Chile: We close the door. Publicación Refractario comes to an end.

Posted on 2024/02/27 by darknights

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.

(The full text is still available here) Continue reading “Chile: We close the door. Publicación Refractario comes to an end.” →

About the Switch Off! attack campaign

Posted on 2024/01/22 - 2024/01/22 by darknights

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” →

$hile: Faced with life imprisonment in disguise, action is always worthwhile. Statement by Francisco Solar.

Posted on 2024/01/10 - 2024/01/10 by darknights

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!

Let the prisons explode!

Long live anarchy!

Francisco Solar Dominguez

La Gonzalina Prison – Rancagua.

December 2023

Source: Informativo Anarquista

$hile: “Words from the confinement, necessary letters” by Marcelo Villarroel

Posted on 2024/01/06 by darknights

On December 16, 2009 I was expelled from Argentina after 21 months of confinement in different units of the province of Neuquén to be at the disposal of the Chilean state and it has been 14 years since then.

In 2014 I was sentenced to 14 years for two bank robberies. Strictly speaking, I am serving this sentence in its entirety, from beginning to end, without any benefit and it ends today December 16, 2023 and still the state keeps me behind bars.

According to the gendarmes, I must serve 12 more years of imprisonment to be able to apply for some intrapenitentiary benefit only in 2036. According to their retroactive modifications of the illegal Chilean law, in 2056 I will definitively expire my sentences, all of them from events that occurred more than 30 years ago.

A madness of numbers and years typical of Pinochet’s military justice shamefully in force and still today endorsed by recent rulings of the Court of Appeals of Rancagua, of Santiago, of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of this amnesiac country governed today by the Communist Party, the Broad Front and all the progressive and social-democratic scum always at the service of the interests of the great god of capital.

In this context, a few days ago, Mónica and Francisco, anarchist comrades of action who received the full revenge of the state, were condemned by the capital’s democratic inquisition, particularly Francisco to whom the domination imposed 86 years, becoming today the revolutionary prisoner in the Chilean prisons with the highest sentence and whom we must know how to accompany from the daily practice without pauses since the road will evidently be longer. Always from the complicit affinity and never from the victimization!

On the other hand, in the occupied wallmapu, in the same week, the racist Chilean justice declares Peñi Luis Tranamil Nahuel, who these days is about to receive a hefty sentence, as well as Peñi Nelson Queupil, who faces an imminent sentence, both walking the path of the weichan, are in Chilean prisons, fists raised, living the onslaught of the state offensive of occupation. Continue reading “$hile: “Words from the confinement, necessary letters” by Marcelo Villarroel” →

Santiago, Chile: Attempted explosive attack on the Scotiabank corporate building by ‘Grupo de Acción 6 de Julio – Nueva Subversión’

Posted on 2023/12/17 by darknights

(Received on 15/12/2023 to the mail informativoanarquista@riseup.net)

Attempted explosive attack on the Scotiabank corporate building

To succeed in an attack is the most expected situation because we like that things turn out according to plan and that our claims are preceded by the sound of an explosion. But getting it right always brings close to the situation of failing, sometimes being too explicit or in others going almost unnoticed; “that the right time has not been chosen”, “that the appearance has not been changed in a place without cameras”, “that the correct route has not been taken”, “that the clockwork has not been confirmed”, etc., are statements motivated by perceiving some error, each one being elementary with its own level of influence for the operation in its entirety and that are not reduced to whether the device worked or not. The target may have exploded, what a satisfaction; but all the hits and misses behind it, how are they counted, how do they look, what do they explain about the action?

When one errs, the worst thing that can happen, besides imprisonment and death, is to be clouded by success, which at the end of the day translates into the frustration of “not knowing how to do things”. It has been said in every possible way by many comrades that there is no secret formula for insurrectional action. Overthinking techniques and conditions in order to find their perfection, ends up overwhelming the attempt of action. Some intellectual efforts become useless because they are devoid of direct experience, of the tension lived in the moment. The ideal field of study for the operative theory is the field of action, woven in the past and present by the subversive guerrilla experiences. Assuming, studying and positively discussing the reality of our mistakes will help us to catalyze a better management of the variables for the next adventure.

We share the views of the Anarchic Brigades Luis Ramirez Olaechea that “to fail an attack is part of the many probabilities that arise in the bravery of the street, when we believe that everything is going well we are surprised that something escapes from what was arranged and planned”. Also from the Conspiracy for the Savage Iconoclast – Cell Kevin Garrido that “to reduce the anti-systemic actions to the result (successful or not) of these, is typical of an exitist paradigm that would only lead us, inevitably, to a militaristic understanding of the anti-systemic praxis”. Continue reading “Santiago, Chile: Attempted explosive attack on the Scotiabank corporate building by ‘Grupo de Acción 6 de Julio – Nueva Subversión’” →

Rome, Italy: Claiming fire barricade and stone pelting against Terna headquarters (November 2, 2023)

Posted on 2023/11/26 by darknights

Claiming fire barricade and stone pelting Rome – November 2.

