Some particular realities
Gasoline , glass bottles , burned oil and rags are easily acquired . Also other materials with which one can attack the system and its cops can be easily found . For us , all means that are in accordance with the ends are weapons that can be directed against power . Maybe some are more destructive than others , but no any means gets ideological overrating over another . For example , guns over molotovs , or dynamite over home made incendiary devices . Also , the reproducibility of the attack depends of the particular characteristics of each place . For example , in Bolivia , where black powder and dynamite can be found on any market , on almost any place , these materials are easily acquired and makes that their use during revolts in such places is very common . In our context , dynamite was much used during the Magonist revolts in the north of the country , because the possibility to acquire it was very easy as the north is a mining region . Although in current times , the acquiring of explosive materials is usually a bit complicated , we could mention that in the case of the Oaxaca insurrection , home made explosives were widely used in the form of “ coyotas ”, which are basically party firecrackers with nails attached to it as shrapnel . They were extremely harmful for the cops who were repressing the revolt on the barricades .
Nevertheless , this reality of daily war , of drugs and arms trafficking , this need of the State to keep the country in a permanent war zone , makes the acquiring of short and long guns , grenades or whatever you want possible . In addition , society is used to its use and familiar with its use : in many cases , you learn it from when you are a youngster , be it for defence or for other reasons . So the use of guns to hit power , or their use during a generalized revolt or a conscious insurrection , is very likely . And again , the example of Oaxaca ( as well as other revolts that are less known ) illustrates clearly what we are saying .
For the moment , we do not want to enter into the discussion on ethics and morals concerning the use of guns or the disarmament of society . We are no pacifists , but neither are we warmongers . Nevertheless , we can affirm that reality has shown us that the society in arms in this lasts years has only massacred itself , something that is obviously in the interest of the State . But as anarchists we go in another direction : we go towards the need to attack power with all means that are in accordance with the ends . The use of guns is in accordance with anarchist ethics . Here we are speaking of revolutionary action , of conscious acts of sabotage and their easy and efficient propagation to destroy power .
For the destruction of the myth of specialization and professionalism : neither spectators nor actors .
With all the rubbish that the system spreads through television , cinema , theatre and fiction books , an image has been created of the saboteur as a professional of violence . An image of a professional saboteur that , maybe unwillingly , is complemented by the visual propaganda of some guerilla armies or radical urban guerilla groups ( leftist , marxist-leninist or also anarchist ) in which their members appear with machine guns and other heavy weaponry in an attempt to have an impact in the eyes of the State and of society ; or , with their own words , to propagandistic ends . But we can also add to this the image of the “ reckless hero ” that some comrades create around the figure of comrades who in the past ( and the present ) took action . Taking out of the debate the fact that in certain moments anarchists – and any person who is rebelling – need to learn the use of guns ( something that in Mexico , as we said in the previous paragraph , is more common than learning how to read ) and learn fighting strategies on the countryside or in an urban setting , this type of armed visual propaganda is nothing more than a hindrance to the propagation of attack and sabotage on wide levels , in the social context , outside of our circles and before all , autonomously , for the following two reasons :
• Firstly , because the image of the professional of violence leaves aside all those who want to attack , but are not finding the so-called adequate means to attack the system ( whatever the case might be , because the majority of it has to do with spectacularity ), and this makes that these individuals desiring to attack stay immobile and spectators .
• Secondly , because the visual propaganda of the professional saboteur generates an abyss between the individual , the organisation and the organisations . The individual feels the need to attack , but believes that in order to do so , he needs to belong to a professional urban guerilla group , to a systematic organism , or that he has to create an organisation that specialises itself in this and leaves aside other aspects of life where intervention is also necessary . When he doesn ’ t find the organisation to back him up , or when he finds himself in the impossibility to use certain means , again there is immobility and spectators , because the individual stay immobile facing the impotence of not being “ on the level ” of attacking the State .
It is clear that everybody is capable of looking for the means he or she wants , there is no doubt about that , but my comment , apart from being based on experience and of knowledge about other experiences , projects itself specifically in when this type of visual propaganda leaves on the side not only the comrades who in one way or another have access to manuals and other things that older comrades have left them ; I am speaking concretely about a comrade that is isolated ( whatever that might mean ) from the movement , or about a person who is an “ ordinary ” citizen ” but has decided to stop being it and attack , who then find themselves many times in an impossible situation .
But the myth of the specialist or the professional of violence has other bad breaths
Many times , together with the propagation of this type of visual propaganda ( more concretely by comrades ,
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