Ya es tiempo de violencia (1969) - full transcript
Oh fatherland! I will follow you,
I will descend into the abyss for you,
I will swallow the bitterness,
I will turn blind so that you can see,
I will lose my voice so that you can sing
I will die so that you can live
Now is the Time for Violence
You live in a society that sees itself as Western and Christian.
But as a captive of the liberal ideology and capitalist system,
this society betrays and ridicules the Christian values.
Yet you are a part of this country - Argentina
which shares the destiny of Latin America
where the masses suffer from hunger and die young,
as a result of devastating exploitation.
You witness how everyday our country is being chained and condemned,
and how the efforts of its sons are sent abroad,
as a payment of the usurious loan,
in the presence of the useless and impotent government,
that does not have the courage to free the country
from its status of the beggar among the developed nations.
But to all of that we have said: Enough!
We have reached our limits and we have decided to end this silent war,
in which only the masses suffer casualties.
The revolutionary war, the people's war has begun.
And although we know that we will have to suffer greatly,
that death and destruction will reign for a long time,
we are determined to continue the struggle until the masses will seize the power.
We cannot deceive us and deceive the masses about this single issue:
The people's victory has a high price.
Before dying of hunger or coldness, before suffering more humiliations,
the masses prefer to launch the definitive struggle for power.
The oligarchy has pushed the masses to the struggle; it has challenged our people.
And we have accepted the challenge.
The neocolonialism in America needs its agent.
It is masked by the word "the state", that means: to oppress and exploit the masses.
The state transforms itself in a tool of repression,
to stamp down all the resistance that may arise from the downtrodden.
It uses troops, police forces, tribunals - military and civil ones, prisons;
It also makes use of the theoreticians who preach pacifism and non-violence,
Trying to convince the exploited to "accept their destiny"
without resorting to violence in the struggle against the exploiters.
- We are in the province of Cordoba, with the member of government , Mario Diaz Corodero.
What can you tell us about what is taking place in here?
- A while ago I've announced to the reporters and I want to inform you know,
that the situation in Cordoba is normalizing at a fast pace,
It has been brought under control by the military and security forces.
As of this afternoon there were only few sniper posts left that required our intervention.
This has been resolved in a swift, calm and prudent action,
in the course of the operation led by the military and police.
For this reason I think that in a short time we will be able to normalize the situation in the city of Cordoba,
And its citizens will be able to move freely again and go back to their workplaces in peace,
As I am sure all of them wish to.
- Do you think that the snipers are of extremist origin?
- Well, I think that at this stage the whole national public opinion has seen the images
That lay bare the type of actions that took place in Cordoba.
This implies that we are confronted with the type of action alien to our,
the Argentinian, way of resolving problems;
indeed we observe some extremist methods, just as you suggested,
that clearly aim to subvert and cause disorder.
- Could you give us some details on the number of dead, injured and detained.
- Well, the last I heard, until I have arrived in Cordoba there was only one unfortunate casualty
that occurred yesterday, its causes can be traced back to the fights and the disorder that had arisen.
Then, the other dead is a consequence of fainting.
And on this occasion I want to assure you all that we proceed just as we ought to in a situation like this one,
balancing between repression and prevention.
And if we wish to go back to our daily lives soon,
we have to find the right balance
between resolutely countering the violence and preventing it.
- Are the detained being already judged by the military tribunals?
- At this very moment, they've been delivered to the military tribunals.
- What information can you give us on the situation in the other parts of the country?
- The other parts of the country are absolutely calm, the whole day has been peaceful.
- Have you informed the president about your visit in Cordoba?
- I've just arrived, sir, and I've just received the press people
because you were waiting for me so impatiently...
- When will you inform the president?
The president knows that I am at his disposal to update him on the situation.
The system uses the media that are at its disposal to misinform, to lie.
The masses that have mastered its own methods do not believe in the official information anymore.
In some cases they make fun of it.
It is not true that what happened in Cordoba on 29 and 30 of May
Was organized by the foreigners or groups that act in the interest of foreign powers.
On the contrary, we are convinced that it was a spontaneous reaction of the citizens of Cordoba
that - just as many of their compatriots - are tired of the oppression,
of the injustice, of the persecution that is perpetrated by a minority of the privileged ones.
