Text by expandiendo la revuelta.

Some reflections on the anarchist edition and democratic recuperation.

Opening of the library in Caza Zaragoza on June 19, 2021.

From Expandiendo la Revuelta.

“It will undoubtedly be said that all tools aim at our freedom, since they are the instruments of a possible action and that the work of art is not specific in this respect. And it is true that the tool is the condensed outline of an operation. But it remains at the level of the hypothetical imperative: I can use a hammer to nail a box or to bash my neighbor’s head in. Considered in itself, a tool is not a prerequisite for my freedom; it does not place me before it, but rather seeks to serve it by replacing the free invention of means with an orderly sequence of traditional behaviors.

The book does not serve my freedom: it demands it. In fact, it would not be possible to approach freedom as such through pressure, fascination, or pleading. To achieve it there is only one method: first acknowledge it and then trust it; in short, to demand from her an act in her own name, that is, in the name of the trust placed in her. In this way, the book is not, like the tool, a means to a specific end; the book proposes the freedom of the reader as its goal”.

The opening of a library is always an event that fills us with joy, especially when it is accompanied by connections and demands that emphasize a critical and anti-authoritarian perspective.

In our case, as an anarchist publisher, we believe that it is necessary to make some contributions through the publication of material and, above all, by reflecting on what we see as a series of debates about the purpose of propaganda and its anarchist positioning afford to.

If we briefly look back at the extensive anarchist history in Buenos Aires, the publication of reading materials was one of the pillars from which meetings and shared affinities were projected, in this sense the publication of publications, from the first large-scale edition “El perseguido” in the year 1890, via “La Protesta”, which began in 1897, or “La antorcha” in 1921, but they not only had the “function” of conveying a message or sharing an “ideal”, but also provided information about meetings and activities , collected donations for the local population or prisoners and established connections between the different publications and spaces. In this way, the anarchist publishers, which had no central organization or any kind of leader, made a contribution both “inside” and “outside” the movement, and although there were always differences, today we can see the historicity, the debates and To trace tensions precisely from these archives and thus make them usable in the present.

Founded in 1961, the publishing house Reconstruir set itself the task of revitalizing a number of networks and spaces that had suffered repression first from the dictatorship of the 1930s and then from the Peronist advance, this is how Reconstruit worked, both to produce classic texts save, as well as to propose current debates of the time, which went from the Cuban revolt, to existentialism, to the war in Vietnam. We can also find the work of “La Protesta” during these decades and its constant function of maintaining anarchist ideology, even well into the 21st century.

However, these publications were discontinued again during the last military dictatorship in 1976, and it was not until 1983 that a new wave of publications emerged in the form of various anarcopunk fanzines and some publications of a more „countercultural“ character, reflecting the aspirations of the so-called „new left“. hidden in a certain anarchic aesthetic. Here we want to grapple with what we see as a clear intention to recover anarchist ideas to address various reformist, academic and even commercial intentions.

In general, we can say that after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the repression of the various Latin American dictatorships in the 70s and 80s, the Marxist-Leninist horizon saw the supposedly revolutionary hopes fall with its large armies, so can of a new left There was talk of “new ways of doing politics” and every attempt to promote an armed insurrection was partially defeated, such as the rejection of the takeover of the La Tablada barracks dictated by the entire “national left” in 2015 1989 shows.

Thus, anarchist practice and ideas regained importance for some editorial areas and found various conveniences, for example the fact that it was a story that was already almost a hundred years old, that is, many companions did not have that possibility to respond to these visions, and this obviously meant a “freedom” for many intellectuals, academics and democratic writers who saw in anarchist history a space that they could exploit without resentment.

In this way, we find a number of people and state spaces that are pursuing a recuperation of our memory (in the sense of history) from a civic and left-wing, even nationalist perspective, and even claiming that we are part of “Argentine history “ are. From Dora Barrancos to Martin Caparros to Cedinci, we find a clear line that is accused, on the one hand, of trivializing anarchist ideas and practices and, on the other hand, of pursuing academic careers in the hands of the state, that is, in search of power.

However, this is only a partial aspect of the situation, because if we open our eyes to other areas, we also find state-funded films and plays that show us a clear attempt to empty anarchism of its insurgent content, like this, for example has happened to the history of various indigenous peoples in recent decades. From the perspective of progressivism and the left, the genocidal history of the Argentine state is thus whitewashed and some specific people are used as scapegoats, be it Julio Argentino Roca, Colonel Varela, Videla or Menem, while the indigenous peoples are continuously persecuted and the anarchist spaces are evacuated and are hit by repression.

We do not want to make ourselves victims, but simply to point out a repressive process that has to do with the commercialization and trivialization of anarchy on the one hand and, on the other hand, with imprisonment and murder behind closed doors and miles away.

This is also clear from the label of “infiltrators” that Kirchnerism and the left imposed on us during the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado, that is, on the one hand, a mask of “solidarity” and “justice” was put on, and at the same time the ideas of Lechuga (a nickname of Santiago Maldonado) was made invisible and a political campaign was carried out in his name, even going so far as to try to release a film, which fortunately was boycotted both in Buenos Aires and in various parts of Argentina became.

Going back to publishing and propaganda, we believe that today more than ever it is necessary to take a stand, as we do not want anarchist ideas to become consumer or just another space in which intellectuals can separate themselves from the National Library jerk each other off, although these will certainly continue to be financed by state institutions, today we are much more convinced of the need to consolidate our ideas on the consistency between means and ends, so we find publications and publishers like “Anarquista” , “Gatx Negrx” or “L’anomia”, and more recently the releases of “Abrazando el Caos” or the “Anarquía” editions, to name just a few examples.

That’s why we’re not concerned with publishing books as an end in itself, although we enjoy that and it’s undoubtedly an aspect in which we also feel comfortable, but as a means of revolt, but above all for the anarchist movement and spaces. Even if we do not think about our reflections from an enlightened point of view, we are of the opinion that the means say much more about the ends than the titles, because anarchy is not found in the offices of power nor in the supposedly “good intentions “ of today’s left, but in the practical insurgent and autonomous action of those who affirm themselves as such and take a step further towards social war with their words.