In the 15 years of our collective’s existence, we have gone through several major political crises. During elections, protests, and political repression, the Belarusan anarchist movement has not met with isolation from its comrades. People from all over the world showed solidarity in the struggle against the Belarusan dictatorship and for a just and free society: from Los Angeles to Hong Kong.
During this period, we only rarely encountered people who tried to explain to us that the Belarusan regime is not really that bad, and that all the horrors are just liberal propaganda. Since 2014, we have met anti-fascists or anarchists abroad who somehow believed Russian propaganda about the LDNR. But until 2022, we rarely met “experts” on Eastern Europe who confidently told us about a reality that existed only in the realm of political propaganda.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the situation changed very dramatically. Suddenly, within the anarchist and anti-fascist movements, there appeared “specialists” of Eastern European realities who completely denied the facts in favor of a simplistic model of the world. Many discussions of the war as a conflict between NATO and Russia or the fascist regime in Kiev fundamentally ignore objective facts. In this text we would like to discuss how this attitude affects the development of international solidarity and how some anarchists choose to distort reality in the struggle for ideological supremacy.
International of Anarchist Federations (IFA)
In eastern Europe, few people have heard of the IFA, an international anarchist organization founded in 1968 in Italy. At the time of this writing, the federation consisted of groups from Europe, Asia, Central and South America. At one point it even included organizations from the former Soviet Union, including Belarus.
With the decline of the Federation of Anarchists of Belarus (FAB), our group became the IFA contact organization in the country. For many years we worked closely together: we visited comrades in different regions and together with other organizations we held infotours in separate countries. Up until 2022, we hardly had any serious political conflicts with IFA member organizations. The invasion of Ukraine has greatly changed the attitude of many International members towards our group.
One of the reasons lies in our initiative to hold informal online meetings with International members on the war in Ukraine: the main goal at that stage was to convey objective information about what was happening and to actively combat Russian disinformation. Such meetings were to take place every two weeks. Already at the second meeting, we encountered serious problems when some of the International’s participants started repeating Russian propaganda about NATO, fascism in Ukraine, and so on, almost word for word.
The series of online meetings ended rather quickly. On the one hand, the unwillingness of many anarchists to accept objective facts hindered them. On the other hand, some of the International’s participants insisted on formalizing such meetings, which we regarded as a blatant attempt to “bureaucratize” inconvenient information.
We encountered the problem of “selective bureaucracy” a year later, when at one of the formal meetings of the International we proposed to invite comrades from Ukraine and Russia to explain the situation in these regions and the possibility of interacting directly with local activists, rather than with information from social networks and dubious groups.
The participation of anarchists from Ukraine and Russia was blocked, and after several months of constant attempts to exclude people from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia from discussions of the war in Ukraine, we decided to withdraw from the International. [1]
This situation was the first in a long line of building barriers around the topic of the war in Ukraine by certain “expert” groups that prefer the same simplistic picture of the world. Unfortunately, in some countries, our former internationalist comrades play an active role in maintaining the myth of “NATO against Russia”.
The conflict within the IFA has shown us how fragile international ties are in the face of government disinformation programs, ideological dogmatism, and the unwillingness of many anarchists to understand complex international conflicts.
Book Fair and Congress
In the summer of 2023, we applied to participate in the Ljubljana Anarchist Book Fair, where we gave a presentation about repression in Belarus, with a separate block discussing how the war in Ukraine affects anarchists’ political struggles. When we saw the “no war propaganda” signs, our collective members were somewhat confused, knowing that the position of the organizers of the book fair on the war is ambiguous. We never realized who the posters were aimed at, although at one point we were worried that we would be told to remove brochures with interviews about the war from various anarchists in Ukraine and Russia.
At the event we met, among others, comrades who had previously organized benefit events and presentations for ABC. Some of them refused to talk to us at all, while others preferred to communicate in the format of political statements rather than dialog.
At the anarchist congress in St. Imier we began to speak openly about our fears that our political position on the war in Ukraine was affecting solidarity with repressed comrades inside Belarus: the more we try to question positions that do not take into account the situation in the region, the more “untouchable” we become in certain branches of the anarchist movement, which used to be ready to provide diverse support to comrades from the BUR (Belarus, Ukraine, Russia).
In Switzerland we also became aware that we started to be considered as militarists and supporters of the war in Ukraine, although nobody directly expressed it to us. We learned about this perception almost a year after our trip to Switzerland.
Partner organizations
Before touching on our “commitment to militarism”, we would like to briefly discuss how Western anarchists and leftists find “alternative” partners in the region to confirm their political views.
In the situation with Ukraine, the main partner of the antimilitarists was the odious media group “Assembly” from Kharkiv, which prefers to disassociate itself from the rest of the anarchist movement and actively cooperates with the group of Vadim Damye, a Russian historian who has been spreading the myth of a fascist Ukraine since 2014. If you want to know more about the “Assembly”, ask Ukrainian anarchists.
In the case of Belarus, the situation became quite strange, as anti-militarists and pacifists suddenly started working with the controversial Olga Karach, a “professional” NGO activist with a dubious background, which was already entrenched before the events of 2020. People familiar with the political environment of Belarus have heard about Karach, and understand the danger of political interaction with this person: disinformation for Olga serves as one of the tools for building political power and raising money.
It turns out that the organization “Our House”, which Olga leads, is actively involved in creating a myth about a mass movement of deserters inside Belarus, who want to leave the country in an attempt to avoid mobilization. In November 2022, there were allegedly already tens of thousands of such evaders [2]. How many such souls Karach sold to the Western left remains a mystery to this day.
Using the example of the above-mentioned organization, it becomes obvious that in their search for new “partners” in Eastern Europe, leftists and anti-authoritarians are ready to work with dubious figures, as long as they confirm the facts necessary for their picture of the world. The criterion of trust becomes not an attempt to understand the real situation in the region and a desire to support the struggle, but rather interaction with those who confirm already existing misconceptions.
With this approach, some activist groups risk falling into the trap of fraudsters primarily interested in the money side of things. The inability or unwillingness to delve into certain issues makes anarchists easy prey for those who traditionally “dipshit” liberal and center-left political forces.
Does ABC-Belarus support the war in Ukraine?
A few months ago, ABC-Belarus applied to participate in a book fair in Berlin with an info table and/or presentation [3]. The organizers of the fair stated that they planned to pay much attention to the issue of the war in Ukraine. The response to our inquiry came categorically negative and contained the following wording:
“…You are in favor of the war in Ukraine, so we have nothing more to say…”
And it is obvious that this perception of anarchists from the BUR resisting Russian imperialism continues to strengthen in the minds of a part of the anarchist movement. Instead of critical analysis and attempts to build a dialog, we again and again run into a wall of blatant political ignorance. As a result, ABC-Belarus will not go to the fair in Berlin (our last talk in the city concerning the situation with repression in the country happened before the full-scale invasion began), and the organizers of the event will be able to conduct debates in an atmosphere of general “consent”, having secured themselves from the opposition of people who directly carry out activities in the BUR region.
As the war in Ukraine continues and Western activists become “tired” of the topic, we expect this approach to our collective to only increase, and “weeds” of misinformation and outright lies to grow in the place of solidarity.
We will not knock on the closed rooms of social centers in the west and try to tell the story of our struggle or repression against our comrades. We have plenty of room to direct our energies as it is. But do the people who censor solidarity groups realize that they would then have to take it upon themselves to support the repressed comrades with their own forces, if they are really committed to the ideas of internationalism and anarchism? It is then also the responsibility of such groups to inform the broader anarchist movement about the repression and to raise money for basic support for those who continue the struggle in prison.
In turn, we want to express our gratitude to those who are still supporting our collective and our comrades in Belarus, in Ukraine and in other Eastern European countries. Despite all challenges and obstacles, it is you who show an example of international solidarity and readiness to stand shoulder to shoulder in the most difficult moments of our struggle, no matter how many kilometers and walls separate us!
1: In case anyone doubts our membership in the International, the proof is at the link (website archive as of 2021) https://web.archive.org/web/20220616161216/http://i-f-a.org/members/
2: https://pramen.io/ru/2022/11/trusost-evropejskogo-patsifizma/
3: https://anarchistischebuechermesse.noblogs.org/
I am a U.S. anarchist-socialist who supports the Ukrainian people against Russian imperialism. As such, I am very sympathetic to your point of view. However I am unclear about your viewpoint. Do you support the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression? Do you support their right to get arms from wherever they can? Even from NATO? Your statement is quite unclear on these issues.
Hi Wayne,
we have a position on the war in Ukraine, that was written in 2022. Since then it didn’t change so much. This text is more focused on how our position is actually affecting our contacts and networks inside of the anarchist circles.
To answer your questions in the comment: we support ukrainian people in their struggle against Russia. We support their right to get arms from anyone who is willing to give them those. Even from NATO. Currently ukrainian society has little choice in cooperation possibilities on military resistance. Will it have a cost attached to it? For sure, but this struggle is something a lot of people in Ukraine itself understand quite clear as well.
I am not an expert about Eastern Europe, but i am interested by what is going on there, as it has an impact everywhere, including in the Western Europe.
You mentionned several point in your text i would like to talk with you, for the sake of clarity : you say that many anarchists in the west “present the war as a conflict between NATO and Russia or the fascist regime” (which is not false). But you also say that “In the situation with Ukraine, the main partner of the antimilitarists was the odious media group “Assembly” from Kharkiv, which prefers to disassociate itself from the rest of the anarchist movement and actively cooperates with the group of Vadim Damye, a Russian historian who has been spreading the myth of a fascist Ukraine since 2014.” I may be wrong but I never read any text, neither of Assembleia or from Damye presenting the war as a simple conflict bewteen “Nato and Russia”. On the contrary, I read from them a more subtile and complex explaination about the process, explaining that this war is “part of the struggle of the ruling classes of the countries of the former Soviet Union for the division and redistribution of the “post-Soviet space”” Do you think this make sense or on the contrary it has no value at all to understand what is going on ? Of course, if you can bring evidence that Assembleia and Dame are the one orchestrating the “nato vs russia” rationale, please give some of the evidences, as for instance some texts they might have published expressing this opinion. How can you establish a direct link between Asembleia, Damie and the IFA ? (while it is well known that Dame has bothing to see with IFA and is not on their position, be it about the current war or other issues)
Also, about the “Assembly”, you say “ask Ukrainian anarchists.”. In order to do so, could you tell us who are the “ukrainian anarchists” you are refering too ? Is your reference Sergyei Sevshenko who make a clear nationalist statement in the french marxist media “movement”, available on line here https://mouvements.info/leruption-de-la-russie-en-ukraine/. here some notable excerpts :
“I serve in a unit set up by nationalists, supplied by municipal authorities and volunteers, and funded by private companies. … Anarchists, nationalists, Euro-optimists, simple peasants, workers and computer scientists with no specific political views can all be found in the same trench with their weapons in their hands. All are united by the same desire to protect their people, and the independence and freedom of Ukraine. We are all brothers and sisters, we are the people! This is the universally shared slogan and the only ideology that reigns today. The French Revolution of 1789 created a French nation, the Ukrainian Revolution of 2013-14 and above all the war of 2022 are creating a new nation, the Ukrainian nation. The people have woken up. The 600 years of struggle and suffering of the Ukrainian people are coming to an end.
Of course, I would prefer our war to be fought under the banner of Nestor Makhno (founder of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Insurgent Army, which, after the October Revolution and until 1921, fought both the counter-revolutionary Tsarist army and the Bolshevik Red Army) and not Stepan Bandera (Ukrainian politician and nationalist ideologue who collaborated with Nazi Germany), even though Makhno is a fairly popular figure here! Of course, I’d like to fight in the name of anarchy rather than the Nation, but these are just symbols and words that do nothing to change the real nature of the movement sweeping across Ukraine. In any case, at the moment, if I have to choose between “Long live the King” and “Long live the Nation”, I choose the Nation without hesitation!”
Is this that guy who recognize to fight under the Bandera flag and who claims “long live the Nation” who is your reference for anarchism in Ukraine ?
your fight against dictature in Belarus is right and you deserve solidarity. In fact it doesnt matter if you are anarchist or not, the fact is that soldiarity is not conditionnal. But please stop slandering those who are also fighting against Russian imperialism but have choosen other strategical options than yours. To defame Assembleia and Dame is not helpfull in your fight.
Both Damie and Assembly are not the one responsible for the narrative of NATO vs Russia in Western Europe – those narratives are put by the local groups. However KRAS and Assembly are you used in attempt to show the correct “class position” in the current conflict, that ignores many objective factors in favor of certain narratives, such as “part of the struggle of the ruling classes of the countries of the former Soviet Union for the division and redistribution of the “post-Soviet space”. Reality is way more complicated then one story told about the fight for resources or the sphere of dominance.
After more then 2 years of full scale war it is a bit weird to ask which groups of anarchists exist in Ukraine at his point if you are intersted in the topic. Solidarity Collectives, Resistance Committee, Ecological Platform are few to name.
Your interest in the topic doesn’t look genuine to be honest, and seems to be another attempt to point at “look people are shouting glory to Ukraine and nazis everywhere”
Thanks for this! It’s true that in the west it’s difficult to hear perspectives from the grassroots on the ground in eastern europe. I appreciate getting those perspectives from the source. Many western leftists and so called “radicals” have disappointed me with their willingness to brush off what’s going on in Ukraine by dismissing the whole issue with the, “they are fascists” trope. I’ll be the first to acknowledge my ignorance about “eastern bloc” politics, but do have a desire to learn. And prefer to learn this way, rather than from mainstream sources, lol. I’d love to hear more. From a Karelian-Germanic settler in Canada living on territories reclaimed from the Canadian military by the original Indigenous stewards of the land l. (Stoney Point, aka Ipperwaah)
Hi Joanne,
there is a lot to learn for sure about the region and it’s history (including a revolutionary and anti-state part of it).
Interesting article, sorry to hear you’ve faced so much hostility and a failure of solidarity from “anarchists” who act as Putin apologists. Keep up the good work.
I don’t understand your criticism of “Olga Karach” and “Our House”. To my understanding, “Olga Karach” opposes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supports Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion, and supports Belarusians organising to oppose Russia’s invasion. She faces criticism by a lot of similar people that you do. Are you opposed to people deserting the Belarusian military? Or you think she misrepresents the situation? How does this link to your wider point?
Last I checked an ABC was for prisoner support, in particular class struggle prisoners. Are those dubious adventurers, who are spending their time in East-Ukraine mowing down tens of thousands of mobilized miners and other workers from Donetsk and Luhansk in the name of anarchism, prisoners?
Your text bemoans that since 2014 you’ve encountered anarchists and anti-fascists who believed propaganda about the DNR & LNR, though as usual you only talk about Russian propaganda and not Western propaganda. Assuming that an ABC is indeed directed at support against the repression of class struggle, could you please direct me to your solidarity messages in June 2020 when several strikers and trade union activists were kidnapped by the LNR MGB during a strike at the Komsomolskaya mine? Or your solidarity messages in early 2021 when during a strike at the AMK in the LNR the MGB conducted numerous searches for trade union activists in multiple cities and the spokesperson for the union had to flee Donbass entirely? Or your solidarity messages when in late 2021 another activist from the same trade union was arrested and tortured by the MGB? And I could go on and on here, but you get my point.
The reason I’m asking is because I can easily find all of that information from KRAS-MAT with an ever-helpful Vadim Damier, who you keep speaking negatively about, yet I barely ever hear anyone from your “side of the fence” speak about that. Personally I suspect it’s because your flowery abstract language of “fighting Russian imperialism” – or even worse “fighting Russian invaders” or “fighting Russian occupiers” directly adopting the language of the Banderites – has been concretely meaning, more than anything else especially before the mobilization in Russia in september 2022, something like “mowing down scores of poorly equipped and poorly trained mobilized miners and other workers from Donetsk and Luhansk.” And, of course, when you put it like that it doesn’t sound so flowery anymore. And on top of that, if you actually go and hear what those trade unionists in question have to say about that whole thing, turns out they are vehemently against it.
Sorry for the double comment, but a more precise question: Has ABC-Belarus, in these 2+ years of war now, made any attempt to get in touch with the labor movement in the DNR & LNR?
After all, the Donetsk miners union had already informed us on 21/2/22 of the mobilization taking place in the DNR & LNR and their opposition to it, through which over 70% of the miners of the DNR & LNR (think for a moment about that number), including numerous people from the labor movement, ended up in the trenches. Surely it would seem appropriate to at least try to get in the touch with the class struggle organizations of these people before supporting military efforts to go kill them, especially when we’re talking absolute majorities being mobilized (70% of miners, but also more than half of metalworkers, half of some public services, etc). Because, when push comes to shove, it seems rather unlikely that all these people are suicidal and want to be shot or blown up – especially by such dubious characters as Petrovichev or Samoylenko – so maybe they might have something to say about this whole thing too.
Lastly, and then I promise I’ll shut up, by coupling your proper ABC activities (prisoner support) with active support for military operations against a bunch of mobilized workers from Donbass, you are effectively holding the prisoners hostage. Even if I were to agree that we should support such military operations, which I don’t but just for the sake of argument, it still doesn’t fall under the domain of an ABC. But by presenting this as a sort of all-or-nothing package deal you are basically ensuring that your prisoner support work would suffer when people merely reject your military adventurism, effectively holding your prisoners hostage over it. Do these prisoners agree with this? Because there’s nothing stopping you guys from doing your proper ABC activities as an ABC while doing the military adventures as something else.
