A-Infos (en) Platformism Without Illusions: Chile - NEFAC Interviews the Congreso de Unificación Anarco-Comunista (CUAC)

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Anarchism has had a tremendous resurgence in post-Pinochet
Chile. One of the most active groups today is the Congreso de
Unificación Anarco-Comunista (CUAC), a relatively young
organization with strong platformist influence. The CUAC formed
around the same time as NEFAC. Our respective organizations have
shared a similar path of growth and development over the past three
years, and comradely relations continues to exist between us. Below
is an interview with Jose Antonio Gutierrez, the CUAC's internal
secretary, and Juan, the group's general secretary.
- interview by MaRK, Class Against Class (NEFAC-Boston)

****************

Could you begin with a short history of anarchism in Chile?

CUAC: Anarchism in Chile has a long tradition. By the early 1890s,
there was a great number of workers' organizations being formed.
In some cases the organizations held strong links with the former
artisans movement, but in others there was a sharp opposition
between the new class struggle organizations and the mutualist
ideology of the artisans. It is in this context that the first anarchist
articles and ideas start to appear, towards 1897, when in the
workers press you could read articles of Kropotkin. That year, the
Socialist Union was formed, and though it was not explicitly
anarchist, it is here that the nucleus of anarchism starts to gather. In
1898 the first declared anarchist paper appears, called El Rebelde,
and that year the anarchists start organizing new kinds of workers
unions for the class struggle; they called them Sociedades de
Resistencia.

So anarchism in Chile had a strictly working class origin, involved
since its very beginning in the mass movement and the workers
organizations, to such a point, that even the official history has to
admit that the parents of the workers movement in Chile are the
anarchists, because it was their societies for resistance that evolved
into the unions. Another important aspect of the anarchism here is
that it was a local movement. In Argentina, for instance, the core of
the movement on its early years were Italian and Spanish
immigrants, but in Chile the immigration was little and had a small
impact over the newborn socialist movement. It is true that
anarchism arrived through Argentine influence but the militants
here who got the message, were Chilean born.

By the turn of the century the societies for resistance were
multiplying, among dock workers, coal miners, nitrate miners,
carpenters, shoemakers, printers, and construction workers. By
1903, the first important strike of the century, of the dock workers in
Valparaiso, was led by the anarchists and their organizations.
Another important movement was to occur in 1905, that was a
general protest and strike in Santiago, against the rising cost of
living, and particularly on the cost of the meat; also this year, a first
attempt to federate the revolutionary unions was made, and the
FTCh (Chilean Workers Federation) was born, however it was
short-lived because of the harsh repression. In 1906, in the north,
another general strike erupted. All of these movements and all of the
minor strikes as well, to constantly face the most brutal repression
of the armed forces, and the number of dead are counted by
hundreds.

But the worst of the crimes against the people in those years, and a
hard beat against anarchism was the Santa Maria School slaughter.
This took place in the north, in Iquique; December 21, 1907. The
nitrate workers, led by known anarchists, went on a strike from their
mines in the pampa (a grasslands region in South America), to the
nearest city of Iquique, were they were all shot with artillery, leaving
an uncertain number of dead workers, somewhere between 2000
and 3600. Their crime was to ask for better wages, and to be paid in
cash, and not with fichas (a type of private currency, not legal
tender) that were exchanged for products in the warehouses of the
patron (boss).

After this, the anarchist movement had ups and downs, and by 1914
the FORCh was formed, that lasted for a short amount of time, but
set the foundations for the important Chilean section of the IWW, in
1919, that had around 20,000 members. Also, in those years the
anarchist had formed the League of the Rent, that gather the people
from poor neighborhoods (conventillos) demanding better housing,
laying the foundations for the important community movements to
come. As well, they were involved in founding the Students
Federation, FECh, having an important presence by the end of that
decade. Both the FECh and the IWW, as well as the whole anarchist
movement were fiercely punished for their revolutionary courage in
1920, with new imprisonments, slaughter, raids and destruction of
workers halls.

