Pinning your hopes on merely making adjustments to the present system which is destroying our world isn’t enough. The only way to effectively campaign to halt climate change is to impart a true picture of capitalism. Its insatiable hunger for proft is not only undermining the working and living conditions of billions of working SYSTEM CHANGE people but the basis of life itself. The future of our planet depends on NOT building a liveable environment and a movement powerful enough to displace CLIMATE CHANGE capitalism. (Cont. p.2) -THE ANARCHIST ARGUMENT- INSIDE

Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Rotorua Climate Strike Report…..p.3 Movement is encouraged by the alarm International Anarchist Statement on over climate change. It has mobilised the Paris ……………….p.4 many people previously uninvolved in Anzac Day Statement…………….p.9 protest. We do not want to undermine the important message being brought May Day Statement ..……………p.10 forward. However, we feel that there is a Reviews………………………….. p.14 conversation that needs to be had about what people are demanding.

1 We can begin by looking to build ways of We see the need to create a different form of living outside this economic system and social organisation before the present system start building the new world in the shell of the destroys us all. The entire thing needs to be old. replaced with an economic approach which produces for human needs not proft. Things such as community gardens, repair shops and truly free markets to exchange A sustainable society that is capable of goods are all good starts. Nonetheless, avoid addressing climate change can only be thinking you can demand an idyllic achieved within a world where all the Earth’s capitalism, managed by the state, that can resources, natural and industrial, are under end the destruction being caused to the the common ownership of us all, as well as Earth’s environment. being under democratic control at a local and regional level. Don’t see your role as just needing to make enough noise to wake up political and To organise production in an ecologically business leaders. A system of private sound way we can either plead with our enterprise cannot move towards rulers or we can take democratic control of sustainability and zero growth; it cannot be production ourselves. The reality is to truly reformed to become a green system. This control production we ourselves have to own way of thinking supposes that things would and control society. So, a society of common be fne if we all bought organic food, never ownership and democratic control is the only took a holiday fight, and put on more clothes framework within which the aim of saving the in winter rather than turn up the heating. planet from climate change is achievable. In reality if you wish to halt climate collapse, you We argue that this completely ignores the have to be an anarchist. way capitalism operates, and must operate. Successful functioning of the system means growth or maximising proft, it means that nature as a resource will be exploited ruthlessly. Not ending capitalism is something that only attacks the symptoms rather than the cause. Green capitalism is not worth fghting for.

2 contents immediately, the only person who actively rejected a leafet was an elderly Rotorua woman.

Climate Strike After the speeches, the crowd began a hikoi Report through the main streets. The atmosphere was cheerful rather than aggressive. Most On 9th April about passersby were bemused by the sight of 100 mostly students out of school in the middle of the rangatahi came afternoon. Quite a few gave support by together in Rotorua honking car horns or waving as they drove as part of the past. After gaining some attention for the nation-wide Climate issue through these interactions, the march Strike. This turnout has to be considered a ended near the lakefront about an hour after success in a town of this size. Likewise when it had begun. The gathering dispersed, with a you factor-in that the poor weather conditions number of the encouraged youth feeling it on the day did not dampen the enthusiasm of had been a worthwhile effort. No doubt for the participants. In the beginning, the young many this had been their frst introduction to people gathered to listen to speeches. In political activity. some cases, these came from fellow students. The event being self-managed and We at AWSM supported and participated in driven by the youth themselves was one of the day’s action in other locations besides the positive aspects of the day. Unfortunately, Rotorua. We did so in the full understanding there were other speeches by (admittedly, that our own perspective would have been also young) politicians in the form of a local new to many who joined in. This in itself councilor and a failed candidate from the made it worthwhile. More importantly, for the recent general election. While not hostile to many young participants, this was a useful the latter, the crowd gave them polite exercise in self-empowerment. applause in each case, rather than huge Hopefully, despite attempts by professional cheers. Members of Aotearoa Workers power mongers to lead them into the dead- Solidarity Movement (AWSM) were present end of appealing to the same class that has and distributed leafets putting an alternative created the world’s climate problems in the case to that of the professional politicians. frst place, some will see this positive self- Though most recipients didn’t read the activity as part of a viable future solution.

