"If I don’t feel like carrying on, given that no one can be forced to continue if they don’t feel like it, I say, ‘My friends, a man is made of flesh and blood, he can’t go on to infinity. So, if I don’t feel I can make it, what must I do? Sign a piece of paper? I don’t carry out impure actions, I don’t get comrades arrested, I’m simply making a declaration of my own desistence.’ I have always considered this to be a legitimate position, because nobody can be obliged to carry on if they don’t feel up to it. But desistence is no longer legitimate if, in order to justify it, I come out with the statement, ‘I can’t carry on because the war is over’. No, I no longer agree, because where does that lead us? To all the others both inside and outside prison for whom it isn’t true that the war is over, or for whom this concept is dubious, but end up believing it because everybody is saying so. And, desisting or not desisting, they end up reaching the same conclusion. It would be quite indecorous for me to push others to desist in order for me to justify my own personal decision to give up the struggle."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Locked Up (2008)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfredo_M._Bonanno
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alfredo M. Bonanno
31 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alfredo M. Bonanno →
Related Quotes
"By abolishing the ethic of production you enter revolutionary reality directly."
"In the illusory world of commodities, play is also an illusion. We imagine we are playing, while all we are really do…"
"Liberation is seen as setting right a balance that has been upset by the wickedness of capitalism, not as the coming …"
"These people cannot comprehend that it would be possible to not produce any surplus value, and that one could also re…"
"The rebellion of the exploited is never terrorism."
"Remunerated joy, weekends off or annual holidays paid by the boss is like paying to make love. It seems the same but …"
"If production is at the root of capitalist exploitation, to change the mode of production would merely change the mod…"
"Anyone who decides to organise my life for me can never be my comrade."
"Only joy will be uncontrollable. A force unknown to the civilised larvae that populate our era. A force that will mul…"
"What madness the love of work is! With great scenic skill capital has succeeded in making the exploited love exploita…"