By The Hukbalahap Collective (Red & Anarchist Action Network)

This essay originally appeared in the first issue of Praxis, journal of the Red & Anarchist Action Network (Summer, 2003)

A message from the editors of Praxis: We felt the need to specifically add a "disclaimer" to this particular article before considering it for print. The following is a very radical call for the establishment of an underground armed wing to the Red & Anarchist Action Network. We are printing it here in the interest of a developing dialogue within the network regarding our practical commitment to "diversity of tactics". The relationship of the anarchist movement to violence as a tactic has historically fluxuated between very open, and taboo. This article poses a question of the utmost importance to the network: can we maintain unity in theory while embracing extreme diversity in praxis? Obviously, this is a question of exceptional relevance to the whole of the anti-authoritarian movement, and we hope that the ideas in this article will be critiqued beyond just our network.

Furthermore, we must emphasize that this call is the work of an autonomous collective within RAAN, and represents only a suggestion of action to RAAN (and the revolutionary movement in general), and not a collectively written declaration in the name of the entire network. The relationship of compromise between the equally pressing necessities of autonomy and theoretical/practical unity is one that must develop slowly but concretely over the course of our organizing. In the RAAN Principles & Direction, (which does represent the network in full) we called for a true diversity of tactics while explicitly rejecting "actions which may bring the very existence of the network into jeopardy". This particular essay may serve as a model for how certain elements of RAAN could conceivably apply violence as a tactic in a clandestine and autonomous way that would not pose a direct threat to the above-ground activities of the network, and especially those members who do not personally support or participate in violent activities.

(The following text was dated 2/27/03)

Falce Proletaria is an underground armed wing of the Red & Anarchist Action Network, which models itself off of groups such as the Earth Liberation Front. We are non-hierarchal, completely decentralized, and driven off of the autonomous actions of people who are no longer willing to passively accept the accelerating destruction of both the planet and our lives.

We engage in the destruction of capitalist structures through revolutionary violence, and provide training for communities and above-ground organizations that are seeking to form a more coherent defense in the face of state oppression.

FALCE PROLETARIA

We have chosen to name our project Falce Proletaria (Proletarian Sickle) in recognition of the advances made by the Italian ultra-left, and the Autonomia and Red Brigades especially. We identify with them historically in the sense that our propose here is the strengthening of communism - the leaderless anti-authoritarian revolution, which has taken shape as a result of existing conditions and will continue to mature dialectically, independent of any political vanguard.

ALL ENERGY WASTED ON HALF MEASURES STRENGTHENS THE TYRANNICAL GRIP OF THE OLD REGIME

We as human beings, as victims of capitalism, are now facing the terrifyingly real possibility that our lives will never amount to anything more than an appendage of the spectacle.

One cannot speak of "human nature" as being a defining or limiting force in any social structure, except to establish that the essential aspects and relationships of our lives must ultimately be based off of love, joy, and a free association of fundamentally equal human beings; not wage slavery, hierarchy, and the ever-present - if sometimes subtle - threat of starvation.

We measure the futility of past urban guerilla movements not by their failure to destroy the bourgeois state, but rather by their failure to present us with a significant libertarian alternative to it. The majority of us have thus far been fighting for communism as an element of the future that must be attained through present-day battles with the powers that be, when in fact communism is an ever-present dialectic force, the existence of which can be asserted right now in every aspect of our lives.

Thus, the principal target of the modern guerilla is not the vast state apparatus, but rather the infinite spectacle that cloaks it. Only by destroying the hypnotism of capitalist social relations in our immediate lives will we make revolution a serious possibility. Our attacks against every structure of society must be unrelenting, uncompromising, and above all - unforgiving.

BECOMING THE MEDIA

Most radicals are quick to remember Jello Biafra's famous mantra, "Don't hate the media, become the media!" Yet the propaganda of revolution cannot assume the forms already employed and dominated by the ruling class. To compete in print, radio, or television is to further add to the artificial interpretation of discourse; a fabricated spectacle on par with electoral politics. The development of capitalism has long since transformed the media into an instrument of passive consumption, regardless of how radical the message carried in it may be. We must remember the entirety of Mr. Biafra's suggestion - "Don't hate the media, become the media! They already know who we are, so why not get louder, and louder?"

Here we define "media" not as the immense collection of corporate TV/Radio stations, newspapers, and magazines, but rather as the totality of outside information that a person encounters in their everyday life. Therefore, "becoming the media" is not a call to adopt the ruling class' methods of control (indeed, such a venture would be as disastrous as attempting to wield the state as an instrument of "workers' power") but rather to transcend it by becoming louder and more ferocious in our own propaganda.

COMMUNISM AS CARDIAC IMMOLATION

Our actions must be at total war with capitalist law, order, and society. Only through the creation of a visible opposition that actively destroys the systems of control can we hope to force the concept of true resistance into the public domain. This cannot mean vanguardism, but rather a furious unwillingness to deal with the current state of our lives, and an unstoppable push to either change it or die trying. We do not seek to lead the proletariat, but to tear an irreparable hole in the fabric of the spectacle, and create a fracture that will reveal at once both the oppressive realities of capitalism and the undeniable existence of a true revolutionary communist movement.

We recognize and celebrate the selfishness in both our goals and methods, as they stem from our personal unwillingness to continue "life" at the mercy of capital. Falce Proletaria is a self-perpetuating expression of autonomous rage against this society. We throw ourselves into direct confrontation with capitalism wherever it is to be found, and we will die before bending to its will.

The death of the individual through a revolutionary act is a superior choice to the alternative totality of capitalist oppression. This is not a call for self-sacrifice in the name of the revolution, a fetishization of "revolutionary suicide", but a sober recognition of the despair in which we find our lives, and the levels of state violence we will necessarily encounter along the path to total liberation. The lifestylist tendencies in anarchism that have risen from the rubble of the Situationist International have thus far exhorted us to set our hearts free. What we truly need is to set them on fire.

YOU CANNOT KILL US, WE ARE ALREADY DEAD!

As we write this, we cannot yet tell if our project will last a day, a week, or a month. Nor can we predict how many of the enemy we will kill, or how many of their structures we will burn, before they ultimately silence us. These matters are unimportant; what we do know is that the day, the week, and the month will at last be ours. For the first time in our lives, we will have completely taken control. We will have shattered the reign of capitalism - if only briefly - by publicly and violently establishing the existence of a tendency in complete opposition to it.

"We believe in the revolution, not like the Catholic believes in Christ, but like the mathematician believes in the results of his research." - Amadeo Bordiga