Archive for the Immigration & Borders Category

International Conspiracy for Revenge – FAI/IRF claim bombing and call for global actions in solidarity with prisoners of FAI-Indonesia Eat & Billy

Posted in Anarchism, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Government, Immigration & Borders, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , , on November 15, 2012 by Ⓐb Irato

325 receives and transmits:

“Remember, remember
The fifth of November
The gunpowder treason and plot.
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.”

(V for Vendetta)

Last night (Monday, 5 November 2012), we placed a small explosive package.
We put it in front of Red Monkey Karaoke’s pub in Manado. We did it as a small gesture of a solidarity to all the rebels in Papua who were shot by the Indonesian military, to the people in Philippines who stand up against the eco-disaster of mega project of SMI-Xstrata, to the rebels in Greece squats who faced the eviction and were kidnapped by the state, to the anti-fascist fighters around the world who stand up against discrimination and terror.

We know it means nothing for some people who can only throw us by critiques and on other side, put their self behind the bars of reasons. For some people, this kind of solidarity “isn’t the true solidarity” because we hide our face and only put one name: Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front. Even so, we still don’t want to send our solidarity to “some revolutionary”, on the contrary we declare ourselves as a nihilist front.

But, we still want to mention our brothers in arms who always light a fire in our hearts by sending us their message: never step back, never bow, never unarmed, Conspiracy of Cells of Fire and anarchist revolutionary Theofilos Mavropoulos, to the revolutionary prisoners in Greece, to Gabriel Pombo da Silva, to Luciano Tortuga Pitronello and Mario Tripa Lopez, to Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai who are kidnapped by the state, to the anarchist prisoners of operation Ardire, Mangiafuoco, Ixodidae and Thor, to the brave one Henry Zeggarundo, to Marcelo, Juan and Fredy, to both Ivan Silva and Carla Verdugo, and last but not the least: our two brothers in struggle who are still seized by the state, members of FAI Indonesia section: Eat and Billy, and Tukijo: you are also our brother.

Our action tonight is a part of an international call of general strike and international solidarity to all the fighters who rise against domination, control, power and eco-destruction.

Our action totally echoes the call from our brothers of Revolutionary Groups for the Dispersion of Terror and the Fires On The Horizon from Greece, the Insurrectional Cell Mariano Sanchez Añon (CI-MSA) from Mexico, the Wolfpack in Russia, and the Cholera Cell as well as the Cell of Conspirators for the Extension of Chaos in Buenos Aires.

Never step back,
Never unarmed,
Never bow,
Solidarity in action, always

International Conspiracy for Revenge
Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front

Notes on the action:

Red Monkey Karaoke is one of the high class entertainment places in Manado. The device was placed in the parking area, in the middle of many cars from rich people. The target: cars in the parking area. Destroy the cars (as a main transportation for urban people). This is a symbol that ICR – FAI/IRF stand next to the rebels who are against the eco-disaster. To show solidarity and never step back from the frontline.

Red Monkey Karaoke is located in the main street of Manado. Pierre Tendean street is the widest and main street in Manado. Red Monkey was chosen because it is one of the consumerist symbols of Manado. The targeted was not the people, and that’s why the package was placed in the parking area.

The device was discovered by Megamass corporate security at 24:00 hrs. The security alerted Manado police who secured the area. At 02:00 Sulawesi police force arrived, made their evaluation and at 02:32 the item was detonated.

=======================================================

Dear comrades and companerxs of Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front (FAI – IRF) from around the world, to all the rebels who still rise against the power, society and eco-disaster.

We, the International Conspiracy for Revenge, Indonesian section of FAI-IRF want to make an international call of direct action against all property and symbols of society, eco-destroyers, fascists, military and our enemies. This international call in the beginning is to remember the abduction of our two brothers from Long Live Luciano Tortuga Cell – FAI Indonesia, Eat and Billy, by the state one year ago. One year of kidnap and harassment of revolutionary action done by our brothers. And not to forget to mention, the fugitive member of Long Live Luciano Tortuga Cell, K, who is still underground and hunted by power.

But in essence, our action will be dedicated to all the rebels and revolutionaries who never step back, eating their words, and who never want to wash their hands by the sale of another revolutionary name to protect their comfort zones.

We want to call our sisters and brothers in arms from all the cells of FAI-IRF to refresh our revolutionary memories. That until today, we haven’t forgotten and will never forget our sisters and brothers who are kidnapped and seized behind bars by the state. Eat and Billy are only a small piece in a wave of repression that always faced the rise of insurrectionary desires around the circles of FAI-IRF. Action always speaks louder than words.

For one week, starting from today, we want to send our revolutionary greetings for Eat and Billy and other rebels (proud and revolutionary members of CCF and Revolutionary Struggle, Luciano Tortuga Pitronello, Mario Tripa Lopez, Marco Camenisch, Gabriel Pombo da Silva, Theofilos Mavropoulos, Alfredo Cospito and Nicola Gai, Marcelo, Juan and Fredy, Ivan Silva and Carla Verdugo, anarchist prisoners of operations in Italia and many more revolutionary names) that must be remembered and mentioned in our hearts through action.

See you in the street, covered by the night through the fires against power and society.

For anarchy
For Black International
For our sisters and brothers

International Conspiracy for Revenge
Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front
FAI Indonesian Section

================

Communiques & News from FAI-Indonesia

Advertisement

Chile: Letter to the CCF from a nihilist accused in the bombs case

Posted in Anarchism, Animal Liberation, Corporations, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Earth Liberation, Environment, Government, Immigration & Borders, Indigenous, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , on November 28, 2011 by Ⓐb Irato

14 anarchists, libertarios, and social fighters were arrested on August 14th and accused of terrorism by the Chilean state, around the media-driven "Bombs Case". They have all been released into house arrest. 10 of them carried out a 65-day hunger strike from 2/21 to 4/27, winning several of their demands. Some of the "association" charges were dropped, but 5 comrades are still facing political trial beginning November 28. The struggle continues until all are free and the prisons are destroyed! INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY with the compañerxs kidnapped by the Chilean democracy. The passion for freedom knows no borders!

From culmine, translated by war on society:

Greetings brothers and sisters of the CCF, and to Theofilos Mavropoulos, I send you a fraternal embrace full of affection and complicity across the distance…

It is certain that we are judged by some for being anarchists, the eternal enemies of power, and that it is our theory made practice for long years that they now intend to severely punish.

