A-Infos (en) Britain, Anarchist Federation statement on the Informal Anarchist Federation and terrorist tactics

A statement from the Anarchist Federation on recent actions by the Informal Anarchist 
Federation in Italy and why the AF does not support terrorist tactics. ---- On the 11th of 
May Roberto Adinolfi, CEO of an Italian state controlled nuclear engineering company, was 
shot and wounded. A cell of the insurrectionist Informal Anarchist Federation have claimed 
responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying that it was an act of vengeance for 
deaths and environmental damage caused by the nuclear industry. Previous acts claimed by 
Informal Anarchist Federation cells include sending a letter bomb to the Italian tax 
collection office, almost blinding a worker at the office and risking the lives of the 
postal and clerical workers who unwittingly carried the bomb.

Although it adopts the same initials as our affiliated Anarchist Federation in Italy, the 
Informal Anarchist Federation has no affiliation whatsoever with them or with us. It is an 
entirely separate entity, and we consider its adopting of the same initials as a 
pre-existing anarchist group to be, at best, confusing and ill-judged, and at worst 
malicious. Whether or not the Informal Anarchist Federation intended that their actions 
would be associated with the Italian Anarchist Federation and other members of the 
International of Anarchist Federations, these organisations have now been mentioned in 
press reports relating to the actions of the Informals, and so we now feel it necessary 
that we, the UK Anarchist Federation, make our position on their actions clear.

In our aims and principles, the Anarchist Federation states that “It is not possible to 
abolish Capitalism without a revolution, which will arise out of class conflict. The 
ruling class must be completely overthrown to achieve anarchist communism. Because the 
ruling class will not relinquish power without their use of armed force, this revolution 
will be a time of violence as well as liberation”. We are not a pacifist organisation and 
do not condemn insurrection itself or all insurrectionist tactics; however, as Anarchist 
Communists we strongly criticise individualist and vanguardist tactics that do not come 
out of a broad-based class struggle movement. We condemn actions that put workers in 
danger without their knowledge and consent, and we reject elitist statements, such as that 
made by the Informals, which consider the working class to be too ignorant and invested in 
Capitalism to be relevant to struggle.

Capitalism is, fundamentally, a social relationship; it can no more be harmed by small 
groups who are disconnected from the wider class struggle shooting individual bosses or 
sending bombs through the post than it can by passively marching from one place to another 
or consuming “ethical” commodities. Instead, the Anarchist Federation advocates organising 
with other working class people to take direct action for ourselves in order to both 
defend ourselves against attacks by capital and the state in our everyday lives and build 
a culture of resistance that can seriously challenge capitalism. As well as being 
tactically more effective than isolated acts of violence, organising in this way allows us 
a glimpse of a better world, free of exploitation, alienation and oppression. By acting 
collectively and making ourselves accountable to others, we prepare ourselves for a world 
where our whole lives are really under our own control.

The statement by the Informal Anarchist Federation can be found here.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/05/496130.html
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