Communique from Operation Solidarity, Ukraine

"Greetings, comrades!

We are the Ukrainian anti-authoritarian volunteer network, “Operation Solidarity”.

Since the first days of escalation by Russia, we have taken part in the resistance against the invasion, as have the majority of Ukrainian anarchists and anti-authoritarian left activists because we believe that this war is imperialist and usurping.

This is not a war of "de-nazification", as the Kremlin claims. The problems of the far-right in Ukraine exist as they do in many European countries, but their scale is highly exaggerated by Russian propaganda which exploits antifascism. Life in Ukraine is incomparably more free than it is in Russia, which has only become increasingly fascistic during the course of this escalation.
Ukraine's Russian-speaking population does not need to be "liberated". As of now, this war is primarily being waged in regions where Russian language prevails, where local people join the territorial defense units en masse, craft Molotov cocktails, and construct barricades to repel the so-called “liberators”.
Though we remain critical towards the actions of western countries up until now, responsibility for this war lies solely with the highest seats of power in Russia, unrelenting in their ambition to expand their sphere of influence.

The war in Ukraine is a people’s war. We cannot stand idly by!

Presently, our comrades have joined the territorial defense and have formed their units there. The primary objective of Operation Solidarity is to provide them with everything they need. Such needs include: procuring high-grade body armour, ballistic helmets, tactical medical kits, and a myriad other military equipment. As of now, obtaining such vital necessities is impossible in Ukraine.

Additionally, Operation Solidarity aids refugees, distributes precious medications, and lends ever important and tangible support to local anti-authoritarian initiatives. We collaborate with the feminist cooperative ReSew, Lviv Vegan Kitchen, as well as a courier initiative distributing medication in Kyiv.

Finally, we receive and review applications from international volunteers who have opted to join the anarchist unit of the territorial defense and help facilitate their journey to Ukraine.

At this time, we call for your solidarity. Lukewarm, indecisive stances and abstract denunciations of war in general will not help us stop the dictator. Hence, we encourage you to state your concrete position in whatever form you can– we will spread your expression of solidarity here in Ukraine. We ask you to support our volunteer organization! Our duty is to provide our comrades with everything they need, and that cannot be accomplished without your help!

Greetings from Kyiv,
Operation Solidarity
https://t.me/solidarnistinua"

Anarchist News dot org editorial added July 8, 2022:

Solidarity Collectives Statement
from July 04, 2022

We, the former members of the Operation Solidarity network, together with European comrades, want to inform you about what happened in our initiative.

Since the first days of the war, our collective has been supplying our anti-authoritarian comrades who took up arms with everything they needed. Together we created the logistical network linking EU countries and Ukraine. We gathered funds and bought equipment for more than 100 fighters. We communicated our views on the war to thousands of our foreign comrades, we delivered tons of humanitarian aid. But at some point work of the network in which dozens of people from different countries are involved was effectively blocked by a small group of people — a person known as Salem, his brother, and their friend.

read more here: https://telegra.ph/Solidarity-Collectives-Statement-07-04

There are 69 Comments

Josep Borrell is supporting you, and more weaponry is on the way. Run fast!

Nice to hear a sober view on the war that's not saying "both sides are (equally) bad!". This is what anarchists in Ukraine want. We should support them.

wouldn't support those who refuse to engage in war or military actions , from both sides, make more sense for anarchists?

there is an old anti-militarist tradition within the anarchist movement that should be reactivated.

Anarcho-pacifists for totalitarianism! Long live the new czar!

fight in a war between states? you are missing the point.

feel satisfied with bloody revolutions ?
kil all the czars with EU weaponry!

I think it is you who is missing the point. You obviously have no clue what is going on. When your anarchism is so artificial that you can't even make a proper analysis of the nature of two different states, we better talk about the poverty of your ideology.
„We are firmly convinced that the most imperfect republic is a thousand times better than the most enlightened monarchy."

do states have a different nature?

Napoleon rise to power shows bakunin quote was wrong.

And it is preferable to numerous republics around the state mapped world. The way you evaluate the bad to worse states is by their levels of control and repression. None of them deserve support.

