Manifesto of the October 18th Movement

Note: This communique was previously excerpted in “Triple explosive attack against critical infrastructure.”

To the people of Chile.

As a first point, as Movimiento 18 de Octubre we take responsibility for the three explosive attacks on capitalist infrastructure, sabotages carried out in Valparaíso by the Comando Mauricio Arenas Bejas, in Bío Bío by the Comando Lafkenche Pilmaiquen and in Ñuble by the Comando Luisa Toledo. The reasons are explained below.

A dark period is approaching in Chile, marked by an incipient fascism penetrating the masses, which today has positioned a conservative and backward right wing in charge of drafting the new constitution, which will govern the destinies of the country for the next decades or, failing that, will perpetuate the constitution emanating from the dictatorship. But how did we arrive at this scenario, less than four years after the beginning of the popular revolt that uncovered the structural abuses of this capitalist state, that mobilized millions in rejection of the AFP, the commercialization of health and education, the safeguarding of water for human life, the protection of the environment and the rejection of precarious work? Everything seems to be very well elaborated.

Since the signing of the agreement for Peace on November 15, 2019, when the criminal government of Sebastián Piñera was up against the ropes, the savior appeared who today is in charge of order and of perpetuating the systematic abuses of the capitalist system. With Boric, the right wing and the political class as a whole planned their agenda for the current period, understanding that a young face, heir to the student movement, could calm the waters of revolt, with the addition of the constituent promise that would change the bases of institutionality and echo the popular demands.

The juridical illusion of the new constitution, added to the pandemic, demobilized the people who today observe how everything will change so that nothing changes. The failure of the first convention, an absolutely exclusive affair of this puppet government and the communist party, gave way to the conservative offensive which was very well designed by the oligarchy, the political class and the media, installing its security agenda in the face of an insipid government. Without having any capacity to react, this government has observed how the right wing is gaining ground among the most dispossessed masses, disposing at will of the new constitutional council, where the neoliberal model will be rearranged for the next 50 years under a strong Portalian order that ensures the stability that the companies need to continue plundering the country at will. Just as the oligarchy did in Lirquén in 1833, Alessandri in 1925 and the dictatorship in 1980. The design repeats itself.

This explains the enactment of the Nain-Retamal law, which today gives retroactive impunity to the criminal police who violated human rights during the Revolt and who today are strengthened as the armed wing of the political class and the economic model in the face of any new revolt or mobilization for popular demands. The best example of this is the violent eviction of the Marrichiwew housing project in Viña del Mar, where numerous families were deprived of their right to housing.

All this legal-political framework undoubtedly seeks to consolidate the new process of capitalist accumulation by dispossession, where land and water have become the new commodities to the detriment of the people under the pretext of economic growth. And here again the government, which claims to be of the left, has given the TPP11 its stamp of approval, with the expansion of the Los Bronces mining company, the pollution of the Quintero-Puchuncavi industrial cordon and its gross omission in the face of the ecological disaster that the forestry industry has generated in Wallmapu.

It is here where the sabotage of a high tension tower in Valparaíso by Comando Mauricio Arenas Bejas and of the railway line in Itata by Comando Luisa Toledo, on which only raw materials from the Nueva Aldea pulp mill of the Arauco company of the Angelini group circulate, are vindicated. Neither the communities nor citizens move along these roads, only the eucalyptus trees of this forestry company that have caused so much damage to the ecosystem, the Itata River and the surrounding rural communities.

The new order designed by the political and business clases also seeks to annihilate the dignified Mapuche resistance that day by day confronts the forestry companies and landowners who usurp their historic territory. In the last few weeks we have seen how the government together with the right wing have orchestrated a set-up to punish the Mapuche political prisoners in the Angol prison, dispersing them to different prisons, taking them away from their communities and families. We understand that the Mapuche resistance greatly annoys the capitalists who have their interests in the Mapuche territory and that is why they need to strike at their morale to the point of subordinating them. But we also know that they will not succeed despite the state of emergency, the unprecedented militarization and the legislative agenda of the political class that approved the law against timber theft and will soon enact the law of usurpations that seek to protect the private property of the usurpers. Faced with this scenario, we send our warm greetings to the Mapuche nation, to their political prisoners on hunger strike and communities in resistance, and you can count on us for future conspiracies.

It is in this context that the Comando Lafkenche Pilmaiken attacked a high tension tower in Los Alamos, a commune where the Special Forces bases of the Carabineros and the Navy are located, the center of the repressive policies in the territory. With this action we also demand the immediate return to Angol of the Mapuche political prisoners dispersed to Rancagua, Concepción and Puerto Montt.

50 years after the coup, we make it clear that there is no room for hesitation. The right wing, Boric and their ignominy try to close this chapter under the excuse of national unity. We remind them that the blood of our heroes will not be compromised and that as long as we do not know where the last disappeared detainee is, we will neither forgive nor forget. To the criminals of the communities who are still at large, do not sleep. To the fascists Alexis Lopez, Pancho Malo, APRA, republicans all, and the capitalist political class, be clear that you are our class enemies and that circumstances are not in your favor.

The call is to the people of Chile. To open their eyes in the face of this new scenario that is coming. To organize again in the neighborhoods, in the environmentalist coordinations, in the unions, in the student federations and in the academy. To return to dispute the principles that made rage explode that October 18. To kill the AFP. To kill private health and education. To defend water. To defend life. To reclaim Chile for the people.

Freedom for all political prisoners of the revolt, Mapuche, anarchists and subversives.

A new ghost haunts Chile

October 18th Movement