”There are people unknown to you that watch you from the shadows, while you haunt the anarchists, and they wait for the favorable moment to haunt the haunters on their turn.”
STRENGTH TO K. SAKKAS AND M. SEISIDIS SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THE IMPRISONED ANARCHIST COMRADES FIRE TO THE PRISONS LONG LIVE ANARCHY
As the United States totters ever closer towards total collapse and WW3 looms on the horizon, one question burns with increasing intensity in the minds of Anarchists everywhere: what can I do to help destroy things?
Not since the heyday’s of the early 1900’s has the moral and social fabric of America the Brutal been so close to the tipping point, the minds of an entire populace so close to boiling over. We live in a unique age, a transitory position; Radicals of every stripe are quickly abandoning the long dead tactics of the Protest Left in favor of militant activity, going so far as to form armed squads. The State not only knows this but expects it, which says something quite dire about what lies ahead of us consideringthe massive build-up of military units for such an occurrence. Things are bad, real bad, and people everywhere feel the need to do something. The fact is violence DOES work and people are starting to realize that.
Radicalism has long been clubbed by the idiotic beliefs perpetuated by the Democratic party. With Bernie’s betrayal people are starting to look for alternatives. There is an itch on the arm of Leftists everywhere, a sullen pimple begging to be popped. There is talk of “realrevolution” and what that might entail. It’s a question whose time has come. The religious belief in nonviolence that we’ve all had passive-aggressively shoved down our throats states that an individual must allow an entity in opposition to see the evil in his or her own ways and voluntarily change because apparently people switch out belief systems like vape liquids. This, as if by magic, will somehow spread across society and create lasting change. Of course it’s all a lie. This foolish notion places an extraordinary amount of faith in the human conscience and assumes people are rationally deciding the course of their actions and has proven it’s bankruptcy. If the dogma of “conscious choice” were true the entire field of advertising wouldn’t exist. If an individual had a working conscience in the first place would they actually engage in activities with threaten and destroy various forms of life on this planet, support a state that exports war and death to millions across the globe? The entire system depends upon people NOT acting rationally and not ethically reflecting on those same actions. I can assure you cops and soldiers sleep like babies.
Other factions, primarily on the Left, want us to wait for some Grand Revolution, accepting our lot as tools in some dialectical gear work, forced to silently taking blow after blow until enough critical mass has been reached until….well, nobody seems to know. Serfinski in Blessed is the Flame notes that almost every concentration camp run by the Nazis had an organized resistance, some even with weapons. Thousands of prisoners were part of these organizations actively plotting the moment they would put an end to the widespread slaughter and liberate themselves. The problem was that the plot never came to fruition, times were never quite right, things were never ready enough. The bodies continued to pile up as fast as each new unspeakable horror was unleashed yet hierarchical leaders remained steadfast in waiting for the picture-perfect weather. Even social protests like better wages, social security, more rights, while certainly admirable, are mobilizations with an expire date that lead back to passivity. The only thing we learn by waiting is to wait.
People want to act, want to do something. Scores of the restless are filled with piss and vinegar looking for a target. Hands are willing with only one question remaining: who the fuck do they do it with?
It’s a question I’ve asked myself, and one that lead me to message the fine folks over atInsurrection News, a clearing house for “news, counter-information & incitement from the global front lines of anti-capitalist insurrection & social war.” The way I saw it there were a few outfits out there, but you’d be hard pressed to find one better than the infamous Informal Anarchist Federation, a shadowy “terrorist” group better known by its Italian acronym of FAI, the same one whose “death squads” I covered for Disinfo:
“[The] FAI/FRI made it clear this is no collection of high-school students with a passing interest in Bakunin. This is hardcore Propaganda of the Deed.“The fire, the attack, the threat against any representative of the church and the power is fully justified,” noted the Anarchists, “We have the weapons and our willingness to attack them. Their days of revelry are over.”
These guys and gals don’t play around and aren’t interested in “influencing the argument” or “moral victories.”
Masked Anarchists striking fear into the heart of the bourgeoisie? Be still my beating heart! So where does one sign up?
The short answer: you don’t.
The long answer is much more complicated.
“FAI doesn’t really have a membership as such, it is an informal organization,”explains Insurrection News. While it may not have offices, ranks, or official structures, that’s not to say one couldn’t become part of it. “A person is only an FAI member when they carry out an action under the FAI name. It’s more of an idea than some kind of actual organization.”
Alfredo Cospito, the jailed Anarchist who was convicted of an FAI-FRI action (kneecapping that nuclear power company executive) elaborates and highlights the effectiveness of this “informal” organization in a letter from prison:
“I’ll never tire of repeating it, in my opinion the informal federation must ‘limit itself’ to being a simple instrument which even comrades like myself, totally extraneous to any organization, can use, giving themselves the possibility of relating with other individuals or nuclei scattered around the world. FAI-FRI is a weapon of war, and the simpler its structure, the more elementary its dynamics, the more efficient it will be. Reducing its complexity increases its effectiveness….
Rather than wait to be issued commands the FAI operates as a symbolic mast-head for individuals or groups to gallantly raise their own black flag of Anarchism; there is no leader to capture, no informants to pay off, because cells do not come into contact with one another.
Both coordination and assembly are exposed to repression, everyone knows everyone else, it’s like a house of cards, if one falls all the others fall. The FAI, in a very simple and natural way through the collective experience of dozens of groups scattered throughout the world has, without even realizing it, substituted these two old methodologies with revolutionary campaigns that don’t need deadlines or reciprocal knowledge, only the actions speak. There’s no need for coordination when it is sufficient to communicate the beginning of a campaign with claims, pieces of writing that follow the actions and open debates among different tensions (insurrectionalists, individualists, nihilists, social and anti-social anarchists) thus creating new trajectories that are never characterized by uniformity, ideology, politics. As for the assembly this is a way of politicizing, and rendering ideological the simple and natural relations of affinity, friendship, love, sisterhood, brotherhood that every FAI-FRI group has within itself and which concern their most intimate lives and only in the moment of the action intertwine with the existence of the informal federation…
The informal federation follows its trajectory of war which within the limits of its strength wants only to destroy and build nothing. An unpredictable trajectory, which is never ideological, never political, never constructive, and which sometimes intersects with that of the ‘real movement’. Two trajectories with quite different objectives, the first the anarchist movement, combative, violent, revolutionary with its assemblies and specific organisations and the second the FAI-FRI, a simple instrument, elementary, basic, informal to make war, strike, then disappear, communicate without ever becoming visible. The two trajectories must be kept separate from each other as they would annihilate each other if they came together.
Above all one thing must be clear, one is only part of the FAI-FRI in the moment of the action, then each one returns to their life as anarchist, nihilist, individualist, to their own projects and rebel or revolutionary perspectives with all their adjuncts of assemblies, coordinations, affinity nuclei, occupations, communes, struggles in the territory and so on and so forth.
The FAI-FRI (at least that’s how I see it) is not a party or a movement and even less an organization, but a means to strengthen single affinity groups or single individuals of action through international campaigns that unite our forces without coordination, without surrendering precious freedom.
A means that can be used by any anarchist who aspires to destruction here and now. It’s not a perfect instrument, many things could be improved starting with the international campaigns, which, I think, have never been exploited to the full. Imagine concentrating forces on objectives of the same kind, on an international scale…“
Powerful words and big claims. But does it work?
Map of ELF / ALF attacks and damages.
Other organizations, such as the Earth Liberation Front and it’s sister organization the Animal Liberation Front have used similar informal, cellular structures to devastating effect, causing millions of dollars worth of damages all without a single arrest from 1997 to 2000 noting in one FAQ:
“This cell structure has been extremely effective in ensuring the continuation of the organization with minimal arrests. Law enforcement, particularly in North America are trained to recognize and deal with organizations that have a leader, a hierarchy and a central headquarters. The ELF does not contain any of these.Due to the autonomous and underground aspects of the ELF cells, an infiltration into a cell by no way means the entire movement will be stopped. If one individual or even one entire cell is captured by authorities, other individuals and cells will be free to continue their work as they operate independently and anonymously from one another. The cell structure is a type of guerilla tactic which has been successfully employed by various movements around the world for ages. It can be a successful tactic when used properly against a greater military power.
The ELF does not have any sort of physical membership list or meetings you can attend to become involved. Remember, the ELF revolves around not a physical base or classically designed structure, but instead an ideology. If you believe in the ELF ideology and you follow a certain set of widely published guidelines, you can conduct actions and become part of the ELF.
Individuals interested in becoming active…need to follow the above guidelines and create their own close knit anonymous cell made up of trustworthy and sincere people. Remember the ELF and each cell within it are anonymous not only to one another but also to the general public. So there is not a realistic chance of becoming active in an already existing cell. Take initiative, form your own cell and do what needs to be done!”
As mentioned before the FAI has been notoriously successful. 180 fire and bombing attacks were carried out by one group alone under the name of “Conspiracy of Cells of Fire,” filling the servants of the State with more dread than any “occupation” could have. Attacks are oriented around aspects of society in specific campaigns rather than location-driven co-ordinates, allowing members to strike in any way they deem feasible. A call for revenge in the name of fallen anarchists called “Black December”yielded at least 63 successful actions in one month across multiple continents. Says another FAI text,“Using specific campaigns as a strategy (for example against the prison system or the plunder of the earth and of animals) we can easily cause a short circuit to the normal functioning of society. For example, a campaign against prison that includes posters and leaflets against prison, sabotage and arson against the companies that build prisons and/or get rich with their management, letters to imprisoned anarchists, attacks on jailers and prison governors, explosive attacks on judges in solidarity with anarchist prisoners, would unquestionably be a strong campaign that would cause cracks in the prison walls. This kind of mobilization can strike the prison regime and create unpredictable situations inside the prison, and even help the comrades who want to escape.”
Attacks can be carried out by individuals or cells of comrades, reject the idea of any centralist model and chosing to start from the basis of individual initiatives that want to collectivize. As one group put it“At group meetings, each comrade had the opportunity to propose a plan of attack, thereby opening up a debate on planning, timing, political analysis, and operational problems posed by a given target’s location. During these discussions, there was no guarantee that we would reach agreement. Opposing arguments sometimes developed into a powerful dialectic, especially regarding the strategy and prioritization of timing, and quite often there was more than one proposal, so we then had to choose which we were going to select and which we were going to keep in “storage” to be refined in the future.”
From there a number of communiqués were signed by groups (Nihilist Faction, Breath of Terror Commando, Terrorist Guerrilla Unit) that arose out of each separate initiative, an ingenious method that leaves cops guessing and chasing dead ends. After reaching anagreement, whether as the entire collective or as a separate initiative, the attack is usually planned. Each member contributes; information was culled from newspapers, magazines, and the Internet; the area where the action was to take place is reconnoitered and mapped; the approach to and withdrawal from the target laid out (avoiding cameras and police checkpoints), including alternate routes in case something unexpected happened, and of course keeping in mind the eventuality of a confrontation with the pigs. There were also support groups, “hideouts,” ways of asking for help, etc.
Of course the FAI isn’t just anything and everything. The FAI are nihilists, individualists, and insurrectionists of the highest caliber. To add one’s voice to such a chorus is to be well acquainted with the songs of destruction they sing and the theories behind them. The above video does a good job of giving you a quick primer on just what Insurrectionary Anarchism is. Rest assured though its actual action they live for, not theoretical posturing. A childhood brush with arson holds much more weight than a college degree in dialectics.
