Autonomy

Letter to the Comrades of the Informal Anarchist Federation From Gabriel Pombo da Silva

This letter was written in response to a meeting of F.A.I Groups which took place in December 2006.

“Dear reunited comrades of "Paperopoli" in the house of "Paperino" : your letters arrived to me, (from the Grabada assembly) which I read with extreme attention for I am interested in the content of your reflections, and in addition I get along with and I identify so much with the project of the F.A.I. (obvious informal) like with all and each one of the actions that you have carried out. The reason for writing these letters is not of course "advice" of some type, for this world is full of "advisors", "theoreticians" and "celebrities" of all color and condition... No, I only want to send from this camp of extermination words of subversive tenderness, revolutionary spirit and rebellious complicity; words as much from my companion Jose as my own...

And of stepping to comment on some of the things on which you have reflected and debated in the assembly...

Indeed the attacks serve to demonstrate the vulnerability not only of the State but also of the idea of the State that has been composed by symbols, things and people, for they are the mediators and reformers of one and the other.

On the criticism that some comrades have spilled on to you in relation to the possibility "of hurting" or "of killing", "innocent people*" (for example the mailman or secretary). I think that it is a question of the technical means of the explosive package, rather than the methodology (armed attack). I suppose that the one that must decide, must be each group, based on what it has decided to carry out...

It is undoubtable that if it is decided to attack a servant of the state one must study the movements, customs and places that the target frequents to save in this way disagreeable surprises.

Once being in possession of all the information only then can the attack be valued. All the valuations (Objective- subjective-moral-etc) are unique and the exclusive work of those decided companions who will carry out the action (Not in vain if someday they fall into the hands of the oppressors, for they will be themselves and only they who will undergo the weight of the laws and the consequences of their acts). Personally, in the fruit of my experiences, I am convinced that the fact to identify (or not) with the armed actions is a question of the "degree of individual conscience", plus of the oppressed who would act the same. With this I mean that all those that are not oppressed, do not identify with my answer to answer force with force. This has always been the way and there is not an idea or movement that is going to change anything without understanding this.

And I am not a theoretician companions, but one of the oppressed, enamored with the freedom (and liberty) that infects the oppressed with the passion for a worthy life...

And in 22 years and six (seven) months that I have been jailed (and for that reason tortured until unimaginable limits by "oppressed" "others"). I have said that to be oppressed in fact does not bring even a radical desire to finish yet what oppresses us...

One needs to have "pride", dignity, conscience, hatred and intelligence to wish to face the enemy and all the consequences...

I ignore that thing which is "the social thing" and doubt that the opinions of these "oppressed" "vague beings" like, "movements", "subjects" are going to influence in some way my ideas and actions. I was asked if also they are going to “accuse” me of thinking and acting in a "vanguard" form since my hatred of class is not "reproducible" by "the oppressed" others...

Considerations aside, I want to declare that your project of informal and insurrectionary organization has demonstrated clearly:

A) That it has grown at least in quantity and not only in the Italian Peninsula (referring to the adhesion of new groups to the F.A.Informal), then it is possible to be seen clearly in the actions of other groups that the essential of the proposal (the diffused attack, the informal organization, etc) has been extended and assimilated by other companions as their own project, even though they have not made use of the acronym F.A.I.;

B) That it has demonstrated that the attack is possible and reproducible by all those that know that things have become very bad, and are tired of hoping and have decided to now shift today to the offensive, not delegating its management to "elites" and "specialists"...

Finally I mean that all projects of these characteristics require time for their development and evolution (without mentioning their social understanding)...

And of course I am in favor of the objective value (and not for fetishism) for the reach of this project to use the acronym of the F.A.I.... And I want to finish these considerations (that I always consider unnecessary) with wise words of the comrade Errico Malatesta :

"Amongst the anarchists there are the revolutionaries whom think it necessary to use force, to bring down the violence that maintains the present order, to create the atmosphere in which the free evolution of individuals and the collective is possible; and then there are educationists that think that it is only possible to arrive at the social transformation after educating the people by means of propaganda. They exist in favor of nonviolence, or the passive resistance, that avoids the violence although it is for rejecting it. Well they are divided as well, with regards to this nature, and the degree of violence. In addition, there is discord with respect to the attitude of the anarchists as opposed to the union movement, and also on their own organizations, with permanent or occasional differences between the subversive anarchists and other parties. Exactly these and other similar questions are those that requires that we try to be understood; or if, according to the understanding it is not possible, it is necessary to learn tolerance, to work together when one agrees, and when not, to leave it alone without preventing another. Because, in truth, if all the factors are taken into account, nobody always is right... "
Errico Malatesta

A Warm embrace for your comrades!
For the extension of the Revolt,
For Anarchy!
Viva la F.A.I.!“

Aachen, Germany, 28.01.07.


Gabriel Pombo da Silva
Krefelder Str. 251
52070 Aachen
Germany

* On "innocent or guilty" there deserves to be written a volume for the simple-minded...


Gabriel is an anarchist from Spain who escaped from prison and was caught on the Belgian- German border, with fellow anarchist escapee Jose Fernandez Delgado, Belgian anarchist Bart de Geeter and Begona, his sister.

More info: Escape into Rebellion

The F.A.I. are a decentralised network of anarchist groups which practice anarchist direct action & propaganda.


Read the document Gabriel writes about here- Four Years of the FAI

For background information read this- Finger and the Moon

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