WORLD WORLDWIDE SLOVENIA BALKAN EUROPE News Journal Update - (en) Slovenia, Ljubljana: Final Statement of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 2023 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 OVER THE WALLS OF NATIONALISM AND WAR! SOLIDARITY AND RESISTANCE AGAINST

THE MACHINE OF DEATH! ---- From 6th to 9th of July around 800 comrades
from all geographies of the Balkans, Europe and beyond gathered in
Ljubljana, Slovenia to participate at the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair
(BAB) 2023. The latter celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. More
than a hundred publishers, distros and collectives from the
international anarchist and anti-authoritarian movement presented their
books, publications and other materials regarding current social
struggles around the world. The BAB is more than a gathering of
publishers, as it presents a convergence point for comrades from Balkans
and beyond to learn from eachother's struggles. Therefore, dozens of
interesting discussions and workshops that took place parallel to the
bookfair itself, were attended by up to a few hundred people each. The
political intervention in the city of Ljubljana in the form of a
demonstration against war, nationalism, patriarchy, borders and capital
with up to 1000 people on Saturday evening was spontaneously initiated
by the assembly of participants of BAB and self-organized by them. It
was a clear and concrete confirmation of the internationalist character
of this gathering and our movement in general. Numerous languages that
were heard through the slogans, shouted during the demonstration and
written on the banners, are not only a symbolic statement but a concrete
expression of our internationalism and politics of unity in diversity.
We may be different, we come from different places and we may organize
in different ways but we all share the same passion for freedom and the
struggle for life and dignity. For us it is completely clear: everywhere
in the world - from the Balkans to Russia and the Ukraine - the enemy is
capital and the state; enemies of the peoples everywhere sit in banks
and in parliaments!

 From Warsaw to Belgrade and Barcelona, Ankara to Copenhagen and London,
Sydney to Valparaiso and Bogota, Sofia to Paris and Rome, Nikosia to
Athens and Moscow: comrades from all around the world met in Ljubljana
to share ideas, analysis and perspectives. We discussed our experiences,
practices, models of organizing and struggles, and ways of participating
in social movements and in wider popular revolutionary processes. All
with the intention to find points of convergence, build common direction
that involves the multiplicity of tactics, and form strategic proposals
and alternatives. All of that can help us mobilize our strength and
inspirations to tackle the challenges and social problems our movements
and societies are facing in the context of the multiple ways in which
political, economic and social destruction is implemented by the rule of
global capitalism.

TOGETHER AGAINST WAR, BORDERS, PATRIARCHY AND CAPITALISM!
Our starting point of analysis and struggle is a common understanding of
the role of capitalism and states with intertwined systems of
domination, exploitation and oppressions, such as patriarchy, sexism,
nationalism, and racism, in destroying societies, peoples, nature and
the environment. All the recent crises - the constant intensification of
attacks against popular classes, colonization and occupation of our
cities and villages by capital and police, radicalization of repression
and state violence, and finally militarization and war, are confirming
our analysis from the past: capitalism is crisis, and capitalism is war.
All this makes our political agenda of radical social change and of
building an alternative even more urgent for the future.

We understand war as an integral part of the existing system and
destruction: it is its tool and natural expression. It manifests itself
in different forms, but its results are always the same: subordination,
oppression, death and genocide. We see that everywhere. From Ukraine to
Sudan, from Kosovo to Chiapas, from France to the Mediterranean, from
Kurdistan to Palestine: forces of power and capital - be it through the
national armies, militarized police, imperialist alliances, private and
proxy elements, or through other forms of violence and attacks - are
waging war against people and society. For us, the enemy is war itself.
For us, the states, which need the war in order to impose their rule
over the population, are the enemy. For us, the enemy is capitalism that
needs states and wars to perpetuate its grip on the world. To oppose
war, means to attack the system that needs it and enables it.

Borders in general and the deadly border regime of Fortress Europe in
particular, are an integral part of this system of death. The Pylos
disaster, where hundreds of migrants were killed in the drowning of a
boat, just like tens of thousands of them before in the Mediterranean,
on the Balkan route and in other border zones, was not an accident. It
was mass murder by the Greek state and the EU. By following EU migration
policies, negotiated beforehand by them, states are constantly murdering
people arriving at the borders. They use nationalism, security
discourse, and racism to legitimise pogroms, beatings, evictions and
further discriminations. They exploit people, who managed to survive
border violence in sweatshops. They build modern concentration camps to
imprison migrants in a constant state of exclusion. At the same time
they reward police and border guards who kill, rape and rob on a daily
basis. This normalised violence is the official policy of the EU. We
will continue to organize against it in all its forms and against all
its helpers: be it Frontex, fascist mobs or border patrols. We will
continue to organize in solidarity with people on the move. We will
continue to struggle against dehumanization and demand rights to travel,
migrate and live in dignity and freedom for everyone. We must fight
racism, militarisation of borders and the criminalisation of migration.

