All language subtitles for La hora de los Hornos - 3 - Violencia y liberaci-3n(Violence and liberation)-LEADER.OF.HELL-ENG

VIOLENCE AND LIBERATION

TO THE NEW MAN WHO WILL BE BORN
DURING THIS WAR OF LIBERATION

''A man resurrects from death
and begins to love life to the point

of risking that life
to be able to live it.'' Che

''The scars of violence

won't be erased
by goodwill.

Only violence
can destroy them.'' J.P. Sartre

MOTHER:
''I dreamt of a son...

...who closed his
mother's eyes.''

REBEL: ''I've decided
to open my son's eyes...

...under another sun.''
Aim� C�saire

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

You'll have to excuse
my words, my expressions,

because I never went
to university

But I have to tell you something
very important,

about how I suffered

THE EXECUTIONS AT THE
PATAGONIA

I witnessed the first
uprising in the Patagonia

We asked for an
increase of our wages.

Back then, the English, who
were in charge in the south,

asked for back-up
to crush the riots.

They let them believe we were

Chilean and Argentine bandits

who were destroying
the properties.

They sent colonel Varela
to the staff of the army.

We had to give in our arms.

They let us dig trenches,

and when they arrived
at the height of our necks,

they started to shoot,
killing thousands of peasants,

workers, fathers,
real Argentines.

That's what
happened in Patagonia.

THE MASSACRES OF THE PEASANTS

The uprising of the Chaco
took place in 1920.

Terrible, dramatic...
I saw

mothers with their
children in their arms,

pursued by
bullets of the police.

Villa Guillermina, Villa
Angela revolted.

I have no words to describe
what they have done then!

THE REPRESSIONS OF THE WORKERS

"The Tragic Week"
was a really heroic moment.

There were men,
workers

behind the barricades,

and also women and youth,
fighting the police.

They overtook
an army regiment...

...and the police...
and even the firemen,

who had never touched a rifle.

THE STORY OF THE BATTLE
OF THE MILITANTS

So, compa�eros...
All I have told you,

is only a summary of my battle

as a militant worker
at the source of a syndicate.

Now I will learn from you.

And I would like you
to continue with enthusiasm.

Because the fall of capitalism
is only a matter of a few years.

LETTERS OF THE COMBATANTS

During the shooting of
this film, we asked,

several comrades their opinion
on violence and liberation.

And here is the first one:

THE TRAP OF LEGITIMACY

You've asked me what's missing
in order for us to regain power.

I don't know. But I know
what we have: naivety.

I remember that day,
at the beginning of 1956,

when we went looking for
Suarez, in his coastal resort...

trying to revive a place
that was definitely dead.

I remember Suarez, and how
he tried to hide his impotence and fear.

We blamed Suarez,
but it wasn't entirely his fault.

During 10 years, he had behind him
the support of our government.

And suddenly he found
himself left with nothing at all.

He had been trained
to compromise,

and not for the battle.

How could we ask more of him
than what he could do?

How many battles have
we fought in the past?

The story you told in the film
just gives an approximate idea.

We believed that, after every big
mobilization, Per�n would return

and we would regain power.

Today,
thinking of that answer,

The image of Suarez
was projected on many of us.

I had a new feeling
of naivety

which confirmed
that the people's will

would be enough to impose
a new October 17th.

The same naivety

that moved many of
us to believe and

to have confidence
in the legal way.

Accept the legal way?
Did this mean to accept legalized violence?

Isn't this social peace,

one behind bars,

slavery,
and a national humiliation?

Suarez had understood

that his legitimacy, and that of the people,
had been defeated...

and he quit the battle.

We continued to see
legality as an abstraction and a myth.

We have been the best
civil workers...

...and we have educated
the comrades in that spirit.

At every defeat, we answered
with a battle that wasn't

really revolutionary policy.

but resulted in
temporary measurements.

The Suarezes of yesterday, hiding
their impotence and their fear,

are today, returning
in even larger numbers.

Like 10 years ago, you can feel
the need for a change.

How to begin
a dialogue with the enemy,

knowing that his objective
is our destruction?

What do his reasons, his ways
matter to us,

if only to know him better

and to destroy his intentions

by destroying him?

Are we ready, the people,
the workers, the Peronists,

to accept a law that
brings us directly to slavery?

I think that we,
the descendants of the ones...

who lived and fought with San Martin,
Quiroga, Penalozza and Varela,

won't ban them from our memories,

we won't refuse
the mandate of so many sacrifices.

your comrade J.M.

IMPUNITY

When the people are excluded
of political power,

the crimes of neocolonialism
only help total impunity,

they are the law.

The system becomes the only
and absolute beholder of violence.

Violence invades the streets,
enters the homes,

and the people's minds.

And if man resists,
he will be hit or killed.

If he gives in,
he isn't a man anymore.

The System's violence
is used for

silencing and terrorizing.

It tries to reduce man
into a passive thing,

who doesn't make history.

It tries to make him an object
who suffers from history

The violence of the System
isn't really the repression itself,

but the fear of it.

The fear of every man
of being pursued, marginalized,

the fear of committing
those acts

that will permit him
to regain his humanity.

''There will be reactionary violence

until it can be defeated
by revolutionary violence.

Or dictatorship of the privileged
or national liberation'' J.W. Cooke

THE EXECUTIONS
OF JUNE 16TH 1956

A military faction, of
nationalist-catholic tendencies,

revolts against
the "gorilla revolution".

Services of repression, alarmed by the ,
commotion, wait for the rioters and smother them.

That night, in the waste site of Leon Suarez,

they shoot several prisoners,
guilty or not.

The comrade Troxler
is one of them.

I am Julio Troxler,

one of those who were
driven here, at dawn, June 10,

to be shot.

I was lucky,

thanks to a truck accident

and in the dark of the night,
I left unharmed.

How did you feel about
that experience?

Nobody would have imagined
what followed.

We thought they would
take us to prison

because we wanted to march at
the Plaza de Mayo,

to cheer for Per�n and
the triumph of the revolution.

We thought, at the worst,
to be locked up a couple of days..

But when we arrived here,
and they let us get out of the truck

turning the lights to our backs,

I started to understand
that things would turn out bad.

And suddenly the first shot was fired,
at the same time as the accident.

So... the desire to survive...
and the total chaos...

...that would provoke the death
of five comrades and one wounded...

...and the escape of many of us,
which wasn't easy.

And what did you do
after the executions?

I waited there, very near,

until the truck and the car
following it were gone.

I went back to the place to see if
there were some people alive,

or wounded. Nothing of that,
they were all dead, assassinated.

The police had left them on the road.

Carlos Lizazo and the three others,

...four bodies full of bullets...

...on the road that led to the German Club.

Have you been in prison
after the executions?

I was a prisoner in November 1957...

because someone gave me in.

They brought me to the
Investigation Brigade of San Martin.

And there... I was tortured
just as I was by the Lanus brigade.

Justice members participated
at the tortures and orgies,

like Judge Biglione, and
militaries like Suarez,

the Secretary General, San Emeterio

and several police officers.

In what way did they torture you?

After being undressed

and blindfolded,
so I couldn't see the torturers,

they attached you to the table,
from your ankles and wrists

Then the electric shocks began,

real orgies for those men

keeping themselves busy
with your genitals.

Mine were covered with blood in the end

my mouth was also
covered with blood.

Of course, this is not a
pleasant thing to tell,

but living through it is even worse.

What matters to me is to be
understood. I was a common citizen...

who, only for defending
an ideal and the Constitution,

has been objected to such treatment.

Troxler, do you have anything to add?

Sure, despite the executions,
and all the tortures,

I have to say that we,
the Peronists,

will continue this battle
until the end.

