A-Infos (en) Romania, Craiova, Anarchist scene <Coppied from alter-ee>

[caf fac <libertatera@yahoo.com>]

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C.A.F. is an initiative group of young people: boys and 
girls, whose number is unfortunately influenced by the 
social and political conditions in Romania.
C.A.F. appeared in 1997 from the remains of the dead 
"Underground Movement", due to the need of action to 
radicalize the movement of the youth in our town and in 
order to offer a real alternative and to oppose a 
resistance at least as much as the oppression. So, C.A.F 
remains a small group of action, underground for the 
moment, which decided to get to the light through its 
deeds.

> Short history
In Craiova the punk movement appeared in the first half 
of the ?80s, strongly related to the anarchist ideas, being 
from the begining more than a musical movement. It 
represented a moment of change for the youth of that 
days, being the idea from which the solidarity in the 
fight for liberty -in a totalitarian system- was born.

In those dark years the communist propaganda spoke to 
us about the Western World?s decline, giving as 
examples the punk groups made up by "no future" young 
people and bands with left sided ideas. This doesn?t 
mean that the repressive organs in Romania would have 
accepted something like this in our country, although 
the youth here had the same problems due to the 
complete failure of the communist experiment. In the 
last communist years the unemployment, the lack of 
houses and food ( although they were rationalized on a 
card, they didn?t exist), the lack of things to wear of 
decent quality, the cult of the leader?s paranoic 
personality, the abuse of the repressive organs, the total 
destruction of man?s personality, had transformed the 
everyday life in a black concentration camp.

Thus our fight for liberty was based on a profound hate 
against the so called communism. The red flag with the 
sickle and the hammer represented and represents the 
nazi flag with swastika.

In school we received an anti - racist education and even 
an ecological one, while the politic regime was exactly at 
the other pole, a stupid ultranationalism which 
persecuted gypsies and hungarians, doubled by a forced 
industrialization which destroyed the environment.

After the Revolution (1989), we slowly began to learn 
what capitalism meant in Romania, the terror of the 
state property slowly switched in to the terror of the 
private property. The former members of "the Party" 
and the most greedy "important" people took advantage 
of the chaos of the first years of transition.

The State still remain very powerful, this "democracy" is 
nothing but another form of totalitarism, the control and 
repression are maybe more efficient then in the 
communist years.

The society and the individual continue to be the main 
target of the manipulation, propaganda and of the 
dehumanization. The capitalist promises for a 
prosperous future, that requires huge sacrifices in the 
present, prove to be simple utopias, but the public 
opinion is disinformed and prevented from finding an 
alternative.

The phantom of communism and now the terrorist 
threats make almost impossible a resistance 
movement. 

After ?89, the young punks in Craiova tried to create 
their own alternative, their own future, in a different way 
from the society.

At the beginning of the ?90s the Underground Movement 
was created, and using the pretext of promoting the 
punk music, tried to create a subculture of resistance. 
Even from the beginning, the punk concerts were 
forbidden, but the police harsh intervention needed a 
more radical response.

Once created, this punk scene was used to promote 
anarchist ideas. We understood that the alternative 
can't b? built in parallel to an intolerant society and 
with the state.

In this way our fight was a double one: on one hand we 
tried to maintain the individuality but also the 
solidarity, on the other hand we tried to destroy the 
preconceived ideas and the social conventions.

>From the search for our own personality we realized the 
necessity of a total liberty. Thus we became the 
contestants of the society of consumers.



The moment our movement became stronger, and our 
alternative was more visible, and this example became 
that dangerous that the state used its repressive force to 
protect the nonvalues imposed by the society imitating 
the western capitalism.

In 1997 most of the mass - media started a huge 
denigration campaign of the Underground members. We 
got used to accusations of satanism, the principal one 
being of gathering new members and that of 
anarcho-terrorism.

Taking advantage of the big number of members and 
sympathizers, more or less than 50, we created a 
spontaneous public protest in the center down town. We 
tried to explain that we are a cultural and non-politic 
movement. The press didn?t take us serious and the 
police let us believe that we won?t be punished for that 
protest..

Even from 1996 the Secret Services tried to create 
informers inside the Underground Movement. They put 
pressure on the families, they went in our schools or 
work places so that many of the members were 
intimidated and returned to a normal life.

Although we have been continually harassed by the 
police and the Secret Services, this didn?t do anything 
but to strengthen our will to fight. We started to 
communicate more with the ones in other towns like 
Timisoara and Bucharest. We try to coordinate as much 
as possible our actions.

For the moment, because of the small number of people 
implicated and the ignorance or the bad will of the other 
people, our action mainly aim at sensitizing of the public 
opinion, to the exposure of the lies and of the 
noxiousness of the capitalist society, of the policies of 
the parties (right or left) and at anarchist propaganda. 
We try to make people more interested in what happens 
around them or with their own person and their true 
needs, destroying the selfishness myth and that of false 
competition. More precisely, we are speaking about 
magazines, pamphlets, graffiti, punk concerts and (not 
rarely) about direct confrontations with the ones trying 
to limitate our freedom. 

Now we are followed everywhere by Secret Services 
agents and things become harder to be done. Despite all 
these, we succeeded in doing something that attracted 
the attention of the public opinion.

During the election campaign from 2000, there was the 
threat that the leader of the extreme right party - V.C. 
Tudor, a little bit stalinist, a little bit hitlerist - might 
become the president. We had to take attitude and after 
we were allowed to demonstrate against the extreme 
right ideas by the local authorities, we got out in the 
streets - about 30 people - with red and black flags and 
antifascist banners.

We talked to the passer-by and we did a small test: a 
hundred people signed against, and only one signed on 
the pro-fascist list. Many people sympathized with us 
while the gypsies were really interested in becoming 
members of our movement, as they had been directly 
threatened to be exterminated. It didn?t matter that the 
press ignored all this event because we succeeded in 
expressing our ideas.

Unfortunately we became again "too dangerous", and the 
authorities tempered us, destroying the bound between 
the members once more. We had to get used to the 
small underground actions done with serious 
compromises. Instead we took part at the actions in 
Timisoara, one of the most successful being "Food Not 
Bombs", a tour around the city which stopped in front of 
the McDonald?s and which transformed into a real 
public discussion against militarization and war. 

In september 2001, we tried to organize in Craiova an 
Alternative Art Festival to which we invited many 
foreign bands (from USA, Germany, Croatia, Yugoslavia). 
In the last moment the authorities succeeded in 
stopping us by puting great pressure on the people that 
would have rented us the necessary piece of land. 
Finally, we had to be satisfied that we had at least a 
concert, with the police at the entry. We, somehow, were 
happy because we established friendly relationships with 
guys from other countries.

On May the 1st 2002 we got from the authorities 
permission for a photo and paintings exhibition, to take 
place in one of Craiova?s squares. More over, we also 
placed special spots for slogans, red and black flags and 
distributed propaganda materials and most important - 
we also organized a Food Not Bombs action, we gave 
food and clothes to the poor people. These and the 50 
members attracted the attention of the public and the 
press.

Next, we took part to a meeting that took place during 
the biggest syndicate strike in the last 15 years. 
Unfortunately, we were only 20 people. The policemen 
tried to prevent us from entering the center of the town 
were the demonstration was. Unexpectedly the 
syndicalist workers and other people in the streets 
defended us so we could participate to the event. We 
distributed pieces of writing that were widely accepted 
by the participants to the meeting which truly 
manifested their sympathy to us. This time, the press 
was especially interested in the presence of the 
anarchists. On this ocasion we succeeded in proving to 
the people that the anarchist movement in Craiova does 
not represent a threat for them and that it is made up of 
pupils, students and workers who have the same 
problems as they do and who try to help them or even 
gather them in their fight for a better life.

Our implication in this manifest didn?t do anything but 
to worsen our relationship with the authorities.

This last important event that we took part in, 
happened exactly when the Secret Romanian Service 
completed their report about the anarchist 
organizations, sustaining that they died and that their 
members deal with drugs, pornography, child abuses, 
zoofily and extreme violence.

Some C.A.F. members took part to the anti-racist and 
anti-fascist demonstrations and camps this summer in 
Germany, being invited by our friends in Weimar. They 
also participated together with the members of 
Barricada from Boston at the No Border Camp and 
demonstrations in Strasbourg, France.

For the moment we are passing again through a bad 
period due to the financial problems, the internal lack of 
understanding and not the least because of the 
authorities threats.

We hope that this period will pass as soon as possible 
and that our fight won?t stop only to surviving. For us 
there is no resignation, but death.

Antiwar demo in first march. Is a whole story about how 
we can organize this kind of protest now when all 
mainstream media are against us and all the state 
propaganda is focusing on nato integration. We were 
forced to colaborate with a troskist-marxist organization 
called asociation for the workers emancipation. Some of 
the lithers of this organization are friends of us and 
maybe they want to change something and have a little 
trust in us. But the big majority of them are old senile 
and they can not do anything. But with them help we can 
take the approbation from the authorities. When we 
start the organize and the work to the banners and 
placardes C.A.F. was very active. In the beginning we 
were not very enthuziastic because we thought we will 
can not say what we want to say. But instead we done all 
the job so the things became more anarchist than 
reformist. But the situation was really saved by our true 
comarades from aactivist collective from Timisoara. 
They were well prepared the 
<technical snip in source>

ANARCHY IS THE ONLY WAY TO FREEDOM

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