But even though we are dedicated to the fight against murderous border
regimes both on the borders drawn around nation states, as well as those
reproduced inside cities and communities, we still see how many
different forms of racism are embedded in our communities of resistance.
Our fight against all border regimes necessarily has to entail both
critical self-reflection and identifying how certain discourses and
practices reproduce imposed positions of power, as well as honest
commitment to changing them. It is crucial to build a common struggle of
those who are subjected to a racialized "migrant" condition and those,
who are considered "local". We recognize different starting positions of
such struggle, as some in them have access to healthcare, housing and
education, while others do not. We cannot count on the state to give us
universal rights, the only way to achieve radical equality is to fight
and resist all policies that cause death, forced migration, exploitation
and all forms of oppression.

We understand patriarchy as one of the main pillars of the system of
domination. We are seeing the rise of reactionary forces and
counter-revolutionary processes everywhere. Re-patriarchalization of
society, attacks on reproductive rights, violence against women, trans
and queer people, femicides, homophobia and transphobia are all part of
the same process. During BAB2023 the Tbilisi Pride was violently
attacked by a mob of fascists and fundamentalists, while trans teenager
Noa Milivojev was murdered in Belgrade, Serbia. Hate crimes and
discrimination against queer and trans people are drastically on the
rise as we are globally targeted by violence and hate propaganda of the
far right, religious fundamentalists and the conservative capitalist
society as a whole. We express our determination to continue to organize
resistance against these processes and set up self-defense against
misogynist violence, often supported and ignited by the state powers,
until patriarchy and other systems of domination are crushed. At the
same time, we will continue to address patriarchal patterns in our
spaces and movements as well, as the latter are already a reflection of
the world we wish to live in in the future. Through Day0 of BAB2023, in
which we dedicated space and time to making connections among
anarcha-queerfeminist movements in the region and beyond; through other
content on several occasions at the gathering, and through strong voices
of trans liberation at the Saturday demonstration, we placed this issue
at the center of our common struggle, and contributed to more connected
anarcha-queer networks and organizing efforts.

We will continue to support anti-fascist mobilizations against the nazi
marches in Sofia, Budapest and elsewhere. We need to constantly fight
nationalism everywhere, as it is a tool of ruling classes and a state
for legitimization of divisions and conquests. We know very well that
nazis and other fascist mobs are the right hand of the rulers, as they
continue to be the ones executing the dirty job of the state in the
shadows. This is why we have to confront them, and destroy their ability
to form a significant presence in either organized groups or on the streets.

We are determined to continue to organize locally, regionally and
internationally so we can build resistance and solidarity against this
reign of terror. At the same time we know it is important to build our
organizations, structures, relations and communities, based on
principles of antiauthoritarian self-organization. Coherence between
ideas and practice, means and ends, is a critical principle of
anarchism. As urgent as it is to build resistance, it is equally
important to continue to challenge ourselves and our daily lives. We
need to work towards de-colonizing our minds, deconstructing the
dominant mentality within us and in society, and confront aggressive,
sectarian and destructive behavior in our spaces. All of this is
necessary precondition for us to build society and our movement, based
on mutual respect, care and solidarity.

We also see how history is used by the rulers to legitimise their rule
and to oppress us. We feel that to research and analyse history is a
necessary component of any revolutionary process. This topic was among
others discussed at the cluster discussion about Anarchist Archives. We
have to create practices of popular free education, write our own
histories, build our own knowledge and disseminate it in all directions
of society.

