ON SABOTAGE AND TERRORISM

from PROVOCAZIONE


To attack the structures of exploitation and death should never be considered terrorism. those responsible for pollution and oppression are easily identifiable. the task of anarchists is to show that rebellion is possible, and to work for the generalisation of the attack.

An attack on the Montefluos establishment at Spinetta Marengo, a few kilometres from Alessandria in Italy, has as always, raised various questions that we think should be gone into.
The attack was against two main electricity pylons belonging to the SELM, a company which supplies energy to the chemicals factory which is part of the Montedison group.
The press put great accent on the fact that algoflon is produced in the factory in a continuous cycle which cannot be interrupted. A sudden putting the plant out of action, including the cooling system, could, they said, cause an escape of poisonous gases.
The press and institutions all cried scandal and wrote columns about the narrowly escaped ecological disaster that the sabotage might have caused. The national dailies, trades unions, various greens and ecologists distinguished themselves by accusing the authors of the sabotage of ecoterrorism, and of being potential polluters.
First, a few clear words, even if we run the risk of being repetitive and saying the obvious: the only terrorist is the State, with all its institutions, structures of exploitation and oppression. We will not tolerate the label of ecoterrorism or terrorism appioppata on any comrade or individual who rebels and decides to act against exploitation, pollution or any of the other appendices of power. The Montedison saboteurs have all our solidarity and we shall always denounce those who tend to isolate the attacks against the structures of death with these lies.
The state is the terrorist with its police, judicial, political and social (parties, unions) apparatus, as it unleashes its armed gangs in defence of interests and against the population, creating the psychological terrorism of the “leap in the dark”, etc.
Terrorists are the governments, both in act and potential, who legislate over others. Terrorists are the aspiring governers who, even if they act in the social field, have as their recondito aim not the action itself but its political advantage.
Anyone who acts to respond to a structure that oppresses, exploits or pollutes him, can never be considered a terrorist, but a militant in the struggle for his and others’ freedom, for the construction of a new world.
The media have tried to create a climate of condemnation concerning the authors of the attack because, they say, they could have caused pollution. the unions have prepared to act as a barrier against the “mad poisoners”, they who, they say, have always been involved in the defence of the environment and security within and beyond the factory. the greens and ecology organisations are pointing their finger at these comrades, guilty of not recognising the formers’ legitimacy to represent the struggle against pollution and of adopting means other than rhetoric.
We don’t believe the press is credible concerning the possible danger of pollution due to the attack. We cannot fail to bear in mind that reality is too often manipulated to create consensus for power and those attacking it . How bad the saboteurs who were about to pollute the whole area are (which for anyone who isn’t aware of it, is the beneficiary of chemical waste from the ACNA plant), and how good are the workers and technicians who with their spirit of devotion and sacrifice managed to save the situation.
No comrades, we must be clear here abd re-define the roles that each one has always anacted. Of course no one, and surely not those who sabotaged the Montefluos electricity supply, can justify an ecological catastrophe caused by an attack on the factory, but it is important to say clearly who would be responsible if such a thing were to happen. certainly not the comrades, who were not able to calculate all the effects of the action. Those responsible are undoubtedly the factory that produces such poison and which perhaps had every interest, until that day, in keeping this production hidden. those responsible are the politicians and economists who are turning the production of toxic substances that allow them to produce greater profit. Those responsible are the unions who fight for the defence of the workplace no matter what it is, what exploitation it involves, what toxic substances or arms it produces. those responsible are the greens, the false ecology parties who channel the struggle towards false objectives, so making it useless and functional only to political power games. those responsible are the media, who as bosses of information create the psychosis of the light going out, the machines that stop, economic depression, in order to impose choices of capitalist “development”. those responsible are those who close their eyes, hold their noses and “go ahead” and pretend nothing is happening around them for the sake of a “quiet life”.
Of course, not everybody has the same level of responsibility, but none of them are justifiable, and as revolutionary anarchists we cannot remain indifferent in the face of attempts to turn the other way. History is full of these attempts. another blatant example is that of “earth First”. Five militants of this group are accused of having tried to cut electric cables linked to a group of nuclear power stations in Arizona. again there has been an attempt to accuse the authors of sabotage of having put the area in danger of a nuclear disaster.
It is necessary to repeat that those responsible for any eventual nuclear pollution are the governments, the builders and those who make the nuclear plants function, not those who are struggling against them. moreover, the statistics speak clearly, the numerous radioactive leakages, the escape of poisonous gases, the discharge of polluting substances, all these cannot be said to come about due to attacks by ecologists, revolutionaries, or even by attacks by secret services or “terrorists linked to foreign powers”. the pollution is due to carelessness, lack of security systems, accidents, and to the very presence of the nuclear power plants and other such industries in the first place, and that’s without even mentioning the many accidents that have occurred in the past and been covered up.
To end up, we repeat that it is right to carry out attacks on everything that pollutes and makes our life unliveable and we think that as anarchists and revolutionaries we must not fall into the inganno perpetuated daily by the media. We denounce the positions of those who talk of ecoterrorism and terrorism to point to those who carry out direct action, thuse showing they have adopted the terms and concepts used by power. Those who sbraitano that certain actions are not understood by the people and are therefore counterproductive, and that it is necessary to explain the reasons for our aversion to capitalism and the State patiently and with devotion, putting off action until the day when everyone will understand it are unjustifiable.
We think that the awareness of exploitation, oppression and pollution does not need to be explained as it can only be lived, and only those who have made a choice on the opposite side, a conditioned choice if we like, but still a choice,, does not have a consciousness of all that. The task of anarchists, of revolutionaries, our task, is that of demonstrating the justice of rebellion and that this is possible, giving indications, beginning to weaken small tasselli of power, and showing by example how to attack the structures of death, how to identify their weak points. Only with the generalisation of the attack will it be possible to lay the foundations for a radical change.