Articles

The Necessity of our Anti-Militarism

Makhno Makhno Makhno2 Comments

The state, the generals, the military, this profit system and the imperial blocs within it, are beating a march to generalised warfare and our possible extinction.  Are we listening?  Are we going to try to effectively respond?  We can but we need to organise as a conscious internationalist working class now.  We can start by communicating and coming together as revolutionary anti-militarists, regionally, nationally and beyond.  At the ACN, we are trying to do just this. 

Below is a reflective piece from a member of Tyne & Wear, No War But the Class War. We can see from the comrades there and as described in this piece, the necessity of organising directly as a class, by ourselves as workers and for ourselves as workers throughout the world, in a struggle against militarism and capital, and for emancipation.

We also see the hurdles facing us, not only from capitalism, the state and its militarism, but from the tragedy of the ongoing illusions and fantasy of leftists in continuing to support cross class alliances and nationalisms of varying stripes, in a never ending (not so) merry go round. 

Read below for more on all this:

In the middle part of last Saturday (20th Jan), I took a stroll into the ‘Toon’ (Newcastle city centre).  There was supposedly a trade union bloc forming, as part of the latest “demonstration for Palestine”.  Thought I’d take a look and arm myself with some NWBCW literature and statements, and see if there were any parties there interested in our local and international endeavour, limited as it is at present.

At Monument, there were about 300 people in attendance, readying for the march through the streets to the Civic Centre.  Amongst this number, were a host of loud speakers, and it was loud (you could hear it right down the bottom of Grey Street, about half a mile away).  Amongst calls for a support of ‘Palestine Action’ and their efforts against Rafael, who produce weapons to the state in Israel, there was also a lot of hot air by the array of permanent leftist activist speakers and their close circle of followers.

Only one, maybe two, trade union banners were seen, whilst there were a few members of other similar organisations in attendance.  These being organisations involved in a few workplaces elsewhere, if not local ones.  This a bloc?!

Anyway, a few leaflets were given out to anyone who appeared they may seem interested in an internationalist working class NWBCW perspective.  Good to say that a younger person at least asked a number of relevant questions and said they would look into it and thanked me for the details.  But let’s face it, overall it was yet another disappointing reaction and event.

Whilst various members of the military and state officials have been banging the drums of war and warning us to be ready in anywhere from 20 to only 5 years time for possible global catastrophe, yet again we find a desperate need to see the beginnings of a necessary collective understanding that in order to stop this potential extinction event / world war, in all wars we need to see ourselves as workers and struggle together as workers!

We don’t doubt whether anyone is brave when they occupy the roof of a weapons manufacturer.  However, we need to see that any such actions should take place effectively on a class and internationalist basis with much practical solidarity.  There can be no alliances with a bourgeoisie racing to war, wherever they find themselves.  No support for nationalism of whatever stripe.  And an end to the shouting of, “How dare someone not support a state for so and so…?”  We should not be supporting the state anywhere, whatsoever!  Neither should anyone claim to be class conscious and then unquestioningly support this national project or that one, and go about bandwagon jumping.

There can be no doubt that the suffering in Gaza is horrendous and that an end to the shelling and missiles would help alleviate the immediate situation.  However, even with this and a pull out by the Israeli state, oppression and exploitation would still take place, both by capital and a proto state controlled by the brutal theocrats, murderers, rapists and torturers of Hamas (or anyone else heading up the local state for that matter). 

War would still reveal its ugly head again very soon.  It is an inherent part of this system and its craving for territory, resources and profit, via the formation of rival imperial blocs and their increasingly complex web of proxies.  This is rapidly putting our very survival in grave danger.

To end the threat of annihilation, we must organise as a class and realise our common interests throughout the world, in a struggle against militarism, oppression and exploitation, and for emancipation.  This really needs to start now.  As a conscious working class, it can be done but time is likely running out.  Anyone interested in this fight, please contact us.  We all need each other!

Contact us at:

email – nwbcwtyneandwear@proton.me

twitterX – twitter.com/NWBCWTyne_Wear

Mastodon – kolektiva.social/@NWBCWTyneandWear

By Bones

Health Workers strike, is it stalemate?

Makhno Makhno Makhno

Historical physiology and possible future of these disputes.

Healthcare is vital for our well-being and it affects us all to our core.  It is always a potential central focus for the class struggle, with well over 1.9 million of us working in healthcare settings and over 1.25 million working in the NHS alone – the NHS being easily the largest employer in the U.K.

All disputes in the health sector then are of vital concern for our class.  This time it’s the ‘junior doctors’’ strike and the results are described as stalemate, again.  This is despite it including the largest number of consecutive strike days (6 days) within the NHS.  The dispute is now into its second year.

With the handshake (enthusiastically or stated as somewhat reluctantly) between health unions and government in regard to many other health workers, the state has felt emboldened to both flatly refuse the doctors’ demands and to accuse them of being selfish and irresponsible.  Meanwhile, some Trusts reflecting government policy, tried enforcing a return to work through the use of derogation (demands for temporary cover by striking health workers on a regular basis instead of previously, where it was only used only in emergency situations).

It all appeared so different the previous winter.  As a class, our living standards had been under the cosh of state and capital for years.  We had been patronised, including being clapped, by the parasites in power.  This as many of us had put our lives on the line during a horrific pandemic.  Around Westminster there were raucous parties but for health and other workers, long hours and emotionally tumultuous days spent away from family and friends, had often been the norm.  A number of friends and colleagues died.  Others were facing a long slog back to health.

The RCN had since its inception been seen primarily as a professional nursing body and had as an organisation never supported health workers taking industrial action.  It had always maintained a no strike agreement and totally hamstrung its members.  The situation though, was now so bad in the health service and among our class, that members of the RCN obtained an overwhelmingly positive mandate for action and were out on historic picket lines (2022-23).  This was with nurses making up the single largest part of the workforce in the NHS.

Parallels with other historic and concurrent international actions by nurses (France, Germany, N. Ireland, USA, Argentina…) were drawn and expected by some to be surpassed.  Over ½ a million nurses, health visitors and support workers in the NHS were involved in the actions.  Joining them were the physiotherapists, radiographers and ambulance workers. 

There was a massive swelling of good will among many members of the public. The initial feeling on the picket line was one of determination. “Surely, we could win this?!” Indeed, for those of us who were on the picket lines, it was hard to remember such a degree of support that was clearly evident now. Car and bus horns were blaring, our communities joined the picket line, well-wishing and food was readily provided by passers-by and other striking workers in transport, warehouses and telecommunications.

Contrasting this though, there was unease at the backs of some minds over what would or wouldn’t happen next?  For as sure as night follows day, to those with a long memory of struggle, the usual happened: whilst the state clearly showed whose side it was on (not ours!), paralysed by fear of legislation and wanting to appear reasonable to capital, union representatives did little to encourage co-ordinated, unified and determined action.  Though there was the usual bluster in speeches, meetings and marches.

On the one hand, ambulance workers were holding widely differing days of action depending on the union involved (GMB, Unite, Unison), whilst the state viciously attacked them, sensing blood.  Meanwhile, Unite and Unison failed to organise effective ballots and even encouraged workers in the health sector, including nurses, to accept crumbs.  We even heard the excuse, “Well, the RCN used to scupper our actions…”.  Occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and associated technicians had no involvement officially at all in these disputes, despite having taken action in the past.

Then, leading into the summer of 2023, a “unique deal for nurses” was discussed through the RCN “leadership”.  This was something that would have accentuated the existing divisions between health workers.  It also threatened to exacerbate the worst aspects of the already dreadful, NHS health wide, ‘Agenda for Change’ pay scales and job descriptors, and made a total nonsense of the same thing.  When this failed to happen, the same officialdom recommended the end of industrial action and a humiliated handshake with employers and government.

Though defying this call in a further mandate for strike action, the determination of the nurses had gone. The momentum was lost and strikes discontinued.  Health workers felt demoralised and their positions far weaker than the previous winter.  Poor pay and condition deals were now the order of the day, once again!  True, not 1% this time but now … wow, 3% plus 6%!  Or is it?  The lame pay deals are so confusing that who actually understands them?  Maybe that’s the point?

Concurrently, little to nothing was offered to address staff shortages and burn out.  50,000 extra nursing students were going to be recruited, or already had apparently, in a complete fantasy land existing purely in the heads of our delightful ruling class representatives.

At the root of what happened, is the tragedy that we have lost confidence as a class.  We have been on the back foot for so long that we have forgot what it is like to take unified non collaborative action, determined by ourselves.

So, now we are at this moment, where the medics (doctors and perhaps soon, consultants) are the only ones taking action. Their demands go ignored or ridiculed by the useless Master class and opposition is whipped up by the press. This, a class and its cheerleaders that see no problem in throwing resource after resource down the drain, in pursuit of the Narnia of an attempt at a return of profit rates in capitalism. Whilst enforcing austerity on our class and being unable to provide for a comprehensive healthcare system, they and the capitalist system can always afford mass slaughter in war after war.

A complete mistitle, these doctors are “Junior” in name only.  Many have immense responsibilities and stress.  The BMA has 46,000 of these ‘junior doctors’ as members.  Its demands around pay and better staffing numbers to prevent burnout, if actually taken literally, are in reality more realistic than those of the previous health union ones.  But even this would only sets things back partly to the pre-2008 position and then only after a number of years of staged increases.  It would hardly be a bed of roses for anyone.  It is also true to say that the BMA members failed to stand soon enough alongside other health workers, when the chance arose.  Again, hidebound by professionalism and convention, legalism and trade unionism’s sectional and collaborative approach, an opportunity to win a dispute at the most opportune moment had been scuppered.

Still, we need to stand alongside the doctors’ actions outside of union officialdom and magnify them.  Indeed, despite naysayers amplified by the bourgeois press, some health workers and members of the public are doing precisely this.

We need to amplify this dispute and lift our horizons.  Our living standards continue to fall, exhaustion through work intensification and low staffing levels continue apace.  The recent pay deals are already made null by inflation, particularly food inflation.  As health workers and as a class generally, there is no choice but to take up the struggle once again.  Some doctors say they have learnt lessons about the importance of taking continual action from the recent defeat of other health workers.  Such insights, if true in reality, need encouraging. 

In response to the raising of their demands, we should also lift our own.  A victory for the doctors would represent a victory for all of us!  A lifting of the ceiling and a victory in one of the battles of the class war is something to be celebrated.  We should never resent or resist the more ambitious material and social demands of other members of our class.  Furthermore, the best way to achieve victory is always to unite on the basis of clear class consciousness and solidarity.

Action in dispute need not be demoralising, uncoordinated or result in crap handshake deals between union “leaders”, employers and government officials.  The attempted frequent use of derogation seen recently in the daily running of services to allegedly maintain minimum service and staffing levels, can be seen as a weakness on behalf of employers, capital and state.  It was clearly an attempted manipulation and it proved extremely controversial.  It also demonstrated once again the crucial importance of our class in society.  Doctors were only striking for a few hours before derogation was called for or, “services would simply cease to operate and be available”.

Rather than simply threaten to work elsewhere if we can (however tempting), we can unify class wide and build our confidence for future possibilities.  Meetings and discussions with other health workers (including agency and locum ones), patients and community members can take place.  These via networks and in assemblies run directly by ourselves collectively.  Securing the support of other members of our class (which health workers are already in a good position to do), imaginative and effective means of struggle across “job boundaries” that best protects patients and working class communities can be devised.

Though demanding much solidarity and determination in the face of severely restrictive legislation – such tactics as, lightning strikes, the social solidarity strike, slow downs, lock outs of employers, provision for all without question for those attending A&E and various clinics, are all possible.  Such actions would obviously vary depending on appropriateness per service and patient group.

Health workers should not fall into the trap of sacrificing their lives for “a calling”.  This, a term used not to encourage social solidarity but to simply work us into an early grave.  We should not roll over for an insurance based health system but struggle for a truly integrated one built upon real free access; one that provides for all human health needs.

Effective health provision is clearly collapsing within capitalism.  There is regular resource sapping state interference, profiteering and brutal cuts (medication, community provision, ambulance, staff and bed numbers…).  Health provision could also do without the awful stifling bureaucracy and hierarchy endemic both to the NHS and private services.

No more rationing of provisions, no more obsessive professional and sectional boundaries nor the dreadful merry go round of useless and badly informed managers giving orders.  No more collapsing living standards and poor public health.  No more divisions between work and play.  No more wars in capitalism preyed upon us, where health workers and others in our class face the dreadful results.

There can be no stalemate! Health care is of universal concern for all. So is a truly free, universal healthcare system – one where we have a real say in its operation. Capital exploitation needs to be and can be ended, if we build our self-confidence, united as a class, in struggle for emancipation.

By Bones

Post Office Scandal – 1st Class Capitalism

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What has Government ever done for you? – The Bloody Sunday scandal; the Windrush scandal; the Hillsborough scandal; the Infected Blood scandal: the Iraq War scandal; the Grenfell Scandal; the Covid disaster scandal…  Liz Truss!

And now the Post Office Scandal.

Tragically it took a representation of real life through TV drama to bring a longstanding injustice to public awareness.  But it did, and its power is both intrinsic and resonant.  We have seen it all before.

The current focus and justified anger in the UK over the scandalous prosecution by the Post Office of over 700 sub-postmasters over a 20 year period reveals an inconvenient truth.  That the modern State in all its forms is a bastard of capitalism!

Perverting the course of justice; bullying and abuse of workers; implications of perjury; the alleged lying to the accused; the relentlessness of pursuit, the suppression of evidence and silencing of those who raised their voices was done by a nationally owned institution that once rivalled the NHS in prestige and affection.  In “Mafia” style.

The public ownership of the nationalised Postal Service has not prevented It from acting as a persecuting agent of state and government interests with the tenacity of an East European secret police.  A business like any other.

The experiences of corporate bullying and injustice will be very familiar to those working in much of the private sector, assumed to be the poorer employer in terms of quality of work experience than the nationalised sector.  What shocks many is the exposure of the myth of the state as a benign controller of capital.

The reality is that nothing about capitalism is benign.  Wage labour always exploits as it never pays us for the true value of the product of our labour. Every employer (bar perhaps the smallest inspirational charitable enterprises) has a boss or hierarchical management that mimics the state without its democratic pretensions.

Even Local Authorities, and the worthiest of charitable Human Rights enterprises see themselves as businesses, with what used to be collaborative personnel sections reconfigured as ‘HR Business Partners’.  Standing not for Human Rights but an Orwellian dehumanising concept of ‘Human Resources’ – serving the corporate structure not the individual or collective. 

Millions of us workers, at home and abroad, witnessed the tooth and claw nature of employment in its totally holy alliance with state and capital as we recently struggled, or continue to, against war driven austerity. 

(Never austere for war though, there’s always enough money for that as they bomb Yemen and hand another £2.5 billion pounds for Ukraine to buy British weapons.)

Whoever controls capital, individual rich exploiters, carpet bagging hedge funders or the powermongers behind state nationalisation, it remains what it is – Capitalism!

State Capitalism and Private Capitalism are two cheeks of the same oppressive arse that needs a damn good kicking!  The whole rotten collaborative structure of government, exploiters, their lackeys and minions needs tearing down.  That will end their austerity and their wars.

We know and feel we have to fight back.  Our lives depend on it.  Millions of us want to, and the workers at the Post Office might not even be at the front or the queue!

Article by Drefuss

Israel and Anti-Militarism

anarcomnet

Murderous conflicts occurring through the system of capital and state continue, intensify and now threaten to engulf entire regions.  Both the wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East drag on into another year and become increasingly barbarous.  Starvation, mass killings, ethnic cleansing, kidnappings, humiliation and torture are clearly encouraged by the powers that be.  The war in the Middle East, as well as in Eastern Europe, increasingly involves power and imperial blocs taking up their battle positions. This, despite the war focused on Gaza supposedly being “over by Christmas” (how many times have we heard that before?)!

As such, effective resistance often demands great bravery on the part of members of our class, their companions, supporters and friends.  In this context, a number of us now know the names, Tal Mitnick and Yuval Dag. 

Tal Mitnick is an 18-year-old vocal member of ‘Mesarvot’ (‘We Refuse’), which numbers a few hundred.  Tal became the first open objector to serving in the IDF since the start of the current conflict and cited his opposition to the attacks upon the collective population of Gaza as a reason.  For Tal considers the attacks, a “murderous revenge”, that does nothing to address the root cause of the conflict. 

Meanwhile, Yuval Dag is a 21-year-old who served 64 days in Neve Tzedek military prison in Tel Aviv last Spring.  He was supported as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International and has if anything, become increasing vocal in his criticism of the situation throughout the Middle East and in Gaza and the West Bank, in particular, since then.

In Israel, military conscription is mandatory and is seen as, “defining you as a somebody in Israeli society”.   There is also a saying that, “a nation building an army is a nation building itself”.  This lays bare the shared roots of nationalism and militarism, as part of the cancerous ethos of state and capital. 

Dissent in Israel does have quite a lengthy tradition.  However, outside of the ruling class, nationalist religious zealots, and their supporters (who often get a pass on risking their necks), people there trying to avoid military service lately face massive obstacles and are at the least pressurised to keep quiet – or else! For in the wake of the attacks of 7th October last year, the state in Israel and unfortunately among a substantial part of the wider society, has been engaging in a bitter offensive against any who dare to even think about resisting the cry to take up the fight for nation, religion, and the exploitative and oppressive current system.  This reflects a call by the master class that increasingly imperils our class and humanity itself.

It is likely then that for such reasons, reports of actual open opposition to the draft in Israel during the Gaza war have not been noted or publicised until very recently.  However, in the last month, pieces on Mitnick, Dag, their friends and supporters have appeared.  Of note too, these reports describe their increasingly determined stance, where they have made comments strongly alluding to the importance of internationalism among our class.  Mitnick has appeared in embracing both radical anti-authoritarian and anti-militarist perspectives.

The bravery of these people in doing this is laid bare by the fact that Mitnick faces at least 30 days (and likely substantially longer) in jail after being sentenced in late December 2023, and will no doubt be bitterly ostracised when is freed.  Meanwhile, Dag, though being imprisoned last year and from a nationalist family, has not kept quiet, and vocally supports Mitnick and fellow conscious workers for their anti-militarism.  There are others starting to do the same.

The names of those openly resisting is now increasing.  Sofia Orr (18 yrs old) and Iddo Elam (17 and also from the ‘Mesarvot’ group) have gone public in stating their opposition to being drafted (the former in the face of being ‘called up’ next month). All have described the importance of having a network of friends and supporters around them, now more than ever. 

Iddo has stated that “one massacre doesn’t justify another” and then gone on to say that they are now steadfast in their “rejection of the entire current system”.  Iddo and Sofia fear both for their friend Tal in prison and of the same fate whilst receiving death threats awaiting themselves.  However, being members of a group showing solidarity with each other has galvanised their collective determination.

Their numbers may appear still relatively few as yet, but they could increase notably further as the murderous battles continue, the reality of the current system perhaps becomes transparent to many more and if the internationalist word spreads.  Importantly, as noted above, some appear to be starting to embrace a class struggle, emancipatory position, as opposed to a liberal pacifist one.  It is greatly encouraging to see that revolutionary No War But the Class War graffiti has now been spotted in the local urban streets around Tel Aviv.

All is vital to stop the nightmare of war, famine, poverty, nationalism, ethnic cleansing, barbarity, torture, the growing threat of theocrats, as well as the daily dose of oppression, alienation and exploitation.  The anti-militarist class war is the only war which will unite us as an international working class to prevent a death spiral, to liberate ourselves and to finally live in harmony with this planet.  Total respect to those resisting and to those who share the struggle in solidarity!

Article by Bloque

European clampdown on Anarchists:

anarcomnet

In the last year we have seen an increase in a clampdown on anarchists, anarchist propaganda and a ramping up of anti-left-wing rhetoric and laws.

This clampdown on anarchists has specifically targeted those opposed to wars globally. In Greece, France (as detailed in our article here: https://anarcomuk.uk/2023/09/14/solidarity-with-french-comrades-against-state-repression-an-international-call-for-a-week-of-action/ ) and now Italy (see below).

This coupled with recent attacks by the right wing in the UK (even in the last week ex PM [pointless minister] Liz Truss has said that her failure was not her or her cabinet but the tofu eating left wing wokerati) that the problems in the UK are caused by left wing extremists and strikes, and this follows of the footsteps of Cruella Braverman’s attack on the left time and time again.  This all comes along with various laws and proposed Acts outlawing protest, strikes and even criticism of the government.

The following was forwarded to use by our comrades in Tridna Valka (Class War):

We share on this place the solidarity call with the comrades from the anarchist fortnightly Bezmotivny, who are facing a trial in Italy for their antimilitarist activities (especially against the war in Ukraine).

In recent weeks, the four comrades under restrictive house arrest since Aug. 8 for Operation Scripta Scelera were notified of the decree setting the immediate trial and consequently the start of the trial at the Massa court, before the monocratic judge, next Jan. 9, 2024. A total of ten anarchists are involved in the investigation: in addition to the four under house arrest, there are five comrades under the obligation to stay overnight (one among them currently also under the obligation to sign) and one comrade under investigation at large.

For all of them, Federico Manotti, prosecutor of the Genoa Public Prosecutor’s Office, had requested arrest in prison for subversive association for the purpose of terrorism, incitement to commit a crime with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism, clandestine printing, as well as only for some also offending the honor and prestige of the president of the republic — offenses allegedly consumed with the editing and distribution of the internationalist anarchist fortnightly “Bezmotivny.” The request for immediate trial concerns only the charges of aggravated incitement to commit a crime and insulting the honor and prestige of the president of the republic.

Recall that the immediate trial is a special procedure characterized by the absence of the preliminary hearing: in fact, it goes from the preliminary investigation to the trial hearing. This procedure is actionable only in the event that the prosecutor and the investigating judge, who must validate the request, believe they have overwhelming evidence of the suspect’s guilt and that he or she is in a state of detention (in prison or under house arrest).

In the recent past, the Rome prosecutor’s office had the tracotence to proceed with this formula in the context of Operation Bialystok, but this did not bring great luck to the inquisitors. Lately, the trial of comrade Marco Marino, known as Zac, has also been taking place under immediate trial.

However, this is the first time, as far as we can remember, that in the context of an anti-anarchist investigation the immediate trial is being triggered for only part of the suspects, breaking the investigation into several strands. This is an obvious attempt to sap solidarity and, above all, to quickly dismiss a part of the proceedings with a precedent that can be used in the future to plug the anarchist press.

Overall, the operation seems rather bungled. The hearing for the immediate trial has been set while the cassation hearing on precautionary measures (which will also concern the associative charge) has not yet taken place, with an unusual destination (the monocratic judge of a peripheral court) that could be declared incompatible during the course of the trial.

On the other hand, some of those indicted for editing the anarchist fortnightly will presumably be tried only later, as they will not be able to intervene at the time when issues that undoubtedly concern them (above all, the theoretical profile of the newspaper) will be discussed, ending up on trial with a previous sentence already handed down on the subject. Therefore, on this occasion too, the Genoa Investigative Judge chose to align himself with the prosecutor’s demands.

The story of “Bezmotivny” is a story of solidarity, of internationalism, of class struggle. The story of a newspaper that has never shied away from supporting imprisoned anarchists around the world and publishing claims. It spent itself in the solidarity movement with Alfredo Cospito, who, moreover, ended up in 41 bis regime also following a proceeding for incitement to commit crimes with the aggravating factor of the purpose of terrorism, the Sibilla operation (mainly inherent to “Vetriolo“).

Three comrades investigated in Scripta Scelera were also involved in Sibilla, and the Genoese prosecutor’s operation partially unfolded along the lines of the previous proceeding, so Scripta Scelera is aimed at consolidating as a repressive practice the precautionary measures with reference to the charges of aggravated incitement to commit crimes concerning revolutionary publications.

“Bezmotivny” has taken an uncompromising internationalist position against the war in Ukraine: against every state, starting with our own, for revolutionary defeatism, for the defeat of NATO. This repressive operation is an expression of the war policies of the Italian state.

That history is also our history. The technical acrobatics of an author-seeking magistrate will not be enough to make a course like this be judged and dismissed out of hand.

AGAINST CENSORSHIP, WE PERSEVERE IN AGITATION AND ANARCHIST PROPAGANDA!

Italy: Operation Scripta Scelera – immediate trial sought for Gaia, Gino, Luigi and Paolo. The trial will begin on Jan. 9

We in the AnarCom Network stand in solidarity with our comrades across Europe and the rest of the world who stand against war mongering and authoritarianism!

Article intro by Mikey Dredd

Happy New.. Err…

anarcomnet

“…insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” –  Albert Einstein.

2023 turns into 2024, just as 2020 did into 2021.   Let’s not even go there with 2022!

“Smile..” they said, “..it could be worse!”  We did, and so did ‘it’!   The only difference now is that smiles are even harder to find.  What are we expecting to change?

That we become less ‘austere’ than we have been for 15 years?  That our debt be more addressable than our health needs?  That painless dentistry will one day be available when you need it?

That the next roof over our heads is more affordable or lasts longer than the last one?  Or that we even get a roof at all?  Perhaps that our lungs will finally draw fresh breath, or that we are marched no closer to the edge of extinction through nuclear oblivion? 

To coin an old Welsh working class idiom:  “Wish in one hand and shit in the other, see which fills up first!”  We all know which one, we’ve always really known and see the proof of it as night follows day – as ’23 turns to ’24.

Expectations, wishes and change are not givens.  At some point we have to decide, choose and act!  To cast out the hamster wheel along with the cage. 

No one reading this, unless you are on the wrong side (you know who you are), has heartfelt belief that we are on the right track, that this is the best humanity can be, or deserves.

We the working class create all wealth and produce all things.  We dominate the world in vast numbers and through that energy to create we can destroy the world of war and exploitation. 

We deserve better and can create a truly human community through choice, organisation and action.   And resolution!

If you have one New Years Revolution to make, make it…the clock is ticking.  Happy Revolution everyone, don’t miss out…the offer is for an increasingly short time only!

AnarCom Net ’23/’24

ACTION WEEK / PRAGUE / 20 – 26 MAY 2024

anarcomnet

From 20 to 26 May 2024, Prague will host the Action Week, whose motto is:

“Together against capitalist wars and capitalist peace.”

Each weekday during this week will see a different event. There will be presentations, discussions, fundraisers, protests and various types of direct action. Then the end of the week will be devoted to a bookfair and an internationalist conference, where we will try to shift from theoretical matters towards the coordination of concrete anti-war activities.

The overarching theme of the days of action was not chosen at random. It is a topic of global importance. The inter-state wars that have escalated in the last few years are bringing humanity closer to the possibility of another world war breaking out. Millions of people are already being sacrificed in wars and the situation will get worse if there is no adequate response. Therefore, in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and revolutionary defeatism, we seek to give individuals and groups from different parts of the world the opportunity to meet, to associate and to coordinate their joint efforts.

The bourgeoisie and its allies talk about war so that they can turn us into cannon fodder or into those whose life energy keep the wheels of war production spinning.

For our part, let’s talk about how to sabotage the war, how to prevent the proletarians from being sent to the slaughter, how to block the supply and transport of weapons, how to organize desertions, mutinies and fraternization among the proletarians in uniform on both sides of the front line, how to turn our guns against the organizers of the massacre, i.e. against “our own” bourgeoisie and its lackeys…

Let’s talk about how to turn the imperialist war into a revolutionary war for the abolition of the class society of capital based on misery.

Our only answer to the capitalist war is revolutionary defeatism, that we organize ourselves and work for the overthrow of “our own bourgeoisie” and therefore of the world bourgeoisie and capital as a whole.

Let’s discuss and share this call, let’s get organized.

THIS CALL IS ADDRESSED TO:
  • To anyone in the world who is struggling against the attacks of capital, against all wars and against all bourgeois states with the aim of destroying capital and all social relations resulting from it, as well as all forms of exploitation.
  • To all those who are aware that there is no such thing as a just war or a defensive war. There is no camp that represents barbarism while the other represents civilization, there is no camp that is more aggressive than the other, and there is no democratic camp against a dictatorial or fascist camp. All wars are capitalist wars, where different bourgeois factions are pitted against each other. Every war is a war of the bourgeoisie against the proletariat!
  • To those who do not support either faction of the bourgeoisie against the other, but fight against each of them. Those who do not defend or participate in inter-class fronts.
  • To those individuals, and groups, who fight against the policy of “defense of the national economy”, and “sacrifice in favor of the war economy”, to those who do not accept the expansionist tactics of their own bourgeoisie, even if it faces an economic, political or military attack.
  • To all those who do not consider themselves pacifists but revolutionaries. To all those who do not aspire to a bourgeois peace where the exploitation of our labor force can continue in slightly different conditions.
  • To all those who want to turn the inter-bourgeois war into a revolutionary war, the war between states into a struggle for the destruction of all states.
  • To all those who recognize in their practice that the proletariat has no fatherland to defend. Our enemy is not the proletarians driven into the trenches on the other side of the front, but the bourgeoisie – in practice, above all, the bourgeoisie “in our own country”, “our own” bourgeoisie, the one that directly organizes our exploitation.
  • And finally, to those who, according to their strength and situation, fight against the bourgeoisie by promoting the development of the proletariat as a revolutionary class and contributing to the building and development of proletarian internationalism.
THE FOLLOWING GROUPS AND PROJECTS WILL BE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ACTION WEEK:

https://actionweek.noblogs.org/post/2023/12/29/action-week-prague-20-26-may-2024/

“The war, for that moment, came to a standstill.”  The WW1 Christmas Truce:

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“All of a sudden, lights appeared along the German trench. And I thought this is a funny thing. And then the Germans started singing ‘Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht’. And I woke up, and all the sentries did the same thing, all woke up the other people to come along and see this and what the Earth is going on…They finished their carol and we applauded them and we thought we should retaliate in some way. So, we replied with The First Noel.

And along that line we were suddenly able to see Germans doing exactly the same thing all out in the open. And we just looked at each other for some time and then one or two soldiers went towards them. They met, they shook hands, they swapped cigarettes. They got talking. The war, for that moment, came to a standstill.”   Rifleman Graham Williams, 5th London Rifle Brigade

“Suddenly a Tommy came with a football… And then began a football match. We marked our goals with our caps. Tommy did also. And we had much kicking. And then, after all, the Germans won the football game 3-2.”  Johannes Niemann, 2nd lieutenant, 33rd Saxon Regiment.

“Several of them spoke English. They rather expressed their dislike… for the whole war in fact. They weren’t aggressive at all. Some of them said they had been to London, been to England, in fact, they gave every indication of being glad to meet.”  Col. Scott Shepherd.