In that way, we solidarize
with our Latin American,

Asian, and African friends.
These last groups are already seeing the results

of the process of liberation
from imperialism.

And we too,

if we persevere,
we will succeed.

For this, we must follow the
example from Asian and African countries

and apply it, successfully.

Vietnam, for example, where
a small group of men...

are fighting against the
most powerful army in the world.

we know that we'll
succeed,

and we'll leave a better world
for our children.

THE DUTY OF THE INTELLECTUAL

My friends...

The revolution won't begin until

we have killed the old colonized man
who still slumbers in us.

Before everything else,
it begins with us.

It won't be defined until we
take risks, not by words or ideas,

but by accomplished acts.

The worker who strikes, and risks
his work and existence.

The student who puts his career at stake.
The militant they torture.

And many examples that could keep us
from something more important

than a vague gesture of solidarity.

Which is commonly understood by solidarity,

is just a form of
piteous charity and satisfies more

those who give
than those who receive it.

''We shouldn't only desire

the triumph of the aggressed'',
said Guevara,

''but join it to its destiny
in death, and victory''.

In Latin America, there's no room for
neither passivity nor innocence.

Our duty
as national intellectuals

is different from that of
other intellectuals in the big cities.

We can't devote ourselves
to the universal culture,

until there's a more important
problem to be solved:

national liberation!

Every action not essential
to the liberation,

far from criticizing the system,
let it to the others.

The Regime involves in its crimes

all those who don't fight
them directly.

We should work in order to
liberate this continent,

this country, the Latin American man,

every one of us, or else
you're on the enemy's side.

There won't be any choices in between.

your comrade, A.M.

If daily violence
weren't enough,

the System seeks for more
explicit and unforgivable forms

to maintain its peace,
its order, its norms.

THE VICTIMS

In their battle for liberation,
our people have had many martyrs.

During the last years, hundreds
of militants have been killed.

The victims of June 16th, 1955...

Those of the executions in 1956...

The fighters from Salta...

the ones from massive protests

Some, engraved anonymously...

Others, heightened by the people,
like flags...

Some names...

Musy, Retamar, Mendoza

Isla de Molina, Santiago
Pontillon

Felipe Vallesse,
the greatest symbol of this violence.

'We, above everyone else, have
to understand this dehumanization process.

More than anyone else,
we have to know the costs

involved in regaining
our humanity.'' S. Carmichael

THE ANONYMOUS MARTYRS

June 16th 1955,

the planes of the gorillas

terrorize the
streets of Buenos Aires.

Torture at the individual level,
or mass murder,

are the natural consequences
of violence on a daily basis.

They don't deny it,
on the contrary, they affirm it.

It's its most revealing synthesis.

The System maintains its power
only by violence...

''It is impossible understanding
the neocolonialism'', Fanon said,

''without the need to rape,
to destroy, to kill''.

But the violence of the System
is also its self destruction.

To dehumanize the people, the System
dehumanizes itself first.

By using extreme violence,

the System is the first one to agonize.

''The only ones that have the right
to use violence,

are the people who want
to free themselves.

This violence, in the people's hands,
is not violence, it's justice.'' Per�n.

ACTION AND REVOLUTION

"Prepare yourself to fight...
Prepare your rifle

...Prepare your body for the battle".

A comrade of the
Uruguayan movement Tupamaro

tells in a documentary:

We start from the principle that
revolutionary action itself,

the act to arm yourself,
to be prepared,

to accept to act

against the bourgeois order,

implies conscience,
organization and revolutionary conditions.

In countries like Cuba,
the principles at the base

of a socialist revolution
are present, confirmed,

without discussion.

It takes little,

to show the way to revolt

and to apply it.

It's the armed battle that accelerates
mass movement.

In Cuba and in China,
the mass party was born during combat.

Create many Vietnams!