Finally, it is a reaction of the masses that become conscious of their dignity.
The occupation of the city of Cordoba by workers and students that lasted some hours,
is more than just a symbol. It is a sign of things to come,
a sign of what the masses in Argentina and the whole of America hope for,
a new political, social, economic and cultural order.
The goals of the occupation prove the vanguard political maturity of the occupants:
casinos that belong to the members of military, private banks based on the usury,
state agencies and offices, nightclubs, cabarets and bars, police stations.
The police that had been defeated, and had to run cowardly in the face of the masses,
took its vengeance by harming the ones that the military manage to detain.
The military treated the detainees - almost 1500 persons -
in an inhumane way, abusing and humiliating them.
Similarly, the military tribunals, created on the very same day to judge the civilians,
sentenced 31 citizens from 3 to up to 8 years of prison.
This is how Augustin Tosco, the general secretary of the "Light and power" sindicate,
was condemned to 8 years and 3 months in prison.
Tosco sent his companions a letter from Santa Rosa prison,
that we will read later on to show his courageousness and his honesty.
The masses have gained faith in their strength, and confidence in themselves.
They have fought and have recovered the joy.
They have acquired the consciousness that attests of its might and of the possibilities
that spring out of their organized force.
No doubt, they will continue the struggle, and they won't be stopped
by the leaders that refuse to lead them;
politicians, workers and students will be repudiated with the same violence
that the masses used against the people in the service of dictatorship.
It is expressed in the phrase by the General Peron:
"With the leaders at the head or with the heads of the leaders."
- Well, the situation in Argentina hasn't changed much over the last 15 years.
Each time we were supposed to vote, we were given some proscriptions.
So when we voted for "Union Popular" - the candidate in Buenos Aires was Farmini - you know what happened.
In this country los milicos (members of the military) seem to own the truth.
Think about what happened when he assumed power.
All the newspapers and magazines saw him as a savior.
And I ask myself: What savior? Whose savior?
From the beginning we weren't doing good.
Think about the strike on the 1st March.
The dock workers, the railway workers... What happened in Tucuman?
I spent more than 15 years working in Buenos Aires.
I spent only two years here.
And it was in Cordoba that I've understood something that I couldn't comprehend back in Buenos Aires
The syndicate is me...
You cannot argue with the leaders. The syndicate should be one and united.
We can miss one assembly...
But shoulder to shoulder is how you get things done, right?
We are very united.
And here, for example, you meet the leaders and the delegates everyday.
It is not like that everywhere.
Well...
When I came here, after I left everything I had in Buenos Aires.
Well... Everything... I never had much... Family, friends.
I left because I was thrown out from lots of places. I couldn't find a job.
So when I came here, and I knew I haven't had much to lose...
Moreover the are in control, they've got all the laws, tribunals...
All the power.
We began losing slowly everything we had accomplished when Peron was in power.
It was slipping out of our hands.
That is how the 29th came about.
We came out at eleven, from everywhere, all united.
From Santa Isabel, Grandes Motores, FIAT.
Like that, all very united.
Well... You can see them from afar.
In a line. All looking alike. With guns.
You don't know whether they will shoot bullets or gas.
But then you look over the shoulder, you see all your comrades.
All united. And that gives you strength.
And you feel like you gonna knock them down.
And that's how it was! And we did it few times!
Until we reached the square.
There they were really waiting for us.
We wanted to get to the headquarters of CGT but...
They threw some gas, they started to shoot.
To my right, 30 meters from me, there was a pavement...
That's where Maximo Mena was shot.
He was a union leader.
A guy had some balls, you know.
Right after, he was surrounded by the gendarmerie.
Some were saying that the troops were coming in armed vehicles.
The most highly skilled in the country, they say.
But some minutes passed and we started to dominate the situation.
We even had enough time to construct the barricades.
They made use of their guns, they were killing people.
And we were hitting their weak point - the property.
Xerox, Auto Motor, Tecnicor - belongs to the son of Caballero, right?
And then the governmental buildings, ministry of social services.
From there we started to gather on Colon and Lacanada street.
