WORLD WORLDWIDE RUSSIA News Journal Update - (en) Russia, avtonom: Black Cat of Liberty: "Trends of Order and Chaos" Episode 131 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

Two wars ---- Firstly, it is already obvious that the number of military
conflicts in the world is increasing. In general, this is a very bad
trend, which may signal the approaching next world war, but more on that
another time. ---- Our attention, for obvious reasons, is mainly focused
on two of these conflicts: Israel's war against Hamas and Russia's war
against Ukraine. It is interesting to reflect on the anarchist attitude
towards both. Of course, a lot has already been said about this, but
still. ---- Is there a difference between these wars? In both cases,
states fight among themselves (Hamas is, of course, a quasi-state, but
all the main signs are still there). Traditionally, anarchists in such
cases have taken the position of "both are worse" and "a plague on both
your houses." That is, there is no need to support either side, because
their interests do not correlate at all with the interests of the
majority of people. It seems to me that if you look at these two wars,
then this position is applicable to one of them, but not to the other.

In the confrontation between Israel and Hamas, "both are worse." On the
one hand, there is an archaic organization of religious fanatics who
fiercely hate everything that goes beyond the framework of traditional
Islam. On the other hand, the far-right government of a virtually
mono-ethnic state - a government that began to suppress any freedoms
even before the start of the war, and only after the Hamas attack turned
around with all its might. For example, in Israel it is already possible
to receive criminal prosecution for the so-called  "consumption of
terrorist publications"  on the Internet. Note, not likes or reposts,
but just reading. It's difficult to keep track of repressive laws in
Russia, but it seems that even there they still don't jail you for
simply subscribing to an "extremist" channel. So it's a stretch to call
Israel a "democratic country."

Neither Hamas nor Israel are shy about bombing peaceful cities. Neither
the victory of Hamas nor the victory of Israel (no matter how this
"victory" is understood) will lead to a resolution of the decades-long
conflict, but will only aggravate it. Therefore, I don't want to wish
victory to either one or the other.

This conflict will only be resolved when Jews and Arabs stop proceeding
from the neoliberal concept of "my freedom is limited by the freedom of
others" and accept the libertarian concept that "my freedom is expanded
by the freedom of other people." You can either shoot each other, or
learn to co-exist and see new opportunities and new value in this. It's
like the "snails" of the Mexican Zapatistas: it is important to hear
each other, without this there will be no self-government.

By the way, just in case, we remind you that the Zapatistas are not only
delicious coffee, but also interesting anti-authoritarian political
ideas; Read on our website the latest news from the Zapatistas as
presented by the Molotov cooperative.

On the other hand, there are significant differences in the
Russian-Ukrainian war. Yes, two states are also at war (more precisely,
one state against an entire coalition of other states that support
Ukraine). But Russia is a state whose political regime has been openly
fascist for several years now. There is conservative ideology, harsh
authoritarianism, political repression, aggressive wars, attempts at
expansionist foreign policy, and much more. Plus there are nuclear
weapons, which dramatically raises the stakes.

As for Ukraine, this is, of course, to put it mildly, not an anarchist
ideal. This is a bourgeois-oligarchic political regime with all its, so
to speak, charms, plus it is also mired in corruption. Lately, there
have been certain signs of his slipping towards authoritarianism (the
clearly looming cancellation of the presidential elections, and that's
all). But still, Ukraine is still very, very far from Russian fascism -
including in terms of the level of internal political repression. The
Ukrainian political regime has not pursued and does not intend to pursue
an expansionist foreign policy, does not promote conservative discourse,
and is much more dependent on the will of the people.

It is clear that Ukraine is supported by NATO, which includes many
countries with very unsympathetic political regimes. They have their own
interests: the United States, for example, is strongly interested in
taking over the world gas market and pushing Russia into the background
(in principle, so far everything is going that way). But, speaking
pragmatically, the prospect of expansion of the so-called "Russian
world," in my opinion, is much worse than the prospect of billions of
gas flowing from the pockets of the Russian bourgeoisie to the pockets
of the American bourgeoisie. The seizure of Ukraine by Russia would lead
to a sharp fascistization of a vast territory. As an anarchist, I
definitely don't want this. Therefore, it seems to me that the logic
"both are worse" is not applicable to the Ukrainian war, and I certainly
do not wish Russia a victory, but I rather rejoice at the successes of
the Ukrainian troops, although in the current positional war these
successes are very limited.

And it is not at all surprising that openly anti-authoritarian
self-organized groups of anarchists are fighting on the side of Ukraine
, but we do not see anything like that in the Russian army. We have
already written several times about our comrade from Moscow Dmitry
Petrov ("Ecologist"), who died in the battles near Bakhmut on the side
of Ukraine. These people are anarchists and do not support any states,
but they think practically, and they follow the most realistic path of
resistance to the most important enemy of today. I think this is the
right choice.

The struggle in emigration: hopeless or not?
Another important topic that makes sense to think about is political
emigration.

On November 11, an anti-fascist action "For our and your freedom" took
place in Warsaw . Actions of solidarity with Russian anarchist political
prisoners are regularly held in Tbilisi and other cities in the
post-Soviet space. Naturally, many emigrants from the Russian Federation
take part in them - anarchists and anti-fascists who fled from
repression or from mobilization, or simply from the oppressive
atmosphere of authoritarianism.

That is, in the so-called "abroad" there are now almost more
Russian-speaking anarchists than in Russia itself. Most of them continue
political activism aimed at the Russian Federation, and, of course,
count on a more or less immediate crisis of the Putin political regime
and a return to their homeland.

But an inconvenient question arises: why is this so similar to the wave
of emigration from the USSR in the early 1920s? After all, then, too,
organizations were created, magazines were published, people published
entire political programs like "what will we do when the Lenin-Stalin
regime collapses" and so on. Nestor Makhno himself, as you know, lived
in exile in Paris and, together with Pyotr Arshinov, formulated the
so-called "Organizational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists."

But, as we now know, the hopes of this wave of emigration were not
justified. Despite all their efforts, the Bolshevik regime, with minor
transformations, lasted for another 70 years, and its fall was seen only
by the children or grandchildren of the then activists. Will this happen
now? Isn't all this activity from outside Russia useless?

It seems to me that no, it is not useless - and for a very simple
reason. The emigrants of a century ago opposed a regime that:

     1) ... was headed by very talented politicians, organizers,
military leaders, and so on. We are not close to the values and ultimate
goals of the Bolsheviks, but the organizational abilities of their first
generation are impressive. That is, Lenin, Trotsky and even to some
extent Stalin are really strong and smart enemies.

     2) ... was based on an ideology aimed at  the future . Despite all
the deceit and falsehood of Soviet state capitalism, it still formally
promoted progressive ideas about the liberation of mankind, freedom,
equality and brotherhood, and global communism. This attracted
supporters from all over the world to the Bolshevik camp, who proceeded
from the logic "well, this seems to be a progressive political force,
and the main thing is that they already have successes, a whole huge
country at their disposal." The USSR was very successful in gaining allies.

For these reasons, the struggle of political emigrants at the beginning
of the 20th century was not exactly doomed, but had extremely little
chance of success. At the same time, the modern Russian Federation is
unlike the USSR a century ago. It is run not by talented intellectuals
who are passionate about progressive ideas, but (for the most part) by
thieving bourgeoisie or lazy KGB bureaucrats (who, however, are also not
averse to stealing a couple of billions on occasion). Their
organizational abilities are at an extremely low level, and the entire
system as a whole is too heavily tied to loot and its distribution
between semi-criminal clans.

This code either has no ideological basis at all, or it is some kind of
wild mix of Domostroy, fascism, conspiracy theories and Ayn Rand. You
can't find many strong and smart allies with such an ideology in the
current world: you just have to be content with North Korea and Iran.
And it's difficult to mobilize your own population for any large-scale
projects without an inspiring progressive goal. Even the war is quietly
sabotaged by this same population; there is no flow of volunteers. It is
difficult to imagine that such a condition can last long.

Therefore, the fall or serious transformation of the Putin political
regime in the coming years is not inevitable, but extremely probable.
And in these conditions, maintaining active anti-authoritarian political
structures, whether abroad or within Russia, is very important. Our
actions determine which direction those people who are now subjects of
the so-called "Russian Federation" will move. We will see and do all
this, not our children or grandchildren.

So no need to despair. We need to act. On the cover of this episode of
Trends is a drawing of a black cat made by the Belarusian anarchist
Sergei Romanov, who is now serving a cannibalistic sentence for direct
action against the Lukashenko regime. As Sergei said in his last word ,
"all the cogs and gears of the repressive machine, together with their
criminal leadership, will be held accountable to the people for all the
grief caused, for the blood shed, for the tears of loved ones and
relatives."

Let's together become a black cat that will cross the path of the
authoritarian repressive regimes that grew up on the ruins of the Soviet
empire.

Repression
We have already mentioned repressions in Russia today. Naturally, they
do not stop, just as international solidarity does not stop. Right now
there is an international collection to pay for lawyers for
anti-fascists and anarchists accused in the "Tyumen case". Help Nikita
Oleynik, Roman Paklin, Danila Chertykov, Yuri Neznamov and Deniz Aidyn!
The main hearings in the case will begin soon. Yes, lawyers in the
Russian law enforcement system can do little in political cases, and
sometimes the cops openly threaten them . But lawyers still remain one
of the few tools for connecting a political prisoner with the outside
world and something that a political prisoner can rely on.

In addition, a Ukrainian anti-fascist and anti-authoritarian activist,
our long-time comrade Maxim Butkevich, is now in Russian captivity. He
was captured while fighting in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,
and in the spring of 2023, a Russian court in Lugansk sentenced him to
13 years in prison on false charges of "killing civilians." It's been
almost three months since he disappeared from the pre-trial detention
center, and his relatives and even his lawyer cannot find him .
Naturally, Russian propaganda calls the staunch anti-fascist Butkevich a
"Nazi."

Finally, the details of how the FSB took the anarchist Lev Skoryakin out
of Kyrgyzstan became known . A criminal case has been brought against
him in Russia simply because in 2021 he and a friend unfurled a banner
with the inscription "Happy ChKist Day" near the FSB office in Moscow
and lit a fire.

Lev tried to move to a safe country through Kyrgyzstan and even managed
to obtain all the necessary documents for emigration to Germany. But
immediately after this, on October 17, he was detained first by Kyrgyz
cops, and then they handed Lev over to the Russian FSB. They forced him
onto a plane from Bishkek to Moscow. After the FSB arrived, apparently,
they immediately felt more confident, beat Lev right in Domodedovo and
sent him to the Butyrka pre-trial detention center.

There are two takeaways from this story. First, write letters to Leo and
send parcels . He needs support now more than ever. Secondly, we repeat
once again that Kyrgyzstan is an unsafe country for political refugees
from Russia. Putin has too much influence on the Kyrgyz authorities, so
cooperation between the secret police of both countries is very close.

Choose your travel routes carefully, do not forget about safety!
Remember that all states are concentration camps, but the conditions in
these concentration camps are different, and many of them are at enmity
with each other. Take advantage of this and find manholes, holes and
secret hiding places in the reinforced concrete walls of the System.

"Temporary autonomous zones", as Hakim Bey would say . And if we can
build a dynamic, anti-authoritarian and free network of autonomous
movements, then the System will inevitably collapse.

Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order and
Chaos, members of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchist
assessments of current events. Listen to us on  YouTube ,  SoundCloud
and other platforms, visit our website  avtonom.org , subscribe to our
weekly  e-mail newsletter!

Issue prepared by Mani

Help our work by taking part in crowdfunding! We will give those who
support us a nice bonus - a telegram sticker based on the drawings of
the Khabarovsk anarchist artist Maxim "Hadad" Smolnikov.  To receive a
sticker, make a donation and write about it in the feedback bot of our
Telegram channel .

https://avtonom.org/news/chyornaya-koshka-svobody-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-131
_________________________________________
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