I would prefer revolutionary internationalism. ----- Continuation of the
previous article. Bill Beach's response to Wayne Price's article "ShouldAnarchists Defend Ukraine? ---- The struggle for class and personal
liberation cannot be compared with national conflicts. The function of
the impersonal state is to waste human lives in war, and of the upper
class to consider the lower people as superfluous; therefore every war
of the national state always has a cruel character in
itself.[...]Compared with other conflicts, social liberation is the most
difficult of all to achieve, and national liberation is only a
deviation. For the class struggle presupposes not only collective
action, but also the destruction of that sequence of events rooted in
our society, such as orders and obedience. Any form of social protest
can be useful as an attempt to destroy this sequence which sucks the
life forces of humanity and enables the few to rule the many.
Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer in The Floodgates of Anarchy
For those who read the pages of Black Flag, it will be clear from Wayne
Price's response to my essay "War Against Anarchism" that his arrogance
is matched only by his ignorance. 1 It is difficult to argue with a man
who is completely committed to remaining ignorant and who stubbornly
avoids any discussion of concrete issues, retreating into abstract
slogans and idealistic positions. In response to the numerous facts I
present and the 48 footnotes, Wayne Price offers one hackneyed reference
to Bakunin, one indirect reference to Ukrainian anti-Semitism (to argue
with an argument I did not make), and one reference to MYSELF, Wayne
Price. He also gives a fragmentary history of the Ukrainian struggle for
national self-determination that is as vague as it is emotional. And he
makes the unsubstantiated claim that Nestor Makhno was a nationalist. It
is clear that Price and the Natopolitans 2 feel much more comfortable in
the dizzying heights of abstract, ahistorical, non-factual idealism than
in the blood of the Ukrainian trenches or the real politics of
inter-imperial conflict. Or the realities of class struggle.
Because he dares not touch the facts, Price argues with those that I
have not put forward, such as that Ukraine is a hotbed of anti-Semitism,
that I support the Russian view that Ukraine has no right to exist, or
that the lesser evil in this conflict would be to support Russian
imperialism against NATO. None of these positions are mine, so there is
no need for me to defend them. What Price does not want and cannot
engage with are the theses that I put forward: about the origins and
causes of the war, about its nature and course, about its current realities.
I will comment on a few of Price's arguments before outlining as
precisely as possible the ideological differences between the
NATO-defensive-nationalist position, on the one hand, and the
anti-militarist-defeatist-internationalist position, on the other. For
those who want to skip to the summary, see the last section below.
The Last Crusade
Let's start with the question of anti-Semitism, since it is a common and
interesting one. It is also worth considering because Wayne Price has
taken the trouble to introduce it into the debate. Given that over the
past year we have heard the most monstrously grotesque imperialist and
racist justifications for Zionism, disguised as accusations of
anti-Semitism, I am deeply flattered that Price has chosen to govern
Ukraine, which by all accounts is the world champion in armed Hitlerite
and Banderite folklore.
The main version of Ukrainian nationalists and natopolists is that
Zelensky himself is Jewish, so anti-Semitism cannot be a powerful force
in Ukraine. There is as little truth in this as there is in the idea
that Obama ended racism, as anyone with even a rudimentary interest in
the facts will admit. But how do we explain the fact that this Jewish
president applauded Yaroslav Hunka, a real Ukrainian Nazi from World War
II? The simple reason is that the main enemy of Ukrainian fascism is
Russian. Therefore, he can postpone the Jewish question until Ukraine
has dealt with Russia and Russian minorities - this is the same
principled postponement that Wayne Price preaches: defend the nation,
and the revolution comes later.
But while Price is happy to remain a keyboard warrior, the bloodthirsty
Azov Battalion is touring Europe (its 2024 mini-tour met with much
resistance along the way), spreading its brilliant ideas and forging
connections with like-minded individuals and groups. Its founder,
Biletsky, famously declared that Ukraine's national goal was "to lead
the white races of the world in one last crusade... against the
Semitic-led subhumans . " 3 This charming boy was an ultra on the
Maidan, then a fascist paramilitary in the Donbass (trained by NATO in
the use of grenade launchers and other American weapons), and finally
rose to become a member of the Ukrainian parliament. He is just one of a
whole galaxy of scoundrels who inhabit the Ukrainian state and parastate
formations. For those who want to trace the deep currents of Ukrainian
fascism, I would point to Mos Robson's two blogs: Bandera Lobby Blog and
Ukes, Kooks and Spooks. There you can read about how neo-Nazis are
training the Ukrainian presidential brigade, and its chief instructor
calls Ukrainians slaves who must be armed. About Nazi paganism in
Ukraine. About Nazis from the Azov region visiting NATO headquarters.
About Holocaust denial. About Ukrainian Nazi paramilitaries invading
Russia. Etc. et cetera.
At the risk of repeating myself, I want to emphasize that my point is
not that all Ukrainians are Nazis or that Ukraine is a Nazi state. What
I am saying is that Ukrainian fascists play a huge role in shaping the
Ukrainian national project, that they were directly involved in some of
the worst violence during the civil war, and that they continue to be a
spearhead against all things Russian. They are the sharpest tool of
American imperialism because their hatred of Russia and all things
Russian is maniacal. To deny the scale of this problem (as Price does)
is to deny that these people were supported by the post-Maidan
governments and by the NATO sponsors of the puppet war with Russia. It
is also to deny one of the reasons for the war: Russia's refusal to
accept a fascist-friendly regime in Ukraine. Any regime that
rehabilitates the fascists of World War II 4 , that includes Nazis in
its state and military structures, is unacceptable to the Russian state,
that is a simple fact. Especially if they will be armed with NATO
weapons and can become a nuclear missile station. But since we are not
allowed to understand the motives of the Russian state, we can only
accept the NATO analysis of the reasons why Russia invaded (to wipe out
Ukraine!). Therefore, Putin is Hitler and this is a cosmic life and
death struggle, about which there can be no debate. We must abandon all
principles in the fight against Russian fascism and defend the Ukrainian
state. The truth is much dirtier and more unpleasant: Ukraine is a tool,
and every tool must be kept sharp.
The conclusion we should draw is the exact opposite of Wayne Price's. He
believes that by downplaying the fascist problem in Ukraine, we are
refusing to play into the hands of the Russians and supporting a
"democratic" Ukrainian state that must be defended from imperialist
invasion. On the contrary, as anarchists we must oppose fascism because
it is the enemy of all libertarian principles, because it is the most
extreme manifestation of nationalism (and its lamentable willingness to
sacrifice), because it is imbued with militarism and fantasies of racial
purity. 5 It is also a triumph of capitalism and the interests of
capital. Ukrainian oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky and Serhiy Taruta finance
the Azov battalion (and other paramilitary organizations) in order to
keep out Russian oligarchs. Their patriotism does not extend to
protection from American/European capital, such as the "Bank for the
Reconstruction of Ukraine," which was created by BlackRock and JPMorgan
Chase to buy the country cheaply and arrange concessions to extract its
wealth. We compromise ourselves as anarchists, we compromise everything
good in Ukraine, and we give the Russian state a legitimate line of
attack by giving Ukrainian fascism a free pass. 6
The danger of Wayne Price's position, which advocates the defense of the
nation, lies in the notion that there is a good nationalism and a good
state that simply and naturally emerges from the opposition of invader
and occupier. Since self-determination could only be achieved and
articulated through the nation, and since self-determination preceded
anarchist revolution/liberation, anarchism had to be postponed until a
clear, undisturbed national space was secured. The complete fusion of
state and nation is something that eludes Price. He is an anarchist
committed to strengthening the state only to overthrow it. And he is
prepared to compromise his principles - either by collaborating with the
state, or by collaborating with the Nazis, joining NATO-controlled
brigades, for years until Russia is defeated (whatever that means, since
Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world). Then he will come
out as the anarchist that he is and (gentlemen!) show the Ukrainian
ruling class what he is made of. But he won't do it because he is a
keyboard warrior, and Ukrainians and anarchists will die for him.
