Anarchist anti-war action and the growing nationalism in Russia
Interview with Portuguese Mapa - Jornal de Informação Critica -paper, published in issue 35. Interview by Pedro Morais.
Ever since the beginning of the Russian invasion against Ukraine, we have seen statements by anarchists, communists and leftists not from Ukraine, on how Ukrainian anarchists, communists and leftists should not defend themselves against attack of Putin, but lay down their arms and flee instead.
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The results of the first 30 years of “democracy” in Ukraine are, to put it mildly, unconvincing. The economy and the media are in the hands of rival oligarchs, corruption is at staggering levels, economic development lags behind many African countries, and in addition, the country has become the center of the neo-Nazi movement around the world. And these problems are basically home-grown, not the result of the Kremlin’s intrigues.
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In April 2017, a bombing took place in the Saint Petersburg metro. The explosion killed 16 people and injured 103.
According to the pre-trial investigation, the suicide attack was carried out by Akbarzhon Dzhalilov and organized by the “Katibat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad” jihadist group consisting of Uzbek fighters, active in Syria, previously with support from Al-Qaeda. The group however, did not claim responsibility for the attack.
In February, a critique of Moscow-based bands What We Feel(WWF) and Moscow Death Brigade(MDB) written by “Antifascist Subculture Worldwide”-collective appeared on the German website, Linksunten (in English).
Despite the bleakness of the situation in Ukraine, at least I was amused by the fact that Nazis were fighting on both sides of the front, killing each other.
But then I found out that some "anti-fascists" have been doing the same 1) 2) 3).
I am sure that in terms of the entire former Soviet Union only a minority of the Antifas is willing to die for Poroshenko or Putin. However, the scale of this problem is significant, and any attempts to react to it 4) also have their shortcomings 5).
On Friday, the 2nd of May, the House of Trade Unions in Odessa caught on fire. Altogether at least 42 people lost their lives during the clashes in the city, most of them in the fire and the others in streetfights. There is an excellent Russian language, eyewitness account of the events available here.
On Friday 10th of January Basmanniy district court of Moscow ceased criminal case against Alexey Olesinov, Alexey Sutuga, Alyon Volikov and Babken Guskasyan. All four were accused of “hooliganism”, a criminal offense which is included in the amnesty bill, approved as a PR stunt on initiative of Vladimir Putin himself in advent of the Sochi Winter Olympics – most known amnestied political prisoners being 30 detainees of the Arctic Sunrise ship of Greenpeace, and two imprisoned members of Pussy Riot.
28th of November Lenin district court of the city of Tyumen uphold a request of the prosecutor of the Lenin district on recognition a text I wrote two years ago as “extremist”.
Some claim, that anarchism opposes violence, as for anarchists means and ends meet. But only second statement is correct, wherease first is not. This because in anarchism violence is not only means, but in a certain sense a goal in itself.
With this, I do not mean childish boasting about hanging last bourgeois to guts of last priest or anything like that. Destruction of class enemies as individuals is not a revolutionary goal. As Kropotkin wrote, one may hardly avoid some excesses from side of most angered people, but obviously it is goal of anarchists to minimise them.
In Russian mainstream media, turn of the Nizhni Novgorod was handled with little revealing headlines - "Case of Nizhni Novgorod anti-fascists was returned to investigators". Thus few understood, that as a matter of fact this was perhaps the sweetest victory of Russian anti-fascist movement this year, this far.
I was invited to speak, and I agreed immediately - LAB is the biggest (or perhaps secondmost biggest, after San Fransisco) anarchist bookfair in the world, could be also the biggest annual anarchist event in the world. One may only crudely estimate number of participators, as entrance is free. Free programs were handed out, with a suggested donation of one pound. 2600 pounds were collected, which is a rather good estimation of number of participators.
Almost two months have passed since the Baltic Anarchist Meeting http://www.bam2012.org/ was organised in Tallinn of Estonia 25th-27th of May, but only now I had time to write some impressions. I haven't come across any other reports yet, but I hope they would show at some point up as I missed many of the discussions.
who are sorry with the fact I got kicked out from Russia. You know nothing about it, you have never been in the same situation and you will never be. I do not want to think about the whole issue, so do not say anything.
Consider a situation, when your feet got torn off in some accident. Would peoples condolences bring your feet back?
No they would not.
Condolences make sense when it is about some temporary loss, which you may get over with. For example, if your house burns down, you maybe may have another house at some point.
I gathered links on articles in English, Russian, Finnish and Swedish on my exile from Russia. Technically, I am not deported - it is just my residence permit annulled, and I am refused a visa. In practice, these are pretty much the same thing, actually blacklisting from a visa is even worse - deportation means five years ban of entrance, but blacklisting has no any established time limit.
Links are ordered according to language and relevance.
In English:
Russia to deport Finnish activist who plans to write a book
Helsingin Sanomat 3th of April 2012
On Thursday, the 14th of June anarchist and member of the Moscow - Autonomous Action, Antti Rautiainen, was denied his Russian visa request. The refusal was not exaplained.
Rautiainen had a Russian temporary residence permit, but it was annulled at the end of March. According to authorities, he had made "calls to violently overthrow constitutional order or Russian Federation." He was given 15 days to leave the Russian Federation.
On April 20 we made a solidarity action against political repression in
the form of the threatened deportation of Antti R. (More info about
the case: http://themoscownews.com/russia/20120404/189590201.html or http://hro.rightsinrussia.info/archive/refugees-idps/antti-rautiainen/picket)
We visited the Russian Embassy with a small picket, condemning
political repression by the state.
In the far North-West of a once mighty empire, there is a distant province, mostly known due to the sluggishness of its inhabitants. They have still not gotten rid of the statue of a czar, who ruled 150 years ago, in the central square of their capital. Inhabitants of the province have never won a single war, but they have a plenty of other reasons to be proud - for example, a ski-jumper who achieved a lot in 1980, but has since then struggled with a substance abuse problem.
On the 29th of March the Federal Migration Service of Russia gave Finnish citizen Antti Rautiainen, a member of Autonomous Action, an order to leave the Russian Federation within 15 days. According to the order, Rautiainen is suspected of "making statements for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order." Migration authorities have commented, that such decisions are made according to orders from the FSB.
Rautiainen wants to appeal the decision with help of lawyers from the "Civic Action" NGO.
Short presentation of the Tyumen case, from a benefit event in Helsinki 6th of October 2023. In Spotify Support the fundraising drive of Firefund for the for the lawyers of the defendants in the "Tyumen case". Families and relatives will have to pay for the participation of lawyers in these...
Anarchist anti-war action and the growing nationalism in Russia Interview with Portuguese Mapa - Jornal de Informação Critica -paper, published in issue 35. Interview by Pedro Morais. Listen this blog in SoundCloud Listen this blog in Spotify After the start of war in Ukraine we have seen...