From Liberación Total (August 8, 2011):
Responsibility claim for arsons. Vindication for the actions of our comrade Luciano Pitronello. Our reflections.
We are the seed of a tenacious plant. And it’s because of the road we’ve traveled and the need to keep fighting that today, although bruised, we feel somewhat more mature than yesterday. We are thus undertaking, with all our hearts, to let loose some reflections and claim responsibility for our actions as well as those of our comrade-in-ideas Luciano Pitronello, so that they might spread and be discussed in any corner of the world.
These days, it seems that a negative idea has taken root: thinking that everyone involved in the struggle goes through periods of advance and retreat, ups and downs. And although we may think that way, feeling that times are dark for us right now, there still exists the need to regroup, ensure that the unpleasant experiences of the past aren’t repeated, learn lessons, and use every possible means to avoid the bottom of the pit.
We’ve now written something about this, through which we hope our point of view comes across as clearly as possible. We don’t want to overlook any comrade’s practice. This is only what we are thinking and doing, but we are always open to discussion because the struggle is nourished by diversity. It’s the different types and ways of understanding the war that allow us to pave our way.
Firstly, we recognize the existence of an inexplicable quality born within our hearts, that drives us even to risk our lives. It’s the need to be free that makes us hurl ourselves into the void, often without thinking of any consequences. That valiant warrior spirit keeps conflict alive in its most brilliant (but neither its only nor its principal) splendor: our violence against their violence.
Through this text, we mainly want to call for new methods, materials, and knowledge to be incorporated into the violent struggle against authority. We would never dare to judge or oppose comrades who launch themselves into attack without better knowledge or infrastructure. We’re not interested in becoming professional at anything, but we are motivated by the need to intensify the war while preserving our lives and the lives of our comrades. So even if actions always involve the possibility of accidents like Mauri’s death or Luciano’s situation (which are clearly indicative of heightened conflict against authority), to us those accidents also represent a giant step backward because each attacking individuality is in itself an act of liberation, and we must use every means to avoid losses in the course of antiauthoritarian action. It’s not good to treat those tragedies as normal, even though fighters have to learn to live with them.
Secondly, it thus follows that when an individual decides to get organized and make the shift toward violent action—whether that organization takes collective or individual form—the more deeply one gets involved in the battle, the more one needs a certain minimum knowledge of methods and materials to allow for increased, sustained impact. We must be clear that said infrastructure is constructed in relation to the goals of autonomy and liberation, and it never should be considered an end in itself. Building up infrastructure is crucial to our safety, which allows us to perpetuate our actions as much as possible, thereby advancing the struggle.
We need a cushion to land on when situations get complicated, and we need to appropriate methods and knowledge that will improve our mobility, but both needs shouldn’t for any reason nullify our present. The struggle continues, and part of this war involves advancing with regard to materials. While we can’t obsess over it, we also shouldn’t overlook what we still lack.
We will continue to attack authority, maximizing our safety measures and choosing from among the enormous range of existing possibilities for attack, always increasing the diversity and breadth of our actions. Right now we choose to use fire. What will you choose?
We claim responsibility for the following actions carried out just last week:
- Leaving a homemade incendiary device, quick and easy to prepare, at the entrance to the Local Police Courthouse in La Cisterna on the chilly evening of Wednesday, August 3 (we don’t know how much damage was caused).
- Torching a Banco de Chile near the Plaza de Armas in downtown Santiago on the blazing evening of Thursday, August 4 (damaging the facade).
- Setting fire to a Banco Santander in the same area on the same evening of August 4 (damaging the interior, which the press said had been looted).
- Carrying out an arson at the Olavarría Ltd. luxury car dealership in La Reina during the early hours of August 9.
FOR POWER, FIRE.
FOR LUCIANO, OUR HEARTS.
—International Revolutionary Front (Southern Fire Columns)
P.S. We send warm greetings of solidarity to our comrades around the world, especially those being charged, tried, or sentenced by the authorities, like our brothers and sisters in Greece and Switzerland and the Chilean comrades involved in the “Bombings Case.” We won’t forget them.