Access to land, seeds, quality food, energy and other natural resources
are an important aspect of political struggles for antiauthoritarian
movements. We recognize them as a precondition for building any
meaningful autonomy. Neoliberal expropriation, exploitation and
plundering are processes inherent in the reorganization of the
countryside worldwide. In the Balkan region they manifest themselves in
specific local contexts. They materialise in suburbanization,
gentrification and touristification of the countryside, as well as in
environmentally harmful megaprojects in marginalized communities or
ever-expanding corridors for logistical needs of globalized markets,
transforming and narrowing social possibilities for access to resources.
Thus, our struggle should not only be centered around abstract
environmental issues, but we should also be able to participate in
various processes in the countryside - as an antiauthoritarian movement,
as farmers, as comrades, as villagers, connecting rural and urban
struggles. We have opened these discussions at the BAB in Novi Sad,
continued at the BAB in Cluj and at this year's BAB in Ljubljana, with
an aim to expand them on both a theoretical and a practical level in the
future.

SOLIDARITY WITH ALL PEOPLE IN REVOLT!
 From Nanterre to Atlanta, from Iran and Kenya to Chile: we express our
solidarity with all people rising up everywhere.

We also express our solidarity to all people who are targeted by
repression, and with all political prisoners from Belarus to Turkey and
from Greece to Germany. We will continue to organize solidarity and help
all those who are prosecuted by the state. In some geographies, the
prison system is a continuation of slavery; in all of them, it is an
integral way for the ruling classes to control, exploit, and kill
disposable population. Therefore we aim to struggle for the abolition of
prison systems. We are truly free only among those who are equally free;
the slavery of even one human being violates humanity and negates the
freedom of all.

We express our solidarity with revolutionary processes in Kurdistan. We
also express our determination to continue the dialogue with the Kurdish
Freedom Movement, discuss the ideological and practical proposals and
expressions of Democratic Confederalism with them and build strategic
relations for a common front of anti-system forces against capitalist
modernity.

 From the Balkans from below, we send greetings of solidarity and
support to the Zapatista communities in the south-east of Mexico that
are increasingly finding themselves under attack by the
(narco)paramilitary forces supported by the Mexican state. We express
our commitment to the continuous weaving of the transnational web of
support for the struggle of the Zapatistas, demand an immediate stop of
the war against the Zapatista communities and are joining the call for
days of action issued by the "Espacio de Coordinación Nacional Alto a la
guerra contra los pueblos Zapatistas" for July 13 to July 16, 2023.

FOR GLOBAL ALLIANCE AGAINST THE MACHINE OF DEATH!
We declare that it is necessary to create an alternative, emancipatory
vision of the world, one that opposes the numbing effect of the
normalisation and banalisation of war. In other words, we want a clear,
inspiring and motivating position against the dead-ends of the
new-bipolar-world-in-formation and the feeling of getting lost in
geopolitical analysis. We propose the building of a Global Alliance
Against the Machine of Death, so that the movement regains the
initiative. The idea is to bring together global networks, initiatives
and communities of struggle, clarifying and targeting the many faces of
capitalism as war. On the level of everyday life this means a fight
against the prerequisites of war: nationalism, militarism, patriarchy,
politics of exclusion, etc. On the level of political economy, we must
organise campaigns against the arms industry, the corporate war
profiteers, food and energy corporations, etc. We must not forget about
all and every national military apparatus and multinational military
coalitions. The process through which we will create this Global
Alliance Against the Machine of Death is also crucial if we want to put
again into perspective the movement for social liberation by
horizontally organising on local, regional and finally global level,
aiming to a planetary meeting (perhaps on May Day 2024).

At this point we also have to thank the people of Ljubljana that
welcomed us with open arms and for four days hosted us, fed us and made
it possible in other ways for us to participate at this beautiful
political gathering. It is clear that a gathering of this scale would
not be possible without the massive support from the residents of the
city. Ljubljana from below again confirmed that infinite and organic
connections between real people, bound together through love, solidarity
and respect are at the center of our struggles. Once again it was made
clear that no state intervention can tear apart these bonds across the
Balkans and beyond that have only been strengthened over these last days.

It is clear that we need to create more such spaces where we meet,
discuss and organize on different levels and in different forms. The
Balkan Anarchist Solidarity Network is determined to strengthen its
organizing efforts with various initiatives in the future. We are
already meeting soon at the Anti-authoritarian gathering Anarchy 2023 in
St. Imier and will look for other opportunities where we can continue
the processes of BAB2023.

One of these spaces is naturally going to be the next Balkan Anarchist
Bookfair in 2024 that will take place for the first time in an Albanian
speaking country - in Prishtina, Kosovo.

Participants of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 2023
9th of July 2023, in Ljubljana

https://bab2023.espivblogs.net/final-statement-of-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-2023/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca