Mexico: When Christmas Starts, Anarchy Ends…

From Contra Info
Translation submitted to It’s Going Down
*all footnotes from translator

Text received on December 18th, 2016:

Politics begin where anarchist ethics end

It was only a few years ago, on December 13th, 2013, when some hooded ones burned the Christmas tree located on Avenida Reforma[1]. This action took place during manifestations against subway ticket hikes, that tragically ended between the reform and recuperation by NGO’s and governmental agencies of social welfare; however at the same time these occasions witnessed spontaneous actions, autonomous organization and sabotage from the oppressed and exploited. After this symbolic anti-capitalist act, one compañero still remains in prison accused of setting the Christmas tree sponsored by Coca-Cola on fire. The -symbolic- burning of the tree from Coca-Cola wasn’t just meant as an attack against the symbol of North American[2] capitalism, but also as an attack against the culture of consumerism, an attack against religious traditions imposed by those who believe they’re the owners of the world, an attack on patriarchy, against power and all religious and moral authority.

The State, in obvious communion with the aberrant moral ideologies imposed by the Catholic Church or by Christianity, responsible for keeping alive religious-patriarchal traditions of the family that are a piece of the puzzle of domination, that fit perfectly within capitalism and consumerism, turning itself into a product to be sold. In the Germanic language, Weihnachten[3] or Christmas Eve, means a night of blessing, is an instrument of domination and social control that functions like an instrument of subjection by means of the concession to the State and Capital, while giving the exploited “freedom” to consume at the coast of their own exploitation. Christmas is also an instrument of force today in moral submission that continues to perpetuate the idea of a patriarchal family (or matriarchal as it might be) and brings a little bit of social peace and comfort to the masses tormented by the horrors of the State and Capital. It is a glutinous party of total consumption, a day of neighborhood gatherings, a day of hypocrisy, a day of falsehood, a feast for capital. Capitalism and the Church are those who celebrate when the “anarchists” lose their ethics and principals, fulfilling traditions that have been established at the expense of blood, death, feminicide, and the exploitation of animals and nature.

Today, there is the almost mythical manifesto of the anarchist Bakunin entitled God and the State,[4] which has been one of the most important books for the development of anarchist thought that is unfortunately being overtaken by the Christian-pacifist doctrine of Lev Nikilayevich Tolstoy[5] –in an assertion according to millenarian anarchists–. This millenarian pollution has plagued anarchism by the presence of this person who was never fully vanquished, and in these times and places when the perspective of conflict has started to be revived from the ruins, to be seen and put into practice; it also also been revived and exists among us.

A libertarian Christmas party is simply the reflection of this aberrant religious pollution and deviation from an anarchist ethic that seeks the destruction of all power and authority. It is evident today that the many efforts of “good thinking” aim to bury the insurrectionary perspective, we now know that insurrectionary thought was not born a few years ago from the theses of Alfredo Bonanno and so many other compañerxs, but the perspective of attack, of conflict, and the permanent insurrection has been and still is present, even with multiple strains. This effort to supplant ideas and practices focused on the destruction of the State and power, by the followers of the absurd anarcho-Christianity, are simply and always will be ill-defined.

More specifically, what do we see behind the libertarian accommodation?

Politics has killed the ethics of when some “anarchopunks” and anarcho-Christians are given chores like those of politicians, resorting to the art of deception, manipulation, lies, and masks for the sole purpose of getting along with people and their neighbors to gain recruits for their anarchist struggle. The same entities who accuse comrades of acting like politicians who “steal”, today act like those same politicians who deceive. In this form, their antiquated view of progressive reform in society towards anarchy will be fruitless. Just as a politician uses many strategies to seize power, reaffirming the values of the system by calling attention to the vile reproduction of patriarchal feasts is a deception. Or perhaps, we’re mistaken, and you already believe in God, since these holidays are nothing more than the reaffirmation of the reign of God on this earth, to reaffirm the omnipotent power of the Church and State. The need to bear, to get along with, and to continue with the welfare work of the social State, and the religious ethics of charity and the continued reaffirmation of the absurd and silly campaign of “anarchy is not a crime” and “anarchists are beautiful and good,” through acts of social welfare like collecting toys for poor children.

The aberrant anti-religious perspective of an anarchism that breaks with all of the dogma and power is being overtaken by the idea of “coexistence” born in part from celebrating the same festivities that Capitalism imposes on us with unique dates of union and fraternity. It is also being supplanted when the same language of the system is reproduced, even more so, when as written above, by the dates marked on the calendar of world capitalism. Mother’s Day, International Women’s Day, Flag Day, Labor Day, Valentines Day, are the dates that are reclaimed or that we struggle against, however as you know, are always dates marked by the State and Capitalism as a time to protest or to show affection, love and support. This is the most obvious way to clearly show that the State and Capital are still the owners of their lives and actions.

The imprisonment of a compañero accused of burning the Christmas tree and the struggle he has carried on inside the prison (no matter how debatable it may be) is reduced to almost nothing when antagonistic “libertarian” acts claiming the values and festivities of Capital and the State are simply antagonistic to the the interventions of those hooded ones who sought to attack religious morality and a symbol of Capitalism. Above all, it is a joke when the same people who refute the actions of these compañerxs and publicly mock them, are the same people who then posthumously hang medals of “solidarity” on the prisoners, to reproduce in the end acts contrary to the struggle of compañerxs.

We have no doubt that among the Christmas-partying anarchists (Oh! I ask for a xmas celebration in the name of heaven!) there are always present the good consciences and compañerxs who think (without thinking) that they are doing what is right in order to spread anarchist perspectives among society. Without a doubt there are, but behind it all is always the respect for the authority of a moral leader, a disciple of Tolstoy, that few know and that in the past many opposed, that seeks to impersonate anarchist ethics with the neurotic, crude, moralistic, aberrant, and pacifist Christianity.

Fire to the Church and to all religious, authoritarian, patriarchal and morals of power!

Just as the Catholic Church in Mexico is gaining more power, just today when ultra-right groups call for marches for life, marches for family, anti-abortion marches; just as these Christmas celebrations continue to represent the abyss of consumerism and continue to reduce individuals to commodities; precisely today is when were should attack religious morality, it’s when we should continue the discussion that has given rise to debate and the anti-religious critique in all of it’s splendor, it is when we must turn up discourses almost lost and actions against religion and it’s unification with the State in submission to morality and exploitation.

It is precisely today that we need to burn all their churches and sabotage their religious festivities, since these are not of the people, but of capital, of the church, of religion, and as an old anarchist once said of religion, it is more of the yoke of the people and the antithesis of the individual.

Day by day, fire to the Church, the State, Capitalism, and all types of power and authority new and old!

– Sincerely:

Anarchist compañerxs from the Mexico City region, December 17, 2016

[1] Mexico City (DF), Mexico

[2] North America is Canada, The United States of America, and The United States of Mexico, see also NAFTA. Interestingly enough, Mexico consumes the most Coca-Cola out of any country in the world.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weihnachten

[4] “God and the State” by Michail Bakunin https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/michail-bakunin-god-and-the-state

[5] https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/leo-tolstoy