June 11th is the International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. This action day has a long history, it was organized first time 20 years ago in 2004. In the first year, we managed to paint a graffiti to wall of one of the most guarded objects of Moscow,...
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Anarchist group ANA Regensburg hosted my online-presentation on 16th of May 2024, in which I discussed tactics of anti-war activism in Russia, and reasons why the anti-war movement has not been able to make an impact to change the course of events yet. Cases of anarchists repressed for anti-war...
6 months ago
anarchists in the Ukraine
This does not leave many options for anarchists, in the Ukraine, in Russia, and in the world. The fighting in the East, particularly Donesk, has increased significantly since the writing of this. The first troops sent in refused to shoot people they considered fellow countrymen & women. Kiev, by all reports (outside the Corporate Media) changed the composition of the troops, recruiting Rightist volunteers, who seem to have no problem shooting down Russian speaking Ukrainians. From the most recent videos, etc., it doesn't look as if anybody can get in between the two sides to attempt to calm things down. This volatile situation is highly complex. Are all who reject the Kiev gov't pro-Russian? are they all Stalinists? One recent report, in response to Putin's pulling back from the border & trying to get a postponement on the local referendum, quotes one man as condemning Putin for abandoning them. That's a good sign, but it certainly doesn't mean the shooting will stop.
Should anarchists "sit this one out" since there are fascists on one side & Stalinists on the other? What credibility would they have in the aftermath? It's easy for me to speculate from a few thousand miles distance, and I must admit I've been strongly influenced by the anti-fascist "propaganda" coming in on Facebook. I believe the threat is real, that the resurgence of European fascism is not confined to the Ukraine alone. This we anarchists must condemn & combat wherever & however possible, just as we endeavor to oppose all hierarchical formations (like Borotba). The dilemma facing anarchists today isn't, I think, all that different than the problems faced in the Russian Revolution & Civil War, nor in Spain some twenty years later. It's a Two-way battle on three fronts all taking place in a heavily packed mine field.
andrea salsedo