A-Infos (en) Brazil, CAB: Memory and Struggle: 30 Years of FAG/CAB Sowing Libertarian Socialism (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On November 18th, FAG celebrated its 30th anniversary of political 
organization, and today, gathered here, we want to joyfully salute these 
three decades of militant efforts, social mobilizations, and grassroots 
work. Of struggles and confrontations with dominant projects, of the 
countless battles we have been involved in, and of the innumerable 
campaigns and actions of class solidarity that we have been building 
since our organization, or in conjunction with other sectors from below. 
These are just some of the elements of the political and ideological 
action that modestly continue to mark us throughout these three decades. 
And, beyond saluting this journey of life, struggle, and organization of 
FAG, we want, in this brief moment of speaking, to recall what forged us 
as a Political Organization and as Anarchists.

It is important to state from the outset that it is not only the 30 
years of FAG that we would like to honor today, but also the previous 
efforts of our references from distant eras, who paved the way for our 
existence, from the Federalist wing of the International, from the 
struggles and resistance in various territories of the world and our 
combative Latin America, that shaped us as subjects, rebels and 
convinced that it is only through revolutionary rupture with the forms 
of power established by the State and its governments in power, that we 
can achieve a just society, free from oppression and the misfortunes of 
Capitalism.

Our memory is an instrument of struggle. And when we look back at the 
history that shaped us, we see the calloused faces of fighters for the 
oppressed people, of a vast legacy of those who came before us and 
risked their lives for the unwavering defense of Socialism and Freedom, 
for another form of organization, specifically Anarchist, Federalist, 
and one that is always involved in the daily struggles of our people.

We are the product of these fragments of memory, of popular resistance 
in Latin America and Brazil, of general strikes, popular uprisings, the 
struggles of indigenous peoples, peasants, quilombola communities, 
favelas, and peripheries. Of those whose backs did not bow to 
domination. Therefore, amidst what is rescued from memory, we affirm 
ourselves as a continuation: our disposition for militancy is direct 
action at all levels and the construction of Popular Power. It is the 
tireless work of daily life, guided by our analyses of the current 
situation, in sowing the seeds of a Strong People, in prefiguring the 
values of the society we wish to build. A society that rejects 
centralism and authoritarianism in all its spheres. And here, we can 
affirm that popular power is built in everyday life, against 
authoritarianism and oppression, and through the protagonism of those at 
the bottom. Our dear comrade Juan Carlos Mechoso, in Acción directa 
anarquista - una historia de FAU, stated that a strong people is forged 
"by organizing its power, exercising it from urban and rural unions, 
from associations and community groups, from popular centers," and thus, 
"the people take center stage in the political life of the country. And 
they unite" (p. 31).

The journey we've taken in 30 years is a short time historically, but it 
symbolizes a great deal for our movement, for the reorganization work we 
did at the turn of the 21st century here in Brazil. Many struggles and 
experiences that marked us and shaped us as political subjects.

In the first decade, from 1995 to 2005, we remember the occupations of 
the homeless movement in Alegrete and Retruco, an anarchist propaganda 
organ on the central-western border. The struggle of peripheral 
communities for infrastructure and public services, which we 
participated in and helped to create in the interior and metropolitan 
region. The strike at federal universities and the occupation of the 
Ministry of Education in the late 90s. The construction of the waste 
pickers' movement and the fierce struggle of the cart drivers to avoid 
being repressed and swept from the center of Porto Alegre. The two 
marches of unemployed people who demanded better living conditions and 
cooperative work projects. There was the agenda of community radio 
stations that faced state repression and the oligopolistic dominance of 
the bourgeois media. During this period, the FAG headquarters on Lopo 
Gonçalves was a bustling center for meetings, training and culture, 
producing propaganda for the streets with pamphlets and posters, etc. 
The Muralha Rubro Negra collective was created for muralist 
interventions that left their mark in various places. This was a time of 
experimentation with national political organization, the OSL, and the 
FAO. Internationally, it was during these years that we convened the 
Anarchist Days in Porto Alegre, which drew a large audience and brought 
together activists from various countries during the World Social Forum. 
It also marks the beginning of a long series of Latin American meetings 
of social organizations and class-independent unions, and the emergence 
of Elaopa.

