Revolutionary Youth Movement of Syria Addresses Ongoing Conflict With the Regime

“We will fight against the murderous regime for a free life of all Syrians”

“The identity of youth is an identity that rebels against injustice, injustice and oppression and is always in the midst of struggle against them. Throughout history, youth have led struggles against all systems with a dominant mentality and a slave mentality. The most recent and notable examples of this are the Vietnam War, the Arab Spring and the revolution led by women and youth in North- and Eastern Syria.

When the youth’s reflexes against the current massacres emerged, it was without distinction of race, nationality, religion, language and belief. When ISIS gangs attacked Kobanê, thousands of young people from different nations from all over the world came to Kobanê to put an end to this oppression. We see that such a spirit is preserved and lived in this region, dozens of young people from different nations and beliefs continue their resistance in Tishreen. This existing spirit should be even more widespread and grow today and spread to all regions of the Middle East, especially Syria.

Jolani who after the fall of the Baath regime came to power in Damascus, does not accept any color in Syria. He makes decisions about women and kills thousands of people from the Alawite sect. It destroys Christian cemeteries. Syria, which is a place of wealth, color, historical heritage and dozens of beliefs, is drying up and heading towards destruction. HTS wants to establish its own Sharia order by creating fear and terror in society. It aims to remove women from the public sphere, eliminate differences and silence those who want a free life.

Of course, the system that is being created is also a major attack on the Democratic Confederalism System that is currently being developed in North- and East Syria. The system that is tried being created now is a system of slavery, a system that is far from science, culture, history, art and philosophy and is lived only through blood and terror.

However, Kurds, Arabs, Armenians and Syriacs have lived together on these lands for centuries. The wealth of these lands has been strengthened and found itself through the existence and unity of these peoples. The unity of the people and the power of the youth, who fought ten years ago and did not surrender Kobanê to this poisonous ISIS mentality, will set an example for the whole of Syria today. Thousands of martyrs were sacrificed for these values. Young men and women fought heroically on the front lines to defend themselves and the existence of these peoples.

Making women and young people, who are the foundation of building society, objects and slaves means enslaving society. On this basis, as the Revolutionary Youth Movement, we will never accept a government that is not elected by the will of the people and does not include the people. Therefore, we declare that we will not accept the temporary Syrian government that includes Jolani and the leaders of the murderous gangs and we will fight against it in every field. We promise that we will not remain silent, we will resist, we will work and struggle in every field until a democratic and equal Syria is established. The truth of HTS and ISIS will be defeated again by the truth of women and youth, so we will resist until the end, protecting the values ​​of the martyrs.

As the Revolutionary Youth Movement, we stand with the faiths and religions of Alawites, Druze, Christians and many other identities who are facing these practices. We say, “Long live the struggle for a free and democratic life of unity for all peoples.”

Revolutionary Youth Movement of Syria
05.02.2025

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=16767

Manufacturing Rebels: How the UK and US Empowered HTS

On 18 December, The Telegraph published an extraordinary investigation into how the UK and US trained and “prepared” fighters in the Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA), a “rebel” force that collaborated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in the mass offensive toppling of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad weeks earlier. 

In an unprecedented disclosure, the outlet revealed that Washington not only “knew about the offensive” well in advance, but also had “precise intelligence about its scale.” Washington’s now-confirmed “effective alliance” with HTS was described as “one of many ironies” emerging from the decade-and-a-half-long proxy war.

The Telegraph suggested this collaboration was inadvertent – simply a symptom of how Syria’s grinding, protracted civil war gave birth to “a bewildering array of militias and alliances, most of them backed by foreign powers.” 

US support of HTS: A ‘necessary’ alliance 

Alliances were fluid, with groups often splintering, merging, and shifting allegiances. Fighters frequently found themselves switching sides, blurring lines between factions. Yet, ample evidence indicates the UK and the US maintained deliberate, long-standing ties with the dominant rebels of HTS.

For instance, in March 2021, President-elect Donald Trump’s former lead Syria envoy, James Jeffrey, gave a revealing interview to PBS, during which he disclosed that Washington secured a specific “waiver” from then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo to assist HTS. 

While this did not permit direct funding or arming of the UN/US-designated terrorist organization, the waiver ensured that if US-supplied resources “somehow” ended up with HTS, western actors “[could not] be blamed.” 

The fungibility of weapons on the Syrian battlefield was something Washington counted on heavily. In a 2015 interview, CENTCOM spokesman Lieutenant Commander Kyle Raines was quizzed about why Pentagon-vetted fighters’ weapons were showing up in the hands of the Nusra Front (precursor to HTS). Raines responded: “We don’t ‘command and control’ these forces – we only ‘train and enable’ them. Who they say they’re allying with, that’s their business.”

This legal loophole enabled Washington to “indirectly” support HTS, ensuring the group did not collapse while maintaining its designation as a terrorist organization – a status complete with a now-rescinded $10 million bounty on leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who now goes by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa. 

Jeffrey rationalized this strategy, calling HTS “the least bad option” for preserving “a US-managed security system in the region,” and thus worth “[leaving] alone.” HTS’s dominance, in turn, gave Turkiye a platform to operate in Idlib. Meanwhile, HTS sent unmistakable messages to their US patrons, pleading:

“We want to be your friend. We’re not terrorists. We’re just fighting Assad.”

‘Safe haven’

Since Assad’s fall, officials in London have markedly taken the lead in legitimizing the HTS-led interim administration as Syria’s new government. The group was added to the UK’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations in 2017, its entry stating HTS should be considered among “alternative names” for the long-banned Al-Qaeda.

While UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer declared it “too early” to rescind the group’s designation, British officials met HTS representatives on 16 December – despite the illegality of such meetings.

This likely signals an impending, highly politicized western rehabilitation of HTS. Throughout Syria’s dirty war, UK intelligence waged extensive psychological operations to promote “moderate rebels,” crafting atrocity propaganda and human-interest stories. 

These efforts were ostensibly aimed at undermining groups like HTS, ISIS, and Al-Qaeda. Yet leaked documents from UK intelligence reveal how HTS remained intertwined with Al-Qaeda post-2016, directly contradicting media narratives.

In other words, throughout the decade-and-a-half-long crisis, HTS was officially considered on par with the most fundamentalist, genocidal elements in the country. 

British documents also make a total mockery of the common refrain that HTS severed all ties with Al-Qaeda in 2016. A 2020 file described how Al-Qaeda “co-exists” with HTS in occupied Syrian territory, using it as a launchpad for transnational attacks. 

The document warned that HTS’s domination created a “safe haven” for Al-Qaeda to train and expand, fueled by instability. British psyops against HTS spanned years but ultimately failed. Instead, leaked files lament HTS’s growing influence, territorial gains, and rebranding as an alternative government.

“[Al-Qaeda] remains an explicitly Salafi-Jihadist transnational group with objectives and targets which extend outside Syria’s borders. [Al-Qaeda’s] priority is to maintain an instability fuelled safe haven in Syria, from which they are able to train and prepare for future expansion. HTS domination of north west Syria provides space for [Al-Qaeda] aligned groups and individuals to exist.”

British-backed propaganda benefiting HTS

British intelligence psyops attempting to hinder HTS were in operation from the group’s founding until recently. Yet, they appear to have achieved nothing. Numerous leaked files reviewed by The Cradle bemoan how HTS’s “influence and territorial control” had “dramatically grown” over the years. 

