Gabriel Pombo da Silva 2010

Brothers and sisters, our informal yet coordinated gesture of insurrectionary love is behind us. It was expressed, experienced, and felt in as many ways as our creativity, imagination, desires, and means (personal/material) allowed and suggested.

I’m certainly not the only one who has been deeply moved by the response to the call, by the display of revolutionary solidarity and its results. Nor am I the only one who doesn’t want all we experienced and shared during those particular days to remain “just” a gesture. Gestures are for remembering (moments, comrades, situations, etc.). IDEAS and ACTIONS are for going on and moving forward.

We remember our own not to create “sanctuaries” where we go cry on the anniversary of each death, but to keep our comrades with us in our lives and actions.

Our comrades were neither “angels” nor “demons.” They were responsible individuals. They inspired us and continue to do so, because they remind us that the circumstances they fought against still exist.

What was Salvador Puig Antich’s “crime”? What was Agustín Rueda Sierra’s? What was Franco Serantini’s? What was Giuseppe Pinelli’s? What was Soledad and Edo’s? What was Carlo Giuliani’s? What was Paco Ortiz’s? What was Xosé Tarrío’s? What was Mauricio Morales’? What were the “crimes” of these comrades? What is more important: the “acronyms” of their organizations (if they belonged to any), or the IDEAS they defended?

Do you know where our comrades’ murderers are? Do you know what targets our comrades attacked? The lives they led? What they dreamed about?

Ricardo Flores Magón once wrote: “Rebels don’t create the world’s problems. The world’s problems create rebels.”

The world’s problems certainly won’t solve “themselves.” That’s our assignment.

Personally, I’m not going to wait (to act) until the masses (of the exploited, of the oppressed, of the ignorant, of the . . .) “wake up,” nor am I waiting for the “elites” and their mercenaries to relinquish their privileges and salaries and gain “consciousness” about their status.

Some are guided by their fears, others by their greed or indifference, and most live submerged in mental conformity. Every day, they all remind me that the solutions to problems (personal as well as political) begin with each one of us. When I see supposed “comrades” remaining silent—terrified by the prospect of raising their voices, speaking clearly, and taking a position against so much injustice—I become more convinced that IDEAS without conviction are worth nothing.

It should surprise no one that I have good reason to “defend” and continue to defend anarchists who take direct action, like Mauricio Morales and Zoe.

Let’s not waste our time and breath attempting to convince those who have renounced direct action in exchange for an armchair at union headquarters, or those who “talk like bad motherfuckers” but lead lives of dullness. They won’t make the revolution.

It’s up to us to be either “objects,” subjects,” or protagonists of our own lives.

During the initiative/proposal of December 20 to January 1 in memory of and in homage to our brothers and sisters fallen in combat (or murdered), we did many things that reaffirmed (and for others, confirmed) our IDEAS and our desire to continue the offensive (with open expectations).

This initiative wouldn’t have been successful without tenacity and input from all of us: the brothers and sisters who participated in the hunger strike, as well as those who contributed to it with their support; those who disseminated and translated the communiqués and texts; the many who demonstrated (in hundreds of ways) and held meetings, made murals visualizing the protest, and sought complicity with the night in order to leave their explosive or incendiary devices; the brothers and sisters who—in order to finance our struggle and its material needs—took up arms and expropriated the temples where the riches and goods derived from capitalist exploitation accumulate; and of course, the brothers and sisters in Tijuana who started the year with the beautiful act of machine-gunning several mercenary patrols.

Yes, we did it all, and we were ferocious. Thanks to everyone, brothers and sisters, for having been there, for your solidarity and revolutionary love.

Each accomplished action or demonstration creates and strengthens the links and feelings of complicity that unite us in the ongoing social war, while showing that our history and warrior consciousness is being forged right now.

We have broken away from the isolation and false distinctions among us. We have demonstrated our “operational” strength and conviction, our love and rage, our internationalism and our combative determination, all from a decentralized, antiauthoritarian perspective.

I agree with the reflections of the Chilean brothers and sisters at Presxs a la kalle (a strong embrace for you!), who write: “It’s not possible to commit only to mobilizations based on affinity or exclusively to mobilizations based on demands. The point is to potentially balance each, and to know when to use which expression. It’s in this sense that we can’t criticize either mobilizations based on demands (against raids, isolation, dispersion) or mobilizations based on affinity—which, to some dreamers, don’t “achieve anything in particular.”

Well . . . often nothing in particular is “achieved” (for example, in the struggles against FIES, the raids, the evictions of our spaces and social centers, etc.) by mobilizations based on demands, but that’s no reason to abandon them. On the other hand, struggles can’t be measured by “market values” like “gains” or “losses.” There are “defeats” that propel us forward and “victories” that hold us back (although at first look it may not seem that way). Struggle is not a competition, but a process that develops out of the attempt to change or destroy what destroys us. Achieving what we propose depends on our capacities and means: We can either get halfway there, or crown our plans with success.

What no one can ever take away from us is what we learn from the process (our memories and experiences), and above all, no one can tell us we haven’t tried everything.

As much as it may weigh on us, not all the elements of the process are in our hands (nor do those in power have everything under control), but we have an enormous arsenal of theory and practice to put to the test. Let’s not consecrate one method at the expense of another. Some of them will be effective, but it all depends on the ends being pursued.

I take this opportunity to greet the victims of the reprisals during the December 23 demonstration in Santiago, Chile: Be strong, compitas!!!

I also salute the proposal by the brothers and sisters at Culmine: casual reflections, a hunger strike without demands, international ties, an informal insurrectional project. Interested compas can take a look at culmine.noblogs.org. Remember that two comrades from Culmine will be “judged” (sentenced) on January 19, 2010*. Let’s be alert and ready to express our solidarity with these comrades. All solidarity with them, all contempt for the fascist agitators!!

An additional question for the internationalist brothers and sisters about the arrest of Mexican comrade Socorro Molinero Armenta: Does anyone know where to write him?

Well, enough writing for today. Let’s continue to discuss the matters proposed by Culmine and the comrades at Presxs a la kalle in order to delve more deeply into the subjects/concerns referred to.

A strong anarchic and revolutionary embrace for all the conspirators.

– Gabriel Pombo Da Silva, Aachen Death Camp, Germany, January 2010

*Note from Culmine: The two compas were acquitted of the charge of “subversive association” at trial.