We were almost 3000 persons strong.
The police and gendarmerie almost disappeared.
We knew that the military was coming with all the had.
But we had only one thing in our minds: to resist.
To show what we were capable of. To endure.
The moment we saw them, we knew: the came with all they had.
So people started to throw at them whatever they had at hand.
There was a women that started to curse them.
They gunned her down.
It was around five o'clock in the afternoon.
According to our estimates at least 20 something people died.
That was the moment when I realized the we actually couldn't stay on the streets like that,
that we couldn't let them shoot at us just like that.
So I went back home. Where I lived nothing was happening.
My wife was in tears, she was listening to the radio, hugging our kid.
When I entered the house, she started to cry even more.
I drunk some mate.
I went out, I took my 22 caliber gun and the bullets.
I hid the gun behind my back.
I filled the bag with bullets .
And that's more or less how I left.
I arrived near Colon, I stopped at a hotel, and climbed on the second floor.
I got as close to the window as I could.
I glanced down at the street.
I stepped back. I smoked a cigarette while looking at the sky.
It was my first cigarette since I left the factory.
I smoked it really slowly, as if it were my last one.
Ten minutes later, a jeep drove in front.
It drove unhurriedly, almost leisurely. It wanted to provoke our shots.
And so I let them have it. I fired two times.
They sped up and they hid behind the corner.
From there they started to shoot randomly but they couldn't spot me.
And after a while, I would shoot again.
Then they would respond with random fire.
And then me again: pause, and two shots.
For a second I thought that I had heard someone shooting from the terrace in front.
And I wasn't wrong. Our comrades were shooting also from there.
They responded with random shots.
It got late, it was 3 AM, and I fired the last bullet.
I smoked another one.
I hid my gun. In a chimney. And I came down.
I sat on the hotel stairs until 7 AM.
All the time I could hear random shots being fired.
Finally I went out on the street.
A young cop stopped me and asked where I was going.
I told him I was a factory nurse and he let me go.
The were soldiers everywhere.
The were shooting up in the air...
That's how the violence of this system reveals itself.
Not only through ruthless repression, imprisonment, tortures,
assassinations of workers and students, also through unemployment,
hunger, poverty, closing down the factories, unpaid salaries,
charity meals in the north of the country.
That is why our reality gives birth to the events like the ones
in Corrientes, Santa Fe, Salta, Tucuman, La Plata, San Juan,
Buenos Aires, and especially in Cordoba and Rosario.
And this is how an almost random confrontation between the police and the students,
Buenos Aires, and especially in Cordoba and Rosario.
And this is how an almost random confrontation between the police and the students,
an incident of which we've had numerous other examples as of late,
transformed itself in a collective uprising
not only against Ongania and his government,
but also against the whole system that dominates our country.
And it concluded with a true popular revolt
that made the first victory over the government possible.
And it concluded with a true popular revolt
that made the first victory over the government possible.
That the masses have shown its true might is much more important
than the government proposals that the uprising provoked:
fall of the cabinet, dismissal of the governors, and so on.
When the enemy has been defined and the struggle has begun,
When the first blood has been drawn,
and many people have lost their lives,
when the first comrades have been condemned by military tribunals,
and denied the treatment that even POWs receive,
we cannot enter negotiations, especially when at the same time
lies are being spread about the true nature of the confrontation.
For the workers, for the students, that would mean a blatant treason,
a treason of those who fight, and those who have to be defended.
On the 30th of June Augusto Bantor was shot down.
His dead doesn't redeem him, his lukewarm and hesitant attitude
exercised bad influence over the Argentinian workers movement.
Some days before, not sited at his luxurious office desk
in his sumptuous bureau but fighting on the street against
the presence of Rockefeller in our country,
other union leader lost his life.
His name was Emilio Mariano Jaurei.
He was secretary general of the Association of Jounalists of Argentina.
These were the first unionists hit by the dictatorship,
and their assassinations uncovered the ugly face of the system.
That's how you kill a man that has no oil contract to offer,
who doesn't approve of any repressive law,
and who doesn't negotiate with the oppressor;
a man who demanded:
sovereignty for his homeland,
justice for the workers,
freedom for the masses.
The death sentence was executed on the street.
He was located and identified, then surrounded by two cars,
and shot from behind.
That's how a union leader died, a man who didn't hide in his office
behind the elegant desk.
He died on the street, died fighting for his people.
This morning while taking a walk
I met some people
To the milkman and the postman
And to the policeman I said "hello"
Behind every window and door I could recognize
A lot of people that earlier I didn't even notice
The church is aware of its duties.
However, the church should be contemplated
as a institution with particular characteristics, in order to be able to
However, the church should be contemplated
as a institution with particular characteristics, in order to be able to
comprehend its special mission.
Let us examine the fact that the church - the christian church -
has been founded by our lord Jesus Christ.
And just like the Christ figure the church possesses both
supernatural and human qualities.
There is something called - the mystery of the church.
That is to say, church has a soul that makes it alive.
And as a institution founded by Christ
the church will stay with us throughout the ages.
Coupled with the soul that animates church
is the body of the church, the external organization of it, the visible aspect of it,
the hierarchical and institutional side of it.
Therefore the church finds itself, in the words that the pope pronounced this month,
in the middle of the great river of history that flows.
So the church moves with the flow of history.
And this flow is a combination of variable and constant factors.
The constant factor is above of all the divine nature of the church,
its internal and intimate nature,
and then there are structures that the pope defines as constitutive...
...that have been turned into the instruments of control,
not at the service of the country and its native institutions,
but as tools of foreign powers and imperialist monopolies.
- ... in response to such a disorder,
and in relation with the duties that the military was forced to take upon itself,
I declare categorically that our institution acts not in order to repress blindly
but to bring back peace, to secure it, to sooth the spirits
and therefore to engender the conditions
in which we will be able to build the Argentina that we all want.
- The Santa Rosa Prison,
12th July 1969,
We are prisoners of a system that still dominates our country,
and hostages to the dictatorship that exploits it.
Under these circumstances, as representatives of a union that stands out for its awareness,
its unity, and for its combative spirit, we write to you.
We, prisoners of "Light & Power" together with other comrades,
have courageously stood for and will stand for
the individual dignity of each of us
that connects with the dignity of the union and with the workers movement.
We haven't ever given up our struggle against the dictatorship.
And we will never give up, not even if the prison gates shouldn't ever open again for us.
Our commitment to social justice and national liberation
has become the most important part of our struggle.
If before we understood it and felt it,
today it is the center of our consciousness and our unionist doctrine.
We wish to once more pay an homage to our martyrs:
Santiago Pampillon, Hilda Guerrero de Molina,
Cabral, Bello, Blanco, Mena, and those
that due to our predicament remain unknown to us.
To all victims of the dictatorial repression,
A sacred and historical reminder: the privileged and reactionary classes
won't ever be able to stop the advancement of the masses,
no matter how many crimes they will commit,
how many citizens will they imprison,
how many repressions and atrocities they will carry out.
We have an immense faith in the victory of the masses;
we believe that the country should be normalized under just institutions;
that the sovereign will of the masses will determine who and how will rule the country.
That is why the unity of the workers, the students, the progressive priests,
the civil and military patriotic forces, the men and women of Argentina
is the critical factor in the struggle.
The communitarian neofascism will inexorably fall down
under the pressure of the united forces, inspired
by the national, popular and progressive sentiments.
We all share the mission of building our common destiny
that the absolute majority of the people desires.
We've been told that we are all citizens of Argentina.
We know that formally it is true.
But there is more important dimension to it.
The majority of the citizens love and defend their country.
A privileged and reactionary minority renounces it, betrays it,
or simply abandons it.
We salute all those who collectively strive for the continuity
of the struggle for the economic, social and cultural rights of the workers,
and the whole nation.
Our personal liberty is of relative importance.
All the preoccupations and efforts should be directed decidedly
at eradicating the regime that oppresses our country,
at recovering the violated union rights,
at attaining universal recognition of the human rights.
For all that we've been fighting, and we will continue to fight.
We will keep on struggling to realize these ideals.
Our bodies are imprisoned.
However, the spirit remains free, and its force shall vanquish the tyrants.
Subs by Beleco ☭. Dedicated to Erika ♥.
I will descend into the abyss for you,
I will swallow the bitterness,
I will turn blind so that you can see,
I will lose my voice so that you can sing
I will die so that you can live
Now is the Time for Violence
You live in a society that sees itself as Western and Christian.
But as a captive of the liberal ideology and capitalist system,
this society betrays and ridicules the Christian values.
Yet you are a part of this country - Argentina
which shares the destiny of Latin America
where the masses suffer from hunger and die young,
as a result of devastating exploitation.
You witness how everyday our country is being chained and condemned,
and how the efforts of its sons are sent abroad,
as a payment of the usurious loan,
in the presence of the useless and impotent government,
that does not have the courage to free the country
from its status of the beggar among the developed nations.
But to all of that we have said: Enough!
We have reached our limits and we have decided to end this silent war,
in which only the masses suffer casualties.
The revolutionary war, the people's war has begun.
And although we know that we will have to suffer greatly,
that death and destruction will reign for a long time,
we are determined to continue the struggle until the masses will seize the power.
We cannot deceive us and deceive the masses about this single issue:
The people's victory has a high price.
Before dying of hunger or coldness, before suffering more humiliations,
the masses prefer to launch the definitive struggle for power.
The oligarchy has pushed the masses to the struggle; it has challenged our people.
And we have accepted the challenge.
The neocolonialism in America needs its agent.
It is masked by the word "the state", that means: to oppress and exploit the masses.
The state transforms itself in a tool of repression,
to stamp down all the resistance that may arise from the downtrodden.
It uses troops, police forces, tribunals - military and civil ones, prisons;
It also makes use of the theoreticians who preach pacifism and non-violence,
Trying to convince the exploited to "accept their destiny"
without resorting to violence in the struggle against the exploiters.
- We are in the province of Cordoba, with the member of government , Mario Diaz Corodero.
What can you tell us about what is taking place in here?
- A while ago I've announced to the reporters and I want to inform you know,
that the situation in Cordoba is normalizing at a fast pace,
It has been brought under control by the military and security forces.
As of this afternoon there were only few sniper posts left that required our intervention.
This has been resolved in a swift, calm and prudent action,
in the course of the operation led by the military and police.
For this reason I think that in a short time we will be able to normalize the situation in the city of Cordoba,
And its citizens will be able to move freely again and go back to their workplaces in peace,
As I am sure all of them wish to.
- Do you think that the snipers are of extremist origin?
- Well, I think that at this stage the whole national public opinion has seen the images
That lay bare the type of actions that took place in Cordoba.
This implies that we are confronted with the type of action alien to our,
the Argentinian, way of resolving problems;
indeed we observe some extremist methods, just as you suggested,
that clearly aim to subvert and cause disorder.
- Could you give us some details on the number of dead, injured and detained.
- Well, the last I heard, until I have arrived in Cordoba there was only one unfortunate casualty
that occurred yesterday, its causes can be traced back to the fights and the disorder that had arisen.
Then, the other dead is a consequence of fainting.
And on this occasion I want to assure you all that we proceed just as we ought to in a situation like this one,
balancing between repression and prevention.
And if we wish to go back to our daily lives soon,
we have to find the right balance
between resolutely countering the violence and preventing it.
- Are the detained being already judged by the military tribunals?
- At this very moment, they've been delivered to the military tribunals.
- What information can you give us on the situation in the other parts of the country?
- The other parts of the country are absolutely calm, the whole day has been peaceful.
- Have you informed the president about your visit in Cordoba?
- I've just arrived, sir, and I've just received the press people
because you were waiting for me so impatiently...
- When will you inform the president?
The president knows that I am at his disposal to update him on the situation.
The system uses the media that are at its disposal to misinform, to lie.
The masses that have mastered its own methods do not believe in the official information anymore.
In some cases they make fun of it.
It is not true that what happened in Cordoba on 29 and 30 of May
Was organized by the foreigners or groups that act in the interest of foreign powers.
On the contrary, we are convinced that it was a spontaneous reaction of the citizens of Cordoba
that - just as many of their compatriots - are tired of the oppression,
of the injustice, of the persecution that is perpetrated by a minority of the privileged ones.
Finally, it is a reaction of the masses that become conscious of their dignity.
The occupation of the city of Cordoba by workers and students that lasted some hours,
is more than just a symbol. It is a sign of things to come,
a sign of what the masses in Argentina and the whole of America hope for,
a new political, social, economic and cultural order.
The goals of the occupation prove the vanguard political maturity of the occupants:
casinos that belong to the members of military, private banks based on the usury,
state agencies and offices, nightclubs, cabarets and bars, police stations.
The police that had been defeated, and had to run cowardly in the face of the masses,
took its vengeance by harming the ones that the military manage to detain.
The military treated the detainees - almost 1500 persons -
in an inhumane way, abusing and humiliating them.
Similarly, the military tribunals, created on the very same day to judge the civilians,
sentenced 31 citizens from 3 to up to 8 years of prison.
This is how Augustin Tosco, the general secretary of the "Light and power" sindicate,
was condemned to 8 years and 3 months in prison.
Tosco sent his companions a letter from Santa Rosa prison,
that we will read later on to show his courageousness and his honesty.
The masses have gained faith in their strength, and confidence in themselves.
They have fought and have recovered the joy.
They have acquired the consciousness that attests of its might and of the possibilities
that spring out of their organized force.
No doubt, they will continue the struggle, and they won't be stopped
by the leaders that refuse to lead them;
politicians, workers and students will be repudiated with the same violence
that the masses used against the people in the service of dictatorship.
It is expressed in the phrase by the General Peron:
"With the leaders at the head or with the heads of the leaders."
- Well, the situation in Argentina hasn't changed much over the last 15 years.
Each time we were supposed to vote, we were given some proscriptions.
So when we voted for "Union Popular" - the candidate in Buenos Aires was Farmini - you know what happened.
In this country los milicos (members of the military) seem to own the truth.
Think about what happened when he assumed power.
All the newspapers and magazines saw him as a savior.
And I ask myself: What savior? Whose savior?
From the beginning we weren't doing good.
Think about the strike on the 1st March.
The dock workers, the railway workers... What happened in Tucuman?
I spent more than 15 years working in Buenos Aires.
I spent only two years here.
And it was in Cordoba that I've understood something that I couldn't comprehend back in Buenos Aires
The syndicate is me...
You cannot argue with the leaders. The syndicate should be one and united.
We can miss one assembly...
But shoulder to shoulder is how you get things done, right?
We are very united.
And here, for example, you meet the leaders and the delegates everyday.
It is not like that everywhere.
Well...
When I came here, after I left everything I had in Buenos Aires.
Well... Everything... I never had much... Family, friends.
I left because I was thrown out from lots of places. I couldn't find a job.
So when I came here, and I knew I haven't had much to lose...
Moreover the are in control, they've got all the laws, tribunals...
All the power.
We began losing slowly everything we had accomplished when Peron was in power.
It was slipping out of our hands.
That is how the 29th came about.
We came out at eleven, from everywhere, all united.
From Santa Isabel, Grandes Motores, FIAT.
Like that, all very united.
Well... You can see them from afar.
In a line. All looking alike. With guns.
You don't know whether they will shoot bullets or gas.
But then you look over the shoulder, you see all your comrades.
All united. And that gives you strength.
And you feel like you gonna knock them down.
And that's how it was! And we did it few times!
Until we reached the square.
There they were really waiting for us.
We wanted to get to the headquarters of CGT but...
They threw some gas, they started to shoot.
To my right, 30 meters from me, there was a pavement...
That's where Maximo Mena was shot.
He was a union leader.
A guy had some balls, you know.
Right after, he was surrounded by the gendarmerie.
Some were saying that the troops were coming in armed vehicles.
The most highly skilled in the country, they say.
But some minutes passed and we started to dominate the situation.
We even had enough time to construct the barricades.
They made use of their guns, they were killing people.
And we were hitting their weak point - the property.
Xerox, Auto Motor, Tecnicor - belongs to the son of Caballero, right?
And then the governmental buildings, ministry of social services.
From there we started to gather on Colon and Lacanada street.
We were almost 3000 persons strong.
The police and gendarmerie almost disappeared.
We knew that the military was coming with all the had.
But we had only one thing in our minds: to resist.
To show what we were capable of. To endure.
The moment we saw them, we knew: the came with all they had.
So people started to throw at them whatever they had at hand.
There was a women that started to curse them.
They gunned her down.
It was around five o'clock in the afternoon.
According to our estimates at least 20 something people died.
That was the moment when I realized the we actually couldn't stay on the streets like that,
that we couldn't let them shoot at us just like that.
So I went back home. Where I lived nothing was happening.
My wife was in tears, she was listening to the radio, hugging our kid.
When I entered the house, she started to cry even more.
I drunk some mate.
I went out, I took my 22 caliber gun and the bullets.
I hid the gun behind my back.
I filled the bag with bullets .
And that's more or less how I left.
I arrived near Colon, I stopped at a hotel, and climbed on the second floor.
I got as close to the window as I could.
I glanced down at the street.
I stepped back. I smoked a cigarette while looking at the sky.
It was my first cigarette since I left the factory.
I smoked it really slowly, as if it were my last one.
Ten minutes later, a jeep drove in front.
It drove unhurriedly, almost leisurely. It wanted to provoke our shots.
And so I let them have it. I fired two times.
They sped up and they hid behind the corner.
From there they started to shoot randomly but they couldn't spot me.
And after a while, I would shoot again.
Then they would respond with random fire.
And then me again: pause, and two shots.
For a second I thought that I had heard someone shooting from the terrace in front.
And I wasn't wrong. Our comrades were shooting also from there.
They responded with random shots.
It got late, it was 3 AM, and I fired the last bullet.
I smoked another one.
I hid my gun. In a chimney. And I came down.
I sat on the hotel stairs until 7 AM.
All the time I could hear random shots being fired.
Finally I went out on the street.
A young cop stopped me and asked where I was going.
I told him I was a factory nurse and he let me go.
The were soldiers everywhere.
The were shooting up in the air...
That's how the violence of this system reveals itself.
Not only through ruthless repression, imprisonment, tortures,
assassinations of workers and students, also through unemployment,
hunger, poverty, closing down the factories, unpaid salaries,
charity meals in the north of the country.
That is why our reality gives birth to the events like the ones
in Corrientes, Santa Fe, Salta, Tucuman, La Plata, San Juan,
Buenos Aires, and especially in Cordoba and Rosario.
And this is how an almost random confrontation between the police and the students,
Buenos Aires, and especially in Cordoba and Rosario.
And this is how an almost random confrontation between the police and the students,
an incident of which we've had numerous other examples as of late,
transformed itself in a collective uprising
not only against Ongania and his government,
but also against the whole system that dominates our country.
And it concluded with a true popular revolt
that made the first victory over the government possible.
And it concluded with a true popular revolt
that made the first victory over the government possible.
That the masses have shown its true might is much more important
than the government proposals that the uprising provoked:
fall of the cabinet, dismissal of the governors, and so on.
When the enemy has been defined and the struggle has begun,
When the first blood has been drawn,
and many people have lost their lives,
when the first comrades have been condemned by military tribunals,
and denied the treatment that even POWs receive,
we cannot enter negotiations, especially when at the same time
lies are being spread about the true nature of the confrontation.
For the workers, for the students, that would mean a blatant treason,
a treason of those who fight, and those who have to be defended.
On the 30th of June Augusto Bantor was shot down.
His dead doesn't redeem him, his lukewarm and hesitant attitude
exercised bad influence over the Argentinian workers movement.
Some days before, not sited at his luxurious office desk
in his sumptuous bureau but fighting on the street against
the presence of Rockefeller in our country,
other union leader lost his life.
His name was Emilio Mariano Jaurei.
He was secretary general of the Association of Jounalists of Argentina.
These were the first unionists hit by the dictatorship,
and their assassinations uncovered the ugly face of the system.
That's how you kill a man that has no oil contract to offer,
who doesn't approve of any repressive law,
and who doesn't negotiate with the oppressor;
a man who demanded:
sovereignty for his homeland,
justice for the workers,
freedom for the masses.
The death sentence was executed on the street.
He was located and identified, then surrounded by two cars,
and shot from behind.
That's how a union leader died, a man who didn't hide in his office
behind the elegant desk.
He died on the street, died fighting for his people.
This morning while taking a walk
I met some people
To the milkman and the postman
And to the policeman I said "hello"
Behind every window and door I could recognize
A lot of people that earlier I didn't even notice
The church is aware of its duties.
However, the church should be contemplated
as a institution with particular characteristics, in order to be able to
However, the church should be contemplated
as a institution with particular characteristics, in order to be able to
comprehend its special mission.
Let us examine the fact that the church - the christian church -
has been founded by our lord Jesus Christ.
And just like the Christ figure the church possesses both
supernatural and human qualities.
There is something called - the mystery of the church.
That is to say, church has a soul that makes it alive.
And as a institution founded by Christ
the church will stay with us throughout the ages.
Coupled with the soul that animates church
is the body of the church, the external organization of it, the visible aspect of it,
the hierarchical and institutional side of it.
Therefore the church finds itself, in the words that the pope pronounced this month,
in the middle of the great river of history that flows.
So the church moves with the flow of history.
And this flow is a combination of variable and constant factors.
The constant factor is above of all the divine nature of the church,
its internal and intimate nature,
and then there are structures that the pope defines as constitutive...
...that have been turned into the instruments of control,
not at the service of the country and its native institutions,
but as tools of foreign powers and imperialist monopolies.
- ... in response to such a disorder,
and in relation with the duties that the military was forced to take upon itself,
I declare categorically that our institution acts not in order to repress blindly
but to bring back peace, to secure it, to sooth the spirits
and therefore to engender the conditions
in which we will be able to build the Argentina that we all want.
- The Santa Rosa Prison,
12th July 1969,
We are prisoners of a system that still dominates our country,
and hostages to the dictatorship that exploits it.
Under these circumstances, as representatives of a union that stands out for its awareness,
its unity, and for its combative spirit, we write to you.
We, prisoners of "Light & Power" together with other comrades,
have courageously stood for and will stand for
the individual dignity of each of us
that connects with the dignity of the union and with the workers movement.
We haven't ever given up our struggle against the dictatorship.
And we will never give up, not even if the prison gates shouldn't ever open again for us.
Our commitment to social justice and national liberation
has become the most important part of our struggle.
If before we understood it and felt it,
today it is the center of our consciousness and our unionist doctrine.
We wish to once more pay an homage to our martyrs:
Santiago Pampillon, Hilda Guerrero de Molina,
Cabral, Bello, Blanco, Mena, and those
that due to our predicament remain unknown to us.
To all victims of the dictatorial repression,
A sacred and historical reminder: the privileged and reactionary classes
won't ever be able to stop the advancement of the masses,
no matter how many crimes they will commit,
how many citizens will they imprison,
how many repressions and atrocities they will carry out.
We have an immense faith in the victory of the masses;
we believe that the country should be normalized under just institutions;
that the sovereign will of the masses will determine who and how will rule the country.
That is why the unity of the workers, the students, the progressive priests,
the civil and military patriotic forces, the men and women of Argentina
is the critical factor in the struggle.
The communitarian neofascism will inexorably fall down
under the pressure of the united forces, inspired
by the national, popular and progressive sentiments.
We all share the mission of building our common destiny
that the absolute majority of the people desires.
We've been told that we are all citizens of Argentina.
We know that formally it is true.
But there is more important dimension to it.
The majority of the citizens love and defend their country.
A privileged and reactionary minority renounces it, betrays it,
or simply abandons it.
We salute all those who collectively strive for the continuity
of the struggle for the economic, social and cultural rights of the workers,
and the whole nation.
Our personal liberty is of relative importance.
All the preoccupations and efforts should be directed decidedly
at eradicating the regime that oppresses our country,
at recovering the violated union rights,
at attaining universal recognition of the human rights.
For all that we've been fighting, and we will continue to fight.
We will keep on struggling to realize these ideals.
Our bodies are imprisoned.
However, the spirit remains free, and its force shall vanquish the tyrants.
Subs by Beleco ☭. Dedicated to Erika ♥.