3 AWSM also distributed stickers and leafets International at climate strikes in Gisborne and Wellington, where one of our members addressed the Anarchist Statement crowd to call for those in attendance not to put their trust in politicians, and only our own on the Paris will see the necessary changes taking place. Commune

Every Sunday Morning members of Aotearoa Workers Solidarity AWSM were pleased to sign this along with Movement come together online many other anarcho-communist groups from for meetings. We typically discuss across the world. recent national and international The victories of the future will fourish from the struggles of the past! Long live the events, and our ongoing efforts to Paris Commune! expand our propaganda This year marks the 150th anniversary of the distribution. If you would like to frst modern social in the glorious participate in a future hui and history of oppressed people’s struggle, the participate in building Paris Commune of 1871. For 72 days, the proletarians of the city of Paris re-organised in Aotearoa, please get in touch the social relationships in terms of direct about becoming a member. democracy, towards the direction of [email protected] economic equality, mutual aid and political freedom.

4 The structural capitalist crisis of 1866 and the particularly unbearable for the French power race of the states had exacerbated people. class antagonisms and transnational rivalries. On 18 March, 1871 Thiers sent his troops The Prusso-Austrian War of 1866 left open into the working-class districts of Paris, to the issue of the non-return of territories snatch the cannons from Montmartre Hill claimed by the Second French Empire. On -cannons which belonged to the National 19 July, 1870 France declared war on Guard and fnanced by public subscription Prussia and France invaded on 2 August. during the siege of the city by the Prussians. The French troops were defeated, the This attempt failed remarkably thanks to the Second French Empire collapsed and the women of Paris. Women from the Security Prussian army got as far as the outskirts of Committee of 18th District, including Louise Paris. Michel, convinced and organised the National Guards, which consisted mainly of workers. The people of Paris revolted. The National Guard did not hand over their weapons. Then a war broke out between the working class and the bourgeois government, which then, in fear, moved its location to Versailles.

Disgusted by the armistice, despite the sacrifces that had been made, and feeling betrayed by the bourgeoisie, the people of Paris founded a power that rivaled that of the provisional government: the Commune was elected on 26 March. On the one hand, the The French bourgeoisie then formed a provisional government embodied a government of national unity and capitulated bourgeois power wishing to preserve the to the Prussians on 26 February, 1871, social order; on the other hand, the handing over territories and forts. The Commune, which hoisted its own fag of the armistice stipulated that, within 8 days, a Commune over the town hall, wanted to National Assembly had to be elected in order embody a popular power wishing to change to decide on the issues of war and peace. society. The economic conditions of capitulation were

5 Among the elected members of the Paris addition, the Commune separated the church Commune, there was a high proportion of from political life, socialised the Church workers (the bourgeoisie having mostly estates and schools to introduce free abstained from voting on the advice of education and educational disengagement Thiers). The contribution of the organised from the Church, elected individuals from political nuclei within it was particularly different geographies in the executives of the important, the actions of which were aimed at Commune in the name of internationalism, strengthening the revolutionary character of banned night work for the bakery workers, the revolution. Blanquist, Proudhonist, three months of rent were postponed and Marxist and Anarchist members of the First default interests cancelled. In the meantime, International acted in this direction. Although women formed autonomous political clubs. it was a short-lived revolutionary undertaking, the Paris Commune achieved very important breakthroughs, unprecedented for their time, ruptures that would later become key issues and aims of subsequent social . The Paris Commune was the archetype of the political organisational structure of the post-revolutionary society, acting as a catalyst in the formation and development of the political current of anarchist .

