A-Infos (en) Australia, Melbourne MACG - The Anvil Vol 13 #1: From Australia to Israel: Smash Settler Colonialism! (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

26 January 2024 marks the first Invasion Day since the 'Voice to 
Parliament' referendum. The Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group took the 
position that the proposed Voice was "a piece of empty symbolism that 
will do nothing to advance the struggles of Aboriginal peoples for 
self-determination". Despite this, we also recognised that the No 
campaign had been captured by the forces of white supremacist reaction 
and therefore saw no reason to wish for or celebrate its victory. We 
argued that a victory for the Yes campaign "would be the least worst 
outcome" that could be expected.

In our statement we echoed the language of the Blak Sovereign Movement 
to express our sympathy with the radical critique of the Voice's limits 
and reaffirm our support for Indigenous self- determination. We made 
clear, however, that real self-determination - the capacity for 
Indigenous people to directly control
their affairs, in all areas of life - could only come through a social 
revolution against the State and capitalism. This clarification is 
important because we find the concept of Sovereignty to be ill-defined 
and used to convey conflicting meanings - some of which are not 
consistent with our principles.

Indigenous and national liberation struggles often think about freedom 
as something that will be won through constitutional reform or the 
declaration of a new independent state. But if the State and capitalism 
are left in place, a national liberation movement which overthrows 
colonialism will leave in place the domination and exploitation of the 
major imperialist powers, now ruling through an indigenous ruling class. 
Decolonisation in Asia, in Africa, and South America has repeatedly 
shown this to be the case. The direct racist rule of foreign 
imperialists is ended, but the workers and peasants of these countries 
continue to live impoverished and unfree lives. Highly repressive 
regimes of local capitalists continue to allow the plunder of their 
country by imperialism and profit handsomely in the process.

We all continue to watch in horror as Israel carries out its genocidal 
assault on Gaza. In the streets we all call for a Free Palestine - but 
for most, this demand for liberation is tied up with the question of 
Statehood.

As anarchist communists, we say that freedom means something much more 
than life under capitalist governments. In supporting struggles against 
apartheid, colonialism, and imperialism, we argue that the working class 
must take the lead, with its own methods of struggle. National 
oppression can only be eliminated by the working class taking power.

Gaza, 2024. Credit: AFP
Anarchists and Sovereignty

Historically, sovereignty has typically been invoked in the sense of 
'State sovereignty' - the idea that a government has the right to 
control the territory and populations within its internationally 
recognised borders. As opponents of government, private property, and 
borders, anarchists obviously reject this.

With the struggle of exploited classes against ruling classes, new ideas 
about sovereignty were born. Some arguments contend that only democratic 
governments have sovereignty. Others have redefined the concept, arguing 
that it is only 'the people' or 'individuals' who can be 'sovereign', 
not government.

There are versions of 'Indigenous sovereignty' which reflect the various 
definitions. For some, it means Indigenous representatives holding power 
within a government and the transfer of private property to indigenous 
people. Others have adopted aspects of the conspiratorial, right-wing 
'sovereign citizen' movement. In some contexts, 'sovereignty' is used as 
a means of exposing the hypocrisy and racism of the settler colonial 
invaders, who denied its applicability to a continent they declared 
terra nullius - 'land belonging to nobody'.

But there is also a radical version of 'Indigenous sovereignty', which 
rejects both private property and the idea that political power must 
take the form of a State. In expressing our support for sovereignty, it 
is this anti-capitalist version we are talking about.

Rather than redefine a term originally intended to justify State power, 
we prefer to use the terminology of our own anarchist communist tradition.

We want a society without landlords, bosses, politicians. We want 
workers to take democratic control of production so we can meet people's 
needs - not so commodities can be bought and sold for the ruling class's 
profit. We want an end to prisons, police, and armies, which exist to 
protect the interests of the capitalists and maintain the power of the 
State. We want to maintain the health of the environment and the land 
that sustains us - not a system which requires endless, 
planet-destroying growth.

This kind of social revolution can't be achieved by Indigenous people 
alone, but it is the only way to achieve genuine Indigenous 
self-determination. Such a movement will require the Australian working 
class building on the kind of solidarity we have seen at the gigantic 
Invasion Day rallies of recent years.
That solidarity must be extended into our workplaces and the union 
movement. When the power of the organised working class can be linked 
with the courage and determination of the movement for Blak Sovereignty, 
we will have a force capable of hitting the ruling class where it hurts 
most: their profits.

Anarchists and Struggles Against National Oppression

Nations are historically fluid groupings, with no fixed genetic basis or 
inherent qualities. Today, they are constructed, both by ruling groups 
which want to consolidate their power and through collective experiences 
of exclusion and oppression. The division of humanity into nations is 
useful to capitalism because it creates the illusion of a common 
'national interest', which is supposedly shared by both the poorest 
worker and the most powerful of the ruling class within a national 
group. This is the politics of nationalism, and anarchists reject it in 
every instance. Instead of 'national solidarity', we argue that the 
dispossessed and oppressed of the world should build class solidarity. 
Class solidarity must extend across all borders and be directed against 
the ruling classes of every nation. This is the only force which can 
abolish national oppression and the imperialism that creates it, whether 
through direct rule or local agents.

Though nations are sometimes invented, and their borders often are, the 
conflict and hatreds produced by national division can lead to real 
oppression. When people are denied their most basic rights; when they 
are driven from their homes; when they are subjected to daily cruelties 
and humiliation; routinely threatened, harmed, even massacred - they 
will naturally struggle against this national oppression. As 
internationalists, and enemies of all forms of domination, anarchists 
support these struggles.

This is the sense in which we support national liberation. Anarchists 
support the Palestinian struggle against a regime of racial domination 
and military rule, but we warn that a new capitalist state would not 
constitute national liberation. A state beside Israel would be a set of 
powerless bantustans, where Fatah or Hamas rule on behalf of the 
imperialist powers and Zionists. It would enrich only a tiny elite. The 
Palestinian masses would continue to live in destitution and would still 
suffer daily humiliation, though at least the police enforcing it would 
speak Arabic rather than Hebrew.

The end of apartheid in South Africa was a victory that anarchists 
celebrated - not because it gave Nelson Mandela's African National 
Congress (ANC) power in a capitalist State, but because this was only 
possible in a context where the violent maintenance of white supremacist 
government had been broken, and the Black majority granted basic civil 
rights.

Anarchists have always criticised the limits of national liberation 
struggles which don't confront capitalism. The ANC needed the power of 
the working class for apartheid to be smashed: strikes, civil 
disobedience, and riots - supported by international boycotts and unions 
refusing to handle South African goods - were essential to making white 
supremacist rule untenable. But in government, the ANC has maintained 
much of the economic disparity of the apartheid era, and the government 
continues to violently suppress working class struggles. An Indigenous 
ruling class would be no different.

Struggles against national oppression, and for indigenous freedom, 
should be self-organised on class-lines, using class- struggle methods. 
All efforts to consolidate power among a privileged leadership must be 
opposed, and the struggle against national oppression transformed into a 
struggle for social revolution. Without overthrowing capitalism and the 
State, national liberation replaces one set of exploiters for another. 
Through social revolution, the roots of settler colonialism and 
imperialist war are destroyed for good, and a real universal freedom 
made possible.

REAL SOVEREIGNTY MEANS SOCIAL REVOLUTION!

Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group

https://melbacg.au/from-australia-to-israel-smash-settler-colonialism/
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