An internationalist statement from inside Russia

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ICC Introduction

We are publishing a statement on the war in Ukraine by the KRAS, an anarcho-syndicalist group linked to the International Workers’ Association. We know that, in Russia, any protest at all against the war is being met with ferocious repression by the Russian state, so we salute the courage and conviction of the KRAS comrades in publishing this statement, which is clearly internationalist, denouncing both camps as imperialist and calling for working class struggle against the war.

Our solidarity with the KRAS comrades does not imply that we agree with all the contents of the statement, such as the demand for “an immediate end to hostilities” which seems to be a concession to the idea that the two bourgeois camps can make peace. Even if Russia pulls back from the invasion and bombardment of Ukraine, we have no doubt that hostilities will continue at a lower level, as they have been doing for the past 8 years. In this respect, the statement of the Serbian affiliate to the IWA, the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative, is clearer in denouncing the pacifist illusions being spread by parts of the bourgeoisie: “Faced with the horrors of war, it is very easy to make a mistake and impotently call for peace. However, capitalist peace is not peace. Such "peace" is in fact a differently branded war against the working class. In this situation, a consistent anti-militarist position implies making direct efforts to stop the capitalist war, but at the same time taking control of the situation in the country, and radically changing the socio-economic system - that is, organized class warfare is needed”[1].

We should also point out that these two groups are part of an international anarchist network which is not at all homogenous in its reaction against the war. If for example you go to the web page of the British section, the Solidarity Federation, you will, at the time of writing, find nothing at all about the war, only accounts of local disputes and Solfed activities. The statement on the war by the section in France, the CNT, opposes the inhumanity of the war but makes no mention at all of the need for a response on a working class terrain[2].

The KRAS, by contrast, has a consistent record in defending a proletarian and internationalist position against the foul deeds of “its own” ruling class, and we have published a number of their statements in the past[3].

ICC     20 March 2022

KRAS-IWA against the War

NO WAR! STATEMENT OF THE IWA SECTION IN THE REGION OF RUSSIA

The war has begun.

What people were afraid of, what they warned about, what they did not want to believe in, but what was inevitable – happened. The ruling elites of Russia and Ukraine, instigated and provoked by world capital, greedy for power and bloated with billions stolen from the working people, came together in a deadly battle. Their thirst for profit and domination is now paid with blood by ordinary people - just like us.

The first shot was fired by the stronger, the more predatory and arrogant of the bandits – the Kremlin. But, as always happens in imperialist conflicts, behind the immediate cause lies a whole tangle of disgustingly stinking reasons: this is the international struggle for gas markets, and the desire of the authorities of all countries to divert the attention of the population from the tyranny of "sanitary" dictatorships, and the struggle of the ruling classes of the countries of the former Soviet Union for the division and redistribution of the "post-Soviet space", and larger-scale and global contradictions, and the struggle for world domination between NATO, led by the USA and China, challenging the old hegemon and fastening its "little brother" in the Kremlin to its chariot. Today these contradictions give rise to local wars. Tomorrow, they threaten to turn into a Third World Imperialist War.

Whatever “humanist”, nationalistic, militaristic, historical or any other rhetoric justifies the current conflict, behind it there are only the interests of those who have political, economic and military power. To us, working people, pensioners, students, it brings only suffering, blood and death. Bombing of peaceful cities, shelling, killing people have no justification.

We demand an immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of all troops to the borders and lines that existed before the start of the war.

We call on the soldiers sent to fight not to shoot at each other, and even more so not to open fire on the civilian population.

We urge them to refuse en masse to carry out the criminal orders of their commanders.

STOP THIS WAR!

BAYONET TO THE GROUND!

We call on people in the rear on both sides of the front, the working people of Russia and Ukraine, not to support this war, not to help it - on the contrary, to resist it with all their might!

Don't go to war!

Not a single rouble, not a single hryvnia from our pockets for the war!

Strike against this war if you can!

Someday - when they have enough strength - the working people in Russia and Ukraine will demand the full responsibility from all presumptuous politicians and oligarchs who set us against each other.

We remember: NO WAR BETWEEN WORKING PEOPLE OF RUSSIA AND UKRAINE!

NO PEACE BETWEEN CLASSES!

PEACE TO HOUSES - WAR TO PALACES!

Section of the International Workers Association in the Russian Region  

26.2.22

KRAS-IWA against the War | International Workers Association (iwa-ait.org)

 

Rubric: 

Imperialist conflict in Ukraine