The 13th Congress of the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA-IAF) was held in Athens over the weekend of 3-5 April 2026, hosted by the Anarchist Political Organization - Federation of Collectives - APO). The other participating federations were the Italian Anarchist Federation (FAIt, Italy), the French-speaking Anarchist Federation (FA), the Sicilian Anarchist Federation (FAS, Sicily), the Argentine Libertarian Federation (FLA), the Federation for Anarchist Organization, FAO, Slovenia and Croatia, FACB, the Federation of Anarchists-Communists in Bulgaria, and the Anarchist Federation (AF, Great Britain). Observers included guests from Brazil (Aurora Negra and Terre Livre) and Serbia (Klasna Solidarnost). Members of the federations and associated groups from Mexico, Brazil, the Czechoslovak Federation, the German-speaking Federation, and the Kurdish Anarchist Forum did not participate, the latter due to concerns about the situation in the Middle East. Cuban comrades were also invited, but contact with them became increasingly difficult due to the economic blockade. To ensure the smooth running of the congress, it was held in a single location, the Lelas Karagianni 37 (LK37) squat.
The IFA Congress is held every three or four years; between Congresses, intermediate delegate meetings (CRIFA) are held. These meetings serve to maintain contact between the federations and plan agendas and activities, as well as develop documents for discussion and consensus. The IFA's decision-making process is organized such that the federations initially propose agenda items and then develop their own documents and positions on those topics to present to the congress.
The Athens congress was structured with plenary sessions attended by all federations, for example, on the topic of anarchist perspectives on global uprisings (such as the uprisings in Iran, in some areas of the Mediterranean, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Nepal). Additionally, the federations participating in the congress co-organized a series of workshops on the following topics: Sudan, far-right extremism, struggles in education, the environment, patriarchy and gender-based violence, and the digital sphere (online materials and cybersecurity). Administrative aspects of the IFA were also discussed.
The first plenary session, entitled "Against the Modern Totalitarianism of the State, Capitalism, and War," offered an exchange of perspectives on antimilitarism. Topics covered included opposition to NATO air bases or aircraft (Italy, Sicily, Crete) and NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, the reintroduction of compulsory military service (Croatia, France), state repression of Palestine solidarity activities (such as the anti-terrorism law used against Palestine Action in the United Kingdom), and increased military spending, including dual-use investments such as the expansion of airports, seaports, or rail networks in which workers could intervene.
Both the Italian and Greek federations developed detailed positions on gender struggles, with documents approved by their respective federations containing insights into systemic gender violence (APO) and transfeminism (FAIt). The APO focused on patriarchal violence. The APO highlighted attacks on abortion rights in the United States and the systematic use of gender-based violence as a weapon of war in Sudan and Palestine, as well as, similarly to what is happening in Italy, nationalists' appeal to "female nature" to assert the role of motherhood in the national interest.
The session "The Rise of the Far Right and the Anti-Fascist Response" was presented by the AF and the FA. The AF used the context of the rise of Reform UK to discuss the cultural aspects of far-right ideologies and activities. While in some countries it is often possible to appeal to history, in Brazil, Bulgaria, and Serbia the threat of neo-Nazi street violence remains a grave danger today.
The session on education provided an important opportunity to understand the changes underway in Greece, where private partnership models are gaining ground in secondary schools and where teachers who oppose privatization and the growing use of intensive assessments of students of all ages face persecution. There has also been an increase in threats to anarchist organizing in universities.
The session on "The Plundering of Nature," presented by APO, focused on the political, cultural, and social issues related to the climate crisis and the plundering of nature and local communities by the state and capital. Clear connections were made to antimilitarism in relation to protests against infrastructure development. At the end of the weekend, the 13th IFA Congress produced a joint declaration entitled "Against the Global Dictatorship of the State and Capitalism, Against War and Fascism," which focused on antimilitarism, during the plenary session. A declaration of solidarity with Cuban anarchists was also drafted. There was great applause when Klasna Solidarnost (a collective from Serbia) announced its intention to apply to join the IFA as an associate group (a status reserved for groups intending to evolve into a federation). A location for the next congress was proposed, and the FA has agreed to assume the role of Secretariat, following the excellent work FAO has done in recent years.
A program was agreed upon to organize an international meeting in a Mediterranean location, as well as a forthcoming issue of the IFA magazine on antimilitarist perspectives, for which IFA member federations will submit articles. Following the information session on Sudan held by the FAS and the FA during the Congress, a new solidarity poster highlighting Sudan's anarchist struggles was unveiled.
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/wp-content/uploads/maggio-2026_compressed.pdf
_________________________________________
Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten