In continuous movement with anarchy and Liberal Communism in mind ----
The following text is the self-presentation of the group "Horizontal
Movement-For Anarchy and Liberal Communism", which has been active in
the city of Thessaloniki since August 2024. In this text briefly
presents the group's identity and positions, which are developed in more
detail in the group's Statute, which will be available to any member who
wishes to study it, while it will also be available at future group
actions/events. The positions that make up both the Statute and this
Self-presentational text emerged after months of group processes,
processes aimed at the greatest possible agreement and coherence among
its members.
The Horizontal Movement is an anarchist group that belongs to the field
of organized social anarchism and more specifically to the current of
anarcho-communism. We look forward to a world without power, without
borders, states and classes, a world where every single person will be
able to develop every aspect of himself, every skill and ability to the
highest degree, without externally imposed obstacles, within the
framework of a society of freedom, equality and solidarity. We call this
world Anarchy.
Furthermore, it is a world where the means of production, land, raw
materials and goods are collectively owned by the whole community, a
world where there is no wage labor and no private property - except only
in objects of personal use that do not produce any kind of profit. A
world where work is also a collective affair, by each according to
his/her abilities, while the distribution of goods is done according to
the needs of each. Both work and scientific knowledge will be shared and
will serve to fulfill the collective purpose. We call this system of
organization Liberal Communism.
Anarchy and Libertarian Communism make up a world in which decisions are
made horizontally and collectively through assemblies and councils, both
on the part of production and work, and on the part of the community,
the neighborhood, etc. The organization for making these decisions of
decisions is structured from the bottom up, from the simple to the
complex, from the local to the regional and so on, through immediately
revocable representatives, who do not have decisive power, except only
within the jurisdiction provided to them by the community, the council,
etc. at any given time.
We believe that this world can only be achieved in conflict with the
existing authoritarian, capitalist world, through a social revolution.
This revolution will not happen by organized conscious political
minorities or vanguards, but through the initiative of the masses
themselves of the oppressed and exploited social strata, the global
working class and its allies. It is a process that requires the greatest
possible participation from these layers - if not all the people who
make them up - as it will fatally lead to a violent conflict with the
bourgeoisie, its institutions and supporters, a civil class war.
Anarchists do not openly advocate violence, and armed conflict is not a
fetish. However, the bosses and the powerful are not willing to give up
their privileges without a fight. We believe that the social revolution
will happen when those from below manage to self-organize en masse in
structures and communities of social and labor counter-power, which will
structurally and functionally represent the world we want to build. More
specifically, when these structures will reach the point where they can
challenge materially and politically the authority of the State and
Capital. Examples of such structures today can be militant class and
radical unions, neighborhood and local struggle communities, social
centers, free social spaces and squats. Class and revolutionary
consciousness is magnified and accelerated in the furnace of struggles.
The role of a special anarchist organization, in which we hope to
develop , is not to be a vanguard of these struggles or to "guide the
masses", but to get involved in the already existing struggles and
ignite new ones - social and class - to help them succeed their aims and
objectives and to promote within them those elements that are closer to
horizontality, class autonomy, self-organization - while at the same
time it will try to combat authoritarian and delegative tendencies. To
also be able to provide a revolutionary and libertarian ideological and
value background and push the oppressed and exploited to embrace
anarchist ideals and means of struggle, without necessarily requiring
them to declare themselves them as anarchists.
In the above context, we address a call for organization and struggle to
all workers, students, exploited and oppressed, all those who have a
class interest in fighting against the exploitative state-capitalist system.
Here is a summary of our own analysis of the constitution and the main
pillars of the system we are fighting against:
The State-Capitalist System
The state-capitalist system, consisting of exploiting and exploited
classes, is based on some very basic pillars, such as the ownership of
the means of production - and social wealth in general - by the
bourgeoisie (individual property) and the exploitation of (wage) labor
of the exploited, to function and reproduce. The State, in whatever
form, is a servant of the interests of the respective ruling class
(which in capitalism is the bourgeoisie). This system is a continuation
of older authoritarian systems and we must emphasize that it has the
ability to adapt and mutate over the years, based on the needs formed by
more general developments (e.g. technological), in order to continue to
reproduce these exploitative relations that sustain and define it. A key
example is wage labor, whose form has changed radically compared to the
previous century and has expanded, changing the close relationship of
the worker with the manufactured product he creates. However, the
changes brought about by capitalism at work also contributed to the
progressive softening of class consciousness, creating false
expectations within the working class for personal advancement in the
socio-economic hierarchy, which continues to be one of the reasons for
its fragmentation and the social of cannibalism that prevails in every
aspect of our lives.
