Neural Network

[editors note:  This is a machine translation of a Spanish text titled “La epidemia de rabia en España (1996-2007)” and can be found here:  http://www.alasbarricadas.org/noticias/?q=node/18247  Please feel free to write to us, or comment where this translation could be improved]

Submitted by info on Thu, 07/28/2011 – 10:25

Digitized by Czolgosz – Reflections for the revolt. Originally published in the
Journal loopholes.

The epidemic of rabies in Spain (1996 – 2007)

Let us take away what bailao (presentation)

Believe me that as we operate, regardless of the law, anything other than the
strictest honesty would bring dire consequences.

Jack London, Murder S.L.

For some time, some partners feel the need to take stock of experience in the
Spanish State for sectors of militant anarchists, communists and independent, which
for a time converged around a certain idea “insurrection.” This need arises from two
circumstances. The first is the evidence that it has closed a stage. We are not in
the same spot ten years ago or even five-, and we want to draw relevant conclusions
to better face battles that are not in a hazy future, but already we are bearing
down. This requires a debate, or at least cause a reflection.

The second factor that pushes us to write is the absolute ignorance of the facts of
the past ten years by the new generation of partners. About this ignorance must say
that is due in large part to the degree of confinement was imposed internautical
among us, almost completely replacing the contact and direct knowledge. But gives
also the measure of our failure to raise relating to these partners could be
identified: control projects and centers of aggregation that would give continuity
and depth to a combative effort was not small.

That failure is what for a time was called “informal organization” and with the
perspective that comes with age, we realize that it was a failure enrolled in the
same budgets that we started. However, do not regret anything, we have lost no time
or who have lost our comrades. Today it is very easy to see a pile of ashes and say
that “everything was a mistake” that the staff simply “it was the pot.” This false
criticism forgets interest or ignorance, then the operating conditions. We returned
to the starting-point of the leaden official illusions of anarchism or cheerful
unconsciousness of youth-antagonism, and thus sets the stage for everything to
happen again in an indefinite period, in this “cycle time” so characteristic
political environments sheltered positions in history.

Much more difficult, and uncomfortable for everyone, is testing a dialectical
analysis of what happened. The conditions of our departure left no way out but
fortunately occurred. The rabies epidemic was not another fashion aesthetic /
ideological ghetto: all the assumptions that were made then were tested until the
end. Although the results were often disastrous, there was founded a collective
experience worthy of the name, so it’s possible self-criticism.

As positive results are far from the maximalism that reached enajenarnos repeatedly,
but they are there. These years have finally overcome two decades of inertia and
paralysis of the libertarian movement of which were unintended heirs. But above all
served to put back key issues on the table as the revolution or the organization,
and not as inert ideological certainties, but as living problems, complex, dynamic.
These results, perhaps in the immediate small but qualitatively important for the
possibilities they have also had a tragic cost they paid those comrades who were and
are targeted for repression. To them we dedicate these pages.

We note that this paper does not intend to settle nothing, but to make a
contribution adjusted to what we have seen, lived and thought in all this time.
Rather than speaking ex cathedra or go to “our opinion” in front, which we thought
priority was to rebuild this story as best as possible, try a panoramic view. And
that can not be done simply by dint of chronology or dusting war stories: it is
necessary to judge which facts were most important and what others were less and
venture hypotheses explaining why certain things have happened so and not otherwise.
In this process the text takes, evidently, no subjective bias that we are not
ashamed: to give an objective view of things and are the news and the daily press.

Otherwise it was impossible to do this work without reaching any conclusion, and
some other have taken, but who we never miss the discussion. So be it.

I. Once upon a time …

In step 1996 to 1997 all youth movements, antagonists, anti-capitalist … of the
Iberian Peninsula were on the threshold of a transformation product of external
conditions as well as your own maturation over a decade. This transformation, which
was usually acquired in the case of anarchism in the form of a violent rupture. The
first part refers to the way that developed this rupture, which occurred in two
lines: the anarchism official and traditions, and with increasingly public positions
that were developed integrating within the juvenile antagonism. In this field of
criticism will find colleagues with diverse positions-autonomous anarchists or
Marxists ‘unorthodox’ – which will put aside doctrinal differences to find common
inherited an effective revolutionary practice. Insurrectionary ideas will be the
meeting point and common denominator of that strange time of regrouping.

1. The official anarchism.

Since the beginning of the nineties are obvious effects of capitalist restructuring
in Spain. In this context sclerosis anarchist Libertarian Movement officer who had
been awarded without capitals-is becoming increasingly evident. After the
dictatorship had wanted to recreate the historical CNT, under conditions that
resulted in a short time to break into two factions. This is an old story and known
by all, but may not have seen that the controversy between these two factions
roughly resumible the dilemma “yes or no union elections” – blocked for two
decades-long debate within the anarchist militant. Immersed in this monologue
autistic sector ‘no’, which managed to keep the historic acronym of the CNT,
crossed the restructuring of Spanish capitalism in a position of increasing
isolation and marginalization. We refer to this faction as “official anarchy”, as
the other (now CGT) was diluted up anarchists concerning voluntarily comply with a
pale halo “libertarian” that would not affect their image of respectability.

In the twenty years of which we speak, official anarchism was perfectly unable to
develop a single concept that would reflect the historical changes that were
living, or to introduce a single new organizational allowed to address the social
transformations of the field and labor. Eternally defensive, enquistó in the
reaffirmation of the ‘principles’ of ideology, of a mythologized past and an
equally mythologized organizational formula exactly dating from 1918. Alongside
this, a stifling bureaucratic atmosphere, a tangle of photocopies, postage,
committees, full and plenary for a tiny organization that in 1996 no more than
three thousand members. [1]

A formal anarchist organizations arrived in the early and mid nineties militant
youth dazzled by its “glorious” past, by their aura of militancy more aesthetic than
real: and then a speech that was, without exaggeration, the most extreme the whole
picture. The CNT was not making this affiliation Youth filter the smallest barrage,
which was not surprising given the shortage of militants and establishment by the
membership figures that dominated. The Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth
(FIJL) did not serve as “school” prior to the militants, but occurred quite
frequently and since the time of admission the dual membership in it and in the CNT.
In the latter, young people often ended inoperative cast aside “sections of
students.”

Once in the union, these young people perceive a significant gap between the radical
rhetoric and lack of practice, between the workers’ movement “twenties” and the lack
of presence in enterprises between membership figures touted and real; between
worldview and the reality of it … Between the “splendor” of the mythical past and
the misery of this, in short. Were also too often, contempt and condescension of
older and more experienced members.

This militant youth, well, not infrequently served as cannon fodder in the
bureaucratic infighting official anarchist without being fully aware of the
processes which were submitted. It certainly was a lot of immaturity and
inexperience, how could it be otherwise. We must also say that no one bothered to
teach him anything, beyond the four essential dogmas. In general, was unsullied by
the worst vices of the organization, from end to sectarianism bureaucratic mania, to
intellectual laziness. But he also had a sincere desire to overcome this painful
situation but did not know how. That delivery was very real and sustained for years
by many, had to crash-and-hit with the immobility of the organization, and because
it was accompanied by desire for change, but each conceptuara change your way.

By the mid-nineties, paralysis theory and practice of anarchism officer had created
an internal environment rather than rarefied. In such situations of stagnation
internal conflicts inevitably flourish. In the CNT there were many, but the most
notorious was that of “desfederación”-a euphemism for expulsion-of an important, if
not a majority, of the Catalan regional. As in most of the internal struggles of the
Confederacy, the real causes of conflict were in the shade, because none of the two
parties suited them air them. It could be argued, not even tried, one ideological
motivation, minimal theoretical or practical difference that could explain this
organizational disaster. It was simply a conflict between bureaucratic cliques,
which won the sector was supported by bureaucratic networks governing the CNT in the
rest of the state. Befell similar struggles around the whole confederation. When
disputes ended in a site, started in another, ending up sinking the morale of the
organization and its image dragged through the mud.

One of these has particular relevance to the story we tell. This is the internal
struggle that erupted within the CNT in Madrid between 1997 and 1998. Just completed
an internal conflict that had led to the expulsion of the union block for various
occupations, began to hatch another between two opposing sides. The polarization was
within the usual cenetismo pathology: a sector “anarchist” minority led by the union
of the metal is facing another “union” formed by the new union for various
occupations, the transport and construction. Members of the local Federation of
Libertarian Youth, one of the largest and most active of the FIJL-sided with the
union of the metal. A faction “union” was irritated by the violence that these young
people deployed, for example in the struggle against fascism or harassing Temporary
Employment, and are not particularly forgiving irresponsible action in an act of
collective irresponsibility of the CNT as was the occupation of the ESC in December
1996

The conflict, latent, erupted in 1997 within the National Committee of the CNT,
established in Madrid from a year earlier and in which both sectors had been handed
bureaucratic posts. For reasons unknown, the two representatives from the “metal”
were expelled from the union, and thus the national committee. Besides this fact,
much of the student section, in which several militants FIJL, was also expelled,
accused of being young “violent” who rode riots in the student demonstrations of the
time. Members of the Student Union itself had made ​​themselves known at the
headquarters of Tirso de Molina to take their complaints to the priests democratic
organization of CNT, which ousted the democratically wayward youth that altered
environments peace of leftists. This came to an open clash in which the majority
sector managed sector settle “metal” through a chain of expulsions justified on
various pretexts, some as pilgrims as already mentioned. The maximum degree of
engagement is achieved when members of the JJLL, and expelled from the union, burst
into a meeting of the National Committee located in the Magdalena street to demand
an explanation to those considered responsible, starting with the then secretary
general. There is a crossing of hosts by both parties that the national committee
and the local federation of Madrid presented the rest of the CNT as an “assault”
organized, obtaining membership of almost all the regions, which were silent about
the sequence of expulsions, considering in any case an internal affair of Madrid.

So far the situation reflected a conflict resolution methodology developed and
perfected by the CNT since 1977: bureaucratic maneuvers [2]-blooded Stalinist
deportations and the inevitable dose of hosts, either as an expression of rage of
the vanquished or as the last argument of the victors. But from the national
committee decided to give another twist and remove the Libertarian Youth Federation
and not local in Madrid, but the whole organization. Victimhood, as consensus
strategy articulated around the “assault” the national committee, led to a witch
hunt in which the FIJL made the scapegoat for the structural tensions inherent in
the CNT. The union’s national committee decided unilaterally and self rupture of
relations with the FIJL, which in fact could only decide a congress of the
organization. Such a break not only had symbolic importance, but allowed hereafter
to consider the FIJL as a “vanguard external” intended to lead the union.
Consequently, the harassment began its members in almost all of the locations where
groups were federated to FIJL. In Bilbao and Granada were forced your files [3],
suffered the theft of internal documentation. In just over a year, got out of the
unions to all militants FIJL, taken out of play by direct expulsion, oppression or
pure disgust. It conjured up the specter of a possible radicalization of the CNT,
which will take shape immediately, as we shall see, with that minority of militant
supporters to support the prisoners by the robbery of Cordoba.

As for the FIJL, be demonized in the official memory of anarchism, and will begin
its own independent career. Until then, the youth federation had been a kind of
crystallization extreme sectarianism official anarchism itself. Their existence had
turned on the mistaken belief that it was possible to practice more “radical”
without changing the budgets of the CNT. In fact, as union members, militants of the
CNT FIJL orthodoxy defended with fierce dogmatism, hence they were so easily
manipulated by the sectors ‘purists’. His immolation at the hands of those who
wanted a union friendly profiles and “civilized” will leave the FIJL absolutely
disoriented and turning in a vacuum until insurrectionalism embrace as a lifeline.
But behind the JJLL members will soon be larger segments of CNT youth disgusted
after having struggled for years-in many cases against an immovable bureaucracy.

2. The antagonism youth

The official anarchism stipulated in their conferences, with great delicacy
exclusive-inclusive, that the “Libertarian Movement” was formed by the CNT, the FAI,
the FIJL and Women Free. But the truth is that reality was more complex, and
changing its many facets coming to disrupt the comfort of this bureaucratic scheme
and sectarian. Outside the borders well defined formal organizations of anarchism,
had spread a little everywhere a more diffuse and heterogeneous movement, whose
embryos had appeared in the mid-eighties. Was realized in squats, fanzines,
distributors, bands, collectives and affinity groups … as well as its
participation in broader movements like the anti-militarist, taking off around the
same time with the campaign for insubordination. This constellation, as is claimed
or autonomous anarchist, was born outside the old official anarchist workers
movement, and moving between multiple coordinates defined usually with the
“anti”-anti-sexist, antirrepresivo, anti-militarist, anti-fascist,
anti-bullfighting, etc.- and the youth as convivencialismo thread. In these networks
are supported as Sabotage flagship, Waterproof, The Acratador, The Lletra A or
Ekintza Zuzena, among others. Given their inability to construct instances of
coordination and common action to draw lines, part of the youth movement was still
in the CNT as a reference at least respected for its stability and its mythical
aura.

However, in many places the juvenile antagonism itself had a specific weight that
exceeded the official anarchist. Euskadi is banal point to as an exception in this
case, being as it has been an exception in almost every respect. It is known that
the social war there has developed differentiated, and the issues that the epidemic
of rabies reintroduced after decades in the Iberian anarchism, such as violence or
imprisonment, have left there to be a daily reality for thousands of people , not
cliques of activists. It is therefore a very specific context it is inevitable to
leave the sidelines of this story, despite the presence of an antagonism Euskadi
youth emerged strongly in the mid-eighties, which actually inspired in many respects
to the rest of the State and endowed him with many references.

