#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #WAR #UKRAÏNE #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) ait russia: antimilitarism Ukraine - Anarchists of Kharkov about the situation (ca, de, it, pt)[machine translation]

 We publish a translation of the text in which anarchists from Kharkov talk about

the situation and their position at the moment. Although we do not agree with all
their assessments, we nevertheless consider it important to bring the
internationalist voice from Ukraine through all front lines, whose working people
have become a tragic victim of bloody showdowns between NATO and the Kremlin,
Russian and Ukrainian oligarchic regimes today. ---- If someone does not know, we
write about social conflicts in Kharkiv, urban and environmental problems,
self-organized efforts to overcome them from below, about local anarchist
history. Our goal is to influence public opinion by advancing the agenda in the
spirit of revolutionary anarchism.

On the second question[what Ukrainian anarchists are doing now], let's start with
ourselves. We are all in Kharkov, with the exception of one participant with a
small son, who safely left for Poland with her relatives. Now we are explaining
the situation here to foreign journalists and activists who, from the first hours
of the war, have been bombarding us with various questions and simply letters of
solidarity. Secondly, we participate in the distribution of essential goods to
the most needy neighbors. And one more of our guys coordinates mutual assistance
in solving various issues through territorial Telegram chats.

There are some hunting and edged weapons here, material for Molotov cocktails is
also nearby, but in general, even cannonade is not particularly heard in our
homes. Compared to the other half of the city, we were just lucky. In the
northern and eastern districts of the city, heavy shelling of residential
buildings from heavy weapons is really going on - just today, February 28, at
least 11 civilians were killed and 37 were injured, including a family of two
adults and three children burned alive in a car .. .

We see no point in covering the military situation here. All media and publics
write the same thing, and there is no desire to try to expand your awareness by
spreading unfounded rumors. Our materials touch upon social and humanitarian
topics, rather only secondarily covered by other journalists.

What do we think of all this? First, a few words about the public statementour
comrades from the Russian regional section of the International Workers'
Association. While sharing in general their condemnation of both ruling cliques,
we must still note that they did not fully understand the global causes of this
hell. If the war is caused by competition for gas markets, then why has the West
not yet imposed an embargo on the supply of Russian hydrocarbons? And who will
divert attention from the "sanitary dictatorship" with measures that are 100
times less popular among the population and 100 times more disadvantageous for
the economy than any covid restrictions? Oh well, now is not the time to dig so
deep... (1) According to their spokesperson, they now have to "fight the crazed
patriotic bastards" with might and main, but they do not give any specific
recommendations, except for the most abstract appeals for any time (2 ).

And then we come to the next point. A rather controversial position was taken by
our other close allies from the Black Banner group, mainly based in Lvov and
Kyiv. Of course, if in the Obolon metropolitan area even Kalashnikov assault
rifles were handed out for territorial defense simply to everyone, without even
asking for documents, then it's a sin not to take advantage of this (in Kharkov
now you can get a gun only with documents and combat experience). Question: is it
possible now to conduct anarchist agitation in armed formations, or will
anarchists be just cannon fodder there? However, the main thing is that the
political statement of the guys in general also places the responsibility for
this massacre on both bourgeois sides, and this certainly warms our hearts (3).

Be that as it may, the general internationalist line is now seen as follows: let
the Putlerite (4) White Guard scumbags choke on their blood here, but we should
not help "our" state get out of this meat grinder stronger. What to do
specifically - let each comrade act according to local circumstances. We do what
we can best and want to speak only for our group (...).

And where without historical analogies! The "Black Banner" at the end of its
declaration appeals to the experience of Makhno, who fought both against
Denikin's imperialists and against Ukrainian nationalists, but the objective
reality is that our forces are now incomparable even with the anarchist movement
of the Russian Empire during the period of reaction itself after the defeat of
the revolution of 1905- 1907 Based on the influence and resources we have, it
seems most relevant now to take an example from Chernyshevsky and his supporters.
Those who, first of all, rejoiced at the failure of the crowned gendarme Nicholas
I in the Crimean War, but at the same time did not support the British, French
and Ottoman empires, even as a "lesser evil" (5). (...)

The full English text of the interview with Kharkiv residents is here:
http://libcom.org/news/invasion-ukraine-anarchist-media-call-kharkov-28022022

--------------------------------------------------------------

Comments from the editors of aitrus.info:

1) Unfortunately, the Kharkov comrades did not understand the essence of the
provisions they criticized. As for the competition for energy markets, it was, of
course, not so much about the momentary struggle for the price of gas on European
markets and long-term contracts, but about the long-term desire of Russian gas
concerns (which are the true owners of the Russian state) to stop the process of
reorienting the European energy market to a radical reduction in energy
consumption of the share of imported combustible fuel, primarily gas and oil. As
for the "sanitary dictatorship", it should be borne in mind here that
dissatisfaction with its measures has greatly shaken the support of the ruling
regimes both in NATO countries and in Russia, and wars have always been and
remain a powerful means of "national mobilization",

2) We by no means regard the anarchist principles of anti-militarism as abstract.
They really should always be proclaimed, regardless of how possible their
implementation is at a given moment. When the internationalists proclaimed the
anti-war principle of turning the imperialist war into a class war in 1914, they
were also considered by many to be naive dreamers. But then their ideas and ideas
were picked up by the working people, tired of the slaughter. In addition, as we
see, the comrades from Kharkov also do not give practical recommendations on how
exactly it is possible to turn the war into a social revolution.

3) "Black Flag" announced the entry of its members into the so-called
"territorial defense" forces, which are called upon to fight Russian intervention
on the side of the capitalist regime of the Ukrainian state. From our point of
view, this is a serious departure from the internationalist principle, even if
behind it there really is a naive attempt to "re-agitate" the members of the
detachments.

4) While we completely reject the bourgeois, reactionary, neoliberal and despotic
regime of the Kremlin, its White Guard ideology and policies, we still do not
consider it right to resort to comparing it with the Hitler regime. For
propaganda purposes, one should not resort to relativizing and banalizing Nazism
with its Holocaust and mass extermination camps.

5) The words in the first place, perhaps, somewhat contradict the phrase about
the absence of a "lesser evil" ... But, quoting the Kharkov comrades themselves,
"now is not the time to dig so deep" and find fault.

https://aitrus.info/node/5924
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