Workers Solidarity Movement

Readers views on some controversy generated with the last issue

The last issue of Red & Black Revolution included an article written by Donato Romito, a militant in the Italian FdCA for many years. One paragraph of this has proved controversial and below we print a reply to this paragraph and Donato's response to the points raised. The full article is on the web at or if you send us an SAE we'll send you a copy of it. The paragraph in question is reproduced below

"There are tens of non-federated groups and circles. ... Among these groups we have to mention Cane Nero. Their positions are inspired by insurrectionalism (in the name of anarchy). Their "military" actions are decided in secrecy and often provoke police repression against all anarchists who more often than not know nothing about Cane Nero's actions. These comrades are then asked by Cane Nero to support it. Yet when the dust eventually settles, the name of anarchy has been ruined and around anarchism there is only a desert!!"

Dear Comrades,

I read the article about Italian anarchism in your last issue and after showing it to comrades involved in the 'Italian Solidarity Committee' in Munich, Germany, have been urged to write to you to comment on a few points in this article.

Under the heading "Non-Federated Groups" the author talks about a group called 'Canenero'. In reality no such group exists, 'Canenero' is a magazine that writes about insurrectionalism and is not affiliated to any particular group.

The author afterwards accuses this non-existent group of "military actions" which "are decided in secrecy". This is simply a lie, the comrades in Italy do not distinguish between 'military' and 'nonmilitary' actions, they see it as 'direct action' which can - of course - take different forms. As there is no established organisation most actions are decided more or less 'secretly', i.e. in very small groups, but there exist many opportunities where insurrectionalistic anarchists meet (with the full knowledge of other Italian anarchists) and your author would have been more than welcome to participate.

Insurrectionalistic anarchists in Italy do not form a sort of clandestine movement as the article implies, instead this is exactly what the Italian state and the police want to make everybody believe, so they can get on with their repression and their imprisonments.

The insurrectionalistic comrades in Italy need our solidarity, because tomorrow it could be others who are criminalised and eventually it could be us.

More information about the recent repression against Italian anarchists can be obtained from the "Italian Solidarity Committee" in Munich at the following address:

Solikommittee Italien c/o Infoladen Munchen
Breisachnerstr. 12
81667 Munchen Germany

All the best.
Martin Kubler (for the Italian Solidarity Committee, Munich)
23rd October 1997

Reply of Donato Romito (FdCA)

Yes, what's very important is solidarity - solidarity with comrades who are victims of state repression. (See judge Marini's stunt, one comrade's suicide in prison and another two in jail in Turin, one comrade in Milan sentenced to 5 years and 270 millions of Italian liras on the base of a not focusing video....) But solidarity does not imply agreement or support for insurrectionalistic positions.

Direct action is made by the organised masses, and not by individuals considering themselves as anarchist vanguards and splinters of the working-class at the same time. Anarchism was born inside the real movement of the masses and its revolutionary aims live inside the class-struggles and are not separate from them.

So it does not matter whether "Canenero" is a magazine or a group, it does matter if different forms of direct action are "decided more or less secretly" "by very small groups" of insurrectionist anarchists. Our view it that of Cafiero, who wrote in 1882

: "...it's better one step with all comrades along the real road of life, than to stay alone walking hundreds of yards...in abstract."

Libertarian Regards, Donato Romito
Federazione Dei Comunisti Anarchici
fdca@mlx.pandora.it

This article is from Red and Black Revolution 4, published November 2000

Read the rest of the articles in this issue online at http://www.wsm.ie/story/1887
Download the PDF file from http://struggle.ws/pdfs/RBR4.pdf

Read all the issues of Red and Black Revolution at http://www.wsm.ie/rbr