A discussion-event with anarchist Rev Dia militants from Ukraine

via Enough14

Audio and text from the event-discussion on the war in Ukraine on March 25, 2022, at the Binio occupation in Mytilene (Lesvos, Greece) with the participation of anarchist Rev Dia militants from Ukraine.

Originally published by Athens Indymedia. Slightly edited by Enough 14.

In the audio player you will find audio from the event-discussion about the war in Ukraine that took place on March 25, 2022, at the Binio occupation in Mytilene (Lesvos, Greece, Enough 14) with the participation of members of the anarchist organization RevDia. The connection was made with two fighters of the organisation in Kiev including a self-exiled man from Russia. The translation was done in English by a member of the organisation in Poland. In this archive the answers in Ukrainian have been cut out and we have kept only the answers in English for ease of listening. However, if anyone wants the full recording in Ukrainian, they can contact 105fm who broadcast live the event held by an anarchist initiative.

In the first four minutes there is a technical problem and no questions can be heard, only the answers of the comrades from Ukraine.

Below is the text distributed and read by the anarchist initiative that organised the event.

War has never been absent from this world in the last millennia. Smaller or larger power interests impose their will by force of arms on every corner of the planet. A war is always a great opportunity to materially implement, in a very short time, policies that have been in development for many, many years. It is the moment when man is naked, his dignity, and everything he thought until then unshakeable, is shattered. But life does not have the same value everywhere. Even the description of a war in the media has to do with the gravity of the identity of those involved. Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Ethiopia are next to us, but much more prominent today is the war in Ukraine. The media servants of those in power make sure that they assess and adapt reality to the interests of their masters. They speak with unbearable levity using terms such as soft underbelly, zones of influence, spheres of domination, courts, tribes and peoples. And all to make it harder to relate to humans. The everyday dirty man, who loves and gets pissed off. Who has every reason to rebel by taking up arms against invaders and dictators, whatever their ideological bent.

As realistic as any deep geopolitical analysis may seem, we cannot ignore that it comes straight from the offices of those in power. So now we have again divided the world into Russophiles and Americans, bringing back the fairy tale that has kept the world in bondage for 50 years. We brought it back by force to our supposed neutrality; we pulled it back by the hair to save us from the contradictions of the modern world.

A few weeks before the start of the war, the US system invited us to attend the big show. The mother of all shows. Experts, crows and monkeys paraded from the news studios analyzing the movements of the Russian army on the border, predicting the exact time of the invasion. On the contrary, a large sane part of the bourgeois intelligentsia, which deeply serves the capitalist system, tried to reassure the viewers that this is a scenario used by Russia and the US to strengthen their geopolitical position on issues of both geo-strategic and energy policy. Many of us believed that the international power system has no interest in waging a war in Europe at this time. After all, the economies of the major powers were in the process of being transformed in order to enter the new era, schematically described as the fourth industrial revolution, which would consolidate the machine age in the biological evolution of man. A nice fairy tale that intends to get the capitalist system out of the deadlocks that have begun to appear in the last two decades for good. It even succeeds in easily bending all social resistance by creating an invisible enemy (covid) and militarizing everyday life, controlling, or creating the image of controlling, every moment of our biological body. It seemed like redundancy to have a war at a time when cities have increasingly become concentration camps, while the economy and the cutting edge of technology works as if it is at war. But nationalisms, transnational rivalries and militarism still seem to be here, acting as levers of deflation and conflict of interest.

True to his appointment, Russia’s ‘democratically’ elected Prime Minister Putin, at dawn on Thursday 24 February, militarily invaded Ukraine. Two days previously, he had convened a security council in which he recognised the breakaway regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, which call themselves people’s republics, as independent, while questioning the very existence of Ukraine, criticising in many places the Bolshevik dictatorship responsible for its creation. His reference to the denazification of the regime in Ukraine is characteristic, and he continues to repeat it pretentiously to this day. Russia’s superiority in the military field is unparalleled, having had war experience from the successive open fronts in its modern history. The plan of Russia’s military machine from the very first moment was to achieve three objectives in terms of territorial sovereignty. To unite geographically the provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk in the east, to occupy all the northern coast of the Black Sea by uniting Crimea with Donetsk, and to impose a dictatorship of its own choosing by invading the capital Kiev. To do this she deployed around 100,000 troops and a bunch of war toys spewing fire from the sky. However, to this day the resistance of the Ukrainian defence seems to be holding firm. In many cities a popular front is flourishing, which is participating in the resistance by all means. Weapons are being distributed in neighbourhoods and improvised barricades and thousands of Molotov cocktails are being constructed.