Your voice has reached my heart, those sincere words full of solidarity caress my face, that strength animates me and your conviction I love; knowing that behind those bars there are not groans of sorrow, but rather screams of hatred, rage, hope — this gladdens me and makes me reaffirm that we are on the right path; it is then that I realize that each day new comrades are born who return to give sense to our new urban guerrilla, which is no longer merely local but is international, thanks in great part to the FAI and the contribution by you the CCF. Moreover I consider important the contribution that you are making in the circles linked to anarchist individualism, and our new and beautiful Nihilism.

We feel the same hatred toward the state, the same total disregard towards the new happy slave, towards the stupid mass that lets itself be led, we feel the same impotence of not being able to demolish the extermination centers that hold us captive, we feel multiple orgasms when we deliver ourselves completely to the realization of anarchy…

We are far away, but from here the distance is nothing, we are sure that sooner than later we will find each other whether in Greece, Italy, Chile or Mexico; our insurrectionalist-Nihilist international has battle camps in the streets of the entire world and there will always be space for individuals who understand that anarchy is not a cheap ideology but rather an idea that lives and conceives itself in direct action, because we know that the damned powerful will not give up their privileges and will defend them to the end of their dirty lives…

It is for this reason that we must communicate the importance of the threat of our new nihilism, it is for this reason that we have to accept that in order to triumph with our idea, we must drown the enemy in blood, and so with our sharp knives we will continue advancing toward the encounter with chaos, toward the creative nothing, and we will throw ourselves naked into that beautiful abyss where there is complete individual freedom…

I endorse the FAI-IRF. The Informal Anarchist Federation – International Revolutionary Front that is doubtless the Black International of the anarchists of action, since it has shown its capacity to respond in the face of the challenges that are emerging around the world…

But your call is not only for those who are in the bombs case, but rather has passed also to our dear brother Luciano, to whom our greatest homage will be to give him the harvest of actions that we realize with our hands…

You have also dedicated words to our brother Cristóbal Bravo, who was recently beaten by paid cowards, and it is here that it becomes important to shout loudly that the attack on property is not sufficient, which our Russian nihilist comrades understood very well and showed us that we must go further, without fear of disaster, it is your lives or ours or that of some comrade in prison, for now the impunity of that deed strikes me hard in the heart; they say that revenge is a plate best served cold, they also say that vengeance kills the soul and poisons you, I believe strongly that vengeance is the dessert in a meal for a nihilist, therefore one must not wait for facts before acting, and the main course will be to take the offensive since there are stupid cowards on all sides…

Comrades, my most heartfelt respect to your organization CCF and for the revolutionary anarchist Theofilos Mavropoulos, for all your contribution to the anarchic struggle and all the dignity that has been shown during your trial and your time in prison, I want to tell you that as great as those walls may be they cannot hide the enormous dignity and the great courage that you have shown to us the anarchists of the entire world.

Today you raise your fist, yelling “SOLIDARITY” in the international language of anarchy. And at the same time, with the other hand you hold firmly the knife of nihilism to sink it into the bowels of this world of Power and submission, well good; I from here send you all strength and energy that you may never wane! And know that nothing can separate us, we have begun an international anarchist offensive and we will not stop until we get to see the total end of all authority, of all society, of all gods, of all morals…

I take with my two hands, firmly and without hesitation, your knife of nihilism so that together we sink it into the heart of every tyrant, of every cop, of every jailer, of every bourgeois so that upon their corpses we can dance, laugh, fuck, enjoy and conquer once and for all our total freedom!

The death of our brother Mauricio Morales and the death of comrade Lambros Fountas, the loss of Luciano‘s hands and the loss of Simos Seisidis‘s wounded leg are an eternal call to fight, no anarchist wounded or killed in combat will be forgotten, it is the hour to thrust our dagger into the heart of the capitalist beast, they are our nourishment.

HONOR TO THE COMRADE LAMBROS FOUNTAS!

HONOR TO THE ROBBER COMRADE HORST FANTAZZINI!

LONG LIVE THE CONSPIRACY OF CELLS OF FIRE!

LONG LIVE THE FAI – LONG LIVE THE IRF!

FOR AN EGOISTS’ INTERNATIONAL, LONG LIVE NIHILISM!

IMMEDIATE FREEDOM TO LUCIANO PITRONELLO!

LONG LIVE ANARCHY!!!

 

NIHIL, an irreducible awaiting trial…

Do Not Say That We Are Few: Communique From The Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI)

Posted in Anarchism, Animal Liberation, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Earth Liberation, Immigration & Borders, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , , , , on August 9, 2011 by Ⓐb Irato

Due to the timeliness and relevance of the following text, we are releasing a complete but unpolished draft translation of it. Source: culmine. Translation by: war on society:

(This draft translation contains a few errors and some poor wording; it should be mainly understandable as it is, but we ask that it not be disseminated very widely yet; please expect a final version to appear in the coming week…)

To our sisters and brothers of the FAI / International Revolutionary Front, a contribution reasoning its communication, organization and armed struggle, at the dawn of a new era

Do not say that we are few
And that the commitment is too great for us.
Would you say that two or three tufts of clouds
Are few in the corner of the summer sky?
In a moment they let down wherever …
Flashes of lightning, bursts of thunder
And it rains on everything.
Do not say that we are few
Say only that we are.
– Lee Kwang Su

We the comrades of the “FAI / Artisans Cooperative of Fire and Affinity (occasionally spectacular) / International Revolutionary Front” and of the “FAI / 20th of July Brigade / International Revolutionary Front” claim in this writing the fruit of a meeting of more voices, in the name of the comrades “FAI / Sisters-in-arms, Mauricio Morales Cell / International Revolutionary Front,” the parcel bomb that in March 2011 resulted in the serious wounding of the Lieutenant Colonel of the thunderbolt Alexander Albamonte, the parcel bomb that lightly wounded the clerk of the Swissnuclear office, and the parcel bomb to the Koridallos prison in solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / FAI / International Revolutionary Front.”

In recent times, in the metropolises overlooking the banks of the Mediterranean, the streets are continually animated by increasingly heated protests and manifestations of the oppressed who are no longer willing to suffer the oppression of rule: from Greece to Tunisia, from Spain to Libya, the fuse continues to burn. In one of these streets we met and we have decided to deepen the discussion on what is moving in the circles of insurrectional anarchism across the world.