Due to time and space we can not stop everywhere we wanted. Valencia was, for
example, a major focus of squats, except that there was published in early 1997 the
legendary All I thought about squatting and never dared to question, first native
text containing the ideas that the epidemic of rabies developed later, and stood
light years ahead of both the official liturgies of anarchism and the emerging
spectacle of the squatting movement. We could go on quoting some sites worth
mentioning, but the limitations of this work we focus on two points of maximum
condensation of youth antagonism, which will have a strong influence on developments
that occurred after the rest of the state. We speak of two cities: Madrid and
Barcelona.

In Madrid, attended a special case. There the youth managed to acquire antagonism
coordinating bodies from an early date, and these structures lasted almost a decade.
It is the coordinator of collective Autonomous Control, founded in 1990 by the
confluence of the first batches of squatters locals and youth groups cut off from
the extreme left organizations MC and CSF, which had finally asquearles dirigisme.
Thus was born a unique organization, but failed to transcend the Madrid area, led to
the true dynamics of struggle and “self-organization,” to use the language of the
time. LA did not escape a very strong common aestheticization whole movement, and in
fact was one of his constituents. It was a distinctly activist organization that
functioned as ideological hodgepodge, a feature that allowed it to grow at first,
but eventually turned against him. At the height of 1997, its own maturation and
lack of sharing had led to the development of different positions within it. This
produced a crisis settled with the self-dissolution in 1998. Soon he tried anew,
under the assumptions of post-operaismo Italian, a THE “emancipated” from their
components and autonomous anarchists “traditional” but this happened in a vacuum
resulted in a rapid and discreet failure. Moreover, this organization does not
exhaust the landscape of youth antagonism Madrid during the nineties, then continued
to exist beyond a broad diffuse constellation of groups, squats, distributors, and
other groups. However, it is fair to say that LA was a fundamental reference in
Madrid during the decade, to the extent that the false closure of their experience
has had negative consequences that are evident, ten years later, in the internal
fractures of the Madrid move .

As for Barcelona, ​​we do not believe that the appearance in it of a vigorous youth
antagonism can be dissociated from the tradition of rebellion in the same city and
suburbs, whose last link had been the workers’ struggles and neighborhood of the
seventies. Unlike what happened in Madrid, where the movement was organized in
informal networks based on the social fabric of neighborhoods, squats and personal
affinities between peers. The political environment was developed independently of
any influence of the Catalan CNT, which since the early nineties was too busy
destroying himself and giving the usual mob of schisms show CNT. The first milestone
is remarkable Barcelona movement developed in the campaign against the splendor of
92. As it begins to take shape and the increased use of squatting as a form of
aggregation and struggle. The number of properties “released” eventually reach a
critical mass unmatched in the state. That excitement will end leading to a
qualitative leap in 1996, around squatting and eviction of the now defunct Princess
Cinema, located in the heart of Barcelona. After seven months before the whole
Barcelona exhibit a dynamic activity unstoppable, squatters were evicted from the
Princess in a sort of medieval siege in which police rained around him. The
subsequent protest brought thousands of people and ended in one of the greatest
unrest reminiscent of fellow locals. The seizure that took place in Barcelona was
broadcast live throughout the state. The echoes of Princess were reinforced in March
1997 by another eviction powerful media, La Guindalera in Madrid, where they were
arrested over a hundred people.

The facts of the Princess and The Guindalera were followed by a wave of squatters in
the country, most of them ephemeral for the prompt action of the police, who no
doubt received instructions not to allow the example would spread. The state had
begun to worry, as evidenced by the fact the new Penal Code adopted in 1996
established much higher penalties for the crime of “theft.” All youth libertarian
antagonism was first a mirror look that was no longer that of the CNT, which always
appeared as the little sister. He had come of age and his little world had burst
into the news. From there I could start looking at the CNT with a certain distance.
Without there being any break for the time, critics began to develop in a latent, or
began to heed more attention to the criticism of colleagues who had demystified the
cenetismo time ago, if it ever had come to believe it .

Moreover, and most importantly, consciousness of having overcome a diffuse phase
opened the doors of juvenile antagonism to the introduction of new issues, ideas and
concepts. Here was conceived a new contradiction between positions that were seeking
to deepen and radicalize the confrontation with the state and capitalism, and others
that were more likely to sublimate this conflict in representation ‘witty’ and
harmless that would “reach people” . It would be a simplification, in which
otherwise incurred countless times-define these two fields as “revolutionary” and
“reformist”. The first one could not actually be revolutionary, for many will be put
in the effort, lacking a revolutionary project that went beyond the purely
destructive (which prevailed at all times) and a historical moment when the tide of
the counter 68 has not succeeded yet begun to fall. On the second, or even aspired
to reform anything, but to preserve the remaining islands of the “welfare state” and
to obtain the parastatal management assistance in certain areas of social exclusion
generated by the restructuring of capitalism (precariousness, immigration … .)
This contradiction went through the whole movement, but which was made ​​more
clearly visible around the dissolution of Autonomous Struggle in Madrid disputes
about the legalization of squatted social centers. Soon after, the great games of
the antiglobalization escenificarían this break in the form of dramatic
representation, particularly in the polarization between “black block” and “white
monkeys”.

3. A day in Cordoba

So far we have discussed some history, trying to draw the context on which the
epidemic spread of rabies. We could have started the story at this point, but at the
cost of distorting the dimensions of what happened. Every story must have a
beginning, or at least a trigger, and for us the trigger for this story broke in
Cordoba on 18 December 1996. Three Italians and a fellow Argentine, then unknown to
the movement, tried to rob a bank branch of Santander. The story is well known and
not worth spreading. Two municipal policemen were killed and the four assailants
were arrested. Their names: Giovanni Barcia, Michele Pontolillo, Giorgio Claudio
Rodriguez and Lavazza.

At first it was an event on the cover of most newspapers. It took even know the
affiliation of the attackers and anarchist that explain its action as a political
act. Although unknown in Spain, were representative of the Italian revolutionary
movement lurched over the past twenty years. Lavazza had begun his career at a young
age within the labor struggles of the seventies. Like many other Italian militants
chose to take up arms in the organization forming Armed Proletarians for Communism,
cutting Leninist-oriented fighting the prison system. From there it evolved into
anarchist positions, and without leaving the scope of the underground.

Pontolillo and Barcia were very active in the Italian anarchist insurrectionary
band, which had been developed in the eighties. The first was in Italy pending a
conviction for insubordination to military service, and the second was indicted
under the “Marini assembly” of which more later. His commitment to anarchism was not
so recent, and still less (as stated some sparingly) a trait of opportunism
calculated to gain support once captured.

Almost completely devoid of contacts with Spanish anarchism, their voices soon even
reach outside the prison. They did finally through the pages of Llar bulletin
published in Asturias and away from any dogmatism. The Llar joined his baffling
invoice layout much cleaner than the usual photocopied fanzines at the time. Besides
being free and keep your schedule with remarkable rigor, had an excellent
distribution but not only in Asturias in Spain, reaching all the unions of the CNT
and almost all of the constellation antagonist: buses, distributors, squats …

For all this the Llar was the vehicle par excellence of a controversy that the CNT
could not get worse stop. From the moment the Spaniard bulletin released anarchist
positions of the robbers of Cordoba, voices were raised within and outside the CNT
demanding that they support the union. In all honesty, I must say that a minority
but significant union militants were in favor of taking the expropriators as
prisoners themselves, as had been done years before with the prisoner Pablo
Serrano-libertarian, and indeed some unions like Aviles came to do. These CNT,
without abandoning the union tended to cluster together with colleagues from the
youth antagonism, forming the first generation of groups of Anarchist Black Cross
(CNA) in Granada, Villaverde and elsewhere. Its purpose, apart from a generic
“anti-prisons” was the anarchist prisoner support. These groups were a curious
phenomenon of “transition” as they journeyed not a priori a break with the CNT, and
in fact met its premises. But the distrust, if not outright hostility were found by
the organization, led them soon disabused of cenetismo and follow other directions.

With these exceptions, most of the organization was more than reluctant, openly
reluctant to provide any kind of coverage of detainees in Cordoba. While what was
the underlying fear of criminalization, denial kept wrapped in ideological arguments
and an implicit condemnation of the perpetrators of the robbery. As we have said the
controversy was mainly in the pages of Llar, with some assistance from the CNT
newspaper, and remained still “in order” throughout 1997. But in the first half of
1998 there are two facts that will cause irreversible polarization. The first is the
start of the trial for the robbery in Cordoba, where he organizes a rally in support
of the Italian comrades. Some kids who came from outside, without representing any
union, are presented with a flag of the CNT. The media emphasize it. The CNT is
decoupled completely, an act that would be worth even more critical by the emerging
network of support expropriators caught.

The second fact of importance was the eviction of Self-managed social center of
Gijón (Llar headquarters, among other groups) by the CNT, which had the usufruct
local Heritage Association as part Cumulative-by force and without notice . Poor
argüidas reasons for the union did not justify such action, powerfully reminiscent
of squats evictions and caused real anger in many people. The unspoken underlying
reasons were the criticisms of the CNT Llar published promptly sent by your readers.
The ways in which the eviction took place were also representative of paternalism
and superiority with which the CNT was from the “other” libertarian movement, and
not only in Gijón. So was immediate identification and solidarity of many people
with CFS.

From that moment the controversial tone rises rapidly. Llar number of copies, which
already was high for a publication contrainformativa not let the increase throughout
this process, and the same could be said for their support. In its latest issue
(September 1999) threw 7,000. Around the same time the newspaper’s print run was
3,000 copies cnt, of which one third were left gathering dust in the unions, which
gave no output. The widespread distribution and “informal” of Llar was crucial at
that time much more extensive and effective than the ossified union press.

On the importance that we want to comment on this controversial, very low level by
both parties. The CNT could be defended with an argument simple and difficult to
refute: that he had no obligation to take some prisoners who belonged to another
stream, in addition unknown in Spain, and had acted unilaterally, outside the
repertoire methods CNT. Something so obvious does not it occur to almost anyone. The
faux pas of the CNT who spoke was trying to clarify, no one had asked, that the
prisoners of Cordoba could not be anarchists, because neither their methods nor
their views coincided with those of the sacrosanct Organization. Accustomed long to
issue certificates of purity anarchist, did not hesitate for a moment that this was
a case that could. Not calibrated, the heads did not allow for so much, that the
doctrine of anarchism official excommunication worked well when used against any
being located “on the right” but that the positions of the Italians were much more
radical than theirs, because they defended revolutionary attack immediately, and on
top put it into practice. Thus, the poor inquisitors were met with open rebellion a
lot of people who for years had endured the nonsense in silence. Upset by this
unforeseen programming which was not rapid, and gave no head or tail, and did not
think anything other than incurring moral convictions.

The underlying problem was that the CNT was calling him from an environment that had
taken as a reference point, which was at the level of verbal extremism had made for
years. As he was not arguing about theories but very serious about fait accompli
that could splash the media, the CNT was filled with panic, and showed that their
radicalism was mere verbiage, and had made a form of self-marginalization of
integration into the fight saying. What was seen in the pages of Llar over many
months (it is clear that there had been the advent of the Internet) was a reprint of
that story where a child in his innocence, said that the emperor is naked, and no
one can go on pretending. But in this case the child was called Pontolillo Michele,
and their “innocence” was given by the fact that, having been formed elsewhere, was
free from the poisons and conventions of Iberian anarchism.

From the CSA eviction Gijon rupture is already vested. The Libertarian Movement in
capital letters just lost in a matter of months, the monopoly of anarchism that had
zealously advocated for two decades. The end of 1998 there are two perfectly
delimited fields. One, the official anarchism, as a defensive doctrine with all its
inertia, another of a much more radical anarchism that has crystallized from a blow
to his left, and so far only has the common binders visceral rejection previous
support for prisoners of Cordoba.

Organizational crises are faithful companions of the historic crossroads and Spanish
anarchism, which has excelled in many fields, but never in the theory has always
tried to resolve by a headlong rush for the record of activism. Against this
background it is not surprising, seeing it in perspective, that latch on to full
speed which was called “insurrectionalism.” This new field anarchist and his
criticism of the bureaucracy, dogmatism and the immobility of anarchism officer,
exercised in the years following a very strong attraction to the younger members of
the CNT, which will be leaving in a real generational exodus left virtually no a
union for playing. The positions insurrectionists attraction exerted identical level
of antagonism fellow youth, and the weight of these different sources will be noted
in the configuration of sectors ‘informal’ differentiated that they will walk
together but not mixed in later years.

II. The role of insurrecionalismo

1. The emergence of insurrectionalism

In his letters to Llar, fellow prisoners of the robbery of Córdoba confronted their
positions with those of the CNT who wrote the bulletin. These positions were the
insurrectionary anarchism [4], which were echoed in Spain for the first time
through these pages. Also in early 1997 was published in Barcelona’s pamphlet
Anarchist Tension Alfredo Bonanno. And that was pretty much what the proponents and
opponents of insurrectionalism in Spain could find on the subject at that time.
That and the practical example of the prisoners of Cordoba, which has already
caused a misunderstanding entry under which many people believed that the
insurrectionists approaches were limited to expropriation, or that the robbery was
the method par excellence insurrectionist.

However, it was the first time spoken of insurrectionalism on the peninsula. As a
curious footnote, say cnt even the newspaper had published some articles
occasionally Bonanno that had caused perplexity, if not the scandal, many readers.
The late group ‘Revolt’ of Cornella, had for years been disseminating information
on revolutionary anarchism in Italy. In his newsletter had published information on
the development of Mount Marini [5], anti-development ecosabotajes and struggles
centered on the HST and nuclear, and press fellow anarchists imprisoned as Marco
Camenisch. But when prioritizing fragmentary data on the theoretical texts, the
backdrop of these issues was largely blurred.