The Paris Commune was a working body, combining legislative and executive power in We do not fetishise the particular measures itself. It moved to abolish the regular army taken by the Commune, nor the structures and replaced it with the armed people, made created by it. The working class was the positions of elected civil servants in improvising in emergency circumstances, administrative positions and judicial offcials learning as it went, and some institutions revocable, but it also proposed to seize the were hangovers from the old government factories that were closed or abandoned by rather than freshly created. Rather, we the capitalists, to hand them over to the celebrate the egalitarian spirit of the workers, and the Paris Commune proceeded Commune and the radical democratic attitude to unite the workers’ of it took, not confning itself to politics but industrial and handicraft production. In extending into economic life. The workers in

6 power began a fundamental social 3,859 Communards were exiled to New transformation, but the opportunity to fnish Caledonia. Amongst them, the teacher this transformation did not happen. Louise Michel, who would then become one of the greatest supporters of revolutionary Unfortunately, the military balance of power anarchism, and the Reclus brothers, who was particularly unequal. There were only actively participated in the establishment of about 40,000 people in arms from the the Commune. The military tribunals forced Federation of the National Guard of Paris, about 3,500 Communards never to return to with substandard weapons, and they were France. called in to confront up to 170,000 well- armed soldiers assisted by heavy artillery units. Fearing the triumph of the , the French bourgeois government, led by Adolphe Thiers, and in agreement with Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Prussia, coordinated the repression of the Paris Commune. On 21 May, 1871, the troops of the government of After the defeat of the Paris Commune, Versailles entered Paris. Eight days of ferce Eugene Pottier wrote the lyrics of the world- and bloody battles followed. On 28 May, renowned anthem of the working class, “The 1871, at 14:00, the last barricade on Rue Internationale”. The main message of the Ramponeau, in Belleville, fell to the hands of Paris Commune and the anthem of the the enemy. The Communards fought Internationale is that the power of the heroically to defend freedom to the very end, workers lies in class solidarity and in every street and every alley of Paris. internationalism. Only by relying on our The account of the defeat of the Paris collective strengths and mutual aid will we be Commune was particularly heavy: At least able to free ourselves from the chains of 20,000 Communards -men, women and state and capitalist exploitation and children- died, with more slaughtered in the oppression. National unity is a lever of class aftermath than killed in the fghting. About compromise for the working class and an 45,000 were arrested. At least 3,000 died in ideological weapon of the bourgeoisie, used detention centres, in the prison-galleys, in in order to persuade the subjugated social penal colonies or in exile. On 1 July, 1871, strata to serve ruling class interests, either by

7 gaining their consent or by leading them to But we are not going to fght for the interests the slaughterhouses of the wars between of the capitalists, we are not going to take up States. This conclusion was carried through arms and point them at the proletarians of by the Commune, overcoming “national unity” other countries, because we have more in for the beneft of class unity and common than divides us. We have common internationalism. There is no other way for class interests and common historical tasks. the emancipation of the oppressed and Let us unite, then, with close relations of exploited. class solidarity and revolutionary internationalism, in the direction of the world The “masters” are not willing to hand over the social revolution and libertarian communism. material privileges secured by its economic and political power, the institutions, the The victories of the future will fourish from ideology, the mechanisms and the violence the struggles of the past! that sustain it, without a social revolution. Eternal honour to those who gave their lives That is why the bourgeois class always for the universal goal of the social revolution! drenches in blood every attempt at radical social change, every revolutionary attempt Long live the Paris Commune! that challenges its power and aspires to Long live anarchism! overthrow it. Oppressed and exploited people of the whole world, let’s organise and unite to shake off the state and capitalist yoke!

