On May 22, 2024, hooded students set up barricades and clashed with Molotov cocktails against the Unit for Dialogue and Maintenance of Order (UNDMO) outside the National Pedagogical University (UPN), to commemorate the Day of Chaos and anarchist comrade Mauricio Morales. In addition, according to a photo reporter, the action was carried out to criticize the National Government and its progressive discourse. In the midst of the clashes, the hooded men left a SITP (public transport bus) at the entrance of the university to prevent entry to it, a situation that was responded to with pellets by the UNDMO, leaving several students injured.
During the day, the hooded comrades handed over the following document from hand to hand:
The early morning of May 22. A bicycle moves through the cold night of Santiago. A comrade carries an insurrectionary dream in his backpack. At his belt he carries a revolver with which he will repel any reaction from the jailers. He carried a homemade bomb with him and a single objective is clear with each pedal stroke, to attack the gendarmerie school.
Around 1:30 a.m., when his last stop was made, only a block separated him from carrying out the action. He stops to check the clockwork system attached to a fire extinguisher filled with black powder, but in a second, an unexpected accident accelerates the stop. A great flash occurs and a deafening noise expands and echoes through the battered streets of the Matta neighborhood. The bomb that was supposed to shove in the face of the powerful, when activated, throws the body of the comrade towards the middle of the street. He dies instantly. The cold body corresponds to Mauricio Morales Duarte, to Punky Mauri, to Costra, to Loko Dog, Uncle Punky, Mabri, dozens of names for a single brother.
From Informativo Anarquista, a counter-information project, we write these words 15 years after the death in action of comrade Mauricio Morales, Punki Mauri.
*
Death is an event that inevitably takes us away from the body of the person who has passed away. But as quickly as the body withers, the common imagination turns to the dawn and unfolds the culminating fact of death towards hundreds, if not thousands, of memories, testimonies and actions that forge in the skin a vitality capable of driving a heart that beats in all directions.
Memory is not an exercise in unanimity or homogeneous plenitude. It does not always have the same points of reference or the same explanations. What it is, however, is collective, at the same time as it integrates shades and particularities that respond to their own places, to solitary or loose voices, which converge and meet on certain occasions between one and the other. In this sense, anarchic memory has been a point of connection, a motive for encounter that gives way to the search for and rapprochement of affinities with the decisions and paths that a companion built in life.
Mauricio Morales reflects, in part, what we want to say; how the heart of a dead comrade can be pumped with insistence. That, despite the pain and sadness, the persecutions and imprisonments that this brought, networks were built, complicities were strengthened and his anarchic memory continues to this day. We agree with the now extinct counter-information project Liberación Total (2011), that ‘death is an unbeatable obstacle, but in contrast, forgetting and passivity are walls that we know how to break down. Not only in relation to the comrade Mauri but to every insurrectionary spirit that has to live through the hardest circumstances of the paths we choose in life’.
In the exercise of their memory, the counter-information pages crossed communicational frontiers and provided an effective means of dissemination through which comrades from all over the world learned of Mauri’s death. The publication in them of words written by squatted social centres, friends, publishers, prisoners, action groups and Mauri himself, made possible the translation into different languages and the externalisation of an offensive memory to an international affinity.
Consulting a legend of black internationalism in the book Mapping the Fire (2012), one reads, no more and no less, that the pages of counter-information ‘are the messengers of our decision to get off the train of commitments and start a global journey of anarchy without a return ticket’.
The propagation of Mauricio Morales’ ideas, thoughts and contradictions was and is precisely the sign of a passage without a return ticket, especially because the comrade declared that the ideas coming out of our mouths were not enough, but the ones prevailing in active hands. Thus, the Italian counter-informative project Culmine understands that ‘(…) the affinity that we feel with Mauri is not only limited to the nihilistic aesthetics of his thoughts, no! We know that we have in front of us a comrade in action, one who has always confronted power to its ultimate consequences’.
Contagious of this spirit, in 2009, in a vindication of the explosive attack against the Chilean consulate in Greece, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire wrote that there are ‘people we have never met, but we know that we always look at things from the same perspective’. And a year later, also in reference to the Mauri, Marco Camenisch* expressed from a prison in Switzerland that ‘every death of ours, every failure of ours becomes a victory in the “strategic field” of the offensive’.
As a striking element of the black memory, we deny the rise of martyrs, heroes or untouchable figures, connecting with our dead comrades as a living whole that navigates agitated waters.