The same group “Revolt” spread throughout the land convening the founding meeting of
the International Insurrectionalist antiauthoritarian (IAI) in 1996, who in fact
attended by colleagues from various points of the peninsula. That call had come, for
example, still had the FIJL when the CNT as a center of gravity. At that time, prior
to the events of Cordoba Youth Federation welcomed the proposal with suspicion,
mainly due to the lack of information. Although the invitation interest earned in
“land” in the midst of a debate on the creation of an international anarchist youth
(which failed to take shape), was imposed at that time the ‘fear of the unknown. ”
Something to be regretted, since that initial contact with the Italian experience in
Spain would have favored a better understanding, for better and for
worse-insurrectionary speech and dissemination of the same not compromised by the
facts of Cordoba.

None of these attempts had succeeded, because the conditions did not allow Iberian.
The antagonism youth had not reached the necessary degree of maturation, and
anarchism putrefaction officer, to the occurrence of the rupture on both fronts of a
whole stratum libertarian youth. Only when that time came insurrectionary speech had
a real insight. But this insight was largely conditioned by specific circumstances
Iberian, which led to huge misunderstandings about those a little further back.

At this point, we have to make some clarifications. What we wanted to call “the
rabies epidemic” was a collective effort, but not unitary, or coordinated, to
overcome impotence and paralysis of the political means that Spain wanted
“anticapitalist” and “revolutionaries.” If we have given that name has been somewhat
lyrical not to confuse the whole and part-certainly important, which corresponds to
the ‘insurrectionalism. ” This variant of anarchism, developed and set-up between
Italy and Greece, had very prominent in the context of the epidemic, partly
determining their development. But it was not its only component, and sufficient in
itself to explain it. The rabies epidemic was caused by the dynamics of Spaniards
who have tried to describe in the first part of this paper. Uncritical importation
of insurrectionalism was not his cause, but its effect.

Insurrectionalism was not the only new power [6] who broke into the libertarian camp
by the fractures open about the facts of Cordoba. After breaking the monopoly
exercised ideological anarchism in that field officer through the same crack began
to filter various positions and ideas. Some, like primitivism, proved no more than
ephemeral ideological fashion. Others, such as critical anti-industrial, have
demonstrated greater theoretical soundness. They dug up old Marxist currents as
councilism voluntarism and yet the world would believe they were cutting edge.
Although it was not, its spread served at least to weaken the anti ancestral Spanish
anarchism: we discovered Marx now much closer to us, which was neither the patriarch
nor the scholastic Leninist caricature of anarchist satan. In this sense
situationist theory, accessible for the first time in Spanish almost entirely
through the efforts of Grey Literature, also caused a very strong impact on us.

In short, from 98, and for at least five years, many ideas were considered at a
dizzying pace. As noted above, around that time there was a general mutation of all
movements situated beyond the institutional left, not only of anarchism. This
transformation has opened up spaces for debate where none existed before, and forced
a general update. So was accompanied by an explosion editorial “antagonist”
unprecedented since the seventies. A characteristic phenomenon of the moment-just
before the explosion of the Internet, was the extent of libel or photocopied booklet
of texts to support more extensive and deeper than they used to be published in
fanzines and newsletters to use. Detached from the obligation to serve as a
“spokesman” for this or that group or collective, the libel was an excellent vehicle
for communication, for its very low cost and ease of reproduction, greatly
accelerated the circulation of ideas.

That was rescued memory, theory and practice of many struggles and hitóricos who had
been selfishly forgotten, distorted or exorcised in the traditions of the Spanish
left-wing. Important lessons of history that made us realize that we did not come
from nowhere. Moreover, the thread of memory retrieval experiences MIL-armed
anti-authoritarian, autonomous commands, Rote Zora and many more-political violence
is no longer a taboo subject within the libertarian movement. In short, it happened
very quickly from a complete lack of materials and information to an overabundance
of them, which caused more than a binge indigestible. The rabies epidemic it
embraced these topics, readings and ideas that were present there in greater or
lesser extent.

We want to clarify with this that the subject of this article is not
insurrectionalism itself, but the summary and critical assessment of a collective
experience extended over a decade, in which people took part were not considered
insurrectionists, and even many anarchists . If we specify the relationship between
that experience-that would be wrong to describe as “movement” – and
insurrectionalism, we say that all its components ended revolve around central
issues raised by the latter. Insurrectionalism not impose all the answers as he
would use a dogma, but raised the questions that we tried to answer all those years.
In this sense we have stated, in the first part of this article, that the ideas were
at that time insurrectionists’ meeting point and common denominator. ”

So the story that we’ve set out to become clearer if we address some important
aspects of insurrectionalism. But it is necessary to clarify that it was far from a
structured doctrine, especially as it lacked central organizational bodies ensure
their “purity.” This makes a critical analysis, we nevertheless tested based on some
texts that seem representative, and without claiming that the subject is exhausted
in them.

2. A pioneering individualism?

Insurrectionalism came to say that the revolutionary attack against the capital and
the state itself was possible here and now, regardless of historical circumstances
favored or not a radical transformation of society. According to Bonanno, the system
had reached a level of complexity that made it impossible for any strategic
foresight [7], so it could only submit to continuous harassment of those sides where
the view of the revolutionary cause you more harm or more possibilities exist
extension of the struggle.

After making this pick of the historical and sociological conditions, more or less
open according to the theoretical question of the insurrection-the revolutionary
subject leading the attack could only be himself an anarchist, that is, the
individual in combat system that oppresses them. This “rebel” is designated by
various names in literature insurrection, but is one of its central theoretical
framework and unchanging.

So he carried insurrectionalism a strong individualist. Instead, renounce clearly
designate a collective subject capable of carrying out the attack against the
system, beyond vague allusions to the “oppressed”, the “exploited” or “excluded”.
Poor structuring of insurrectionary theories, coupled with vague, leaving a wide
margin to attribute to this or that figure sociological mission to end the
capitalist racket, or at least carry a confrontation at breakneck speed and without
compromise. Thus, in the Spanish case there who believed that this role be for the
prisoners and there were those who wanted to return to the old essence of the
revolutionary proletariat. Some recent developments have found a subject in the
excluded parts that crowd the metropolitan peripheries, especially after the French
riots of 2005 [8]. None of this is enough, however, to offset the individualistic
basis of this ideology-fully assumed, moreover, not to support a collective
struggle, but there were attempts in this direction.

Within the design insurrectional renunciation of any strategic projection and
understanding of the social war as a strictly private reckoning, gave the action an
intrinsic value. However, the insurrectionary action unfolded in two forms, clearly
differentiated by several authors guild, although the nominate variety of ways. The
identified here as “diffuse attack” and “radicalization of the struggle.” Both acted
as substitutes for the strategic perspective which insurrectionalism had voluntarily
resigned. The attack came to be a diffuse practice of sabotage detached from any
specific claim or dispute. To reach all aspects of life, offering multi-pronged rule
in either of which could be hit.