Watch out folk, westplainer logged on.
That’s funny. It is nice that another western intelectuall will tell ignorant easterns what to do, who support, to whom send solidarity. Military adventurers? Supporting people who lost homes, families? Sending tons of humanitarian aid, equipment to defend themselves? You are talking a lot about working class, forced to send to Ukraine to fight. Maybe ukrainian society should welcome them with leaflets made by leftist intelectuallist like you? Maybe they not going to kill and rape then. Banderist language?? Hahaha, you are just prove everything they wrote is true. Go back to your cosy sofa in your safe town and write few hundred articles about exploited working class and what in your opinion they should do and how to act. Maybe they will listen
@AN ARCHE
“It is nice that another western intelectuall will tell ignorant easterns what to do, who support, to whom send solidarity.”
I’m not telling anyone what to do, it is ABC-Belarus here that is lamenting that anarchists don’t want to help them kill a bunch of mobilized workers from Donetsk and Luhansk, and as far as I’m concerned they are free to lament as much as they want just as I am free to respond as much as I want. Just like I’m not telling them who to show solidarity to, I asked them about any solidarity messages in the years preceding this invasion they could have done with the people they are now asking us to help them kill, but as expected it appears that they couldn’t be arsed at all in all those years until it was for killing them.
“Maybe ukrainian society should welcome them with leaflets made by leftist intelectuallist like you?”
So you agree to the independence of the DNR & LNR, given the emphasis you’re putting on these people not being welcome in Ukrainian society?
“Banderist language??”
Yes, declaring the Russian minority in Donbass as “Russian invaders” or “Russian occupiers” is directly adopting Banderite language, it is known as Donbassophobia. It’s also a fairly classic tenet of fascism, to perceive national minorities as “invasive organisms” in the nation.
“Maybe they not going to kill and rape then.”
You haven’t shown that they are going to kill and rape, any more than any other random bunch of mobilized people would do so, this is just your Donbassophobia speaking again. Besides, as if it’s not you lot that are demanding help killing anyone at all, I sure haven’t seen any calls for providing combat equipment to mobilized DNR & LNR in any anarchist meetings.
@MACHNO
“Watch out folk, westplainer logged on.”
It is rather curious to publish a text in the English language specifically directed at Western anarchists to then complain that some Western anarchist responded.
@AN ARCHE
“another western intelectuall”
I am flattered that you’d consider me an intelectual, me who failed to finish not one but two university programs. You must know me well, then? In which case it’s strange you’d be surprised that I talk a lot about the working class, as I “enjoy” class struggle. Which is actually one of the things I found interesting about this particular labor movement in the DNR & LNR, that they had a strike with an explicitly revolutionary demand/threat, ie the placing of the means of production under workers control. I did that too once, so I found it interesting because you don’t see that a lot. At least all the other strikes I’ve personally helped organize and/or participated in where for reformist demands like higher wages or some such.
I am not complaining you are commenting. I am merely pointing to the fact that your comments are pure westplaining.
Donbassophopia? Hahaha fucking hell, even Kremlin propaganda didn’t manage to come up with something equally stupid.
Yes, Donbassophobia, surely you’ve heard of the term before? For example it was used here: https://www.alerta.gr/archives/25644 And it adequately describes considering the working class of Donbass as “Russian invaders” or “Russian occupiers” especially in Donbass itself. As for calling things “westplaining” or “stupid”, maybe you should be more specific – because it really looks like you just didn’t like that I showed some elementary interest in the workers you want us to help kill. After all, with numbers like 70%, who will be left to tell the stories and all?
As a participant in the Ljubljana bookfair and as a Russian immigrant to Slovenia I agree with the statement that the bookfair was filled with consumers of disinformation about Putins imperialist invasion in Ukraine, but at the same time there were plenty of people I talked to there that disagreed with the takes of such people and thankfully their views did not repressent the entire bookfair. What was especially infuriating was the weird serb organizers of the bookfair and their extremely long bullshit monolouge about their view of the war (during which questions were not permited…) Im proud to have supported you guys financially, keep up with the good work, no matter if delusional western leftists disagree! For one day hopefully Belarus Russia and Ukraine will be free from Imperialism.
One question though, will you attend the “balkan anarchist bookfair” in Kosovo this year? Or has the last one left such a bad taste in your mouths that will make you not attend it?