15 years after the attempt to attack the nest of jailers; the wall paintings, books, activities, counter-information projects, burning tyres, bottles flying in the wind, whistling bullets, incendiary or explosive planning, continue to carry the name of Punki Mauri through the streets, across languages, kilometres and generations.
Nothing is over, everything continuous. A death in action is an eternal call to fight. Together we can continue to keepo ensuring that anarchy lives on
Informativo Anarquista (Anarquist news)
May 2024
DN Note
*Marco Cameneisch is a Swiss eco anarchist in the late 1970s, who was involved in local opposition to the nuclear power industry. In Switzerland, as in other countries, the movement against nuclear power plants utilized tactics of direct action: cutting down electrical pylons, sabotage against power stations, and actions against leaders of the nuclear industry.
On Christmas eve of 1979, Camenisch with René Moser was accused sabotaging a power station belonging to NOK (Nordostschweizer Kraftwerke) at Bad Ragaz, St. Gallen with explosives, destroying two transformers and a power pole. The pair were arrested for the sabotage in January 1980 and after spending a year free on bail, the court of Canton in Chur and Graubünden sentenced Camenisch to 10 years in prison.
In December 1981, he escaped from Regensdorf prison near Zürich, along with 5 other prisoners. During the melée a prison guard was shot and killed, and another was seriously injured. Camenisch claimed he hadn’t been part of the group which committed the shootings. After the escape he spent 10 years in hiding.
In 1989, Swiss federal police and media claimed he was responsible for the killing of Swiss border police officer Kurt Moser at Brusio.
On November 5, 1991, Camenisch was stopped by Carabinieri on Cinquale di Montignoso road, along with fellow anarchist Giancarlo Sergianpietri. Camenisch produced a handgun and opened fire, wounding one of the soldiers. In the ensuing shootout, he was wounded in one leg and arrested. Two guns and six rudimentary bombs were found at his place. He was taken to Pisa hospital, where he remained for six months, and later at San Vittore prison infirmary in Milan. The Italian Court of Massa Carrara sentenced him to 12 years for assault and sabotage of electrical pylons. He served 9 of those years while in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison.
In April 2002, Camenisch was extradited to Switzerland and transferred to a prison in Pfäffikon near Zürich. In January 2003, after a hunger strike against the conditions of imprisonment he was suffering, he was transferred to a prison in Chur with better conditions. In 2002 the Swiss government transferred him back to Pfäffikon. In July 2004 he was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for the killing of Kurt Moser.
In November 2006 the Federal Supreme Court nullified this sentence on the basis that the sum of the two prison terms would exceed the maximum of twenty years set by Swiss law. On 13 March the sentence was therefore reduced to eight years. Camenisch has never denounced the actions attrinuted to him or anarchism during his time in prison, and he remained constant communication with the anarchist circles outside. He was freed from prison on 10 March 2017, after 26 years.
In these days it will be 15 years since the physical departure of comrade Mauricio Morales, the Punky Mauri… a thousand sensations are coming to the surface. May 22, 2009 seems like yesterday.
Facts, situations, feelings always alive, which remain burned in the memory, because the power with which they emerged was of such a magnitude, that not even the passing of the years can appease that force.
The news of your death, the hunt unleashed; the power, its defenders and false critics spewing threats, mockery and defamation. The pain of your depature, the complicity between comrades, the love, the solidarity, the combat and non-resignation.
The defiant confrontation, the haughtiness of offensive gestures. Anarchy, as a living idea, that moves into action and gives us strength, while pushing us to raise our heads, to fight defeat, stagnation, fear and pain.
The affinity and solidarity among comrades, the gestures that materialize in different forms, but always with the clear objective of continuing to aim at the destruction of power and all authority.
All that was May 2009, all that and more, it is difficult to translate it into words, because they all seem pale, washed out and short to convey what we lived. Even so, we must try, going beyond our own walls.
Mauri’s death marked a turning point on different levels. To the police, it finally gave them a name, an identity to persecute and to adjudicate explosive actions that had been going on without rest since 2004 (and where they had no other clues than those of a cowardly and delirious collaborator, El Grillo).
The anarchic comrades were left with the impact and pain of the departure, calling them to action, in different intensities, but with a sincere desire to contribute to the memory and the combat. In these same environments the paths of those who denigrate direct action and only give value to mass violence, denying individual action, social war, permanent insurrection and the arsenal that this may choose, are finally to be separated.
This separation and rupture was already brewing, but undoubtedly the death of Mauri, makes many masks fall, insults, opportunism and defamation come to the surface. History is full of nefarious characters and tendencies that, in order to accommodate themselves, to stay safe from any danger or to obtain political dividends, are capable of falling defamations, insults or trickery. The ever-living memory of our dead should not forget with ease and lightness those who have insulted them, denigrated their life choices and mocked their dead bodies.
The explosive 2009 brought raids, arrests, the press vomiting reports, comrades targeted, persecuted, clandestinities, but the anarchic bravery enjoying excellent health and a significant number of comrades giving their best, striving to contribute to the anti-authoritarian tide, with the urgency to live, in the here and now, everything that was built with words.
Then the police moves followed one after the other, simultaneous raids, the closing of our squatted home, arrests, pompous trials, clandestinity, flight for years, but the same desire to fight power, to continue advancing towards total liberation.
What is left after so many events?…. perhaps many will ask themselves, we do not, we do not digress, because we are clear, the deep pride of living as we have wanted, with the values and tools that have seemed right to us, without regrets. What remains is the joy of having crossed paths with beautiful, dedicated, dedicated people, without half measures, without compromises, without compromises.
What remains is the love for an idea and the burning desire for it not to die in the mouth, but to prevail in active hands. There remains the infinite eternal love for a brother who has accompanied us and who will accompany us even in the darkest night and on the most dangerous path.
Fifteen years later, the idea, the projects that united us, are still alive, as are you, among new anarchic comrades.
With eternal love… Comradeship, solidarity, love, confrontation, resistance/offensive, war and anarchy…. For an always Black May. Until the last bastion of prison society is destroyed.
Biblioteca Antiautoritaria Sacco y Vanzetti May 2024
“The snake cannot understand the hawk. Why don’t you rest a little here in the dark, in the beautiful, slippery dampness?” asked the snake. “Why fly in the skies, don’t you know of the dangers that lurk there, the violence and the storm that awaits you and the hunter’s gun that knocks you down and destroys your life?” But the hawk paid no attention to him. It spread its wings and flew; its triumphant song was heard and echoed in the sky. One day, the hawk was shot down, blood gushed from his heart and then the serpent said “Fool, I warned you, I told you to stay where you were, in the dark, in the beautiful humidity, the warmth, where no one could find you and harm you…” However, with his last breath, the hawk answered “I have flown, I have ascended in immense heights, I have seen the light, I have lived, I have lived!”
For Mauricio Morales… For the comrades who have departed…
Shortly after midnight on Saturday 18/5, we carried out a coordinated attack on the MAT protecting the metro construction site in Exarchia square. We attacked them simultaneously from three different streets, Themistokleous, Solomou and Metaxas. The cops, once again, were running in panic trying to get away from the fires.
This action came amid a time when the sheet metal of the construction site is expanding, where the government is preparing the ground for new more repressive measures, both in the universities and more widely in the neighborhoods, taking advantage as usual of the summer season when the possibilities for organized and mass resistance are reduced. So this is our response to remind them that, as always, they will find us in front of them.
15 years after the death of Mauricio Morales we send a signal of fire and complicity from Greece to Chile, honoring the international cooperation that existed between these two lands not many years ago. Let the slogan “spark in Santiago, fire in Athens” become a reality again.
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!!
15 YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF THE ANARCHIST COMRADE MAURICIO MORALES AND THE CALL TO ACTION AND PROPAGANDA IN HIS MEMORY
The black presence fills the streets of the city center, spreading chaos and anarchy!
As always, going beyond any context and fighting terrorism, the calls for calm and oblivion.
The appointment for a May Day of combat was made. Action groups and anarchic individuals burst in, bringing the memory alive, bringing our dead and imprisoned to the streets.
The Alameda was once again a scene of conflict, where our black propaganda was widely disseminated; canvases, posters, pamphlets, graffiti and clashes with the police took place, as well as barricades, sabotage and looting.
This is how Black May begins, remembering the comrades who died in the United States, as well as our dear brother Mauricio Morales, there they are connecting, different times and struggles, the same passion for destruction and total liberation.
HERE’S TO A BLACK MAY! FOR THE SPREAD OF CHAOS AND ANARCHY! MAURICIO MORALES PRESENT!
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.
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”→
