In the following text, although your initiative is an anti-prison initiative, I will only briefly mention my current situation as an anarchist prisoner. For two reasons, the first one is that I don’t want to miss the opportunity to express myself about the struggle of “bure”, knowing that many of you participate in this struggle and that I feel it as my own as well as all the struggles against the nuclear monster. The other reason is that I want to emphasize the fact that when one of us finds ourselves inside, the best way to resist is to continue the struggles for which you have found yourselves “chained” and you are giving me this opportunity. I don’t know much about the situation of the prisoners’ struggle in France. This means I could be talking nonsense, that’s why I’m joining my contribution to an anti-prisoner meeting that is taking place these same days in Naples, Italy, maybe things are not so different from us, and the same considerations (with the distinction of facts) can also apply to you. I thank you very much for this opportunity that you give me.
It is a great honor for me (an anarchist terrorist currently detained in a cell of an Italian prison) to contribute with a text (although a modest one) to your struggle, which I also feel as mine. Let me start by introducing myself, 8 years ago I shot the CEO of Ansaldo Nucleare, designer and builder of nuclear power plants, in the legs. It is good to know that Italy, even if it does not have nuclear power plants, exports them in all tranquillity to countries like Romania, Croatia, Albania… The objective of this action was to revitalize the anti-nuclear movement in Italy, giving an aggressive acceleration to the fight against the techno-industrial system. With a “resounding” action, we wanted to show that the anarchists could strike in the “living flesh” one of those responsible for the revival of nuclear energy in “our” country. For once, we did not “limit ourselves” to the only destructive action against things, but we took another direction by striking directly at those responsible for the destruction of “our” planet. We claimed this action with the acronym “Nucleo Olga (FAI-FRI)”.
We wanted to make the different perspectives evident in their feasibility and to stimulate a greater openness to the different forms and practices of anarchist ecological action. To reject the taboo that only actions against things could have a justification. To challenge the absurd conviction of the absolute inviolability of human life, even that of those who, in the name of the science of progress, carry out massacres. The objective was only marginally achieved (even if it made many comrades think) because the practice of “multiform” action has not yet been fully understood (at least here in Italy) and even less practiced in all its potentiality, and many prejudices still remain. Many people see from “peaceful” blockades to street confrontations, from attacks on people to attacks on things, from the use of persistent acronyms to give continuity (like FAI-FRI) to temporary acronyms… Few people realize that all these practices have their own reason, their own specific purpose and are not necessarily in conflict with each other. And in certain situations (like at Bure), if they are practiced without prejudice, they complement each other and become really effective, devastating and disorienting for the power. That is, of course, if you don’t cry “excommunion” when certain actions go further, hitting harder. These are all practices that, if pursued in parallel, without contradicting and opposing each other, can make a difference, reach the goal. The absence of one of these practices weakens the strength of all of them. The important thing is that they contain the rejection of all institutional contamination, otherwise it becomes an acceptance of the system, only counterproductive palliatives. A specific struggle on a circumscribed territory like “Bure” can be reinforced not only by actions in the rest of the country but even further. It is enough to think of this kind of “black international” which, without needing a centralizing organization, has proven time and again that it has the strength to support “our” struggles from outside (from the four corners of the world).
I will never tire of saying it, at the risk of becoming repetitive, we anarchists have a powerful weapon of extraordinary effectiveness in its simplicity: the “affinity group”. Comrades bound by deep affection and trust who decide to act, to strike and return home in good health, and then to strike again. The “affinity group” when it becomes an “action group” finds its strongest meaning in illegal, destructive and risky action. These groups do not depend on the plenary assemblies, they are something else, they have nothing to do with the organization, they live of liberating, destructive gestures and can become really dangerous for the system. Especially when they do not include contempt or superiority towards the people, their assemblies of struggle. When individual or small group action is not antagonistic to the “popular” struggle, it strengthens it, it pushes it further. Violent and armed action is only one (important) part of the life of an anarchist, and there is nothing contradictory to find oneself after having acted alongside the “people” in an assembly to have a say, or on a barricade or a roadblock, the only thing to avoid a priori is the dialogue with power, with the institutions. But these observations are useless, because it is precisely from France that very clear examples of the implementation of “informality” and generalized direct action have come in recent years. News of the actions carried out in your part of the world is constantly reaching us (even within these four walls), giving us ideas and feeding our enthusiasm. I conclude this speech by telling you that even in Italy there are scattered deposits of nuclear waste, in the last few years the State has decided to gather them all on one site. In the past, there have been attempts to stop the transport of waste, for example in the Valsusa region, the waste came from you in France. I am convinced that your example will be important for us too. It is clear to all that this is a struggle for the survival not only of our species, but of the very life of “our” planet, as nature is in danger of being “monstrified” day by day. Nuclear science and technology are disrupting the chaotic order of nature from its foundations. We do not have much time if we really want to change things and reverse this self-destructive process. We must not, and above all, we can no longer set limits to the action, we must overcome the fears and abandon the scruples and go for it.
Alfredo Cospito
February 2020
[Translation: Anarchist Bure Cross]