The “radicalization of the struggle” and had other connotations. Here
insurrectionalism revealed a background that we can only describe as avant-garde. To
explain this we will cite some texts allow, we have chosen as significant within the
realm of thought insurrectionalist:

“Each specific objective of struggle itself together, ready to explode, the violence
of all social relations. The banality of their immediate causes, it is known, is the
entrance ticket to [sic] the riots in history.

“What could a group of peers facing similar situations? (…)

“[…] Is quite clear that the disruption of social activity remains a turning
point. Towards this paralysis of normality should be addressed subversive action,
whatever the cause of a crash insurrection. […] The revolutionary practice remains
above [of] people. […] Are libertarians who can, through their methods (individual
autonomy, direct action, the permanent conflict), push them [the exploited] to go
beyond the model of the claim, to deny all social identities […]

“At the moment just can not be called” remarkable “ability to throw subversive
social struggles […]. Another hypothesis is the […] the autonomous intervention
in struggles, or more or less widespread revolts, which arise spontaneously. […]
If you think that when the unemployed talk about right to work is to act on that
line […] then the only site of action appears to be populated street protesters.
“(Ai ferri corti) [9]

“Open a range of concrete possibilities to the destruction of power means the power
to link the insurgency individual all those moments in the social itself, operate
beyond the anarchist, take the value of expressions of self-determination or to
break with the order imposed . Such a link, but excludes any manipulation, all
avant-garde. Anarchists do have nothing to teach about the revolt against the
established order. So given the link between stress and social forces anarchist
rebels materializes as a stimulus to the radical nature of the struggle and
rebellion, emphasizing some elements of self-determination “prospecting others.”
(Constantine Cavalleri) [10]

“[…] Have to build affinity groups, consisting of a large number of peers not […].

“Affinity groups can in turn contribute to the formation of nuclei base. The
purpose of these structures is to replace in the field of struggle between, on the
old trade union organizations of resistance […].

“Each core base consists almost always by the propulsive action of insurrectionary
anarchists, but is not constituted only by anarchists. In assembly-management
anarchists should develop their full propulsive function against the objectives of
the class enemy.

“[…]

“The scope of affinity groups and the core base consists of mass struggles.

“These struggles are often struggles between, which are not directly and immediately
destructive nature, but often proposed as mere claims, with the aim of recovering
more strength to better develop the struggle toward other goals.” (Alfredo Bonanno )
[11]

All these statements, and many others that could be cited, share a common trait: the
total disregard the autonomy of social struggles and interests and immediate needs
of the people who drives, as well as the clearly parasitic use these struggles as
platalorma one’s own ideology. And, as expressed cynicism in Ai ferri corti “not
exactly be called” remarkable “ability to throw subversive of social struggles.”
Therefore have to pounce on those that may arise “spontaneously” out of the low
areas subversive. For not to enlarge, left to the reader the task of developing the
implications of these positions.

Locked between “diffuse attack” and “radicalization of the struggle”
insurrectionalism not contemplate the path that would have been of greatest
interest: the sabotage of a practice guided by strategic considerations raised about
collective interests, not necessarily conditioned by the existence previous social
movements, but in any case attentive to his appearance and respectful to them and
their circumstances.

We have reviewed briefly the answers given to questions insurrectionalism of
revolutionary practice and the subject that was to carry it out. We can not close
this brief summary, it can not exhaust the subject, without addressing their views
on another key problem: that of the organization. First, because the ideas were
insurrectionists on this point perhaps the most interesting aspect of this stream
and originality. Secondly, because, in the Iberian case, the insurrectionist
criticism towards the traditional forms of organization and their positive proposals
in this area caused the biggest impression on our generation of militants. They
were, in fact, the most favored at the time the spread of this discourse.

The proposed organizational insurrectionalism revolved around the so-called
“informal organization”. According to their theoretical approaches, the informal
organization was not intended to last over time and to conquer any kind of hegemony.
Therefore, could do without acronyms and proselytizing usual paraphernalia. The
informal organization was-to use an expression of fashion today, “in permanent
construction.” Born of affinity relationships, trust and mutual understanding
between partners. Took shape around specific tasks and projects, just agree or
conflict situations. Here, communication and agreement should be smoothly and not
through conferences, delegations, regular meetings, etc.. The driving idea was to
reserve full autonomy of each group and individual, that should not be sacrificed
for their unification under what Bonanno called “organizational synthesis.”

With all that this is of questionable, we would like to highlight a number of
positive implications containing this approach. First, a blow desacralizaba
organizational forms. Not only the specific organizational forms of Iberian
anarchism, but sendo organizational forms in generic, abstract. Allowed to re-think
the organization as a means, not an end in itself. As something, therefore, could
and should evolve, and eventually disappear-to the beat of the historical
transformations and the conditions of the struggle. Relocating the qualitative over
the quantitative. Therefore, unblocked the problem of organization and dealt with
flexibility within the Iberian anarchism had died completely. And opened the door
for creative experimentation with forms of organization.

Second, within the informal organization there was no room for activism. To put it
another way: there was no room for alienation from their own membership. The
informal organization is not subjected to pressure militant rhythms decided at
higher levels of coordination, not made him feel like a worm that had to be at the
level of “greatness” of the organization and its history mythologized; allowed to
return to question everything at any time. The informal organization could not, in
short, the emergence of a fetishism of the organization.

Finally, the approach of the informal organization affect fully with an issue that
our media had ignored completely, as was the quality of human relationships
established within the organization. It was no longer the possession of a passport
or subjection to a “principles, tactics and purposes” which made us “companions”
people actually unknown. For the informal organization, the relationship of
solidarity, companionship, was determined by mutual understanding, direct,
discussion and practical cooperation. It was therefore a definite, not abstract as
it had been until then in many cases.

It is, as we have said, were contained positive implications, potentially, within
the concept of informal organization. Generally, they were developed by the
insurrectionary texts, and translated more in the experiences of those who tried to
capture in practice formulations, often vague, informal organization.

3. Iberian drifting insurrectionary ideas

At the time of his leap into the Iberian peninsula, insurrectionalism came to be a
nebula of positions, collectively matured between Italy and Greece, around which
there was some consensus of the companions of this area. In Italy, that speech had
gradually developed since the seventies, in the history of struggle of a sector of
Italian anarchism that accumulated experience of generations of colleagues. Without
any peak of revolutionary thought, the truth is that Italians insurrectionalism had
a wealth of nuances that here we were very far from appreciating. This is because
theoretical formulation was born as a previous experience that provided some
benchmarks, some innuendo, of which here is lacking. The Italians were clear that
these ideas were part of an open, ongoing, and therefore were subject to debate and
evolution. But in Spain, from the outset, these ideas were taken collectively as a
body of doctrine which just closed it remained to be implemented: an ideology more.
This type of reception, which had very negative consequences, was determined by two
factors.