In the second decade of our political organization, from 2006 onwards, 
we had some experiences participating in the actions of March 8th, 
International Women's Day, with the women's sector of Via Campesina, 
more specifically the MST (Landless Workers' Movement), which at that 
time strongly carried the characteristic of direct action against 
foreign companies in Rio Grande do Sul. One of the milestones of these 
actions was the destruction of seedlings from the Aracruz nursery, which 
became a symbol of resistance by rural women against agribusiness. We 
participated in actions in the countryside, in land occupations with 
this sector, as well as in marches and meetings in the city of Porto Alegre.

Back in 2008/2009, a strong climate of criminalization against the 
social movement was taking hold, at the time spearheaded by the Public 
Prosecutor's Office of Rio Grande do Sul, which launched an 
investigation that outlawed the MST (Landless Workers' Movement). We 
prominently displayed the campaign "Protest is not a Crime" in the 
public sphere, reflecting our class solidarity. During this political 
moment, the mandate of Yeda Crusius (PSDB) would also leave its mark on 
this decade for us. On August 21st, in a war-like operation mounted to 
evict the MST from a large farm in São Gabriel, the Military Brigade 
murdered our comrade Elton Brum at point-blank range with a 12-gauge 
shotgun. Immediately that same day, we called for a solidarity action 
with other sectors here in Porto Alegre. We also launched a propaganda 
campaign holding the governor and the commander responsible for the 
terror operation and the murder of the landless worker, Elton Brum, 
politically accountable. This resulted, two months later, in the first 
police raid and attack against our organization, at the first FAG 
headquarters, where our propaganda materials were already being used as 
evidence of a crime and militants were being prosecuted. Motivated not 
only by this, in 2011 we moved our address to another location, on 
Travessa dos Venezianos, inaugurating the Ateneu Libertário a Batalha da 
Varzea project, a different model for an unofficial headquarters of our 
organization, which in its first years would open its doors with 
different projects and articulations beyond our traditional Library, the 
Conquista do Pão, meetings, and internal activities. The consumer 
cooperative emerged, a work of anarchist militants linked to the Ateneu 
and also with militants who lived and produced together with other 
families in the MST settlement in Nova Santa Rita. We added dozens of 
associates to this project. We had a series of open activities, book 
launches, publications, cultural activities, an anarchist book fair, 
public acts, and propaganda activities.

The founding Congress of CAB in 2012 gave us momentum and the 
expectation of progress at the national level, with sister organizations 
already established in several states of the country.

 And, at the beginning of 2013, we opened the year with Elaopa, a 
meeting that marked the convergence of libertarians towards the context 
of mass struggles that characterized that year. From there emerged the 
autonomous front, a group that, at the beginning of the Public 
Transportation Struggle Bloc, was fundamental in disputing an 
organizational style within this front and which also imbued street 
actions with combative characteristics. It is impossible to deny, 
despite the efforts of our ideological adversaries, the anarchist 
influence within the Bloc. During this period, a range of important 
political alliances opened up for us; we stood side by side with other 
groups in solidarity and in building struggles, such as the Quilombola 
front, Utopia and Struggle, independent communication collectives, 
solidarity articulation with the Indigenous movement, among many others.

 2013 was an unparalleled year for us; we experienced one of the 
largest mass mobilizations in the country that our generation of 
activists had the opportunity to participate in. Dozens of 
demonstrations, crowds of people, discontent with the PT's (Workers' 
Party) reforms, its pacts and alliances with the right wing, took to the 
streets of Brazil, initially over transportation, but later overflowing 
with demands. Locally, we experienced a period of public exposure, 
precisely because of the actions of our activists in the struggles of 
the Bloco de Lutas (Struggle Bloc), which implied more police raids on 
our public space, the Ateneu. The PT government at the state and federal 
levels showed its authoritarian claws and cowardly tried to characterize 
us as "pseudo-fascists." Nationally, we were the radicals, 
troublemakers, violent ones... Let's not forget Rafael Braga, who became 
a symbol of what repression of protest is capable of doing, especially 
if the target is black and poor. The government in power, led by the PT 
(Workers' Party), repressed, persecuted, and criminalized the largest 
popular mobilizations of recent decades, and even tried to shift the 
burden of a right wing emerging from the shadows and engaging in street 
battles onto the struggles themselves. The criminalization targeted and 
persecuted militants from different political organizations who joined 
us in local struggles. We promptly launched more solidarity actions; for 
us anarchists, no left-wing militant, regardless of ideological current, 
should be criminalized without gaining the support of the entire 
combative sector of that conjuncture. And so it was done. In the first 
instance of harassment by the repressive apparatus, we organized a 
public event at the Ateneu headquarters, which summoned all politically 
persecuted left-wing groups of that period. The event was a gesture that 
filled the Travessa dos Venezianos with class solidarity, as it 
deserved... And we, in less than two months of that year, suffered two 
raids on our premises. Our ideological materials, used as evidence of a 
crime, were used to intimidate our activists in Restinga, where a 
physical location of extreme importance to us still exists today, where 
our ideological propaganda takes on tones, forms, and colors to become 
fixed on walls, buildings, and in our memories.

