https://cnt-ait.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/2024-08-SOUDAN-solidarity-info-en.pdf
---- The FAI participated in the international call of the CNT ofToulouse for humanitarian solidarity with the Sudanese anarchist
movement, victim of war and repression by both factions. We raised 3,500
euros that were sent to the promoters of the initiative, who confirmed
to us that the initiative continues until "all the comrades are safe"
---- https://cnt-ait.info/2024/08/20/soudan-continue ---- We translate
below an interview with a comrade from Sudan that presents important
information.
The person in charge
QUESTION: Hello friend! I am X., from the CNT AIT, I would like to thank
you very much for taking the time to answer these questions. First of
all I hope you are safe. Rest assured that you have our full support. We
would be interested to know a little more based on your personal
experience, so we have prepared a list of questions.
ANSWER: Hello comrades! Revolutionary greetings from the comrades in
Sudan to the CNT-AIT and the AIT, and to all those who support us in
France and elsewhere. We thank you for your support and interest in the
issues of Sudan, the revolution, the war and our anarchist activity. We
are also happy to pass on our experience, share our daily struggle with
you and exchange views
QUESTION: First I would like to ask you a few questions about your
anarchist group in Sudan.
How long has your group been organized? Was your group created during
the last revolution or before? Did you personally participate in the
creation of this group or did you join? Do you have an official name for
your group?
ANSWER: The formation of our group started in April 2017, before the
December[2018]revolution, and I personally participated in its
formation. It was a small group of 5 individuals. The name of the group
is Anarchist Federation.
QUESTION: There seem to have been very few examples of anarchist
organizations in African countries, could you tell us how you and other
members of your movement became familiar with anarchist ideas? Was
anarchism rooted in previous social movements and revolutions in Sudan?
What were the other forms of socialist ideas in previous social movements?
ANSWER: Yes, anarchist movements in Africa are not very widespread. As
for Sudan, there were no anarchist organizations or groups before. Most
of Sudan can be self-administered, but authoritarian ideas rule the
state, tribe, military and religious system. This is what makes the
anti-regime social movement complex. We have acquired our revolutionary
awareness and knowledge of anarchism through our self-education and
knowledge of social movements in the world, and the injustice that was
inflicted on us has mainly contributed to the adoption of anarchist
ideas. The socialist ideas present in Sudan contribute directly or
indirectly to sustaining and consolidating power, such as Marxist
communist ideas and the ideas of the neoliberal armed
movements[guerrillas other than the RSP and the official army, Ed.],
with their continuous search for positions in the state and even their
demolition of the social movement.
QUESTION: Could you tell us about the social composition of your group,
were you mostly students or were there workers? I know that women played
a big part in the revolutionary movement, were there many women in your
group? Was it a mostly urban group or did people also come from rural areas?
ANSWER: Our group was initially composed of students, as students are
the spearhead in the movement for social change and the December
Revolution. After the formation of our groups and their spread to
different universities in different states of Sudan, we were able to
participate and form groups through comrades in their areas of residence
in cities and rural areas, and to form groups outside the student
community in different areas of Sudan. Women are an essential part of
the formation of our groups in universities and also in rural areas and
cities. Women constitute more than 60% of the composition of our groups.
QUESTION: If possible, could you tell us how many members you had in
your groups, after the movement spread to different universities and
different parts of the country?
ANSWER: The number of members of the group was estimated to be more than
60 comrades at the beginning, now the number has increased, but there is
no precise count due to the loss of contact with many comrades.
QUESTION: Could you tell us about the activities that the anarchist
group has been able to carry out in recent years? How have people
reacted to the spread of your ideas?
ANSWER: One of the most important activities that we carried out in 2017
and 2018 was to call on young people and students to overthrow the
regime, break the barrier of fear and unite to overthrow the dictatorial
government of Bashir. We organized activities in universities and
seminars against the regime and began to organize spontaneous marches
that brought together all Sudanese. This cost us the loss of comrade Abu
Al-Rish, comrade Qusay and comrade Mudawi. After the fall of the regime
of Omar Al-Bashir, we called for the continuation of the struggle to
overthrow the military regime in Sudan, and the abdication of General
Ibn Auf came quickly due to the terrible pressure of the people on
power. The brutal repression was strong against us and we were subjected
to arrests, floggings, abuses and death threats. But this did not make
us give up our cause and our fight against the authorities. We called a
sit-in at the General Command, which represented a small
self-administration community where the greatness of anarchist ideas was
evident. It was a living example of the self-administration of Sudan, as
it included millions of Sudanese from all states. The dictatorial
authority sensed the danger in this and carried out a massacre that
dispersed the sit-in, to which the political force contributed greatly
and facilitated this horrible massacre in which more than 700 unarmed
civilian revolutionaries died. Many of the revolutionaries still suffer
from psychological problems due to the horror of the killings they saw.
They were beaten and insulted in a horrible way. This also did not break
us, but rather made us more determined and convinced of the importance
of the fall of this brutal and murderous regime. So we started forming
resistance committees in the neighborhoods, gathering revolutionaries in
organized groups and unifying the banner of struggle. The brutality,
killing and violent repression of the marches were an intrinsic feature
of each march. We knew that we could pay a price for this with our
lives, but we were going in search of a social revolution.
QUESTION: The resistance committees seemed to organize themselves in a
very interesting and very anarchist way, can you describe them to us?
How did you and your group get to participate in these committees?
ANSWER: We are continuously participating in resistance committees,
which are groups of revolutionaries in the neighborhoods and regions of
Sudan. The resistance committees make decisions collectively for each
committee.