In Punta Arenas, the extreme south of our country, the FOM, of a
strong anarchist influence was punished as well, the same year that
in the Argentine Patagonia the FORA workers were massacred. But
the movement was too strong to be beaten down just by repression.
So they used a more subtle tactic: in 1925 the unions became legal,
and the anarchists didn't know what to do, while the authoritarian
communists entered the legalized unions and started getting the
influence they were formerly denied by the resistance unions. For
long the anarchist movement was handicapped by a dogmatic
approach and was progressively losing influence.

Another important problem in the decline of Chilean anarchism, was
the Ibañez coup in 1927: by then, all the revolutionary movement
was pursued and smashed, and the anarchist movement was
dismantled through a program of "union cleansing". Though unions
were illegal before 1925, anarchists never had to face a long time of
clandestinity: and political organizations can survive clandestinity,
but that is much harder to unions. Despite this, some groups like
"Siempre!" were active in clandestinity and some clandestine issues
of the construction workers paper could appear. In 1931 Ibañez was
overthrown through mass action, and the new CGT was formed to
bring together what was left of the anarchist movement. The IWW
continued to exist as well. Some loose propaganda groups were
formed and an Anarchist Federation was stablished. But many
leading anarchists, seeing the need of a revolutionary political
organization besides the unions. They were unable to solve this
problem within anarchism, so they joined forces with some leftists
and revolutionary Marxists to form the Chilean Socialist Party, that
rejected bitterly both the Third International and the second one.

Since then, the anarchist movement kept losing influence, except for
the shoemakers, beakers, some construction trades, brick makers,
and printers, until the end of 1940s, when a new generation of
anarcho-syndicalists started working directly in the legal unions,
and thus broke their long isolation. This way, 1949 saw the first
popular strike in so long with a strong anarchist influence. Then in
1950, the Movement for the Unity of the Workers (MUNT) was
formed, an anarcho-syndicalist organization with this new approach.
This was fundamental to form a single workers federation for 1953,
that was called CUT (Unique Workers Central), whose declaration of
principles was partly redacted by anarchists, and which had some
anarchists in the national secretary.

The break came in 1955, when a two day general strike put the
anarchists and communists face to face: the president was about to
give up his government, and the anarchists were demanding the
CUT to take control of the economic situation; on the other hand, the
communists said that it was necessary to establish dialogue with the
authorities. In the end, the division lead the strike to nothing, and the
anarchists left. By the end of the decade the Libertarian Movement
July 7th (ML7J) was formed, and they started for the first time,
giving a serious thought to anarchist organization. Then the
Movement of Revolutionary Force (MFR) was formed in the early
sixties to gather revolutionary tendencies, with a strong presence of
the anarchists. Unable to organize before, and in a time of really big
leftist parties, anarchism soon was forgotten, but not its practice,
that was present in the beginning of the movement and survived
through its life.

Thus, we can see a strong movement for popular power with a
strong libertarian influence, during the Popular Unity government
(1970-1973) some experiences were made from the rank and file,
like Industrial Networks and Commitees for Consumption, that were
rudimentary forms of self-management, that were both the product
of the spontaneous libertarian tendencies in the people, but were
better understood also as the expression of a libertarian tradition
and practices that survived the very anarchist movement.

With the systematic suppression of leftwing movements during the
era of Pinochet's dictatorship (1973-1990), was the anarchist
movement able to survive and directly influence the newer
generations of militants, or were anarchist ideas "rediscovered"
once this period of reaction ended?

CUAC: During the dictatorship, there was some anarchist activity,
as well as some activity of anarchists in various movements and
groups. However, this activity was very limited and obscured by the
huge traditional parties of the left and by the fact that we couldn't be
more than a bunch of comrades in a really massive movement. In
the middle seventies, some anarchists took part in what was called
the early Resistencia, around the MRP (Movement of Popular
Resistance), that was organized by the MIR, and it was in this wave
of activity, that by the late seventies a resistance group with some
anarchist influence was created. This was called Brigadas
Populares (Popular Brigades). This activity wasn't ideological, and
we couldn't tell the presence of anarchists there if we didn't know
the comrades that were actually involved there.