The first was circumstantial: insurrectionalism not filtered gradually through a
process of debate, but “broke” in the midst of the bitter controversy from the facts
of Cordoba, in which there was little room for nuance or equidistance. The second
factor was structural: the dogmatism inherent in the Spanish libertarian movement,
either in its variant traditionalist or youth. Any new idea was viewed with
suspicion. There was the slightest awareness of the need and value of the theory,
which is not surprising given the anti-intellectual traditions of the Iberian
anarchism. Dogmatic rigidity and extreme theoretical walked hand in hand, and were
cause and effect of the absence of a tradition of critical debate, which was not
space to develop. The first thing I learned was to consider any militant “movement”
or “organization” as immutable, eternal, unquestionable even in its minor features.
This lack of flexibility of the Iberian anarchism, its inability to integrate new
approaches, also determined in part the violence of the rupture.

This imprint’s dragged all more or less, and is therefore not surprising that
insurrectionalism immediately be reduced to a caricature of himself, useful to raise
the overnight a collective identity that was increasingly self-referential. The way
we had to accept it is an indicator of the limitations of the Iberian anarchism at
that time, limitations of which we were obviously carriers and repeaters. Amid such
confusion, served not just help the very poor translations of Italian texts (some of
whom were already cumbersome), or the fact that we arrived with completely altered
the chronological order, making it more difficult to understand the experiences of
struggle of which they came.

To start the review of the Iberian insurrectionalism will serve one of the few local
notable contributions that occurred. This is the thesis text 31 insurrectionists.
Organizational matters, signed by the Nothing Collective and published in early
2001. This text played a role in the spread of the epidemic of anger towards the
official anarchist militants disenchanted. What we want to address now is not so
much what was said in it, as that which is obviated. And what was obviated
repression: the logical and predictable response from the State to implement
everything that the text defended in the abstract. What state would expect once you
pass the “attack” and “continued engagement” was aired in a ritual in a paragraph of
four lines, within an eighteen-page text:

“The informal organization is the need to develop material resources to fight
repression. Solidarity with the [retaliation] must be a constant priority since it
is the only defense of the revolutionary. Solidarity with fellow reprisals can not
stay in a pose or a circumstantial activity “(thesis number XX).

And that was it. This forgetting, or rather, this terrifying ingenuity at a time
that had been received severe blows, it was a particular lack of the authors of the
31 theses. He was rather widespread, and the one reflected in the text was merely
symptomatic of the degree of collective unconsciousness: it started without any
prior consideration of the hypothetical impact of the repression, once certain ideas
were put into practice. Hence were derived innumerable follies, faults continued
security and discretion, sloppy and reckless actions. If the Italians had their
“assembly Marini,” which attempted to kill them in one fell swoop example, here
there was a string of hits repressive detail later. The history of the epidemic of
rabies can be seen, in fact, as a sequence of falling comrades, each of which lays
out a step. The repression, which had barely ended up becoming the main determinant
of the whole process.

The 31 theses were not really more than a pipe dream, because he distrusted all the
appearance of a hypothetical “autonomous social movements’ most radical we did not
see anywhere (except perhaps in prisons). But at least the 31 theses expressed their
aspirations in terms of collective struggle, something that over time it became
increasingly rare.

And so, after the initial moments of enthusiasm, started to become clear that the
extension of the struggle would not occur as easily as expected. Some frustration
was extended when, after the climax of Genoa and Carlo Giuliani’s televised
execution, tourism declined anti-globalization and its more moderate elements able
to contain the black blocks. The spectacle of the revolt was no longer stretched.
The end of the cycle of prison struggles of 1999-2002 also contributed mightily to
this feeling. Then he began to dip into the “individual struggle,” the “social
rebel” as a rhetorical figure that had been lurking since the beginning, and now
began to raise its head, taking a growing role over the slumbering collective
subjects.

We do not know in Italy, but in the Spanish case the “rebel” of the ideal tragic
hero insurrectionist. Their heroism lay in the continued effort to be free from any
systemic adhesion. His tragedy derived from the direct consequences of such
practices and commitment, and a balance of power so diverse that left no room for
hope. The “system” was a shadow to hit the pretext that set in motion the personal
odyssey of individual struggle. Hence, many writings born of this current, even
today, are full of compelling calls to action, to violent rupture of everyday
routines, the “coherence” to escape the self-improvement of the flock, to overcome
fear and so forth.

This “individual struggle”, lacking strategic direction and collective landmarks,
was forced to seek the motives of his revolt within itself. Thus began a significant
slip existentialist clearly seen in many texts and pamphlets, and in particular of
those who followed the trail of the Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth. The
usual angry rhetoric texts, press releases and pamphlets began to fill with a
lyrical subjectivism of the worst kind. Quoted indiscriminately, and often
second-hand, any author with a halo of fucking. But he used the most worst of the
Situationist International, that is, mysticism Vaneigem hedonistic. The book (?)
Sharpening our lives, edited by FIJL in 2003 is a good testimony of this collective
mental state of confusion, confusion juxtaposition of many individuals. The next
logical step was the advocacy of nihilism, of irrationality and even suicide,
expressed by publications increasingly illegible and self-referential.

Moreover, although more elaborate texts insurrectionalism had been careful to
qualify that “action” does not necessarily mean violent or illegal action, the fact
is that his defense of the action in and of itself led directly to a fetish violence
of the illegal action that valued above any other. This fetishism became clearly
visible in the illustrations of the various newsletters, full of Molotov cocktails
and firearms. Feet all the more sad because the level of violence was never really
exercised at the level of rhetorical appeals to a cataclysmic violence, unbridled,
total, that would make a clean sweep with all and would not stone cold. [12]

So when they began to practice systematically the “diffuse attack,” sincerely
believed that these actions are self-explanatory and would tend to spread more and
more. The anonymous mass was actually full of potential saboteurs, tired of everyday
alienation that would follow the example and lead him farther and farther. None of
this happened, and “diffuse attack” was gradually degenerating into a simple
expression of anger at best, misguided vandalism, ritual of group identification or
hobby at worst drunk. The amount of damage, though, was huge, of which attest to the
numerous “chronologies” of actions that were published in various bulletins, until
someone realized that the police also read with interest. As for insertion into real
social struggles of militants influenced strongly ideological insurrectionist, was
problematic and sometimes even negative. In this affects the contempt of these
militants claim to any kind of part, and the avant insurrectionist ideology
intrinsic to that already addressed above. The main exception to this rule were the
struggles prison opened in 1999, of which more later.

