Freedom News

Roots of the raids against Brazil’s anarchist movement

Following a series of raids against properties linked to the Gaucho Anarchist Federation (FAG) late last month, The Kaos Library in Porto Allegre analyses its own troubles from the crackdown, including the use of its published books to “justify” Operation Érebo.

We took notice early in the morning of a police operation against a group suspected to be responsible for several attacks on police vehicles, bank, car dealers, police stations and political party headquarters.

According to local press this alleged group will be accused of crimes related to gangsterism, use of explosives and attempted murder. The address of our former public headquarters, located on the Travessa dos Venezianos, was invaded by police who seized computers, telephones, books and other belongings of the cultural group that kept the space. We learned that the warrant was addressed to our organisation. Other political-cultural sites were also visited by civilian police.

This is another asserted “fact” that aims to create a scarecrow, a scapegoat, to criminalise and repress all social movements and the non-electoral left and specifically our ideology. In a conjuncture of withdrawal of rights, fiscal adjustment, intensification of exploitation and domination over all the oppressed classes, the heavy hand of criminalisation against the anarchists comes into play.

We have not yet had our public place invaded, but we believe it may only be a matter of time. We alert all of the social fighters about this and about the need for SOLIDARITY to everyone who fights!

DO NOT INTIMIDATE!
AGAINST THE CRIMINALIZATION OF THOSE WHO FIGHT!
RESISTANCE AND SOLIDARITY!
Anarchist Gaucho Federation – FAG
October 25, 2017

The Anarchic Confrontation

There are many things to say, but we will start with the most urgent. On October 25th there began an anti-anarchist persecution against FAG, the Parhesia institute, Pandorga squat and some individuals who had their spaces and houses raided by cops. If not all, probably a good part of the anarchist milieu was affected and several of them spoke out firmly against repression. And this is a fresh air that strengthens every one who feels sedition.

It is evident that the aim of the agents of repression also points against us, against the publications we have made or in which we participate. And that is what we are going to say. “The chronology of the Anarchic Confrontation,” collecting information from 2000-15, and another collating the anarchic trigger of 2016, are books being exhibited as “evidence” of vandalism, attacks, and criminal acts. Among the many ways anarchism has to search for freedom, these books speak of anarchic informality as an option according to the current domination’s face. Further, we clarify that these books speak of actions but not only anarchist ones. The focus of the books is the diffusion of anarchic actions. To be more precise, it spread actions in which we smell the aroma of anarchy. And between anarchism and anarchy there are differences that may be delicate but which are important.

The anarchic instinct is that anti-dominating impulse that can be present in any individuality or collectivity, beyond its ideological belongings and political militancy. That is why in the chronologies we include conflicts of non-Western populations, street conflict within larger protests and diverse motivations, actions against the State and Capital, and more. Far from going by theory, we clarify this since the persecution against the anarchists does not consider these differences in order to find a scapegoat for multiple events that bothered the cops and the powerful of always. It is surprising that the police, deputy Jardim, and the media, show as Big News some facts that were already headlines at the time and involving places which have already been searched by cops, just because all these facts are condensed in our publications.

None of the books is a claim. They are books of an anarchic memory, with actions and conflicts from long before the existence of the Kaos Library, which will surely continue beyond us. The publication shows with joy and yes, with head held high, the existence of an anarchic confrontation that respond to the domination, the devastation of the earth and the attack against all forms of freedom, but it does not claim responsibility for these facts that can be collected, as we have done from various internet pages and local newspapers. And if we have made these publications aware of the risk they presented, it is because insubmission deserves to be defended, howled, celebrated and shouted by all possible means. We will never believe or respect the obedience they intend to impose, the submission and the fear they want to inoculate in people from the moment they are born.

Therefore, the actions printed in the chronologies are attacks against the materiality of domination. That is against buildings, cars, machines, roads, windows. Stuff. Objects. Symbols. Cops in the territory controlled by the Brazilian state are internationally famous for being a murderous police force. The so-called “pacification operations” are massacres, authentic massacres, such as Candelária and Carandiru, as well as the murder of Eltom Brum from behind his back that even had a police crowd receiving the murderer. And are they the ones who talk about terror, about evil gangs, about attempted murder? They show a sling and ecological bricks as weapons while they’re holding guns. They speak of terrorism and evil gangs while preparing the next invasion against a village or favela, where the dead will not even be mentioned by the media. That’s how insignificant they are to them. We would like to believe that everyone feels insulted by the evidence of the Garden Delegate. In a context where weapons are commonplace, ecological bricks presented as explosives are an insult to anyone. However, we do not forget when Pinho Sol [famous deodorizer label] was considered a weapon and used “evidence” against Rafael Braga* whom they held behind bars until he got tuberculosis, that is, until they felt they had done everything to kill him.

The repression against anarchists show two things. First, to present “terrorists” on screen serves as a TV show to turn the spotlight away from issues such as corruption, political-police discredit and slow genocide throughout economic reforms. That they now try to solve the facts of 2013* and chase a book and literature, clearly showing a spectacular attempt to hide the growing attack on the population, to depoliticise through threats and spread fear even to read (evidently democratic practices).

The second thing that presents an anti-anarchist persecution is that anarchy disturbs. When we speak of anarchy that disturbs, we are clearly not talking about well behaved boys and girls acting within the limits imposed by power, we do not speak of people who have laws in their bodies and hearts drawing their limits of action. When we speak of anarchy that disturbs, we speak of such a strong insubordination of people and groups that have been able to interrupt the normality of the power square, to paralyze the city, to break the symbols of militarisation in Haiti**, to burn the vehicles that seize, and they kill dragging like horses of the inquisition (Claudia we do not forget your death).

The Kaos Library books spread this anarchy. The one that disturbs. The one that answers the clash of agribusiness, colonization civilization, militarization, ecocide, prison society… In simpler words, while domination tries to destroy the planet and all that they find undesirable, we spread what attacks the domination.

And when anarchy bothers, the reaction of the powerful threatens and wants to sniff the fear. The anarchic response to this persecution will remain in our hearts and actions. How we face this crossroads will mark the moment of our passage through the path of rebellious life.

Strength and solidarity with those prosecuted by “Operation Érebo.”

Kaos Anarchic Library
October 2017


This is an edited version of a translation originally done by tormentasdefogo. Translation notes:

  • Rafael Braga was arrested during 2013 protests. At the time, he was homeless and was simply removed from his place while cops repressed the demo.

** 2013 is remembered as a year of street uprising against transportation fairs in great part of the territory under domain of the bra$ilian state. As in other territories in the world, there were a lot of insurgent protests mostly self organized.

*** Bra$ilian army is responsible for the militarization of Haiti.

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