years in prison plus 3 years of probation. On appeal, almost half of the sentence, I was sentenced to 14 years and 7 months. A few days ago, the Court of Cassation definitively sentenced me to 14 years and 7 months, a significant and exemplary sentence for the attack.
In the first instance, I want to say that I entered prison already having spent a cumulative period of about 8 years behind bars for my struggles in Italy, which is why I escaped into hiding in 2016 to continue living-fighting. Of these 8 years, 4 years are for the “NO TAV trial”. Subsequently, the other 4 years were different trials related to anti-prison and anti-CPR struggles, anti-fascist and anti-democratic struggles, struggles against technologies, GMOs, “environmentalists”, in which I took part, always trying to include the anti-state and anti-capitalist aspect of anarchism in Trentino as well as in different Italian situations. Including the Susa Valley, a path that I had taken in the past years in the NO TAV struggle against one of the projects of capital and the State and the devastating tentacle of the high-speed train. I was arrested, among many others, for the days of struggle and violent clashes of July 3, 2011. During the trial and during my imprisonment at the time, I claimed with a personal statement those days of struggle and the paths of opposition to the TAV and more generally the anti-state and anti-capitalist aspect. I refused the defense in the “NOTAV Trial”, positioning myself anti-juridically even trying to fight in court by refusing the trial, believing that I should not “defend” myself in that judicial theater, and for this I was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months. And I take those decisions with my head held high.
In May 2019, after 2 and a half years on the run, I was arrested together with another comrade accused of having supported my being on the run, and then the comrade was sentenced for aiding and abetting to a year and a half, a sentence that was significant and exemplary as we had not seen each other for years, and it gave us a hint of the new tenor of the trials to come.
When I was arrested, little by little, I became aware of a series of investigations and trials that see me accused of several attacks (with terrorist aims) in Italy:
– the bombs at the headquarters of the Lega Nord in Treviso for the attack of 12/08/2018, regarding the two explosive devices, one exploded and another full of nails discovered by the bomb squad in the form of a trap to carry out the components of the building and the police; these were placed in the headquarters of the Lega Nord in Treviso and were claimed with the claim:
“Let’s hit them at home!!!: (…) to specifically attack racism and exploitation. To strike at the state, capital and its perpetrators. Direct action makes it clear to us why and how. For an internationalist, rebellious, and anarchist solidarity! Solidarity with all prisoners (…). And to all the rebels locked up in the homeland prisons of the world!”
Haris Hatzimihelakis Cell/Black International 1881/2018
– the bomb at the Surveillance Court of Trento 2014. Sentenced in the first instance to 3 years and 2 months, then acquitted on appeal, I must soon go to the Supreme Court. Claimed anonymously: in solidarity and to give voice to the prisoners who struggle with dignity in all prisons and to the anarchist comrades who were in prison isolated in AS2 in Italy and other anarchist prisoners in the world.
– the bomb against the POL GAI (police academy) claimed by cell H, I report some sketches of the published claim:
“(…) as a cell H (C.A.A.) akin to the Black International and we join the call to action for a BLACK DECEMBER. We attacked one of the armed arms of the state. In this “school” cops from all over Italy and other countries are educated. This is a small signal against war. We stand in solidarity with all the people who are fighting against all states and capital. Our thoughts go out to the many comrades who have been repressed, locked up, tortured, or killed in the present and in the past. In solidarity with all the detainees who are struggling.”
This is in the context of the campaign launched by anarchist prisoners in Greece for a Black December, called international in the context of anarchist action in 2015.
A trial that I will begin shortly.
To date, I have accumulated 23 years in prison.
Actions that I agree with because for me they are part of the history of our movement of struggle in non-systemic revolutionary anarchism of action and of the struggle for freedom of all the oppressed in the world. Regardless of whether or not I am responsible for these facts. And I am determined to move forward in my anarchist life in order to live-fight within my limited possibilities as a prisoner. Continue reading “Italy: Juan Sorroche – ‘Reflection on the General Context of the Causes of the Struggle’”→
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.
A year ago in Europe a campaign of attack against companies and infrastructures that feed the ecological catastrophe around the world, entitled Switch Off! was launched. Large and small actions have positioned themselves in offensive from the concern and need to confront an evident eco-systemic collapse provoked by the global capitalist machinery that destroys everything in its path.
The intention of the campaign is to “attack the system in a sustainable way”, placing direct action in a common context through anonymous communication with each other, inviting to arm themselves with their own means and go on the offensive against the productive infrastructure and with it the property, without falling into false discursive, institutional and/or technological illusions, “making it clear that there can be no green capitalist alternative, nor peace with the existing conditions”.
In a first statement of presentation we can see more precisely what is the background and objective of why to invite the use of the slogan “Switch Off!”:
Switch off – a call to revolt
(DN Note: We make our own translation into English from the original German text.)
The certainty that the current system will lead to the collapse of the massively damaged ecosystem has already moved countless people and driven them into resistance. Tens of thousands are taking to the streets against the capitalist machinery’s “business as usual”, people are resisting the destructive large-scale projects en masse, the system’s infrastructure is being blocked and courageous fighters are setting fire to the machines that are robbing them of their livelihoods.
What we need in the struggle against the destruction of nature and the resulting social misery is the common striving for the real revolutionary break and the freedom of all. For an initiative that rejects all compromises and cosmetic corrections of the state and brings about a transformation of our social relations.