On the night of November 2, we placed and set fire to tires blocking both directions of traffic in front of the Terna spa headquarters on Via Egidio Galbani and threw stones to break its glass.

Terna is the main company in Italy for the construction and maintenance of electricity infrastructure, but it also operates abroad in countries such as Chile. Terna is not only responsible for the environmental devastation and pollution that follows the building of power lines and related transformer stations, as a leading actor in the process of electrifying the world as a consequence of the unhealthy idea of progress that this deadly system propagates, but it is also a promoter of the “green revolution” caused by the recent need to restructure capitalism that will only bring further exploitation of ecosystems and people. Unveiling its responsibilities is one of the goals of our action.

This action is to be seen as part of the international campaign to free Marcelo Villarroel. Marcelo is an anarchist prisoner in Chile’s state prisons who was imprisoned after a period of absconding in 2007 for a series of bank expropriations. He was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison without access to prison benefits because he was held responsible for certain actions that took place during the years of the military dictatorship in Chile and therefore condemned by military laws. Despite the rhetoric, Chilean democracy shows perfect continuity with the dictatorial regime when it comes to striking those who act without mediation for the end of all oppression and exploitation caused by the State and Capital. That is why we join the chorus of actions and initiatives for its immediate liberation.
IMMEDIATE FREEDOM FOR MARCELO VILLARROEL SEPULVEDA!

We would like to take this opportunity to send solidarity greetings to anarchist Francisco Solar and anarchist Monica Caballero, who have undergone a lengthy trial in recent months for the collation of explosive devices against institutional targets in the context of the 2019 uprising in Chile, of which they were recently found guilty.
SOLIDARITY TO MONICA AND FRANCISCO!

We would also like to express our solidarity with Alfredo Cospito who was recently refused for the umpteenth time the cancellation of his classification under the 41bis prison regime.
FORZA ALFREDO! THE STRUGGLE IS NOT OVER!

Solidarity with the anarchist Stecco recently arrested by police special units after 2 years of absconding.

SOLIDARITY TO ALL ANARCHISTS AND ANARCHICS IMPRISONED, HIT BY REPRESSION OR ON THE RUN!

FINALLY WE WOULD LIKE TO SEND OUR SOLIDARITY AND STRENGTH TO ALL THOSE PALESTINIANS WHO ARE RESISTING AND FIGHTING AGAINST THE INFAMOUS ZIONIST OCCUPATION AND GENOCIDE OF THEIR PEOPLE.

RESIGNATION IS DEATH, REVOLT IS LIFE.
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!

Anarchists

Source: La Nemesi

$hile: Anarchist comrade Francisco Solar’s words in solidarity with Marcelo Villarroel

Posted on 2023/09/21 by darknights

Solidarity is attack

It is not the fruit of a profound analysis that by striking with forcefulness and frequency, it is possible to bend the hand of Power. This has been demonstrated in multiple experiences of struggle in different territories and at different times.

At this moment the situation of comrade Marcelo Villarroel requires, without a doubt, that decision and collective and individual will to make the Power and its legal apparatus bend. There are several documents, writings and communiqués that have been disseminated in recent times that expose Marcelo’s situation and the legal aberration that is being applied to him, where ultimately a clear reason of State is perceived to keep him locked up. Therefore, what remains is to act to get the comrade out on the streets and thus open unsuspected paths for the return to the streets of the anarchist and subversive prisoners.

Marcelo Villarroel to the street!

Anarchist and subversive prisoners to the streets!

Long live anarchy!

-Francisco Solar Dominguez

La Gonzalina Prison – Rancagua

Sept 2023

Source: Informativo Anarquista

$hile: Words by Mónica Caballero in solidarity with Marcel Villarroel

Posted on 2023/09/21 - 2023/09/21 by darknights

For those of us who choose not to accept the discourse of the powerful, we know that the legal principles that underpin the legality of the State are not applied to everyone in the same way. Paper can hold a lot and can show us a vision far removed from reality.

The reality of power denies us that there are people punished for being openly hostile to its dominating forms, and that in pursuit of being the most implacable they violate their own laws. I do not pretend that the Powers That Be act correctly, but I will not lose the opportunity to evidence the use of their dirty tools against those who confront the oppressors.

As of today, Marcelo Villarroel is serving almost 29 years in prison in 3 periods and for years he has not been able to access prison benefits, all because of the sentences he has pending from the military prosecutor’s office. He still has 13 years to serve in prison before he can run for office.

The authorities deny the special treatment that Marcelo has, if he were treated as a common prisoner he would be on the street today.

Down with all the cages!

subversive and anarchist prisoners to the street!

– Mónica Caballero Sepúlveda

Anarchist Prisoner

San Miguel Prison.

Santiago, September 2023.

Source: https://informativoanarquista.noblogs.org/post/2023/09/09/chile-palabras-de-monica-caballero-en-solidaridad-con-marcel-villarroel/

Italy: Juan Sorroche and Marco Marino – Words of solidarity of anarchist prisoners in AS2 in Terni prison in response to the words of anarchist prisoners, subversives, fighting from Chilean prisons (August 21, 2023)

Posted on 2023/09/01 - 2023/09/01 by darknights

WORDS OF SOLIDARITY FROM ANARCHIST PRISONERS OF AS2 TERNI IN RESPONSE TO THE WORDS OF ANARCHIST PRISONERS, SUBVERSIVES, IN STRUGGLE FROM CHILEAN PRISONS

“Your struggle is ours, every gesture against this world has your imprint… because we are one pack that never forgets its own and its own, regardless, of where we are” – Public letter by Marcelo Villarroel, September 14, 2019

– Internationalist solidarity for the end of the sentence and freedom of comrade Marcelo Villarroel Sepúlveda, arrested in Argentina in 2008 after nearly 16 years in prison. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Pinochet’s military “coup” in Chile, wanted and created by North American imperialism as in Ukraine today, the comrade is sentenced by Pinochet’s legacy military justice. Today this legal aberration is applied, which coexists comfortably with the consensus democracy of the Chilean state, now ruled by the Boric left. Democracy and reactionary fascism are two sides of the same coin, tools of the Imperialist-State.

– Solidarity in the face of the beginning of the trial against comrades Mónica Caballero and Francisco Solar [the judicial hearing, the main trial phase, began on July 18], the vengeance of state rule does not stop against those who go on the offensive by attacking its untouchability and impunity.

– Solidarity with Comrade Juan Aliste Vega, also convicted by Pinochet’s military justice, and Comrade Joaquin Garcia Chancks.

– Solidarity for the downgrading of anarchist Alfredo Cospito from 41 bis. Against 41 bis, out everyone, and for the abolition of life imprisonment.

– Solidarity with comrade Anna Beniamino and Alfredo Cospito convicted in a political trial on the abnormal charge of Article 285 c. p. p., massacre against the security of the state, or commonly called political massacre, this is the first time a massacre without massacre against the internal enemy has been used in this way in Italy. Article 285 c. p. c., massacre against the security of the state, has not been applied to the massacres that have been perpetrated in this country, Piazza Fontana, the Bologna station, Piazza della Loggia, since the 1970s of the so-called strategy of tension, massacres carried out by the Italian state, but, like Pinochet’s “coup”, wanted and created by North American imperialism in its struggle to keep the world under its control. Continue reading “Italy: Juan Sorroche and Marco Marino – Words of solidarity of anarchist prisoners in AS2 in Terni prison in response to the words of anarchist prisoners, subversives, fighting from Chilean prisons (August 21, 2023)” →

$hile: In response to the repressive onslaught of the state against the comrades imprisoned in Santiago 1 and San Miguel. Words from Monica, Joaquin, Marcelo, Juan and Francisco.

Posted on 2023/06/24 by darknights

Prison reality is constituted by a permanent tension where our convictions and the certainty of our position at all times come into play, inevitably.

This reality implies always bearing in mind that the jailer can dispose of our lives at any moment and that our strength lies precisely in having the certainty that we will face each of these adverse situations always with dignity.

Increased restrictions, transfers and sanctions are part of these impositions that today affect our comrades locked up in the prison-company Santiago 1 and comrade Itamar in the CPF of San Miguel.

The comrade today in the punishment zone is faced with threats of transfer and the crafty tricks of a jailer with pretensions of making a name for herself. It is necessary to emphasize that this situation is due to the fact that the comrade, together with other prisoners in Tower 5, has spread the word about the abusive practices of the jailers during the raids, in a clear attitude of struggle and confrontation.

The comrades, for their part, are fighting for their regrouping after they were removed from Module 1 with the excuse of dismantling it and were distributed among different units, and today several of them are in Module 88 of punishment. Continue reading “$hile: In response to the repressive onslaught of the state against the comrades imprisoned in Santiago 1 and San Miguel. Words from Monica, Joaquin, Marcelo, Juan and Francisco.” →