Translation of a text published on March 1 by Antijob, a Russian anarchist
website on labor issues. ---- All parts of this text will begin with the phrase"Those who do deeds, not words," because we live in a land of total lies, similarto the world described by Orwell in the 1984 novel.where truth is a lie and peaceis war. "Our" president said in words that he would not raise the retirement age,but he did. Because he uses words to pay doctors "covid" money, when in fact hehas to collect it from his superiors. Because he promised that he would solve theproblem of not paying money to the workers involved in the construction of theVostochny spaceport, but in fact in the new TV show Hotline[where Putin talks forhours and answers pre-arranged questions from loyal "spectators"], policedetained a worker who he answered the question, and he was put in temporarycustody for several days so that he could not speak. Because in words he fightsfor peace, but in fact he started a war, which he forbade to call war.The author of this text has spent years fighting for the interests of the workersand against fascism, in practice, not just in words. That is why, unlike Putin,he can be trusted.Who's the junta here?Those who seek not only words but also deeds to defend the rights and interestsof the workers know that this is almost impossible under Putin's authoritarianregime. Why? Because any attempt by society, in this case wage earners, isimmediately subject to repression. The state prosecutes the most active elementsof ours and thus prevents us from becoming a force that could affect thesituation in the country. The state acts on two sides: on the one hand, there isa blatant and illegal persecution of workers' activists, on the other hand, theadjustment of laws to correspond to this blatantness.How does it work? It looks something like this: In 2008, Valentin Urusov, aworker in a diamond mine in the Yakut city of Udachny, decided to form a tradeunion and fight for his rights along with other workers. But as in some stupidmovie, the local anti-drug chief took him and his henchmen to the woods, shot himin the head, and pushed him with drugs. Eventually, Valentin went to prison forfour years (a total of six years, but was released on parole after four years)and no trade union was formed.Moving from police injustice to police legislation, one depressing thing is worthnoting: since the adoption of the new Labor Code, it is impossible to strikelegally in Russia. Therefore, after the adoption of the Code, the strikesdisappeared from official statistics. However, this does not mean that they havedisappeared, but that they have become "illegal" from the point of view ofPutin's state. By the way, when the German trade union president IG Metal Putinasked about attacks on the health and lives of MPRA activists . This probablybest describes the attitude of the Russian president towards the workers'movement. Although I assume that in his mind, extremists will turn intoterrorists in time.So we can't legally gather or strike because it all requires permission from theauthorities. If people do not have the opportunity to collectively defend theirrights and interests, they will not learn, and if they do not, then there can beno workers' movement. In the cursed and damned West, workers will occupyfactories, fight the police and stop neoliberal reforms, but here they will keeptheir mouths and pace. The Ukrainian government, like the Russian government,serves the interests of the rich, but there is one very important difference - ithas no mechanisms to suppress civil society like the Russian government. There,various oligarchic groups take turns at the helm, thus preventing them frompermanently establishing and fighting all living things that stand in their way.And most importantly - if any of these groups are stubborn and unwilling tolisten to the people at all, the Ukrainians will overthrow it, as they did onMaidan. Unfortunately, this does not mean that society is taking power into itsown hands, but it does mean that it retains the possibility of resistance.This brings us to the question posed in the title of this section. Who exactly isthe evil "junta" that prevents ordinary people from moving? The answer to thisquestion is obvious to every reasonable person. The Ukrainian government is nowhanding out weapons to anyone who wants to fight the occupiers. If it is a"junta" that survives only because of nationalist bayonets and terror against itsown people, why isn't it afraid that people will side with the enemy andoverthrow it? Because you won't find a real junta in Ukraine. But can you imaginePutin giving people weapons? He is also afraid of a plastic cup so that it willnot become infected. It is in Russia that the security forces have unlimitedpower and use it to enrich and suppress dissent. The armed people are the worstnightmare of Putin, his generals and oligarchs. Is evident," Anti-fascist" fascismThose who fight fascism through deeds, not words, are well aware thatanti-fascists are being imprisoned in Russia, and they know that "our"authorities are using the far right to suppress social protests. The story fromthe forest in the town of Khimki most accurately illustrates this situation, whenthe authorities hired fascists from the Moscow hooligan group Gladiators to breakup the camp of forest defenders. The anti-fascists responded by symbolicallyattacking the office building in Khimki. It was not long before the authoritieslaunched a hunt for anti-fascists and sent two of them - Alexei Gaskarov andMaxim Solopov - behind bars for three months. However, it was still a mildrepression. Anti-fascist Alexei Sutuga had to serve three years for a clash withthe far-right in the Sbarro cafe.Another good example comes from the same barrel. The Sorok Sorokov movement wasonce famous for its attacks on activists who opposed the construction of Orthodoxtemples in parks. What were the consequences for them? - None. The Russianauthorities like terror in the name of God's glory. And here we come to anotherimportant point. Like the fascists in the past, the Russian authorities arespreading traditionalism and archaism. Teaching orthodox culture in schools.Prohibition of sex education. Removal of the "beating" section, according towhich domestic perpetrators may have been prosecuted, from the Criminal Code.That is only a small part of what this government has done. In fact, theauthorities promote religious anti-scientific thinking through schools,television, and all other available channels. And then he wonders if people don'twant to be vaccinated against covida. All you have to do is jump into the