A-Infos (en) Czech, Ostravska OAF[Slovenian-Croatian FAO]: FAO-IFA: Your Wars - Our Dead (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

More than a year has passed since the already long and devastating war 
in Ukraine escalated to new heights of mass organized technological 
carnage and definitively entered the world's consciousness. In February 
2022, after nearly eight years of civil war that claimed thousands of 
lives and caused enormous damage, military forces under the command of 
the Russian Federation launched a large-scale invasion of the territory 
of the Ukrainian state, which was met with a decisive armed response by 
military forces under the command of Ukraine. As the battles engulfed 
cities and countryside alike, the flow of weapons into the newly created 
war zone increased dramatically. Large parts of the country and 
population are now under true military occupation, entire cities and 
vast areas have been turned into post-apocalyptic death zones. By now, 
many states, militaries, intelligence services, and other structures 
have become actively involved in the war in one way or another, many of 
them as a follow-up to their previous commitments. The internal 
volatility of military conflict between powerful and technologically 
advanced militaries continues to raise the global geopolitical stakes, 
while the needs and interests of the civilian population, both in the 
war zone and elsewhere in the world, are sidelined by all warring 
parties. The war continues and the logic that set it in motion is 
normalized.

After nearly a year and a half, many worry not only about the continued 
daily terror of frontline slaughter, forced conscription, attacks on 
civilians, and the overall totalitarian nature of the wartime regime, 
but also about what will happen next. The anxiety of many people around 
the world is also fueled by the stubborn statements of warmongers on 
both sides of the front line. The official spokesmen of the ruling class 
that presides over both sides of the war routinely evoke the possibility 
of nuclear Armageddon and the necessity of a nationalistically motivated 
militaristic revival in the respective geographies. All warring parties 
are trying hard to impose their truth on the population they rule and 
the world at large. Yet, as in most wars, there are many people who 
choose to disobey the orders of commanders on both sides, and often do 
so at the risk of being ridiculed, stigmatized, censored, criminalized, 
imprisoned, or otherwise harmed.

Like many others, we, the political groups and individuals affiliated 
with the Federation for Anarchist Organizing (FAO), have been 
discussing, reacting and thinking about this new war. We did so against 
the background of many previous experiences of the past decade and a 
half dealing with issues of war, occupation and resistance.

We opened up a lot of questions and came to some conclusions. As part of 
our efforts, we have listened and interacted with our comrades from 
various parts of the world, including those from Ukraine. This text 
presents a partial summary of the conclusions we reached. Regardless of 
their potential power, we recognize that the issues addressed here are 
difficult and that no words can match the horrors experienced by so 
many. Despite all the complexity of international politics in general 
and war as a specific phenomenon in particular, and despite the 
contradictions arising from any political activity, we believe that our 
conclusions are simple and clear. Above all, they are also open to 
future development. We sincerely hope that our contribution can be 
considered in conjunction with our previous statements and political 
commitments.

We are aware that in this specific context we are relatively privileged 
in the sense that our lives are not immediately threatened by weapons of 
war. We are privileged to be able to take the time to come together as a 
collective social and political body and ask questions without having to 
immediately come up with practical answers on which our lives depend. 
This is a privilege denied to many on the frontlines in 
Palestine/Israel, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Ukraine and many other places 
currently engulfed in war. Nevertheless, we do not believe that certain 
relative privileges should force a person to remain silent. We are aware 
of the fact that this position may be controversial for some. 
Nevertheless, we have made a conscious decision to take such a stance, 
and we do so openly.

We believe that even in the most difficult times there is an opportunity 
to stand up for yourself, not to withdraw into isolation, paralysis and 
silence, but on the contrary to actively reflect on things and, if the 
opportunity arises, to act. We believe that this is what anarchists and 
the anarchist movement as a whole should strive for. In fact, it is 
precisely this point of view that drew many of us to the anarchist 
movement in the first place. We are aware that acting in this way can 
bring a person into conflict with the powers that be and their 
operations by which they produce approval for their actions. 
Furthermore, we understand that in these times of apparent confusion and 
uncertainty we can gain much from the analyses, positions and practices 
of many of our predecessors who have engaged in sustained anarchist 
activity in the specific historical and political context of previous 
times. This does not mean that we intend to throw our Malatesta, 
Goldman, Durutti, the anonymous Kronstadt sailor, Makhno, or anyone else 
into the fire of debate, claiming that references of this kind will 
settle the dispute. That would be against the spirit of what we 
understand as anarchism. It would be ahistorical and it would also be 
rude. We're just saying that there have been people before us who have 
dealt with topics not dissimilar to the ones we're dealing with now, and 
that they've come up with interesting analyzes and suggestions that we 
too can make good use of.
[...]

