ISSUE THIRTEEN

In past times when everything seemed to be going for the best on the wings of ideological illusions, when demonstrations and clashes, destructive actions and attacks against the class enemy were only disturbed by those who stubbornly wanted to move them to a level of excessive military efficiency. At times when the present fashion of symbolism and creeping repression had not yet been discovered. One lined up whole-heartedly with different possible ways of seeing the social clash and the revolutionary intervention.
On the one hand the old remnants of social democracy that were contained in anarchist symbols and banners, on the other the noisy supporters of disturbance taken to the extreme of the ecstatic dreams of the former and their more or less avid supporters.
For the outside spectator the clashes, both verbal and on printed paper, seemed like a storm in a teacup. Chatter on the right, chatter on the left. More or less well done more or less agreeable to read, obvious in its basic elements.
Then there was a third element, that which we could now call the “centrists”. Comrades who like Pontias Pilate did not want (and do not want, because they are still around) to dirty their hands, avoiding with contortion the occasion of taking sides in one or the other way of seeing things. This “marais”, like all swamps, lay hidden, nesting in the corridors of meetings and conferences but never coming out into the light of day with smiles and hyberbolic declarations of esteem, at the same time as unequivocable indications of equidistance.
Whatever the reasons at the time were for the possibilist “social-democrats” and whatever the unconfessed interests of the inhabitants of the “marais” the fact remains that most of the time they end up cohabiting within the same positions, cutting, without realising it, the same lean figure.
Now things are changing. If you like, in the rarefaction of the facts present, divergences and methods are distinguishing themselves better. The old possibilists have been leading the movement, recruiting new adepts and these, as always happens, are more realist than the king. The swamp in the middle is filling up with new opportunists who, in the best of cases, i.e. giving them credit for their good faith, must say they do not know which fish to choose. Not to mention professional informers and spies, who also exist, but they make up such a minute isolated minority that, for the time being, they are not worth mentioning.
We believe that the evolution of things, i.e. of the conditions of exploitation, the production of the new subordinated man sold out to the new techniques of power, the destruction of any residual sign of humanity or dignity; all this along with elements of the good will of the few who have not remained prisoner to psychological dilemas and moral plunder; they will produce a new need for confrontation. We do not believe it possible to carry on as though nothing has happened, to see the old social democratic merchandise, as we believe it is difficult that in the next few months one will be able to continue to float in the slimy waters of the swamp without fishing down to the depths.
To understand ourselves, beyond any possible doubt, we do not intend here to point out eventual roads of clarification or convergence in the name of superior principles to be saved at any cost. We are only indicating the sad possibility of a far heavier divarication. And neither does our contestation want to be a raising of shields but simply a bitter verification of how cancer-ridden and insanabile divergences are. We have never shown pity on anyone, least of all ourselves, and we don’t intend to start now. That is why we might seem to be too rigid at times. The fact is that perhaps we really are rigid.

NUMBER THIRTEEN

Milan: the Two Faces of the Metropolis
Greece: Repression and State Crimes
Let’s Boycott Israeli Products
Anti-NatoAttack in Spain
Attack in Sardina
Mario Innes Torres
Clashes in Venezuela
Belgium: against Police
Evictions, Rage in Milan
Eggs in Turin
Is There a Jewish Problem?* (?Palestine mon amour)
Communique for the Press and Public Information
To Antonio Gizzo
A Molotov in Turin
Communique
Antizionist Initiative in Turin
Attacks in Frankfurt
Escape
Silence and the Cigar
Computer Viruses
Elections in New Caledonia?
American Space Shield Security Systems Made Fun of
Antistudent Movement Aliens
PREVALENCE OF PRACTICE? AMB* (Propulsive Utopia)
Beyond the Nuclear Swindle
Comunque ‘Green City’
Communique “A” Rivista
Antinuclear Attacks in Milan
Anarchist Communique
“Comatic Station (Vivaitalia)
Against Reformism
Reconsidering Antimilitarism
South Africa - “Sharpville Six” Execution Stayed
Guatemala - A Genocide that Lasts Over 30 Days
Anti-Militarist Initiative
Germany - A New Middle Ages
The Social Democratic Offensive
Repression in Milan
“Rats” in Moscow (thefts in flats)
Revolt in French Prison