We receive and disseminate this text-proposal, which we will gladly return to in the near future:
Let’s be clear: we want Alfredo out of 41bis.
Our proposal is not that of a specialized campaign against 41bis or against prisons: not because we like these institutions or because we think anyone should remain locked up in them, but because we think it is urgent to start from a “simpler” goal, knowing full well that when we have achieved it we will not have even begun in our struggle, which is for social revolution.
A struggle for the destruction of the prison cannot be won as long as there are states and authorities: therefore, these are battles that must be carried on continuously, but we would like, in this case, to try to give ourselves an attainable goal even in the short or medium term.
The fight against prison is – in itself – a fight against the existing, because the end of prisons means the end of the state, similarly the fight against 41bis, in Italy, goes to touch some of the foundations of the Italian state, which since its introduction has made it the workhorse of the “fight against the mafia.” Let’s face it clearly and humbly: 41bis is one of the ideological pillars of the Italian state, which has among its mottos “41bis or death!” The anti-mafia war has shown us this: the state, instead of giving up 41bis, has been willing to make the population pay for mafia bombs, such as the massacre of Via Georgofili in Florence or Via Palestro in Milan. So we find it difficult that on the abolition of that prison regime specifically (as, moreover, of prison in general), we can make pressures, whether harmless or violent. Whereas we think it is different to lobby specifically for the downgrading of Alfredo. This is not to say that our speeches, or our actions, should be watered down. The radicality of our struggle must be ensured, even in the case of a “partial demand” such as Alfredo’s demotion, by never disjointing the goals we can and must set ourselves with the social-political reasons for our anarchist actions. The radicality of action, propaganda, and agitation are the only antibody to strongly reiterate that our struggle is for the destruction of the existent, without mediation, preventing our demands, from that of the liberation of a comrade to stopping this or that project of capital, from being assimilated into a power-compatible reformism. Continue reading “Italy: We will not stay warm during the storm”