Jack-in-the-box: Italy's anarchist phantoms
From the press, we learn of admissions of responsibility, of plots as easy to dismantle as lego, of the fault being anarchists' (all the TV news shows) or anarcho-insurrectionalists (RAI 3 news), of "organizations" responsible for the various "Jack-in-the-box" attacks - those little surprise packages, letter bombs or suchlike.
Jack-in-the-box
From the press, we learn of admissions of responsibility, of plots as easy to dismantle as lego, of the fault being anarchists' (all the TV news shows) or anarcho-insurrectionalists (RAI 3 news), of "organizations" responsible for the various "Jack-in-the-box" attacks - those little surprise packages, letter bombs or suchlike.
Bologna: Jack-in-the-box for the mayor, Cofferati.
Presumed motives of those responsible (according to the minister): Yeah, we'll show that old Stalinist wanker we're not joking and put the fucking Disobbedienti in the shit at the same time.
Motives of the secret services: The State is on the Mayor's side; a shadow is thrown on the movement against the evictions; militants get worried, terror among ordinary citizens; grassroots struggles wilt; political mediation is restored.
Final result: The Bolognese movement is in the shit; Cofferati becomes a martyr; much time and energy is spent distancing oneself; anarchists involved in the movement forced to constantly show their worth and always risking exclusion.
Val di Susa: Jack-in-the-box for the high-speed railway (TAV).
Presumed motives of those responsible: To radicalize the mass protest in the Val di Susa; to give the vanguards an example; to make a dramatic gesture on behalf of the poor masses of sheep and inflame the hearts of revolutionaries; to demonstrate that the individual is always more advanced than the masses.
Motives of the secret services: Erm... this crowd are all mayors, families, normal people with no masks, even kiddies; they need a good hiding, but then there'd be an inquiry; d'you know what - why don't we put a nice harmless Jack-in-the-box on the line, no-one will get hurt, it'll ruin their movement, they'll spend more time protesting their innocence than protesting against the train!
Final result: Movement in difficulty, forced to defend itself from suspicion of terrorism, distance itself, spending more time protesting its innocence than protesting the train line; political mediation replaces grassroots struggle; the DS party takes over and indicentally regains political control of the region.
Parma: 2 Jack-in-the-boxes for the Carabinieri Special Branch.
Presumed motives of those responsible: Let this be a warning that we know you're trying to frame us with your "investigations".
Motives of the secret services: Bologna and Susa are not enough, we need a real attack at the heart of the State and some stupid carabiniere to fall for it so we can launch a witch-hunt for subversives.
Triple final result: Bologna, Susa, Parma - the latest in the terror campaign against the movements and repression of social struggles; sure, a bit too early for the election campaign, but from now until April, there'll be plenty more. We can't disappoint everyone who's waiting for the pre-election strategy of tension, can we? A 40-year-old tradition!
For some time now, not only have we analyzed and understood that the object of the policies of an increasingly security-obsessed Europe of criminalization and repression are directed at the anarchist movement, not only at anarchist militants, but also in the sense of anarchist practices and grassroots, self-managed social organization which has little or nothing to do with the institutional left or political representation delegated to the party professionals in national parliaments or in Strasbourg. It is an operation that could not openly be performed with an attack on the movements' official organizations, but only through small terrorist actions, just as effective in throwing the newly-resurgent anarchist movement back into the shadows of history, to blacken its name, to scare off its supporters, to force it to continualy protect itself from attacks on its name. Making life difficult for the anarchist movement means helping the Disobbiedienti and their ilk to become the stage-managed "opposition", in the knowledge that they are willing to play the part of political mediators and representatives as long as they get their 15 minutes of media glory every so often. It means making life difficult for anarchists who work in mass social and union activity, forcing them to distance themselves from the "nasty" anarchists and politically paralyze the movement. Sure, at present the movement, or rather its younger sectors, is dominated by devotion to literature whose approach is far from political. The black bloc, John Zerzan and the erroneous conception of the anarchist as individualist who is willing to organize temporarily by affinity. In the illusion of escaping police control, in the arrogance of criticizing organized anarchism, in the romantic dream of being enough in oneself, in the total disregard for mass, popular action. Just that - literature.
Faced with this sort of preventive counter-revolution, we need to realize that:
- class-struggle anarchism risks being backed into a corner, exhausted by having to explain ceaselessly that it is not what everyone assumes it to be, while knowing that it will be targetted by the State once the class struggles which directly attack capitalist interests show their face; we need to remain firmly anchored to the mass dimension, to continue to analyze events clearly;
- repression can be fought off with legal help, with defence committees and with a good deal of patience and solidarity but that on this point there is much to be done;
- we ourselves can prevent the criminalization of the struggles and the movements through clear analysis of the mass dimension of the movements, as spontaneity is often the precursor of traps and attacks. (The CUB grassroots union, in fact, was spot on in calling a strike of all sectors in the Val di Susa after the FIOM had called one for its own sector, industry.)