By the early 1980s, as the movement against the dictatorship
started to push forward, the anarchist propaganda started to see the
light again. We should remember the role that many of our old
comrades played in this. Comrades long time gone, like Aliste. But
we should like to mention a comrade that was crucial for the revival
of the libertarian practices in our country: comrade Jose Ego
Aguirre, whose recent death, on December 15th of the last year
struck us all with a deep sorrow. This comrade alone used to stand
outside schools, factories and universities, to give anarchist
propaganda to the workers or students that were coming out. Thus,
he formed an anarchist group of students in the early '80s to start
printing out some propaganda and to help the struggle in the
schools, a very active segment of society against the dictator. This
group, of about seventeen students was founded in 1981 by the
CNI, the political police, during a meeting and they were all
imprisoned to be interrogated, by Guaton Romo, a famous hangman
of Pinochet, in charge of the tortures. One of the students that was
there, told us that, as the Pinochet regime declared a war against
"Marxism", they didn't know what to do when they started talking
about anarchism, ecology and other things they haven't heard in
their lives. So after a while they released them, after giving them a
good battering, having used electricity on them, and having tortured
viciously Ego Aguirre, then already an old man, in order they "learnt"
they shouldn't get in trouble. But they didn't. So the anarchist
propaganda kept on going and was specifically welcomed among
the youth; many young anarchists started participating actively in
the human rights movement, anti-militarist movement and in the
movements against torture.

Also, in the communities (poblaciones), where the movement of
resistance was strong, you find some anarchists in the MIR and
even later in the FPMR (Patriotic Front "Manuel Rodriguez", that
started as the armed branch of the Chilean CP and then, in 1987,
split), involved in the struggle of resistance. Among university
students, you find that the first anarchist collectives start to emerge:
the group Jose Domingo Gomez Rojas (named after a Chilean
anarchist student who died in 1920 in a madhouse as a product of
three weeks of non-stop brutal torture) was formed in Universidad
de Chile in 1983, the year that the massive national protest against
the dictatorship started to occur.

The RIA, an anarchist group in the Catholic University, won the
elections of the federation of students in 1984. Even before, in 1980,
when the student federation in the Universidad de Chile took its first
steps to organize clandestinely, the paper of the students
'Despertar' (Awakening), reproduced articles on the anarchist
students of the 20s, which shows a renewed interest in libertarian
ideas. This serves to demonstrate that the growing of the anarchist
movement then, in the nineties, has deep roots in the struggle
against the dictatorship, and that the emergence of the first
collectives can be traced to the development of a vast mass
movement of direct action between 1983 and 1986.

The first anarchist paper to appear during dictatorship was
'HOMBRE Y SOCIEDAD', in Santiago, 1985, that continued to be
published until 1988, with the international help of Latin American
anarchist exiles in France linked to the FA. It was useful to bring
together the survivors of the old generation of anarchists and
anarcho-syndicalists from the past decades, and it had really good
analysis on the course of the struggles in Chile.

Unfortunately, the resources were scarce, the conditions to produce
it difficult, and the number of issues limited so it had little impact
outside the very anarchist movement. By 1988 other papers started
to appear: in Concepcion, appeared El Acrata, linked to the TASYS,
a social centre of great importance in that city, that brought together
unions and community organizations; a year later, in 1989, in
Santiago, started to appear 'Accion Directa', produced by people
that participated in 'HOMBRE Y SOCIEDAD', plus a good number
of young comrades that were getting close to the movement in the
last time. So then you can see that the old movement was merging
with the new one, of young people that was disappointed with the
old political methods, and with the traditional parties and how they
allied the so-called "transition to democracy" with the dictator.