Within the general optimism of the comrades who, in the diversity seen always new outbreaks of struggle, in a dialogical and lively informal international confrontation, there was a dissonant voice. It was a comrade of our “Sisters-in-arms, Mauricio Morales Cell,” who told us ragefully of the censorship of the communique/discussion that claimed the actions mentioned above. These 12 claims, delivered by post to various realities of the anarchist movement in Italian, were not published by any, preventing a communication vital for the international growth of informal discussion. Today we know that this censure is only the desperate reaction of a former anarchist tainted by assemblary bureaucratism and by the obsession of the social struggle transformed into stupidity in partial struggle.

From the ashes of the old and glorious individualist anarchism, a new insurrectionalism has been / is being born. As our sisters wrote in their never-arrived claim: “For the first time in history an informal organization, a federation of informal groups across the world was made flesh, bleeding and drawing blood.” The informal organization is no longer an abstract fantasy, a soliloquy in the mouth of a handful of (more or less learned, more or less sincere) comrades. In these last years, in various parts of the world, the new nihilists have sparked the concern of various states, and fear and hostility in the official part of the anarchist movement. The new anarchism will give the destructive fantasy its proper force and will cement the nihilistic act with the proper consistency. Since we launched the proposal for an “Informal Anarchist Federation,” much water has passed under the bridge. Today, thanks to the sisters and brothers of the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire” who have relaunched the “FAI / International Revolutionary Front,” the “FAI / International Network,” “The International Network of Action and Solidarity,” the “Informal Anarchist Federation – International Network“… with its thousands of names has become a reality. A reality which, now more than ever, needs to grow through the medium of informal organization on the world stage thanks to a federation of action groups. Dozens and dozens of cells, nuclei, movements, and individual comrades who diffusely and horizontally, united by a strong and clear pact of mutual aid, chaotically and destructively wage war on the existent.

In Greece:
– Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / FAI / International Revolutionary Front
– International Revolutionary Front / Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / Revolutionary Groups for the Spreading of Terror – Cell of Vandalisms.
– International Revolutionary Front / Terrorist Warriors’ Complicity of the fallen commando John Severino
– International Revolutionary Front / Deviant Behaviors for the Spreading of Revolutionary Terrorism / Cell of Anarchic Action
– Cell of Revolutionary Solidarity – FAI
– Anarchist Revolutionary Front / Deviant Behaviors for the Spreading of Revolutionary Terrorism / Cell of Reflexive Attack
– FAI / Cell of Aggressive Conscience
– International Revolutionary Front / Conspiracy of Cells of Fire / Revolutionary Groups for the Spreading of Terror / Abnormal Cell-Heretics

In Indonesia:
– FAI Informal Anarchist Federation, Indonesia Section.

In Mexico:
The two souls of Mexican insurrectionalism (ALF-ELF) and the Autonomous Cells for Immediate Revolution – Praxedis G. Guerrero.
– Informal Anarchist Federation / Acrata
– Earth Liberation Front (ELF) / International Network of Action and Solidarity – Anti-Civilization Informal Group
– Earth Liberation Front (ELF) / Informal Anarchist Federation International Network
– Insurrectional Cell Sole-Baleno of the Autonomous Cells for Immediate Revolution – Praxedis G. Guerrero / FAI
– Commando of Free, Dangerous, Wild and Incendiary Individuals for the Black Plague / FAI / International Network
– Luddites Against the Domestication of Wild Nature / FAI / International Network
– Eco-Anarchist Cell for the Direct Attack / FAI / International Network
– Revolutionary Action Brigade for propaganda by the deed and armed action – Simon Radowisky / FAI / International Network

In Chile:
– International Revolutionary Front / Insurrectional Commando Aracely Romo
– Commando 8th of December International Coordination FAI

In Russia:
– ELF Russia Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) / International Network of Action and Solidarity / International Revolutionary Front

In Peru:
– Circle of Iconoclastic Action / FAI

In the Netherlands:
– Conspiracy of Cells of Fire – Dutch Cell

In England:
– International Informal Anarchist Federation / FAI

In Italy:
– FAI / Artisans Cooperative of Fire and Affinity (occasionally spectacular) / International Revolutionary Front.
– FAI / 20th of July Brigade / International Revolutionary Front
– FAI / Sisters-in-arms, Mauricio Morales Cell / International Revolutionary Front
– FAI / Lambros Fountas Revolutionary Cell
– FAI / International Solidarity
– FAI / Animal Revolt
– FAI / Horst Fantazzini Revolutionary Nucleus
– FAI / Cell against Capital and Prison and its Jailers and its Cages
– FAI / Armed Cell for International Solidarity
– FAI / Terrible Anonymous Revolt (RAT)
– FAI / Metropolitan Cell
– FAI / Narodnaja Vojla

It has been ten years during which, through action with our limitations, but with constancy, we have striven to realize this organizational design. Naturally the growth will not be linear and progressive, there will be ups and downs, for long and short periods in which almost all will be silent and then back stronger than ever in a country that we might not even imagine. Every group and individual with its strength, its will, will give its proper contribution of action and of communication to help everyone else to adjust the shot.

The repression has hit hard in Greece. Our sisters and brothers of the “Cells of Fire” continue to fight within the walls, participating with their writings, in an exceptional manner, in this organizational arrangement. If we know one thing, in such diversity, we are the hand that will break the chains. At first what we will bind the revolutionary solidarity through what some anarchists stupidly call “fictive movement,” failing to understand that their solidarity is tempered in any revolutionary project.

In our history we in the Italian FAI have always acted, without mediation, in “social” struggles: the struggle against FIES [extreme isolation units in Spanish prisons used to cage anarchist prisoners and other “uncontrollables”], the struggle against CIE, never relating to them in a demagogic top-to-bottom way. We have always acted as individuals not wanting to indoctrinate anyone. We destroy that which destroys us, what does not kill us makes us stronger.

The only limits that we place our actions are of an ethical character. In a world divided into included and excluded, we have with our actions made a choice. We are not interested in a society divided into classes, we do not want any dictatorship of one class over another, we want anarchy! Millions of microcosms where each individual can experiment freely. Something very similar to what we experience every day through action, elaborated in the best way of organizing without surrendering one’s own individual freedom. It is amazing to grow in this organizational experience together with sisters and brothers who we have never seen and probably never will see. It is amazing how, in a given historical moment, individuals who do not know each other come to the same conclusions.

We do not know how the FAI / International Revolutionary Front will evolve; the possibilities are enormous and unimaginable. It could die in a flash or grow exponentially. Our growth will be mainly qualitative, growth consistent with the unimaginable potential of informal organization. It will take a long time before the FAI / International Revolutionary Front gives its best, before the informal organization creates real problems in this state of things.

It is a war of anarchist resistance that began more than a century ago. With its highs: the contribution of the Paris Commune, the era of propaganda by the deed, the era of great revolutions and its lows: the trade unions, non-violence, the libertarian municipalism, all of which we believe goes by the name of compromise.

Our path will be characterized by a long and continuous communication through action. Communication is the core of all our informal structure, and is also its weakness. Until a year ago, our action-communiques could be read on the front pages of all major Italian newspapers; this sufficed us to communicate. Today, power (it was inevitable) has realized the danger of this communication and they censor not the action but the communique, the message. To speed up the dissemination of this writing and to reach the greatest possible number of actual anarchists, we decided to use e-mail. This choice is also due to the scarcity of Italian language publications willing and able to give space to what is new is moving in the anarchist movement internationally. To increase the reproducibility of an action, in our opinion, this action must be motivated, claimed. Otherwise, power will pollute it, distorting the meaning and making it in fact sterile and this, which we write, we know well for having experienced it directly on our skin many times. A destructive action will always remain a beautiful thing, even if it is not claimed. It can be done for the sheer pleasure of doing it. To do something right is always good. But to us this is not enough, we want to make this system fall. The more reproducible the action, the greater is its real destructive potential; the more rebels understand that a real resistance exists the more they will be motivated to action. In the past and even today, some of us happened to individually participate in actions that were not claimed, with comrades who of course were not part of the FAI / International Revolutionary Front, in order to make technical data that could save the precious lives of comrades, and–why not?–to learn some new technique.

We of the Italian FAI continue to travel all the routes that can flow into the revolutionary river. Riots, popular struggles, more circumscribed projects of radical struggle, all contribute to give new life to our practices of attack. It has been ten years that we have acted undisturbed. Power hits right and left with increasingly fanciful repressive operations, but so far none of us has ever been hit. We regret very much for the comrades who were arrested and indicted, but better that the perpetrators remain outside, free to strike and to strike again. Some of us may fall, but will soon be replaced by other groups. We hope on this occasion to behave like the sisters and brothers of the “Cells of Fire,” who continue the struggle with courage and consistency within the walls of a prison that we are sure will miss.

Criticism must always be active and alert. We have to save criticism and self-criticism from self-referentialism that would lead us to be fictitious, to go nowhere.

As we’ve said before, it is preferable that the affinity groups are not known to each other, to better combat repression, but if it happens like it happened to us, to re-meet in the field of movement, then the risks increase contemporaneously with the immediate prospects. For example, increased technical capacity, increased chances of acquiring weapons and explosives, greater ability to support the comrades forced into clandestinity.

We have read with great attention “The Sun Still Rises” of the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire,” and we came to the conclusion that the three key points of the informal agreement of the second generation of the “Cells of Fire” can become the key points the “FAI / International Revolutionary Front.” In these three points are based on our main features.

First: the destructive direct action as a necessary and indispensable. Action that can go from the launch of a Molotov cocktail to the assassination, with no hierarchy of importance, each group or individual will decide how best to take, in accordance with its own revolutionary ethic that surely must agree never to strike in the pile. This point should give rise, according to our perspective, to a new anarchist and nihilist guerrilla, thousands and thousands of fires against capital wherever.

The second key point is important to us and ­­­we are never the spokesmen, representatives of anyone. We do not represent that we, women and men, in constant revolt against the existent, against political power, technological power, the power of capital which is likely to wipe out the entire lives on this planet on all levels. In us naturally there is no hope in a class that will impose its dictatorship over another, which then always reduces to the dictatorship of the “representatives” of a class over all others. In us there is no solidarity that does not confront subjugation, but that if the exploited do not move a finger to lift, contributing thereby also to our oppression. What qualifies us most is the refusal of delegation, of “representation,” our revolt is individual and it is there that our anarchism, nihilism and revolution traverses the organizational instrument of the informal federation.

The third issue featuring: international revolutionary solidarity. The comrades who participate in this informal arrangement should launch campaigns of struggle that will join with other groups of the FAI / International Revolutionary Front, in their own time and manner. Three simple and direct points which we believe would mark a step forward for our informal organization, expanding its vision of “anti-social” and “nihilistic” the founding document of the FAI, “Who we are: An open letter to the anti-authoritarian and anarchist movement.”

Everything about the “FAI / International Revolutionary Front” is in chaotic and continual evolution, beginning with its many names and definitions. We are only just beginning, the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire” is the motor of this explosion of revolutionary vitality. The driving force of an informal federation that is growing and that has exceeded the confines—which for us anarchists are dead—of nations. Any organizational writing, analysis and criticism coming from the actions of the FAI / International Revolutionary Front will never be the definitive one. Our informal federation is in continual evolution. The comrades of the International Revolutionary Front span the world by one fire and another, already contributing to the analysis and to the growth of this project. Our sisters and our brothers who are imprisoned are our greatest strength, their analysis opens our eyes, our anger and hatred for their arrest gives us strength. A continuous and infinite organizational adjustment: this is the Informal Federation at its source, not in the perspective of a distant future revolutionary world that will arrive we do not know when, if ever, but in the perspective of the quality of our existence, which in this moment, here and now, is fully realized in the armed struggle against power.

We of the Italian FAI propose as the banner of this struggle the symbol of the “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire,” the 5 arrows of different lengths and different directions that together affect the power. To indicate the myriad of groups and individuals of the International Revolutionary Front / FAI, who, with varying intensity but united by a pact of mutual aid, strike without breath. The arrows are topped by a black star with an A inside, our symbol of anarchism; above the star, the name of the group of the International Revolutionary Front that claims the action. We decided on a symbolism for the story of “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire” came in and we broke through the rebels in our hearts. This, of course, if the Greek comrades are in agreement.

