Repression and revolt in Venezuela: An outstretched hand for the compañerxs, a closed fist for the enemy
In Venezuela, mass protests against the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro have been developing for more than three months.
More than one hundred dead and hundreds of demonstrators detained and tortured at the hands of the Venezuelan police is the current balance of the street agitation that has dominated the political agenda in the Latin American region and even beyond.
The deepening social conflict in Venezuela has a number of interesting edges to address for those of us who are interested in spreading the hostilities against all forms of government and power. Among them, we can find at least two variables:
1-The hypocrisy of the democratic states that via the Organization of American States are calling for intervention in Venezuela due to “the serious violations of people’s freedom” by the government. As if in their own territories, in states such as the US, Mexico, Colombia and Chile there exists freedom and respect for what they call “human rights” in the language of power.
2-The campaign of the international left in support of the government of Nicolás Maduro, that classifies the protesters as either simple puppets or agents that are beholden to the interests of the opposition, the mainly right-wing grouping of the Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD).
Both discourses interact in the conflict trying to shape opinion regarding what takes place in Venezuela, inside and outside the borders of the country.
For us, what we think is important is to lend a hand of solidarity, even from a distance, to those anarchist / anti-authoritarian compañerxs who are taking part in the street clashes against the government.
Side by side with the thousands of young people who have risen up, anarchist compañerxs decided not to be spectators of what was happening right before their eyes and took offensive action against the police, their barracks and everything that smells of government and repression.
It is a fact that the revolt in general does not have a noticeable anti-state trajectory. It is also true that in the streets there is a diversity of positions and speeches. But it is also a concrete fact as has been noted by the anarchist compañerxs from Venezuela that the majority of the youth who go out to throw Molotov cocktails at the police and burn barracks and government buildings have no interest in being part of the Democratic Unity Roundtable of the right-wing official political opposition.
It is a rebellion that has been ongoing for more than three months whose ‘driving force’ cannot be attributed to the right, being rather diverse and in many cases young people without any political party affiliations.
We feel an affinity with those who from the autonomy and the fire of the barricades and Molotov cocktails are spreading anti-state/anti-authoritarian ideas within the specific context of fighting against the present government.
In the territory devastated by the Chilean state, as anarchist compañerxs we have participated in massive manifestations of social movements over the recent decades that we have no great affinity with, always with the aim of seeking and generating possibilities to attack the police and propagate the destruction of the urban infrastructure of capital and power.
In our experience, we know than in the street we are not always fighting alongside people we are in complete affinity with, but yes we are clear when it comes to who our brothers, sisters and accomplices are with whom we share common goals to overcome the limits of protests that seek to change one law into another law, or exchange one government for another or one state for another type of state, etc.
With propaganda, organization, fire and gasoline, we will fight for a life of freedom. There is no other way.
As antisocial anarchists we have no interest in saluting ‘the people’ or ‘the poor’ of Venezuela. Our fraternity and solidarity are the with the anarchist and autonomous rebels who rise up in the rebellion of Venezuela, who despite the murders, imprisonments and the tortures of the socialist government, continue fighting and burning reality with their heads held high and fire in the streets.
NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT!
NEITHER DEMOCRACY NOR DICTATORSHIP!
AGAINST ALL GOVERNMENTS!
LONG LIVE ANARCHY!
