OBEDIENCE IS A PROGRAMMED, ORDERED EXISTENCE
REBELLION IS THE EXPLOSIVE URGENCY OF PUTTING OURSELVES ON THE LINE
An untimely blast in an Athens apartment on the 31st of October left an anarchist dead and another seriously wounded. In a millisecond the preparation of a single liberatory attack on one aspect of domination expands into a wide panorama of the social war.
With a resounding blast the struggle is upturned, its hitherto anonymous players thrown into the forefront of the clash. Shock and anguish invade our hearts and minds for the death of Kyriakos Xymitiris and the wounding of Marianna Manoura – well-known, esteemed comrades active in the many-faceted anarchist struggle in Greece and beyond – but so does resolve and unwavering complicity. Immediately an alchemy of rebel love and defiance surges forth, overrunning the borders by which states segment their control over this ruined earth.
On the other side there is hatred, the hatred which all masters have when faced with insubordination, coursing through the powerful institutions of that country and faithfully transmitted to its citizens. Round the clock, TV, newspapers, internet churn out this ‘public opinion’ – concocted by butchers, swallowed by force-fed cattle. Judges and prosecutors are plotting revenge, preparing the terrain for the criminalisation of anarchists. Even doctors in the hospital holding Marianna Manoura tear up all their ethical pretences in her regard in order to play a role in the latest inquisition in Greece.
Amid the social hypocrisy credited as wisdom today – where staying put, turning the other way and assimilating is a sure sign of dignity – dreams taken through to their possible consequences in the now are not understood, nor are actions which go beyond the growth of stage-managed movements. Scientific expertise, economic reason, and political strategy are effortlessly discussed – mere opinions – because what they talk about (commodities and images) have substituted themselves for the insurgent richness of life.
We know that every life taken into one’s own hands is a life put on the line, put at risk. Because to make that choice tears off the defences of morality, politics and habit. To rebel despite and against this conditioning is already a question of life and death. But to decide to act with knowledge, preparation and intelligence is something more.. Unspeakable for the defenders of this society and clearly expressive for those of us who, in our thirst for a free life, seek its destruction.
The urgency to break the chains of normality is rising, pushing us to surge ahead in struggle, to search for the means each one finds truly appropriate – with the lucidity and passion of the individual as the ultimate deciding factor.
Kyriakos Xymitiris, we never met you but you have pierced the consciousness of us all. Your act is demolishing the castles built on compliant sand. It is shaking the walls of ritualised substitutes for action, for the unearthing of our most secret ‘ I ‘. These tremors are spreading. You will be alongside many footsteps on the paths of fire and freedom.
Marianna Manoura, a warm embrace from afar. Your strength and courage inspire us.
The struggle continues in leaps and bounds, driven by rage, forged by quality, in an attack on the existent without limits. What can restrain the most exaggerated practises of freedom, the fullest elaboration of each one’s own insurrection, where life is not something to be coveted, calculated and fearfully prolonged, but to be fiercely lived without measure? Only in this way will we discover the meaning of our words. anarchists, London