In a time of world crisis at all levels, perhaps an informal anarchic structure means to stop awaiting the events and go to the revolution. In Arab countries, regimes collapsed to give rise to other regimes, this time democratic. The world super powers are easy game to influence events, Europe is on the brink of collapse, we must not remain with hand in hand, tied to old organizational schemes that have already past their worst. To hold an Informal Anarchist Federation is to concretely intervene in view of the struggles of the excluded of the whole world, it is to concretely intervene in the struggle that nature takes every day against criminal human “technology.” To intervene through the reality of widespread attacks on the territory. Attacks that are never missed, but that tie together by an informal international network based on the pact of mutual aid, becoming more visible, more virulent, multiplying the diffusion and in fact the subversive potential. As we have said, we do not believe we have the truth in our pocket, but we are convinced that in certain moments in history, the ideas impose themselves on their own, now is the time to give the real contribution that perhaps will make the difference. A good wager, which we make, the best wager that an anarchist revolutionary can make, to throw your heart over the obstacle and see what happens.

We of the FAI / Artisans Cooperative of Fire and Affinity (sometimes spectacular) / International Revolutionary Front and the FAI / 20th of July Brigade / International Revolutionary Front adhere to the campaign of revolutionary solidarity that the comrades FAI / Sisters-in-arms, Mauricio Morales Cell have initiated with the package bomb to the Koridallos prison. Once a year, we will strike in solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire until we find them in freedom. The dozens and dozens of years in prison to which they were condemned will be transformed into a tragic boomerang for the Greek state. The interests of that state in Italy will be struck, year after year, with ever increasing hardness. We invite other groups and individuals of the FAI / International Revolutionary Front around the world to do likewise.

LONG LIVE THE CONSPIRACY OF CELLS OF FIRE
LONG LIVE THE FAI / / INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTIONARY FRONT

FAI / Artisans Cooperative of Fire and Affinity (sometimes spectacular) / International Revolutionary Front
FAI / 20th of July Brigade / International Revolutionary Front

On Summit Demonstrations, Solidarity Actions and the Necessity of Consistency

Posted in Corporations, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Environment, Government, Housing Rights, Immigration & Borders, Police State, Revolution with tags , , on February 23, 2011 by Ⓐb Irato

A Position Paper From the IMF Resistance Network

The problematic aspects of summit demonstrations have been made clear. In the current climate of action in antiauthoritarian circles we have run into a little bit of a bind, both conceptually and practically. Militant demonstrations at the sites of trade summits have done a lot to break the image of the “Washington Consensus” as well as mount actual destabilizations in the functioning of the apparatus of the State in certain areas for periods of time But summit demos have become something of an abstract anarchist threat that comes to take up a lot of energy and only engages for a short period of time, only to see that energy dispersed after the last dumpsters are rolled back down their respective alleys and the last windows replaced.

But we want to push beyond the absurdities of the recent debates around large scale confrontation. The absurdities of claims to our addictions or speculation about the psychological motivations beyond confrontation aside, we need to move beyond understanding our actions within the borders of spatial divisions of local and global. If we can say one thing about capitalist globalization it is that these divisions have been eliminated and have become part of global commodity flows.

But most recent debates around how to engage in anticapitalist actions have fallen either into an understanding of attacking capitalism as some sort of entity or focus on the local level where it is actually enacted. But all action is localized to a time and place within a wider context that frames that “locality,” and yet a reliance on this localism or globalism, or the position of only “local organizing” or “global movements,” relies on an arbitrary definition of “local” or “global” as a geographic location, as if we only act geographically. We need to understand that capitalist markets operate as a conjunction of local circumstances that, through their mechanizatons, frame the limits and possibilities of localized actions.

We need to see beyond the local/global dichotomy to begin to understand actions against capitalism as a matter of consistency. It is not that markets are things that are damaged by broken windows, in fact I bet plate glass companies love anarchists. But really it is a matter if disrupting the very possibility of the functioning of markets, the flow of commodities. In other words, it is not a matter of striking at sites but of disrupting operations in a consistent and wide spread basis. On this level there is something to be said for completely dispersed tactics that attack at a variety of sites all at once. But again, this reduces disruption to sites of capital rather than the possibility of their operation. What is traded away in these widely dispersed tactics (organized under the banner of Plan B and a variety of different names) is the sheer magnitude that presents itself in convergence, the ability to disrupt and rupture police strategy, the space generated in widespread disruption. We need to look beyond the summit as a singular action, and also beyond the summit as a collection of widely dispersed singular actions that have no resonance or magnitude to them. Rather we need to understand these phenomena through the lens of a flow and deployment of energies, on the level of magnitude, on the level of resonance. In other words, we need to look beyond the summit demonstration as a thing or a space, beyond the institution as a target, and begin to understand it as a convergence, as a coming together. In this framework it may seem odd to focus on the International Monetary Fund, and it would be if that were the focus. It is not that the IMF does horrible things that create poverty through austerity (although it does), but rather that what the IMF presents, and how it has operated, is in the capacity of making capitalism possible through enforcing privatization, monetarization, and the standardization of economic relations around capitalist models. This is what has been recognized in this current round of financial crisis, the IMF makes capitalism possible. And it is within this understanding that we can begin to see something like the IMF not as an institution that is central in itself but as another manifestation of capitalism to be confronted.

The importance of solidarity actions needs to escape this odd format of global referendum on the popularity of our politics and become a way to understand global resistance to capitalism as a convergence of anticapitalist actions, actions that can be more or less coordinated, more or less in concert with each other. But the spectre of the solidarity action is a vast modification in the way that we have understood demonstrations in the past. With the dispersal of action, not in a single urban space necessarily (although there is a lot to say about the tactical advantages of this as well), but on a wider scale, we are able to mount disruptions not only at the site of the summit but within the global flows of markets. But solidarity needs to be seen beyond simply the dates of a meeting and needs to be understood as a constant stance, a constant series of actions in widely dispersed sites over a consistent period of time.

In other words, it is time to get serious about this! Trying to appeal to the better ethical notions of capitalists and politicians, trying to shame cops out of beating demonstrators, trying to appeal to global financial institutions to “find a heart” are all approaches based in an understanding of capitalism as some sort of cabal. What we need to understand is that markets only work if economic situations are “stabilized”, smooth, without disruption and that these minor disruptions, these singular actions, pieces of graffiti, broken windows, are nothing compared to the constancy of the flows of global capitalism. Solidarity actions are pointless if they are about “speaking with one voice” or appealing to “decision makers”. They are about making a decision ourselves. Deciding that we will not allow our existence to be limited and defined through the flows of markets, and that we will do what is necessary to create the space to live a life that is worth living. But that decision must exist outside position papers like this one, it must exist as an active, alive convergence of the energy generated by anticapitalist actions. It must exist as an expansion, a multiplication of disruptions that operate beyond the arbitrary borders of the global and the local, and every confrontation is part of the development of this destabilization. It is not about smashing capitalism, but about generating disruptions of enough magnitude, in enough places, consistently enough to make its operation impossible. That means that confrontation must feed confrontation, on whatever scale possible, at whatever site possible.

2011 begins with widespread revolt

Posted in Corporations, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Government, Immigration & Borders, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , , on January 30, 2011 by Ⓐb Irato

¡Que se vayan todos!

A dizzying array of events have transpired over the last few weeks, to the point that it’s hard to keep current and up to date. Here’s a collection of recent coverage (that is, in our honest editorial opinion, amongst the best):

Egypt:

Widespread Revolt Strikes Egypt

Widespread protests have struck Egypt, in what some are calling a “revolution.” These events fall on the heels of a revolution in Tunisia earlier this month which toppled the government there. Protests in Egypt have been met with violence from the authorities and government forces.

Tuesday developments:

  • Obama praises Egyptian military, but says nothing about Internet and phone disruptions
  • Tens of thousands turn out for protests today.
  • Abdel Haleem Kandeel, secretary of the Kefaya Movement, an Egyptian opposition group, says that there will be no negotiations or dialogue until Mubarak leaves.
  • Google launched a service for people in Egypt to send Twitter messages by dialing a phone number, no Internet connection needed. The following numbers are listed for people to use the service: +16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855.
  • Details about the proposed rally planned for Tuesday – the so-called ‘march of a million people’: Organisers have told Al Jazeera that the march will start at Tahrir Square – the focal point of the protests in Cairo. The marchers are expected to pass the nearby Egyptian state television building before heading north-east, towards the presidential palace.

Monday developments:

  • Egyptian government has totally shut down Internet. Cell phones expected to be blocked on Tuesday. Rail service shut down.
  • Big convergence set on Tuesday for Tahrir Square.
  • Still no pressure from U.S. government on Mubarak regime.
  • 250,000 pack downtown Cairo for today’s general strike
  • Token numbers of police directing traffic at major intersections, but otherwise streets still controlled by army + ordinary citizens.
  • Opposition groups continue to call for a “million man march” and a general strike on Tuesday to commemorate one week since the protest movement began. Meanwhile, the military has reiterated that it will not attempt to hurt protesters.
  • New government sworn in, but Mubarak still in charge
  • Cairo: 200 people haven’t budged from the city’s central Tahrir square.
  • Al Jazeera’s English TV channel generally not available in the U.S.
  • Multiple confirmed reports from egyptians trying to withdraw funds from Egy Banks in Cairo: unable to get cash.
  • Doctors in Tahrir run out of basic supplies. Local mosque now temp hospital.
  • Nissan says it is halting Egypt production for one week.

Live Wires

*Al Jazeera Live Blog
*Twitter: Jan25 Voices
*Democracy Now!’s Sharif Kouddous on the Ground in Cairo, Egypt

Breaking News and Analysis

*Slavoj Žižek: Why fear the Arab revolutionary spirit?
*Who’s Behind Egypt’s Revolt?
*Egypt: Mubarak Departure Virtually Inevitable, But Then What?
*Democracy Now!’s Sharif Abdel Kouddous Live from Egypt: The Rebellion Grows Stronger
*Repression and Poverty Underpin the Uprising in Egypt
*Activists Built a Media Camp for Gathering Multimedia in the Tahrir Square
*Made In The USA: Tear Gas, Tanks, Helicopters, Rifles And Fighter Planes Used On Egypt Protesters
*Egyptians Defiant as Military Does Little to Quash Protests
*Templates for responding to excesses of an ally
*We’ve waited for this revolution for years. Other despots should quail
*“The people want the regime to fall” Reports from the Egyptian uprising
*Egyptian Activists’ Action Plan: Translated
*Egypt’s military in a quandary
*Today’s videos uploaded to Youtube
*Uprising in Egypt: “This is the Biggest Political Challenge the Regime Has Yet to See from the Streets”
*Juan Cole: “Egypt is a Praetorian Regime”
*Records of the strike in Egypt under Ramses III, c1155BC
*Egypt protests: America’s secret backing for rebel leaders behind uprising
*Photos from Egypt
*Protesters torch Egypt police post
*Egypt’s protests in social media
*Guardian Journalist Arrested and Beaten Alongside Protesters in Egypt, Secretly Records Ordeal
*Guardian Reporter Jack Shenker on Egypt Protests: “Fear Barrier Seems to Have Been Broken”
*Egyptian American Activist: Hillary Clinton Forgets to Mention Tear Gas, Tanks, Concussion Grenades Used Against Egyptian Protesters Are Made in the U.S.
*Egypt’s Day of Rage goes on. Is the world watching?

New site: The people want the regime to fall

Democracy crushes the proletariat in Egypt and everywhere

This booklet is a a one-page, double-sided legal sheet (8.5"x14"). Designed for easy reproduction and distribution. Distributed at Egyptian Solidarity demonstrations on Jan 29, 2011.

Tunisia:

Tunisia: the revolution is not over

The protests in North Africa: What’s happening?

Insurrection in North Africa: the story so far

Tunisia: the revolution will not be televised

Tunisia: Multitude in Revolt

The Tunisian Revolution: Initial Reflections

Notes on the Tunisian Revolution

More:

The Arab world is on fire: dialogue with a Syrian anarchist

For more updates from the global intifada, follow Ab Irato of Guerrilla News on Facebook (UPDATE! Account deleted! Censorship!) and Twitter.

Call to Action for the Spring 2011 IMF/WB Meetings

Posted in Corporations, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Environment, Government, Immigration & Borders, Indigenous, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , , , on January 27, 2011 by Ⓐb Irato

On April 16, 2000 upward of 20,000 anti-globalization protesters descended on Washington, DC to resist the destructive neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. On the heels of the stunning victory in Seattle on N30, hopes were high that the A16 demo would shut down the meetings and once again show the world the power of bottom-up, horizontal resistance.

A16 didn’t turn out to be another Seattle, but the worldwide struggle against neoliberalism was largely successful nonetheless. The relentless pressure of mass demonstrations at every summit meeting, coupled with ever more militant resistance from the residents of the affected countries, left the so-called Washington consensus in ruins. IMF capitalization plummeted in the following years as more and more poor nations opted out of the financial straightjacket of exorbitant interest rates and austerity measures demanded of IMF loan recipients.

Today, the tentacles of neoliberalism are encircling previously exempt populations in Europe and the US, as international bankers demand their speculative losses be made good by people already on the verge of destitution. In countries like Greece and Latvia, massive cuts in social services are forcing millions into poverty, in order to repay the IMF the billions that went to bailing out casino capitalists. In other countries, like the US, neoliberals wreak their havoc without middlemen, but the results are the same. Here in Washington, DC, home of the IMF and World Bank, school budgets are being slashed, homeless shelters closed, city employees laid off, and Metro fares raised, all to make up budget shortfalls caused by rescuing multi-billion dollar banks from their own greed and stupidity. DC is also the target of an invasion by Wal-Mart, who plans to open four stores here in 2012. This is the same Wal-Mart that received millions from the World Bank for energy projects in Haiti and Mexico.

The rest of the world is not taking this lying down. In Greece, strikes and protests are near daily occurrences, to the point that the economic disruption may be costing the government more money than they save through austerity measures. Students in England have rioted in response to tuition hikes, destroying the lobby of the Liberal Democrat party headquarters and attacking Prince Charles’ car – with him inside it. A spontaneous, leaderless revolt in Tunisia has driven one president into exile, and the transition government is already falling apart.

Here in the US we live at the heart of the capitalist empire. More than any other people in the world, we have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to derail the imperial machine. This year the IMF and World Bank will once again begin their spring meetings on April 16. The IMF Resistance Network invites all enemies of neoliberal capitalism to join us in the streets of DC to fight for a just and free world.

Gaza’s Youth Manifesto for Change!

Posted in Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Government, Immigration & Borders, Palestine/Israel, Police State, Revolution, War & Peace with tags , , , , on December 27, 2010 by Ⓐb Irato

By Gaza Youth Breaks Out (GYBO)

Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in; we are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom. We are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the rest of the world.

There is a revolution growing inside of us, an immense dissatisfaction and frustration that will destroy us unless we find a way of canalizing this energy into something that can challenge the status quo and give us some kind of hope. The final drop that made our hearts tremble with frustration and hopelessness happened 30th November, when Hamas’ officers came to Sharek Youth Forum, a leading youth organization (www.sharek.ps) with their guns, lies and aggressiveness, throwing everybody outside, incarcerating some and prohibiting Sharek from working. A few days later, demonstrators in front of Sharek were beaten and some incarcerated. We are really living a nightmare inside a nightmare. It is difficult to find words for the pressure we are under. We barely survived the Operation Cast Lead, where Israel very effectively bombed the shit out of us, destroying thousands of homes and even more lives and dreams. They did not get rid of Hamas, as they intended, but they sure scared us forever and distributed post traumatic stress syndrome to everybody, as there was nowhere to run.

We are youth with heavy hearts. We carry in ourselves a heaviness so immense that it makes it difficult to us to enjoy the sunset. How to enjoy it when dark clouds paint the horizon and bleak memories run past our eyes every time we close them? We smile in order to hide the pain. We laugh in order to forget the war. We hope in order not to commit suicide here and now. During the war we got the unmistakable feeling that Israel wanted to erase us from the face of the earth. During the last years Hamas has been doing all they can to control our thoughts, behaviour and aspirations. We are a generation of young people used to face missiles, carrying what seems to be a impossible mission of living a normal and healthy life, and only barely tolerated by a massive organization that has spread in our society as a malicious cancer disease, causing mayhem and effectively killing all living cells, thoughts and dreams on its way as well as paralyzing people with its terror regime. Not to mention the prison we live in, a prison sustained by a so-called democratic country.

History is repeating itself in its most cruel way and nobody seems to care. We are scared. Here in Gaza we are scared of being incarcerated, interrogated, hit, tortured, bombed, killed. We are afraid of living, because every single step we take has to be considered and well-thought, there are limitations everywhere, we cannot move as we want, say what we want, do what we want, sometimes we even cant think what we want because the occupation has occupied our brains and hearts so terrible that it hurts and it makes us want to shed endless tears of frustration and rage!

We do not want to hate, we do not want to feel all of this feelings, we do not want to be victims anymore. ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future, heart aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians, religious bullshit, enough incarceration! WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want!

We want three things. We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask? We are a peace movement consistent of young people in Gaza and supporters elsewhere that will not rest until the truth about Gaza is known by everybody in this whole world and in such a degree that no more silent consent or loud indifference will be accepted.

This is the Gazan youth’s manifesto for change!

We will start by destroying the occupation that surrounds ourselves, we will break free from this mental incarceration and regain our dignity and self respect.  We will carry our heads high even though we will face resistance. We will work day and night in order to change these miserable conditions we are living under. We will build dreams where we meet walls.

We only hope that you – yes, you reading this statement right now! – can support us. In order to find out how, please write on our wall or contact us directly: freegazayouth@hotmail.com

We want to be free, we want to live, we want peace.

FREE GAZA YOUTH!

International Call for Solidarity from members of Revolutionary Struggle (Greece)

Posted in Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Government, Immigration & Borders, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , , on December 25, 2010 by Ⓐb Irato

Comrades,

We are three political prisoners, members of the armed group Revolutionary Struggle [Epanastatikos Agonas], and we send you militant greetings from the Greek prisons.

We were arrested in April 2010 along with other three comrades who are being accused of involvement in the organization. Since then, we have been on pretrial detention [under the terrorism act], waiting to be referred to a trial in the first months of 2011.

In an open political letter to society, the three of us claimed political responsibility for our participation in the organization of Revolutionary Struggle. In this way, we defended our actions which were directed against the Capital and the State, and contributed through practice and speech towards the overthrow of the State and capitalism, aiming at social revolution, at a non-statist, anti-authoritarian, communal and communist society, in which assemblies and councils of the people will undertake social, political and economic operation and management.

By claiming political responsibility, we also want to defend the armed struggle, and to highlight its timelessness and importance within the broader struggle for the overthrow and social revolution. Most importantly, we want to highlight its relevance and necessity for our times. It is our belief that the appropriate objective conditions for the overthrow of capitalism have developed in this era of global economic crisis more than in any other time since the Second World War.
Also, by undertaking political responsibility we wanted to restore the memory and honour of our comrade Lambros Foundas, who was a member of the Revolutionary Struggle and was killed in an armed clash with cops in March 2010 during an attempted expropriation of a car –a preparatory action of a wider action plan of our organization.