Because the destruction of the planet by the neoliberal economic system is inextricably linked to patriarchal thought patterns, racism and colonialism. The initiative for this must necessarily come from below. From the struggles of the marginalized. From the struggles of those who oppose the state’s promise of salvation with a self-organized, solidary coexistence. From the struggles of those who see that there can be no compromise in the fight against the systemic destruction of the biosphere.
We should also be aware that we cannot completely prevent the gradual collapse of a massively damaged ecosystem. Not the loss of biodiversity. Not the depletion of resources. We will not be able to prevent the climate catastrophe, as we are already in the midst of it. Admitting this – without any doomsday pathos – does not paralyze us. On the contrary: it should open up the question for us and our contexts of what our lives and our revolutionary struggles could look like in the future.
We can hardly block and sabotage as radically and uncompromisingly as the climate change caused by capitalism requires. But we should not be discouraged by this. Let us question, sabotage and sustainably attack the infrastructure of capitalism in the fight against exploitation. So that another world becomes possible! Let us cooperate with each other in solidarity so that we can live a dignified life. Let us realize our ideas in the here and now and already within our struggles and actions. We will not be lulled into complacency by the attempts at appeasement by those in power.
Against their technological solutions
The solutions offered by those in power for the now noticeable effects of the ecological crisis are primarily technological. This is obviously also driven by lobbying, but above all it is a strategy to legitimize themselves. The development, control and application of the “technologies of the future”, which are supposed to make growth capitalism “sustainable”, are in the hands of the state, industry and science and are inextricably linked to them. If we are being sold the illusion that climate change can be stopped technologically, then this is based on the belief that those in power only need to take the right steps, the right measures, to save this world. For one thing, they have absolutely no interest in ending the expansionist capitalism that secures their position of power. And for another, technological reform, with the new dependencies it produces, is also doomed to failure. Examples of this could be e-mobility or technologies for the production of so-called renewable energies. The required raw materials are often procured in the course of neo-colonial environmental exploitation. The transportation of these raw materials and components is in turn highly dependent on fossil fuels. As a result, a conversion of the current industry to renewable energies before the global oil reserves dry up is unthinkable anyway.Continue reading “About the Switch Off! attack campaign”→
Faced with life imprisonment in disguise, action is always worthwhile
Was anything else expected from Power? Although the sentence of 86 years in prison has provoked surprise and some consternation, the Power acted accordingly. It has punished forceful actions directed against its defenders and representatives, the audacity of the open rebellion that hit their spaces that they believed impregnable and also the unabashed and unambiguous vindication of such attacks, demonstrating that they perceive the danger implicit in the dissemination of ideas and actions.
The State has acted as it is and that should not surprise us.
It proceeded as it has historically done when it has been directly attacked, when they have really felt the threat of seeing their lives at risk and when, moreover, it has not found submission or repentance.
Along with seeking to bury me for life in this place, this sentence clearly constitutes an intimidating signal for all anarchist spaces and individualities that openly position themselves for combat insofar as it intends to put an end to offensive practices that refuse to disappear and that demonstrated their scope and potential in the October revolt. It is, in short, a blow to anarchism of action as a whole that reflects the threat it poses to Power, which, although it may sound paradoxical, shows that the insurrectional path fulfills part of its purposes. The fact that we are being persecuted, that years ago they created a specialized anti-anarchist unit which they have now replicated to fight organized crime, and that we are given 86-year sentences, are indicators that the path of action worries and worries the powerful.
The insistence and, at times, the intensification of anarchic action has led to a forceful condemnation that clearly has a demobilizing pretension and a sense of political revenge.
However, it is undeniable that lately there has not been an advance in the anarchic offensive, presenting, rather, a stagnation and even a decrease in the development and multiplication of transgressive practices. I think this is due to multiple aspects among which are the repressive variable as well as a post revolt effect that, apparently, has led to demobilization in several environments and individualities. I believe that a deeper analysis of this issue deserves a more detailed analysis, which is not the case here.
And if you ask me if it was worth it. I answer not only that it was worth it, but that it is and will be absolutely worth it. That taking the individual decision to rebel, to take revenge and to put an end, even for an instant, to the impunity of the powerful is one of the most beautiful moments that can be experienced. That linking word and action, going beyond mere slogans emptied of content, strengthens and gives meaning to an individual and collective position of conflict. That taking ideas to the realm of the possible is always necessary and indispensable if one freely decides to confront Power, even if it costs decades of imprisonment and even life. Action is always worthwhile.
This concealed life sentence, which is one of the highest international sentences against an anarchist, is obviously intended to pacify, but it is up to us to ensure that this signal achieves its goal. It is in our will and decision to make these sentences completely lose their meaning and even constitute one more motive to attack, as the “Grupo de acción 6 de julio – Nueva Subversión” rightly exposed after the recent explosive attack against a bank branch.
Here inside, understanding, as I pointed out a few years ago, that anarchists in prison are active comrades who are temporarily locked up, in opposition and avoiding the limiting pigeonholing of the figure of “prisoner”, is that I intend to continue contributing to the different initiatives of the anarchic struggle. To insist on the permanent struggle for the annulment of the sentences of the military justice and with the campaign for the liberation of comrade Marcelo Villarroel, the freedom of anarchist and subversive prisoners and the destruction of the prison society.
Anarchist and subversive prisoners to the streets!