Our synergies, alliances and political choices must be unambiguous.
Article from "
Alternativa Libertaria", online news-sheet of the FdCA
Download the PDF version of the news-sheet from our website:
italy / switzerland |
repression / prisoners |
opinion / analysis
Thursday November 24, 2005 22:39
by Alternativa Libertaria - FdCA
internazionale at fdca dot it
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Comments (6 of 6)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6What is the point of this kind of speculation over the package bombs?
The FDCA provides no evidence whatsoever in this article, just annoyance at the repression that comes after the packages open, and disappointment that younger anarchists are into non-platformist anarchism.
No mention is made of the several insurrectionary anarchists currently in prison and facing trial over charges relating to some package bombs.
The article also continues the FDCA's tradition of falsely painting insurrectionary anarchism as simplistic individualism opposed to any mass struggle. It isn't hard to find the truth however that insurrectionary anarchists are involved in and see the need for mass struggles.
This is a translation from an Italian article so its a bit puzzling for those of us outside Italy who don't know a lot of the context. But I think the purpose is clearly to show that whatever exactly is going on these package bombs are playing onto an agenda that is useful for the state.
BTW I wouldn't be so convinced they are the work of insurrectionary anarchists. Just because the state has arrested a number of them in connection with the bombing proves nothing - all the more so under the Italian legal system which encourages political prosecutuons on little or no actual evidence.
The major reason I have dougbts is that I have trouble believing any groups of anarchists would carry out these acts in a way designed to implicate other anarchists. (For those who don't know a number of the bombs have been 'claimed' by a group that uses the same intials as the largest, oldest and best know anarchist federation in Italy, the FAI.) It would hardly be a new departure for the Italian state to have its secret service plants bombs which could then be blamed on anarchists, see
The point of this type of speculation is to comment on the results and the consequences of certain actions rather than expound on the intentions of those who actually carry out certain actions. And thinking about the consequences of the actions one carries out is (or should be) an essential part of political action.
Which particular mass struggles are "insurrectionary anarchists" involved in?
Nobody except perhaps those involved in the Informal Anarchist Federation or the cops knowns for sure who is responsible for the letter bombs.
The name Informal Anarchist Federation is clearly not the same as the Italian Anarchist Federation and the government of Italy has openly said they know the difference and consider the Italian Anarchist Federation to be the good and respectable anarchists of the country, in contrast to those naughty insurrrectionary anarchists who commit crimes.
Of course, state criminal charges do not mean that a comrade actually carried out an action they're charged with. Many insurrectionary anarchists in Italy have been framed for many crimes they say they weren't involved in.
The infamous piazza fontana bombing, which the Italian state was shown to be involved in, was designed to harm civilians. I don't believe the Italian state has ever been proven to be involved in attacks directed at politicians. This doesn't mean it isn't possible, but at this point it's incorrect to link these letter bombs to the state's "strategy of tension" in the past.
I don't find Lia from the FDCA sincere when she says "The point of this type of speculation is to comment on the results and the consequences of certain actions rather than expound on the intentions of those who actually carry out certain actions.", since repression can come after actions that were for sure carried out by anarchists rather than cops. A discussion of repression is different than a speculation which leans towards certain actions being carried out by the State in the name of anarchists.
Insurrectionary anarchists in Italy have been jailed simply for writing books and advocating sabotage in speeches. Does this mean that anarchists shouldn't even communicate their ideas since it only brings down repression? Repression is an obstacle to overcome, not an excuse to surrender terrain to the enemy.
To sid: insurrectionary anarchists have been and still are involved in many different social struggles, including workers' strikes and workplace sabotage, indigenous struggles (such as that of the Mapuche people of Chile), squatting, anti-police and anti-globalization riots, opposition to military complexes, etc.
Here's a link to a text on a particular mass struggle in Sicily against an American missle base:
http://omnipresence.mahost.org/comiso.htm
I was recently in Italy with some friends who probably would call themselves insurrectionary anarchists, and they all were very skeptical of these bombings and who was actually carrying them out. They had many friends who have been imprisoned, had their homes searched, and had been harrassed after the bombings occurred. They seemed to really resent the actions...unfortunately I cannot remember all of the explainations that they gave for this sentiment. I think that more and more people are beginning to think like the above article...that anarchists are in fact not making these bombings. They say that most actions in Italy are never claimed by any group, and that the name FAI seems very absurd and out of the ordinary for italian anarchists. We all have read about the waves and waves of arrests that occured right around when these bombings started so it would certainly be understandable that the police could do this (again) to justify this repression. Of course, I dont want to feed this paranoia either, but it is possible...actually in Italy it is VERY possible because it has happened over and over again.