QUESTION: The general understanding I had of the social movement of the
last years in Sudan, especially after the military coup in October 2021,
is that people strongly rejected the army and the authority militias,
the political parties and the official unions and elites both from Sudan
and foreign countries, and wanted to build a society from the bottom up,
developing a strong sense of social solidarity and self-organization on
a daily basis, which I found very encouraging and rooted in a
perspective of class struggle and direct democracy.
However, the main political goal, as described in the "people's power
charter", is still the creation of a government and a state, even if
democratic - which is undoubtedly better than war and military or
religious dictatorship - and therefore seemed a bit contradictory to the
achievements of everyday popular self-organization developed in the
resistance committees from my anarcho-syndicalist point of view. Can you
comment on this point?
ANSWER: It is important to know that the liberation struggle involves a
lot of persistent and patient work that is not achieved overnight. We
see that what the consciousness of the youth, revolutionaries and
society in Sudan has achieved is a turning point in the revolution. What
the Revolutionary Charter proposes to establish the authority of the
people is what the resistance committees agree on, and they are not
trade union bodies or professional bodies, but rather groups of
revolutionaries who differ in their orientations on the management of
the country or on the organization. What we need now, and what we are
working on, is to preserve the unity of this force from the catastrophe
of the civil war that is tearing the social fabric apart. Of course,
self-administration is the point that we can easily raise, and this is
considered one of the advantages of the revolution, but to implement it
now in light of this catastrophic situation is very complicated.
QUESTION: The war has been going on for more than a year, can you tell
us how you managed to get through this last year, and if you were able
to maintain some of your political activities during those difficult times?
ANSWER: The outbreak of the war in Sudan directly affected our
organization, as all the comrades from Khartoum, Madani and El Fasher
fled to different cities and outside Sudan, and the suspension of
universities, damage to infrastructure, farmers, unions and the internet
made it difficult to communicate with comrades. We lost comrade Sarah
and comrade Omar Habbash, and we lost an ambulance that we had in
Zamzam, the camp for displaced people in El Fasher for transporting
patients. It has been a disastrous year, with terrorism everywhere,
arbitrary arrests and liquidations by the army ..., and ethnic-based
killings on both sides.
QUESTION: Can you tell us about the current situation in Sudan?
ANSWER: The situation in Sudan is catastrophic. More than 25 million
have been displaced and education has been disrupted for more than 15
million children. More than 4,000 thousand civilians have been killed,
and although the numbers are imprecise, famine has set in. There are no
life-saving drugs, there is no work and more than 70% of hospitals are
not functioning. The situation is horribly dire.
QUESTION: I understand that some of your comrades have had to leave
Sudan recently. Are you able to stay in touch with them? Do you have any
prospects of continuing your organization remotely?
ANSWER: Yes, we are in contact with most of our comrades abroad. We have
a plan to run the organization remotely and manage its activities.
QUESTION: To what extent is it possible to maintain anarchist positions
during the civil war?
ANSWER: Maintaining the anarchist group in Sudan is possible, but it is
not easy, and this is an additional burden now in light of the war and
the displacement of most of the comrades out of Sudan.
QUESTION: During the uprising in Egypt, anarchists had founded a
newspaper. Although they were all atheists, they did not criticize Islam
in their writings, it was almost impossible. How is it in Sudan?
ANSWER: Regarding criticism of Islam in Sudan, it is very widespread
among the revolutionary youth. The revolution took place against the
Muslim Brotherhood regime and their extremist, authoritarian and
reactionary ideas, it was a turning point in the awareness of young
people towards religion itself.
QUESTION: Regarding the distribution of medicines and activities for
children, we would like to know in which area, in which city or even in
which neighborhood do you carry out your humanitarian actions? Does your
anarchist group organize such actions or do you participate in the
actions of other groups?
Do you participate as individuals or as an anarchist collective?
ANSWER: At the beginning of the war, we distributed meals in the
reception centers in Dongola, Atbara and Khartoum in the locality of
Karari. As for medicines, they are distributed according to the needs of
the displaced people in the reception centers, in collaboration with the
Al-Hawadith Street Initiative, medical supplies and sometimes with the
Sudanese Red Crescent. As for infant formula and sanitary napkins for
women, we conducted the inventory and distributed it to 8 centers in
Al-Damer and Atbara, and 5 centers in Dongola, and now we are
distributing in the locality of Al-Dabba, where thousands of displaced
people fleeing El-Fasher have taken refuge. In our anarchist group, we
have several comrades who work in the health professions who have been
instrumental in providing medical supplies. We distribute it through our
group most of the time, and we also collaborate with anyone who
contributes to solving the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, individuals and
sometimes organizations. At the beginning of the war in Sudan, I told
our group to volunteer in hospitals and emergency centers in the
locality closest to our comrades.
QUESTION: In the "Sudanese anarchist forum" some of the Sudanese exiles
we help saw that in July 2022 you shared a piece about the "Forces of
Freedom and Change". Is the "Sudanese anarchist forum" your group's
page? How does it work: can anyone publish what they want or are the
articles that are published moderated or sanctioned? What do you think
about the Forces of Freedom and Change? More generally, what do you
think about the Rapid Support Forces and the army? Is it possible to
refuse to support one side or the other, or are you forced to take sides?
ANSWER: As for our group, it does not have an official platform, as we
avoid propaganda work in this critical political situation, and we do
not have an online platform. The only way to contact us is via email.
The "Forces of Freedom and Change" is a Sudanese political body that has
its own conflicts and has no authority over the state. The war is now
led by two army generals. We do not support any side in the war; on the
contrary, we are in favor of its immediate cessation.
We strongly condemn the massacres committed by the Rapid Support Forces
and the army against innocent citizens, and we do not support any of
them. What we want is the end of the war, and peace ... Long live peace,
not wars!
https://umanitanova.org/viva-la-pace-non-le-guerre-intervista-a-un-compagno-anarchico-sudanese/
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