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A Crime Called Freedom: The Writings of Os Cangaceiros, Volume One

by Os Cangaceiros

Translated by Wolfi Landstreicher

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Eberhardt Press, 2006

168 pages. Paper. $6.00

For over two decades the anonymous social rebels collectively known as Os Cangaceiros blazed a trail of unfettered revolt across the European social landscape. They traveled the continent intervening in wildcat strikes, riots and other explosions of social tension and class violence, contributing what they could to the struggles of those with whom they found affinity. Many of these writings against prison, most translated into English for the first time, have been collected in A Crime Called Freedom. Containing Os Cangaceiros’ writings from their eponymous magazine and elsewhere, the collection consists of eight essays, two chronologies and a handful of letters. The writing sparks with life and creativity, never the dull litany of political injustices and prescriptions for their change that one becomes used to finding in so many anarchist and communist theoretical texts. Instead of a laundry list of criticism, Os Cangaceiros give us critique-in-action; never content with words alone, the texts found in this collection were one manifestation of the unceasing rebellion of their lives .The origin of their name is telling of Os Cangaceiros’ political trajectory: The original cangaceiros (“social bandits”) were Brazilian peasants of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries who rose up against a life of servitude, and sought vengeance against the ruling order. Appropriating the wealth of the landowners at gun- and knifepoint, they found refuge in the welcoming arms of their own class, the poor and dispossessed of colonial society. Much like their historical namesakes, the modern Os Cangaceiros refused to live within the accepted bounds of an oppressive society. Their roots lay in the events in France in May and June of 1968, when for a brief moment workers and students seemingly brought the country to the brink of a social revolution. Among those on the streets were the petty criminals, hooligans, and juvenile delinquents calling themselves les Fos- soyeurs du Vieux Monde, or the Gravediggers of the Old World. Having once tasted freedom, they were not content to rest on their laurels after the return to relative normalcy in July, opting instead to continue fighting against the world as it is by whatever means necessary. However, unlike many of their contemporaries, they did not form themselves into a tight- knit cell of “specialists in armed struggle,” but chose instead to live lives of absolute freedom within the confines of modern capitalism; they chose to live as criminals, or rather they continued the criminal lives they had always led, but with a renewed vigor and an invigorated disgust for society. The revolutionary graffiti that had spread across France during the uprising provided the inspiration for their way of life: “Never work, ever!,” “Boredom is counterrevolutionary,” “Don’t beg for the right to live — take it,” and “Live without dead time.” A refusal of work, law, morality, and civilized values became their modus operandi. Through the 1970s they moved nomadically across southern France and Italy, engaging in struggles against police, politicians, and bureaucracy wherever they went. This way of life led to membersof their loose-knit group — now widely known as Os Cangaceiros — ending up incarcerated on a frequent basis, and they began centering their activities on the prison,-system in which they were increasingly enmeshed. Their personal experiences of prison provided the basis for their truly radical attack on prisons and the judiciary. They could never avoid making the connections between life within prison and outside of it; they saw that prison struggles are not isolated events, but are rather manifestations of the samesocial war that is flaring throughout society. While many prison reform activists condemned prison riots as counterproductive at best, Os Cangaceiros saw them as a desire for revolt that cannot be denied. In “Prisoner’s Talking Blues,” they write:

It is impossible to separate the fate reserved for prisoners inside the walls from the conditions reserved more generally for the mass of poor people in society.... The revolt that resounds inside the prison walls is a continuation of the one that resounds outside, in the neighborhoods on the outskirts, and is a consequence of its repression. (53)

Most “anti-prison” activists concentrate on reducing overcrowding, improving conditions or decreasing recidivism rates, but for Os Cangaceiros the only solution was the abolition of prisons and the destruction of the society that creates them. They saw prison reformers not as allies, but as part of the problem.

Those who speak to us of overcrowding in the prisons are the very ones who have filled them until they burst! Obviously they are turning the question upside down. For us, it is not a question of building more prisons, but of emptying those that already exist. (76)

A truly radical critique of prisons must of necessity break with attempts to reform the prison system; instead, it must attack this system at its very roots, viewing it as a key element of class society and a tool that society uses to crush resistance in all of its forms. Os Cangaceiros saw that prison is used to systematically crush the rebelliousspirit and to keep society safe from the lower classes, the criminal element, and those with visions of a different world. A social order dependent on prisons gradually becomes a great prison itself, with bosses, teachers, social workers, and politicians as the jailers.

Freedom is the crime that contains all crimes, and it is against this crime that the old world defends itself. The state is physically eliminating all the beautiful young people who aren’t resigned — the same young people who die, murdered by cops or reactionary pro-cop vigilantes. The state buries those that the law can trap alive in its prisons as long as possible while terrorizing those who manage to stay outside. For these, it pays educators and other pests to demoralize them and make them forget their comrades in jail. (78)

Against this continual assault on communities in resistance Os Cangaceiros counterpoised the weapon of active solidarity. They sought to eliminate the false distinction between “political prisoners” and “social prisoners,” and it was this understanding that led to their most daring attack on the society of confinement. Os Cangaceiros’ struggle against prisons took many forms, but none was more infamous than “13,000 Escapes”: A Dossier Against the “Project of 13,000 Places”, the main text of which is included in this collection. Its name references a French government project to modify the penal system so that it could accommodate an additional 13,000 maximum security prisoners. Appearing in 1990, “13,000 Escapes” contained not only detailed informationon the campaign of vandalism and sabotage undertaken by Os Cangaceiros against this project, but also somehow obtained blueprints, internal communications, and other government documents exposing the inner workings of the new prisons and those undergoing renovation. The covert dissemination of 13,000 copies of this dossier was a bombshell, creating a public scandal on the outside and providing a useful tool for escape attempts on the inside. The authorities scrambled to deal with the political fallout, but despite police investigations and a nationwide manhunt, none of the individuals responsible were ever caught. The informal nature of Os Cangaceiros effectively prevented police infiltration of their circles and their identities still remain unknown, to the great frustration of the French state and Interpol. The group simply disappeared soon after “13,000 Escapes,” never acting under that name again.

Until now, very few of Os Cangaceiros’ writings have been available to an English-speaking audience, making the publication of this slim volume of writings a striking achievement. Most of the essays in this collection had been previously published in an Italian translation, while the rest had only been published in the original French. A Crime Called Freedom includes a new introduction by the translator, Wolfi Land- streicher, along with the original introduction to the Italian collection. This English translation is from the Italian, not the original French, yet the translation has surmounted its inherent limitations to capture both the poetry and the venom of these texts in all their fullness. The ideas in this book are dangerous; hopefully they will find the receptive readers they deserve.

Hardline is a deep ecology subculture that has its roots in the veganstraight edgehardcore punk scene. It is commonly seen as a more extreme version of straight edge.

From an initial founding statement the movement attempted a break with the straight edge and hardcore scenes. The founding statement and subsequent literature pushed a biocentric view of the world, anti-abortion stance and much more extreme version of straight edge. Many hardline bands existed, the most well known of which were Vegan Reich^[1] and Raid.^[2]

Beliefs[edit]

The hardline philosophy forbids its adherents from smoking or chewing any form of tobacco, drinking alcoholic beverages, and using illicit drugs or employing medicine. Hardliners (as they are called) are expected to follow a strict dietary regimen based on the above-mentioned pillars of respect for innocent life and the 'natural order'. Hardliners eat only foods that are vegan and relatively natural (e.g. brown rice over white, evaporated cane juice over white sugar, organic produce over conventional, natural oils over hydrogenated). Human rights issues are also factored into the movement's food politics, and followers are urged to shun third-world cash crops such as coffee, chocolate, sugar, and most tropical fruits. Hardliners include caffeine in their stance on mind-altering drugs so the first two items are generally abstained from, but consumption of the last two is often given more leeway.^[3][4]

In keeping with its Abrahamic view of the natural order,^{[citation needed]} the sexual politics of the hardline movement are very conservative. Sex is not allowed except for the reason of procreation; thus homosexuality is seen as anathema,^{[citation needed]}pornography and masturbation is abjured, birth control is avoided,^{[citation needed]} and abortion is militantly opposed. Although the official hardline stance on sex is that its natural purpose is purely procreative, many hardliners justify recreational sex within the context of committed relationships as potentially procreative by opting not to use birth control.

Hardline has always been highly syncretic (over time absorbing influences from Islam and a host of other schools of thought) and initially claimed a Taoist^[5] foundation for their sexual morals. This appeal to the orientation of the punk and hardcore scenes met with little success, and the topics of abortion and homosexuality have always been sources of tension between hardliners and their subcultural cousins.^[3][4]

History[edit]

The hardline subculture grew out of the hardcore punk scene in the 1990s. Although one of the basic tenets of hardline is that it has existed in various forms since the beginning of time, the ideology was largely formulated by Sean Muttaqi of the band Vegan Reich. The hardline philosophy is said to be rooted in one ethic (the sacredness of innocent life), but in reality the ethos rested on that base and on an idea of an immutable natural order. Hardline can be described as a synthesis of deep ecology, straight edge, veganism and the animal rights movement.

Hardline began to attract followers shortly after the 1990 release of Vegan Reich's Hardline EP and the official founding of the subculture. Other bands soon formed; the most notable of them being Raid from Tennessee.

Sean Muttaqi, as editor of the zine Vanguard (hardline's official press organ), was able to exert ideological influence on the movement, and caused the center of its activities to become shifted to Tennessee. Many in the Memphis hardcore scene adopted Hardline stances and started editing magazines, organizing protests, engaging in direct action against industries that exploited animals, and otherwise acting on their new beliefs. Some of the most notable achievements of Memphis Hardline were organizing the movement's first annual gathering and founding the long-standing Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade (CAFT).

Things began to fade in Memphis. Muttaqi left for Jamaica to explore Rastafari and decided to leave the hardcore scene along with hardline altogether. Editing was transferred of Vanguard.

Hardliners were instrumental in CAFT, the Animal Defense League, and Vegans For Life. Some were also involved in Earth First!, anti-imperialist organizations, and other leftist causes and groups.

Some Hardliners from Massachusetts set out to establish an intentional community in Hawaii. The effort quickly failed due to personality conflicts (especially the ongoing debate among group members as to whether or not cooked food was natural enough) and a distinct lack of required agricultural and engineering skills. This self-defeating arc reflects tensions in similarly idealistic communes of the 1960s and 1970s during the History of the hippie movement and the back-to-the-land movement.

Hardline grew out of straight edge. The original logo of the movement was an outline of a large 'X' (a sign associated with straightedge) with two crossed M16 rifles inside it. Muttaqi has said that he was first exposed to the idea of fusing veganism and abstinence from drugs by an English punk named Rat. Rat had allegedly coined the term 'vegan straight edge' by the mid-1980s.^{[citation needed]} However, Rat was doing little to spread his ideology while Muttaqi was transforming and propagating it. Vegan Reich was for many in the hardcore scene their first exposure to ideas about militant animal liberation, and the controversy they aroused drew considerable attention to their positions. Those in the subculture who gravitated toward animal-related causes but disagreed with some of hardline's finer points found themselves becoming vegan straightedge. Vegan straightedge band Earth Crisis initially wanted Muttaqi to release their debut EP, All Out War on his record label, Uprising Records.

As hardline came into its own, many hardliners decided that their philosophy was so beyond the narrow scene politics of straightedge that the two were entirely different things. The 'X' was removed from the crossed rifles logo, straightedge was harshly criticized, and hardliners were encouraged to leave the hardcore scene. Much of this sprang from the momentum being gained by the more activist-oriented elements within the subculture. Eventually hardliners came to consider their network wholly divorced from the hardcore scene. However, the nature of information dissemination in a mostly pre-Internet media environment made recruiting from outside the hardcore subculture next to impossible. Although hardline served to involve people heavily in political activity, the overwhelming bulk of new members were straight-edgers who would with time come to identify primarily as activists instead of hardcore kids.

In mid-1998 the subculture experienced a massive internal upheaval as Indianapolis Hardline member David Agranoff's attempts to weaken Hardline were sidelined by Boston Hardline. Vanguard number eight announced the reorganization of the movement under the authority of the newly created Hardline Central Committee (HCC) and castigated Agranoff and his comrades for softening the network's ideology through their refinement and development of it. This proved a wise decision as Agranoff later became a police informer. Chapters were instructed to report to the Committee for evaluation and were told in no uncertain terms that they would not be recognized as cells until they submitted to this review. Also in the issue was a document about the stages through which the Hardline revolution would progress which was presented as being from 1990, but had never before been seen and was suspiciously contemporary feeling.

Some chapters opted to leave hardline entirely and instead established a new activist network called Education For A Sustainable Future (ESF). ESF differed from its predecessor in that it took no stances.^{[5][6][7][note 1][note 2][note 3][note 4]}

See also[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Haenfler, Ross (2006). Straight Edge: Hardcore Punk, Clean Living Youth, and Social Change. Rutgers University Press. ISBN0-8135-3851-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kuhn, Gabriel (2010). Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics. PM Press. ISBN978-1-60486-051-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Wood, Robert T. (2006). Straight Edge Youth: The Complexity and Contradictions of a Subculture. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN0-8156-3127-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Pike, Sarah (2011). The Study of Children in Religion: A Methods Handbook. New York, N.Y.: New York University Press. ISBN978-0-8147-7746-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

Notes[edit]

1. ^Haenfler 2006
2. ^Kuhn 2010
3. ^Wood 2006
4. ^Pike 2011, p. 41

References[edit]

1. ^Paul, Aubin (November 4, 2009). 'Vegan Reich reactivating'. Punknews.org. Retrieved June 17, 2013. According to their MySpace, the controversial hardline group Vegan Reich are writing and rehearsing for a new record.
2. ^xYosefx (January 3, 2009). 'Raid Interview - Scribd'. Scribd. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
3. ^ ^abGumbrecht, Jamie (April 18, 2006). 'Life on the Edge'. Sun Journal (Lewiston). Retrieved June 16, 2013. Hardline straight edge - An extreme version of straight edge that takes a strict stance against tobacco, drugs and alcohol, but also focuses on environmentalism, veganism and anti-abortion ideas. Some of the tenets have been criticized as being homophobic, racist and sexist.
4. ^ ^abArciaga, Michelle (April 12, 2005). 'Straight Edge'. National Alliance of Gang Investigators Associations. Archived from the original on December 16, 2005. Retrieved June 16, 2013.
5. ^ ^abSanneh, Kelefa (February 10, 2011). 'Vegan Jihad: A Conversation with Sean Muttaqi'. Scribd. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
6. ^Keynes Junior, Milton (September 10, 2010). 'Interview with Sean Muttaqi (Vegan Reich)'. 1000 Voices of Dissent. Retrieved June 17, 2013.
7. ^'Interview with Sean Muttaqi of Vegan Reich'. muslimsforjesus.org. May 12, 2003. Retrieved June 17, 2013.

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