Signatories:-

Alternativa Libertaria/ Federazione dei

Comunisti Anarchici (AL/FdCA) – Italy☆ Anarchist Communist Group (ACG) –

Britain☆ Αναρχική Ομοσπονδία - Anarchist Revolutionary social transformations are realised only through the struggle of the Federation – Greece☆ Aotearoa Workers oppressed and exploited classes. We are Solidarity Movement (AWSM) – Aotearoa/ forced to walk this path. The bourgeoisie New Zealand☆ Coordenação Anarquista leaves us no other choice. Brasileira (CAB) – Brazil☆ Devrimci Anarşist

Faaliyet (DAF) – Turkey☆ Die Plattform -

8 Anarchakommunistische Organisation – ANZAC Day Statement Germany☆ Embat - Organització Llibertària de Catalunya – Catalonia☆ Federación The Fight For Anarchism Is The Anarquista de Rosario (FAR) – Argentina☆ Fight For Peace Federación Anarquista de Santiago (FAS) –

Chile☆ Federación Anarquista Uruguaya Anzac Day always

(FAU) – Uruguay☆ Libertäre Aktion – seems an appropriate occasion Switzerland☆ Melbourne Anarchist to restate the Communist Group (MACG) – Australia☆ anarchist opposition Organización Anarquista de Córdoba (OAC) to war, and reiterate that it is never in the – Argentina☆ Organización Anarquista de interests of the working class to support war. Tucumán (OAT) – Argentina Organisation ☆ The anarchist case against war arises from Socialiste Libertaire (OSL) – Switzerland☆ our analysis of, and opposition to, capitalism. Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) – Capitalism is the cause of modern war. The

France☆ Zabalaza Anarchist Communist insatiable hunger for proft generates a relentless search by the various capitalist Front (ZACF) – South Africa powers for markets and sources of raw materials. Modern war is in reality an extension of “business under capitalism” carried to an extreme of violence, where the economic rivalries between the various national sections of the capitalist class can no longer be peacefully resolved or controlled.

Despite the story that the First World War started because of the assassination of the Austrian emperor’s nephew Archduke Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists, the reality was that it was the outcome of years of conficting capitalist interests. British and

9 French capitalism was being challenged by side is always the loser, and that is us, the the rising expansion of Germany, both in workers of the world. Europe and abroad. When Germany showed As workers we need to realise that our in 1911, by sending a gunboat to the city of enemy is not the worker in other lands; rather Agadir, that they intended to get a foothold in it is the capitalist class at home, and this is a Morocco, the then Chancellor of the far more important division than that Exchequer in the UK, Lloyd George, at once separating nation from nation. reacted with a speech threatening war. The fght for anarchism is inseparable from In this tense international environment the the fght against war. The only way to fght crisis that would produce war on a Global militarism is to fght capitalism and the state. scale was probably inevitable. The “Austria- Serbia dispute” was merely the spark that The fght for anarchism ignited the confagration.

Anyone who preaches peace and disarmament without calling for an overthrow of capitalism have yet to demonstrate how these objectives can be realised, or how trade and export of capital can expand without violence being the outcome.

The abolition of war, and the threat of war, will only be realised with the overthrow of capitalism and the restructuring of society on the basis of common ownership and production solely to meet human needs. Such a society would unite the human race without economic classes, or national barriers dividing us.

Whenever war is fought, for whatever false is the fght for peace. reasons that are presented to us, and whichever side is declared the victor, one

10 May Day Statement for strikes on May 1st in support of the demand for an 8 hour working day.

In Chicago alone, 400,000 workers went out on strike. This was the precursor to a series of days of action. On May 3, 1886, police fred into a crowd of pickets at the McCormick Harvester Machine Company, killing at least one striker, seriously wounding fve or six others, and injuring an undetermined number.

he history of May day is closely Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next linked with the anarchist movement day in Haymarket Square to protest the T and the struggles of working people brutality. The meeting was peaceful, but as it for a better world. May Day is a product of was breaking up a column of 180 police “ in action” — of the struggle of arrived and ordered the meeting to end. At working people using direct action to change this moment a bomb was thrown by an the world. Its origins lie in the execution of unknown person into the police ranks, who four anarchists in Chicago in 1886 for opened fre on the crowd. How many workers organising workers in the fght for the eight- were wounded or killed by the police is still hour day. unknown.

