I'm Kalcu. I'll introduce myself as Kalcu.
I live in an anti-authoritarian library
somewhere in Valparaíso
the work
i do is
I specifically deal with
actions that
have to do with creating propaganda
from this space
for context,
the library space is over 15 years old
for 15 years, the people who live
in the library
have generated activities
and
a political meeting place for liberatory
collectives, individuals, and
organizations
here in the region of Valparaíso
. . .
I think the first thing is to find a
group of people, a community, or a
union, or
or beings that are in your environment
that have any conflicts in common
and based on that conflict
to agree to organize
among people to achieve an objective
I think that organizing
it has to do with the ability
of people. That ability that
everyone can contribute every
one with his or her own knowledge
add up
and different visions and
different postures, different tools that
each individual each
person has then I believe
that organizing is
is important in the sense that
organizing can add up
a multiplicity of ideas easily
a wealth of knowledge to
reach an objective.
When it is necessary
to run, to get water
to begin to bring rocks
from such support on the streets
it's been very evident lately
that they are all important ways to help
each part of the street culture's
social fabric in the chaos like this.
Without the person who has baking soda,
or a lemon, or an ammonia, sometimes
people who are out there facing repression
couldn't be there
or wouldn't even be able to move.
or be able to get through the day
with the same energy
people who bring food that also
so
and all those kinds of organizing
I find it interesting that
so much of this is spontaneous
I'd make a point
about a symbiosis and a cooperation
among the people who happen
to be there at that minute,
without any kind of organization or planning beforehand.
For example, there are people who get fed
but without necessarily knowing
that other people are going to bring food.
I think one of the most interesting things
has been these new possibilities,
these new visions
of spontaneous organization
where each person present has the
opportunity to support what’s happening.
If someone is more afraid than the others
it doesn’t mean that their presence
in the crowd isn’t valid or useful, even if they're standing further back.
For me, I see “success”
as the capacity for changing,
in one way or another, the paradigms
they’ve had during their life.
Generally speaking, when somebody
first gets to know anarchist spaces,
there is a lot of change, lots of conflict
lots of transformation.
No one who leaves an anarchist space
is the same person as when they entered.
I’ve been lucky enough to get to know
spaces like that in Peru, in Argentina,
in Uruguay, in Brazil,
each with their own particularities,
with their own story.
Every country has its own context too.
I believe that
one success that you can
[Music]
savor within the practices of anarchists
is the ability to arrive somewhere
and meet new people and,
without even knowing them,
already have a sense of affinity,
or a little empathy, since there's already
in one way or another
certain points in common.
Then you have the quantity of experiences,
of knowledge, of tools
that these spaces are consistently
sharing with the people who visit
and live in anarchist spaces.
I also think you can measure success
by how well a project is received by the
rest of the community, in its neighborhood
whether that's the ghetto, up in the hills
[Music]
or downtown—wherever a space may be.
Lots of times they’re downtown
in the middle of the chaos.
Other times they’re on the outskirts,
or they’re in monstrously huge houses
that used to belong to the bourgeoisie,
or here in Chile there are cases
of spaces that used to be torture centers,
but in the end they
become political spaces,
political meet up spots,
a place for political resistance.
I think how a space is perceived
by the rest of the community
is important. Generally speaking,
when a space is opened up,
when a space pops up,
there’s a change with the neighbors.
There’s more connection
between the people
who get involved.
Often, the barriers of difference
and prejudice are broken.
People end up finding,
generally speaking,
a group of young people,
usually kind of strange ones,
just totally escaping normality
and normativity,
but when they get to know us and start
talking about these beautiful ideals
like many comrades are vegetarians
and vegans with
anti-speciesist views,
or perspectives against patriarchy,
against every type of violence.
Whether people pass through,
whether they enter those spaces or not,
those ideas catch on,
or at least that energy.
You can feel how these ideas are passed on
and how, one way or another,
they reach people and get absorbed.
There are many spaces, organizations,
collectives, and affinity groups
that operate under
libertarian ideas broadly but
not explicitly as anarchists.
Nowadays, there are lots of ways to
identify yourself as anti-authoritarian,
anti-statist,
or anarchist.
