"The histories of whole peoples were wiped out for precisely the same
reason that the history of the working class movement in recent times iswiped out: it does not suit the conquerors for it to be known, becausetraditions keep alive the spirit of revolt." Albert Meltzer ---- Whoremembers the "Christmas Truce"? As 1,200,000 soldiers from both sidesof the Russia-Ukraine conflict face each other across a 600-mile-longfrozen line of no-man's land in dugouts and trenches, we scream at themanipulation and violence against our class!We recall the spontaneous 'refusal' truce that broke out in similarcircumstances 109 years ago along the Western Front in the First World War.Spanning the borders of Belgium and France, this 'Christmas Truce' as itbecame known, saw 100,000 or more combatants from the opposing armiesmaking the decision to connect and not fight.A fifth of the front line ceased to function because of the instinctivemutual solidarity of workers, not yet fully militarised or traumatisedby the warfare-state.Some of us will remember the firsthand stories of our grandparents.Others, the tales of their family. For most it will be unheard off, andif it is, with little acknowledgement. The memory of peace andsolidarity is subversive.Those precious two days are largely hidden from us by officialcensorship and denial. In reality, given the betrayal of the organisedLabour Movement at the outbreak of the First World War, choosing bossesand states over our class, real workers face-to-face making peace wasour last best chance.Finally, ordered and even shelled back to their trenches, at least22,000,000 workers were to die in the next seven years until thebloodletting of the capitalist meat grinder tired itself out.Ukraine has called for another 500,000 men under arms. admitting thatthat is doubling its current force. What is not admitted is the growinglack of public support for the conflict, and the attempt by many toavoid conscription by one means or another. Including fleeing or buyingtheir way out. Over 40,000 are now documented.Russia, despite its advantage in numbers. is so desperate to avoid theobvious impact of mass mobilisation on its society, that having run outof prisoners to force into combat, it is now resorting to pressing intoservice migrants and asylum seekers taken from the border with Finlandand Ukrainian prisoners of war. For the refugees, if they survive thehigher casualty rate than the Ukrainians, after six months they winresidency in a militarised autocracy.In a paradoxical irony, the Gaza- Israel war is turning the lands wherethe mythology that originated the concept of Christmas was born, into ablood bathed Armageddon. In 3 months twice as many civilians have diedand four times the civilian infrastructure destroyed than in the Ukraineafter two years.Truce here at best is a violent pause that continues the starvation andimmiseration of our class. The working-class have no borders, but nordoes the pitiless butchery carried out under the banners of nationstates and their proxies.In all cases, refusing to fight, desertion, protestation or demandingpeace against the goals of capitalisms agents is greeted by states firstas cowardly disloyalty and second as seditious treason. Yet how else canwar be stopped in a combatant zone?In the latter half of the First World War in the absence of truce,mutinies became more widespread and more frequent culminating ultimatelyin revolutionary upheaval in an attempt to change the world. A desperateand divided capitalism managed then to unite long enough to defeat it.And here we are again. The path to world war has been described as aconglomeration of numerous conflicts. With an eye on history,opposition to war now is more than needed but urgent if our class Is notto be consumed again by the millions in another global conflagration.One that this time could end all wars through our extinction!The call for ceasefires, the demand for peace is rejected because if itdoesn't meet the goals of the capitalist class, it is subversive,seditious, and a threat to their power. We should not delude ourselvesthat peace is the opposite of the active struggle against war.Refusal or annihilation, war or revolution? This is the existentialquestion our class faces. That is why we say the class war is the peacemovement. No war between peoples, no peace between classes, that is whatwe mean by No War But The Class War!https://anarcomuk.uk/2023/12/24/peace-is-subversive/_________________________________________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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