and deadly violence of the police ( 1 ); an extended management or collaboration of the media to limit the echoes of revolts or unrest ... Then , add the building of several fortresses of repression like the new headquarters of the Federal Police in the heart of Brussels , the building of the new headquarters of the NATO and finally the building of the biggest prison of Belgium on Brussels ’ soil ( next to the 12 other new prisons already built , still in constructing or planned ).
Thirdly , one has to take into account the general deterioration of the survival conditions of large parts of the population of Brussels . In the eyes of power , there ’ s a whole lot of people becoming ever more “ superfluous ” to the economy , and these people are to be contained or chased from the becoming European metropole . The ongoing dismantling of the social State ( abolishment of unemployment money and social aids , harshening of labor conditions ) will for sure deepen the social contradictions . Already in all popular areas of Brussels , unemployment is more the 25 % and according to official statistics , one out of three persons living in Brussels are surviving with an income lower than the official poverty standard . Rather than on political parties , the offensive of power is massively counting on the very numerous projects of responsible citizenship , education and prevention disseminated in the four corners of Brussels to prevent possible unrest . At the same time , by all means of propaganda or omission possible , power is trying to erase the memory of revolts , riots or struggles Brussels has known . This is pushing a lot of people in a present emptied of any meaning , without a past and without a promising future , handed over to the lies and deformations of power . Of course we are not insinuating that there would exist something like a power not based on systematic lies , but we are simply underlining this aspect because we analyze it today as a integrated element of the offensive we are talking about , of a combination of more general strategies .
The choice for a specific struggle against the building of a maxi-prison in Brussels
From 2006 to 2011 , the prisons in Belgium have been shaken by tens of uprisings , revolts and escapes . This agitation inside of the walls has also got solidarity echoes on the outside , as well from anarchists as from other rebels ( 2 ). Also knowing that many people , and indeed , ever more frequently , return regurarly to prison , the issue is particularly present in several neighbourhoods of Brussels .
Keeping in mind that not few experiences where made on the terrain of struggle against prison , we can now give the elements which brought the comrades to choose for a specific and projectual struggle against the building of the maxi-prison . First of all , this project of struggle want to be a trajectory of autonomous struggle , bases on our own perspectives and temporalities , our own analyses and ideas . Thus , this is not a campaign to confront a particular situation , neither an anarchist intervention in a broader movement of social opposition . We chose this approach because it seemed us the best adapted to what we could do here and because it would allow us to link our ideas , analyses and struggle methods together in an insurrectional perspective .
In this choice , the point is to start a struggle which could include all the aspects of the offensive of power and at the same time , allow us to develop an insurrectional projectuality , that is to say , to choose a terrain having the potential of spreading or unleash hostilities against a visible and concrete project of power and to try to create the struggle conditions to destroy this project . We think that such a struggle could at the same time , as it advances and deepens , touch the other aspects of power , and offer a struggle methodology ( self-organization , permanent conflictuality and attack ) to all those who want to fight against the system .
The explanation of our activities this last months could seem a bit “ schematic ”, possibly leading one to believe that everything corresponds to a pre-established plan . It is true that the discussions about this perspective of this struggle took much time and made it possible to elaborate somehow the big outlines of this struggle project , but we insist on clarifying that the activities are fruit of permanent discussions , autonomous initiatives , critical evaluations , encounters with other rebels and occasions which were grasped . And we also want to say that we think we are still at the beginning of this struggle .
Concretely , since more than a year now , we are trying to be present in several areas in Brussels , linking the proposition to fight against the building of a maxi-prison to the critique of prison in itself and to the ongoing transformations in the city . An important part of the activities consists of spreading this struggle proposal by a multiplicity of autonomous means ( thus , without going through any mediation , staying far away and always criticizing the social , political and syndicalist organizations ) ( 3 ). The reactions are generally enthusiast and these activities are often opening up rich discussions . Then followed several struggle initiatives , like a week of agitation against prison in the area of Saint-Gilles or a weekend against prison in the area of Anderlecht , with the occupation of an empty building and a whole series of initiatives . These initiatives allowed us to somehow feel the temperature and gave us indications about the “ readiness ” for the struggle . We ascertain that a lot of people are supporting or sympathizing with this struggle , but often they are very busy with surviving or dealing with the authorities . This reinforced even more our non-quantitative approach of the struggle : rather that looking for the “ masses ”, we bet on accomplices capable of acting autonomously and on the spreading of revolt . After these initiatives , we thus continued to think about what we sometimes call “ points of reference ” ( 4 ) for those who are interested in the struggle or are looking to find other people to share this struggle . Do we
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