The anarchists thought that the eight hour A reign of terror by the police then swept over day could only be won through direct action Chicago. Meeting halls, union offces, printing and solidarity. They considered that struggles shops and private homes were raided for reforms, like the eight hour day, were not (usually without warrants). Such raids into enough in themselves. They viewed them as working-class areas allowed the police to only one battle in an ongoing class war that round up all known anarchists and other would only end by social revolution and the socialists. creation of a free society. It was with these Eight anarchists were put on trial for ideas that they organised and fought. accessory to murder. No pretence was made In Chicago the anarchists were the main that any of the accused had carried out or force in the union movement, and partially as even planned the bomb. Instead the jury a result of their presence, the unions called were told “Law is on trial. Anarchy is on trial”.

11 Not surprisingly, the accused were convicted. In 1889, the American delegation attending Seven were sentenced to death, one to 15 the International Socialist congress in Paris years’ imprisonment. proposed that May 1st be adopted as a workers’ holiday. This was to commemorate An international campaign resulted in two of working class struggle and the “Martyrdom of the death sentences being commuted to life, the Chicago Eight”. Since then Mayday has become a day for international solidarity.

The authorities had believed at the time of the trial that such persecution would break the back of the .They were wrong. In the words of August Spies when he addressed the court after he had been sentenced to die:

“If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement . . . the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation — if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you — and in front of you, and everywhere, fames but of the remaining fve, one (Louis Lingg) blaze up. It is a subterranean fre. You cheated the executioner and killed himself on cannot put it out.” the eve of the execution. The remaining four Since the Haymarket event, anarchists have (Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel celebrated May Day on the 1st of May. We do and Adolph Fischer) were hanged on so to show our solidarity with other working November 11th 1887. They are known in class people across the world, to celebrate Labour history as the Haymarket Martyrs. past and present struggles, to show our Between 150,000 and 500,000 lined the power and remind the ruling class of their route taken by the funeral cortege and vulnerability. between 10,000 to 25,000 were in the graveyard itself.

12 May Day is an international symbol of that We must reclaim the anarchist spirit of May resistance and power — a power expressed Day and make everyday an International Day in the last words of August Spies, chiselled in of solidarity and direct action! stone on the monument to the Haymarket martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago:

“The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.”

The Chicago anarchists, like all anarchists, were applying their ideas to the class struggle. They were forming unions organised and animated with the libertarian spirit. They saw that anarchism was not a utopian dream but rather a means of action, creating not only the ideas, but also the facts of the future itself by means of direct action, solidarity and organising from the bottom up. That was why they were effective and why the state framed and murdered them.

The “Chicago Idea” is still relevant. We must apply our anarchist ideas to everyday life and the class struggle, inside and outside the workplace, in order to make anarchism a possibility.

13 existed for decades, with few developments Reviews in large parts of life, for example, education was under the control of a backward-looking Salvador Puig Antich Catholic Church. Yet under this veneer, Collected Writings on oppositional movements engaged in a Repression and spectrum of actions, based on a range of Resistance in Franco’s theories and ideologies. There is an Spain important reminder in this to those not living under formal political dictatorships. That is, Ricard de Vargas Golarons we should try to escape unconsciously (Editor); Peter Gelderloos slipping into accepting the self-description of (Translator/Contributor) the regime as immutable and fully in control Publisher: AK Press of things. Totalitarianism is an aspiration of

Released: January 19, 2021 many dictators but is rarely achieved.

Who was Salvador Puig Antich? If your only The collection has an extremely valuable language is English, you probably don’t know contribution near the start from translator the answer. On the Iberian peninsula, he is a Peter Gelderloos. He provides the big picture symbolic fgure from the time when Spain context for what happened from the was due to transition from a decrepit revolution of May 1936 to 1977 when the frst dictatorship to the current system. He was an election in over 40 years took place. Arguably anarchist who participated in armed actions it’s just about possible to provide a neutral in opposition to the Franco regime, was chronological narrative of these events. imprisoned, and then garroted for it. Though even then, the choice of relevant incidents has its own implicit signifcance. AK Press has published a collection of However, Gelderloos quite rightly avoids translated writings about his life and society pretending to be dispassionate. Instead, his of the time. It is a varied assortment, both in preference is for a subjective look at events terms of its contributors, their respective and personnel. This is evident in explicit areas of focus, and sometimes conficting judgments on the actions of the main agents perspectives. This complexity seems to ft the in the episodes he outlines. For example, in subject matter. It was a time where on the regards to the collaboration of members of surface things appeared stuck in a the Anarcho-Syndicalist union the CNT with reactionary time-warp. Franco’s regime had the state in ‘36 he says: “The CNT, after

14 destroying the government, would have had Gelderloos ends the chapter by referring the to abolish itself…this was the key mistake: reader to a Glossary at the end of the the CNT did not have to take over all of anthology. This is a wise suggestion. society, it simply had to destroy the Adequately appreciating the complexity of the government and step aside, getting out of the period Salvador operated in would be hard to way of collectivizations and the new forms of navigate for many without some explanation organisation that were already being created of the plethora of organisational acronyms spontaneously by the lower classes that crop up (CCOO, ETA, FAC, GAC, GOA, (pp.11-12). This brutally honest analysis is a MIL, OLLA, etc.). Likewise, some words of welcome aspect of the chapter. Catalan (passeig, placa) are left untranslated in the body of the text but can be found in the Gelderloos goes on to describe the often Glossary. In addition, about a third of the way tenuous level and heterogeneous nature of through are two chapters offering resistance to Franco. By the late 50s’ “The chronologies. One chronicles Salvador’s rupture in the continuity of struggle was feeting, meteoric life of action. The other almost complete” (p.20) yet as he notes “… sketches the uprisings by workers during the anarchism springs eternal” (p.21) so that last decade and a half of the dictatorship. “Throughout the 1960s, workplace and There are also photos and copies of leafets. neighbourhood struggles grew in Spain…” Their inclusion adds a defnite favour of the (ibid). This ranged from the distribution of period and location. illegal leafets to wildcat strikes. The latter were sometimes through formal workers’ A comrade of Salvador’s named Jean-Marc organisations, others informal, with many provides a chapter that describes the involving tens of thousands of working activities of his friend from frst-hand people. Gelderloos notes that Left experience. It is broken into short, numbered historiography often drifts into favouring the episodes and stylistically veers between most famous formal groups. Instead, he calls straight-forward descriptions “We were on us to note the actions of the millions of traveling at 100 kilometers an hour on a ordinary people and revolutionaries who “… highway” (p.35) to more poetic fourishes demand not just crumbs but the whole “Miserable colonies where proletarians fucking bakery” (p.26). Salvador Puig Antich scraped by. Behind walls leprous and mute” was one of the latter. (ibid). One contribution Jean-Marc makes is an explanation of Salvador’s nom de guerre ‘The Doctor’. It wasn’t based on an arrogant

