Pacifists believe that a better world can be won without any use of popular violence. While nonviolent methods can be useful, they do not always work. Some conflicts have to be fought through. Revolutions may have to include violence.

We anarchists want a world without war or any sort of violence. But to get it, there will have to be a social revolution to completely change society, overturning the ruling class and its state. We will try to keep revolutionary violence to a minimum, but the vicious, brutal, nature of the capitalist class will require at least the threat of mass violence.

[Română]

Selección de artículos y declaraciones sobre la muerte del dictador, quien acabó sus días en la impunidad, protegido por el gobierno de la Concertación y toda la clase politica. Su negro período en el poder no sólo será recordado como una tiranía signada por la tortura y el asesinato, sino que como el inicio de un modelo económico y politico que ha llevado la marginación y exclusión tradicional de los sectores populares en Chile a su grado máximo. La lucha por la liberación ni se acabó con el término formal de la dictadura, ni se acaba con la muerte del criminal.

[ English][Français][ Ellenika]

La reciente victoria electoral abrumadora de Hugo Chávez resonó en todo el mundo como un nuevo signo de la pérdida de influencia de los EEUU en Sudamérica y el mundo. Sus detractores, le acusan desde ser un demagogo populista hasta ser un dictador; sus partidarios lo llaman un benefactor del pueblo y un campeón anti-imperialista.

What should anarchists do when an elected government is overturned by a right-wing coup, as happened in Venezuela or Nepal? It is typical of capitalism that its gains of political democracy are shaky at best. Countries go through cycles of democracy and dictatorship and back again

How should anarchists deal with such situations? The issue points to a historic weakness in anarchism. Despite its excellent goals and great ideas, anarchism has repeatedly been defeated, crushed by fascist or Leninist forces, or merely marginalized. A major reason for this, I strongly believe, has been its rigidity and its tactical and strategic clumsiness. The anarchist movement has consistently failed to maneuver tactically in an effective fashion. Our approach should be FIRMNESS IN PRINCIPLES, FLEXIBILITY IN TACTICS.

[ Italiano][ Castellano]

A detailed analysis of Chávez and Venezuela from a north American anarchist perspective. The author includes a detailed account of a visit to Venezuela at the time of the WSF and encounters with grassroots organisations and the Tupamaros

What had been my intense idealism regarding Chávez - best expressed in the Bolivanarchism essay - was quick to fade away in the face of my physical experiences in the country. On the other hand, my extensive contact with those for whom the revolution is a daily project of self-valorization and the construction of alternative and non-hierarchal associations outside of both the State and capitalism left me with a lot of hope

.. In December of 1999 the people voted for the new constitution largely on class lines, which - in a country where anywhere between 55-80% of the population is impoverished - means that it was approved. While Chávez promised, “I will turn Venezuela into a first world nation in 10 years” tens of thousands of the old bourgeoisie fled to countries that already were - notably Spain and the USA

Venezuela became the first - and possibly, only - country in South America to have saved popular faith in political institutions and electoral participation. The biggest consequence of Chavismo is that it has relegitimized the state and its political class, at the total cost of all gains made in extra-parliamentary struggle over the course of the 90s.