The words we write during this eventful winter aim to present three reflections that we believe are important for the situation that will unfold in the coming months. ---- 1. Let's radically confront the aporophobia of governments and their allies --- The policies developed, approved, and implemented by governments, whether right-wing, social democratic, or progressive, have been and will continue to be designed to protect and strengthen a model of domination. However, in recent years, these policies have explicitly adopted an aporophobic character, that is, a policy of rejection and contempt for the poor.
What these governments do is reestablish the conditions of capital, through the application of material measures that affect the lives of the vast majority of people, by constructing a narrative where the enemy is the poor and the marginalized-all this in a country where no one considers themselves poor or marginalized.
From a communications standpoint, they have convinced us that the reforms don't affect us, but in practice, this aporophobia manifests itself in three ways. First, in the progressive exclusion of fundamental rights, expressed in cuts to access to adequate housing, healthcare cuts, and reductions in corporate and local taxes earmarked for improving the commons and collective good, among other things. Another important element of this anti-poor policy is the increasing criminalization and repression to which we are being subjected. The State has equipped itself with an extensive array of repressive policies aimed at expanding social control; that is, the creation of a system that sanctions and punishes any action that falls outside the norms of capital's expected behavior. This policy, in practice, criminalizes and even murders anyone who is not part of the ruling class. And finally, aporophobia is reinforced by the invisibility and indifference shown towards poverty and the precariousness of life. They don't care about the well-being of the oppressed class; therefore, policies like fuel price hikes, tax cuts for the super-rich, and tax breaks for large corporations are mere formalities to stabilize an economic system in perpetual crisis, all for their own benefit.
We are rapidly heading toward dark times for humanity, and we cannot allow this. As anarchists, our imperative is freedom and a dignified life extended to all of society. That is why we must understand that these new models of government not only seek to restore capital, but to do so through the disintegration of human dignity. This is our struggle: to radically combat the anti-poor and anti-marginalized narrative. We must wage a battle of ideas that not only reaches the already convinced, but also permeates the population, and that positions the human condition as something essential.
2. That revolutionary and radical ideas not be superseded by progressive and social-democratic thought
The political and social landscape has opened up a series of disputes on various issues. In this new government, glimpses of environmental, educational, labor, and housing conflicts, among others, can be observed. Now, with the departure of progressivism and social democracy from government control, it is clear that these groups will try to invade and appropriate all leadership positions, so that they can be the protagonists of the struggles. We have already seen this in the past; they seized control of the student movement and environmental movements, which consequently led to a stagnation of real conflict and, therefore, widespread demobilization. They did not want to change reality, but rather to manage it from Congress.
Today, we see that this is even more serious, not only because they will want to repeat what they have always done: exploit social struggles for their partisan gains, but also because it is they themselves-the social democratic and progressive parties-who formulated, developed, and approved a series of measures that now allow the far right to feel free to trample on people's rights and dignity.
Faced with a new crisis, a conflict against the state and capital, the tension of how to address the problem will always be present. Progressive and social democratic positions will invite us to dialogue, to transform as much as possible, to mitigate the conflict, to avoid putting the pillars of capitalism and patriarchy under strain. It is their essence; they are neoliberal, comfortable with the symbiotic relationship between the state and capital.
This is where radical and revolutionary ideas must emerge. The commitment to rupture stems from the intensification of the conflict against the State and its institutions, popular protest as mass insurrection, and community and collective self-management of whatever we are demanding.
3. It's time to organize
The call is clear: organization is the way. And it's not just us doing this, but a large part of the political sector that is critical of the system of domination we are experiencing. However, the problem doesn't seem to be a lack of intention to organize, but rather the difficulty in figuring out where and how to collectivize the struggle.
And this is no small matter: the specters and traumas of organized spaces that devolve into authoritarian spaces or transform into electoral machines are elements that fuel the distrust of comrades who wish to organize.
However, from the perspective of the social and organized anarchism we advocate, we continue to believe in and strive to build organized spaces that are sustained by the logic of the struggle against capitalism and patriarchy, but which, at the same time, are constituted as spaces with a profound logic of collective care. Without this perspective, we will continue to reproduce formulas that have done so much damage to the revolutionary world.
We believe that organizations are places where we can prefigure those new worlds we so long for; that is, spaces where we can apply, in the here and now, the new socio-political relations that written theories teach us. Organizations are not mere instruments for short-term political gain, something many have done and, unfortunately, many are doing today. Drawing on some of Malatesta's reflections on specifically anarchist organizations, but which we believe can be extrapolated to any organization, we propose that organized spaces must not succumb "in any way to the authoritarian spirit; they must reconcile the free action of individuals with the need and pleasure of cooperation, serve to develop the consciousness and organizational capacity of their members, and constitute an educational medium for the environment in which they operate, as well as a moral and material preparation for the future we desire."
In this sense, and thinking about the present, we also propose that it is not enough to establish an organization and carry out its activities; we must go a step further. The interrelation between organizations and territories, the coordination of action plans, the exchange of experiences, and the articulation between different struggles are also organizational mechanisms presented to us as necessary strategies for confronting the dominant class. However, here lies a turning point: the rhetoric and perspective of these struggle blocs generally assume the premise of being configured from the idea of the "left." While we do not disavow the idea of being left-wing, we believe that the trap created by social democracy and progressivism is the continued belief that everything that is not right-wing is therefore left-wing.
Our proposal for these circumstances is to remain available to advance toward a front of oppressed classes that overcomes the left-right dichotomy and the neoliberal trap behind it, and, consequently, places class consciousness at the center as the driving force of the struggle against patriarchy and capitalism.
Organizing is a condition of life, an exercise that builds the collective and the common good. It happens every day, in all our everyday spaces. The question, we insist, is how and where we organize. The invitation is to organize for a better life: in your workplace union, in your neighborhood, with your comrades, around a need and demand such as housing, health, or education, etc. Let each organization envision a way to transform this nefarious capitalist and patriarchal reality, from the most basic care work to class-based organizing with oppressed comrades from different corners and territories.
To conclude...
In the past as in the present, the possibilities of overcoming domination and oppression depend solely on the capacity and deployment of struggle that our people can exercise. In July, 90 years ago, a people armed themselves with courage, conviction, and determination, and from an anarchist perspective, with direct mass action as their fundamental tool, they brought a state capitalist system to the brink of crisis. We look to the past with the conviction that, if yesterday the unfolding of a popular insurrection could put a system of years of oppression in check and open possibilities to a new world, today, it is more possible than ever to advance in actions with a revolutionary perspective. Inspired by this, this very month, our organization celebrates another year of life, another year of struggle, another year of continuing to believe that struggle and organization will set us free.
SANTIAGO ANARCHIST FEDERATION:
7 YEARS ROOTING ANARCHISM, STRENGTHENING POPULAR PROTAGONISM, AND BUILDING REVOLUTIONARY SELF-MANAGED POWER
https://fasanarquista7.wordpress.com/carta-de-opinion-julio-2026/
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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