FAG 1995-2005: 10 years of struggle for Socialism and for Freedom!

brazil/guyana/suriname/fguiana | anarchist movement | press release

Wednesday November 30, 2005 21:16

by militante - Federação Anarquista Gaúcha

secretariafag at vermelhoenegro dot org

10 years have passed since that Saturday, 18th November 1995, when on a November morning just like any other, comrades from various parts of Rio Grande met with a delegate of the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) to found a new organization...

FAG 1995-2005

10 years of struggle for Socialism and for Freedom!

10 years have passed since that Saturday, 18th November 1995, when on a November morning just like any other, comrades from various parts of Rio Grande met with a delegate of the Federación Anarquista Uruguaya (FAU) to found a new organization. But even to get to that point had required a year of uninterrupted contacts and relations, endless letters, experiences both good and bad and a journey by one of our comrades to meet our sister organization in Uruguay.

As chance would have it, for the oppressed classes of Brazil, the 18th November is a date marked by struggle and blood. It was on that day that in 1918 a Workers' Insurrection took place in Rio de Janeiro. 67 years later, thanks to much persistence and conviction, anarchism is once more coming into contact with the class it was born from in the southernmost part of Brazil. The organizational process, which saw the close involvement of our comrades in the FAU, culminated in November 1995, having begun much earlier. The significance of this goes well beyond the borders of the Rio Grande do Sul, and it is a fact we are only too aware of.

This still-young organization called the Federação Anarquista Gaúcha (FAG - Gaucha Anarchist Federation) is deeply committed to the class and the people it belongs to. In its short but steady history and with the dedication of its nameless militants, it has helped spread the resoluteness of the martyrs of Latin American anarchism. The FAG is realizing its primary and permanent mission together with other simuilar groups and organizations: to spread anarchism throughout its place of origin, among the people, re-proposing as instruments of popular struggle the principles of a process of rupture through social and economic self-management and political federalism.

In these 10 years, we have recognized the central importance of the historical memory, but going further than simple commemorations and nostalgia. Being and feeling part of the heritage of the first anarchists in the early 20th century, we have sought to uphold their history of struggle, applying it to the needs of today. Our origins lie in the federalist wing of the 1st International, the Ukrainian Insurrection, the Spanish Revolution and we affirm our political identity of social revolution and the class struggle that is rooted in the popular struggles of this Latin America of ours. We have also sought, in all modesty but with great determination, to continue the work of the first combative unions in Brazil, in the Mexican Revolution, in the Workers' Insurrection and the Strikes of 1917 and 1918 in Porto Alegre, Rio and Sao Paulo, of the comrades who have struggled and who continue to struggle in Chile, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay and in every corner of Latin America.

The FAG seeks to be a political instrument for the accumulation and synthesis of forces, to increase the people's ability to struggle and build, in the long term, Popular Power. We carry out our task with the humility and modesty we have always had, building working-class power with each barricade and occupation, with each new community radio, in the marches, the quiet work in the neighbourhoods, in the labour struggles and in all the various struggles of the people. Our red and black flag represents one of the forms of struggle of the Latin American people. We will continue to fight and to organize from this corner of the world, the Rio Grande.

While the first stage of our journey is already well under way, the next stage of our journey, that of consolidating the Gaucha anarchist organization, is more complex and much harder. The FAG is aware of its historic duty: to be a solid, stable and long-lasting structure, to increase its work within the social movements and its capacity for agitation and debate, to elevate the level of unity and coordination with other similar organizations in Brazil and throughout Latin America, to begin work in new areas and in new sectors of the popular movements, to unify the various struggles on the basis of class solidarity and to increase the ability of the organized working class to achieve. In other words, to go on with the task of building Popular Power.

In these last 10 years we have succeeded in making anarchism an instrument for concrete demands. Today, though well aware of the difficult times we live in, we must go on. We must forge from our daily struggle and our anarchist ideas the mentality to transform. Through Struggle and Organization, the specific organization represents a synthesis of the struggle for our immediate needs and our long-term strategy. It is up to our membership to be a part of this drive for popular struggle, for political struggle, and to sow the seeds of revolution. That is our intention, our mission, our duty, and we must respond to it with firmness and with dignity. Because for the FAG, every day is 18th November.

THOSE WHO STRUGGLE ARE NOT DEAD!!!

FAG (1995-2005) - 10 YEARS OF STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM AND FREEDOM!!!

Porto Alegre, 18 November 2005

General Secretariat of the Federação Anarquista Gaúcha

Translation by FdCA - International Relations