At the same time as the war in Ukraine, the Russian state is continuing its repression at home, with thousands of arrests in the dozens of anti-war demonstrations and actions that have taken place in various Russian cities. In the first week of the Ukrainian conflict alone, more than seven thousand people were arrested for holding anti-war protests. Many have reported torture or even loss of their jobs. At the same time, every news agency that referred to the country’s invasion of Ukraine as a ‘war’ instead of using the Kremlin’s chosen euphemism “special operation” was closed down. Last week, Russia’s parliament passed new legislation that would see anyone convicted of spreading “false information” about the war imprisoned for up to fifteen years. Despite the dangers, thousands of Russians continue to protest against the war, either by taking to the streets, creating networks or engaging in sabotage.

Similarly, the Euro-Atlantic alliance has imposed economic sanctions on Russia, while a number of states, including Greece, have pledged to provide military equipment to Ukraine. The Greek state sent two C130 transport aircraft loaded with Kalashnikovs and rockets. The global balance seems to be changing, bringing a new era, and in this era the Greek state and its interests are trying to squeeze in, leaving behind its supposed neutrality in the conflicts of other states. They had already taken care to actively reinforce their allegiance to the American state by accepting the US request for the creation of a base in Alexandroupolis. This base seems to be very important for the Euro-Atlantic alliance after the beginning of the war. From there they can move military units northeast to the Russian border without using the navy and the Bosphorus straits. Typical of the Greek state’s total support for a possible conflict between NATO and Russia is the announcement on 1 March of the closure of airspace over Evros for a month. This was preceded by the Mammoth agreement with France for the purchase of warplanes and gunboats and cooperation in military operations, paving the way for the participation of the Greek army in former French colonies in Africa such as Mali. In any case, Greece is increasingly involved in NATO military operations in the world, concluding military agreements with states such as Israel and Egypt, and a year ago lent arrays of patriot missiles to Saudi Arabia to bombard rebels in Yemen. From the above we understand that the Greek state is applying imperialist tactics to the extent that it has a right to and will faithfully execute whatever its masters decide. Otherwise, crocodile tears are shed for the victims of the war and anti-war quotes flood the propaganda media of the Greek state. Another extremely worrying development in this field is the decisions taken by Germany on the first of March regarding its military budget. So the fresh government of the green liberal-social democrats in Germany announced the creation of a 100 billion fund for its armed forces: “the world after will not be the same as the world before,” said Scholz, trying to Germany’s biggest arms race since the Second World War.

So the world’s butchers are arming the world after they have flattened our resistances under the pretext of a pandemic, and we are left unarmed, flesh against cannons, or as anarchist comrades in Ukraine say, “like a situation in which special forces invade your house and you have to take some decisive action, but your arsenal consists only of punk lyrics, veganism, and 100-year-old books.” Less than a month after the Russian invasion and thousands of people are dead, millions are terrified, thousands injured, thousands of refugees, thousands of destroyed homes and an even bleaker future. A society faced with dictatorship, death and fascism.

If there is one hope for Ukraine, it is the action of anarchists and other libertarians who will stand as a bulwark against both Putin’s dictatorship and domestic fascism. We are happy to hear day by day that the ranks of anarchists in both defense and solidarity are growing stronger. Nothing is easy and everything can be lost in a day. We hope that the forces promoting social liberation will emerge stronger after this and ready to defend what they have won in battle. Comrade Ukrainian anarchists are at war with Russian expansionism, fascists and the government. They have created their own armed arm and call on us to join them. Every anarchist collective and organization that understands the revolutionary task and the internationalist struggle must transform its general anti-war position into a position of engagement by participating in or strengthening the anarchist Ukrainian guerrilla struggle without suspensions and by attacking the Russian economic and political power. Victory in arms for the anarchists in Ukraine who stand against Russian imperialism, the fascist paramilitary groups, and the democratic government in Kiev.

Solidarity with the Russian and Belarusian anarchists who are crawling in the democratic dungeons trying to stop the war. Let’s give space to the people and not to the imperialist dreams that divide the planet into plots. We are forever with the invisible people of this world who are fighting for an inclusive, self-organized and anti-hierarchical world.

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