110 years ago the leaders of the world slept uneasily on feathered beds, nightmares of bomb-wielding Anarchists chasing them from the front page of the morning paper to the borders of dreamland and everywhere in between. It was an age where no office was too mighty and no life too noble to be removed jut as ruthlessly as the rulers treated the people. Stories of daring and adventure were as common as the concrete victories they produced in the lives of those that actually had the nerve to pursue them. It was an age so restless, so burning with brimstone, it was enough to keep Anarchism on the map even with a century of bitter defeats ahead of it.
Those same conditions are here again. So too can be the victories.
While the situation in the rebellious Northern Part of Friedrichshain is calming down for the moment and we find time to build Rigaer 94 back up again, the social war around us is continuing with its normal intensity. We received news about the state attacks on people and squats in Thessaloniki. Here and there we are fighting against the social democracy and confront the social war with polymorphous struggle. Whether in the black july or in our daily local conflicts, we are involved in a common fight that gains power in its mutuality.
In this very moment, the greek state seems to be striking out with a general attack against autonomous structures. In Thessaloniki and in other cities, self-organized structures of migrants are especially becoming more and more endangered. While fullfilling its function as a manager of migration-streams, the state attacks those who try to move, self-determined, through a world of exploitation and oppression and who won‘t bow to it‘s authority.
Three occupied houses in Thessaloniki were affected and over a hundred people arrested. One person was killed during the eviction [Correction received: one day after the three evictions, a young migrant woman died due to medical negligence at one of the state’s detention facilities in Thessaloniki.]. In Athens, squats which are being used by migrants are also threatened with eviction. The goal is to create an atmosphere of fear, while oppressing those who are self-organising and attacking the authority of the state.
At this point, it should be remembered that the greek government is in the hands of Syriza. It is the left-radical, socialist party which is also supported by german left-wing groups and gets invited to reconciliation-events of the „movement“ like the 1st of May.
To the leftists who are shocked and stunned by these actions by the greek government – what did you expect? To think that you put so much into this and all other left-leaning governments and are now once again in utter disbelief and mumbling in chorus „but human rights!“.
The lesson once again – the clowns on the top of the hierarchy care not for you or your social democratic ideals. These attacks are to be expected and they are to be met with equally debilitating responses. We have no faith in their empty populist politic and it must be shown up for what it truly is. To expect anything from these parties is to give them the power to continue to shit on us. They feed on our social guilt and sympathies. We must fight to extinguish this power. Our attempt at organizing and living autonomously is of course a threat to those people. The state will spew humanitarian rhetoric until the reality of losing some of its power hits. The state support of migrants and refugees and any concepts of „freedom“ is shallow propaganda. Any attempt to realize autonomy is met with violence and repression and this must be expected. Any area people self-organize, build new structures and attempt to destroy state-imposed divisions and replace them with our own self-determined frontlines are a direct threat to the state.
You can walk along your pre-organized protest-route, but stray any further and your so celebrated liberties will suddenly „disappear“. The state will not allow you to have something it hasn‘t already assigned you. You must take it.
The only foundation of social democracy and all the preachers of social peace is their role in managing society. Their task is to identify social processes and detect its main actors, so as to try and buy them with promises of power. The support for Syriza, which even came from “anarchist” circles, resulted from the struggle for “counter-power”. Left parties are still recruiting new members from those movements who are obsessed with the idea of unifying all the different forms of attack and resistance into one group or organisation.
There have also been several attempts from the parliamentary democracy, concerning the conflicts around Rigaer Straße, to use „wannabe rebels“ to try and steer the struggle into a certain direction. Especially in the case of the green party, who has been showing up and trying to intervene in every neighbourhood meeting since the beginning of the year.
In this way, our place for struggle is turning into a place for politics, even though our hatred towards politicians is the foundation for self-organisation and self-defence, aka, attacks.
The green party in Berlin has invited the Riager 94 and its neighbours to negotiations with „important people“ over and over again. These invitations have been consequently declined. But the powerful know that they just need to keep searching a little longer until they find someone eager enough or at least clueless enough, to put themself forward and speak on behalf of the whole neighbourhood. We need to sharpen our senses so as to detect these offers from the powerful before they can do any damage. This search begins from within ourselves.
In a shameful display, the politicians from the ruling green party are actually comparing the three week long siege of the Rigaer straße with the events around the attempted eviction of the Ohlauer School squat in Kreuzberg two years ago. The school was mainly used by migrants and illegalised freedom fighters. The strategy of the government to counteract the growing radical structures, contained not only brutal repression and police terror, but also several offers for peaceful solutions. With this strategy they managed to destroy the Oranienplatz squat in Kreuzberg, where some people from the movement agreed to negotiate with the government. This led to them actually supporting the police as they executed the eviction of Oranienplatz.
But the Ohlauer School successfully resisted, after the fighters occupied the roof and threatened to jump should the police enter the school. Finally, the squatters reached an agreement with the green party, who wanted to avoid visions of dead bodies in Kreuzberg being connected with their party. During the following months, many of the fighters faced repression and deportation, which weakened the radical structures. Even today, the government keeps coming up with unending ridiculous lies to try and clear the school of the last remaining squatters. This absurdity is seen in their latest claim to want to evict the school in order to make room for a state controlled refugee camp.
This same strategy was used during the eviction of Rigaer 94, in which existing conflicts and contradictions within the different radical struggles, were used to try and create deep divisions. By claiming the „Kadterschmiede“ would be turned into a refugee camp for syrian refugees, they tried to undermine any attempt to combine the struggles behind the same barricade and becoming a much more powerful resistance force.
Concerning this, the Rigaer 94 wrote:
„We have to confess, that the police had good reasons to develop this insidious plan of moving refugees into kadterschmiede. The struggle against gentrification and the police have a strong history in the neighbourhood. But fights against racism are another story. Herein lies the dark side of autonomous politics: it operates within the context of wider society, it makes concessions towards the majority to gain resonance and is betraying itself in segmented fights. Of course, we are also fighting for an anti-racist neighbourhood. But in our case, when we were accused of not wanting refugees in our surroundings, it was connections from outside the neighbourhood that had to raise their voices to extinguish these claims. If this was an actively anti-racist, less Western-European neighbourhood (including us), there would be no basis to this argument.“
The Rigaer 94 called for a Black July as a strategy against the process of social peace and harmony. This informal organisation was picked up by many groups and turned into direct actions.
The Black July had a definite strategic effect, with the consequent decentralisation of the attacks bringing the berlin police to their knees. While the police had to focus their forces mainly on the besieged house and the surrounding area – plus create a 14 person strong investigation unit whose only „success“ was to arrest one of their own spies – many groups, large and small, reached for the 10 million euro damage goal. For three weeks until the last night of the siege, things burned and shattered – and not just in Berlin.
The more important and longer lasting effect than the strategic goal of recapturing the Rigaer Straße, was the moment that fear was defeated. While we execute our attacks and fight our daily fights, we are going to have to face situations in which the state will try to divide us and break our spirits. During these difficult hours, days or years, the informal anarchist offenisve will continue to carry its courage into the last corners of this earth. Be it through the iron bars of Moabit, Korydallos or isolation cells in Cologne.
We send rebellious greetings to the imprisoned fighters in Thessaloniki, as well as to Aaron and Balu in Moabit and Lisa in Cologne. We have been using the calmer nights to turn the walls of Rigaer Straße into canvases of solidarity for them and for all those imprisoned.
We raise our fists to all the freedom fighters in greek squats and the Ohlauer Straße in Berlin!
Angeliki Spyropoulou was arrested on March 2, 2015 and is held in Korydallos prison. She has claimed full responsibility for her role in the attempted escape of the CCF from Korydallos prison. At her trial she was sentenced to 28 years imprisonment.
Panos Mixalakoglou was arrested on October 1, 2014 in Athens and detained in the prisons of Nigrita and Serres. He was convicted for possession of a gun. He was entitled to prisoner leave 5 months ago however the prison refuse to give it to him.