So, I believe that libertarian ideas are
a little more open.
They tend to have more
diversity within the same group,
while I think anarchist organizations
are a little more concentrated,
rather than opening themselves up
to diversity, the way more libertarian
collectives and communities do.
It’s hard to define.
Hard to parse it out, but I think that
both the individual and collective
positions of each community is unique.
Bluntly speaking—the question of hierarchy
and the organizational form they use.
Any party-based organization,
from the most left-leaning
to the furthest right-wing
utilizes a hierarchical structure
in its form of organizing.
They also form part of the
political circus, the spectacle
that people are disenchanted with.
Whereas the kinds of
organization anarchists use
always take an anti-state position.
They call authority itself into question,
they criticize it. They won’t submit
to the will of others
nor will they impose their own decisions.
I think that, sometimes,
for people who don’t know
much about the difference
between anarchists, leftists,
and other tendencies, they just
But in reality, no, anarchism can’t be
boxed into those parameters.
Rather, it’s a political position,
a philosophy that involves
political beliefs but,
more than anything,
anarchism
doesn’t use hierarchy
in its organizational forms.
Since we’re all so different,
the positions we take depend on
each organization, or affinity group,
or union. Here we also have
neighborhood assemblies.
There’s also cordones,
which simply means a sector of the city,
but the word is also used in reference to
geographically-based councils
that involve local residents,
shanty-dwellers, and tenants.
So, mostly, decision-making
and the forms of organization
are decided on together, whether that be
by majority-rule or by consensus.
Not all of them are totally rejected, and
there isn’t only one way to organize.
And there’s always the option to
leave a group, to start your own,
if you’re not happy with the
methods of organizing
or decision-making.
It’s in the hands of the collective.
In my time, through all the different
collectives & groups I’ve participated in
but also in other groups I’ve witnessed
while just passing through places,
rarely have I ever heard questions like,
“How can we attract more participants,
or more comrades?”
I think there are different positions,
for example more anti-social ones,
whose propaganda is more informative than
trying to attract new participants or
comrades or convincing anyone of anything.
So from more anti-social tendencies,
more insurrectionary tendencies,
from the most radical tendencies there
isn’t really much of a call or
direct invitation for people to join up,
or to start believing in anarchist ideas.
But there are comrades whose
political work is more social,
more based in people-power,
who believe in organizing from below
and neighborhood organizing.
And I think that the work they do
is also a kind of propaganda, & what they
do also has to do with art, with
artistic expression, with all kinds of
things that have to do with culture.
And there’s always the theory side too.
Which isn’t to say that other kinds of
tendencies don’t have
that kind of diversity, just that
the ends they’re seeking aren’t identical.
Even despite infighting between
comrades from more anti-social tendencies
and tendencies that are
more about social unity, we've had
both the possibility and the ability
to not identify each other as enemies
despite the fact that
we find ourselves
in different trenches.
So, I believe that the comrades that
show up in those spaces, those circles,
those affinity groups and organizations,
are there not because someone
sought to convince them of something,
but rather because
they felt attracted towards an idea.
More than being convinced,
those groups have participants
because of their own ideas and feelings.
And other people come through because
they want to draw, to express themselves,
for reasons that have to do with art,
or they have an idea for a project, or
because they have friends there & they
find themselves in a political project
where there’s lots of work to be done
with the community. I think here in Chile
we’ve had the chance to experience a
broad range of anarchist and
anti-authoritarian practices and tactics.
For me, strategy is
deciding on an objective
and seeking ways
to achieve that objective,
thinking about
how to advance towards it,
whether that’s individually
or collectively.
And depending on
the ideas that arise,
we can start thinking of tactics,
of the ways
to achieve those goals.
That’s basically how I see it.
On the one hand, we visualize, theorize,
develop our politics, basically thinking
on what it is we want—what we're seeking.
On the other hand, we start taking action
and we see how specifically we can make
those ideas real. In Chile, we’re lucky—
well I don’t know if “lucky” is the word,
but our history is full of conflict, of
blatant political persecution,
and of riots.
So conflicts and objectives
have always been present.
The strategies and tactics
that have been used in general
have been pretty broad.
