(Anarchist Bulletin, no 13, January 2002)
BRUSSELS, 13-15 DECEMBER 2001
This way, it signified the verification of the bosses’ projects to intensify their economical, social and political attack inside fortress-Europe and in its periphery, and also marked (through the European army and the euro-terror-law) the european recruitment in the war against those populations who have no place in the prosperity of the West, against those who resist its hegemony, against the excluded and the refugees, those who refuse it and those who revolt, threatening its security.
At the same time, in this summit, the reactions of the international anti-capitalist movement would be weighed, first in front of the escalation of repression (for the increasing venture it represents especially after Genoa) as well as in front of the fact that this repression is obviously now part of a wider repressive framework, where global domination receives strikes and responds with military means.
For these issues, the position of the reformists of D14 coordination (left parties, ngo’s etc) and not only of the trade-unions this time, was indicative of their orientation: they chose to leave unharmed the center of Brussels and the place of the summit, by organizing mobilizations that avoided even getting close to the red zone... This move of them reflects their dead-end after Genoa revolt (since offensive action doesn’t get along with negotiations) and declares their total compliance with the regime’s legality. As for the field of the widespread imperialist war, it was made clear that their calls for “peace” were rather addressed to the demonstrators than to those who launch war against the humankind.
On the contrary, anarchists, in their biggest part, expressed a different spirit. The symbolic attacks against state and capitalist targets and against the police may have not been generalized but they were a clear and practical position: the course of Genoa remains open... On the way of the anti-capitalist & anti-state struggle and in solidarity with the oppressed people all over the world, WE are the “internal enemy” in the heart of the empire, we will undermine the rulers’ security inside their metropoles and sabotage every project of social and class pacification which offers them consent for their criminal operations... It is a position that doesn’t restrict itself in denouncing the sufferings caused by domination, but focuses on constructing the rival social-class side.
Repression and the “state of emergency” inflicted by the war on “terrorism” are not reasons for us to abandon our goals and methods. They are reasons that confirm how necessary and opportune our goals and methods are... Furthermore they are reasons for us to expand our self-organization, to radicalize our intervention and intensify the social offensive. Concerning the issue of self-organization, we deem as positive the realization of an anarchist demonstration in Brussels, as an attempt to create an autonomous antagonistic point of reference, against the Euro-state and the reformists.
Consequently, there was no “common answer” from the anti-capitalist movement towards the E.U. summit in Brussels. What happened was that the already existing divergence between its radical and reformist tendencies had been extended in new fields. We believe that this happened in a way that makes comparison unavoidable and reinforces the anti-authoritarian and subversive way of struggle, as the only living and antagonistic perspective.
And since Brussels were not a stage of “explosion” but an important moment, indicating each ones intentions inside this current turning-point... “it is in our way to support or trigger the explosions of this spirit of destroying this new world that can’t be expropriated”.
(...)