The homeland of the rich
In discussing the "national question" and the problems of
self-determination, Rosa Luxemburg proved to be a greater anarchist than
Wayne Price and his quote from Bakunin. Her 1909 pamphlet boldly declared:
In a word, the formula "right to national self-determination" is
essentially not a political and discussion point on the issue of
nationality, but only a means of avoiding this issue. 7
Luxemburg adhered to the class struggle and refused to be blinded by
floating concepts of freedom and self-determination. The nation is an
instrument of class domination, national rights are determined by the
ruling class and are expressed through the interests of the ruling
class, which are at the expense of the working class. Put simply: "In
class society, the 'nation' as a homogeneous socio-political unit does
not exist." 8
And in a spicy retort to anarchists, she defends the class struggle:
In this case, as in many others, anarchism, the supposed antagonist of
bourgeois liberalism, proved to be its worthy child. Anarchism, with its
characteristic "revolutionary" seriousness, accepted at face value the
phraseology of liberal ideology and, like the latter, showed only
contempt for the historical and social content of the nation-state,
which it defined as nothing more than the embodiment of "freedom," "the
will of the people," and other such empty words. 9
If you prefer this to be expressed in an anarchist vein, we can turn to
Rudolf Rocker in his great book "Nationalism and Culture" (1933) - the
content is basically the same:
It is therefore completely meaningless to speak of a community of
national interests; for what the ruling class in every country has
hitherto defended as a national interest has never been anything other
than the special interest of the privileged minorities in society,
secured by the exploitation and political oppression of the broad
masses. In the same way, the land of the so-called "fatherland" and its
natural resources have always been the property of these classes, so
that one can quite rightly speak of the "fatherland of the rich." If the
nation were really a community of interests, as it is called, then there
would be no revolutions and civil wars in modern history, because the
people do not resort to the weapon of rebellion simply for pleasure-just
as endless wage struggles are not waged because the working classes of
the population are too well off! 10
Class struggle runs through all aspects of the nation-state; it cannot
be postponed in the name of the interests of the ruling class or the
fatherland of the rich. But that is exactly what Price wants. He starts
with clichéd libertarian claims, only to throw them all away:
Anarchists oppose their statist ruling classes. In Ukraine, anarchists
do not support Zelensky's party, do not participate in elections, and do
not provide political support to his government. They oppose the
government's austerity policies and its anti-union laws. They do not
approve of the conscription laws and the bureaucratic army. But they do
not condemn the government and the army for fighting against invasion
and occupation! With that, they can cooperate (while they are too weak
to overthrow the capitalist state).
Who are these anarchists that Price is talking about? No example is
given. For him, "anarchists," as well as "Ukrainians," are a monolithic,
unified mass. These anarchists do not approve of conscription (because
conscription is, by default, slavery), but neither do they condemn the
government and the way it fights (through conscription!). Because they
are too weak, these anarchists would and do renounce their anarchism in
order to submit to the "capitalist state" that will claim their bodies
and send them to fight in its "bureaucratic army" that they do not
approve of. Because they are too weak to fight the state, they must
renounce all class warfare and submit to the state's war for survival.
As if that would increase their capacity for class struggle! Instead, it
is much more likely to land them dead in a ditch. But even dead in the
ditch, they would supposedly have retained their principles of
non-cooperation with the state, as long as they still condemned it. In
the words of Wayne Price: "I would prefer revolutionary
internationalism." But... the nation comes first.
At the end of his text, Price reproaches me for not raising the standard
of anarchist revolution. He even accuses me of pacifism. What a
humiliation! Frankly, I would rather be a pacifist, committed to
creative libertarian forces, than someone who advocates the slaughter of
working-class men in a foreign country in defense of land and nation,
all the while hiding behind a computer screen. As things stand, we class
struggle anarchists are not pacifists, but anti-militarists and
internationalists. We understand the state as a mechanism of nationalist
command and control that claims a monopoly on violence and asserts the
justice of its wars and its monopoly on killing machines (from tanks to
nuclear weapons). We do not issue brave and manly calls for the
slaughter of our working-class brothers and sisters. In fact, we see
this as hopelessly compromised. We see how all politicians, all nation
states and media and their little NATO cronies are competing to call for
hatred and industrial murder. We see the racket that is the production
and trade of weapons, as well as the revolving doors of the
military-industrial-political-media complex. We see the global system of
imperial domination and economic exploitation by Western countries, i.e.
the NATO bloc. We see how our countries are firmly adapted for armed
domination, war and genocide. We know the history of NATO wars and US
crimes and we are working against them. We understand very well that a
strengthened country that is involved in a war abroad will turn its
attention to us domestically at the first opportunity.
To speak of armed revolution when our numbers are small, when our
movement is divided by identity politics, separated from the mass of the
working class, and separated from support for statist, nationalist
projects like the Ukrainian one, would be indecent. Moreover, it seems
that Price can only think of revolution as an armed uprising, a
Maidan-like coup, which is why he cannot understand that anti-militarism
is one of the pillars of social revolution, that undermining state
control and disarming it is what anarchists work for. Until militarism
is weakened, discredited, and dismantled, the suffocating pressure of
the state and the nation on the working class and its liberating forces
will continue. For Price, anti-militarism is an interesting pursuit,
perhaps a page in history, perhaps even outside the realm of
revolutionary activity. For us, it is one of the main pillars of the
liberation of the working class, because, as Rudolf Rocker says:
War not only has a pernicious effect on human nature as a whole by the
constant appeal to its most brutal and cruel motives, but the military
discipline which it demands ultimately stifles every freedom-loving
movement among men, and then systematically breeds the humiliating
cruelty of blind obedience, which has always been the father of all
reaction. 11
Dreams of Ukrainian independence
The above-quoted passage from Price about cooperation with the
government and the military is the clearest expression of the position
of "protectionism," according to which the nation comes first, and the
libertarian struggle comes second. And since the nation-i.e., the
Ukrainian ruling class-has allied itself with NATO, 12 this is also a
NATO-political protectionism. In his response, Price is embarrassed by
my calling him a NATO-political, which surprises me. He openly advocates
an alliance with NATO against Russia. Perhaps "tactical NATO-political"
would suit him and his taste for paradox better? Strategically
anti-imperialist and libertarian, but tactically a NATO spy.
In the spring 2023 issue of Black Flag, Price writes: "The fact that
they are taking arms from Western governments does not mean much - they
need arms, and where else are they going to get them?" In the autumn
2024 issue of Black Flag: "Is NATO's involvement so great that it cannot
be assumed that Ukrainians are fighting for their country?" In typically
misleading language, Price speaks of "Ukrainians" rather than the
Ukrainian state, and of "weapons" rather than the overall training,
logistics, and target command of NATO. In this childish world,
"Ukrainian independence" is a concept of some value. What is this
independence? The one that was denied when Boris Johnson was sent to
tear up the Istanbul Accords in the spring of 2022? The one that sees
NATO deciding when and where Ukraine should launch its disastrous
offensives, for example in the summer of 2023? The one that makes
Ukrainian women fill German brothels? 13 What I see is the brutal
exploitation of a people in the service of NATO interests and the
purpose of bleeding Russia dry, and ideally, regime change and
Balkanization of Russia. And their ultimate exploitation is the cynical
use of the country and its resources as a NATO puppet. Here, for once,
Wayne Price and I agree:
Ukrainians, not Americans, Germans, or French, are fighting and dying.
For them, this is not a "puppet war."
And therein lies the tragedy: they are cheap meat that the American and
European ruling class uses to fight Russia. For keyboard warrior Wayne
Price, giving your life is priceless. And since you are fighting in a
real army, for a real country, this supposedly means that your death can
never be in the interest of your ruling class and country, which is a
client state of the American empire. Everything is clear in this azure sky.
It is also clear to Ukrainian Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov, who
openly says that his country is a NATO puppet. He mused about how
Ukraine defends "the entire West" and how Russia is seen as the biggest
threat to NATO:
Today Ukraine is fighting this threat. Today we are fulfilling NATO's
mission without shedding their blood. We are shedding our blood, so we
expect them to provide weapons. 14
This is the Ukrainian ruling class. Here is an excerpt from the British
one, from the mouth of the Prime Minister who torpedoed the peace talks
in the spring of 2022 and who welcomes Ukrainian Nazis into the English
Parliament - Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson:
Friend, let's face it. We are fighting a puppet war! 15
Another reason, Price argues, is that this cannot be a puppet war
because it is not an inter-imperial conflict. Why then is the US
deciding whether Ukraine can use long-range weapons to strike Russia?
Why is the entire NATO alliance involved in this war? Hasn't every NATO
war been imperialist? That would be an inconvenient truth, revealing
interests so vast that they cannot be hidden behind the fig leaf of "a
small country's struggle for national self-determination." The final
reason why the war in Ukraine cannot be seen as a puppet conflict is
that in that case Wayne Price and his tactical NATO politicians would
look like useful idiots to the American empire. But sooner or later they
will have to accept reality, as even Jens Stoltenberg, the (then)
Secretary General of NATO, openly speaks of the inter-imperialist
origins of the war. He also confirmed that it was the actions of NATO
(of which Ukraine is not a member) that provoked the Russian invasion.
So much for "Ukrainian independence":
"In the fall of 2021, President Putin stated and actually sent a draft
treaty that he wanted NATO to sign to promise that there would be no
further expansion of NATO," Stoltenberg told a joint committee meeting
of the European Parliament on September 7, 2023. "That's what he sent
us. And that was a precondition for not invading Ukraine[sic]. Of
course, we didn't sign it. He went to war to keep NATO, even more so
than NATO, close to his borders. He got exactly the opposite." 16
This is the case, and therein lie the prerequisites for the end of the
war or for a fatal escalation. The question of NATO is far from a
question of a few weapons and supplies, but is at the heart of the
geopolitical and inter-imperialist nature of this conflict. As John
Mearsheimer correctly analyzed the moment after Maidan in 2015, it has
always been an inter-imperialist competition:
"The West is leading Ukraine to a dead end, and the end result is that
Ukraine will be destroyed." 17
That was ten years ago - currently Wayne Price and his tactical
natopolitans have no basis or justification for the views they hold.
The bitter pills
Because Price is so deeply committed to NATO, he cannot accept the
responsibility of the Zelensky regime and the Ukrainian state for the
deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian conscripts. For Price, it
is very simple: the Russians who invade kill them, and they are to blame
- any recognition of the Ukrainian state's role in the slaughter of the
Ukrainian working class betrays what he calls an "imperialist mindset."
But let's see how a local anarchist group describes this regime that
Wayne Price works for. In its circular of November 11, 2024, the
Kharkiv-based anarchist group Assembly calls it "the agonizing
dictatorship in Ukraine." They report graffiti from the city of
Zaporizhia: "Zelensky is an executioner . " 18 Far from imperialist
thinking, this is the thinking of class struggle. And this is not
support for interstate and interimperial war, which is statist,
militarist, nationalist, and imperialist.
To his credit, Wayne Price acknowledges the positioning of the Ukrainian
state: "The Ukrainian state leans towards Western imperialism as opposed
to Russian imperialism." 19 But this is to be expected, Price writes,
after centuries of Russian domination. And like the question of
cooperation with the government and the state army, for Price it is a
necessary evil: one finds oneself in a state army that is part of an
imperialist bloc, such is life, we must fight "for national
self-determination." Nothing prevents us (abracadabra!) from declaring
that as anarchists we oppose imperialism and "our statist ruling
classes." But these statements are rendered meaningless by our actions.
There is no greater support for your "statist ruling class" and
imperialism than to offer your body and life for it. And there is no
greater hypocrisy than Wayne Price calling for someone else to die in
your place.
The conservative estimate of the capitalist press is 500,000 Ukrainians
dead, maimed, and missing. 20 The reality is surely much higher for
anyone who has been following the front lines. Since February 2022,
three Ukrainian armies have been destroyed by the Russians. This is why
young Ukrainian men are being pressed by Zelensky's gunmen in a
desperate attempt to send another 160,000 to their deaths (this is the
target figure they published in November 2024). Ukrainian soldiers are
among the oldest in the world, with an average age of 43 in November
2023, 10 years older than in March 2022. A battalion commander from the
65th Brigade says:
They send me guys over 50 with doctors' notes saying they're too sick to
serve. Sometimes I feel like I'm running a kindergarten, not a fighting
unit. 21
In the first 10 months of 2024, 60,000 desertion cases were filed in the
courts - the total is certainly higher. 22 Poorly trained soldiers are
abandoned in undefendable positions, such as Ugledar. Here is what one
soldier who deserted from the 123rd Brigade says: "Nobody needs Ugledar
." The city was reduced to rubble more than a year ago, and he is
convinced that there is no need to leave Ukrainian soldiers there. He
blames the Ukrainian army: "They just kill them instead of letting them
recover and rest ." But this is not enough, the masters of Ukraine
(Wayne Price's spiritual leaders) are demanding that the client state
lower the age of conscription to 18. 23 Even those "unfit" for health
reasons will no longer be excluded from military registration and will
remain on the register. 24 If you have a pulse, you are capable of
offering your life for the nation.
And because Price lives deep in NATO, he cannot understand that the war
being waged by Russia is an offensive one. 25 That is why he claims that
the war is "at best stagnant." Apparent small movements on the front
line are interpreted as a stalemate. But the Russian army follows the
postulates of Clausewitz, who advocates the destruction of armies, not
the conquest of territories:
What do we mean by defeat of the enemy? The mere destruction of his
forces, whether by death, wounding, or otherwise-either completely or
sufficiently to make him cease fighting... The complete or partial
destruction of the enemy must be regarded as the sole object of all
military action... The direct destruction of the enemy's forces must
always be the dominant consideration. 26
That is why the Russians are pursuing a strategy of driving the
Ukrainians into cauldrons and hearths with devastating effect. The
killing field near Robotino, also known as Bradley Square, and the
completely impenetrable Surovikin Line. Bakhmut. Ugledar. Chasiv Yar.
Avdiivka. Kursk. For 1,000 days, the Russians destroyed countless
Ukrainian men and NATO machines because they knew that the imperial
masters of Ukraine and cheerleaders like Wayne Price were pushing them
forward against the odds to prove they were a viable client and to
demonstrate the investment made in them by reclaiming their territories.
Price objects to me quoting Noam Chomsky because he is a "philosophical
anarchist" who does not believe in or propose a strategy for anarchist
revolution. Wayne Price's strategy for anarchist revolution is to give
up (temporarily!) your autonomy and enlist in the NATO puppet army.
Chomsky, on the other hand, understands that adding fuel to the fire of
inter-imperial conflict under the banner of "fighting to the last
Ukrainian" is a disaster for any kind of libertarian movement or social
revolution there. Chomsky is also aware of the detrimental effect of
silencing anti-militarist and anti-imperial voices in our imperial NATO
countries. 27 Of course, Chomsky is a threat to Price's worldview,
because for Price the ultimate goal of (global) anarchist revolution, as
well as the total danger of (Russian) fascism, are used to justify
whatever he wants: military conscription, imperialism, nationalism.
Summary
In conclusion, let us summarize the position of tactical natopolitists.
It is based on:
denial of the origins of the war (NATO expansion),
denial of the nature of war (puppet war), and therefore
denial of US/NATO imperialism, which is supported by
the denial of the supremacy of the class struggle,
under the banner of national defense as the supreme instrument for the
protection of peoples, communities and individuals.
Our position as class struggle anarchists is that this is an
inter-imperial conflict in which the working class is being slaughtered,
exploited and lied to. Nothing can be gained for the working class or
for the cause of libertarian revolution by allying ourselves with any of
the states or imperial blocs. Such an alliance only weakens our cause
and forces and fatally compromises anarchism.
Finally, we must resolutely and completely abandon the idea that the
nation is the best vehicle for self-determination and liberation. There
is a wealth of traditions, experiences, institutions, communities,
languages, and cultures that exist outside and despite the nation and
the state. This is our libertarian heritage. This is where the
wellsprings of anarchy come from. We must be guided by them, not by the
sirens of belligerent hypocrites and imperialist ultras like Wayne Price.
Notes at
https://www.anarchy.bg/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
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