WORLD WORLDWIDE AUSTRALIA MELBOURNE News Journal Update - (en) Australia, Melbourne: MACG Statement of Shared Positions (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This document is to be read as a supplement to the Aims & Principles of
the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group. Agreement with the positions in
this document is a condition of membership. ---- 1. The social
revolution will be the act of the working class, organised primarily in
the workplace. Other social groups may play a positive role in this
struggle, but they cannot be a substitute for a revolutionary movement
of the working class. We attribute this unique role to workers, at the
point of production, for a few reasons. Firstly, the working class forms
the vast majority of society. Secondly, the experience of social
co-operation in production tends to produce the values that promote
solidarity in the struggle against the employer. Thirdly, and above all
else, it is the working class which is in the structural position to
directly seize control of the means of production and uproot the power
of capital, at its own initiative. By doing so, production can be
repurposed to meet human needs under conditions of generalised
self-management by the whole of society. One corollary of the fact that
the struggle will be decided in the workplace is that it will not be
decided by street brawls with the cops or by trying to drop out of
capitalist society. While it is certainly necessary to defend ourselves
against police attack, capitalism's achilles' heel is in the workplace,
and so our strategic orientation - both in regards to reform and
revolution - must be there.

2. We stand for the complete equality of all people and in solidarity
with people of all marginalised genders and sexualities. Capitalism
oppresses women, LGBT+, and people who don't conform to the gender
binary. The liberation of all will not be achieved without the overthrow
of capitalism and the destruction of class society. In turn, the
overthrow of capitalism will not be achieved without the participation
of all segments of the working class. It is therefore in the interests
of all workers to support the struggles for the liberation of those
oppressed on the basis of gender and sexuality. Oppression based on
sexuality or gender identity is completely antithetical to anarchist
principles. Such oppressions serve only to divide the working class, and
deny our LGBT+ comrades the capacity to freely live and express
themselves as they truly are. The oppression faced by trans people must
be combatted at every opportunity. Solidarity between everyone -
regardless of sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression -
can only be built on the principle that 'an injury to one is an injury
to all'. We support the right of women and LGBT+ comrades to organise
autonomously within the wider working class movement and also within
Anarchist organisations.

3. Australian capitalism and the Australian state are founded upon the
murderous disposession and genocide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples. The processes of domination, oppression, and
resistance that began with colonisation have not ended. Aboriginal
people are subjected to mass incarceration, deaths in custody, and
Aboriginal children continue to be removed from their families.
Aboriginal control of land is attacked by mining companies and other
capitalists who destroy sacred sites and cultural heritage while
government policies reflect an ongoing defacto position of assimilation.
Aboriginal peoples have resisted invasion, colonisation, genocide and
assimilation since 1788, and they continue to resist.

Our full solidarity is with the ongoing resistance of Aboriginal people,
particularly where that resistance is exercised through militant
self-organisation. We recognise and support the right of Aboriginal
peoples to self determination. We acknowledge the desire of Indigenous
people for a treaty that recognises their continued rights. However we
argue that no just treaty will be possible whilst capitalism and the
state endure. The capitalist state will never accept genuine land
rights, economic justice and self determination for Aboriginal people,
as the continued expansion of capitalism demands ever greater
dispossession. Justice for Indigenous people can only be achieved
through a revolution which abolishes class society and the state.

4. We are internationalists, anti-imperialists, and anti-militarists.
Capitalism produces a system of competing states, each dominated by the
interests of a domestic ruling class. States are compelled to compete
for influence, resources, and access to markets, in the interests of
their domestic ruling classes. We need revolutionary working class
organisation, not just within our own country, but across all countries.
A successful revolution will need to spread to encompass the whole
world. To do this, we need to fight against imperialism, racism, and
nationalism, and unite workers of the world on the basis of class
solidarity.
We therefore oppose the policing of borders under capitalism, and
advocate their abolition as part of the revolutionary struggle against
the State and capitalism. In particular, we support the struggle of
refugees for asylum in Australia and oppose both immigration detention
and deportation.

As anarchists we do not support the state or its military. We oppose the
provision of money, weapons or personnel to the military forces of any
State. Here in Australia, we have a special responsibility to oppose
Australian militarism.

In the event of war between states, we oppose all belligerents and raise
the slogan "No War but the Class War". Instead of supporting national
militaries, we advocate fighting the class struggle, against both the
invader and domestic ruling class.

In anti-imperialist struggles, we side with the oppressed and argue for
working class methods of struggle. We criticise the leadership of those
struggles by capitalist parties and reject reactionary tactics like
deliberate attacks on civilians.

5. We reject both pacifism and terrorism. Adopting pacifism would render
us helpless before our enemies, while to use terrorism would be to join
them. Instead, our principle is to recognise the right of the working
class to use necessary and reasonable force for individual and
collective self defence against capitalists, the state and reactionary
violence.

6. We oppose State bans on any opinion, even ones with which we
passionately disagree. Any such bans would end up being used, in the
end, against the working class and its organisations. We also,
therefore, recognise complete freedom of conscience. We support the
right to believe in any religion or none, to practise any religion or
none, and to preach any religion or none. Adherence to religious
precepts must therefore be entirely voluntary. Attempts by religious
leaders or denominations to compel adherents to conform to their
teachings or discipline must be resisted and we resolutely reject any
attempt to give them State backing.

7. There is no parliamentary road to anarchy and communism. The ruling
class will not allow us to vote away their wealth and power. The working
class will only get rid of capitalism by seizing control of capitalist
property, re-organising production and distribution according to need,
and defending this transformation of social relations against all
attempts to undo it. That is to say, through social revolution.

Similarly, there is no parliamentary path to working class power within
capitalism. The experience of 150 years across the world proves that
Socialists don't conquer Parliament, but instead Parliament conquers
Socialists. The process of campaigning for election, operating in
parliaments, and reproducing a viable electoral organisation necessarily
alters the behaviour of those involved in it.

Elections engage workers as 'voters' deferring to candidates, rather
than as individuals capable of exercising power where they are exploited
and dominated. It alienates them from their potential power as a class,
with the capacity to organise and act on the job.

Bourgeois elections ultimately reproduce bourgeois politics, and those
who find themselves in power are inevitably tasked with maintaining the
interests of capital.

As anarchists committed to building genuine working class power - for a
social revolution that overthrows capitalism - we do not run in
elections, join electoral parties, or campaign for them.

8. A free communist society will be one that is ecologically
sustainable. Even if capitalism were just and supportable on other
grounds, it would fail the test of sustainability. Capital accumulation
requires endless growth, and so ever-expanding energy consumption. Even
if the obstacles posed by highly profitable fossil fuel companies could
be overcome within capitalism, the emissions produced by a green
transition could also prove environmentally destructive given the levels
of consumption demanded by capitalist production. We need to reject the
instrumental thinking inherent to capitalism and realise that we are
part of nature - a conscious and creative part, but a part. As such,
nature is not something to be dominated, but to be protected.

There is no freedom on a dead planet. A revolutionary movement must
rapidly decarbonise the world while simultaneously meeting the just
needs of the global south for the modernisation of essential industries.
We are strongly opposed to Malthusian population theories, primitivism,
and other currents which would dispense with the useful (and, in many
cases, life-saving) advancements of industrial and technological
society. Instead, we advocate for an advanced industrial and
technological communism, which should be harnessed under workers
control, under conditions of cooperation, in a system of sustainable
production for use, rather than exchange.

https://melbacg.au/macg-statement-of-shared-positions/
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