WORLD WORLDWIDE GREECE SWITZERLAND News Journal Update - (en) Greece, Anarchy 2023: Report of the international meeting in St-Imier, Switzerland (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 "The freedom of thought and expression I found among workers in the Jura

Mountains of Switzerland had a profound effect on me. After spending a
few weeks with the watchmakers, my views on socialism were now clear: I
was an anarchist" . Pyotr Kropotkin, 1877 ---- On Sunday, July 23, the
international anarchist meeting in St-Imier, Switzerland ended. ---- One
hundred and fifty years after Bakunin's anarchist International, in the
same small town in the valley that separates the Jura Mountains from
Bern, hundreds of anarchists and anti-authoritarians from all over the
world were once again welcomed for four days of events and discussions.

Anarchy 2023 (official name of the meeting) geographically occupied the
entire city, as many municipal buildings (and more) were ceded to the
event for various purposes. Space was made available for camping, as
well as several spaces for discussions, conferences, exhibitions, films,
concerts.

There were also community centers open for those who wanted to protect
themselves from the cold of the camp (at night the temperature reached
ten degrees), living spaces free of cis men and a day care center.

Accommodation and workshops were free, while food was provided by free
donation.

Arriving in St Imier we didn't know what to expect. The organization
chose to maintain the coordinating role, letting the success of the
event be determined by the participation of each visitor, both at a
practical and political level.

This means that, in practice, it was up to each individual to express
interest and dedicate one, two or three hours a day to some shift of the
dozens of hours needed to keep everything running smoothly. Jobs could
range from helping with parking, cleaning, cooking for 3,000 portions a
day, guarding, etc.

As for the political level, it is important to mention that the events
and discussions gained space in the program through an internet platform
where any person or group could propose something specific.

This means that the themes presented an incredible diversity. From
exchanges of lifestyle experiences (such as "hitchhiking as a political
act" or "how to live without money"), updates on different struggles
("the rise of the extreme right in Italy", "four years since the
uprising in Chile ", "The legacy of the George Floyd rebellion in the
Atlanta Stop Cop City movement"), to activist workshops ("how to protect
our movements from the logic of the left", "joint circulation in the
black bloc").

Such diversity means that there have also been politically opposing
events, with the issue of the Russian invasion being perhaps the most
inflammatory example. While most anti-war interventions accepted the
Ukrainians' right of self-defense as the minimum anarchist political
base, there were individuals in the anti-militarist movement who saw
ending the war as the number one goal that anti-authoritarians should
have today.

Personally, I think that the event of anarchists from Russia, Ukraine
and Belarus who are actively resisting the invasion was one of the most
interesting of the meeting, both because we learned about the different
structures and groups that are active and about the analysis gap that
the movement has there in relation to the West. Through the discussions,
three different reasons for this were highlighted: the lack of
information and networking, the romantic idealism used by Westerners
"from a position of safety" and, finally, the infiltration of left-wing
authoritarian analyzes into anarchist groups.

Parallel to the meeting, many anti-authoritarians also supported a march
on Saturday, July 22, in Lausanne, called by Kurdish organizations
against the centenary of the signing of the Treaty.

The meeting was not lacking in Greek presence. At the book fair held
every day at the St. Imier, the Anarchist Political Organization (APO)
had a fixed place at the tables.

In addition, on Friday night, people from the "Occupation of Housing for
Refugees and Immigrants Notara 26" made an intervention about the crime
of Pylos shortly before the start of the Krav Boca concert.

Finally, anarchist director Yiannis Giouloundas presented scenes from
his new film "We are not afraid of the ruins", which studies the
anarchist movement in Greece after the election of Mitsotakis in July
2019, and a debate ensued.

The meeting ended at noon on Sunday with the recitation of revolutionary
anarchist songs in the small town's central square.

With raised fists, anti-authoritarians around the world renewed their
choice ten years from now, promising:

Without retreating in the fight for a free society!

https://noticiasanarquistas.noblogs.org/post/2023/07/26/grecia-anarchy-2023-relato-do-encontro-internacional-em-st-imier-suica/
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