On Propaganda, by Sin Banderas Ni Fronteras

A couple of weeks ago, a group of Italian comrades were arrested in Florence passing out leaflets against the death of an immigrant at the hands of the police. The guardians of order inserted this arrest into a new repressive operation against anarchist comrades. By means of the operations, with raids on houses and confiscation of personal objects, the police seized and abducted the emails of the blogs ParoleArmate, Culmine and Iconoclasta and accused some compas of subversive crimes.

 From our small trench of propaganda we send our support to the investigated compas and to our brothers of Culmine and the rest of the raided virtual spaces, thanks to which we can find our what other compas from distant places are doing and thinking and share with them our reflections on the context of struggle in our territory. We know that sooner than later, with the same or another project, we will have them back.

For our part, we refuse to underestimate printed propaganda as a low-risk tool in action against authority. For us all forms of action that divulge anti-authoritarian ideas are a contribution to the struggle and a gesture of insubordination against Power. It could be that before the enemy’s laws it is not the same to edit an anti-authoritarian bulletin as to place an explosive device, but we want to make it clear that Power increasingly seeks to link these kinds of acts through their content. It happened in September 2008 when they tried to apply the State Security Law against three youth — accusing them of “apologizing for violence” — who were surprised putting posters up in the street that called for attacks on the police; something apparently happened and is happening with the comrades of the “Bombs Case,” where books and bulletins are part of the “evidence” with which the prosecution is trying to accuse them of participating in the placement of explosive devices. Other examples abound in Chile and around the world. What’s valuable is to assume the risks and the challenge of continuing to spread and circulate our ideas.

If we have learned something along our way, it is that the diffusion of anti-authoritarian ideas is a field of action that is tremendously important in the confrontation with Power. In that sense, written propaganda can be aimed toward comrades as much as to those who are often called “the people.” There are also comrades who choose to use direct attacks against symbols of Power as a form of propaganda, Others consider that our daily actions are also a terrain of propaganda where we demonstrate what anti-authoritarians (or not) really are like. But the terrain of our day is not enough for us and as a group dedicated to printed propaganda, we have chosen to direct our reflections toward the environment of “comrades,” in order to sharpen our positions by means of the constant tension of our ideas and practices. Still, we believe that one must also promote other instances of agitation aimed at a wider public. We say this because we were not born insurgents, but rather we have up to now been forged in continual interaction and rupture with society and in contact with the ideas of struggle against Power. Therefore we believe that others can also take on an active position in this struggle and begin to exercise their freedom and recover their lives. We do not want to convince anyone, but neither are we interested in being the only “convinced ones,” therefore we propagate the permanent tension with this society and its submissive and alienated form of life. We hate this society that the powerful created and we hate the masses who obey and reproduce their Power. We do not believe that the exploited are our comrades just for the fact of being oppressed, but neither do we condemn them a priori as enemies since only in the present and constant heightening of the social war is each individual going to make their position evident.

Therefore, we encourage all comrades to multiply printed anarchic anti-authoritarian propaganda, abandoning excuses and beginning to act in a group or individually. More creativity and clear objectives are necessary and economic means for creating, printing or photocopying leaflets, zines, bulletins, posters, etc. In doing we go on learning, reflecting and acting autonomously and horizontally we construct, in action against domination, the forms of life and of anti-authoritarian relations that allow us to enjoy anarchy and freedom in the present.

Link: A comrade from Parole Armate tells what the anti-subversive police confiscated.

Sin Banderas Ni Fronteras,
April 2012.

PS: We’ve created a new email address to communicate with the comrades. This is the new address: sinbanderas.nifronteras[arroba]yahoo.com