Like the Zek boo said, “Whom amongst us is not repressioned?” Therefore… You have to look at at least 10000 years of repression edits you can cognitively decide with utmost egregorian certainty if a monarch is more fun for edgelording on the internet than perhaps a mobil republic of multiverse earth #78. Egregore knows this.

That is just maliciously misunderstanding what Bakunin meant. You just don't want to see what is going on.

Well: bad enough that Russia is a Republic too. Even a democratic one. And Bakunin says: "the most imperfect republic", so you can't exclude Russia in any way.
Logically seen, Bakunins arguments would be pointed more against states like Great Britain or Liechtenstein, to mention two random enlighted monarchies.
But yeah, nobody will care about basic logic, its war, so stop thinking!
Anyway: quoting cult personalities is absurd, but if you don't even apply basic logic to it... For sure, you would have found enough other liberal democratic anarchists in history to state your argument of urgency to drop your antimilitarist principles exactly in the crucial moment.
BTW: for sure bakunins statement was in a totally different situation, thats clear. And its not an argument anyway. Who cares what Bakunin said about republics? Would you mind what he said about jews for example?

Ironically your quote would serve well to argue that the Russian Federation (a republic) is a million times preferable to The UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, etc...

I agree with this too. But it's a fight against oppressors here. Ukrainian anarchist are not in support of the Ukrainian state.

The Ukrainian Territorial Defense Force is a paramilitary outfit completely subsumed under the control and command of the Ukrainian armed forces. This call is even worse than the ones from the phony anarchists in Rojava (who had the good taste not to mention that they were being trained and armed by US Special Forces). Civilians being recruited and organized into an armed force fighting for the defense of a state is not anarchist by any stretch of the imagination. If these dudes want to shoot Russian soldiers, fine. If they want to resist the invasion of their cities and living spaces, fine. If they want to join the pro-government armed forces, fine. But don't try to say it's anarchist and turn around and shame anarchists who question and reject their absurd rhetoric about a "people's war". Just because granny is making mollies doesn't mean the state's monopoly on the legitimate use of violence is being called into question, let alone negated. Fuck this moralistic pro-war rhetoric. Resist, disobey, sabotage, desert; fight war, not wars.

NAWT

Not intentional pun on Putin's latest paranoid rhetoric, but there's active influencers like Ziq and maybe Wayne Price (assuming they ain't the same) who're actively engaged in shaming anyone who's not supporting this "people's war", calling them tankies or whatev. As if it'd be better to be fighting alongside Far Right fash scum than Red fash... Internet celebs like threm deserve to the named and recorded for their actions as they've been posing and posting as legit anarchist authors, so that future readers can remember them for their support to statist war rhetoric and militarism.

Rojava support was something questionable indeed, but at least in Rojava there was a level of consistency with anarchist ideals, even if it was for the most part libsoc ideas.

If I'd be joining myself some truly autonomous and anarchistic group fighting against Russia, I still would be feeling like I'm putting my life on the line, and also working very hard, to the bottom-line benefit of the Ukrainian state, and being an unpaid black ops of NATO, in some way (as if being the Left's black ops, i.e. the black bloc, hasn't been enough! My life as a shame-slave of politics!). So at this point, why not openly get hired by the CIA for the paycheck and potential life insurance? No wait...

The Ukrainian anarchists are fighting for the defense of a people. At this time this fight is dominated by the Ukrainian state, but the anarchists are not politically supporting this state anymore than they support the capitalist economy. No doubt they are doing their best to persuade the majority of Ukrainians that anarchy and libertarian socialism are superior to the capitalist state. Meanwhile there is this Russian invasion and mass massacre of the Ukrainian people. Shall the anarchists stand aside, saying, We will not support the people against the invaders so long as they are so foolish as to not be anarchists? This is not the way to win over the Ukrainian workers and ordinary people!

This fight was dominated by the Ukrainian state from day one, Wayne. Day one was January 22nd, 2014. The autonomous populist elements of this resistance are rooted in Banderist tendencies, 100x times more than your outdated and anachronic Makhnovism.