icehole and cross. "We are Russians - God is with us." And this god has a weaknessfor the postmodern - that's why he doesn't mind the strip club at Putin's palacein Gelendzhik. But who knows - maybe there were bars in the huts and in medievalRussia? Only God knows.But all the cultural specifics aside. In short, the Russian government professesthe ideology of imperial nationalism. Central to this ideology is that everythingshould be decided at the center, not the local level. The slogan that "Moscow isnot Russia" is not really so apt, but the slogan "Gazprom is Russia's wealth" is,in my humble estimate, more apt. In the PR language of this completely falseregime, the whole "power of Siberia" goes abroad. In Siberia, felled forests,smog-polluted skies, cancer and ruined nature remain. The "wealth of Russia"failed to be gasified even by the Krasnoyarsk region. At the same time, all gaspipelines lead from it in different directions - mostly to the west and partly tothe east. And the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Plant, for which the "black sky" regime isdeclared there, belongs to "damned foreigners."Power in Russia is banned by indigenous organizations. The Putin regime declaredthe extremist Bashkir organization "Bashkort", which protected the naturalmonument - Shichan Kutau - from industrial development. But there is an even moreglaring example. For example, after the Ingush protests against the changes onthe border between Ingushetia and Chechnya, not only several members of theIngush People's Council were imprisoned, but the organization itself wasabolished. Instead of directing his Chechen protégé, Putin complied with hiswishes. How this may affect the Caucasus in the future is not difficult topredict. But who cares? Let the flood come after him.Thanks to all this, even the worst Ukrainian Bandera people can say with a clearconscience, "And these people forbid us from picking our noses!"21st Century Colonialists, Fuck!Anyone who, through deeds, not in words, seeks to improve life in their country,knows that this cannot be done at the expense of war with neighbors. But "our"former "communists," Chekists, bandits, and their children became 21st centurycolonizers. Their territory is not enough to bully and experiment on the peoplewho inhabit them. They want more. First, they occupied Crimea and created falserepublics in eastern Ukraine, where those who disagree with the will of theKremlin and its commissioners end up "in the basement" at best. But even that isnot enough for them. They want the whole of Ukraine. And so the result is thatthe slogan "Russian warships, fuck you!" Has become an international slogan.I write this with pain because I know that in our tradition there is not only theoppression of other nations and the licking of the lord's shoes, but alsoresistance. From the Novgorod cause[early model of decision-making based on thepopular plenary session]through Stepan Razin to the natives, the folk traditionof the fight against authoritarianism unfolds, which we could call a kind ofanti-state patriotism. Thousands of heroes have sacrificed themselves so that wedo not remain in history as "gendarmes of Europe"[a long term referring to Russiaas a repressive force in Europe, once associated with Tsar Nicholas I], but setan example for others.So why do we choose a men's shoe again and serve psychopaths on the throne? If wewant to be proud of the really good things in our history, then why do we allowlife under the guise of Ivan the Terrible, under Nikolai Palkin or under Stalin?The Russian authorities have helped dictator Lukashenko to suppress theresistance of the Belarusian people and maintain the throne, and now they want tobring our brothers and sisters to their knees in Ukraine. Do we want the peoplesliving by our side to regard us as occupiers, do we want to be hated and despised?So I'm not, and that's why I'm proud not of Putin, but of the fact that even theinvective slogan "Russian warships, fuck you" was spoken in Russian, which, bythe way, is allegedly banned in Ukraine. So not all is lost to us yet.How to restore our company?Those who care about their people by deeds, not words, do not want them to die insenseless wars. However, Putin's regime has made it the only social lifeline forordinary boys in Russia to serve in the military and other law enforcementagencies. The story of one of the Russian prisoners of war shows very well howthese people end up in Putin's Wehrmacht.On February 24, Russian soldier Rafik Rachmankulov was captured by the Ukrainianarmy. His mother is Natalia Deineka, a resident of the Saratov region. Rafik isher middle son. In addition to him, he has five other children, for a total ofsix. Three of them are her own and three are her husband's. Her husband makes aliving as a fitter, builds bridges and works shifts. She in turn works shifts inthe warehouse of the Sportmaster store. This is a complicated working-classfamily that does not fit into the worldview of the right or the left. Rafik has agirlfriend, Lily, and to secure his future family, he joined the army after beingdrafted into the army. He was interested in a salary in the army and theopportunity to obtain housing. Apparently he didn't want to work shifts and pay amortgage for 20-30 years, but the alternative was to sell the soul to the devil,Putin. And that's actually the whole story.I have no desire to apologize to these Rafiks, and of course to better understandthat "no nose is stuck in a foreign monastery"[Russian saying about not forcingone's own way of acting on others], these guys would need a good load, but Iunderstand that such Rafiks, Ivans and other guys there is little in MoscowRussia and something needs to be done about it. Putin doesn't care about theirlives - he just wants Ivan and Rafici to serve him loyally and lay their heads onhis military adventures, or beat batons of another Ivana and Rafika, who were alittle luckier and understood that this is not the way to live.And you really can't live like this. The only well-paid job should not be inrepressive bodies. It is unacceptable for people to have their own housing onlyas debt slavery to bankers for 20-30 years. Is it worth Rafik in the middle ofthe Ukrainian fields so that he can start a family with Lily? Is it worth Lilijeto start a family with a man who, because of his own happiness, is willing totrample on the happiness of others? Rafik and Lilija are closer to me than Putin,Medvedev, Gref, Rotenbhttps://www.afed.cz/text/7630/za-pracujici-tridu-na-strane-ukrajiny_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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