Find Yourself a Revolver!
From Hommodolars Contrainformación:
Many thanks to the Hommodolars crew for posting this little pamphlet, which may or may not have been written by infamous Chilean anarchist Efraín Plaza Olmedo. It seems the text was originally published in 1921 in the Santiago Bakers’ Union newspaper El Comunista, under the pen name of Juan Levadura.
March 7, 2010
Find yourself a revolver!
Find yourself a revolver! Understand?
Find yourself a revolver. The sooner the better. Buy, borrow, or steal one. The point is that you should be armed. Perhaps you think the social revolution is going to be made with streamers, like during carnival? Do you think the capitalists are going to hand over the fields and factories, like they hand over their daughters to millionaires? Are you so foolish that you believe in the possibility of harmony between bosses and workers? Don’t you see how—every day, all over the world—when workers demand some improvement, tin soldiers carrying rifles and bayonets appear? Didn’t you see how, during the strike by our comrade tramway drivers, the entire army moved in to protect the traitors? Well, if that happens when a complaint is made or some improvement is requested, what’s going to happen when we demand the right to land, life, and liberty? Think about it.
Find yourself a revolver and learn how to use it. Make a target to shoot at. Draw Astorquiza’s, Zañartu’s, or Gonzalo Bulnes’ head on it, or your own if you like. Shoot and shoot some more. Prepare yourself for the coming Revolution. Advise your other comrades to do the same. The ones who talk about “peaceful evolution” and “harmonious solutions” alongside the capitalist class are woefully deceiving you. Don’t you see how the workers in Russia had to arm themselves in order to overthrow all the tyrants? Don’t you see how they now live as they please, enjoying every kind of comfort? For over 100 years, you have peacefully endured all sorts of humiliation, and what benefits have you gained from your masters? The miserable shack you live in and pay a fortune for, the diseases that bring premature death to you and your children, the wars that spread hunger and pain to your doorstep, and the scraps you get when you demand a little food and justice for your family and children. This, all this, is the reward for your efforts and sacrifices. Believe it.
Find yourself a revolver. The sooner the better. Buy, borrow, or steal one. The point is that you should be armed. When the conscious, armed working class demands its right to life and liberty, then you will see how the rulers and tyrants fall. While you keep shouting on the streets like an idiot, begging for bread and justice, you will see how the bullets rain down on your head.
That’s all. By finding yourself a revolver and advising others to prepare for the Revolution, you will see the rebirth of a new dawn for the world.
Find yourself a revolver!
Regarding the January 15 Falabella bombing on Paseo Puente
From Hommodolars Contrainformación:
February 6, 2010
Regarding the January 15 Falabella bombing on Paseo Puente, we believe it is necessary to make the following reflections:
Attacks against capital and the state represent steps on the road toward the destruction of the established order and the construction of a free world.
Their propagation and frequency have shaken the ground beneath those who thought subversion had died out. How wrong they were. The more they use the politics of terror, the more insurrectionary actions occur. The more police they involve in their witch-hunt, the more groups at war multiply.
But we think that these direct attacks should always be clear and understandable on their own, and should not leave room for the kind of conjecture that accompanied the Falabella bombing on Paseo Puente—a place frequented, for the most part, by exploited wage-laborers hypnotized by consumption.
Propaganda by the deed should be charged with meaning and content, even more so if its objective is to hurt people. We believe that it is the powerful who should feel the threat of constant danger, not the exploited who can barely endure the misery of their own lives.
Let’s not delude ourselves or contribute to the delusion: The exploiters and their families do not frequent places like Paseo Puente. They live in distinct, guarded habitats, and it is there where we should attack, bomb, and reclaim their spaces of criminal bourgeois arrogance, especially given that we possess the technical capacity to thwart enemy cameras and security units. In this way, we don’t leave room for conjecture regarding the content and scope of our actions.
Finally, with these reflections we are attempting to contribute to an antiauthoritarian discussion nourished by action. We are not trying to immobilize groups or appeal for inaction. Far from it! We are part of those contributing to the construction of a world without exploiters or leaders, against whom we advocate all forms of struggle.
FOR THE MULTIPLICATION OF DIRECT ACTIONS IN THE EXPLOITERS’ DOMAIN
- Efraín Plaza Olmedo Blasting Crew
Biographical sketch of Efraín Plaza Olmedo
Chile’s Marriott Hotel bombers call themselves the Efraín Plaza Olmedo Blasting Crew, but who exactly was Efraín Plaza Olmedo?
From Liberación Total:
November 4, 2009
Given the scarcity of information about Efraín, here is a brief outline:
Efraín Plaza Olmedo was a carpenter and an anarchist; he read writers like Max Stirner, and he liked to write, authoring the text “Find Yourself a Revolver.” He believed in individual action as a form of combat in the struggle against capital and exploitation. He also believed that it was necessary to be armed at all times, and that is why he purchased a revolver in 1909, at the age of 23. During the winter of 1912, Efraín left for downtown Santiago with the clear intention to kill some bourgeois. He shot two representatives of the upper class, killing them both. He then tried to flee, but was immediately stopped by citizens who tried to lynch him, while he shouted: “I am happy to have avenged the oppressed!”
When questioned, he declared that “only violent means can manage to overturn the current state of affairs.” He later added that he had bought the revolver “in order to kill President Pedro Montt and some military leaders responsible for the massacre at the Santa María School.” Pedro Montt, who was president of Chile, was directly responsible for the Santa María Massacre, but he later left for Europe, which was why Efraín was unable to kill him.
After Efraín’s action, the press and the public got involved in the ongoing debate on violence. Some anarchists, through the newspaper La Batalla, said: “Brother! Idiots may call you a murderer, but we call you righteous.” Meanwhile, the firefighters of revolt—those who always look to distance themselves by talking about one’s background—called him mentally disturbed and said that his actions were representative of an individual with an extreme sensitivity to the abuses of power.
During the trial, the prosecuting attorney, requesting a conviction from the judge, stated: “The charged defendant Plaza Olmedo maintains the statement in which he confessed to perpetrating the double-crime . . . that he left his house with a revolver in his pocket, determined to kill a bourgeois . . . that after the massacre of workers in Iquique, which happened some time ago, the catastrophe in the El Teniente mine increased his indignation, and for this reason he decided to attack the bourgeoisie in order to avenge the working class. He insists that he committed the crime with total premeditation, and repeats that it was because of his anarchist ideas.”
In the middle of May 1913, Efraín received a 20-year prison sentence plus extra time for each of the murders, with the extenuating circumstance of faultless prior conduct, which prevented the death penalty.
Now behind bars, Plaza Olmedo continued his protest activity. A series of communiqués sent to his La Batalla comrades told the story of how the warden made him attend Sunday mass after handcuffing him and having guards beat him, despite which Efraín did not allow the priest to say a single word, insulting him as well as the guards and the judge. On returning to his cell, Efraín continued his stream of expletives against the priest and the judge, so guards tried to shackle his hands and feet, which he resisted by using an iron from his cell to stun one of the jailers.
His constant disturbances would lead to innumerable conflicts, as he also looked to spread his ideals among the rest of the inmates. The hunger strikes and riots multiplied, as did the demands to the Santiago Penitentiary authorities, for which he was punished with four years of solitary confinement without visitation rights. He was later transferred to Talca Penitentiary, which severed the ties to his comrades yet brought about an increase in support for Efraín on the part of individuals and the anarchist press.
In an attempt to win sympathy from the workers, the military movement of young army officers turned toward the left in January 1925 and pardoned Efraín. On the first Sunday of March 1925, he left Talca Penitentiary at the age of 39, having spent 13 years as a political prisoner, 56 months of which were in complete isolation. He later told the magazine Acción Directa: “Prison did not torment me, comrades! I always lived, despite all the sorrow in prison.” From then on, he would actively participate in the Santiago tenants’ demonstrations for the lowering of rents and the improvement of city living conditions.
On April 27, 1925, a body was found on the side of the road in Conchalí, near a canal underneath a tall willow. It was Efraín Plaza Olmedo. The anarchist press declared: “Suicide or murder? It does not matter to us. All the signs point to capitalism and the state as those most responsible for the death of a man who—through his words filled with kindness and love, and his revolutionary action—made them think twice about their illegitimate interests.”
