Input by Anarcho-syndicalist initiative ASI-IWA (Serbia)
French translation of the text (PDF):
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On war and anti-militarism
– War has always been one of the essential attributes of all authoritarian systems through the history, as it is now one of the main hallmarks of the late-stage global capitalist system we are suffering under.
– As all revolutionaries have been aware that the war is health of the state, and an important tool of the ruling class for the maintaining its power, anti-militarism is rightfully regarded as one of the basic anarchist principles. Principle which lead to repression, suffering, imprisonments and persecution of many of our comrades during the history of our movement. We should never forget this.
On the recent experiences of the (forgotten?) war in the Balkans
– Some of us, anarchists from ex-Yugoslavian region of the Balkan peninsula, who are unlucky enough to have lived through and remember the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, have ourselves directly witnessed civil war, nationalist bloodshed, imperialist aggression, sanctions, anti-war movement, colored revolution, brutal transition to neoliberal capitalism, mass impoverishment of the working class, retraditionalization and general lowering of the civilization level in our societies and Eastern Europe as whole. This is the reason why statements of the NATO politicians talking about Ukrainian war as a “first war in Europe after WWII”, which are based on their historical blindness caused by western chauvinism, are absolutely criminal and false.
– Specially us, anarchists from the Republic of Serbia, apart from the above-mentioned things, had an experience of the proxy-war during the Yugoslav civil war. Slobodan Milošević, leader of Serbia (Federal republic of Yugoslavia), which was not an official participant in the war in Bosnia and Croatia, has been arming, training, organizing and directing Serbian forces in those places.
– All this experiences provides us with important insight into the nature of Ukrainian war, that might elude some of our comrades in the West. Thus we see it as our obligation to focus attention of the comrades to some of these elements that we find important for the correct interpretation of the current inter-imperialist war between NATO and Russia, that is raging in Ukraine.
On the nature of Ukrainian state
– All police forces and professional armies in the world have a tendency to draw in their ranks highly authoritarian personalities. This surrounding is perfect for fascists and right-wingers to thrive. Still, huge presence of fascists in those state structures, as it is omnipresent, does not define state as fascists or nazified. For a serious scientific analyses of the situation, which has always been proclaimed goal of anarchist ideology, we have to distinguish between political sympathies of individuals and /structural/ elements of the State that do effect the nature of the State we are analyzing. Not every horrible capitalist system is fascist, and to be able to maintain seriousness of our analyses we need to be able to to clearly distinguish what we are talking about.
– Ukrainian state, after 2014 coup, has become a nazified state. When we talk about Ukraine being nazified state we are not talking about nazis being a dominant political force there, as can be witnessed by the last parliamentarian elections in which open nazis had only relative small gains. We are talking about /structural/ elements that qualify Ukraine for such disposition. We are talking about openly neo-nazi battalions of the Ukrainian army, such as Azov, Aidar and similar, we are talking about official contract signed between city of Kiev and neo-nazi C14 organization, we are talking about mass rehabilitation and public reaffirmation of war criminals and WWII nazi collaborators such as Bandera etc. While rehabilitation of WWII nazis is not limited to Ukraine, but is prevalent in most of Eastern European countries after the fall of state communism, especially in Baltic states but in others too, nowhere has it taken the shape of structural adjunction, such as in Ukraine.
– The fact that Ukraine is a nazified (again, not a nazi state), does not in any way imply support for Russia, neither it supports the lie of the Russian state that it is leading the war with the intention of “denazifzing” Ukraine. Ruling class of Russia, which is leading the war for its own hegemonic reasons, is just using in its propaganda something that is true about Ukraine, and we should not avoid telling the truth just because some of our enemies are also talking about it.
On the nature of war in Ukraine
– The war in Ukraine is an inter-imperialist proxy war lead by NATO and Russia, at the expense of population of Ukraine.
– Russia is power which, even if it maybe does not check all the boxes needed for scientific labeling of the State as imperialist one, does play a role of imperialist power in this conflict. It is lead by a ruthless, very conservative and hegemonic clique intended in establishing itself by force as one of the main players in this cuttroath capitalist world.
– Biden and von der Leyen are Slobodan Milošević of XXI century, which are leading NATO side of this war, arming one of the armies and organizing everything for that side in the conflict. NATO tendency to spread and encircle Russia is, without a doubt, one of the main immediate reasons for this conflict.
– If placed in historical context, and with understanding that EU is largely brought down to a position of US puppet in international relations, this war can be seen as third attempt of German imperialism in 110 years to establish control over strategic resources of Russia via war. Together with breaking of decisions of demilitarization of Germany from 1945 Potsdam conference, this tendency is very worrying and should strongly alarm the working class and anarchist movement in Europe.
