La historia paralela

The great cha­llenge we face is how to turn minor crime, street rio­ting and social uphea­val into revo­lu­tio­nary vio­lence. We know that we shall not be given anyt­hing willin­gly, that we shall be gran­ted not­hing from the power­ful through voting and choo­sing depu­ties, sena­tors or legis­la­tors to repre­sent our inter­ests. (Ser­gio Sho­cklen­der, The Right to Vio­lence, 11-20-1999).

Dig­nity, inte­grity and free­dom are the con­di­tions nee­ded for the fun­ctio­ning of a fair Repu­blic, in which res­pect and laws pro­tect honest citizens.

Since May 25, 2003, howe­ver, when Mr. Kir­ch­ner took office, all these bases have been repla­ced by indig­nity, injus­tice, inse­cu­rity and increa­sing vio­lence that have impo­sed on society an ideo­lo­gi­zed imba­lance, kee­ping the sove­reign in sla­very and servitude.

Not­hing is casual. Everyt­hing was plan­ned and dis­cus­sed from a pat­ho­lo­gi­cal, bar­ba­ric, and machia­ve­llian dysfunction.

The alle­ged demo­cra­tic appea­rance was hiding the true inten­tions of des­tro­ying the repu­blic by disin­te­gra­ting the social tis­sue. This plan­ned stra­tegy was announ­ced by Ser­gio Sho­cklen­der in the days pre­vious to the laun­ching of the “Uni­ver­si­dad Popu­lar Madres de Plaza de Mayo”, when he stated:

“The mat­ter of vio­lence is one of the cen­tral issues in which each of us has to esta­blish a stand­point and have defi­ni­tions. This theme is gene­ra­lly avoi­ded by the inte­llec­tuals and usua­lly on the verge of poli­ti­cal analy­sis, because it frigh­tens. Due to the libe­ral, chris­tian, reac­tio­nary dis­course (and so on) that vio­lence is evil; we have assu­med that vio­lence only gene­ra­tes vio­lence, that peace is neces­sary. Moreo­ver, we have assu­med that man­kind is good, when we know this is not so. Huma­nity is not bad, howe­ver, but the pro­duct of sys­tems in diverse his­to­ri­cal, poli­ti­cal and social moments. It is a con­crete data that vio­lence exists; it is everyw­here. Curiously, those who trig­ger vio­lence against us are the ones that argue that we should not be vio­lent, that we are to be tole­rant because not­hing is sol­ved through violence.”

Schoklender’s words reflect those facts that overw­helm the peo­ple through an abso­lute power, backed up by the most abho­rrent minds that sur­vive in the social subsoil.

“Today is a place in which we live sca­red, wit­hin cabi­nets crow­ned with bar­bed wire, where after 7 pm the neigh­bors do not dare go out, where the chap gangs kill each other. That exists and anyone wal­king or wor­king in the suburbs or slums would realize what I am tal­king about. This is not a reac­tio­nary dis­course, but an attempt to recog­nize what is going on. Behind this reality data there are two dis­cour­ses: that of the reac­tio­nary sec­tors who argue that peo­ple are bad, that more secu­rity is nee­ded, that police’s wages should be rai­sed, that more poli­ce­men as well as more police sta­tions are nee­ded, that tougher laws and more repres­sion are to be set up. On the other hand we have the lef­tist, pro­gres­sive dis­course that argues: in fact this is not so; it is the media which are to blame. All vio­lence is the pro­duct of exclu­sion, of mar­gi­na­tion, of impo­ve­rish­ment, of capi­ta­lism. Indeed, the inten­tion is to enlarge this balloon, to make believe that there is too much vio­lence that jus­ti­fies repression.

This is what is hap­pe­ning nowa­days in Argen­tina and the reason of those already plan­ned events that are put for­ward by this cha­rac­ter with the sup­port of the ‘Mot­hers’, while set­ting up that dread­ful place called ‘university’.

