Since the democratic state dismantled and wiped out the leftist armed struggle organizations which continued operating once the dictatorship ended in the early 90s, there have been the ideas and practices of horizontality and direct action from revolutionary autonomous environments and related to anarchy – and also the Mapuche resistance, which have positioned themselves as protagonists of radical struggle against Capital, the State and authority in Chile.
We have decided to be involved with strength, conviction and compromise to fight against all forms of authority. Some of us have previously gone through various practices and anti-capitalist speeches, but it has been the practice and reflections emanating which have led us to consider ourselves as anarchic individuals, denying every “ism” and claiming the anti-authoritarian character of anarchy as the essence of the struggle against domination.
We have forged our struggle’s identity going through a path that is drawn both from our own experience and other comrades’ in different times and places. In this journey we do not deny even a small part, but on the contrary, we think each step is a part of a radical but always unfinished learning process that interests us to put into dialogue with other related comrades around the world. And we know very well what we do not want, neither leaders nor vanguard organizations or specialists; neither bourgeois nor popular power.
Outdated Marxist-Leninist structures conceived the insurrection as a transitional step before taking Power to a supposedly revolutionary party to form a popular government, proletarian State, dictatorship of the proletariat, communist society, etc. Also, some so-called libertarians and reformist anarchists (neo-communists) raise anti-state proposals but kept the idea of forging a new social order governed by certain structures which they call “people’s power.”
Contrary to this, our experiences and decisions have made us break sharply with that kind of people and their proposals. So we have assumed the insurrection as an ongoing process of rupture with all logics of power and domination, building a free life without setting up new systems or a society, because every type of social order always tends toward authority and the imposition of roles between individuals.
So, if it is a necktie authority, or an proletarian one, it always deserves our contempt and all active rejection. Also, we decided not to wait for anyone. We saw how most people — and some satisfied pseudo-revolutionaries -, live playing an alienating way of life. Without serious commitments to the struggle, some supposed rebels aspire not to break today with the relations of domination and hierarchy.
We decided to assume that no one can tell us when and how to do things, and that no one can force us to expect anything from those who are alienated or show static positions. On the contrary, we assume as necessary for each group and comrade to enforce their qualities, knowledge, practices and anti-authoritarian values autonomously.
However, we do not want to be the only ones in revolt, and as a value-based and strategic approach we want to contribute to the expansion of the insurrection with other rebels and antiauthoritarian comrades, looking forward to destroying the social order and to build a life free from authority. We place a bet on this from the need for a continuity of struggle and the sharing of experiences among comrades.
Some people say that anarchist / anti-authoritarians who bet for the insurrection have not any proposals and projects. That usually is said by people accustomed to politics and intellectuals to illuminate them with models of perfect societies in an uncertain and distant future.
Thus, some go through life offering idyllic worlds and trying to convince people that, most often, have no interest in risking or losing the comfort of the routine that provides the world of capital and authority. Others, determined to fight, do not conceive revolutionary action outside mass organizations with programs and pompous acronyms. Other ones, see the revolt as a simple succession of moments of pleasure without projections or compromises.
However, we opt for a proposal: to fight radically everyday to destroy all forms of authority and build a free life here and now. So we share the proposal — by its agreement and coherence with our goals and anti-authoritarian values -, about the proliferation of affinity groups without hierarchies or specializations, self-organized for multiform action and informally coordinated with other groups to meet needs, actions or specific objectives, without waiting for so-called “optimal conditions” for taking the offensive against Power.
In November 2009, some months later on since the death of comrade Mauricio Morales, a solidarity call for a polymorphic action week was proposed by some comrades on anarchic websites. People from the government tried to discredit the solidarity call, speaking publicly about leaders and anarchist delegations arriving in the country. However, the solidarity call was responded to with street demonstrations, hooded people attacking prisons walls, incendiary/ explosive attacks, solidarity events in autonomous centers.
That experience was a beautiful experiment of action in autonomy and informality and was an offensive expression in the middle of a repressive context in which the enemy was trying to arrest more people involved in explosive attacks.
Various tools, a variety of tactics, one goal: to live free destroying all forms of authority.
We live our struggle as a dynamic and multifaceted revolt against power, in which- without centers and peripheries, different fighting tactics enter into a dialogue. We refuse both keeping a fetish for guns and also the idea that printed words themselves can raise awareness to the people. We are not interested in being militarists or prophets. So, we try to bring the insurrection and anarchy at all levels of life validating all forms of struggle against power. Our anarchy needs sabotage and attacks against the Power, but it’s also necessary to distribute printed words, raising anarchic spaces and militant street demonstrations.
At the same time, claiming a conception of struggle based on agitation and permanent conflict against power, we do not necessarily measure our processes with the criteria of victory or defeat. However the fight is composed by countless battles, events and moments which we are sometimes roughly beaten and sometimes roughly triumphant.
For all the above, we aim to spread the insurrection against power and every model of society, not for hegemony or control of struggles, not to form ‘popular’ Power. We aim to spread and deepen the antiauthoritarian struggle because we want to destroy the power and not to reform it, we want to destroy domination and connect with other comrades to deny this reality and experience freedom and anarchy in the present, refusing to separate the struggle of our own lives.
All these issues are part of the qualitative growth of some comrades here in Chile. They are not all the experiences and learnings, but a cluster of reflections arising from the experience of being a part of the offensive against power in this territory. We are what we choose to be. Permanent anarchic offensive against Power. For a Black New Year Solidarity with anarchic prisoners who stand worthy. Long live anarchy!
Sin Banderas Ni Fronteras. Antiauthoritarian agitation group.
Chile / Black December, 2015.