– War is not lead only via direct military clashes, via funding, arming, training, organizing and directing armies, but also by imposing sanctions. As we, anarchists from Serbia, have lived during the 1990s under strict regime of sanctions, we have experience, apart from rational understanding, that confirms that sanctions are war against the population of the sanctioned state. It is never the ruling class that suffers from sanctions: in the case of war in Ukraine, Putin and his cronies will not be the one who will have difficulties in obtaining needed medicaments and other necessities, but ordinary working class people. This is why all states that are sanctioning Russia are part of this war, leading the war in fight against the Russian population. And this is why anti-militarist struggle must include fight against sanctions.
– As with all wars, this war has lead to rising of nationalism and chauvinism. In this context, for us as Balkan and European anarchists, it is important to underline anti-Russian racism that is prevalent in the EU, discrimination of people of Russian (and Belarusian) origin, denial of their right to move, study or work freely, banning of Russian culture, etc.
On the response of anarchists around the world to Ukrainian war
– Like in the case of the WWI, as Malatesta noted, many anarchists have forgotten their principals, when faced with international confrontation of this magnitude. But, at least for the time being and while conflict has not exploded yet, majority of the /organized/ anarchist movement is still managing to hold – more or less – anti-militarist positions. It is of utmost importance to fortify this position ahead of events that are coming.
– We have to remember that our primary role as anarchist revolutionaries – and especially during capitalist and imperialist war conflicts – has to be fight against our own ruling class. We should never allow our ruling class to convince us that the ruling class that is the enemy of our own masters should be primary target of our activities. In case of war in Ukraine this means for anarchists active in NATO states or NATO controlled states, that our primary target has to be NATO side of the war.
– While many comrades feel that it is important for us to say that we are against both sides in this war, which is undoubtedly true, we need to remember that we are not preachers but revolutionaries, and that it is not what we say that counts, but what we do. Therefore, apart from abstract proclamation that we are opposing both sides in the war, we have to concentrate our practical activities on something that is not only politically right but also only thing physically possible – fighting against our ruling class and its armies and warmongering.
– Sadly many of anarchist comrades in the West have fallen under the influence of their ruling class propaganda and, some consciously and many unconsciously, have started reproducing and supporting positions that are objectively in line with Ukrainian nationalism, western chauvinism, and Europan and US imperialist nationalism.
– While some of uninformed comrades in the West could believe in warmongering propaganda about huge numbers of “anarchists” and “anti-authoritarian” fighters that are part of NATO side in war in Ukraine, we, who are active in the anarchist movement in Easter Europe for decades now, know for a fact that this numbers are pure fiction and that up to the war organized libertarian movement in Ukraine was quite small and weak. In that context providing arms and other support for any of the soldiers in the front is nothing more that participating in the inter-imperialist war and supporting one of the warring sides, which is in stark opposition to our principles and ideals. We, of course, understand that in situation of war joining army could sometimes be only mean of survival, but we vehemently disagree that those activities could in any way be labeled as anti-authoritarian and excuse for supporting them as something that anarchists movement should be engaged in.
– Majority of non-European comrades are holding correct anti-militarist line regarding the war in Ukraine, but in many cases this position is held because of the wrong belief that this war is same as many other recent wars, and that it is only because of prevalent eurocentrism that it is taking so much of global focus.While eurocentrism is a big problem, linked with structural relations in the global capitalist system, it is important to underline that this war is not like any other war in recent years. The war in Ukraine is an inter-imperialist proxy war lead by NATO and Russia, with a dangerous potential and tendency of escalating and becoming WWIII or even nuclear confrontation, which could not be said for wars such as Yugoslav civil war, Iraq or Afghanistan wars etc. On the other had, expected war between NATO (and AUKUS) and China in Taiwan, has similar potential to the war in Ukraine.
– We feel that /No war but class war/, a stance that is questioned (in time of war!) by some who are claiming to be anarchists, is only position acceptable from the perspective of our anarchist ideology, while anything else would amount to warmongering and servicing of imperialist powers.
On the response of Balkan anarchists to the war in Ukraine
– Concretely in Serbia: in period before the war Serbia was publicly claiming to be militarily neutral as it held joint military exercises with NATO and Russia in 10:1 ratio – 10 with NATO comparing to one with Russia. Since the war started, Serbia proclaimed neutrality in the war, which it is in reality keeping by jet not imposing sanctions on Russia, but also proclaimed terminating all joint military exercises with both sides. But, just after one year of war, Serbia restarted its joint military exercises, now /only/ with NATO, while Serbian produced guns and ammunition are being sent in huge volumes to NATO side in the war and territory of Serbia is used for the transport of military equipment to Ukraine, again to NATO side in this bloodbath.
– Whole Balkans is a NATO zone of influence, with majority of states in it being official part of NATO, while several others states (including Serbia) and colonial territories being under overwhelming control of NATO. This is why our struggle in the Balkans against the war has to be focused on fighting NATO and its armies.