The third decade, from 2015 to the present day, began with the 
experience of tough strikes against wage cuts and neoliberal attacks on 
public services, which lasted until 2017. Municipal workers in Porto 
Alegre, São Leopoldo, and Cachoeirinha. The long CPERS strike in the 
state education system, where we were active in several cities. The Vila 
Resistência occupation was born in Santa Maria and remains very active, 
approaching its 10th anniversary. Another anti-anarchist repressive 
operation was launched in Rio Grande do Sul, targeting FAG and other 
groups, with wide national media coverage. This period is very tense and 
antagonistic; while it saw the growth of the reactionary, liberal, and 
proto-fascist wave, it also recorded combative struggles by the social 
movement. The occupations of schools and universities and the massive 
movement against the deadly squeeze imposed by the spending cap on 
popular demands in the budget. The historic general strike against labor 
reform in 2017 and later the strike that confronted the attack on 
pensions. Where we've been involved since our involvement in unions, 
students, and in the territories.

We remember the important libertarian concentration in the mass 
mobilization that marked the #elenão movement, with an anti-fascist and 
anti-neoliberal political agitation that affirmed the agenda of direct 
democracy and a strong popular movement to fight in new historical 
conditions. We never aligned ourselves with electoralism and the 
defeatist ideological formula of the "lesser evil." During the pandemic, 
we resisted and activated a solidarity network in every place of 
activism we set foot in. We launched, with CAB, a campaign for a 
dignified life, addressing social urgencies against the cost of living. 
In recent years, we contributed to the development of the Vila Castilho 
Community Library in Pelotas, took part in community struggles for Morro 
Santana, the articulation with the Kaingang land reclamation in Morro 
Santana in Porto Alegre, the articulations for the Teia dos Povos 
network, shoulder to shoulder with Vila Resistência, Ateliê Griô, and 
the Guandú Agroecologia collective of Santa Maria. During the great 
flood in Rio Grande do Sul, we didn't stand idly by; we quickly took a 
stand in solidarity and participated in the historic community effort 
that took place in the peripheral neighborhoods to help the affected 
communities. And we didn't fail to denounce the capitalist system and 
all its economic and political agents who destroyed the climate and the 
environment and produced the collapse.

 It is impossible to speak of the history of these three decades 
without mentioning our sister organization FAU, and the immense scope 
and significance this organization holds for us. It was the dedication 
of life and militant work of FAU that provided us with the "open field" 
for what has ideologically sustained us throughout this brief historical 
journey. This organization broke with the logic of simply calculating 
and copying other continents, and long before us, they were already 
questioning the most pressing needs of the people and how to address 
them. They honed the idea that libertarian action could not waste 
efforts merely reacting to current events and phenomena, pointing to the 
indispensable role of having a political program, thinking tactically 
and strategically according to our own analytical tools. They left us a 
broad conceptual body of great theoretical caliber, with nuances 
reflecting our specificities and the multiple historical and cultural 
realities we all share, we South American brothers and sisters. They 
presented us with undeniable examples of the bravery and love for the 
cause with which they threw themselves into building and defending 
resistance against the civil-military coups suffered by the countries of 
the Southern Cone. They sowed Specifism and Federalism in corners close 
to us, which transcended imposed borders. They contributed ideologically 
to a theoretical and practical production that does not bow to imported 
reproductions and recipes of methods and formulas of struggle 
established in other continents. Therefore, they gave us the joy and 
relief of knowing where to begin; they were and continue to be pillars 
of reference for what a specifically anarchist organization is and, for 
us, more than that, they are examples of fraternity, humility, courage, 
and solidarity. The FAU is our link in the long and indomitable chain of 
federalism that crossed continents and became an organization with the 
colors and pains of its own people.

