#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #FRANCE #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #France, UCL AL #332 - International, Tribute: Juan Carlos Mechoso, architect of the fight against the dictatorship (ca, de, it, fr, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Although little known on this side of the Atlantic, Juan Carlos Mechoso was one

of the most important figures of Latin American organized anarchism. Founder of
the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation, trade union official, artisan of the
clandestine struggle against the dictatorship, imprisoned and tortured. Militant,
until his last days, of social and popular struggles, we would like to pay him an
essential tribute. ---- Juan Carlos Mechoso, el viejo as his comrades
affectionately nicknamed him, left us on Tuesday, October 11th. Although little
known on this side of the Atlantic, he was one of the most important figures of
Latin American organized anarchism.
Mechoso, although according to himself only a part of this collective experience
of the workers of Uruguay organized within the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation
(fAu), is a prominent figure in the history of anarchism. Born in 1935, the son
of a domestic worker and a barber worker, he had to drop out of school very early
and started working in a slaughterhouse when the meat industry was one of the
most important in the country. . A supporter of anarchism barely 14 years old, a
union activist from his teenage years, he participated in the founding of the fAu
in 1956 alongside, among others, his brother, Pocho Mechoso[1].

He was a very young community activist at the Ateneo del Cerro, a social center
located in the popular del Cerro neighborhood of Montevideo[2], and later a union
official in the meat industry and then graphic design. He actively participated
in the creation of the Student Worker Resistance (ROE), a trend group that
united, and still unites, workers and students in mass struggles and mobilizations.

Armed struggle and reconstruction of the fAu
 From 1969 to 1973 he was one of the leaders of the Popular Revolutionary
Organization 33 Orientales (OPR-33), an armed wing of the fAu, which itself went
into hiding in 1967, which carried out actions such as kidnappings policies,
expropriations and exfiltrations.

Imprisoned for twelve years, from 1973 to 1985, he was brutally tortured by the
forces of the military dictatorship who were never able to break him, and that is
how, upon his release, he successfully set about reconstruction of the fAu.

 From then on, it directly influenced the spread of specifism (a conception of
anarchism based on the need for organization and on insertion in social movements
and popular struggles) in the South American continent. All his life he will have
defended with love and humility anarchism and popular struggles.

The house of the old man and of Marina, his companion, has always been open to
those who wanted to "study" as he said. To those who wanted to exchange, debate,
learn or listen. Plates were always added to the table and the "olla" shared. The
discussions were long, because he always took the time, Uruguayan style, slowly,
with a mate that lasts and passes from hand to hand to the rhythm of the
exchanges. For many of us, knowing the story of the fAu and that of Juan Carlos,
it was something impressive to go and meet the old man, but this feeling was
quickly erased by the humility of the character, to hardly the step of the
crossed door. How many activists, how many organizations, formed or in formation,
have passed through this small house in the neighborhood of del Cerro ? Many
certainly.

We weren't going to look for answers at Mechoso, we were going to discuss,
express our doubts and questions with someone who took the time to think about it
with you and help you find the resources to answer them. He was able, after his
years in prison, not only to restore an organization which had suffered the loss
of a great many of its activists, with the trauma that accompanies it, but also
to bring it up to date, to give it the ability to respond to new realities and
not remain stuck in the past.

The fAu celebrated its 65th anniversary last year. With all its history, it
continues to support the social struggles of those from below in Uruguay. The
Ateneo del cerro continues to exist and to accompany the inhabitants in their
fights. The PIT-CNT, the only trade union confederation in the country, which
Mechoso and many of his comrades helped to create and sustain, has more than
300,000 members in a country of approximately 3.5 million inhabitants, and the
fAu comrades continue to have a strong influence there.  These are only small
examples of the scope of his work and that of all the comrades of this period,
such as his companion Marina, a historic activist of the ROE.

We cannot forget the commitment of all those who are no longer there, disappeared
or murdered in the violence of the years of the Condor plan[3]. They have
continued and will continue to accompany all our struggles and influence our
political current through the history we inherit. We are talking here about the
fire of the revolution. This fire, Mechoso knew how to keep it preciously, to
feed it and above all to transmit it, to diffuse it and to stir it up again and
again. We miss you already mate.

A revolutionary legacy
I will end by giving him the floor, with a quote from the conclusion The Strategy
of Specifism[4]: "There is an old saying around here: ‘Anarchism is a way of
life'. This is what the old comrades who were militant at the beginning of the
century told us, in the years 1905, 1910, 1920 and so on. In the early days of
the fAu, this saying, which had been uttered so many times by these sober, modest
and self-sacrificing comrades, became an ideological and ethical element of the
first order. It is something very simple, but which had so much importance. How
important that was! Really nothing prideful or elitist. We were looking to
synthesise in one sentence something like complete commitment to the cause,
feeling it and practicing it every day, being consistent, resisting complicity
with the system through practice.

These former and former activists wanted to tell us that there is something for
which it is worth risking, even giving your life: the encounter and the search
for a just, free and united society. They and they meant that it was impossible
to see so much infamy and atrocities and remain indifferent and indifferent or
preoccupied only with personal matters, seeing the rest as something secondary.
But we are not going to mislead ourselves by saying that this implied isolation
or contempt for different habits. No. These activists were among the people, they
organized fraternal parties, football clubs, carnival groups, theaters, picnics
and had completely normal human contact in their communities as well as in their
family life, which were like that of any other neighbour. For them and them, it
was necessary to permanently correct the rooted defects and to dedicate all
possible time to the struggle and the propagation of the ideal, to the
preparation of the revolution.

We believe that the commitment to the cause must be deep, like that towards the
political organization which has a social project of transformation, and
especially the anarchist organization which claims to reorganize everything in a
different way. So that the collective does not cancel but improves the
individual. In relation to the question on anarchism or libertarian socialism, I
consider them to be synonymous. However, I must say that I prefer the term
"anarchism". It is a sentimental question, which involves emotions and memories.
I now return to the present tense and conclude our conversation.

For the final word on the commitment to the cause, I will let all the comrades of
the fAu speak who have been tortured, murdered, the "disappeared", the shot, like
so many others in our dear story. They and they desired, from the bottom of their
"soul" this tomorrow of socialism and freedom, and had no doubt to devote
themselves completely to it. They are the ones who continue to tell us: "Arriba
las y los que luchan" ! (Let's go ! Let's go ! Because this cause deserves
everything !) "

Juan Carlos Mechoso, present! Ahora y siempre ! (Juan Carlos Mechoso, always
present ! Today and forever !)

Bast (UCL Lyon)

To validate

[1]Pocho Mechoso, militant founder of the fAu, expropriator imprisoned several
times then exiled to Argentina, is one of the more than 30,000 people who
disappeared during the dictatorship, the remains of his body were found and
buried just ten years ago. year.

[2]the history of his neighborhood is mentioned in particular in an interview
available in English

[3]"Anti-subversive" campaign of assassination and terror led by South American
dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s with the support of the United States.

[4]This book is the result of a discussion during which Felipe Corrêa, militant
of the Brazilian Anarchist Coordination, questions Juan Carlos Mechoso. French
translation: The Strategy of Latin American Anarchism, Libertarian Alternative,
2021, 5 euros.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Hommage-Juan-Carlos-Mechoso-artisan-de-la-lutte-contre-la-dictature
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