What happened in the early 1990s was a virtual "boom" of anarchist
ideas and practices, that make it seem like a rediscovery, but it is
actually well linked to what happened in the 1980s. This "boom" was
produced by an interest in new methods of organization by many
young people, by new perspectives of how society should be after
revolution (these two factors could be attributed to the previous
anarchist propaganda) and by the very failures and mistakes of the
leftist parties to bring about the so much promised changes in
society, what many of their old social basis of support regarded as
"treason". But also, there is something else that makes the
movement seems to appear in the nineties from nowhere, and is the
sharp contrast between the context in the eighties and nineties:
previously the anarchist movement was immersed in a huge mass
movement, when in the '90s, the mass movement was drastically
reduced by the democratic mirage.

So the anarchist seemed to be more in the whole popular movement,
in relative terms, even though their numbers could be similar. Also,
the anarchist represented an exception to the general "rule" of the
moment: while all of the leftist parties were losing militants in
numbers of thousands and entering a phase of crisis, anarchism
was healthy and getting new militants everywhere. So that
phenomenon also helps to give the impression that the movement
appeared from nowhere in the nineties, and gives a certain credit to
the "rediscovery" idea on Chilean anarchism. But the truth is that it
was part of a whole and single process that started in the early '80s.

When did the CUAC form? What was the political background of the
founding members?

CUAC: Though the CUAC was officially formed November 29, 1999,
at the end of the First Chilean Anarcho-Communist Congress, the
process that lead to its birth started a couple of years before. In the
beginning of the 1990s, when the mirage of the new democratically
elected government had vanished, a good lot of the youth came to
anarchism disappointed by the traditional parties and their
authoritarian structures, by the democracy that didn't really look like
they promised years ago, but it seemed more like the right of the
people to elect a new dictator every six years, and by the way
everything remained the same, and most of the dictatorship
institutions remained untouched.

Many in this new generation of anarchists came from some of the
strongest parties in the left: communists, socialists (that used to be
more radical than the CP, and didn't join the international social
democracy until the early nineties), and from the MIR (Movement of
Revolutionary Left). With the time, and with the deepening of the
crisis of the leftist parties in the early '90s, more and more young
with no previous political militancy started to join the anarchist
milieu. By the mid '90s, many started to think in a more serious
manner about the issue of the organization, about the need to start
organizing anarchists in such a way to make our activity in the
popular ranks a fruitful one. By that time (1994), many attempts to
organize anarchists were made, but all of them failed. The year
1997, for instance, there was held an anarchist conference in
Santiago, organized by comrades from Temuco which tried to form
the "National Anarchist Movement", but it resulted to be a complete
disaster because of the inability of those who attended the
conference to come to an agreement about the most basic issues.
Since then we knew that it was impossible to bring all those claiming
to be "anarchists", just because of that fact, into one organization.
So we started to reflect about our failed organizational attempts and
started to draw conclusions from our own experience.

Some groups were formed that tried to be an answer to that
organizational problem we were facing; with time, by the beginning
of 1999, people from these groups started talking and thinking about
the possibility of coming together in one organization, that was more
than merely "one-organization-plus-another", but which meant a
decisive step forward in our very understanding of the anarchist
movement until then, to start thinking of it as a mature political force
to be immersed in the popular struggles and that saw itself as a real
tool in the struggle of the exploited. For that it was necessary to lose
fear to the supposed "corruption" inherent to organization; it was
necessary to fight for building an organization able to have a
concrete intervention in the mass movement.

