WORLD WORLDWIDE BULGARIA News Journal Update - (en) Bulgaria, FAB: War and Anarchism - KAF (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Notes on Anarchist Philosophy, Activity, Ideas Close to Us, Position,

World, Articles, Aims ---- War and Anarchism: A Few Fundamental
Questions Before Taking a Position or Returning to the Historical
Position of an Anarchist Movement Against War Between political forces,
militias, bodies and states, we must consider the war on the basis of
the present conditions of the world, on the basis of the experience of
the whole history of class society. ---- To this end, the best way to
arrive at a correct position regarding the war between capitalist unions
is to seek answers to the following empirically determined and
historically determined questions.

Based on this, we have the following questions:

- Are the anarchists in Ukraine or Russia in general at a similar level,
in terms of their armed forces and social mobilization, compared to the
Makhnovists in Ukraine from the beginning of the last century?

Considering that the Makhnovist movement did not face only one enemy,
but simultaneously opposed, on different fronts, different forces such
as the Red Army, the White Army and the Prussian Army. Do the current
armed anarchists on the Russian and Ukrainian battlefields have the
strength and social presence (like the Makhnovists) to fight and resist
simultaneously against the Russian army, the Ukrainian army and the
nationalist militias?

- If we may put it this way, are the anarchists in the Russo-Ukrainian
war capable of liberating a city or region independently of and
separately from the Ukrainian state/army, or are they capable of
liberating and defending a Russian city on their own?

Or at least do Ukrainian anarchists have an autonomous existence and
activity outside of and against the Ukrainian and Russian state and
armies? If none of these possibilities exist, how do they determine the
autonomy of their armed activity? In that case, what will the anarchists
achieve and what would be the result of their actions?

- We all know that the number of armed comrades is not significant
enough to withstand an attack by the Ukrainian state army and defend
themselves (Just as the Red Army stabs Makhnovists in the back after
repelling the attacks of the White Army and making an agreement with the
Prussians). Does the defense of the capitalist state of Ukraine, or the
killing of a few soldiers who were forced into the Russian army, or the
coverage of a few Russian military attacks, deserve fellow anarchists to
sacrifice their lives?

- Participation in the war between two bourgeois entities or nationalist
fronts or two world superpowers under the pretext of fighting fascism
"the bad side", as if the state, governments or any other authoritarian
power does not carry the seeds of fascism. Can the state exist without
fascism, nationalism and imperialist interests, so that we can fight on
the side of one against the other?

- Do we the oppressed have a state or worse, do we have a better
government that deserves to be protected from an "outside" aggressor?

- Many of the grounds for taking up arms for one side of capital against
another are based on the myth of freedom and democratic rights.

- Whether the participation of comrades in the name of anarchism in a
war against humanity, life and the environment, between two bourgeois
armies, is more appropriate than the participation of anarchists and
leftists in the forces of YPj, PYD and YPG Rojava, which led to the
consolidation of capitalist power in killing anarchists?

-Now, after centuries of anarchist experience, of the self-sacrifice of
the most active, brave and energetic young comrades, as in Rojava, in
the Ukraine or elsewhere, when the war is not for our interests and when
it is not waged through our own autonomy against the capitalist state,
doesn't that mean he's trapped by the world's superpowers? Isn't it to
be lured by the tricks of the enemy when every day, somewhere in the
world, the oppressed live and rebel energy used as cannon fodder for
capitalist wars to revive the arms market for the military-industrial
complex?

- Isn't killing anarchist comrades in Ukraine the same as killing
marginalized and idealized young activists and angry saboteurs from
Europe among ISIS and PYD?

- We know who our losses are in capitalist wars around the world (be
they soldiers on the war fronts, anarchists/freedom fighters or
civilians in the settlements).

What deathblow will their death inflict on the social and revolutionary
movement? What are our achievements as anarchists and activists for
social revolution, from participating in these conflicts?

Unfortunately, there are many examples of such disasters and they are
repeated daily on the battlefields of the world capitalist wars.

- Many war-loving "anarchists" justify their involvement in the
Russia-Ukraine conflict, or the war between the PYD government and the
Turkish/ISIS/Syrian state, or elsewhere, by comparing their own position
to the armed resistance of Makhnovists and Catalan anarchists. Does such
social and subversive activity as that of the Makhnovists of 1917-1921
or in 1936-1939 exist in Spain, anywhere in the world?

Are there such collectives or cooperatives of production and fair
distribution of goods that can justify our participation on the
battlefield to protect them?

Have the Makhnovists or anarchists in Spain become part of the bourgeois
battlefields? Were they defenders of "their" country and "their" people?

- As is known, the participation of anarchists in the wars in the 20th
century was to maintain and develop a social revolution. Unfortunately,
neither in Ukraine, nor in Rojava, revolutionary organizations, social
resistance and the formation of anarchist communities and anarchist
movements, programmatic and organizational autonomy, are not at the
level of the anarchists of the 20th century to oppose the nationalists,
religious forces and political parties.