Nowadays we can, for example,
hold marches, with the goal
of making visible, like,
of demonstrating discontent,
and that we are many.
Accordingly, the tactics
in those marches show discontent,
which is made visible with rioting.
People raise their voices, shout,
they can say whatever they want.
Then there’s blocking the street,
barricades—different kinds too.
There’s barricades with fire,
or with stones,
there are comrades who help
and rescue those who are injured.
I believe all these little roles
that emerge in the circumstances
of street conflicts are the tactics
that are getting adopted.
It also has a lot to do with the abilities
that each person may have.
Nowadays, there’s a lot of talk
about the primera linea,
which refers to the comrades
on the frontline
taking the brunt of the repression,
of all the police violence,
and they try to drive the cops back
with stones, with molotovs and slingshots,
with whatever they can,
even by just shouting at them.
and at the same time there are people who are
helping with
baking soda,
with milk of magnesium
to take away the irritability
from the tear gas bombs
there are people who are there to
help by driving their cars
to mobilize people in groups
relief teams and rescue teams
the tactics that are winning these days
can be inspired by other struggles
so for example tactics here have
been inspired by the conflict in Hong Kong
the idea of using lasers
and of using water jugs
to put out tear gas bombs
all these kinds of tactics are
lifelong learning the
constant learning
to observe also the conflicts that exist
around the world that also serve
as inspiration so that we can have
new experiences new ways of
attacking, new forms of resistance
within the territories in conflict.
When I was about to faint on the verge
of collapse and someone showed up
with a little bit of ammonia or
sometimes it was only water the
preparation and how it has evolved
all these forms of resistance is very
evident
Throughout history,
all these groups that generate
organizational circles
often get in internal conflicts
because of the strategies or tactics
that they use
and that generally
in different types of organizations
they aren't shared by everyone.
Today, what's happening in Chile is that
all forms of organization are
helping out, as long as they don't have a
party structure, as long as they don't
have an authoritarian position.
Today, we are able
to organize ourselves to
to help ourselves to add up
energy between territorial assemblies,
between affinity groups
between liberated spaces and squats
between labor unions
independent workers
among professionals and among people
who live on the streets.
The experience that is being lived today
in Chile is very enriching
in demonstrating this. In
demonstrating that everyone adds up
Beyond the capabilities or the
tools that they may perceive,
everyone can add to our strength
to continue the struggle,
with a clear vision, with a goal,
with an idea, with a force,
in the face of capitalist catastrophe,
In the face of the capitalist devastation,
it is necessary to have this energy.
There are those of us,
There are many people
who can't stay calm and continue life
in this "normality,"
when it is evident that they are
exterminating our future.
I believe that the learning or the way
to continue
absorbing
all this knowledge has to do with
quite a bit of communication,
oral communication.
As I was saying, Chile has a
long history of resistance, of
political positions, of poor neighborhoods
in the struggle. So, obviously today for
new generations of radicals, anarchists,
or more subversive people,
it's inevitable that things are learned
from the past. For example, this it has to do with the
student protests, blocking traffic,
building barricades, sharing pamphlets.
These are internationally used
resistance and street fighting practices.
And here,
it is possible if you want
to go know to make barricades.
you can go
on certain dates to the universities
and you don't need to ask any questions,
just observe.
Many,
many anarchist comrades from these
territories
are close to
formerly politically persecuted people.
I've known my fellow men and women
who are family members, who are nephews,
who are grandchildren, who are children of
politically persecuted, tortured and
disappeared people,
who now identify as
anarchists.
These experiences and knowledge
that only these people have, have been
and are being transmitted through films,
through conversations,
through documentaries.
The ways to learn
about this
and
to express that knowledge
to expand that knowledge
are always
very diverse
Communication, I think, is
basically one of the main ways.
To have the confidence to find
groups of people to who
you can ask about
how they worked and also to identify
and learn from the mistakes made by
groups, subversive groups for example.
Also, in these
territories we are fortunate that
many, many of us have
Mapuche ancestry. Also, it
is history that is important to
rescue and that obviously none of
us forget. We always have that
present.