The comrades from a group called COMUNITANCIA (made of a
mixture of the words "communism" and "militancy") started making
reflections about the need of a specific anarchist organization in the
country that could think anarchism for our current reality. That was
also an interest for the people of the paper HOMBRE Y SOCIEDAD,
that was working about the basic ideas for the revolutionary
organization, and also for comrades that were organized in their
communities (poblaciones), in both Villa Francia and Pudahuel, two
popular areas of Santiago, with a long leftist and revolutionary
tradition. So as we were coming to agreements, we decided to
merge into one organization; but for that purpose to be successful,
we thought of not making the same mistakes from the past. We
decided to organize a Congress (conference) to join efforts and
organizations. So we started preparing documents for discussion to
be available some weeks before the Congress (about propaganda,
unions, organization, immediate history of our movement, etc.), we
published both the 'Manifesto of the Libertarian Communists' of
Georges Fontenis and 'The Platform' of the Dielo Trouda group. As
we knew it was impossible to organize the whole lot claiming to be
anarchists, we decided to put some "conditions" to those to
participate, as it was to involve more people than those in the
organizing groups. Those conditions were: having the will to get
organized, to understand anarchism as a product of class struggle,
to have actual involvement in the popular movement, and to
understand the need for social revolution (with all the implications of
it). Also, the very name given to the Conference "Congreso
Anarco-Comunista" was to serve as a filter. So the day of the
Conference came, it lasted for two days (28th and 29th) and in the
end, we had our brand new organization. Our analysis of our
previous failures and our solutions to succeed this time proved to be
successful.

About the political background of our militants, as we've said, a
good number of them come from previous militancy in traditional
parties of the Chilean left, like the MIR, the Communist Party and
the Socialist Party of the eighties. Others, come from the new
movement of the mid nineties and others come from actual work of
the organization, like students or community work.

How is the group organized? Are there active chapters in different
cities?

CUAC: The CUAC is organized under federative principles;
however, it is only one single organization. The basis of our
organization is the work in fronts, and currently we are active on the
Students' Front and Poblaciones' Front; the Union Front is about to
become active again. It is in the front were the militants have more
of their organizational life, because this is where they develop and
carry the actual policies of the organization. There they have the
assemblies for the discussion of the general problems and
resolutions and tasks for the CUAC. Every front has delegates that
represent their discussion to the meeting of the Council (concejo),
that is assisted by the delegates and the secretariat.

In the cities apart from Santiago, the only active branch is
Valparaiso, a town near Santiago. But there are close links to some
groups in Concepcion (Asamblea de Convergencia Libertaria),
Chillan and Temuco (Movimiento Libertario Joaquin Murieta) and
we hope for the future to establish more formal links with those
groups, in order to build a national libertarian front.

The CUAC is an anarcho-communist group, with strong platformist
influence. How did members of your organization first become
interested in platformist ideas and methods of organization? What
led to this theoretical development?

CUAC: As we already mentioned, we evolved close to the
platformist tradition because of our own experience, and the
difficulties and failures we previously faced in giving an
organizational shape to the movement. We started thinking of our
need to get organized in a serious way and we arrived to very
similar conclusions to those in the platform, without having any
knowledge of its existence, for it was virtually unknown in the
Spanish speaking movement. But hand in hand with our reflections
on organization, that arose from our own experience and were
surprisingly "platformist." Though we ignored this, we also
understood fully the need to distance ourselves from those who
weren't clear about the revolutionary tradition of anarchism: thus,
we saw the need to understand anarchism as a class struggle
revolutionary theory, that needs to be absolutely involved in the
mass movement, and not to be isolated only among a bunch of
"owners of the truth". This is important to mention, because all too
often platformism is reduced to a "recipe" for organization, when, in
reality, is more than that.

As Arshinov points out in his article "The old and new in anarchism",
the organizational part is only ONE aspect of 'The Platform'. 'The
Platform' is more than a document on organization: it is a summary
of the most basic and general aspects of class struggle and
revolutionary anarchism, and its organizational part is derived
naturally from this understanding of anarchism. One cannot accept
wholeheartedly its organizational method and reject bitterly its other
aspects, because one explains the other.

So we arrived at "platformist" opinions through our own practice and
without knowing the existence of such a document. So it wasn't
really a surprise that we assumed it as soon as we had notice of it,
and that the organization, as soon as it formed, familiarized itself to
it and had a wide acceptance of platformism as our anarchist
tradition. But it might be interesting how we got to know a text that
was not available in any Spanish translation and was absolutely
unknown for us. It was only thanks to a mistake that we knew about
it: comrades in 'HOMBRE Y SOCIEDAD' paper, ordered a pamphlet
to England, the one was not available by the moment. So instead of
the one we had ordered, we received the 'Manifesto of the
Libertarian Communists' of Georges Fontenis, and we were really
delighted to see that our reflections weren't so "original" and that
there were other comrades who drew, from their own experience,
conclusions similar to us. We translated this text immediately into
Spanish, sent it to the printshop and started its distribution. And
because of Fontenis' text, we got a notion that it was an anarchist
tradition, and that there existed 'The Platform'.