Once again, isn't the propaganda for participating in these wars the
same as that of wars in the cause of Allah? Or to those fighting for
nationalist and patriotic feelings? Or a quest for the mythical
protection of democratic rights and freedoms allowed by capitalists?

- As we all know for every new anarchist, thousands become members of
mobsters, special forces soldiers, contract militias and adventurers to
get rich competing with each other. Isn't the silence and inaction
against the victims of fresh and active young anarchists under the
pretext of respecting individual freedoms, an attack on anarchism and
its historical position? (It is true that we cannot dictate to people
how to live and die, within which authoritarian forces and fronts or in
the name of which capitalist entity), but whether everyone is free to be
part of a state force or a front of capitalists against others in the
name of anarchism? "Is it responsible and acceptable to support comrades
who openly instigate a war that is not theirs and is a blow to the
social revolution in Ukraine, Russia and the world?"

- Can we adopt a position of double standard regarding war. On the one
hand, the position of the Russian anarchist comrades who on a daily
basis resist the Russian military attacks in Ukraine or sabotage these
attacks, and on the other hand, the position of the comrades who are
armed and fighting on the same battlefield, side by side with the
Ukrainian army? Shall we call both positions equally anarchist? Do those
comrades who think it is right to support the armed Ukrainian anarchists
support the anarchist comrades and anti-war activists in Russia? Does
silence and support for such a historical error (the anarchist frontline
presence on the side of one state against another, defending the
integrity and sovereignty of a bourgeoisie against the onslaught of
another capitalist state and in support of the nation-state) betray the
historical positions of anarchism?

Isn't this a denial of the revolutionary positions of anarchism?

Is this not the fulfillment of the age-old dream of the opponents of
anarchism, to see anarchists in their historically radical position
dominated by the media war machine and nationalist ideologies. And do we
not contribute to this by our silence and inaction against this
historical error and deviation?

- If the question is about the role of anarchists in the events of the
class struggle, to protect the life of the communities, to prevent
fascism, etc., why don't we go with these comrades to the Amazon, to
South Asia or to Africa, where the communities live under constant
corporate attacks?

What is the difference between the attacks of giant capitalist companies
based in Europe, the United States and elsewhere against the indigenous
communities of the Amazon and African regions and the destruction of the
environment and human life in the world, with the war in Russia and Ukraine?

What direct and cooperative actions have we organized against this
continuous war in our daily lives?

- Whether for anarchism in general and the IFA in particular, the damage
from a split in the federation and leaving the IFA outweighs the damage
from the IFA's current unclear and wavering position on the war, which
risks misleading new generations of anarchists and strengthening
nationalist elements in the IFA?

- Preserving unity at what cost? Is it by deviating from and ignoring
the foundations of anarchism?

When in history has a world anarchist federation been silent about the
participation and support of war by one or more anarchists?

- Furthermore, while insisting on the freedom of individuals and
federations and our belief in the independence and neutrality of these
anarchist principles, is it right for a member or federation to
participate in elections, vote and engage in wars in the name of the
IFA? Is this not a departure from the basic principles of anarchism and
a departure from the historical anti-state line of anarchism?

- Do all anarchist comrades in Ukraine support and approve of
participation in the state army? If the answer is "no", how do the
comrades who support the armed anarchists in the country of the
Ukrainian Army see and read the position of the Ukrainian comrades who
are against joining the military front?

- If Iranian and Iraqi anarchists had participated in the Iran-Iraq war
under the same pretext as some Ukrainian anarchists; Also, if the Iraqi
anarchists had taken up arms against the coalition armies in the second
and third Gulf wars, what would be your reading of them?

- If the anarchists in the Kurdish areas of Iraq intervene to oppose the
attacks of the state on the territory of Turkey, which uses chemical
weapons, kills children, deports villages, destroys the environment,
trees and animals, and bombards border villages for 33 years? How do you
treat Kurdish anarchists when they join the KRG or PKK army and what
will be your position?

- Do anarchists in European countries whose "countries" are constantly
at war with other nations of the world, such as wars in Africa and the
Middle East, carry out sabotage and direct struggle against the armies
and authorities of their countries, as the Russian comrades are now and
as the revolutionaries anarchists, communists and socialists during the
first and second world wars?

Note: We as KAF have had these questions and comments from the beginning
but were awaiting your position and that of other IFA comrades. We
believe that some of you have a long history of formal involvement in
anarchist movements and are aware of anarchists' historical positions
against war, against the state, and against capitalism. We must admit
that the attitudes and positions of some European anarchists towards the
war in Rojava and in Ukraine shock us. Especially when we see that there
are elements who openly and actively participate in the wars between the
various capitalist countries in the name of anarchism, when we see some
who support these positions and also those who prefer to remain silent
while anarchists are killed for the benefits of capitalism and his wars!

Our contribution to the work of the last congress on capitalism and war
clearly reflects our position, and we hope that this error will help us
to coordinate and strengthen our anarchist unity.

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