Alfredo Maria Bonanno (born 1937 in Catania)
is a main theorist of contemporary insurrectionary
anarchism who wrote essays such as Armed Joy
(for which he was imprisoned for 18 months
by the Italian government), The Anarchist
Tension and others.
He is an editor of Anarchismo Editions and
many other publications, only some of which
have been translated into English.
He has been involved in the anarchist movement
for over thirty years.
== Political life ==
In the 1960s a tendency within Italian anarchism
which did not identify either with the more
classical synthesist Italian Anarchist Federation
or with the platformist inclined GAAP (Anarchist
Groups of Proletarian Action) started to emerge
as local groups.
These groups emphasized direct action, informal
affinity groups and expropriation for financing
anarchist activity.
It is from within these groups that Bonanno
emerged, particularly influenced by the practice
of the Spanish exiled anarchist Josep Lluís
i Facerias.The Magazine Do or Die reports
that "Much of the Italian insurrectionary
anarchist critique of the movements of the
'70s focused on the forms of organisation
that shaped the forces of struggle and out
of this a more developed idea of informal
organisation grew.
A critique of the authoritarian organisations
of the '70s, whose members often believed
they were in a privileged position to struggle
as compared to the proletariat as a whole,
was further refined in the struggles of the
'80s, such as the early 1980s struggle against
a military base that was to house nuclear
weapons in Comiso, Sicily.
Anarchists were very active in that struggle,
which was organised into self-managed leagues."
A main theorizer of these ideas was Bonanno
and his publication Anarchismo.In 1993 Bonanno
wrote For An Anti-authoritarian Insurrectionalist
International in which he proposes coordination
between Mediterranean insurrectionists after
the period of the dissolution of the Soviet
Union and civil war in the former Yugoslavia.Bonanno
was one of hundreds of Italian anarchists
arrested on the night of June 19, 1997, when
Italian security forces carried out raids
on anarchist centres and private homes all
over Italy.
The raids followed the bombing of Palazzo
Marino in Milan, Italy on April 25, 1997.
On February 2, 2003 Bonanno was sentenced
to 6 years in prison plus a €2000 fine (first
degree 3 years, 6 months) for armed robbery
and other crimes.
These charges were related to the "Marini
Trial", in which Italian anarchists were convicted
of belonging to a subversive armed group whose
ideological leader was Bonanno.
On October 4, 2009, Bonanno was arrested with
Greek anarchist Christos Stratigopolous in
Trikala, central Greece on suspicion of having
carried out an armed robbery in a local bank.
46,900 euros in cash were found in the car.
On November 22, 2010 Bonanno was sentenced
to 4 years and immediately released from prison
(he spent about a year there and he was more
than 70 years old that time).
Stratigopolous was sentenced to 8 years 9
months with possible release at the end of
2011.
Bonanno was denied entry into Chile in December
13, 2013.
Bonanno had planned to participate in a series
of conferences in Chile.
Having arrived to Chile with Sky Airlines
from Argentina he was flown back to Argentina
by the same airline two hours after arrival.
The Investigations Police of Chile said the
denial of entry was indebted to the penal
record of Bonanno.
== Thought ==
Regarding national liberation struggles, he
said that anarchists:
...refuse to participate in national liberation
fronts; they participate in class fronts which
may or may not be involved in national liberation
struggles.
The struggle must spread to establish economic,
political and social structures in the liberated
territories, based on federalist and libertarian
organisations.
Regarding the revolution, he said:
It's easy.
You can do it by yourself, or with a bunch
of trusted comrades.
You don't need to have great means or technical
competence.
The capital is vulnerable, if you are determined
to act.
Another significant quote:
The man who acts is not the man with a destiny,
but the man who has understood.
Perhaps this quote best exemplifies his philosophy:
Hurry up, comrade, shoot at once on the policeman,
the judge, the wealthy, before a new police
will hinder you.
Hurry up and say no, before a new repression
convinces you that to say no is nonsensical
and crazy and that you should accept the hospitality
of an asylum.
Hurry up and attack the capital, before a
new ideology makes it sacred for you.
Hurry up and refuse work, before a new sophist
tells you: Work makes you free.
Hurry up and play.
Hurry up and arm yourself.
== Bibliography ==
Some of Bonanno's published essays translated
into English include:
The Anarchist Tension.
And We Will Still Be Ready To Storm The Heavens
Another Time: *Against Amnesty
Armed Joy
A Critique of Syndicalist Methods
Destruction and Language
Dissonances
For An Anti-authoritarian Insurrectionalist
International
From Riot to Insurrection: Analysis for an
anarchist perspective against post-industrial
capitalism
The Insurrectional Project
Let’s Destroy Work, Let’s Destroy the
Economy
Locked Up
Propulsive Utopia
The Theory of the Individual: Stirner’s
Savage Thought
Worker's Autonomy
== References ==
== External links ==
Anarchismo Editions - Alfredo Bonanno
Archive of texts in english by Alfredo Maria
Bonanno
