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Title: In Praise of Unfettered Revolt
Author: xYosefx
Date: 2007
Language: en
Topics: AJODA, AJODA #63, Os Cangaceiros, review
Notes: Originally published in “Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed” #63. Spring / Summer 2007, Vol. 24, No. 2.

xYosefx

In Praise of Unfettered Revolt

A Crime Called Freedom: The Writings of Os Cangaceiros, Volume One

by Os Cangaceiros

Translated by Wolfi Landstreicher

Eberhardt Press, 2006

168 pages. Paper. $6.00

For over two decades the anonymous social rebels collectively known as

Os Cangaceiros blazed a trail of unfettered revolt across the European

social landscape. They traveled the continent intervening in wildcat

strikes, riots and other explosions of social tension and class

violence, contributing what they could to the struggles of those with

whom they found affinity. Many of these writings against prison, most

translated into English for the first time, have been collected in A

Crime Called Freedom. Containing Os Cangaceiros’ writings from their

eponymous magazine and elsewhere, the collection consists of eight

essays, two chronologies and a handful of letters. The writing sparks

with life and creativity, never the dull litany of political injustices

and prescriptions for their change that one becomes used to finding in

so many anarchist and communist theoretical texts. Instead of a laundry

list of criticism, Os Cangaceiros give us critique-in-action; never

content with words alone, the texts found in this collection were one

manifestation of the unceasing rebellion of their lives .The origin of

their name is telling of Os Cangaceiros’ political trajectory: The

original cangaceiros (“social bandits”) were Brazilian peasants of the

late 19^(th) and early 20^(th) centuries who rose up against a life of

servitude, and sought vengeance against the ruling order. Appropriating

the wealth of the landowners at gun- and knifepoint, they found refuge

in the welcoming arms of their own class, the poor and dispossessed of

colonial society. Much like their historical namesakes, the modern Os

Cangaceiros refused to live within the accepted bounds of an oppressive

society. Their roots lay in the events in France in May and June of

1968, when for a brief moment workers and students seemingly brought the

country to the brink of a social revolution. Among those on the streets

were the petty criminals, hooligans, and juvenile delinquents calling

themselves les Fos- soyeurs du Vieux Monde, or the Gravediggers of the

Old World. Having once tasted freedom, they were not content to rest on

their laurels after the return to relative normalcy in July, opting

instead to continue fighting against the world as it is by whatever

means necessary. However, unlike many of their contemporaries, they did

not form themselves into a tight- knit cell of “specialists in armed

struggle,” but chose instead to live lives of absolute freedom within

the confines of modern capitalism; they chose to live as criminals, or

rather they continued the criminal lives they had always led, but with a

renewed vigor and an invigorated disgust for society. The revolutionary

graffiti that had spread across France during the uprising provided the

inspiration for their way of life: “Never work, ever!,” “Boredom is

counterrevolutionary,” “Don’t beg for the right to live — take it,” and

“Live without dead time.” A refusal of work, law, morality, and

civilized values became their modus operandi. Through the 1970s they

moved nomadically across southern France and Italy, engaging in

struggles against police, politicians, and bureaucracy wherever they

went. This way of life led to membersof their loose-knit group — now

widely known as Os Cangaceiros — ending up incarcerated on a frequent

basis, and they began centering their activities on the prison,-system

in which they were increasingly enmeshed. Their personal experiences of

prison provided the basis for their truly radical attack on prisons and

the judiciary. They could never avoid making the connections between

life within prison and outside of it; they saw that prison struggles are

not isolated events, but are rather manifestations of the samesocial war

that is flaring throughout society. While many prison reform activists

condemned prison riots as counterproductive at best, Os Cangaceiros saw

them as a desire for revolt that cannot be denied. In “Prisoner’s

Talking Blues,” they write:

It is impossible to separate the fate reserved for prisoners inside the

walls from the conditions reserved more generally for the mass of poor

people in society.... The revolt that resounds inside the prison walls

is a continuation of the one that resounds outside, in the neighborhoods

on the outskirts, and is a consequence of its repression. (53)

Most “anti-prison” activists concentrate on reducing overcrowding,

improving conditions or decreasing recidivism rates, but for Os

Cangaceiros the only solution was the abolition of prisons and the

destruction of the society that creates them. They saw prison reformers

not as allies, but as part of the problem.

Those who speak to us of overcrowding in the prisons are the very ones

who have filled them until they burst! Obviously they are turning the

question upside down. For us, it is not a question of building more

prisons, but of emptying those that already exist. (76)

A truly radical critique of prisons must of necessity break with

attempts to reform the prison system; instead, it must attack this

system at its very roots, viewing it as a key element of class society

and a tool that society uses to crush resistance in all of its forms. Os

Cangaceiros saw that prison is used to systematically crush the

rebelliousspirit and to keep society safe from the lower classes, the

criminal element, and those with visions of a different world. A social

order dependent on prisons gradually becomes a great prison itself, with

bosses, teachers, social workers, and politicians as the jailers.

Freedom is the crime that contains all crimes, and it is against this

crime that the old world defends itself. The state is physically

eliminating all the beautiful young people who aren’t resigned — the

same young people who die, murdered by cops or reactionary pro-cop

vigilantes. The state buries those that the law can trap alive in its

prisons as long as possible while terrorizing those who manage to stay

outside. For these, it pays educators and other pests to demoralize them

and make them forget their comrades in jail. (78)

Against this continual assault on communities in resistance Os

Cangaceiros counterpoised the weapon of active solidarity. They sought

to eliminate the false distinction between “political prisoners” and

“social prisoners,” and it was this understanding that led to their most

daring attack on the society of confinement. Os Cangaceiros’ struggle

against prisons took many forms, but none was more infamous than “13,000

Escapes”: A Dossier Against the “Project of 13,000 Places”, the main

text of which is included in this collection. Its name references a

French government project to modify the penal system so that it could

accommodate an additional 13,000 maximum security prisoners. Appearing

in 1990, “13,000 Escapes” contained not only detailed informationon the

campaign of vandalism and sabotage undertaken by Os Cangaceiros against

this project, but also somehow obtained blueprints, internal

communications, and other government documents exposing the inner

workings of the new prisons and those undergoing renovation. The covert

dissemination of 13,000 copies of this dossier was a bombshell, creating

a public scandal on the outside and providing a useful tool for escape

attempts on the inside. The authorities scrambled to deal with the

political fallout, but despite police investigations and a nationwide

manhunt, none of the individuals responsible were ever caught. The

informal nature of Os Cangaceiros effectively prevented police

infiltration of their circles and their identities still remain unknown,

to the great frustration of the French state and Interpol. The group

simply disappeared soon after “13,000 Escapes,” never acting under that

name again.

Until now, very few of Os Cangaceiros’ writings have been available to

an English-speaking audience, making the publication of this slim volume

of writings a striking achievement. Most of the essays in this

collection had been previously published in an Italian translation,

while the rest had only been published in the original French. A Crime

Called Freedom includes a new introduction by the translator, Wolfi

Land- streicher, along with the original introduction to the Italian

collection. This English translation is from the Italian, not the

original French, yet the translation has surmounted its inherent

limitations to capture both the poetry and the venom of these texts in

all their fullness. The ideas in this book are dangerous; hopefully they

will find the receptive readers they deserve.