alks

Was anything else expected from Power? Although the 86-year prison sentence caused surprise and some consternation, Power was consistent. It has punished forceful actions directed against its defenders and representatives, the audacity of the open rebellion that hit their spaces they believed impregnable and also the unabashed and unambiguous vindication of such attacks, demonstrating that they perceive the danger implicit in the dissemination of ideas and actions.

The state acted because of what it is, and this should not surprise us.

It proceeded as it has historically done when it has been directly attacked, when it has really felt the threat of seeing its lives at risk and when, moreover, it has not found submission or repentance.

Along with seeking to bury me for life in this place, this sentence clearly constitutes an intimidating signal for all anarchist spaces and individualities that openly position themselves for combat insofar as it intends to put an end to offensive practices that refuse to disappear and that demonstrated their scope and potential in the October revolt. It is, in short, a blow to anarchism of action as a whole that reflects the threat it poses to Power, which, although it may sound paradoxical, shows that the insurrectional path fulfills part of its purposes. The fact that we are being persecuted, that years ago they created a specialized anti-anarchist team which they have now replicated to fight organized crime, and that we are given 86-year sentences, are indicators that the path of action worries and worries the powerful.

The insistence and, at times, intensification of anarchist action has led to a crushing sentence that undoubtedly has a claim to demobilization and a flavor of political revenge.

However, it is undeniable that lately there has not been an advance in the anarchic offensive, presenting, rather, a stagnation and even a decrease in the development and multiplication of transgressive practices. I think this is due to multiple aspects among which are the repressive variable as well as a post revolt effect that, apparently, has led to demobilization in several environments and individualities. I believe that a deeper analysis of this issue deserves a more detailed analysis, which is not the case here.

And if I am asked whether it was worth it. I answer not only that yes, it was worth it, but that it is and will absolutely be worth it. That making the individual decision to rebel, take revenge and put an end, if only for a moment, to the impunity of the powerful, is one of the most beautiful moments one can experience. That linking word and action, going beyond mere slogans emptied of content, strengthens and gives meaning to an individual and collective position of conflict. That bringing ideas to the terrain of the possible is always necessary and unavoidable if one freely decides to confront Power, even if it may cost decades of imprisonment and even life. Action is always worth it.

This concealed life sentence, a sentence among the highest internationally given to to an anarchist, clearly seeks to pacify, no doubt it is up to us to make sure that this warning reaches its goal or not. It is up to our will and decision to make these sentences completely lose their meaning and even constitute one more motive to attack, and indeed constitute one more reason to attack, just as the “Grupo de Acción 6 de Julio – Nueva Subversión” rightly exposed in the wake of the recent explosive attack on a bank branch.

Here inside, understanding, as I pointed out a few years ago, that anarchists in prison are active comrades who are temporarily locked up, in resistance and avoiding the narrow pigeonholing of the figure of “prisoner”, I intend to continue contributing to the different initiatives of the anarchist struggle. To insist on the permanent struggle for the annulment of the sentences of the military justice and with the campaign for the liberation of comrade Marcelo Villarroel, the freedom of anarchist and subversive prisoners and the destruction of the prison society.

Freedom for anarchist and subversive prisoners! May the jails burn! Long live Anarchy!

Francisco Solar Domínguez La Gonzalina Prison – Rancagua December 2023

the text initially published was based on this translation in italian which ostensibly was based on this original text in spanish that clarifies some phrases, and according to which i am updating this english translation