However, the essence of this system - no matter how its forms change -
remains the same. And she says that the only value worth fighting for is
individual gain and the accumulation of wealth and power. Even if this
is achieved through the misery and oppression of other people and the
destruction of nature. There is no morality as long as the objective
mentioned above is realized. The only limits that enter are the civil
laws - which, however, are made to always favor the dominant class -
because otherwise, under these competitive frameworks, symbiosis between
people and therefore the very existence of communities would be
impossible. Such a system, however, as is evident from modern reality,
is unsustainable. This is evident on the one hand from the management of
the natural world, which has tragic consequences for all living beings
as well as the planet itself, and on the other hand from the huge social
inequalities that exist between people. Natural disasters, pandemics and
disruption of the natural balance (see Climate change, extinctions of
animal species, etc.) on the one hand and anti-social behavior, social
cannibalism, excessive violence, wars and exploitation, are just a few
examples that should be understood as effects of the existing system.
War as a necessity of the state-capitalist system
An integral part of this rotten system is war. In recent years, we have
again experienced the aggravation of interstate and intra-imperialist
conflicts, which, after more than two decades, are once again taking
place "within the walls" of the capitalist West, with the war in
Ukraine, while new dimensions have been taken by the ongoing conflict in
the Middle East, with the carnage in Gaza taking the form of genocide.
The war is certainly the most classic example of the sacrifice of the
lives of those from below for the sake of the perpetuation of the
system, since they are the ones who are called to pay the price
throughout time, either at the front, or at the borders and in the rear.
Each form of war is directly intertwined with the nature of the state,
creating an interdependent relationship between them. Every state needs
war in order to sustain itself by conquering natural resources and human
stock (labor hands) for capital and the ruling class. The most powerful
economic states of the planet gather around them other, less powerful
ones and rally in inter-state formations, in order to more easily
promote their economic and political interests in the less developed
regions of the planet. This happens both through economic alliances
(e.g. EU) and clearly military ones (e.g. NATO).
However, a necessary condition for conducting a war is the outline of an
"enemy", a condition that will promote the conquest of the desired and
necessary national unity against the class consciousness of the
oppressed and the exploited. To meet this need, the State on the one
hand declares the external enemy, against whom the war is declared,
while on the other hand it attacks the political dissidents within it,
who are likely to oppose the treaty of war (anarchists,
communist-internationalists etc.), as well as to various
ethnic-religious minorities "suspected" of disobedience (e.g. Muslims of
Thrace). War is also a good opportunity for the State and Capital to
move the discussion from existing internal social problems to the
outside. The task of the anarchists is to sabotage in every way the
conduct of interstate and imperialist wars, promoting proletarian
internationalism with the exploiters of the "other side" and, if this
becomes possible, to turn the war into a social revolution.
Immigrants as victims of interstate and imperialist wars
Of course, a war not only results in the loss of human life, but also
creates a large number of immigrants. In recent years we have seen
millions of persecuted people cross the borders of "Fortress Europe"
because of the wars (but also the economic impoverishment) imposed by
the West. After their arrival, these people are used by the capitalist
system and states in specific ways and their existence performs specific
functions. In the first place, they can be cheap labor for Capital, with
very few if any rights, and become victims of all kinds of employer
extortion. In this capacity, they are managed by Capital as mere
numbers, "unpicked" based on workforce needs quantitatively, but
sometimes also "qualitatively" - since some of these people may have
specialized knowledge and training that they can to provide cheaper than
the "local" worker. When they are not needed, they can simply keep them
holed up in some camp, in conditions that trivialize their very human
existence, deport them or even "disappear". The management of the
immigration issue by the capitalist states today can also be seen as an
issue of managing a "surplus population", such a population that they
themselves created and are looking for ways to exploit or manage in the
most profitable way. Thus, mass killings at the (water or land) borders
tend to become the norm and are among other things the result of the
desire of each state to free itself from the responsibility and cost
(political and material) of managing these people, in the midst of a
situation that they themselves caused and in fact to a large extent
cooperated with each other in its creation.
As we have said, State and Capital seek to keep the working class
divided and promote the idea of national unity, over class struggle.
This serves to defend against any social outbreak against them and to
forestall any revolutionary prospect through the unity of the exploited.
Thus, by enlisting their faithful ally and useful tool, nationalism,
Capital and the State can "instrumentalize" immigrants, christening them
"illegal invaders who alter our culture", being part of an imaginary
wider "a plan of foreign powers that are plotting the country", while
each government tries to serve its national agenda and present itself as
consistent and strong in foreign affairs. On the other hand, the State
and Capital attempt to turn the social anger of the bottom against the
immigrants inside the country, since, at the same time as they use them
as cheap labor, keeping them always precarious, they incite at the same
time the fascist paraphilology that says that immigrant workers are
responsible for the low wages, unemployment and poverty of the "local"
workers. Also, in this attempt to build an "enemy" against which the
"locals" will rally, the importance and magnitude of anti-social crime
originating from immigrants and minorities (e.g. Roma) is
overemphasized, without of course to explain the economic and social
reasons and causes that lead these people to delinquency,
marginalization and crime. As anarchists, it is our duty to stand in
every way alongside the most undervalued part of our class, the poor
immigrant workers, against the schemes of State and Capital. Through
solidarity actions and structures, joint struggles of locals and
immigrants, let's tear down the walls between us.
Patriarchy and gender discrimination
We recognize that all social oppressions are intertwined, more or less
directly, with the economic/class even if their individual
manifestations do not reflect this fact - and so, we choose to analyze
and address them within such a framework. One of the most characteristic
forms of social oppression that affects a significant part of the
working class (women workers - but not only them) is gender oppression
and Patriarchy. Patriarchy is an age-old, pre-capitalist condition in
which women are grossly and structurally oppressed as a gender by men.
Its roots can perhaps be traced back to the beginnings of the birth of
private property and class/exploitative systems, while institutions such
as the nuclear family and religion, but also concepts such as nation and
homeland, have promoted the idea of woman's obedience to man and her
material/social dependence on him and have made her position in society
more difficult. The patriarchal condition was historically expressed in
social and political terms, such as fewer political/social rights
(voting, freedom of speech, etc.) but also in economic ones: The
exploitation of women's free social reproductive work (housework,
raising children) was normalized as a condition within all kinds of
authoritarian societies and it is largely valid to this day, even in
parts of the planet where women's emancipation is considered an advanced
case. The same largely applies to the wage gap between men and women,
which has not been completely closed.
In relation to people who do not identify with the male/female binary,
trans/queer people, gays, lesbians, etc., the dominant systems have
throughout time attacked their communities and their very existence, as
in their faces they see evidence which challenge precisely those
hetero-normative relations necessary to perpetuate patriarchal,
authoritarian oppression and exploitation. We stand by them defending
with them their right to exist and express themselves, the right to
their own body.
As in other social issues, so also in Patriarchy and gender oppression,
as anarchists we choose to be totally opposed to the reasons and causes
that cause it, while as part of the oppressed and exploited, we
practically stand next to the women of our class who suffer more from
its effects.
The current situation and state of the movement & the need for organization
The current political, economic and social situation, both
internationally and domestically, seems to have reached a new level of
gloom for the working class and the oppressed, unprecedented by modern
standards, which is nevertheless , on the one hand, an almost natural
evolution of neoliberal policies, of the over-fifteen-year economic
crisis, which the capitalist system is trying to overcome at our
expense, but also, on the other hand, of the failure of the movements to
fundamentally question the dominance of Capital . This new predominance
of Capital and the confirmation of its sovereignty, reserves even more
unbearable conditions for those from below, who of course, having failed
to take their lives into their own hands, will be called upon to pay
once more for the broken of rescuing the profits of the Capital.
As for the situation of the wider movement in Greece, things do not look
so positive. After the cinematic defeat that followed the tide of class,
social and youth movements and uprisings that lasted almost a decade
(2006-2015), the prevalence of reformism through and the assignment - by
the movements of the oppressed themselves - of asserting and
safeguarding of their interests in willing social democracy and the
consequent, historically and politically expected, capitulation of this
to Capital, we saw an attitude of frustration - and futility - on the
part of those who found themselves on the streets all these years. The
SYRIZA government introduced into the consciousness of the oppressed -
in a much more intense way than their declared class enemies had done -
the perception of the lack of alternative and the capitalist one-way
(there is no alternative-TINA). Thus, in the years of the "first time on
the left" we saw, on the one hand, a partial initial folding and partial
softening of the action of the movements, which did not know exactly how
to perceive the assumption and management of power by people with whom
they had previously been together on the street and who were trying to
join them for political reasons. On the other hand, the great masses of
those who had fought and believed in social justice, quickly withdrew
from the limelight and - worst of all - suffered a generalized
consciousness mutation, quickly shifting from a willingness to take
action to waiting - and finally to resignation. By the time the
movements became consciously aware of the true nature of the new "left"
government - and despite minority voices within the movement warning
against it - the historical subject had returned home, struggling to
cope with the continuation of economic impoverishment.
This impoverishment, together with the above-mentioned failure and
inability - and lack of will in the end - of social democracy to defend
the interests of the below, reinforced in society its worst elements:
Anti-socialism, individualism, social cannibalism, national patriotism
(especially after the Prespa Agreement) and racism and brought, in
combination with the artful dissolution of social resistance, the
ideological hegemony of the neoliberal far-right faction, the Mitsotaki
ND. It followed - and continues to this day - what can be defined as the
most absolutist and at the same time the most clearly pro-employer
governance in the history of post-political Greece: Privatizations,
precision, questioning the right to housing/evictions, crushing the
welfare state, disintegration of the of public health and education and
a direct attack on decades-old achievements (such as the public nature
of universities), employer arbitrariness and strikes on trade unions,
police democracy and totalitarian repressive measures on the street and
in every social field, criminal anti-immigration policy at the borders,
under the instructions of the EU .E.. The further social numbness during
the period of the Covid -19 pandemic actually facilitated this task,
even if the Greek government was exposed many times for its complete
inability to deal effectively with the pandemic and the obsessive
priority it gave to the fulfillment of the neoliberals of its plans and
policies, rather than the defense of public health. Internationally, the
country's territory tends to turn into a vast NATO base, and the Greek
State is the West's most willing ally in the massacres in Ukraine and
the Middle East (e.g. Palestine). Of course, the supposed "threat of
Turkey" is always used in the direction of justifying the excessive
military armaments, it satisfies the need to sharpen the nationalist
sentiment as well as the attempt to shift the blame onto the criminal
management of the immigration issue.
At the same time, however, the ND took care to "cement" its own public:
economically, ideologically and politically, through assignments,
numerous recruitments to the security forces - thus effectively creating
a new client state of tens of thousands of uniformed dependents - and -
perhaps most importantly of all - the complete control of information
and information, through the regime media. All of the above brought not
only her solemn re-election with (apparent) 41% without any opponent,
but also the electoral emergence to the surface of all those extreme
right-wing tendencies that we saw springing up in Europe as well, with
new parties representing the old, supposedly defeated Golden Dawn, but
also the sprayed super-religious obscurantists. The extreme rise in
voting abstention could make us anarchists happy, although we know very
well that its causes vary over time. However, abstinence is certainly
not entirely apolitical as they want us to believe. The social and class
composition of those who have been absent in recent years from the
election festival (which brings the de-massification of mainly parties
that are schematically positioned to the left of the political system)
deserves to be studied and taken into serious consideration in our
future address.
Regarding the situation of the anarcho-libertarian movement in Greece in
particular, it now has a rich history of decades of resistance,
insurrectionary events and moments of intense struggle, structures and
infrastructures of self-organization. As a Horizontal Movement, however,
we consider that the anarchist/libertarian movement "suffers" from
fragmentation and informalism, which deprives it of the prospect for a
unified and meaningful intervention in the working class and the
oppressed, in a way that could lead in their practical organization in
the ranks of anarchists and in the cause of social revolution - or even
the conscious adoption of libertarian practices in their struggles and
not simply in their superficial ideological or cultural influence by us.
In addition, from an organizational point of view, we found ourselves
unprepared to respond to the challenges and needs brought by the
capitalist crisis, which manifested itself with great tension in
society, without appropriate structures and with a lack of social
connection, despite remarkable individual efforts and good will. The
social explosion of December 2008 created many new initiatives and an
unprecedented massification of the anarchist/anti-authoritarian space,
but at the same time it also highlighted the limits of
spontaneity/informalism. It is important to note that one part of the
space is characterized by an anti-organizational culture, a
fetishization of violence, and the belief that social change can result
from a wildly rebellious day or night.
For us, therefore, the existence of an organized continuous and
consistent action is a huge necessity, which will be another stepping
stone in the effort for the social revolution and the radical change of
the current organization of society. This presupposes, on the one hand,
that our action is socially grounded and, on the other hand, that it is
dynamic, so that it can be absorbed and expressed through it by the
wider exploited social strata that have common needs, that is, those
that form the base of the social pyramid. Although for various political
reasons we have not seen ourselves within existing organizations with
similar agendas to ours, we recognize the existence of a large number of
worthy comrades/equals, collectives and groups within the broader
anarchist/libertarian movement. and we are willing to act together with
them or in parallel, why not towards the creation of a wider and more
massive anarchist organization that will be able to bear the burden of
the demands of the social and class address that corresponds to our time.
Horizontal Movement-For Anarchy and Liberal Communism
Thessaloniki, August 2024
email: orizontiakinisi@anche.no
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/orizontiakinisi
https://anarchism.espivblogs.net/2024/09/05/orizontia-kinisi-aytoparoysiastiko-keimeno/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
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A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
The following text is the self-presentation of the group "Horizontal
Movement-For Anarchy and Liberal Communism", which has been active in
the city of Thessaloniki since August 2024. In this text briefly
presents the group's identity and positions, which are developed in more
detail in the group's Statute, which will be available to any member who
wishes to study it, while it will also be available at future group
actions/events. The positions that make up both the Statute and this
Self-presentational text emerged after months of group processes,
processes aimed at the greatest possible agreement and coherence among
its members.
The Horizontal Movement is an anarchist group that belongs to the field
of organized social anarchism and more specifically to the current of
anarcho-communism. We look forward to a world without power, without
borders, states and classes, a world where every single person will be
able to develop every aspect of himself, every skill and ability to the
highest degree, without externally imposed obstacles, within the
framework of a society of freedom, equality and solidarity. We call this
world Anarchy.
Furthermore, it is a world where the means of production, land, raw
materials and goods are collectively owned by the whole community, a
world where there is no wage labor and no private property - except only
in objects of personal use that do not produce any kind of profit. A
world where work is also a collective affair, by each according to
his/her abilities, while the distribution of goods is done according to
the needs of each. Both work and scientific knowledge will be shared and
will serve to fulfill the collective purpose. We call this system of
organization Liberal Communism.
Anarchy and Libertarian Communism make up a world in which decisions are
made horizontally and collectively through assemblies and councils, both
on the part of production and work, and on the part of the community,
the neighborhood, etc. The organization for making these decisions of
decisions is structured from the bottom up, from the simple to the
complex, from the local to the regional and so on, through immediately
revocable representatives, who do not have decisive power, except only
within the jurisdiction provided to them by the community, the council,
etc. at any given time.
We believe that this world can only be achieved in conflict with the
existing authoritarian, capitalist world, through a social revolution.
This revolution will not happen by organized conscious political
minorities or vanguards, but through the initiative of the masses
themselves of the oppressed and exploited social strata, the global
working class and its allies. It is a process that requires the greatest
possible participation from these layers - if not all the people who
make them up - as it will fatally lead to a violent conflict with the
bourgeoisie, its institutions and supporters, a civil class war.
Anarchists do not openly advocate violence, and armed conflict is not a
fetish. However, the bosses and the powerful are not willing to give up
their privileges without a fight. We believe that the social revolution
will happen when those from below manage to self-organize en masse in
structures and communities of social and labor counter-power, which will
structurally and functionally represent the world we want to build. More
specifically, when these structures will reach the point where they can
challenge materially and politically the authority of the State and
Capital. Examples of such structures today can be militant class and
radical unions, neighborhood and local struggle communities, social
centers, free social spaces and squats. Class and revolutionary
consciousness is magnified and accelerated in the furnace of struggles.
The role of a special anarchist organization, in which we hope to
develop , is not to be a vanguard of these struggles or to "guide the
masses", but to get involved in the already existing struggles and
ignite new ones - social and class - to help them succeed their aims and
objectives and to promote within them those elements that are closer to
horizontality, class autonomy, self-organization - while at the same
time it will try to combat authoritarian and delegative tendencies. To
also be able to provide a revolutionary and libertarian ideological and
value background and push the oppressed and exploited to embrace
anarchist ideals and means of struggle, without necessarily requiring
them to declare themselves them as anarchists.
In the above context, we address a call for organization and struggle to
all workers, students, exploited and oppressed, all those who have a
class interest in fighting against the exploitative state-capitalist system.
Here is a summary of our own analysis of the constitution and the main
pillars of the system we are fighting against:
The State-Capitalist System
The state-capitalist system, consisting of exploiting and exploited
classes, is based on some very basic pillars, such as the ownership of
the means of production - and social wealth in general - by the
bourgeoisie (individual property) and the exploitation of (wage) labor
of the exploited, to function and reproduce. The State, in whatever
form, is a servant of the interests of the respective ruling class
(which in capitalism is the bourgeoisie). This system is a continuation
of older authoritarian systems and we must emphasize that it has the
ability to adapt and mutate over the years, based on the needs formed by
more general developments (e.g. technological), in order to continue to
reproduce these exploitative relations that sustain and define it. A key
example is wage labor, whose form has changed radically compared to the
previous century and has expanded, changing the close relationship of
the worker with the manufactured product he creates. However, the
changes brought about by capitalism at work also contributed to the
progressive softening of class consciousness, creating false
expectations within the working class for personal advancement in the
socio-economic hierarchy, which continues to be one of the reasons for
its fragmentation and the social of cannibalism that prevails in every
aspect of our lives.
However, the essence of this system - no matter how its forms change -
remains the same. And she says that the only value worth fighting for is
individual gain and the accumulation of wealth and power. Even if this
is achieved through the misery and oppression of other people and the
destruction of nature. There is no morality as long as the objective
mentioned above is realized. The only limits that enter are the civil
laws - which, however, are made to always favor the dominant class -
because otherwise, under these competitive frameworks, symbiosis between
people and therefore the very existence of communities would be
impossible. Such a system, however, as is evident from modern reality,
is unsustainable. This is evident on the one hand from the management of
the natural world, which has tragic consequences for all living beings
as well as the planet itself, and on the other hand from the huge social
inequalities that exist between people. Natural disasters, pandemics and
disruption of the natural balance (see Climate change, extinctions of
animal species, etc.) on the one hand and anti-social behavior, social
cannibalism, excessive violence, wars and exploitation, are just a few
examples that should be understood as effects of the existing system.
War as a necessity of the state-capitalist system
An integral part of this rotten system is war. In recent years, we have
again experienced the aggravation of interstate and intra-imperialist
conflicts, which, after more than two decades, are once again taking
place "within the walls" of the capitalist West, with the war in
Ukraine, while new dimensions have been taken by the ongoing conflict in
the Middle East, with the carnage in Gaza taking the form of genocide.
The war is certainly the most classic example of the sacrifice of the
lives of those from below for the sake of the perpetuation of the
system, since they are the ones who are called to pay the price
throughout time, either at the front, or at the borders and in the rear.
Each form of war is directly intertwined with the nature of the state,
creating an interdependent relationship between them. Every state needs
war in order to sustain itself by conquering natural resources and human
stock (labor hands) for capital and the ruling class. The most powerful
economic states of the planet gather around them other, less powerful
ones and rally in inter-state formations, in order to more easily
promote their economic and political interests in the less developed
regions of the planet. This happens both through economic alliances
(e.g. EU) and clearly military ones (e.g. NATO).
However, a necessary condition for conducting a war is the outline of an
"enemy", a condition that will promote the conquest of the desired and
necessary national unity against the class consciousness of the
oppressed and the exploited. To meet this need, the State on the one
hand declares the external enemy, against whom the war is declared,
while on the other hand it attacks the political dissidents within it,
who are likely to oppose the treaty of war (anarchists,
communist-internationalists etc.), as well as to various
ethnic-religious minorities "suspected" of disobedience (e.g. Muslims of
Thrace). War is also a good opportunity for the State and Capital to
move the discussion from existing internal social problems to the
outside. The task of the anarchists is to sabotage in every way the
conduct of interstate and imperialist wars, promoting proletarian
internationalism with the exploiters of the "other side" and, if this
becomes possible, to turn the war into a social revolution.
Immigrants as victims of interstate and imperialist wars
Of course, a war not only results in the loss of human life, but also
creates a large number of immigrants. In recent years we have seen
millions of persecuted people cross the borders of "Fortress Europe"
because of the wars (but also the economic impoverishment) imposed by
the West. After their arrival, these people are used by the capitalist
system and states in specific ways and their existence performs specific
functions. In the first place, they can be cheap labor for Capital, with
very few if any rights, and become victims of all kinds of employer
extortion. In this capacity, they are managed by Capital as mere
numbers, "unpicked" based on workforce needs quantitatively, but
sometimes also "qualitatively" - since some of these people may have
specialized knowledge and training that they can to provide cheaper than
the "local" worker. When they are not needed, they can simply keep them
holed up in some camp, in conditions that trivialize their very human
existence, deport them or even "disappear". The management of the
immigration issue by the capitalist states today can also be seen as an
issue of managing a "surplus population", such a population that they
themselves created and are looking for ways to exploit or manage in the
most profitable way. Thus, mass killings at the (water or land) borders
tend to become the norm and are among other things the result of the
desire of each state to free itself from the responsibility and cost
(political and material) of managing these people, in the midst of a
situation that they themselves caused and in fact to a large extent
cooperated with each other in its creation.
As we have said, State and Capital seek to keep the working class
divided and promote the idea of national unity, over class struggle.
This serves to defend against any social outbreak against them and to
forestall any revolutionary prospect through the unity of the exploited.
Thus, by enlisting their faithful ally and useful tool, nationalism,
Capital and the State can "instrumentalize" immigrants, christening them
"illegal invaders who alter our culture", being part of an imaginary
wider "a plan of foreign powers that are plotting the country", while
each government tries to serve its national agenda and present itself as
consistent and strong in foreign affairs. On the other hand, the State
and Capital attempt to turn the social anger of the bottom against the
immigrants inside the country, since, at the same time as they use them
as cheap labor, keeping them always precarious, they incite at the same
time the fascist paraphilology that says that immigrant workers are
responsible for the low wages, unemployment and poverty of the "local"
workers. Also, in this attempt to build an "enemy" against which the
"locals" will rally, the importance and magnitude of anti-social crime
originating from immigrants and minorities (e.g. Roma) is
overemphasized, without of course to explain the economic and social
reasons and causes that lead these people to delinquency,
marginalization and crime. As anarchists, it is our duty to stand in
every way alongside the most undervalued part of our class, the poor
immigrant workers, against the schemes of State and Capital. Through
solidarity actions and structures, joint struggles of locals and
immigrants, let's tear down the walls between us.
Patriarchy and gender discrimination
We recognize that all social oppressions are intertwined, more or less
directly, with the economic/class even if their individual
manifestations do not reflect this fact - and so, we choose to analyze
and address them within such a framework. One of the most characteristic
forms of social oppression that affects a significant part of the
working class (women workers - but not only them) is gender oppression
and Patriarchy. Patriarchy is an age-old, pre-capitalist condition in
which women are grossly and structurally oppressed as a gender by men.
Its roots can perhaps be traced back to the beginnings of the birth of
private property and class/exploitative systems, while institutions such
as the nuclear family and religion, but also concepts such as nation and
homeland, have promoted the idea of woman's obedience to man and her
material/social dependence on him and have made her position in society
more difficult. The patriarchal condition was historically expressed in
social and political terms, such as fewer political/social rights
(voting, freedom of speech, etc.) but also in economic ones: The
exploitation of women's free social reproductive work (housework,
raising children) was normalized as a condition within all kinds of
authoritarian societies and it is largely valid to this day, even in
parts of the planet where women's emancipation is considered an advanced
case. The same largely applies to the wage gap between men and women,
which has not been completely closed.
In relation to people who do not identify with the male/female binary,
trans/queer people, gays, lesbians, etc., the dominant systems have
throughout time attacked their communities and their very existence, as
in their faces they see evidence which challenge precisely those
hetero-normative relations necessary to perpetuate patriarchal,
authoritarian oppression and exploitation. We stand by them defending
with them their right to exist and express themselves, the right to
their own body.
As in other social issues, so also in Patriarchy and gender oppression,
as anarchists we choose to be totally opposed to the reasons and causes
that cause it, while as part of the oppressed and exploited, we
practically stand next to the women of our class who suffer more from
its effects.
The current situation and state of the movement & the need for organization
The current political, economic and social situation, both
internationally and domestically, seems to have reached a new level of
gloom for the working class and the oppressed, unprecedented by modern
standards, which is nevertheless , on the one hand, an almost natural
evolution of neoliberal policies, of the over-fifteen-year economic
crisis, which the capitalist system is trying to overcome at our
expense, but also, on the other hand, of the failure of the movements to
fundamentally question the dominance of Capital . This new predominance
of Capital and the confirmation of its sovereignty, reserves even more
unbearable conditions for those from below, who of course, having failed
to take their lives into their own hands, will be called upon to pay
once more for the broken of rescuing the profits of the Capital.
As for the situation of the wider movement in Greece, things do not look
so positive. After the cinematic defeat that followed the tide of class,
social and youth movements and uprisings that lasted almost a decade
(2006-2015), the prevalence of reformism through and the assignment - by
the movements of the oppressed themselves - of asserting and
safeguarding of their interests in willing social democracy and the
consequent, historically and politically expected, capitulation of this
to Capital, we saw an attitude of frustration - and futility - on the
part of those who found themselves on the streets all these years. The
SYRIZA government introduced into the consciousness of the oppressed -
in a much more intense way than their declared class enemies had done -
the perception of the lack of alternative and the capitalist one-way
(there is no alternative-TINA). Thus, in the years of the "first time on
the left" we saw, on the one hand, a partial initial folding and partial
softening of the action of the movements, which did not know exactly how
to perceive the assumption and management of power by people with whom
they had previously been together on the street and who were trying to
join them for political reasons. On the other hand, the great masses of
those who had fought and believed in social justice, quickly withdrew
from the limelight and - worst of all - suffered a generalized
consciousness mutation, quickly shifting from a willingness to take
action to waiting - and finally to resignation. By the time the
movements became consciously aware of the true nature of the new "left"
government - and despite minority voices within the movement warning
against it - the historical subject had returned home, struggling to
cope with the continuation of economic impoverishment.
