https://crimethinc.com/podcasts/the-ex-worker/episodes/72
The uprising that is currently rocking Chile is taking place without any official spokespeople or leadership to guide it. It goes on leaderless, self-organized, chaotic, and destructive; unstoppable despite the dead, injured, mutilated, and nearly two thousand new prisoners packed into Chile’s already crowded prisons. The spark of mass fare evasion in response to yet another increase in public transportation prices galvanized a broad spectrum of struggle and action against authority, culminating with all its force and vitality on October 18.
The aftershocks of those first days of upheaval are still felt—to a greater or lesser extent—daily, expressed in daring attacks on police stations and symbols of capitalism and in intense clashes with the Carabineros de Chile. Despite some wearing down (normal and understandable after more than 80 days of combat), the violent fight against authority is alive and well—and is becoming widely recognized as the most effective tool to dismantle state oppression, even among those who, until recently, would have condemned such behavior. We believe that this collective realization, along with the absence of any defined leadership, are, in one way or another, the key ingredients that have kept this uprising uncontrollable.
The anarchist presence in the different spheres of the confrontation is clear, and it has been from the day one. How could it not be—when this uprising is a massive and overwhelming expression of the same tactics of disobedience carried out and encouraged by anarchists for years upon years? How could it not be, being an uncontainable uprising without centralized leadership? How could it not be, when it is so completely in harmony with our constant calls for movement and action? The uprising is part of us because we are part of it; we feel completely at home in its destructive maelstrom, working to spread and intensify it wherever and however we can, far from and contrary to any attempt to domesticate or control it.
In the midst of months of revolt, we pause and take a deep breath of air (still poisoned with tear gas, mind you) to clarify a few things, to collect our thoughts, to venture a few predictions, and, of course, to assert our defiance.