Its successes allowed the extremist group “to consolidate its position, neutralize opponents, and position itself as a key actor in northern Syria.” But HTS’s “domination” was secured in part by the group rebranding itself as an alternative government.

HTS-occupied territory was home to a variety of parallel service providers and institutions, including hospitals, law enforcement, schools, and courts. The group’s domestic and international propaganda specifically promoted these resources as a demonstration of an “alternative” Syria awaiting rollout across the entire country.

Ironically, many of these structures and organizations – such as the infamous White Helmets, who also operated in ISIS-run territories – were direct products of British intelligence, created for regime change propaganda purposes. Moreover, they were aggressively promoted by London at enormous expense.

Repeated references are made in leaked UK intelligence documents to the importance of “[raising] awareness of moderate opposition service provision,” and providing domestic and international audiences with “compelling narratives and demonstrations of a credible alternative to the [Assad] regime.” There is no consideration evident in the files that these efforts might be assisting HTS greatly in its own efforts to present itself as a “credible alternative” to Assad.

Nonetheless, it is acknowledged that Syrians in occupied territory would accommodate HTS “particularly if [they are] receiving services from it.” Even more eerily, the documents note, “HTS and other extremist armed groups are significantly less likely to attack opposition entities that are receiving support” from the UK government’s Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (CSSF). 

This was the mechanism through which Britain’s Syrian propaganda war and organizations like the White Helmets and extremist-linked Free Syrian Police were financed.

These UK-run governance structures and opposition elements, which were allegedly intended to “undermine” HTS, operated in areas controlled by the group safe from violent reprisals for their foreign-funded work, as they “demonstrably provide key services” to residents of occupied territory.

There is also the darker prospect that HTS was well aware these “opposition entities” were bankrolled by British intelligence, and they were unmolested on that very basis.

Coordinated offensive

As The Telegraph‘s report explains, “the first indication that Washington had prior knowledge” of HTS’s offensive was when its RCA proxies were given a rousing pep talk by their US handlers three weeks prior. 

At a secret meeting at the US-controlled Al-Tanf air base close to the borders of Jordan and Iraq, the militants were told to scale up their forces and “be ready” for an attack that “could lead to the end” of Assad. A quoted RCA captain told the outlet:

“They did not tell us how it would happen. We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.”

This followed US officers at the base, swelling the RCA’s ranks by unifying the group with other UK/US-trained, funded, and directed Sunni desert units and rebel units operating out of Al-Tanf under joint command. 

According to The Telegraph, “RCA and the fighters of HTS … were cooperating, and communication between the two forces was being coordinated by the Americans.” This collaboration proved to be of devastating effect in the “lightning offensive,” with RCA rapidly seizing key territory across the country upon explicit US orders.

RCA even joined forces with another rebel faction in the southern city of Deraa, which reached Damascus before HTS. RCA now occupies roughly one-fifth of the country, pockets of territory in Damascus, and the ancient city of Palmyra. 

Hitherto “heavily defended” by Russia and Hezbollah, Moscow’s local base has now been taken over by RCA. “All members of the force continued to be armed by the US,” receiving salaries of $400 monthly, nearly 12 times what Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers were paid.

It is uncertain whether this direct financing of the RCA and other extremist militias that toppled the Assad government continues today. What is clear, though, is that the UK and US supported HTS from the group’s inception, even if “indirectly.” In turn, this covert backing played a pivotal role in positioning HTS financially, geopolitically, materially, and militarily for its “lightning” swoop on Damascus and assumption of government today.

Reinforcing the interpretation that this was the objective of London and Washington all along, following Assad’s ouster, Starmer promptly declared that the UK would “play a more present and consistent role” in West Asia as a result. 

While western and certain regional capitals may celebrate the apparent success of their lavishly funded, blood-soaked campaign to dismantle decades of Baathism, British intelligence had long cautioned that the outcome would grant Al-Qaeda an even larger “instability-fueled safe haven” for “future expansion.”

source: The Cradle

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=13405

Manbij Ceasefire Goes Into Effect, Counter-Revolution Threatens Rojava

A four-day ceasefire was announced yesterday in Manbij and its countryside between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Turkish-backed “Syrian National Army,” following three days of intense clashes. The truce, reportedly aimed at facilitating political solutions and prisoner exchanges, was confirmed by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army faction, which stated that the agreement seeks to “implement humanitarian and security understandings, including the withdrawal of SDF members and their families from the region.” However, skirmishes continued near Tishreen Dam in northeastern Aleppo, sending a clear Turkish message that the agreement applies only to Manbij, signaling its intent to maintain operations until it secures control over the entire border with Syria.

Meanwhile, the SDF and the Autonomous Administration expressed their readiness for dialogue and to initiate a political transition in the country. SDF Commander Mazloum Abdi reiterated the organization’s willingness to facilitate the return of the tomb of Suleiman Shah to Ain al-Arab. Additionally, the Autonomous Administration announced the adoption of Syria’s new flag across its institutions, reaffirming the region’s integral connection to Syria’s territorial unity. The adoption of this flag after the counter-revolutionary offensive signals increased problems for the Rojava experiment.

According to Al-Akhbar, their sources revealed that a delegation comprising SDF leaders, tribal representatives, and local officials from Al-Hasakah will visit Damascus to discuss the future of northeastern Syria. The delegation plans to advocate for the preservation of the Autonomous Administration as a model for Syria’s administrative and military framework. Meanwhile, US and French diplomats are reportedly mediating talks between Turkey and the SDF to address security concerns, including the management of ISIS prisons and camps in SDF-controlled areas. Turkey, however, is expected to demand that the SDF dissolve itself, sever ties with the PKK, and expel PKK members from Syria in exchange for political representation in the new government.

Internally, the SDF faces mounting challenges threatening its military structure. Protests erupted in several cities in Deir Ezzor, Aleppo, and Al-Hasakah, demanding a transfer of control to the Military Operations Administration. Several high-ranking members of the SDF’s Deir Ezzor Military Council have defected, including its leader, Abu Laith Khasham, who joined the Military Operations Administration, in affiliation with HTS. This marks the fifth defection within the council. Amid these tensions, the SDF’s security arm imposed a curfew across northeastern Syria, citing the need to safeguard public safety.

Furthermore, reports state that a draft of terms was sent to the SDF from the HTS regime. The new state demands that the Syrian government be recognized as the sole authority, that Arab areas are handed over to the military, that PKK cadres are expelled from the country (meaning the dissolution of the YPG and allied revolutionary forces), Arab prisoners are released, border crossings would now be administered by the counter-revolutionary state, and foreign ISIS prisoners be released to the new state.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=13106

West Asian Resistance Factions React to Ongoing Western-Backed Syrian Counter-Revolution

Western-backed Syrian counter-revolutionary forces pushed deeper into Syria today as regional revolutionary and resistance factions process the challenges and prepare for unprecedented difficulties in the near future.

The Syrian army collapsed on multiple fronts as reactionary militias, supported by Turkey, the West and the Zionist regime, began slowly articulating new plans for the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed his state’s collusion in the operation on Friday expressing hope for “a smooth continuation of anti-regime forces’ advance toward Damascus.”