This impoverishment, together with the above-mentioned failure and
inability - and lack of will in the end - of social democracy to defend
the interests of the below, reinforced in society its worst elements:
Anti-socialism, individualism, social cannibalism, national patriotism
(especially after the Prespa Agreement) and racism and brought, in
combination with the artful dissolution of social resistance, the
ideological hegemony of the neoliberal far-right faction, the Mitsotaki
ND. It followed - and continues to this day - what can be defined as the
most absolutist and at the same time the most clearly pro-employer
governance in the history of post-political Greece: Privatizations,
precision, questioning the right to housing/evictions, crushing the
welfare state, disintegration of the of public health and education and
a direct attack on decades-old achievements (such as the public nature
of universities), employer arbitrariness and strikes on trade unions,
police democracy and totalitarian repressive measures on the street and
in every social field, criminal anti-immigration policy at the borders,
under the instructions of the EU .E.. The further social numbness during
the period of the Covid -19 pandemic actually facilitated this task,
even if the Greek government was exposed many times for its complete
inability to deal effectively with the pandemic and the obsessive
priority it gave to the fulfillment of the neoliberals of its plans and
policies, rather than the defense of public health. Internationally, the
country's territory tends to turn into a vast NATO base, and the Greek
State is the West's most willing ally in the massacres in Ukraine and
the Middle East (e.g. Palestine). Of course, the supposed "threat of
Turkey" is always used in the direction of justifying the excessive
military armaments, it satisfies the need to sharpen the nationalist
sentiment as well as the attempt to shift the blame onto the criminal
management of the immigration issue.
At the same time, however, the ND took care to "cement" its own public:
economically, ideologically and politically, through assignments,
numerous recruitments to the security forces - thus effectively creating
a new client state of tens of thousands of uniformed dependents - and -
perhaps most importantly of all - the complete control of information
and information, through the regime media. All of the above brought not
only her solemn re-election with (apparent) 41% without any opponent,
but also the electoral emergence to the surface of all those extreme
right-wing tendencies that we saw springing up in Europe as well, with
new parties representing the old, supposedly defeated Golden Dawn, but
also the sprayed super-religious obscurantists. The extreme rise in
voting abstention could make us anarchists happy, although we know very
well that its causes vary over time. However, abstinence is certainly
not entirely apolitical as they want us to believe. The social and class
composition of those who have been absent in recent years from the
election festival (which brings the de-massification of mainly parties
that are schematically positioned to the left of the political system)
deserves to be studied and taken into serious consideration in our
future address.
Regarding the situation of the anarcho-libertarian movement in Greece in
particular, it now has a rich history of decades of resistance,
insurrectionary events and moments of intense struggle, structures and
infrastructures of self-organization. As a Horizontal Movement, however,
we consider that the anarchist/libertarian movement "suffers" from
fragmentation and informalism, which deprives it of the prospect for a
unified and meaningful intervention in the working class and the
oppressed, in a way that could lead in their practical organization in
the ranks of anarchists and in the cause of social revolution - or even
the conscious adoption of libertarian practices in their struggles and
not simply in their superficial ideological or cultural influence by us.
In addition, from an organizational point of view, we found ourselves
unprepared to respond to the challenges and needs brought by the
capitalist crisis, which manifested itself with great tension in
society, without appropriate structures and with a lack of social
connection, despite remarkable individual efforts and good will. The
social explosion of December 2008 created many new initiatives and an
unprecedented massification of the anarchist/anti-authoritarian space,
but at the same time it also highlighted the limits of
spontaneity/informalism. It is important to note that one part of the
space is characterized by an anti-organizational culture, a
fetishization of violence, and the belief that social change can result
from a wildly rebellious day or night.
For us, therefore, the existence of an organized continuous and
consistent action is a huge necessity, which will be another stepping
stone in the effort for the social revolution and the radical change of
the current organization of society. This presupposes, on the one hand,
that our action is socially grounded and, on the other hand, that it is
dynamic, so that it can be absorbed and expressed through it by the
wider exploited social strata that have common needs, that is, those
that form the base of the social pyramid. Although for various political
reasons we have not seen ourselves within existing organizations with
similar agendas to ours, we recognize the existence of a large number of
worthy comrades/equals, collectives and groups within the broader
anarchist/libertarian movement. and we are willing to act together with
them or in parallel, why not towards the creation of a wider and more
massive anarchist organization that will be able to bear the burden of
the demands of the social and class address that corresponds to our time.
Horizontal Movement-For Anarchy and Liberal Communism
Thessaloniki, August 2024
email: orizontiakinisi@anche.no
Facebook: https://tinyurl.com/orizontiakinisi
https://anarchism.espivblogs.net/2024/09/05/orizontia-kinisi-aytoparoysiastiko-keimeno/
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