We also have that duality or that
ability to position ourselves politically
like this from the point of view of
anarchists-but at the same time not
forgetting that we have our own
history. That, we have our own
individuality. That, we are from this
territory. That, we come from a
colonized territory. That, our
history and our practices and our
visions of anarchism
aren't going to be it 100% the same as the
fellow anarchists who are from
Palestine, Rojava, or Europe, or
from other parts of
Latin America.
I also believe that
we have
the capacity to find fun ways
to be able to
travel to meet each other.
To find groups, in which one
can arrive and feel comfortable to
to be able to learn with.
Part of what is happening now
you can see in one of the new slogans
used since the start of this new conflict
that, "It's not 30 pesos, it's 30 years."
We've been in this fake democracy
for 30 years.
It's like other democracies
world-wide.
I was lucky enough
to be part of a committee
for the student "penguin revolution "
mobilizations of 2006, when I was
a senior in high school.
In what ways have I seen that
that movement helped in the long term?
It's evident to anyone who is
in the street protests here now that
consciously open their eyes a little
and who wants to sense what's
going on around them, that many
of the people in the street protests,
much of the age range
that you see on the street
are people in our thirties,
thirty-somethings who were
in school at that time and that were
part of the "penguin revolution."
Today, some are professionals who
are in debt, living with the
consequences of how this
neoliberal education system works.
And, many others are not professionals.
Many others weren't interested.
Or, they weren't able to go to university.
They weren't able to get onto
this production line-
this social production line.
At the same time, others who
also suffer from the
consequences of this capitalist system
and who have followed the students'
example today have knowledge
- know how the mobilizations of 2006
- know that promises were made that
were never fulfilled.
As a result, 2011 also saw
an explosion from the students.
Because nothing had changed.
Today, more than 10 years later,
the same claims continue to be made
and the same objectives
are still being sought.
And beyond having not learned,
I don't think knowledge is there.
For example, in the streets
you see all these people that at some
point were also facing
from their schools from the shots
the protests that have taken place in the
were doing on the street
yes at least I can also observe
that a great has been a great a great
age range so younger so more
adolescents do not have as much as the
experience or knowledge of what
are in manifestations of what there is
in which to confront the repression
from the police
there's quite a bit of innocence to be had as well.
medium
but today we're already
several months of conflict already then
many of the knowledge that is not
attended until the beginning of this
conflict and I think that in the latter
weeks now
it's much more common to meet people
who is already more or less clear about what
how to protect yourself how to take care of yourself
how to take care of colleagues
I believe that
I don't know if I could set such an example
so much of how the
experience of us who were in
the penguin revolution of the comrades
who were later in the
mobilizations of 2011 but I do think that
when you're on the street than when
you look around and you find
people who are just starting out that
don't know and they join people who already
have been a rhythm like that much longer
advanced
I think that's where
it's clear that maybe it goes beyond
of words but gives directly
embodied in the
I would invite the Gauls and the
fellow anarchists
that we have the possibility of
to be able to organize ourselves to be able to have
positioning and policies from a
skill intersection
we have the I can get lucky today in
day on the basis of the conflict that is being
living our territories in what
I've always watched and seen a lot here in the
anarchist circles that were closing in
a lot of affinity group theories
which more or less everyone was chasing
and they all had more or less goals
very similar ideas and practices
anarchism at every level to the most
social is actually under a ghetto
then I guess my advice is that
open up to the possibility of opening
to open up these ghettos to the
possibility of being able to organize with
people who may not
necessarily were artists
that those who embrace and ideas
anti-speciesist to embrace ideas
anti-patriarchal
[Music]
to embrace ideas and spirituals that
let's rescue a little bit of the ancestry
lost that these centuries of colonization
western european white hetero
patriarchal has imposed on us has
snatched
is that as opening up the possibilities
of believing in other hobbies than being
open up the spirit and
reconnecting with diversity
I think what's happening today
a lot of people joined in because of that for looking
to the side and see people so
different with such different ideas
with tools with knowledge so
different but at the same time looking for
the same dreaming the same fighting for
the same
finding themselves having the same
tactics the same practices
roughly that as
not to fall so much into grandchildren where
think is all the same if not all the
contrary to opening ourselves up to the possibility of
relate to multiple forms of
think