15 self-image. It was suggested by comrades makes this section especially worthwhile by due to his rudimentary medical experience his discussion of its politics and activities while doing military service. Another close from a participant’s perspective. It is one comrade Felipe shares his personal tempered by the passage of decades. He experiences of working together. An makes it clear that the ideological positions of important element of his contribution is to the MIL “…were highly fexible and we defend their actions, since “The Catalan distributed materials from very different bourgeoisie, the clandestine parties of tendencies, only requiring that they Marxist obedience, the Franco regime, they reinforced the practices of self-organisation, all came to an agreement and declared us autogestion, and workers autonomy” (p.124). the gangsters of ” (p.55). He is impressively honest about the mistakes There is a brief chapter relating the last few of the movement. In an example that many hours of Salvador’s life as told by visiting groups today would beneft from recognising, siblings. One insight here is that even in the he notes “The vast majority [of people] could bowels of a prison run by a dictatorship, there not even understand our pamphlets. When were brutal guards but also humane we distributed them, many copies ended up individuals. Again, no dictatorship can in the trash.” (pp.137-138). In regards to completely capture the minds of everyone, Salvador Puig Antich, his old comrade goes even among those conducting its worst roles. to his defense against post-mortem There is a similar piece where they describe hagiography. He notes that Salvador was a their attempts to keep their brother’s memory genuine revolutionary who would be alive. The details of the court case (an indignant at poetry about him devoid of evident travesty of ‘law’) are outlined. acknowledgment of his politics. He also Likewise the frustrations of dealing with the attacks attempts to make Salvador into a post-dictatorial legal system. There is a mix Catalan nationalist. Rather, as an anarchist of bitterness, indignation, and ongoing his goal “…was never to achieve an defance that comes through. Anything less interclassist Catalan state” rather he and his would be a travesty itself. associates were “…dedicated to the social struggle and the workers’ struggle” (p. 155). Mid-way through is a lengthy offering by Ricard de Vargas Golarons. He was a Another segment that meshes well with the member of the same group as Salvador, the previously mentioned one is written by Sergi MIL (Movimiento Iberico de Liberacion). He Roses Cordovilla. It fts in well because it

16 frankly acknowledges theoretical and Salvador and the rest of the MIL read organisational muddles and personality theoretical political books and were clashes within the MIL. Salvador played a conversant with the distinctions between principal role in trying to forge a way out of strands of thought such as Council these problems. As phrased here “…Puigh Communism, Leninism, and Anarchism. Antich was a far cry from the simple driver However, they appear to have made no during the bank robberies or, worse yet, the substantial or original contribution to theory. “poor boy” he is often portrayed as.” (p. 182). Since they were not academics at a Instead, he is better seen as “…a conscious university or a think tank, this is not revolutionary trying to act consistently with surprising. They were activists engaged in his political beliefs and with a full armed agitation. Not only is this point not a comprehension of the unity of revolutionary fault, but it is also a defense of the MIL in a theory and practice.” (ibid). sense. It is enough to read Salvador’s output and the thought he injects into issues from a Rounding off the anthology is a short chapter clearly politically informed standpoint, to put compiling personal correspondence by the lie to the idea he was merely a gangster Salvador and another of his political writings. or nationalist. It also disabuses anyone of the The letters are a combination of quotidian concept that he suffered from the kind of information and expressions of the writer’s romanticism that sometimes attaches itself to emotional state of mind. He can make simple revolutionary work when it goes beyond declarative statements which touch on his theory. It wasn’t nihilistic activism for its own political actions such as “…I take full sake. Salvador was an informed anarchist. responsibility for everything they accuse me His actions were guided by that fact and he of, but I don’t feel guilty of anything” (p.208). wrestled with the realities of what theory In other passages, though writing prose he meant in practice. sounds passionately poetic “Beneath a clear blue sky, where a timid cloud, feeling alone, This book flls a historiographical and dissipates, the sun pumps through my veins. biographical gap in the knowledge of I feel strong, hot. Hungry lips caressing the Anglophones about the political situation in a sun, my love grows stronger…” (p.211). It is portion of the Iberian peninsula during the tempting to draw conclusions from these post-civil war period. That makes it a missives but it’s probably wiser not to. They valuable tome in itself. However, its subject are few in number, and it isn’t clear if they are matter may not immediately appeal to all a representative sample of his extant letters. potential readers. If you aren’t interested