And speaking of FAU, we cannot fail to remember Uncle Alejandro (Pablo), 
who accompanied us for years and perhaps provided us with one of the 
most honorable experiences that part of our militancy could have lived 
through. A young man endowed with a controversial wit that unsettled, 
with an enviable discipline, a self-taught man of our theoretical 
framework, like so many other examples that FAU gave us. Uncle was, for 
those who had the pleasure of his company, a living school of the 
experiences in which we anarchists were protagonists in a not-so-distant 
past. From the victorious bank heists to the hardest days under the 
tortures that the damned military imposed on that generation that was 
set to resist. Your memory has many flavors, Uncle, but today we only 
want to thank you for your life, your example, even your critical 
firmness in the face of our inexperience... How beautiful to know that 
you rest in the estuary of the waters of the Mar del Plata, the same 
waters that saw you as a boy and grow up. "Getting to the field of 
knowledge is stopping" he said, paraphrasing Borges. Never die than 
Luchan Pablo!

And here in Brazil, immersed in our own roots, in this country of 
continental dimensions, with a rich history of struggles and resistance, 
from the indigenous peoples, to the Black and Quilombola resistance. We 
also remember the anarchist immigrants, mostly Italians and Spaniards, 
who brought in their suitcases not only hopes for a better life, but 
also experiences of organization, worker mobilizations, and direct 
action. We recall the general strikes that paralyzed São Paulo and many 
other cities, the Anarchist Insurrection of 1918 in Rio de Janeiro, the 
workers' strikes and struggles in Rio Grande do Sul, the audacity of 
Espertirina Martins' ship... For we are also fruits of the indomitable 
stock of Revolutionary Syndicalism.

These fragments of lived memories are what allowed us to emerge as a 
political organization and to form a framework of anarchist militancy 
capable of elaborating, in the theoretical and practical fields of 
ideas, the conditions for social insertion with results focused on the 
short and long term. It is true that none of this has magical effects, 
where it would be enough to simply "believe for it to happen," or simply 
be satisfied by the best speeches, the best congress resolutions, or the 
most elaborate analyses of stages and conjuncture. Nor is it true that 
being deeply involved in social insertion efforts is sufficient... The 
dynamics of dualism generously teach us that this implies caring for 
theory from a political-ideological perspective, without neglecting the 
fundamental element of social insertion, precisely so that the desired 
effects are achieved within the framework of a strategic campaign. The 
meeting is a respite from practice, and the organization is not an end 
in itself.

To strategically advance the construction of a federalist project at the 
national level, from the FAO to the consolidation of the CAB. It is 
worth saying that this was not and is not a linear construction; it has 
had and continues to have its ups and downs, the dilemmas of a proposal 
of this magnitude, with different realities in each territory of action, 
even more so when facing adverse circumstances for the popular movement 
and left-wing groups. The truth is that we have experienced few and 
fragmented moments of accumulation in the recent history of the country; 
for most of the time we have been in the crosshairs of criminalization, 
under the ills of austerity packages and adjustments, facing the 
regrouping of the right and far-right that has emerged in the last 
period. Therefore, the construction of the CAB demands firmness, 
patience, and above all, dedication and fraternity, to advance "brick by 
brick" together with our sister organizations towards the great 
Federation. And we want to reaffirm here at this moment that we will 
remain dedicated to this with fraternity and willingness. Therefore, we 
salute the life of all our sister organizations that make up the CAB. 
Last but not least, a very special greeting to CALC on its recent 15th 
anniversary!

Our greetings and remembrance also extend to other corners of Latin 
America, to our fellow organizations in other countries such as 
Argentina and Chile, which, despite the harsh conditions imposed by 
Liberal projects, continue to be examples of struggle and resistance.

We stand in solidarity with and commit to continuing to denounce the 
massacre of the Palestinian people. Zionism, like all fascist 
ideologies, deserves and demands to be combated.

We extend our solidarity to the countries beset by the imperialist 
onslaught in Latin America, where they attempt, through institutional 
means or military threats, to steal what remains of their 
self-determination.

Three decades is still not enough time for something that aims to last 
over time, to endure.

Long live FAG!

Long live CAB!

Long live Anarchy!

Long live socialism and freedom!

https://cabanarquista.com.br/memoria-e-luta-30-anos-da-fag-cab-semeando-socialismo-libertario/
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