“…Idlib, Hama, Homs, and the target, of course, is Damascus. The opposition’s march continues. Our wish is that this advancement in Syria continues without accidents or disasters,” Erdogan stated to reporters following Friday prayers in Istanbul.

Erdogan also voiced dissatisfaction with Syria’s leadership, saying, “We made a call to (Bashar al) Assad. We said: ‘Come, let’s determine the future of Syria together.’ Unfortunately, we did not receive a positive response to this.”

This operation was launched the next day, after the ceasefire in Lebanon, demonstrating a level of collusion between the Turkish and Zionist regime that has shocked many considering Erdogan’s public, and hypocritcal stance on Gaza.

Furthermore, Turkey has been sleepwalking through a tremendmous defeat to PKK and HBDH guerrillas in the Medya Defense Zones in Iraqi Kurdistan. While trying to find an exit, it seems the Turkish state opted for a more extreme escalation, attempting to bury Kurdistan and Palestine in one step.

PKK-KCK member Sabri Ok stated, “The Turkish state is always looking for an opportunity. It is calculating how to make its plans for Syria succeed. The Turkish state has supported tens of thousands of ISIS gang members and mercenaries and their versions in Idlib, on Syrian soil. Most HTS are essentially ISIS members. The Turkish state says that territorial integrity must be preserved in Syria, but it has occupied three-fifths of Syrian territory. It has not only occupied it but also annexed it. It took its own state system there. It has opened schools, administrative districts, governors, and governors, and annexed it in every sense.”

He concluded that the PKK put up great resistance against ISIS and the “fate of HTS will be the same.”

Throughout the offensive, the Zionist regime has attacked the border crossings between Lebanon and Syria trying to destroy the landbridge that funnels weapons to the Resistance, in collusion with the Takfiri fighters. In a Times of Israel interview today a “FSA” fighter stated, “We are open to friendship with everyone in the region – including Israel. We don’t have enemies other than the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Iran. What Israel did against Hezbollah in Lebanon helped us a great deal. Now we are taking care of the rest.”

While Hezbollah Secretary Sheikh Qassem noted that the aggression on Syria is “fostered by [the] US and Zionists following their powerlessness in Gaza and their failure in attempts to sideline Syria.”

In a message to the Arab states, he stressed, “Know that every win for “Israel” is a loss for you, not just for Palestine, Syria and Lebanon, and it will have ramifications on your countries.”

He added that the Takfiri groups intend to take Syria away from its stance on the side of the Resistance, to a stance that serves the occupation.

“We now face a very dangerous Zionist project against the Middle East,” he warned.

The Central Command of the Palestinian Resistance Forces Alliance confirmed that the aggression carried out by these Takfiri organizations on the provinces of Aleppo and Hama is part of a American-Zionist-Turkish scheme, falling within the framework of the aggressive war being waged against the forces of the Axis of Resistance.

The Central Command considered this aggression to be part of the war being launched by the Zionist entity against Palestine and Lebanon, following its failure to achieve its objectives in both. It emphasized that this aggression, backed by the Turkish regime, the U.S. administration, and the Zionist entity, constitutes a new escalation against the liberation struggle. It described this as a reckless and miscalculated step by these organizations and their sponsors, who will fail to achieve their objectives in Syria, just as they have failed in Palestine and Lebanon.

The statement expressed the solidarity of the Palestinian Resistance Forces Alliance with Syria, which has thwarted the “New Middle East” plan since 2011.

The Palestinian Resistance Forces Alliance is a coalition of Palestinian factions. It includes Hamas, PIJ, PFLP-GC, Fatah Al-Intifada, PPSF, Al-Sa’iqa, PLF, and the Revolutionary Palestinian Communist Party.

Kataeb Hezbollah in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq spokesperson, Hajj Jaafar Al-Husseini, stated to HTS, “Before your masters taught you how to kill innocent people and displace the vulnerable, they should have given you lessons in the etiquette of speech when you mention Iraq and its people. You should ask your instigators in the capitals of evil and normalization what it means if Kataeb Hezbollah decides to enter the battle, and what will happen to you and the zionist monkeys who are cheering for the current events—as well as what will happen to those capitals that support your criminality!”

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=12977

As we are unfortunately repeatedly confronted with groups that support the Ukrainian side in the war between Russia and the Ukraine from an allegedly “anarchist” position, and as an article appeared in April (When ideology gets in the way of solidarity) in which ABC-Belarus was surprised that we described them as supporters of the war and therefore we did not invite them to the bookfair, here are a few words from us. More than once we have had the dubious pleasure of being involved in discussions with people who call themselves “anarchists” and supporters of the Ukrainian side in the Russian-Ukrainian war, people who are also referred to by some as anarcho-militarists, anarcho-nationalists, NATO anarchists and the like – specifically, we are talking about ABC-Belarus, ABC-Dresden, Operation Solidarity/Solidarity Collective and all groups that support the war – whereby it should be noted that we personally deny that they are anarchists as a matter of course. Among other things, it has been shown that, contrary to their claim to seek debate, they do not do so, but instead skillfully ignore every counter-argument and move deftly at a level that can sometimes be confidently described as populist and statist. What they are looking for is an approval and anyone who doesn’t give it to them is then accused of Putinism, Westplaining, etc. And even if their arguments have changed over the course of time and certainly also due to the course of the war in the Ukraine, they are still generally repeated again and again. In the following lines, we will address these arguments, as they have been expressed to us and in some cases published, and explain once again why these groups support the war and why we do not consider them as anarchist comrades, despite all the praiseworthy and important work they do and have done in the field of prisoner support.

It is striking that these nationalists in anarchist garb are constantly using emotional arguments. The suffering of the Ukrainian population and the tragic individual fates of fallen soldiers (perhaps also female soldiers – so far, we have only heard or read reports about male soldiers), who are said to had been anarchists at some point in their lives, are described at length, but it is difficult to verify all this and it basically doesn’t matter. The point is rather that the gruesome reality of war is portrayed here, and indeed of any war. It would certainly be possible to find tragic stories about Russian casualties who enlisted because of their poverty or about ethnic Russians living in Ukraine (which, according to some of these people, do not even exist, although the Ukrainian government still counted 17.2% Russians in the total population in 20011 – so either this is simply a case of questionable ignorance or ignoring the facts, or will they possibly also describe such sources as Russian propaganda and disinformation?) who were massacred, tortured and killed as alleged spies and collaborators. Are their lives less valuable? Or are we now going to start counting the dead in wars and which side has the most, that is to say the good guys, the side worth supporting? And do they seriously want us to believe that the Ukrainian army is the only army in the world to be composed only of blameless men and women? Well, at least with the Azov brigade they don’t seem to deny their fascist orientation, but they relativize it and their training camps were the only ones that were easily accessible, what made out of them actually quite correct comrades to fight side by side with. After all, they have the same nationalist goals and, as with all nationalism, it goes without saying the other nation must be disparaged, in this case the “fascist” aggressor Russia and therefore all Russians in the same time. That is as for the solidarity that is so loudly demanded by these people, but which stops at national borders. And ignoring or even denying the presence of fascists in the Ukrainian government also speaks for itself…

In addition, the cruelty of the Russian soldiers is emphasized, who are all ruthless murderers, sadists and fascists whose only goal is to kill all Ukrainians. There would be no forced recruitment in Russia because it would not be necessary, as the Russian soldiers would all go to war voluntarily because they get money for it. Since these self-proclaimed “anarchists” don’t seem to have realized it yet and just to be clear: Most people do the disgusting profession of soldiering because it pays money. You don’t have to be a professor of linguistics to realize that the word soldier derives from soldo [= the soldier’s pay] (which in turn derives from solidus, a Byzantine coin) and this soldo, as we all know, is simply another word for payment or remuneration for a particular service. The job title alone therefore implies that someone is doing something for which he or she receives money. And the fact that in all armies it is primarily those from the poorest backgrounds who, seeing no other way of earning money legally, make up the majority of ordinary soldiers, those who are the first to die, should point out that we can only speak of voluntary service to a limited extent. The fact that the Russian army is also recruited from migrants hoping to improve their residence status or naturalization and from prisoners, which is also the case in the Ukrainian army, also plays a not insignificant role in this question.

And in all of this, they do not seem to be concerned at all with alleviating the suffering of people in war zones, as they like to claim ostensibly. If this was the case, they would have to consistently call for anarchist auxiliary battalions for all war zones in the world, because we should show solidarity with all oppressed people, not least with those who suffer directly from the barbaric wars of capital. But no, for them only the suffering on the Ukrainian side counts. It becomes particularly absurd when it is even admitted in the meantime that this war can probably no longer be won for the Ukraine and that recruitment on the Ukrainian side is increasingly being resisted (because although Ukrainians are supposedly all going to war voluntarily for freedom, there is still forced recruitment and corresponding resistance to it), but all “anarchists” in Ukraine are firmly convinced that they must continue to fight now, because if Russia wins this war, it will mean the death of the anarchist movement in the region. We reject this logic that one way or another the downfall is imminent and that is why we are now supporting some kind of suicidal action, as a result of which only people will die and lose their children, parents and friends. Because the end of anarchist movements in certain regions had happened many times in the past and it is neither a new phenomenon nor a total downfall; in such cases, these movements have to be rebuilt, as it happened time and again in history. The humanity to which they appeal and which they require from anarchists all over the world, especially in the form of monetary donations, is only shown very selectively; the Russian soldiers, turned into murderers by capitalism, do not seem worthy of humanity to them, their deaths are irrelevant. The Russians have always hated the Ukrainians for centuries… Sometimes even we are astonished by so much undifferentiated thinking and no longer know what else to write.

On May 1, 2023 in Dresden, one could hear, among other things, the following: “We should call for the Ukrainian population to be armed to the teeth so that thousands of bullets are fired from every window or door against the occupiers and their collaborators. If many in the West are not willing to fight for freedom – then so be it, but at least supporting those who are willing to do so is a duty that rests on the shoulders of everyone in the so-called first world.”2 And after this martial war cry, which we have heard too often in this way and in similar forms from warmongers at all times and in all places in the world, are they really still surprised that we write that they support the war? And what a meaningless and purely agitational use of the term freedom. What freedom are they fighting for? Capitalist freedom? Freedom to die for the seemingly kinder, more humane or even more “anarchistic” oppressor, to push the exhaustion of concepts to the extreme? In return, they want to kill “collaborators” and “occupiers”, assuming that the thousands of bullets hit them. Who is considered a collaborator? People who desert, who evade recruitment? All people who do not support Ukraine? Once again, the nationalist component oozes from the word occupier. But since actions are not important, only names count, they can claim they are not nationalists because they don’t call themselves so. And the whole thing is paired with banners and slogans that reek of glory and honor to the fallen and the cult of martyrdom.

We still don’t know why they think it has anything to do with anarchism to support one side in a war between two capitalist States or to defend one’s homeland, whatever it is supposed to be. The proletariat has no homeland, and certainly none that it should defend against another nation-State. In the above-mentioned article, we also find no answer to the question they formulated themselves, “Does ABC-Belarus support the war in Ukraine?” There is only talk of the ignorance with which they are met and the fact that the specific situation, regional history and conditions are allegedly not sufficiently included in analyses. But what are these particularities that lead them to think that it is something of an “anarchist duty” to support the Ukraine in this war, this is something they remain silent about. And how did it come about that all these “anarchists” suddenly became blossoming patriots overnight? We don’t know and we won’t get an answer, but it doesn’t matter how or why it happened. What is much more crucial and worrying is that it happened and that it is happening now. Because all the other anarchist and revolutionary groups in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, who have a different point of view and a different attitude to these saber-wielding war supporters, could not be trusted anymore. Well, that is difficult to verify, but at least in some cases it seems to us to be more defamation and denunciation (should they all be shot?) than serious advice and note. Especially as some of the things published by these groups have now also been adopted or confirmed by the “anarchist” militarists… We don’t want to go into the argument that the army now has a revolutionary potential, as has been shown historically in the formation of soldiers’ councils. That a handful of anarchists could awaken this potential, if it exists at all, seems illusory to us and this illusion is downright dangerous when we consider the price that is paid for it. Let us just briefly recall what the goals of these historical soldiers’ councils were, namely to put an end to the capitalist war and capitalist peace in a revolutionary way and not to wage war in a self-organized way on the side of a nation-State and get killed in the process.

For us as anarchists, all wars are capitalist wars and wars of capital. The only thing that wars produce are losers, death, misery and a pile of profit in the pockets of the capitalists. It is necessary to fight both capitalist war and capitalist peace, because both are only two sides of the same coin. After all, what do these “anarchist” warriors in Ukraine want to fight for? Defending the capitalist normal state because it is so much better to be exploited and oppressed by Ukrainians than by people who see themselves as Russians? We clearly say no, this is not what we are fighting for and if others want to do it because they think it is right, let them do it, but we will not support them or give them a platform because they are acting against basic anarchist principles. Because the conflict is not between right and left, but between “for the State” and “against the State” and as for anarchists it is very clear to us which side we are on. This does not make us ideologues or sectarians, as we are so often accused of being, but advocates of a clear and consistent anarchism that must not be watered down by the exhaustion of concepts and arbitrariness, otherwise anarchism will ultimately lose all its meaning and will not only disappear into insignificance for good, but will take on the kind of perverted forms and excesses that we can observe in groups such as ABC-Belarus, ABC-Dresden, etc.

Long live the betrayal of the country!
For anarchy

English translation: The Friends of the Class War

1 https://web.archive.org/web/20111217151026/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/
Incidentally, the CIA’s “World Fact Book” also gives the same figure.

2 https://abcdd.org/2023/05/02/1-mai-in-dresden-internationale-solidaritat/

source: The Friends of Class War

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/07/29/when-the-exhaustion-of-concepts-intensifies/

War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government sets and enforces the drastic penalties. The minorities are either intimidated into silence, or brought slowly around by subtle process of persuasion which may seem to them really to be converting them. Of course, the ideal of perfect loyalty, perfect uniformity is never really attained. […] (I)n general, the nation in wartime attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values culminating at the undisputed apex of the State ideal, which could not possibly be produced through any other agency than war.

Randolph S. Bourne, The State (1918)1

The split in the anarchist movement between antimilitarists and Natopolitan Anarchists2 has grown deeper since February 2022. The Natopolitans continue to support the arming of the Ukrainian state, the escalation of hostilities, both in weapons and in scale, despite the numbers of dead Ukrainians, regardless of the threat of nuclear conflict, regardless of the reality of this war and its unending suffering meted out on the working class of Ukraine. In doing so, they are waging war on anarchism, here, over there and everywhere.3

If only the Natopolitan Anarchists were as honest as Pyotr Kropotkin during WWI. His position was that, of all the imperialisms, the German one was the most abominable, and that is why he sided with the imperial alliance to bring about its defeat. The Natopolitan position is an ‘anarchism’ even more degenerate than Kropotkin’s because often they don’t accept the existence, and never the crucial role, of US Imperialism (and its EU client states) in provoking this war. If they wanted to be truthful to Kropotkin’s position of lesser-evil-cheerleading, they would support the Russian state, since it is working to bring about the downfall of the most over-reaching and lethal empire in existence.4 That would mean they at least held some healthy antagonism towards their own ruling class.

Instead, one can’t escape the impression that Natopolitan Anarchists are nothing more than good liberals,5 believing that when Russia broke international law in its invasion of Ukraine, given no redress was available, they had to rush to the Global Policeman (the USA), just this once, in this most moral of wars, just until the Russian Hitler was beaten back. To mask the contradiction between their supine liberal self and their anarchist self, they have spewed a number of myths since February 2022. Wayne Price is a typical example of this breed of Natopolitan Anarchist, which is why it is useful to examine some of his statements published on the pages of Black Flag.

The People

Price ventriloquizes Malatesta (in his writings on Libyan and Cuban struggles for independence) to garner support for “the Ukrainian People” under attack from the Russian state:

What light do Malatesta’s views cast on the Ukrainian war? Certainly he would oppose an inter-imperialist war between Russia and the U.S.A. and its NATO allies—if it ever got to that—just as he denounced World War I. The war between the Russian state and the people of Ukraine is another matter. Russia is an imperialist aggressor. Ukraine is a weak, poor, and non-imperialist country.6

This phrase does not survive contact with reality. In reality, “the Ukrainian People” is a weapon of class war, a nationalist project of the Ukrainian state, which has been drawn in stark ethno-nationalist terms since 2014. The Maidan coup ushered in a project of ethnic unmixing – to be part of the Ukrainian People, one could not hold multiple identities and legacies, be they Soviet, Russian etc. To be part of the Ukrainian People also meant increasingly that one had to be anti-Russian, and the last people to fight the Russians, were the Banderite heroes of WWII, so the myth goes. Ukrainians (and their supporters) should therefore ignore that the Banderites were also fascists who participated eagerly in the race-supremacist genocides of the Nazis. As the war in the Donbass started and escalated, the Banderite legacy (in its soft and hard versions) was therefore equated with the project of Ukrainian self-determination.7

This state project of an ethnically pure Ukraine is being enforced internally and projected abroad, one reliant on ethnic unmixing and ethnic cleansing. This is why the fully credentialed SS officer, Yaroslav Hunka (living out his days peacefully, aged 98) received a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament, in the presence of Zelensky on 22nd September 2023.8 This is why the Azov Battalion (an organisation proscribed as “neo-Nazi” by the US Congress and various EU states) were welcomed as “heroes” to the British Parliament in May 2024, where Boris Johnson posed for a picture with their Nazi flag.9 The point I am making here is not that all Ukrainians are Nazis, but that these Nazis currently shaping the Ukrainian national project are our Nazis.

There is perfect continuity with the post-WWII years during which the CIA and NATO worked to Nazify Ukraine. Firstly, by shielding Bandera in Western Germany (until the KGB assassinated him) and stoking anti-Soviet armed resistance, then through another fascist, Mykola Lebed, held in the USA. The CIA project was called AERODYNAMIC and was redesignated to QRPLUMB/QRDYNAMIC10 in 1970. It ran until 1991, when Ukraine was officially approached by NATO for integration into the military alliance.11 For this project of building (unmixing) a pure Ukrainian People, one had to ignore that the anti-Russian President Poroshenko spoke Russian at home and that Zelensky had to learn Ukrainian to address the nation (this resulted in cringeworthy gaffes while he learned the language on the job). The current supreme commander of Ukraine, Syrsky is an ethnic Russian, born in Russia, whose parents and brother live in Russia. All three men have undergone ethnic unmixing in the service of the Ukrainian state. Since 2019, Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish have been banned from public life.12 19 million books in Russian have been withdrawn from libraries13 – the aim is to destroy 100 million of them.14

It should be clear that there is no pure-blooded fascistic Ukrainian People, it is a state project to destroy a rich set of heterogeneous traditions and peoples. When anarchists support the myth of one Ukrainian People, they are supporting this ethno-nationalist and fascistic project. They are weakening any local initiative which opposes it. In NATO countries, they are weakening antimilitarist initiatives, strengthening the hold of the state on speaking the truth about the war, and assisting the state in the criminalisation of dissent.

The other sense of the phrase “Ukrainian People” is that of a unified population, without class or regional differences. Even in 2022, this myth was obvious, but with the war in its third year, the fractures in Ukrainian society cannot be ignored. An estimated 6.4 million Ukrainians have fled the country and an estimated 650,000 men of a fighting age are among them.15 The remaining men continue to dodge the draft in huge numbers. Hunted in the streets by state gangs, they cower indoors. Fleeing, they drown trying to swim across the Tisza River on their way to Romania.16 Draft-dodging through corruption was so widespread and such a well-known scandal, that the Ukrainian state was forced to sack all military recruitment chiefs in 2023.17 This exposes the class-struggle within the mythical unity of the Ukrainian People. Always it is the working class that gets sent to fight the war of the ruling class. Therefore, the ruling class abides in Kyiv and abroad, remaining untouchable, while the middle-class buys its way out of conscription. Listen to the words of the Ukrainian anarchist group ‘Assembly’ from Kharkov in August 2022:

(W)e should understand that the national unity of Ukrainians around Zelensky’s power rests only on fear of an external threat.18

And this is what they said in an interview in February 2024:

The Assembly is an online newsletter, and if we can help the deserters in any way, then only by giving them a political justification for their acts, so that they do not suffer from remorse, but are proud of their refusal to choose between serving either Vladolf Putler or François Zevalier, personifications of the darkest reaction that is only possible in today’s Europe, refusal to choose between the occupying colonial expedition and the defense of what has been grabbed by the Ukrainian ruling class since 1991.19

How hollow do the words of Wayne Price ring in contrast:

It is true that the Ukrainian people are not anarchists or socialists; they accept their state and capitalism. Does that mean that anarchists should punish them by refusing to defend them when attacked by a strong enemy which massacres their people and smashes their cities?20

Assembly’s position is anarchist, Price’s reeks of the full patronising and proselytizing zeal of liberal imperialism, which hides behind an endorsement of the myth of national self-determination. To perpetuate this myth, Price also has to maintain the myth of a people’s army.

The people’s army

Two days after the Russian invasion, the BBC treated us to the spectacle of Ukrainian women workshopping how to make molotov cocktails.21 This astroturfed photo-op seems to have been designed for those as gullible as Wayne Price. At the time, the Ukrainian army was the greatest NATO proxy ever to be assembled, trained and equipped. Its success in the field did not depend on guerilla warfare, as has become blindingly obvious in the months that followed.

Shortly after, we saw the emergence of Natopolitan Anarchism, another manifestation of NAFO.22 In capturing a large section of the Western anarchist movements and scenes, this was a victory for the militarist project. A good example of this is the backslapping folkloric feelgood group ‘Good Night Imperial Pride’, which crowdfunds for snipers, drones etc. for so-called ‘anarchist fighters’ integrated into the Ukrainian Army. GNIP is popular online, promoted by anarchist groups and even held a stall at the 2023 London Anarchist Bookfair.23 Only someone completely deranged by virtue signalling can believe that their crowd-funded donation to the “Ukrainian anarchist cause” will tip the scales, when all the state economies of NATO countries are sending money and materiel on a scale hitherto unseen.24 Those unlucky anarchists blindsided by the NAFO psyop have ended up dead in the meat-grinders of Bakhmut and Avdeevka, circles of hell forced upon the Ukrainian working class by the Ukrainian state. For them, NAFO was the mainline to FAFO. They deserved better than elders like the Natopolitan Anarchists who misled them.

Wayne Price parrots the White House spokespeople when he writes:

Russia is not fighting a proxy war but is engaging in direct aggression. Nor are the Ukrainians fighting a proxy war. It is they who are spilling their blood, fighting directly against the invaders of their country. Whatever the U.S. is paying in armaments, the Ukrainians are paying with their lives. Whatever the motives of the U.S. and its NATO allies, and even whatever is the motivation of the Ukrainian state, the people have their own interest in driving out the occupiers and mass murderers. That they take arms from the Western governments means little – they need arms and where else can they get them?25

As if this is a last minute scramble for some bullets, as if NATO hasn’t been involved in training and provisioning the Ukrainian Army since 1991.26 As if Ukraine wasn’t already an important contributor to NATO missions, specifically in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, as George Bush highlighted in 2008, when making a case for Ukraine joining NATO.27 As if the CIA didn’t install 12 secret bases facing Russia, after the Maidan coup.28 As if the pursuit of NATO membership wasn’t etched into the Ukrainian constitution in 2019, ripping up Ukrainian neutrality.29 As if NATO generals aren’t directly involved in the selection of Russian targets.30 As if all of this doesn’t make Ukraine a de facto member of NATO, if not de jure. An enduring myth of Natopolitan Anarchism is that anyone pointing to the fingerprints of US Imperialism is denying “Ukrainian agency”. As if the world’s hegemon, with nearly 800 military bases across the globe gives a damn about national sovereignty, even of its so-called allies (which is why it forcibly decoupled Germany from Russia by blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines).31 To mask the truth of this conflict, stoked by the USA, Natopolitan Anarchists perpetuate the myth of Ukrainian agency and popular resistance.

The reality of war is forced conscription and conscription is slavery. It is buttressed by nationalism and patriotism (both parasitically feed on a genuine need for self-determination) which are weapons against the working class. Here are some words from the group Assembly again about the reality of draft-dodging in Ukraine:

[Kharkov is a] prison where lights out at 9 pm, roughly speaking. If in 2020, according to then-mayor Kernes, the average age in Kharkov was 35 years old, then at the beginning of a full-scale war there were mostly pensioners, and now the average age of the population is about 50. Although this is only a visual impression of public places, because men of conscription age (in Ukraine it is from 18 to 60 years, and leaving of the country is prohibited for most of them) often do not risk leaving the house and try to move along the streets only by car. Depression, alcoholism and complete sadness. The ship has been at the bottom already for a long time, but the passengers have locked themselves in their cabins and think that there will be enough air until someone saves them…32

If the average age in the Kharkov street is 50, the average age at the frontline in February 2024 is 43.33 This is because the young men are dead, hiding or fled. And Zelensky is lying when he says the death toll is 31,000.34 The size of this lie is monstrous. The real numbers are carefully guarded but the casualties are probably closer to 500,000, as the ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko recently said.35 Having followed the front line daily, I think the number of dead is close to half a million and that there are as many or more seriously wounded. The Ukrainians know that these conscripted men have died from suicide drones or drone grenades falling from the sky, in minefields, under ‘flamethrower’ thermobaric bombs, under white phosphorus, under cluster bombs, under FAB glide bombs with a yield of 500 to 1500 kgs of explosives, under artillery fire and in cruise missile strikes, in tank battles, under helicopter rockets, in rifle battles, under grenade fire, sniper fire etc. etc. etc. The soil is so scarred that it looks like the surface of the moon, the villages and towns are empty shells of concrete, the forests are burnt to a cinder. Natopolitan Anarchists never talk about the frontline. About videos of conscripted Ukrainians begging for their lives under FPV drones, or with their legs blown off crawling through the mud. At best they will post a link to that that glamorous and ghoulish photo shoot, organised by the Ukrainian state, where veteran amputees were dressed in evening dress and made to pose with a porn star.36

Rather than a self-organised people’s army, Zelensky’s vision for Ukraine is that of a fully militarised, garrisoned state, like Israel. His plan for the country after the war is this:

[W]e will definitely become a “big Israel” with its own face. We will not be surprised that we will have representatives of the Armed Forces or the National Guard in all institutions, supermarkets, cinemas, there will be people with weapons. I am sure that our security issue will be number one in the next ten years.37

Instead of supporting its population, the Ukrainian state is waging class war, undertaking neoliberal shock reforms, directed by the loan shark called the IMF. As an Open Democracy article recaps:

(I)nstead of focusing on adapting the economy to the needs of war, the Ukrainian authorities have launched a vast privatisation programme. Taking advantage of martial law and the restrictions on demonstrations, the government has also dismantled labour legislation and pushed through a series of other unpopular measures.38

While Natopolitan Anarchists like Wayne Price entreat us to fall behind the Ukrainian People (which is a fiction) and the Ukrainian State (just until it beats the Russians), the Ukrainian state wages class war.

Keeping it proxy

And while there is no doubt that amidst the hell of civil war, invasion and class war, Ukrainians are fighting for their survival, it is also clear that the USA’s furtherance of its hegemony rests on support for its client states. That is why, in April 2024, after months of delays and politicking, the US congress approved $95 billion of funding for its client states: Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.39 Much of this funding is loans, or kickbacks for the US arms industry at home. But a substantial part of it is meant for its Ukraine proxy effort to weaken and, if possible dismember, Russia.40 As has repeatedly been stated in the US Senate:

The United States aids Ukraine and her people so that they can fight Russia over there, and we don’t have to fight Russia here.41

This (together with the overview of NATO’s capture of the Ukrainian state I provided above) would be as concise an expression of policy, financial support and strategy towards supporting Ukraine as a proxy force. But this is insufficient for Natopolitan Anarchists who parrot the US state line of supporting a weak country fighting unhinged Russian Imperial aggression, which unchecked will march on through Poland and the Baltics. The argument is always shifted away from US interests and manoeuvring of the Ukrainian state, towards the strictly temporally (an invasion which started in Feb 2022) and spatially (Ukraine is a small, sovereign country) limited picture. This is why, despite claiming that ‘the Vietnam-U.S. War was a mirror image of the Ukraine-Russia War’, Wayne Price loudly protests against this also being also a proxy war. Instead, he draws a textbook set of conditions of what an inter-imperialist conflict would look like:

This analysis would change under different circumstances. This would become mainly a war between imperialist sides if, for example, the U.S. were to send its army into Ukraine to fight the Russians, or if missiles were exchanged, back and forth, between Russia and the NATO countries. Then both sides should be opposed because the main issue would be the warfare between imperialist powers. But this has not happened.42

The reason a direct exchange is something both camps want to avoid and it hasn’t happened during or after the Cold War, is the existence of respective sizeable nuclear arsenals. This is why proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Congo, Nicaragua, Afghanistan etc.) between the US and USSR were historically the weapon of choice to weaken the other side.43 To not understand this is to misunderstand the whole nature of the world order. It is certainly key to understanding the nature of the war in Ukraine, its course and potential end.

The danger of nuclear escalation is the reason why NATO is doing everything to escalate while covering its tracks (by ‘sheep dipping’ its troops, maintaining deniability in targeting and surveillance, keeping the responsibility with the Ukrainians) and Russia is doing everything to destroy the Ukrainian army, rather than capture territory. It is a dangerous gamble, made more unpredictable by the high stakes for all three states: Russia’s possible defeat (which it sees as an existential threat, making its recourse to nuclear weapons more likely), the enflamed ethno-nationalism which is core to the Ukrainian national project and has led to the loss of Crimea and the Donbass (with an ongoing strategy to expand the conflict into Russia and draw NATO directly into the theatre of war) and the declining and increasingly desperate US global hegemony amid what is called the shift to multipolarity.

What role for anarchists?

Asked in April 2022, on recommendations to the Left and progressives in the US regarding the war in Ukraine, Noam Chomsky said:

First of all, as leftists, we should be opposed to all imperialism, should be opposed to overthrowing governments, to aggression and violence. And as human beings who are sensible and moral, we should concentrate our attention, energy, and activism on what we can do. Happens overwhelmingly to be the actions of our own government, which happens to be the leader in the world. World champion by far in opposing sovereignty, in aggression, in violence, and interference, in terrorism and so on. We should oppose Russian imitation of our actions. What can we do about it? Well, I think it’s very clear. There are two options.[…] One option is one we’re adopting. Fight to the last Ukrainian […] and ensure that […] Putin and his circle are backed up against the wall, no exit, no way out, therefore they’ll have the basic option of destroying Ukraine and moving towards global war.[…]

There is another option. Abandon the policies, our official policies […] Move towards accepting a status for Ukraine which is similar to Mexico, Austria, Finland for decades […] withdraw the threats to Russia […] move towards some kind of Minsk II style arrangement for a high level of autonomy for the Eastern region, maybe within a federal settlement. Recognize the reality that, like it or not, Crimea is off the table, it’s not a negotiating option now. That’s ugly, but the alternative is to continue our efforts to destroy Ukraine and to move towards an international war. Those are the choices. World is not a pretty place. You don’t have the choice of electing Martin Luther King as the head of every government.44

The situation now is much worse, the death toll is higher and the risk of Ukraine ceasing to exist and a wider conflict is growing daily.45 However, the basic facts remain the same. You don’t have to agree with the fully realisable pragmatism of Chomsky to see that he correctly starts from confronting the role of his (imperial) state. This is something that Natopolitan Anarchists cringe from. For example, Wayne Price takes up the slogan addressed to the US government during the Vietnam war years “Out Now!”, and in a fit of inspiration declaims:

Of course there will be talks, but the central issue remains: the Russian military must leave Ukraine, all of Ukraine, every square inch. “Out Now!”46

I can assure him that the Russians aren’t listening. By taking up the line of the US state, Price is acting as its shill in the anarchist movement. The irony is lost on him: where once he used to confront the actions of his government, he is now cheering it on. He is joined by ‘leftist’ luminaries such as Slavoj Žižek and Paul Mason, eager handmaidens one and all. Lining up behind the ruling class and its proxy war has had a chilling effect on the movement, with Natopolitan Anarchists cancelling, hounding and suppressing the voices of antimilitarists. Continuing to bang the war drum, repeating the mantra that Ukraine can and must win, acts as a lifeline for the dwindling Western imperial core and reduces the already reduced manoeuvrable space for anarchists in Ukraine and the NATO countries.47

Instead, we should dust off the Anti-War Manifesto from 1915, signed by Emma Goldman, Errico Malatesta and Alexander Berkman, among others. It contains basic truths for opposing militarism, the ruling class and inter-imperialist conflict. And a warning for the war to come, as the US Empire takes China into its sights:

(T)here never has been and is no doubt—and today’s horrific events reinforce this confidence—that war is permanently incubating within the existing body of society and that armed conflict, be it specific or general, in the colonies or in Europe, is the natural consequence and necessary, inescapable destiny of a regime founded upon the economic inequality of its citizens, relying upon the unbridled clash of interests, and placing the world of labor under the narrow, painful oversight of a minority of parasites who hold both political power and economic might.48

It would be simple to outline the shape of an antimilitarist effort within NATO countries. The work of putting it into practice is a larger task, but it is one that awaits us:

• Let’s challenge the imperialism and militarism of our states and increase the opportunities for others to do so. No to nationalism. No to a return to national or military service, no to conscription. No support for the US in its belligerent policies via Israel (towards the Middle East), Ukraine (towards Russia) and Taiwan (towards China). Undermine the support for the wars of the ruling class.

• Let’s undermine the existence of NATO (and the militarisation of the EU) by speaking the truth of its wars. No to NATO bases, no to US missiles in our neighbourhoods, no to nukes. No to arms factories in our towns, no to arms sales – let’s challenge the military-industrial complex, its profits and its influence on the state.

• Let’s support all the organised and disorganised Ukrainian groups against Banderite nationalism and ethnic unmixing, against predatory capitalists (Western or homegrown), against conscription.

• Let’s support resistance to Russian nationalism and oppose various neo-Stalinists who see in Russia an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist force. Moscow and Washington are two cheeks of the same backside.

• Let’s maintain and build international links across the lines of conflict, between Russia, Ukraine and NATO countries, involving the recent Russian and Ukrainian emigres.

• Let’s rediscover the traditions of antimilitarism and foster a new culture of antimilitarism everywhere we go.

• 1https://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~peace_health/courses/PtHCourse/Bourne-1918.htm
• 2“The now-obscure term ‘Natopolitan’ appears to have been coined by the British Marxist historian EP Thompson in the late 1970s. It referred not just to NATO proper, but also (in a later gloss by Edward Said) to ‘a mentality whose web extended over a lot more activity and thought’.” Gabriel Carlyle, review of the book ‘Natopolitanism’, Peace News, Dev 2023 https://peacenews.info/node/10810/grey-anderson-ed-natopolitanism-atlantic-alliance-cold-war
• 3This never really happened in NATO countries during NATO’s assault on Serbia, Libya or Afghanistan. It is a mark of the present degeneracy of the Western anarchist movement.
• 4Professor Galtung claims that the US-Empire has killed or supported the killing of between 13 to 20 million people in 37 countries since the end of World War II (https://dailypost.ng/2017/02/06/exclusive-us-killed-13-million-people-since-end-world-war-ii-prof-galtung/) The Brown University ‘Costs of War’ project estimates: ‘3.6-3.8 million indirect deaths in post-9/11 war zones, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. The total death toll in these war zones could be at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting, though the precise mortality figure remains unknown.’ (https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2023/IndirectDeaths)
• 5Being a good liberal nowadays means that you are a flag-waver for Woke Imperialism (crusading Liberal Hegemony), which imposes its will through gender-neutral bombs. Many have written and spoken about this, here is just one example: https://peacediplomacy.org/2022/06/27/woke-imperium-the-coming-confluence-between-social-justice-and-neoconservatism/
• 6’Malatesta on War and National Self-Determination: Lessons for Anarchists Considering the Ukrainian War’ by Wayne Price, Black Flag, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2022
• 7Anyone doubting the hold of Banderism on the Ukrainian state should note well that during the war years as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi held not one, but two portraits of Stepan Bandera on the wall of his office. And for those who think that here is merely ‘a rotten apple’, ask yourself, how long would a British general last if he hung two portraits of Oswald Mosley in his office? Less than a week. Because fascism is a defeated ideology. It is one of the greatest Ukrainian tragedies that Banderism has taken hold of the Ukrainian state to such an extent, but it’s by no means unique, as the resurgence of Nazi/fascist rehabilitation in the Baltic states shows. Like in Ukraine, the main motor of this process is an unhinged hatred of Russia (rather than a rational desire to reorient away from Russia).
• 8https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/yaroslav-hunka-canada-nazi-germany-faq-1.6981437
• 9https://mossrobeson.medium.com/azov-brigade-invades-london-greeted-as-liberators-5facc63517b0
• 10https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/US-Tried-to-Impose-Nazi-Leader-on-Ukraine-in-WWII-CIA-Leak–20160523-0003.html
• 11https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_37750.htm
• 12https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/?pdf=CDL-AD(2019)032-e
• 13https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-has-ukraine-banned-19-million-russian-books-its-libraries-1779446
• 14https://imi.org.ua/en/news/more-than-100-million-propaganda-books-to-be-withdrawn-from-libraries-book-institute-director-i45735
• 15https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-a-struggle-for-the-ages/
• 16https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67120904
• 17https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-top-general-criticizes-presidents-firing-recruitment-chiefs-media-2023-12-18/
• 18https://antimilitarismus.noblogs.org/files/2024/04/INTERVIEW-WITH-THE-UKRAINIAN-ANARCHIST-GROUP-ASSEMBLY_FINAL.pdf
• 19https://antimilitarismus.noblogs.org/files/2024/04/INTERVIEW-WITH-THE-UKRAINIAN-ANARCHIST-GROUP-ASSEMBLY_FINAL.pdf Read the whole interview for a sense of the paranoia and stress involved in draft-dodging during an invasion of your country by a vastly superior enemy army.
• 20‘Malatesta on War and National Self-Determination: Lessons for Anarchists Considering the Ukrainian War’ by Wayne Price, Black Flag, Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2022
• 21https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-60540341
• 22North Atlantic Fella Organisation is a NATO-led mobilisation of citizens on social media, engaged in the propaganda war against Russia and supporting and disseminating NATO myths, disinformation and talking points https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NAFO_(group)
• 23https://anarchistbookfair.london/stall/good-night-imperial-pride/
• 24What this does point to is that due to endemic corruption, different units in the Army have access to different provisions, and it is often down to money and political links what your unit will have in the field. In case there is any question, the Banderites have all the equipment they need.
• 25‘Lessons for Anarchists About the Ukraine War from Past Revolutions’, Wayne Price, Black Flag, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2023
• 26Once again, read the timeline on NATO’s own website: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_37750.htm
• 27http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/01/bush.nato/index.html
• 28https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/02/25/7443679/
• 29‘WAR IN UKRAINE – Making Sense of A Senseless Conflict’, Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies, OR Books, 2022, p112
• 30https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-taurus-missiles-ukraine-war-russia-leaked-audio/
• 31https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/how-america-took-out-the-nord-stream
• 32https://antimilitarismus.noblogs.org/files/2024/04/INTERVIEW-WITH-THE-UKRAINIAN-ANARCHIST-GROUP-ASSEMBLY_FINAL.pdf from February 2024
• 33https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-a-struggle-for-the-ages/
• 34https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68397525
• 35https://www.eurasiantimes.com/it-will-be-a-shock-ukraine-lost-500000-soldiers-in-war/
• 36https://nypost.com/2024/03/18/world-news/ukrainian-porn-star-josephine-jackson-poses-with-soldiers-who-lost-limbs/
• 37https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/dlya-ukrayinskoyi-derzhavi-pitannya-bezpeki-maye-buti-na-per-74113
• 38https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/ukraine-workers-fight-anti-labour-policies-russia/
• 39https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2024/04/24/congress-sends-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid-package-to-presidents-desk/
• 40As the latest NATO messenger, Estonian PM Kaja Kallas said in passing: https://twitter.com/eeldenden/status/1792880764498935872/video/1
• 41https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/22/adam-schiff-opening-argument-trump-impeachment-trial-102202
• 42‘Lessons for Anarchists About the Ukraine War from Past Revolutions’, Wayne Price, Black Flag, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2023
• 43http://www.defenddemocracy.press/how-the-pentagon-uses-a-secretive-program-to-wage-proxy-wars/
• 44https://chomsky.info/20220408/
• 45The Natopolitans love to talk about how isolated Russia is and how its defeat could be brought about without risk of a wider war. I’ll remind them that after the invasion in 2022, India and China sent troops for joint military exercises on Russian territory – pretty clear statement of intent. All three are nuclear powers with more than a third of the world’s population. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/1/russias-war-games-with-china-all-you-need-to-know
• 46‘Lessons for Anarchists About the Ukraine War from Past Revolutions’, Wayne Price, Black Flag, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 2023
• 47There is an often repeated argument used by Natopolitan Anarchists in the effort to bolster their warmongering theses. It runs like this: taking the position of a principled antimilitarism is a case of ‘westplaining’, while standing behind the world’s most bloodthirsty imperialist alliance is the correct and ‘undogmatic’ position which is, moreover, eagerly supported by the anarchist movements in Eastern Europe (those most exposed to the dangers of Russian imperialism). However, any more detailed analysis of the positions of the anarchist organisations in the East and West, shows this up as a myth. Namely, almost all the long-standing anarchist organisations in the the East (with the exception of the Czech Anarchist Federation and the émigré organisations from Belarus and Russia, based in Western Europe), have taken solid antimilitarist positions. Notable is the Balkan anarchist movement (with its core in the countries of ex-Yugoslavia), which has rejected all attempts to put the libertarian movement in the service of either NATO or Russian imperialism. An examination of the positions of collectives in the East of Europe, (whose ‘lived experience’ is waved as proof that the anarchists from that part of the world support Ukraine in the war and do not see it as just a NATO puppet regime), reveals that they are as a rule groups formed after the start of the war in Ukraine in 2014, and that in most cases they are left-liberal subcultural groups. On the other hand, in the West of Europe, a large number of even longer-standing anarchist organisations, collectives or publications hold, at the very least, dubious and unclear positions regarding the war, and in the worst cases (like the British outlet FREEDOM), take open warmongering positions and give space to such ideas. The exceptions are organisations (such as the Italian FAI-IFA or the Spanish CNT-IWA) and movements in countries with traditionally the strongest libertarian movements, such as Spain and Italy. (I am grateful to comrade E.M. for pointing this out.)
• 48https://www.marxists.org/archive/malatesta/1915/manifesto.htm

Author: Bill Beech
source: https://libcom.org/article/war-anarchism-bill-beech#footnoteref3_201sp3f

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/06/15/war-on-anarchism/