Today, we continue our series of international interviews with
organizations, collectives or isolated individuals who play a role in
the political and social development of our ideas. ---- The partnership
of Iran and Afghanistan, with the anarchist organization ERA, operates
in a complex and hostile national context. For this reason, we wanted to
give a voice to these comrades and for this voice to be heard on a wide
scale, because if we usually consider the practice of anarchism to be
difficult in the current period, there are contexts in which action
clearly becomes an act of great courage.
Therefore, we are very grateful to these people for answering our
questions with such goodwill and availability, knowing that any exchange
of messages can be dangerous and amount to heavy prison sentences... or
worse.
CCLA: What are the main fighting fields that you have already developed
and those that you plan to develop in the near future?
Era: Our initial nucleus was formed outside of Iran on December 15,
2009. And in 2018, we formed the Union of Anarchists of Afghanistan and
Iran. And after that, we formed the Era Anarchist Federation. We
(Federation and other anarchists), like all anarchists in the world, we
have a practical or intellectual presence in all movements (women's,
labor, student, environmental, animal protection, etc.) in Iran and
Afghanistan and, naturally, we have our own direct or indirect actions.
We had hope and still have to be able to form an anarchist federation
for Arab countries together with Arab anarchists, considering that Iran
and Afghanistan together are populated by several million Arabs.
Furthermore, we hope that one day we can form a Turkish anarchist
network with anarchists from countries of Turkish origins, considering
the presence of a population of several tens of millions of inhabitants
of these origins in Iran and Afghanistan.
The struggles of women in your country are very well known and talked
about. Does your organization have female colleagues? If so, how do they
contribute to the ongoing struggle?
In short, a significant part of our comrades in Iran and Afghanistan are
women and LGBTQI+. The ongoing struggles in Iran are in two main areas:
one is the civil and public struggle to say no to the mandatory hijab
and the repression for non-observance of the mandatory hijab by a large
part of women in Iranian society, to which our comrades are also
associated as a small part of Iranian female society. The second field
of struggle is the secret struggle, which includes most of the struggle
of the Federation's companions. in Afghanistan, since August 15, 2021.
When the government handed over power to the Taliban, we witnessed the
presence of Afghan women protesting. Two days later, on August 17, they
took to the streets against the presence of the Taliban and, after that,
the protesting women formed dozens of campaign groups against the
Taliban. And we continue to support the struggle of women protesting
against the Taliban, and the danger of excluding women from the presence
of Afghan society is very serious, and our fellow Federation members
have supported these struggles in many ways.
Religion (as a human institution of oppression in the name of God) is a
central theme of anarchist reflection and criticism of the power it
represents. What do you think about this and how can you position
yourself in relation to this issue?
Gods don't exist, we exist. Religious oppression is not oppression and
exploitation of gods, but of people, of a class of people. This class of
oppressors is the priestly class, a proprietary class that possesses the
original and most exclusive property of all: the sacred, the divine. The
sacred can be anything: land, knowledge, craft, custom, ritual, thought,
feeling. Anything. However, the clergy class does not work, does not
produce anything; the clergy imagine, ponder, demand, order, chastise
and punish. We are the ones who work, strive, worry, sweat and sacrifice
to fulfill their desires and turn their imagination into reality. The
clergy create ethereal coins for us to speculate and gamble to gain a
good and fulfilling life now, eternal happiness in the afterlife, or
good karma for the next reincarnation. The outcome of our bet doesn't
matter; the clergy who benefit from our work are always the big winners
in the end. It doesn't take long to realize that religion created
nothing; everything religion has has been taken, sabotaged,
appropriated, stolen and corrupted. Most of our ancient and profound
communal and anarchist customs, rituals and histories are now distorted
into a complicated, artificial and contradictory mess of half-truths
just to reproduce religion.
Yet after centuries of religiously fabricated consent, we seem to have
forgotten. Now, many see religion as an integral part of our cultures,
rather than the saboteur and thief that it truly is. The lower echelon
priests and faithful are doing the heavy lifting for the upper echelon,
some with inspiration to rule once in power, others to do good in the
world, and others to bring about change. So religions old and new are
presenting themselves as the next big thing, the solution, the
salvation. Then there are the spiritual, those whose relationship with
religion has deteriorated but have not radically freed themselves from
concepts of the divine and sacred, protecting and reproducing religion
once again. It's as if we are describing capitalism or the state, but
religion predates both. Perhaps religion is the institution that
introduced other forms of hierarchy into reality. Many people do not
want to face these facts about religion, insisting that there are true
egalitarian religions. But power reveals, and it revealed that religion
would be authoritarian whenever it was given the opportunity, whenever
it finally eroded the community's resistance to authority, everywhere,
every time. We, at the Era Anarchist Federation, cannot afford to
justify religion with the same excuses that liberals use to justify the
State and capitalism. For us, the supreme leader, the congress, the
judges, the lawyers, the police, the military, the landowners, the
bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, are a big bunch of rapists,
misogynists, child murderers and many others of these are mullahs, part
of the clergy class. This is the reality of a theocratic state. In the
face of all this, our position is simple: overthrow the theocratic
state, overthrow its ideology, overthrow its religion and salt the
ideological soil from which these nightmares grew so that no one will
ever live through these eras of terror again.
What organizations are you connected with on a regional level? Is it
difficult to create tangible solidarity relationships?
In these 15 years, we have had a type of transversal and case-by-case
cooperation with various anarchist groups in different parts of the
world, including in Iran and Afghanistan. The possible formation of the
two anarchist networks we mentioned could lead us to the next
sustainable movements. In fact, this is a joint regional organization
that enables more concrete cooperation.
Do you have any relationship with the rebel Kurdish community in Syria?
What do you think of their struggle, which is generally based on
refusing a statist solution?
In the past, we helped with the possibility of some Iranian anarchists
participating in the struggles in Rojava. We are in contact with some
Syrian anarchists abroad and we are also in contact with Rojava-related
Kurdish activists abroad. Naturally, we support the struggle of the
Kurds of Rojava with the same explanation you gave and for us it is a
point of hope from the real examples of non-governmental societies. Such
as, for example, the struggle of the Zapatistas in Mexico or the free
commune of Barbacha in the Kabylia region, in Algeria, which are areas
of interest. Especially for anarchists.
In theoretical terms, which line of organization would you adopt, more
synthesizing (Faure or Volin) or more platformist (Makhno and Arshinov)?
Do these differences in organizational terms make sense to you?
We are not platformists and we are syntheticists, but in the field of
organization, we naturally have our own organization. The Era Anarchist
Federation, as a synthetic federation, does not only cooperate with
various trends that follow religion, capitalism, nationalism and
pacifism and, therefore, is formed by various self-organizations in the
form of groups, collectives, networks, unions and individuals with
independence of action, thought and organic and complex relationships.
In this way, from individualists (and anarcho-individualists, who often
see themselves as individuals in relation to the federation) to
anarcho-syndicalists and anarcho-primitivists, through
anarcho-transhumanists and so on, they consider their activities to be
related and are members of the Era Anarchist Federation.
Currently, on an international level, what do you think of the support
you receive from other organizations? Which one do you most relate to?
The support we received. It was from the international anarchist
movement, which has been very different, and whenever we needed specific
help, individual anarchists and anarchist organizations spared us no
help. In fact, anarchists on a global level actually act as a single
body, and the simple fact of being an anarchist is enough to connect
anarchists to each other, and the fact that we are in different
geographies with different languages does not prevent anarchists from
cooperating with each other. with others. Our communication at any point
depends on the activity we carry out together, but we must find a way to
establish permanent communication with a part of the anarchist movement
in all corners of the world.
Finally, do you have any requests to transfer to organized Brazilian
anarchist movements? How can we help you?
Naturally, these interviews, their translation and publication are
considered a contribution to the anarchist movement in Iran and
Afghanistan, as is the interview we will soon do with you, comrades,
about our anarchist movement in the region. The world will be
transferred. This interview with you led us to think about more
continuous cooperation with part of the anarchist movement. We just have
to see how we can create the foundation for this. In the end, we would
like to thank you for planning this interview with really good questions.
https://cclamazonia.noblogs.org/post/2024/04/24/entrevista-com-a-federacao-anarquista-era-ira-e-afeganistao/
_________________________________________
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
organizations, collectives or isolated individuals who play a role in
the political and social development of our ideas. ---- The partnership
of Iran and Afghanistan, with the anarchist organization ERA, operates
in a complex and hostile national context. For this reason, we wanted to
give a voice to these comrades and for this voice to be heard on a wide
scale, because if we usually consider the practice of anarchism to be
difficult in the current period, there are contexts in which action
clearly becomes an act of great courage.
Therefore, we are very grateful to these people for answering our
questions with such goodwill and availability, knowing that any exchange
of messages can be dangerous and amount to heavy prison sentences... or
worse.
CCLA: What are the main fighting fields that you have already developed
and those that you plan to develop in the near future?
Era: Our initial nucleus was formed outside of Iran on December 15,
2009. And in 2018, we formed the Union of Anarchists of Afghanistan and
Iran. And after that, we formed the Era Anarchist Federation. We
(Federation and other anarchists), like all anarchists in the world, we
have a practical or intellectual presence in all movements (women's,
labor, student, environmental, animal protection, etc.) in Iran and
Afghanistan and, naturally, we have our own direct or indirect actions.
We had hope and still have to be able to form an anarchist federation
for Arab countries together with Arab anarchists, considering that Iran
and Afghanistan together are populated by several million Arabs.
Furthermore, we hope that one day we can form a Turkish anarchist
network with anarchists from countries of Turkish origins, considering
the presence of a population of several tens of millions of inhabitants
of these origins in Iran and Afghanistan.
The struggles of women in your country are very well known and talked
about. Does your organization have female colleagues? If so, how do they
contribute to the ongoing struggle?
In short, a significant part of our comrades in Iran and Afghanistan are
women and LGBTQI+. The ongoing struggles in Iran are in two main areas:
one is the civil and public struggle to say no to the mandatory hijab
and the repression for non-observance of the mandatory hijab by a large
part of women in Iranian society, to which our comrades are also
associated as a small part of Iranian female society. The second field
of struggle is the secret struggle, which includes most of the struggle
of the Federation's companions. in Afghanistan, since August 15, 2021.
When the government handed over power to the Taliban, we witnessed the
presence of Afghan women protesting. Two days later, on August 17, they
took to the streets against the presence of the Taliban and, after that,
the protesting women formed dozens of campaign groups against the
Taliban. And we continue to support the struggle of women protesting
against the Taliban, and the danger of excluding women from the presence
of Afghan society is very serious, and our fellow Federation members
have supported these struggles in many ways.
Religion (as a human institution of oppression in the name of God) is a
central theme of anarchist reflection and criticism of the power it
represents. What do you think about this and how can you position
yourself in relation to this issue?
Gods don't exist, we exist. Religious oppression is not oppression and
exploitation of gods, but of people, of a class of people. This class of
oppressors is the priestly class, a proprietary class that possesses the
original and most exclusive property of all: the sacred, the divine. The
sacred can be anything: land, knowledge, craft, custom, ritual, thought,
feeling. Anything. However, the clergy class does not work, does not
produce anything; the clergy imagine, ponder, demand, order, chastise
and punish. We are the ones who work, strive, worry, sweat and sacrifice
to fulfill their desires and turn their imagination into reality. The
clergy create ethereal coins for us to speculate and gamble to gain a
good and fulfilling life now, eternal happiness in the afterlife, or
good karma for the next reincarnation. The outcome of our bet doesn't
matter; the clergy who benefit from our work are always the big winners
in the end. It doesn't take long to realize that religion created
nothing; everything religion has has been taken, sabotaged,
appropriated, stolen and corrupted. Most of our ancient and profound
communal and anarchist customs, rituals and histories are now distorted
into a complicated, artificial and contradictory mess of half-truths
just to reproduce religion.
Yet after centuries of religiously fabricated consent, we seem to have
forgotten. Now, many see religion as an integral part of our cultures,
rather than the saboteur and thief that it truly is. The lower echelon
priests and faithful are doing the heavy lifting for the upper echelon,
some with inspiration to rule once in power, others to do good in the
world, and others to bring about change. So religions old and new are
presenting themselves as the next big thing, the solution, the
salvation. Then there are the spiritual, those whose relationship with
religion has deteriorated but have not radically freed themselves from
concepts of the divine and sacred, protecting and reproducing religion
once again. It's as if we are describing capitalism or the state, but
religion predates both. Perhaps religion is the institution that
introduced other forms of hierarchy into reality. Many people do not
want to face these facts about religion, insisting that there are true
egalitarian religions. But power reveals, and it revealed that religion
would be authoritarian whenever it was given the opportunity, whenever
it finally eroded the community's resistance to authority, everywhere,
every time. We, at the Era Anarchist Federation, cannot afford to
justify religion with the same excuses that liberals use to justify the
State and capitalism. For us, the supreme leader, the congress, the
judges, the lawyers, the police, the military, the landowners, the
bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, are a big bunch of rapists,
misogynists, child murderers and many others of these are mullahs, part
of the clergy class. This is the reality of a theocratic state. In the
face of all this, our position is simple: overthrow the theocratic
state, overthrow its ideology, overthrow its religion and salt the
ideological soil from which these nightmares grew so that no one will
ever live through these eras of terror again.
What organizations are you connected with on a regional level? Is it
difficult to create tangible solidarity relationships?
In these 15 years, we have had a type of transversal and case-by-case
cooperation with various anarchist groups in different parts of the
world, including in Iran and Afghanistan. The possible formation of the
two anarchist networks we mentioned could lead us to the next
sustainable movements. In fact, this is a joint regional organization
that enables more concrete cooperation.
Do you have any relationship with the rebel Kurdish community in Syria?
What do you think of their struggle, which is generally based on
refusing a statist solution?
In the past, we helped with the possibility of some Iranian anarchists
participating in the struggles in Rojava. We are in contact with some
Syrian anarchists abroad and we are also in contact with Rojava-related
Kurdish activists abroad. Naturally, we support the struggle of the
Kurds of Rojava with the same explanation you gave and for us it is a
point of hope from the real examples of non-governmental societies. Such
as, for example, the struggle of the Zapatistas in Mexico or the free
commune of Barbacha in the Kabylia region, in Algeria, which are areas
of interest. Especially for anarchists.
In theoretical terms, which line of organization would you adopt, more
synthesizing (Faure or Volin) or more platformist (Makhno and Arshinov)?
Do these differences in organizational terms make sense to you?
We are not platformists and we are syntheticists, but in the field of
organization, we naturally have our own organization. The Era Anarchist
Federation, as a synthetic federation, does not only cooperate with
various trends that follow religion, capitalism, nationalism and
pacifism and, therefore, is formed by various self-organizations in the
form of groups, collectives, networks, unions and individuals with
independence of action, thought and organic and complex relationships.
In this way, from individualists (and anarcho-individualists, who often
see themselves as individuals in relation to the federation) to
anarcho-syndicalists and anarcho-primitivists, through
anarcho-transhumanists and so on, they consider their activities to be
related and are members of the Era Anarchist Federation.
Currently, on an international level, what do you think of the support
you receive from other organizations? Which one do you most relate to?
The support we received. It was from the international anarchist
movement, which has been very different, and whenever we needed specific
help, individual anarchists and anarchist organizations spared us no
help. In fact, anarchists on a global level actually act as a single
body, and the simple fact of being an anarchist is enough to connect
anarchists to each other, and the fact that we are in different
geographies with different languages does not prevent anarchists from
cooperating with each other. with others. Our communication at any point
depends on the activity we carry out together, but we must find a way to
establish permanent communication with a part of the anarchist movement
in all corners of the world.
Finally, do you have any requests to transfer to organized Brazilian
anarchist movements? How can we help you?
Naturally, these interviews, their translation and publication are
considered a contribution to the anarchist movement in Iran and
Afghanistan, as is the interview we will soon do with you, comrades,
about our anarchist movement in the region. The world will be
transferred. This interview with you led us to think about more
continuous cooperation with part of the anarchist movement. We just have
to see how we can create the foundation for this. In the end, we would
like to thank you for planning this interview with really good questions.
https://cclamazonia.noblogs.org/post/2024/04/24/entrevista-com-a-federacao-anarquista-era-ira-e-afeganistao/
_________________________________________
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
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