Within this terrible speech insurrectionist Spanish adaptation of the notion of
“informal organization” was eventually replaced by ‘organizational informality,
“which spent significantly bartering terms noun and adjective. The accent was going
to be in the organization to be informal, with the consequences that one can
imagine. Speaking of organization was becoming increasingly difficult. We believe
that it influenced the conditioning of many militants who had grown up hearing the
CNT name as an organization, but as The Organization. Words are important and, after
breaking in many areas disgust to the rites and myths of anarchism official was
extended to the notion of organization. And along with that notion were devaluing
other accompanying such as communication, dedication, commitment, responsibility,
effort and work towards the goals freely chosen. It also had its role existential
drift already mentioned, specifically the discourse of “pleasure”-yet another rehash
of Vaneigem, according to which things were done for fun, or not paid: in it came to
derive the critique of the alienation of militancy. Antiorganizativos speeches, in
short, dented and battered nets, accelerating the fragmentation and isolation.

The “informality”, moreover, was extended to everyday life. Wanting to escape from
labor exploitation, and more generally of the “flock” grazed by the system, fell in
extremely precarious lifestyles and tribal peoples, which was then the corresponding
apology. This criticism went from precarious to the exaltation of squatting. All
this would come together with an appropriate aesthetic paraphernalia, which the
“informality” was clearly taking the form of closed circles increasingly isolated
and narrow.

In general, each statement of insurrectionalism had a grotesque translation on
Iberian soil, or at least that is the collective perception is left. Many colleagues
define this phenomenon with a curious expression “informal misunderstood.” This
expression has become successful without having thought about it. It assumes first
that there was a “well-understood informal ‘, which however is never precisely
defined by anyone, let alone implemented immediately and socialized when they have
left years away. And is that no “informal” it’s worth, neither well nor poorly
understood: this notion was coined to escape from that other “organization.” On the
other hand, if things were “misunderstood”, it follows that the problem was us and
our circumstances, rather than insurrectionists approaches as we arrived from Italy,
which was not even as of today would be objectionable. We affirm, however, that much
of the subsequent trips were enrolled in the weakness of these theoretical
approaches: its inability to analyze the reality in which we moved when not in
contempt of it, in its root individualistic in its thinly veiled modernism, in its
deliberate vagueness, its lack of articulation and rigor. That in the Italian
context, idealized otherwise as-these ideas give more of himself, is due precisely
to this: the context. A richer context, broader, generational continuities here have
vanished, to increased sedimentation of struggles, experiences, and so on. These
ideas were not worth too abstract, “pure”, and it was received and the completely
dissociated from the experiences that had given meaning.

But we will not let everything is buried under a blanket of negativity.
Insurrectionary ideas played a positive role, and we never tire of saying it. Which
were not wrong then embraced and disseminated: broken many locks that choked us, and
put a hot iron on the sleepy official anarchism. What would be wrong to persist
today in positions that have been depleted in practice, not overstretched. And yet,
some enunciated insurrectionalism truths today seem advances no turning back.
Advances are not sufficient by themselves, but necessary in order to build other
things. Among these, we have already mentioned the dynamic understanding of the
organization and the rejection of alienation militantista. We would now add the idea
that under current conditions and subversive anti-capitalist practice can not be
anchored in expectation of the “masses” of the accession of large sectors of
population, nor trust to it all its future prospects.

Publication loopholes, numbers 4 and 5, 2007-08.

[Notes]

1. According to internal statistics made ​​subsequent to the Eighth Congress.

2. We will cite a few: pre-election pacts on the agreements that they “must go”;
form unions ghost (without the minimum number of members) or exaggeration of the
number of members to attend plenary sessions and conferences with the most votes;
bureaucratic networks that operate telephone coup, takeover of committees with
subsequent control of information flows; enrpleo systematic calumny against the
breakaway of the day, and especially of the charge of “infiltration,” and many
more. One of the tenets of the ideology CNT is that the structure is perfectly
horizontal, democratic and there is no hierarchy. This dogma of faith alone does
not alter the reality of the facts: that from the committees enjoys relative
control of the organization, which has generated a body of “experts” who are those
who usually attend the plenary sessions and plenary and are, in fact, that govern
the organization. As it is admitted even the possibility of the existence of a
“hierarchy”, this hierarchy is camouflaged, it is informal, and therefore even more
difficult to control than those of many organizations ‘authoritarian’, which
usually have formal mechanisms to limit the power of leadership.

3. As a “sister organization”, the CNT was home to the FIJL on their premises.

4. The very term “insurrectionalism” is problematic because, although many did not
as dramatic a label or a new form of typecasting, others assumed without major
complications. To promote a more clear, we decided to use it here without too
complex. (N. of A.)

5. The “assembly Marini ‘, developed between 1994 and 2004, was the main
operation-judicial police which tried to settle in Italy to the more militant
anarchist fringe. Named after the fiscal Marini, who, with intent to put the fellow
under the sign of a terrorist spectacular that are foreign and thus be able to
punish them more harshly, he invented a ghostly “terrorist organization” centralized
and hierarchical, the he named ORAI (Insurrectionary Anarchist Revolutionary
Organization). About Alfredo Bonanno, for example, fell to the charge of being the
“leader” of the nonexistent organization. As a result of the process, several
comrades remain in jail as of today. Apart from several pamphlets that came out
since 1997, a good collection of materials in Castilian on mounting Marini is
included in you can not stop us. The revolutionary anarchist struggle in Italy,
Klinamen / Conspiracy. 2005. (N. of A.)

6. While undoubtedly meant for us a “novelty”, it should be noted that
insurrectionalism did nothing but re-collect these items from long ago in the
anarchist tradition. For those elements of Spanish anarchism, individualism,
illegality, informality, etc. – Had been sidelined by the historical strength of
their union, to which were also subordinated to some extent. But it would arguably
have been entirely absent: it simply had been overlooked by historians, academic, or
anarchist. (N. of A.)

7. See his letter about “New” twist “of capitalism”, included in that collection you
can not stop us. However, in his introductory text for the meeting of the
International Insurrectionalist antiauthoritarian, Bonanno introduced as a strategic
perspective the idea that the countries of the Mediterranean area in the coming
years would be more prone to outbursts of rebellion. Forecast that more than ten
years after being made, seems to have overtones of accomplishment. (N. of A.)

8. Two texts representative of this trend are Bad times will burn, Madrid Surrealist
Group and other groups, and Barbarians. The insurgency disordered and Odoteo Crisso
signed and published by the Social Library Quero Brothers in 2006. Both were
subjected to critical analysis in the first and second number of cracks
respectively. (N. of A.)

9. Ai ferri corti / Etziok bueltarik. Breaking with this reality, its advocates and
critics false, Muturreko Burutazioak, 2001, p. 42-46.

10. Anarchism in the postindustrial society: insurrectionalism. informality,
anarchist project planning in early 2000, Llavors d’Anarchy, 2002, p. 21.

11. “New” twist “of capitalism”, included in that you can not stop us, p. 33-35.

12. As we do not plague the text quotes, do the obligatory ritual clarification:
here we use the term “violence” without moralizing or condemnation implicit
intention to decide to take the fight outside the legal margins. And just as we do
not condemn a priori the use of force on people or things in the context of the
social war, nor exalt as if it contained any inherent virtue that could break away
from every situation. (N. of A.)