Thanks to a comrade from the 'Black Flag' magazine (UK) and from
the people of the WSM, we got a copy of 'The Platform', the one we
translated as well into Spanish (presumably for the first time) and
published in 'HOMBRE Y SOCIEDAD' paper. This is how we
realized of the existence of the platformist tradition. Although in
Spanish we almost never have used this expression; fortunately,
there is a strong association in Chile by the libertarian movement of
the word "anarcho-communist" with our methods and principles, that
are platformist, so instead of platformist, it is said plainly
anarcho-communists.

The platformist positions have been of a paramount importance in
the movement, even beyond the very CUAC, and are started to get
accepted more and more by others in the movement. Since the
CUAC was formed, the anarchist movement in Chile has grown and
has got definitely more mature. We believe that is no coincidence,
and that is because of the serious work inside of the popular
movement what is a positive effect of new libertarian methods.
Probably there was no other way for anarchism to grow and to
succeed in organizing, platformism as a needed development in the
local movement. But what is certainly undeniable is that our
organization, thanks to our positive aspects, and despite some
mistakes, has made a great deal in showing the anarchist
organization for the struggle as a real possibility, although we are
far from satisfied and believe that there is still much more to be
done. Our organizational state is still weak, we are still not enough
as we'd like, and we would like to have more presence in different
social struggles.

What areas of struggle is the CUAC active? Do you feel that having
an organized anarchist group has helped you be more effective in
gaining anarchist influence within these struggles?

CUAC: Our organization is active at different levels: it is active on
university students problems, participating in students unions and
in campaigns against the privatization of universities that has led to
some strikes and occupations; it is active in the popular
neighborhoods, participating in educational activity and popular
radio programs, in community organization and in different local
problems; and has some activity in unions, that faced some
problems and currently we are doing our efforts to start that work
again in an organized way.

Of course the organization has been of great importance, and
thanks to that we have been able to multiply the anarchist influence,
to give it some coherence and to have a concrete presence with
proposals and practical policies. Also, the organization brings more
maturity and makes your opinion one you can give some credit to.
And not only the organization has been of use or help to the very
anarchists, also we believe, it has been of use to the people who we
are working with, because a serious anarchist movement is needed
in the struggle, and in society.

When we are discussing getting organized, and some so-called
anarchists make a big deal because they are afraid of organizations,
and you see them so reluctant to organize, so messed up with
abstract philosophy, so scared of changing society, it is a bit
disheartening. We need a movement to change society, that's the
important task and we should never lose sight of that. And to
change society we need organization, and thus we have to learn to
work with other people and lose the complex of being the centre of
the universe. These "comrades" are the ones who give merit to the
authoritarian's claims that one cannot supposedly get organized in a
libertarian way. And if we have fear to organize, in the end we will
be helping capitalism in not playing a mature role in the struggle,
and the authoritarians, will once again be the only option left.

What are some future plans for the CUAC?

CUAC: This year, in fact, our organization has made many plans.
But as the most important thing, we hope to expand and strengthen
our current struggles, and to become active in new social realities,
rallying the inactive anarcho-communists, to open new fronts for our
struggle. On the other hand, we need to keep on working on the
activity and organizational structure of the CUAC, for the growing
process we are going through, and to continue adapting our tool,
that is, our political organization, in the face of the challenges of the
agitation and the popular movement, that we will have to deal with
due to this ongoing crisis. We are not going to wait to be caught by
surprise, but we should rather be well organized and on guard.