Continue reading

Communique for the Arrested Comrades by Conspiracy of Cells of Fire

Posted in Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Government, Immigration & Borders, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , on December 25, 2010 by Ⓐb Irato

Declaration for the 1st November letter-bombing against European State targets by Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.

(Read also the Letters of Gerasimos Tsakalos, Panagiotis Argyrou and Harris Hatzimichelakis, plus the International Call for Solidarity.)

Currently our three brothers, three members of our group are incarcerated in the prisons of Greek democracy. Their absence from our side is not rectified through the text of a proclamation. The words seem hopelessly small and insignificant against the intensity of situations and emotions that we share with them.

But even during these moments, when the walls and bars of the prison rise among us, nothing has changed…

Gerasimos Tsakalos, Panagiotis Argyrou and Harris Hatzimichelakis through the uncompromising attitude and the proclamation of responsibility, as members of the Conspiracy, give us the signal for the continuation of hostilities. In their pride we find our pride and in their smile, our smile.

Panagiotis and Gerasimos, two of the most honest and decent rebels, during the past year and a half, had passed to the forefront of illegality, taking a choice to keep a constant fighting stance towards the system and its pimps.

Harris imprisoned for a year and a half, in order to protect his wider friendly environment from being targeted by the police (in total 17 people were charged for participation in the conspiracy, based on many fingerprints that were found at the home of Harris). Harris refused at the beginning to admit to the fact that he is a member of the group. But after the recent arrest of our 2 brothers, his honor and pride as a rebel led him to proclaim political responsibility of participating in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.

Continue reading

The Oaxaca Commune and Mexico’s Coming Insurrection

Posted in Corporations, Direct Action & Civil Disobedience, Environment, Government, Housing Rights, Immigration & Borders, Indigenous, Police State, Prisoner Support, Revolution with tags , , , , on November 13, 2010 by Ⓐb Irato

From Antipode: The Journal of Radical Geography

Was the “Oaxaca Commune” an ephemeral insurrection, an explosion of popular rage, without enduring consequences? Was it a specific expression of autonomous movements, an experiment anticipating the direction some of them are taking? Or was it an isolated, singular episode of people’s struggles? As yet we do not have enough of an historical perspective to fully appreciate the nature and impact of the events of 2006 in Oaxaca that attracted the world’s attention. But it is worth exploring them and discussing a tentative hypothesis about their nature and meaning for autonomous movements in Mexico and beyond, when the gap between means and ends is closed and the shape of the struggle is also the shape of the society the struggle attempts to create. These provisional notes can thus be seen as an introduction to a research agenda.

Introduction

From June to October 2006, there were no police in the city of Oaxaca (population 600,000), not even to direct traffic. The governor and his functionaries met secretly in hotels or private homes; none of them dared to show up at their offices. The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO) had posted 24-hour guards in all the public buildings and radio and TV stations that it controlled. When the governor began sending out his goons to launch nocturnal guerrilla attacks against these guards, the people responded by putting up barricades. More than a thousand barricades were put up every night at 11 pm, around the encampments or at critical intersections. They would be taken down every morning at 6 am to restore normal traffic. Despite the attacks, there was less violence in those months (fewer assaults, deaths and injuries or traffic accidents) than in any similar period in the previous 10 years. Unionized workers belonging to APPO performed basic services like garbage collection.

Some observers began speaking of the Oaxaca Commune, evoking the Paris Commune of 1871. Oaxacans responded, smiling: “Yes, but the Paris Commune lasted only 50 days and we’ve already lasted more than 100.” The analogy is pertinent but exaggerated, except in terms of the reaction that these two popular insurrections elicited in the centers of power. Like the European armies that crushed the communards who had taken over all the functions of government, the Federal Preventive Police of Mexico, backed by the army and the navy, were sent to Oaxaca on 28 October 2006 to try to control the situation. On 25 November those forces conducted a terrible repression, the worst in many years, with massive violation of human rights and an approach that can be legitimately described as state terrorism. The operation, which included imprisonment of the supposed leaders of the movement and hundreds of others, was described by the International Commission for the Observation of Human Rights (which visited Oaxaca in January 2007) as “a juridical and military strategy … whose ultimate purpose is to achieve control and intimidation of civil population”.2 For the authorities, this strategy would dissolve APPO and send a warning to the social movements in the whole country.

This same strategy has been employed since then and has had a profound impact in Oaxaca. The results increased and exacerbated polarization. Some activists are in jail and others exiled out of Oaxaca or even Mexico. It has been impossible to identify all the disappeared; their families are afraid of revealing their names. Many professionals are now joining the usual migrants, out of fear or for lack of economic opportunities. Some people are afraid of exhibiting any support to APPO or participating in autonomous initiatives. People of different sectors of the society blame APPO for whatever economic difficulties they are confronting. Some others take for granted that the movement is over and the tyrannical governor will remain in office for the rest of his term, and are thus trying to accommodate themselves to that prospect. All this is true; there exist many symptoms of intimidation. However, the opposite is increasingly predominating. Marches are growing, as are sit-ins. Everywhere there is intense effervescence. Oaxaca is boiling. There is an increasing risk of violent confrontations in this highly polarized society, which may be used as a pretext for more authoritarianism. Many factors, however, may block this option and nourish the hope that the movement will be able to peacefully evolve and consolidate. The impulse for a profound transformation is very deep and strong and perhaps inevitable.

On 23 November 2006, a week before Felipe Calderón took office as the new, rightist and contested President, subcomandante Marcos, the speaker of the Zapatistas, declared that he “is going to start to fall from his first day” and that “we’re on the eve of a great uprising or civil war”. When asked who would lead that uprising, he replied: “the people, each in their place, in a network of mutual support. If we don’t accomplish it that way, there will be spontaneous uprisings, explosions all over, civil war …”

He cited the case of Oaxaca, where “there are no leaders, nor bosses: it’s the people themselves who are organized”. That’s how it is going to be in the whole country; Oaxaca serves as an indicator of what’s going to happen all over. “If there isn’t a civil and peaceful way out, which is what we propose in the Other Campaign”, Marcos warned, “then it will become each man for himself … For us, it doesn’t matter what’s above. What matters is what’s going to arise from below. When we rise up, we’re going to sweep away the entire political class, including those who say they’re the parliamentary left” (La Jornada 24 November 2006). This is a clear definition of the challenges that lie ahead.

Click here to read the full article…