Faced with life imprisonment in disguise, action is always worthwhile
Was anything else expected from Power? Although the sentence of 86 years in prison has provoked surprise and some consternation, the Power acted accordingly. It has punished forceful actions directed against its defenders and representatives, the audacity of the open rebellion that hit their spaces that 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 has acted as it is and that should not surprise us.
It proceeded as it has historically done when it has been directly attacked, when they have really felt the threat of seeing their 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 unit 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, the intensification of anarchic action has led to a forceful condemnation that clearly has a demobilizing pretension and a sense 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 you ask me if it was worth it. I answer not only that it was worth it, but that it is and will be absolutely worth it. That taking the individual decision to rebel, to take revenge and to put an end, even for an instant, to the impunity of the powerful is one of the most beautiful moments that can be experienced. 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 taking ideas to the realm of the possible is always necessary and indispensable if one freely decides to confront Power, even if it costs decades of imprisonment and even life. Action is always worthwhile.
This concealed life sentence, which is one of the highest international sentences against an anarchist, is obviously intended to pacify, but it is up to us to ensure that this signal achieves its goal. It is in our will and decision to make these sentences completely lose their meaning and even constitute one more motive to attack, as the “Grupo de acción 6 de julio – Nueva Subversión” rightly exposed after the recent explosive attack against 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 opposition and avoiding the limiting pigeonholing of the figure of “prisoner”, is that I intend to continue contributing to the different initiatives of the anarchic 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.
Anarchist and subversive prisoners to the streets!
Let the prisons explode!
Long live anarchy!
Francisco Solar Dominguez
La Gonzalina Prison – Rancagua.
December 2023