A former Peruvian metal worker
told us that the only way

to free ourselves from imperialism,
is, like Che thought, to attack their

colonial territories and force them to
diversify their armed forces.

The order of ''creating two, three
many Vietnams''

summarizes the last hope for
humanity today.

The Pentagon and its footmen will face
a serious dilemma:

either they observe and don't interfere
with the Latin American revolution,

or they intervene by
military force.

as it happened in Cuba or
the Dominican Republic.

We have to unite and to prepare
for the colonial war.

The guerillas of Venezuela,
of Colombia and Guatemala,

the mobilization of the workers,
peasants and students

are the beginning of the big epic
that this continent will go through.

Latin America, like Che said , will be the
Vietnam of the next decade.

PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE?

The Revolutionary Peronist Front
is showing its solidarity

with the Vietnamese people
and declares:

The peaceful coexistence is just opium
that permits imperialism

to exploit humanity with impunity.

There can't be peaceful
coexistence with the

deadly aggressiveness of the
Yankee system's monopoly,

whose most characteristic trait is
the support for war and crime.

For us, the people of the Third World,
who hope to finish

the underdevelopment, poverty and
the exploitation,

the only way is
revolutionary war.

The fight to death against the
imperialist oppressor

and the fight for
eternal peace in the world.

But we have to underline that the enemy
ran away from several crime scenes,

not because he was on
the winning hand,

but on the contrary, because he lost
against popular movements.

They've been defeated at the Bay of the Pigs
and they'll be defeated in Vietnam.

If 500.000 Marines,
the elite of the American army,

couldn't defeat the small heroic
people of Vietnam,

how many millions will they need

to face and fight against more than
two thirds of humanity,

700 million Chinese,

the Cubans, the Koreans, the
Latin Americans, the socialist countries,

the Africans, the Arabs,
the African-Americans

and the progressive forces
of the industrialized countries?

Imperialism has no chance at all.

They only have the
the nuclear blackmail.

As Mao said:
''It's a paper tiger.''

"MILITANT INTERNATIONALISM"

Fidel Castro said it clearly:

''The theory that says that if
this generation doesn't win the war,

the next one will,

is a defeatist, inhumane and
cowardly theory.

The Marxist-Leninist
and internationalist principle

wants us to fight
not until the last citizen...

of the oppressed country, but until the
last citizen of the socialist camp.

The militant solidarity of
the Latin American people was shown

in the epic revolutions of
Bolivar, San Martin and Sucre.''

HYPOTHESIS FOR THE LIBERATION

Finally, we could say

that the liberation of every country
is always a unique event, an invention.

Cuba is probably the best example
for us, Argentines and Latin Americans.

The Cuban revolution has proved

that a people can liberate itself
if its revolutionary chiefs,

its elite, take part
in the history of the people.

Cuba, Vietnam and other
people of the third world showed

that no national revolution
would be possible

if not accompanied by
a social revolution.

In other words, today more
than ever,

the nationalism of the first
independence

integrates the socialism
of the second one

and the quest to an internationalism

that allows for the total
destruction of imperialism.

ARGENTINA TODAY

As the authors of these comments,

we repeat what we
showed in the film's first part.

Argentina and most of the
countries of this continent

are living in a war that hides
itself behind

a pseudo-normality
and pseudo-peace.

A war that reveals itself
in daily violence,

indeed, four persons die every
minute in Latin America,

or two million every year.

The essential is to notice
this state of war and

to get on each path
to test all hypotheses,

with revolutionary energy and deeds.

In short: invent our own revolution.

The protagonists of this quest,
are all of us. But, even more, it's you.

You, who have the possibility
to discuss these images

but also through your
daily actions,

it is the only way to
develop this unsolved problem.

The film and its content stay open

for other comments, testimonies and letters
on violence and liberation.

To all who collaborated in the
realization of this film,

peasants, workers,

students, intellectuals
and revolutionary militants,

we express
our gratefulness.