17 specifcally in that part of the world or the small industrial workshop. He takes it upon politics of the 60s’-70s’ you could avoid this himself to initiate opposition via the writing of work altogether. postcards with defant slogans upon them, leaving them on the steps of public offces That would be a missed opportunity since the and other places. Soon the police are on their life and deeds of Salvador Puig Antich case. provide universal insights and lessons for today. The acting, cinematography, music and mise- Movie: Alone in en-scene uniformly work in the movie in a downbeat way. That is not a criticism. It Berlin wisely avoids putting a glossy patina on what

Nazi Germany continues was a horrible regime. It doesn’t get the usual to be a rich topic for Hollywood treatment and that’s a good thing. flmmakers. There are Gleeson in particular exudes a sorrowful many complex aspects demeanour that barely allows him a smile. to that regime and its There is a fre underneath but outwardly his history. This means it can be approached in character is just another worker drone in many ways from comedy to serious drama. service of the system. Likewise Thompson is Alone in Berlin (2016) is an example of the a million miles from any sort of charisma in latter. It fts within a subset of movies that her portrayal of an ordinary woman trying to address opposition to the Nazis. In this case, deal with the death of a son at the hands of a the source material is a 1947 book that state she can’t believe in any more. The covers the non-fction activities of Otto and camera work is conventional and doesn’t Elise Hampel. They were a working-class draw attention to itself. Likewise, the couple, here named Otto (Brendan Gleeson) neighbourhood where the characters live is a and Anna Quangel (Emma Thompson). drab brown. These parts of the flm all tend to Some changes have been made in the work in its favour. fctionalising of the story. In the movie, the Despite the positive parts of the flm, there couple becomes engaged in their are things that could be said to work against independent resistance work in reaction to it. One is the role and acting of Daniel Bruhl. news of the death of their son. He is killed at He plays the Gestapo investigator the very start of the flm while serving as a Eschereich who is assigned the task of soldier. The husband works as a foreman in a tracking down the mysterious card writer.

18 Eschereich is an old-school, scientifc one of his cards. But there are no real heart- detective who is interested in methodically stopping moments where you take the side of fguring out who the culprit is. That might the character on an emotional level and feel sound weird to mention, but in the Third personal empathy with his escape. Director Reich the internal politics were such that his Perez would do well to study Hitchcock’s superiors are more interested in framing the oeuvre to see how you could build the frst person who comes along to suit a dramatic tension lacking in this flm. political need, rather than fnd the actual So we are provided an interesting antagonist ‘wrong-doer’. Bruhl is a capable actor who is in the shape of Eschereich and little easy to like and the contrast between his emotionally derived empathy for the people character’s motivations and his bosses, puts you should support. Since we are never the viewer in an uneasy position of almost introduced to the son, we don’t feel wanting him to succeed in his mission. That’s emotionally invested in the character or his no fault of Bruhl, he’s doing his job, but his fate and by extension his parents. So all you dynamism is worryingly seductive if you are left with is the need to remind yourself aren’t careful. You might be kind and say this periodically on an intellectual, rational level merely makes the flm more subtle than your that the Nazis were bad and yes, the dowdy average portrayal of Hitler’s Germany. The couple are very much worthy of the viewers’ extent to which you see it that way will support. That’s ok but probably doesn’t lend depend on your own impression of course. enough depth. Which is a shame. Alone in Drama should have a sense of tension to it. Berlin may not be essential viewing, That can take place within a character, therefore, but any flm that positively between a character and others, or confict acknowledges opposition to Hitler has to be between the character and his/her valued. environment. A story such as Alone in Berlin would seem to be ready-made for building Note: For a look at the real-life couple who tension. In fact, though, there are very few inspired the movie see- wikipedia.org/wiki/ such moments. Otto leaves the card on some Otto_and_Elise_Hampe steps and walks away. Somebody fnds it and reads it. This is shown in such a perfunctory There is now a Telegram Group for way that it elicits no jolt of concern for Otto. Anarchists in Aotearoa. There is one point where Otto is almost For details - Contact [email protected] discovered by a bystander who intercepts

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