On Friday, 24 June 2016 there was a small, but wild demonstration against racism, repression, and gentrification in Basel, Switzerland that attacked various buildings and the police. Basel’s criminal court, a private security company, the party office of the right-wing SVP, and an insurance company were among the buildings attacked. 14 people were subsequently arrested, accused of taking part. 2 people were injured during the arrests.
They were originally accused of disturbing the peace, property damage, violence and threats against authorities and officers, and assault.
That weekend, there were various house searches in multiple cities across Switzerland in the context of this case.
7 people were released on Sunday, 26 June, and the following seven were sentenced to between 2 and 6 weeks of pre-trial detention. Some of the imprisoned would have already been released by now, but have been sentenced to more time in pre-trial detention. The others may face a longer detention, as well.
A communique from the demonstration said “let us come together and organize in order to ravage the cage and break through the bars that contain various forms of coercion and repression, in order to open new ways in the future.”
Also from the communique, “Whether they took part in the demonstration or not, whether they attacked the police or not, we are in solidarity with all of the prisoners and we wish them a lot of strength and the ability to persevere. Even when they try to isolate you- you are not alone!”
The state and its cops, courts, and prison wardens think that repression will hold us down and destroy our desires, but it only gives us more reason to resist. Our solidarity goes to all those, inside or outside, that are fighting against the existing order.
We send our greetings to those resisting for Rigaer94 in Berlin. Your actions and solidarity also warm our hearts! Also, the attack on a police station in Zurich on 27 July brought smiles to our faces.
http://www.autistici.org/cna/2016/07/01/parigi-precisazioni-sullattacco-alla-sede-della-cgt-e-sulla-dissociazione-anonima/
Translated from Italian by act for freedom now!
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In the night of 24th-25th June 2016 the comrades of ‘one cell among the many…’ attacked the national premises of the CGT union. The action was claimed, denouncing the collaboration between the unions and the prefecture of police and in solidarity with the rebel prisoners in France and the members of the CCF nearing the end of their trial for their escape attempt; the claim specified that there were some seriously injured people wanted by the police and on the run.
The media frenzy began on 25th July 2016, the CGT representative Martinez, several ministers including the minister of labour El Komhri, the interior minister B.
Cazeneuve and the prime minister M.Valls, as well as all the representatives of various union organizations, gave public statements condemning these acts (would you ever have imagined…) pointing out that the police forces would be incremented so as to protect union premises and their officials and to identify those ‘obviously well organized’ responsible for the attack.
Such a political and repressive mobilization cannot be explained by the level of violence used in this attack, which was of relatively low impact (although the media gave it unrivalled resonance), but by the target chosen.
In fact the comrades had demonstrated that it was possible to attack and also enter the building of the union federation in France the most video-surveyed and most protected by professional vigilantes and increased police surveillance during these times of social conflict and state of emergency.
In spite of what Martinez declared, the comrades had managed to enter the building to express their destructive passions, as witnessed by the smashed door. So it was neither lack of time nor the presumed alarm that would have been activated to do anything to prevent it.
The same day, 25/6/16, as the political and media frenzy was in full swing, the anarchist website ‘Brèves du désordre’publicly dissociates itself from the comrades on the pretext that such an action doesn’t need to be claimed and that they didn’t like the comrades’ perspectives in terms of solidarity.
Here is the short response of the comrades responsible for the attack following the dissociation (comment on Indy Nantes):
Dissociation?
So it’s dissociation not from the act itself but from the claim – and so, by extension, from the individuals who drew it up: http://cettesemaine.info/breves/spip.php?article1746&lang=fr
The reason given: there is no need to claim an action whose meaning is clear, those who don’t get it are just ‘blind and anesthetized’.
This is also the reason why our anonymous dissociated ones considered it opportune to let off an anti-union tirade – quite pertinent after all – very similar to a claim…
South Africa, Johannesburg: shopping mall looted and ambulance torched during protest… cop killed and partner disarmed… water cut-offs said to have sparked the riots… Cape Town: two buses burnt on national highway near airport