Communiqué: We bombed the Marriott Hotel
From Hommodolars Contrainformación via Liberación Total:
November 4, 2009
Some context from a contributor to Hommodolars:
The disinformation regarding what happened goes more or less like this: “A bomb exploded at a BCI bank.” Or: “A bomb exploded in front of the Marriott Hotel.” Worse still: “Surveillance cameras would have caught whoever left the bomb.” What’s certain is that the device was left in a hotel bathroom, with the timer set for a certain hour. The perpetrators warned the hotel so that it would be evacuated and no one would be injured. Sadly, a hotel employee noticed the device, which was inside a laptop bag, and brought it to the front desk, thinking that it belonged to someone. There he received the warning call, and in an act of extreme risk, brought the object outside the hotel (according to him, that’s part of hotel “protocol” . . . like, “if you see something suspicious, take it and leave it outside . . . it could be a bomb; if it explodes, bad luck . . . if it isn’t removed and explodes inside the hotel, you’re fired”). Apparently, a short time after he left it outside (near a BCI), it exploded and some shrapnel hit him. Confusingly, it emerged in the press that “security cameras would have caught whoever left the bomb.” That’s strange, as it was left inside the hotel. The only thing the bank’s security camera would have caught is the guard leaving the bomb outside. Unless they have cameras in the bathrooms.
Communiqué: We bombed the Marriott Hotel
The following communiqué, which claims responsibility for the Marriott Hotel bombing, was sent to us via e-mail:
There was a warning. And other comrades before us had given the same warning.1 The tranquility of this world, built by the defenders and administrators of a system based on hunger and slavery, has come to an end.
At 1:45 a.m. yesterday, November 3, a full crew of comrades thwarted all the systems of surveillance and control set up by the exploiters in the eastern ghetto of the city of Santiago—thereby crossing all the narrow page margins of the disinformation media that has ridiculously attempted to minimize the act—in order to detonate a powerful bomb that was meant to explode in the main hall of the Marriott Hotel located on Avenida Kennedy in the Las Condes municipality.
As a show of the humanity that the exploiters lack and really don’t deserve, we warned the front desk by telephone 15 minutes before the explosion, mainly so that unruly workers (if there were any) could go out on to the sidewalk and rejoice at the sight of the Marriott Hotel exploding (to the workers in question, we leave you a warning in case you decide to collaborate with the police). If the front desk obeyed orders to not waste minutes of work by evacuating the building, and instead sent the security guards to die for their crummy wages, then the owners of the building are the only ones responsible.2
We want to make it clear that this action was not meant to hurt or harm just anyone; we are well aware of who we are attacking. We are directly attacking the people responsible for the maintenance of this rotten system, which is nourished by theft from the workers via AFPs (Pension Fund Managers), by terrorist bosses who use workplace exploitation in order to turn work into a social law that only reproduces this slave-society, by shutting people in cities—built in the style of prisons—that in turn reproduce the capitalist violence promoted by the exploiters, by the existence of an exclusive commercial health system that leaves the lives of millions of people in doubt, by the maintenance of an educational system that diverted and deformed the struggle for egalitarian assemblies carried out by the high schools. We are attacking the privileged who are comfortable sustaining this exploitative society based on blood, death, misery, and permanent terror.
Finally, we are doing no more than attacking the real terrorists, the owners of this world, who are beginning to feel the consequences of the social war they started.
We repeat: This is a conscious act, it is an act filled with anarchist content, it is an act of war, it is an act of antiauthoritarian expression planned and executed with all the creativity of minds that intend to be free. To that effect, we have chosen an autonomy that allows us to be unpredictable and to select our targets according to our perception and analysis. The action that we just carried out is an example of that; it is an example of the spontaneity granted to us by that choice, which also allows us to continue to operate while constantly outwitting the terrorist state’s repressive apparatus and control.
The state does not possess a mythic or epic existence, nor is it the fruit of social consensus; rather, it was born as the apparatus of absolute power, replacing what was erected by the monarchies in their time. It is simple and basic political theory. This violent, enslaving social death is derived from a politics whose epicenter is genocide and classic European xenophobia; it is exported under different labels that conform to whatever formulas the consumer needs, and it is generally personified by the characters of its exponents, who see and feel themselves (consciously or unconsciously) as being called forth to illuminate with the “light” of their “old world.” We are born in that world. That world is sustained by the figure of the state, and it is the reason why all states exist. We grow up under those states. But we renounce them. We renounce and reject their command over us. We renounce their imposed nationality and declare ourselves stateless. The war has already been declared. The existence of states was its declaration.
We understand that the existence of those who dominate within society, be they bourgeois or bureaucrats, is directly related to the existence of the state. It is they who shape it, they who reproduce and reinforce it, strengthening and extending social relations based on authoritarianism and the domination of millions of people. It is they who think of themselves as “illuminated,” they who see themselves as protected by the existence of the state. As a concrete example, we can mention what is happening today in Mapuche Territory: brutal repression and harassment by the Chilean state against the weichafes, with the sole intention of defending the interests of those who dominate.
Attack. This is the maxim chosen by countless groups in this social war. We attack the physical spaces where the daily life of the exploiters takes place. We attack the planned centers of economic and military occupation in the territories we inhabit. We attack the simulated perfection of the violent world they represent.
Through our action, we attacked the exploiters who keep alive this terrorist state—the gendarme that protects bourgeois and bureaucrats alike, and which nevertheless could not protect them today.
Today we bombed this building, tomorrow there will be others.
Attacks of this this type will continue, increase, and worsen . . . be careful.
LONG LIVE THE INSURRECTIONAL STRUGGLE OF THE MAPUCHE PEOPLE FOR THEIR AUTONOMY!
FOR THE EXPLOSION OF THIS WORLD: PLANNED, DIRECT ATTACKS ON THE CENTERS OF DOMINATION!
FOR THE SPREAD OF INFORMAL ANTIAUTHORITARIAN ACTION GROUPS!
- Efraín Plaza Olmedo Blasting Crew
_____
1For example: “We’re warning you: Tread carefully. Wherever you go, there might be a bomb: in your homes, in your supermarkets, gyms, stores, and restaurants. In short, the days of peace are over for you. Your neighborhoods are turning into a minefield, so watch each step you take, because you might be stepping on one of our explosives.” [“Communiqué: Explosions in Las Condes and Vitacura at two gyms for the wealthy”] Hoy en Terra then comes out with: “Mayor of Las Condes criticized research into bombing prevention.” Apparently, the world that a certain class (simple puppets of the capitalist dynamic) administrates is beginning to worry about what it has created, now that the contradictions on which it rests are seemingly beginning to be directly expressed in its own spaces . . .
2And not only do the compas say this, but so does the bourgeois press: “A guard from the bank branch stated that Monsalve checked the spot where the bag was found and brought it to the front desk, as he thought that a guest had forgotten it. At that moment, the hotel received an anonymous call warning that there was a bomb, so the guard took the bag and removed it from the premises in order to bring it to an underground parking garage, but he was unable to get there and should have dropped it.” [El Mercurio, November 4, 2009]
Bomb explodes at bank next to Marriott Hotel in Santiago, Chile
From Liberación Total:
November 3, 2009
Updated
A bomb exploded just after 2:00 p.m. on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 3 in front of a BCI bank located next to the Marriott Hotel on Avenida Kennedy in the Las Condes municipality.
A hotel guard was wounded in the explosion, while the blast damaged large windows at the bank branch. The guard was taken to the Hospital del Trabajador with minor injuries.
The bomb, hidden in a small suitcase, was found by the guard in one of the Marriott Hotel’s bathrooms, removed from the premises, and brought outside via the parking garage, where a BCI bank branch is also located. The device exploded after a few minutes, and shrapnel from the blast broke the large windows of the bank and lightly wounded the 30-year-old guard. The explosion also left a hole in the ground measuring some 15 centimeters in diameter.
Marriott Hotel security personnel managed to warn GOPE about their discovery of the suspicious package, but the latter was unable to deactivate the device.
Francisco Jacir, the district attorney investigating the series of bombings that have occurred throughout the country, arrived on the scene to begin the initial inquiry.
Carabineros Laboratory (Labocar) and GOPE officials were on site to investigate, while traffic was rerouted in order to allow the experts to do their work.
According to experts, the device consisted of a metal container filled with black powder, and it was activated by a timer.