We are also going to help, with all of our efforts, in the unity of the
Chilean anarchist movement, thanks to the positive signals given by
most of the anarchist organizations to develop the links of solidarity,
based mainly upon a common class-struggle practice, springing out
from the concrete fights. Thus, we hope to be paving the road for an
Anarcho-Communist Federation in Chile. And we can't be blind. We
know that strengthening our local work, together with the growth of
other organizations in Latin America and the rest of the world, are
striving to the same goal: a red and black international!!

Repression is still a strong reality in Chile, with street
demonstrations routinely attacked by police. Given this political
climate, what sort of future do you see for anarchism in Chile?

CUAC: It is the truth that repression over the last while unveils,
once again, the role played by the military dictatorship in the
neoliberal adjustment that is now strangling us. Because, even
though the terror yesterday was complete and persistent, today
under the Concertacion (coallition of government), we have seen
nothing but a masked dictatorship, manipulating the news, with
censorship, political persecution and murder, under a progressive
and even leftist aesthetic of our president Ricardo Lagos. That is a
threat, because every fair protest of our people against their plans,
they call terrorism, we suffer from the legal repression from the
Consitution made under Pinochet's regime. This way, we see that
neoliberalism in Chile has had different stages, and we understand
Pinochet's regime as one more of the puppet governments settled
by the yankee imperialism, and that the current one is not going to
change the repressive apparatus, but instead, will make it more and
more perfect. As an example, let's cite the case of the murder of a
young Mapuche fighter, called Alex Lemun, in November 2002. Alex
perished under police guns while participating in the occupation of
the lands of his ancestors. Cynically, the Home Secretary expressed
his "regret for what happened", but at the same time threatened
saying that no action outside our current norms and constitution will
be tolerated, and if necessary, they will use all their force. One week
later, without any serious information in the news, we were visited
by USA Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, because of the Fifth
Conference of Defense Secretaries of the Americas, in which,
despite all their platitudes about defense, it was agreed the
coordination of the hemispheric repression to suffocate the popular
struggles in America. Then, what happened to Lemun, wasn't it a
signal of obedience to the plans of the Pentagon, represented by
Rumsfeld?

Well, this is only a glimpse of the repressive situation nowadays in
Chile, and the answers should not be found somewhere else than in
the collective action of the very affected, the people. Because, in
spite of the insecurity, of the constant siege, of the fear to the
reaction, we know that if we isolate ourselves from the masses, if we
behave like a gang, we are going to be giving the chance to those in
power to dismantle our organization. And specially because our
principal aim is the generation of the popular power, through all the
activity we do in opening solidarity networks, for the people to
organize and come together, we should stay there, obviously not
leaving the problems of the resistance, of security, of the
revolutionary violence to the "metaphysics"; but knowing, at the
same time that the answers will come from the heart of our activity.
The future of the CUAC is determined by its own principles, and in
the end, by the maturity of anarchism as such.

CUAC c/o Grupo Trabajo, Casilla 16, Santiago 58, CHILE
unifcomanar@samerica.com
http://www.struggle.ws/inter/groups/cuac.html

******************

This interview is from the "Platformism Without Illusions" series in
The Northeastern Anarchist #6 (Winter/Spring 2003). Further
interviews include platformist-influenced anarchist groups from the
United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Italy, Czech Republic, South
Africa, and Brazil.

The Northeastern Anarchist is the English-language theoretical
magazine of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists
(NEFAC), covering class struggle anarchist theory, history, strategy,
debate and analysis in an effort to further develop
anarcho-communist ideas and practice.

ORDERING INFORMATION:

Current issue is $5ppd ($6 international) per copy, back issues are
$2ppd ($3 international) per copy. Subscriptions are $15ppd for four
issues ($18 international). For distribution, bundle orders are $3 per
copy for three or more copies, and $2.50 per copy for ten or more.

Checks or money orders can be made out to "Northeastern
Anarchist" and sent to:

Northeastern Anarchist PO Box 230685 Boston, MA 02123, USA
email: northeastern_anarchist@yahoo.com

Link: http://www.nefac.net

Coppied from: http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php



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