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Title: Ready or Not Author: Alfredo Cospito Date: November 25, 2017 Language: en Topics: Italy, prison, fear, attack Source: https://actforfree.nostate.net/?p=29015
In these three years I was faced with choices which led me by the hand
through a path fraught with crossroads and bifurcations.
Like on a minefield, I had to decide carefully where to step, with my
pride and my self-respect at stake. The first choice I had to face with
was whether I should continue to contribute, or let the prison overflow
me, patiently waiting to get out. As limited as my situation is, I chose
to continue to contribute through the written word. Once I made this
decision I faced another crossroad: whether to confine myself —
ecumenically — from this “high point” of my “status” (sic.) of a
“revolutionary” prisoner — to bestowing blessings in each directions,
applauding to every anarchist practice, paying attention not to make any
enemies; or to use the weapon of critique, ever more harshly, trying to
outline some analysis, to open some discourses. I chose the easier way
(at least for me): openly push my critique to the extremes, at the cost
of isolation (less letters, less information, less generic solidarity).
But always aware of the abyss between the thought and the action.
Words, strong as they may be, always carry something that sounds phony,
even when they pose real, concrete risks, which may effectuate in years
of prison for apology or incitement.
In “my” cell, the words I listen to most carefully are those that follow
the actions, those which become flash and blood. They are alive, real,
there’s no mistaking. They differ from the continuous blabbering in the
background of an anarchist movement withdrawn in itself, affected by an
embarrassing lack of courage and fantasy. A movement that feeds on
appearance, on rhetoric and sometimes on demagogy, with its
demonstrations, assemblies, communicative marches, campaigns of
information and on rooting in a territory, a continuous blah blah. You
don’t have to support claims of responsibility, but you know for sure
they are honest because they are products of an action, because they’re
written by really taking part in the game, putting one’s life in danger.
In these times of virtual reality it is no small thing, and when then
these claims talk to each other becoming campaigns of action, the
background noise, the blabbering, definitely disappears, and everything
gets more serious, more dangerous, more real.
Most of anarchists here in Italy today seem to be affected by a
gregariousness and by a soporific prudence. We are limited by thousand
fears: fear of being buried alive in some prison, fear of dying in an
action, fear of being left alone without the consensus of the people or,
of be pushed aside by our own comrades. Overcoming these fears would
make us more lucid. Many “struggles” are built on these fears, they are
product of these fears. The fear poisons us, the compromises are its
poisoned fruits. Then, with nice words, nice theories, nice long-term
strategies, they take care of painting the whole shit in pink, pushing
us towards prudence, to political “realism”. But, unfortunately, even if
painted pink, the shit always remains shit. That is precisely why the
half-measures should not make any sense for an anarchist.With the
progress of technology (the armed wing of civilization) the time
available to us becomes limited. The civilization feeds on everything
and on the opposite of everything. On democracies and dictatorships,
science and religion, civil liberties and the free market, consent and
coercion, capitalism and socialism, eco-compatible commodities and
nuclear plants… A thousand of facets of just one phenomena, that of
civilization, held together by the glue made of a technology more and
more invasive, which is destroying not only the human being, but is
overturning the whole life on this planet. With a stake of this kind any
half-measure, any non-destructive action is a useless palliative, an
inexcusable waste of time. There is no need to listen the finest spirits
of “revolution” anymore, who always find an excuse to postpone, to
complicate the things. More and more frequently the wait-and-see policy
and the gradualism are justified with the excuse of being understood by
people, of the need of being rooted in a territory. Aiming for the so
called “reproducibility” of small actions leads to increasingly
insignificant practices which result in passive resistance or in civil
road-blocks, always in good measure, never excessive, postponing the
violent clash with the system for a tomorrow that will never come. There
is no need for proselytism; too much dwelling, too much questioning,
make us empty, incapacitated.
Too much information is equivalent to no information. The smell of
academy, of politics, of fear is too strong around here. What to do?
Look for affinity comrades, encouraging with action the real, living
forces. “Throw the heart over the hurdle”, regardless of consequences
and of “revolutionary” strategies, countering the spasmodic and
obsessive pursuit of consent, support positions which put in danger the
quiet life of word and assembly specialists. Give ourselves the tools to
communicate with each other, without authority, without knowing each
other personally, through words that follow the actions, bypassing
spokesmen, getting rid of intermediaries of ideology and mediation
specialists once and for all. The already tested and efficient campaigns
of action are the biggest result of this communication without
authority, away from any organization or coordination.
Let us rely on our most irrational, most natural instincts: rage,
hatred, love, brotherhood, sisterhood, vendetta.
Let the will of destruction never again become a creator, nothing needs
to be built.
Let action speak, right now, immediately.
Ready or not…
Alfredo Cospito
(“Chi c’è c’è e chi non c’è non c’è”, published in “Croce Nera
Anarchica” #3, January 2017, a-periodical of Anarchist Black Cross in
Italy)