In the last ten years the expe­rience of Latin Ame­rica –of the world indeed– but spe­cia­lly of Latin Ame­rica which is more fami­liar to me, shows that only those orga­ni­za­tions and move­ments that have been able to change social vio­lence into revo­lu­tio­nary vio­lence are the ones that have been heard and suc­cee­ded in the nego­tia­tion table. The most sig­ni­fi­cant exam­ple are the Colombian’s FARC. There is no mili­tary solu­tion for social con­flicts. There is no armed remedy. The solu­tion will always be poli­tic. But in order to be able to nego­tiate we should demons­trate that we are as strong as they are. This means to break up with many myths, being the big­gest one the idea that vio­lence is bad. Vio­lence is bad, depen­ding on who it ser­ves. Crime is always bad because it iden­ti­fies no enemy, because it con­fu­ses the enemy, because it unders­tands that the neigh­bor is the enemy and not that the enemy is a ‘class enemy’. The enemy is a sys­tem to be des­tro­yed, to be abo­lis­hed. I want you to lis­ten to some words brought by some com­ra­des of La Can­tora, a radio sta­tion that fea­tu­res the pri­so­ners’ voi­ces. One of these fellows sta­tes that petty crime, the tres­pas­sers, the picke­ters, those who roam the streets with an iron bea­ter, are the only ones who face the sys­tem. We should suc­ceed in chan­ging that indi­vi­dual vio­lence into orga­ni­zed violence.”

This is a clear exam­ple, as a mirror, of all that was sys­te­ma­ti­ca­lly put for­ward in the whole coun­try to scare the citi­zens­hip with state poli­cies desig­ned to strengt­hen the tyranny. The Argen­ti­nes are used as hos­ta­ges, sho­wing the alliance bet­ween terro­rism and orga­ni­zed crime.

The dis­mantling of the Armed For­ces res­ponds to cer­tain stra­te­gic plan­ning of the sub­ver­sive orga­ni­za­tions in Latin Ame­rica, spe­cia­lly the FARC.

“If you think of vio­lence, you think of many years of for­ma­tion or defor­ma­tion of the ‘human­tia­rian’ dis­course, that is why we unders­tand that orga­ni­zed vio­lence is cer­tainly the only alter­na­tive for the con­quest of social claiming.”

The social clai­ming to which Scho­klen­der refers to is what is impo­sed daily and openly through the hoo­ded club-holding picke­ters, vin­di­ca­ted by the Jus­tice and shel­te­red behind spe­cial human rights, while honest peo­ple are des­pi­sed and scor­ned through the Power’s discourse.

“We should be able to iden­tify those levels of vio­lence, we should begin to orga­nize our­sel­ves and to pre­pare a sys­te­ma­ti­zed poli­ti­cal and vio­lent ans­wer, because there is no other way out.

Kno­wing that the peo­ple would never accept this in the polls, these sub­ver­sive groups settled down, dis­gui­sed behind a lie sup­por­ted by the pre­si­den­tial couple and wit­hin a tra­di­tio­nal poli­ti­cal party, that did not see or refu­sed to see the fellows behind.”

In this way, thanks to a naive 22%, the citi­zens were betra­yed and expo­sed to a pro­gram­med inse­cu­rity which would keep them panic-stricken and depen­dant of dehu­ma­ni­zed terrorists.

“Only for the fede­ral sys­tem there are three more jail com­ple­xes on the go. They are not likely to be enough. But for cer­tain excep­tions, all those wit­hin come from the mar­gi­nal sec­tors and many of them are there because they refu­sed to accept what it is impo­sed on them.

The anti­ci­pa­ted freeing of thou­sands of felons shows the neces­sary rela­tions­hip of an accom­plice Jus­tice with corrupt offi­cials in the secu­rity areas, who yield to revenge sec­tors that mis­judge not only the law but also the con­ti­tu­tio­nal gran­ting while put­ting in serious risk the citi­zens’ life and freedom.”

The future is at stake while dan­ger lurks the Nation’s des­ti­nies. The res­cue ope­ra­tion could only be led by those honest citi­zens who dare face the cha­llenge and choose faith­ful men to repre­sent them through demo­cra­tic polls.

Source: The Right to Vio­lence. Works­hops pre­vious to the laun­ching of the Uni­ver­si­dad Popu­lar Madres de Plaza de Mayo. This is a lec­ture by Ser­gio Scho­cklen­der recor­ded on 11-20-1999. Semi­nar on cri­ti­cal analy­sis of the Argen­tine reality (1984–1999). Web site: Uni­ver­si­dad Popu­lar de las Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Part1 — Part2

Autor: Susana Sechi
Director of La Historia Paralela
Translation: Raquel Eugenia Consigli

Email: susanasechi@gmail.com

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