Anarchism and war

Among leftist pacifists, it is widely believed that those Ukrainian anarchists who took an anti-Russian position, had made their choice under the influence of state or nationalist propaganda. Allegedly, life in an aggressive, authoritarian environment, broke their will and forced them to obey. I would like to stop this nonsense, because the anarchists came to the anti-Russian position not because of, but in spite of propaganda.

The authority shout like on bullhorn that Russia violated treacherously our sovereignty. Are state borders an argument for those who profess anarchist views, after all? Absolutely not. The state and its jurisdiction is not a value, and the more this state comes to freedom, the more resistance it deserves. In the current conflict, the Russian state is the more terrible enemy of freedom, and therefore, logic and common sense force to oppose it, first of all.

Nationalists (far-right, ethnic, integral) told that now «vile katsaps» exercise power over the native Ukrainian lands. But this could not be an argument. What the hell are «native lands»? Crimea is the native land of the Crimean Tatars, but is this an argument to overlook? Never.

The argument for the anarchists was that the state and nationalist propaganda hadn’t been saying about from the very beginning, and it basically hadn’t known about. The occupation of the Crimea brought for the millions of local residents a police state, that strangled civil and political rights, started demonstrative and non-compulsory repressions against those who did not want this. With the arrival of the Russian punitive system in Crimea, arrests and unimaginable prison terms for pro-Ukrainian activists took place, banning the Crimean Tatars’ national representation — the Mejlis as a «terrorist organization», abductions, searches, pressure and intimidation of dozens of activists of the national movement and their families. For hundreds — thousands of indigenous people of the Crimea, who have suffered from oppression and genocide for the last hundred years, discrimination became a reality again. Bans and restrictions, not only in politics, but even in national culture, leapt with renewed vigor.

The state began to talk about the persecution of the Crimean Tatars only when society was tired of screaming about. As for the nationalists, they do not dwell on such things much, even now. They do not care about freedom in the Crimea, much less about the fate of the Crimean Tatars. Units of the nationalists speak about these things out loud, but hundreds of others turn their noses up, trying to come up with something more suitable to justify the domination of Ukraine over the Crimea. The Crimean Tatar people are not profitable for them — they need the Ukrainian Crimea, and not the Crimean Tatar. They don’t say a word about freedom in Crimea. What for? Freedom is not their cup of tea.

When Russian agents and mercenaries invaded Donbas, state and nationalist propaganda did not say anything about the actual power of the military, the neglect of human rights, the power of the church and the fascist gangs prosperity, the outbreak of crimes motivated by national and religious intolerance. Of course, the state and nationalists spoke out about crimes against the whole Ukrainian state, but this is only a small part of the violence that took place in the occupied Donbas.

My comrades and I adress triumph of fascism in the so-called people’s republics directly, we blow the lid off the lies and conspiracies of pseudo-left movements that spread the news about the «anti-fascist» and «workers’» uprising of the Donbas against the «junta» far and wide. Subsequently, the process of ending the «people’s republics» support by the left from around the world began.

Due to the circumstances, the anarchists were not only permissible, but it was also necessary to join the ranks of the armed formations. Not to «defend the territorial integrity», «take revenge» or «cut Russians», but in order to protect the freedom that remained in Ukraine, and return it to where it was expelled by the aggressors.

In the struggle against dictatorship and political terror that Russia establishes in the occupied parts of Ukraine, the anarchists’ goals correlate to the state’s and nationalists’. After this, they go their separate ways. We need a free and wealthy Ukraine without corruption-bureaucratic authority or power of the rich. The state needs clear control over public life and the uninterrupted possibility of criminal enrichment for its functionaries, as the Russian regime arranged on its territory. Nationalists want the triumph of the Ukrainian nation by Russia prescription that were also implemented there — with the power of the church, the racist gangs’ impunity, the persecution of dissent and repressions of the political opponents.

Thus, to continue talking about the fact that «anarchists were led around to propaganda» is a lie. Anarchists have their own agenda and have strong opposition to the disgrace that the state is making or the far-right is offering. But while the goals of both states and nationalists have remained dreams, Russia’s goals have already been translated into reality and tied around our neck.

It doesn’t matter how much we hate being in the same field with our natural enemies within the country, how much we argue or fight against them, our desires aren’t important here. There is a real threat that we will all gone, if the Russian state and its nationalists enter our cities. We will be destroyed under the Russian opposition tacit consent and the restrained protest of the Western countries community.

Anyone who believes that anarchists cannot take up arms in the face of threats: a police prison country and the complete extermination of dissent — is deeply mistaken. Anyone who promotes pacifism, the end of resistance and prevents the struggle against totalitarian occupation, — by his actions, endangers the other people’s lives. Well, those who trumpet about «anarcho-nationalists» who «supported the fascist Ukrainian state» are the enemies who deserve punishment.

If anyone cares about freedom in Ukraine — leave it with its speculations about ideological purity and don’t interfere, do something useful. No one will send the Pacifists to the front. Mobilization hasn’t got so many tools to get those who, for ideological reasons, don’t want to fight. Well, if you don’t live in Ukraine, just forget about this country. Internationalism, to which you can relate, is the equal cooperation of people in solving common problems, and not the privilege for somebody to poke their nose into the others people’s business.