Shall I also remind yoiu for the 1739th time that contemporsry Ukraine is a product of the late Soviet Union and only started to exist as a standalone country in the '90s. It is entirely a top-down , statist political construct.

Wayne keeps repeating himself, to no avail (at least here, for the most part). his pro-war rhetoric is transparent, his implicit support for the Ukrainian state and its armed forces despicable. nobody is saying that anarchists should "stand aside" because it's not their fight. what i've been saying is that there should be sabotage, and resistance that isn't part of the Ukrainian state or its armed forces or its paramilitary force, and desertion and fraternization among the Russian armed forces. attempting to "win over" Ukrainians -- what happened to all those anti-war Russians, Wayne? smh -- to what you call anarchism is going to fail just as Love & Rage and NEFAC, your own two stupid anarchist projects, failed. you can't even figure out that one of the many reasons both of those projects failed was precisely due to the national(ist) question. Anti-Imperialism is truly the other socialism of fools.

I think it can be ok to get into ad hominem arguments during discussions. To do so whilst staying anonymous yourself is rather awkward.

yeah... the concept of "a people" needs to be fucking buried deep. what the fuck are you talking about? what people? millions of people who would rather see you locked up over your rhetoric than call you comrade, Wayne? gtfooh.

The last Anon says I repeat myself to no avail (although it seems that I am in agreement with Ukrainian anarchists). Yet what they propose is independent military action by anarchists in Ukraine, such as sabotage--in short, pointing the guns against the same enemy as the Ukrainian government, during the invasion. Just not joining the official army or the semi-official volunteer groups. But if you do this, you will find it necessary to coordinate with the official military, in order not to shoot each other with "friendly fire." What seems like a big principled difference to you is not so big in practice.

If it is possible to learn from history, during the Spanish Revolution, the mainstream of anarchists capitulated to the Spanish bourgeois government, in coalition with liberals, social democrats, and Stalinists. I agree that we don't want this to happen again. Some radicals, outside of Spain, proposed supporting neither the fascists nor the bourgeois-democratic Loyalist Republic. But the Friends of Durruti Group proposed that anarchists not join the government coalition, but work inside the military and factories against the fascists--until they had won over enough to the working people that they were able to initiate a revolution to replace the bourgeois-democratic state as well as the fascists. I believe that this strategy is still relevant here. (Unfortunately the FODG was formed too late to carry out their strategy.)

Wayne, you can only claim to be in agreement with *SOME* Ukrainians, who may or may not be anarchists. See, that's the problem with pronouncements like yours and this dozen-strong affinity group: despite all of your pretensions, none of you can claim to hold THE anarchist position. Hell, even I can't, even though the vast majority of anarchists throughout history have been against war on principle.
And please stop bringing up failed projects to bolster your failing position; it's just embarrassing for everyone

I hold the anarchist position. You cannot claim that I do not. I wage war on your pronouncement that you are right. I agree with all who pronounce you are wrong. I bring up successful projects to bolster my successful position which you may embarrassingly think are failed but you are wrong. I am right. And you are ugly and smell badly while I am pretty and smell good. This is the truth and the anarchist position.

Victory for the capitalist people of Ukraine! sabotage--in short, pointing the guns against the binary capitalist competitor as the Ukrainian government, during the invasion. Just not joining a truly anarch army or the semi-official volunteer groups who are passifist and not concerned about property capital or borders. Parrot puppets abound, is it the adrenaline of masculinity which unleashes this clichéd rhetoric about heroism and bravery, whilst children die to uphold this gender construct Waynie boy!?
Oh you dull brained moron, ahaa, Waynie Boy the Anarchist armchair hero duuuh!

...they *desert*!

(This was my glory quote of the month, thank you)

I am completely with you Price. The purist position is not bringing anything here and I agree that pragmatic realism is in place here. I've seen the argument a lot that when fighting the same enemy you are supposedly on 'the same page'. This is truely non-sense and simplistic arguing.

'The people' are defenitively a vague word, still it is rooted in a working class understanding. That means we are also not just with the working class or the common people in the Ukraine, but also those in Belarussia and Russia, able to see their common interests to resist Putinist Russia, Lukaschenko and fascism by militias in Ukraine.

The comrades in the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia fight on many fronts and have to navigate very complex territory with many contradictions - some you can't pick yourself but are faced with anyway.

"Victory to the Ukrainian People" = Once an icepickhead, always an icepickhead...

Are they the same as boneheads? They sound pretty close, like empty cooking pots hitting against each other...

trots are a cult of personality too so ... yes? pretty similar?

I can see a reason for actual antifacist anarchists to get involved on the Ukraine side, and that'd be at least for reporting on which kinds of fascists are in their trenches.

When bombs are falling on apartment buildings, when an estimated 1/2 million people have been forcibly deported by Putin's thugs into the Russian interior, when whole cities are bombed beyond recognition, action talks and bullshit walks. No time to be choosy, you resist with whatever you can get your hands on and hope to hell you are not fighting alone. You may not work WITH your other enemies, but you have to focus on the common enemy if you want to live long enough to have to worry about the others. The time to "lay back and watch the tigers fight" is only when it has become clear that the invaders face certain defeat and they are no longer dangerous to the civilian population.

Those anarchists who live in Ukraine and are fighting against Putin's invaders cannot afford to be choosy about who supplies them with the next loaded magazine or the next antitank rocket that works, because such choosiness could cost them their lives.

Some here are acting like they would have insisted on a "pure" black bloc meeting the highest standards of political purity on Dec 12 2020, when DC faced a Proud Boys invasion. What actually went down was almost exactly the other way around. We had to do Dec 12 by ourselves-because the liberals told everyone else to stay home. When a whole damned division of fascists spearheaded by 1,000+ Proud Boys was bearing down on our home town, it was NOT anarchists telling people to stay home, say on the grounds that Mayor Bowser was and is such a piece of shit. We were not there to fight for Bowser, but for ourselves and for the random folks the Proud Boys were beating up in the streets.

From the macro to the micro: if a dozen Proud Boys had me surrounded and my pepper spray was empty, a Biden supporter handing me another can would have been damned welcome. Same Biden supporter macing the whole line of Proud Boys themselves even more welcome. They can love Mayor Bowser all they want, we will deal with that when the Proud Boys are gone. The fact that Bowser is a pro-police piece of shit, and that Biden's sole qualification for office is not being Trump have nothing whatsoever to do with the value of help on the battlefield when your life is on the line.

Proud Boys are fash, Putin is bigger fash. Instead of fists, knives, and small arms Putin uses tanks, missiles, bombs, white phosphorous, and has threatened to use gas and even nuclear weapons. This war will end either with all of Putin's thugs forcibly driven from Ukraine, with Putin's head on a pike in Moscow(first could bring the second)-or in nuclear fire if anyone fucks things up badly enough.

Luke, your moralism stinks, just like Wayne's and these Ukrainians. How many times does it need to be repeated for you pro-war idiots to get it through your thick skulls? Anarchists on principle do not fight in wars. Resist invaders? Sure. Defend homes? Yep. Flee? If possible or desirable. Ally with or subordinate to statists and nationalists to receive "training" and supplies? Never. Principles are non-negotiable -- that's what makes them principles. Leave the politics of convenience to liberals and guilt mongers.

your principles matter to you - that's great, but you seem to be of the opinion that your principles are everyone's here, which is tbh not great take as an anarchist. i'm sure lots of people in ukraine and elsewhere, anarchists and otherwise, would love to be doing something other than deciding how to fight a war or whether to become a refugee, but hopefully they'll have time to read this insightful commentary and take it to heart

feel free to relocate to a warzone instead of leaving low-grade comments on anews, you'll spend less time boring us and get to put your principles to work in the field, so two birds, one stone

You seem to think that I'm writing for the benefit of people caught in the path of Putin's war. I am not. I am here in this little corner of the @ world refuting pro-war anarchists who don't remember that the vast majority of anarchists over the past 150 years have been against war on principle because war is a mechanism and policy of the state; if you are against the state on principle, you must necessarily be against war on principle. Clearly there are some anarchists who get so bent out of shape over one country's armed forces invading another state that they decide to take sides publicly as anarchists (as Kropotkin and Grave and 14 others did during WWI, and as Rocker and others did during WWII, as Love & Rage did during the first Gulf Massacre). But those anarchists have either: forgotten their principles -- as Malatesta reminded us in 1916 and Graham reminded us in 1942; or due to a typical American anti-intellectual bent, never knew about or adhered to anarchist principles in the first place. Your distracting challenge for me to relocate is another typical moralist posture, also based on transparent ignorance. You and Wayne and Luke should start your own pro-Ukrainian club.

Being partially of Anishinaabe (indigenous/Native American) descent, I have ancestors who faced their (MY) homelands being invaded and destroyed, and this invasion is still ongoing, so resistance continues today. My forbears on that side of the family got the hell off the East Coast when things started going full "Mad Max" in what may have been the 1600's, only to find the invaders came behind them a few centuries later.

As you tell the people of Ukraine not to fight because their government has an army, would you have told my ancestors not to resist the invasion of Turtle Island because all tribes had and have leadership and warriors? Would you dare to tell folks resisting Line 3 and Line 5 today (myself included) to back down because the removal of the invaders would empower tribal leadership?

threading on this site seems to be unreliable, my last post was meant for the one BELOW the one it came up as a reply to

Good for them! Choosing to fight the peeps blowing up your home seems like a fine thing for anarchists or anyone to do. So does choosing to flee. Most of the debate around this sucks. The world really doesn't need our opinions, most of the time.

What do you call it when anarchists find their community under such repression that there is no choice but armed resistance? Whether the attackers pour over some state-defined border or are the local scum rising to the top does not matter. Armed conflict large or small, with states or without them, is still warfare. For most of human history, warfare had more in common with antifa vs proud boys than it did with the massive state level conflicts of today. Small unit raiding and burning, but no superweapons existed yet and mass armies didn't show up until maybe 4,000 years ago.

No doubt some folks here would have not taken up the rifle against Nazi Germany simply because Stalin, or Churchill, or Roosevelt also did. If you would not resist Nazi Germany by either armed or unarmed means you are no anti-fascist.

If "anarchists don't join armies" what were they doing in the Spanish Civil War and in Rojava? Were we suppposed to organize from scratch say, in Poland when Hitler's ovens were being built? Not having your neighbors burned alive is more important that passing anyone's purity test.

Godwin's law was only ever meant to apply to discussions outside fields where Naziism is a potentially valid comparison. It certainly does not apply to a situation compared all over the world to the opening days of WWII, to states that try to conquer neighbor after neighbor, to genocide etc.

Yes, because Godwin's Law basically forbids people to legitimately talk about Neonazos, or actually expose them... Nice try, idiot.

I am an ex-mercenary Foreign Legion warrior who fought bravely for other nations allied to Fraunce, and I would be proud to have a warrior and devoted national fighter like Luke (can I call you The Duke?)fighting beside me as we valiantly charge into superior forces knowing full well it is futile but counting on the possibility that it will give us enormous bar credit if we survive and have bragging rights around all ze beautiful women (or men) needing hard men and their money and endless virtue waving.

Is normally done when it is the only way to survive. Been there, done that. Consider Nov 14 2020 when I was ambushed by Proud Boys coming from their hotel lobby. I was on my bike, 3ed pass against them after two rounds of bottles thrown at me missed. They decided to cut the projectile bullshit and storm the street instead. No way to U-turn as there waa no time. I could either submit to a possibly fatal beating unopposed, or charge into them at try to force my way through. Ironically, the reason they managed to kick me down was tjeu were too drunk ro understand that standing in front of a sprinting cyclist is a good way to get rammed by 200 pounds of muscle and steel doing more than 30mph. I was outnumbered at least 5-1, so rhis was for survival not glory.

My guess is lots of head-on charges through all history started the same way: someone gets trapped, and as rock climbers say when retreat is cut off "the only way off is up" or in this case the only way out is through the enemy.

Ahhh my beautiful brave Duke, I embrace you as ze warrior against superior forces, my thoughts go to ze charge of ze light brigade against ze Russian artillery in Crimea, it iz ironic zat ze same forces are at war now, nothing has changed in ze 200 years zince ze fatal charge, aahh my warrior amour Duke, let us make love and not war my brave little (big 200 pounder) coquet!;)

came from fucked up communications. Unit commander thought he had been ordered into a frorntal attack on an artillery position, though ot was NUT but that orders were orders in the military. His commander had not given that order, had tried ro send another but it got.garblrd and wondered what the fuck was going on.

BTW, in my case 200 pounds or so was combined bike and rider weight. Pack light at end of day w many supplies consumed

I can see why most westerners "anarchists" can't see the resistance of anarchist unit or ordinary people in Ukraine is very valid and should be supported. During the war on colonialism of the West, nationalist, socialist, communist, anarchist joined a front against the colonialist invasion. Remember the Second World War in most of Asia? If you're neighborhood attacked by gangs who wants to kill and robbed your life, what would you do? I'm not saying this that we should not be uncritical. But nevertheless, when tanks and bombs are targeting your house and your community, what would you do? Pacifism nowadays only good for people in *peaceful countries*. BLM riots were micro examples of this. Fuck Putin, Fuck Ukraine State and it's western allies, fight like hell with the people, community, and your loved ones. Defend your ground

i have not read any pacifist declarations here or anywhere else among anarchists. being against war doesn't make you a pacifist, it makes you against war. war is an activity exclusively undertaken by governments in disputes with other governments. these are not anarchist fights. if anarchists want to participate in these fights, that's okay by me, but just don't say it's an anarchist fight. because it's not. this is a fight between NATO, Ukraine, and Putin, and unfortunately the Ukrainian people. nobody is saying don't fight. what many anarchists are saying is don't fight for the Ukrainian state by becoming part of its armed forces or subordinating your autonomous defense of your homes to the Ukrainian state. only idiots see this as pacifism.

1, Pacifism is non-violence and therefore against every war. Prove me wrong.

2. I never say specifically that this is an anarchist fight! But nevertheless, If anarchy means also the autonomy of your life, within a very specific context, defending your ownn individual freedom is a very anarchistic thing to do. Do be aware, despite nationalist sentiments amongst ukrainian, even before the war they have to fight for their lives every day, both economically and politically. And again, when tanks and bombs targetting their already impoverished lives, they are entitled to defend their own freedom---when you are in a condition like this and you have to fight, would refuse a person or others/state to give you a weapon to defend yourself? I highly doubt that. This what most anarchist from first world cant comprehend, state and capitalism is a social relationship that are responsible for the impoverishment of ordirnary people and when they are in this kind of condition, more inferior state like Ukraine doesnt care if the civialians died. But do the civilians have choices? Just like in the era of colonialism, do the anarchists in Indonesia reject weapons from the communist? Or anarchist in Korea and China who were once allied with the nationalist cos they need it to fight colonial empires? It is also very anarchistic when you stubbornly wants to defend your already reduced autonomy being attacked by bombs and tanks. If anarchist fight are within ideological framework of what is anarchism and what should anarchist do. Then its just an ideological dead-end.

3. If its not pacifism then what? Surely theres huge diffferences between Rojava, Zapatista, and the Ukraine situation but even them stand with the people of Ukraine who are armed and want to defend themselves for their own lives, loved ones, community, dignity. They are not fighting for an abstractions. If all acts like Ukraine anarchists considered as stupid just bcos they are fighting within capitalist states? well, arent we all lived in a global capitalist society? Your idiotic position of "not an anarchist fight", well tell me then what is an anarchist fight? Tell me your TEN COMMANDMENTS.

4. Every post-colonial society who knows their history understand this problematic unity concerning the fight against western colonialism. Its never white and black, just like in Rojava (insulted by leftist cos they allied with the US), or Hongkong (just because some of them pro-Trump?), this is the true notion of "anti-imperialism of idiots",` who are too lazy to understand geopolitics.

5. IF you are against all wars, im 100 percent agree. But if your already ruined lives being attacked by bombs and tanks, and screwed up by global politicians and rich people, what would you do in a shorter term?

6. And what is against all wars within the russo-ukraine situation? Why dont you applied that to Rojava too? They were and still are supported by US. Im all into Rojava but what's wrong with anarchists who came to Ukraine and forming their own Batallion to fight against the invasion? iSNT it pretty impressive that now anarchists can start their own batallion, in Rojava and elsewhere. Its opening up more possibility to fight. Isnt it what most anarchists masturbating for? Or do you think state will withered away without a fight or war? NAIVE.,

Some Asian

1. Point one is irrelevant I get your point.

2. Im still curious what is an anarchist fight for you? And I have never say its an anarchist fight. I just wholeheartedly agree with all the anarchists that are creating their own batallions and fighting the invasion in their own principle. Its not a messianic complex, its just as simple as helping your neighbour or any random people you care when they are in need or in suffering, its not moralistic. Its your individual choice. And still going to Ukraine, you have pay airplane by capitalist company. And helping your neighbour within financial matter or say it mutual aid, or any other anarchistic that requires the exchange of money.

3. George FLoyd ignite a massive social war, theres organic riots and looting, but then theres also leftist politicians who wants take advantage of the situation, the state representatives and the politicians. Nevertheless, isnt it worth it? Or Dont ever riot after Floyd died? Thats a micro-scale of war.

4. War means business, its always been a business as usual. Its capitalist nature. And we still lives in capitalist society, what so fucking wrong about anarchists making milita in UKRAINE? Your poor reading and dichotomy of thinking is very appaling.

Suppose those Proud Boys on Dec 12 had come to DC with all the power and weapons of Putin's army, with Trump inviting Putin's army in and putting their officers up at Trump Hotel? Existing anarchist groups that have already been organized would taken up the gun, the molotov, and any other weapons they could get. Everyone in DC who could fight them would have. We would fight them, the National Guard would fight them, and the regular US Army as soon as they could respond. That would not make us members of the National Guard or the US Army anymore than it would make them anarchists.

If this war somehow came all the way to my front door, I know exactly who I would be deploying with, and none of them are in the regular army.

Someone writes, "Anarchists on principle do not fight in wars. Resist invaders? Sure. Defend homes? Yep." But if a large enough group of people fight together to defend homes and resist invaders, what is that but a war? And if these resisters take arms from the state or foreign imperialists and coordinate with the regular army, does this mean you would wash your hands of them? I would not.

I think I am in agreement with Luke and Blast. But I would not make a principle about whether to form an all-anarchist military unit or join some state-sponsored but popularly formed group (the Territorial groupings) or join the regular army. These are tactical decisions. Our goals would be (1) to fight the invaders, and (2) to spread revolutionary anarchist concepts (working toward an eventual anarchist revolution against all versions of the state--which includes opposition especially to the neo-Nazi current). Joining the army (if you decide to do that) has the advantage of being able to reach out to other people, rather than being isolated in your own "revolutionary" force. Its disadvantage is its domination by the state. So I would leave the choice to those in the situation. They are the ones under the gun (literally).

A "revolutionary war" in current Ukraine would mean to be fighting a 3-4 way battle against all capitalist and fash powers, which in the real world translates to be bombing and burning Kyiv goverment as well as Western assets and interests, in addition to be fighting Russian invaders. So since the Ukraine army and militias appear to be effective at the latter, which means (real) anarchist groups could rather be putting their energies on the first enemy?

This anon is citing Malatesta's great statement denouncing Kropotkin who had endorsed the Entente in the inter-imperialist World War I. Malatesta was right to oppose both sides of this war among capitalist empires.

But that does not mean that Maletesta was a pacifist, opposed to all wars under all conditions. In particular (1) Malatesta supported revolutionary popular uprisings, with whatever extended fighting (wars) was necessary. and dd(2) he supported wars of oppressed nations (which is our topic) against imperialist powers. This is not the same as a war between two imperialist powers. Malatesta supported the participation of anarchists in the Cuban war against the Spanish empire. He endorsed the Lybian arabs who fought against the Italian imperialist invaders.

So you are misunderstanding Malatesta's argument.

yeah, right Wayne. the Ukrainian government has just been minding its own business (and i do mean business) until 2014, and then again until last month. no flirting with NATO, no CBW labs outsourced by the US and NATO. your insistence that "the Ukrainian people" -- whom you have equated with their government in true nationalist style -- are innocents who are merely resisting an invading imperialist power is absurd. i'm not for a minute suggesting some kind of parity in military power between Russia and Ukraine, but to equate this thoroughly conventional land war between two sovereign states -- one its own imperial hegemon, and the other a near/crypto-proxy for NATO (which is heavily supplying tons of war materiel, and has done since Zelenskyy got into power) -- with the struggle of Cuban insurgents against the Spanish Empire or the Libyans resisting Italian imperialists is fucking ridiculous.
you, sir, are the one misunderstanding Malatesta and the basics of anarchist philosophy and history.

This response is unusual for an anarchist. The writer does not make the argument that anarchists cannot support a people in a war of self-defense because it has a state or is a nation. In fact, the writer seems to accept that, apparently agreeing that the great Italian anarchist Malatesta was correct to support Cuban insurgents against Spain or Libyan Arabs against Italy. Instead they raise the various anti-Ukrainian arguments of the pro-Putin "campists" and "tankies." None of which remotely justify Russian invasion or make Ukraine the equivalent of the imperialist state of Russia.

For the record, of course the Ukrainians "flirted" with NATO. For some reason they felt that Russia might be a military threat and wanted protection! No, there were no bio warfare labs in Ukraine. Whether they are "innocents" is not relevant.

I do not equate the Ukrainian people (mostly its working class and others) with the Ukrainian state. A great deal off their defense has been done through initiative from below. Yet they still have a state. I do not refuse to support the attacked people because they are stuck with a state.

"No, there were no bio warfare labs in Ukraine. "

how the fuck would you know what is in ukraine? but more to the point, there are verified bio labs in ukraine, and any thinking person knows that ANY bio lab can be a bio weapons lab. that's the nature of the shit they work with.

"...because they are stuck with a state"

excuse me? stuck with a state? there are no doubt a small number of ukrainians that oppose the state (including ukrainian anarchists of course), but be honest - most ukrainians support and love their state. that is pretty clear from every interview or telegram post seen coming out of there, with the occasional exception of any anti-authoritarians whose words get out.

Maybe some more respectful writing would be useful in stead of the toxic way of addressing each other when not agreeing.

Did you ever consider that the world and all of the wars and misery are because people aren't toxic enough? Maybe the greatest threat to anarchy is being "respectful"?

Solidarity Collectives Statement
July 04, 2022

We, the former members of the Operation Solidarity network, together with European comrades, want to inform you about what happened in our initiative.

Since the first days of the war, our collective has been supplying our anti-authoritarian comrades who took up arms with everything they needed. Together we created the logistical network linking EU countries and Ukraine. We gathered funds and bought equipment for more than 100 fighters. We communicated our views on the war to thousands of our foreign comrades, we delivered tons of humanitarian aid. But at some point work of the network in which dozens of people from different countries are involved was effectively blocked by a small group of people — a person known as Salem, his brother, and their friend.

...

What exists under the name Operation Solidarity now has nothing to do with volunteer work, and money is being collected for unclear purposes. That’s why we call for all anti-authoritarian collectives not to cooperate with three people who still present themselves under the name of our once common initiative, not to popularize it, not to invite them to public events, and not to donate to the old accounts.

It’s extremely sad for us to write such statements at a time when the Ukrainian anti-authoritarian movement has to be united more than ever. But to be able to keep helping our comrades in military formations and perform humanitarian missions, we must turn this page.

Continue reading here:
https://telegra.ph/Solidarity-Collectives-Statement-07-04

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