Capitalism, crisis, the end of neoliberalism and war

In its quest for endless capital accumulation and unlimited economic 
growth, capitalism has developed as a global system fueled by the 
constant exploitation of workers, other people and animals, and nature. 
Although it is a global system, it is not built on the harmony of all 
its parts, but on the logic of competition found at all levels: 
competition within society, competition between individual societies, 
competition between centers of capitalist power; and it is not at all 
surprising that one of the basic fantasies of capital is to impose on 
the working class conditions of the most brutal competition for the 
necessities of life, such as food, housing, and social relations.

While the belief in unlimited economic growth is a basic ideological 
premise of the capitalist system, limits to expansion do in fact exist, 
and so too do limits to the expansion of the domain under the control of 
a particular capitalist power. Whether in the form of resistance or 
limited availability of workers, limited natural resources, dubious 
economic bibles on which it relies for its reproduction, or in the form 
of a competing center of capitalist power, the managers of the 
capitalist system are forever haunted by the dual specter of crisis and 
expansion. Its entire history is characterized by a long journey from 
one devastating crisis to another. Only in the last decade and a half 
have crises been given other names, e.g. economic crisis, migration 
crisis, Covid-19 crisis, climate crisis. Despite the different names, 
the response of the authorities to these supposedly very different 
challenges was strikingly similar: huge investment in propaganda efforts 
to impose a monolithic narrative, strengthening of various state and 
parastate structures of repression, surveillance and control, 
militarization, digitization and bureaucratization, innovation and 
entrenchment of hate politics, violence and exclusion, persecution of 
social opposition and immense destruction of human and animal lives.

With the end of the neoliberal era of the global economic system, its 
ideological promises are everywhere exposed as empty words. The ruling 
class itself is well aware that not only can it no longer guarantee 
anything to the vast majority of the people it wants to rule, but 
increasingly it cannot even hide it. Within the current system, even 
according to official proclamations, there is no longer an offer of 
affordable health, safety, housing, education, a fair share of the pie, 
let alone prosperity of the kind that characterized welfare states after 
World War II. What today's ruling class offers instead is successive 
states of emergency, austerity measures, further privatization of public 
services, militarization and an enormous increase in the scale and 
brutality of policing. Authorities in the so-called West, no longer able 
to provide even the previous level of prosperity, are increasingly 
resorting to mere violence and other authoritarian methods just to 
maintain power. The Covid-19 regime has so far been the clearest 
expression of the mechanisms of a new and extremely repressive 
normality, which is no longer limited to those who are considered 
marginal in terms of racist, patriarchal and otherwise authoritarian 
structures, and therefore valid targets of state violence.

As the neoliberal utopia of global free trade collapsed under the 
contradictions between ideology and the broader geopolitical 
considerations of its main protagonist - the US - economic protectionism 
re-emerged as a unifying element for competing centers of capital 
seeking competitive advantage and thus their very survival. According to 
the iron logic of capitalist competition, and in accordance with the 
historical events of more than a century ago, the new economic, 
political and ultimately military blocs combine and maneuver to secure 
what they see as their existential geopolitical and economic interests. 
Wherever there are competing claims, the possibility of war, the most 
absolute of all crises, comes to the table of those who decide on behalf 
of the ruling class. After so many other geographical areas, Ukraine has 
now been added to the long list of war theaters. The fact that 
considerations that would take into account the welfare of the majority 
of the population do not play too much of a role in these geopolitical 
games of the ruling class is itself a testament to how vast a gap exists 
between the rulers and the ruled today.

The war in Ukraine is between an existing transnational military 
alliance in the service of a US-led unipolar world system on the one 
hand, and an emerging transnational economic alliance with military 
aspects in the service of a multipolar world system adopted by Russia, 
China and other powerful capitalist powers on the other. Despite the 
importance of local factors, the war in Ukraine is not based on local 
political conflict. Rather, Ukraine, its population, landscape, 
resources, cities and fields were chosen as the terrain of military 
confrontation between two powerful capitalist centers. Geopolitically 
speaking, the core of the problem is therefore not Russia versus 
Ukraine, and certainly not Russians versus Ukrainians. It is a battle 
between centers of economic and political power that align themselves 
with two competing models of the global political system and have the 
military and other tools at their disposal to assert their respective 
claims. Despite the many differences between the two economic and 
political types, both models are rooted in capitalism, militarism, 
nationalism, and thus the necessity of large-scale exploitation and 
destruction. The war in Ukraine is thus not a war between people, but a 
war between large systems of capitalist domination. People only die in it.

When we think about war, we should not forget that peace does not 
necessarily mean the absence of war. It can also mean that a war waged 
by a certain center of power is taking place far away. This is the truth 
about the apparent peace and democracy that has supposedly reigned for 
many decades in the so-called West. It is conveniently forgotten that 
virtually all states of the so-called West built their economic success 
and apparent prosperity through exploitation and conquest. Most of these 
states were built on systematic crimes against a certain part of the 
population on which they imposed their rule. This also applies to tiny, 
unimportant Slovenia, which, as a result of securing its independence, 
stripped tens of thousands of its citizens of their legal rights in a 
clearly racist administrative operation. This is true of tiny, 
insignificant Croatia, whose current ruling class came to power in a 
nationalist war that served as a cover for large-scale ethnic cleansing 
of its territory, during which several hundred thousand people were 
driven from their homes on racist grounds and hundreds if not thousands 
of people were killed outside of any military battles. In the case of 
many other states, this process took other and more deadly forms: 
colonization, genocide, organized terror and mutilation, slavery, brutal 
suppression of entire distinct linguistic and cultural communities, and 
many others.

Nor is war the only form of terror, and its clear brutality should not 
mean that we should ignore all other forms of state-organized structural 
violence. Even today, and probably more so than in the not-too-distant 
past, we can see that a large part of Europe's workforce is made up 
primarily of severely underpaid labor from countries on the periphery or 
beyond - conditions that in many cases are rightly described as modern 
slavery . This confirms the now practically indisputable fact that every 
capitalist power needs a regular supply of cheap labor and reliable 
access to natural resources, not only to today's fashionable lithium and 
other precious metals, but also to clean water and fertile soil. Until 
capitalism as a world system is dismantled, states will remain the 
mechanism through which a tiny minority imposes authoritarian rule on 
the world in a way that requires war to reproduce itself. So we can 
reaffirm that capitalism is war.

Anarchists and war

For us, in this war, the enemy is war itself. For us, the enemy is the 
states that need war in order to rule the population. For us, the enemy 
is capitalism, which needs states and wars to maintain its power over 
the world. For us, this is the core of anarchist analysis and politics. 
Without them, anarchism as a clear, specific political position and 
practice does not make practical or theoretical sense.

We absolutely recognize the right of every individual and community to 
defend themselves against any infringement of their freedom. The 
military invasion and subsequent occupation by an uninvited and 
unwelcome foreign entity is without a doubt a clear example of exactly 
the kind of violation that is taking place in Ukraine. If people - 
regardless of their declared political affiliation - choose to join the 
various military forces under the command of the state of Ukraine (or 
any other state for that matter) under these circumstances, we will not 
preach to them that they should not do so. It is, of course, up to each 
individual, community and political group to assess the situation for 
themselves and make appropriate decisions regarding their self-defense.

We support people's self-defense and perceive it as an integral part of 
the struggle to defend already achieved social, political and other 
gains or in creating conditions in which these gains can be achieved. 
For us, popular self-defense means a set of many different activities 
conducted in a way that allows for autonomous political, social, 
economic and militant practices while adhering to the principles of 
anti-authoritarian self-organization. While it may take the form of 
organized armed struggle, it is anti-militaristic in the sense that it 
is based on voluntary involvement, claims no authority over the 
non-combatant population, and has as its ultimate goal the dissolution 
of a system that needs war and military structures to reproduce itself.

We humbly acknowledge that at present this concept has only limited 
practical application in our immediate circumstances - but also that it 
may not always remain so. Furthermore, as part of the anarchist 
movement, we are constantly trying to learn from history, including the 
history of people's revolutions - and from the current experiences of 
our comrades who are fighting for dignity and life. It is against the 
background of these considerations that we submit that, not only in 
principle, but also in analysis, we do not believe that taking a gun in 
one hand and holding a national flag in the other, or taking orders from 
those who do so, can achieve anything other than reproduction of a 
society based on nationalism, patriarchy and exploitation. Based on what 
we understand so far about the military conflict in Ukraine, we do not 
see that involvement as part of the armed forces of the Ukrainian state 
or in a military coalition under its command is consistent with any 
model of anti-authoritarian self-organization that we can imagine. We 
understand and respect the self-defense impulse that led them to decide 
to engage in armed struggle against invading forces. But to do this as 
part of the national army or as a substitute for it and under the 
command of its officers is not an anarchist policy and cannot be 
formulated as such.

In the event that Russia is declared the winner of this war, there is no 
doubt that this will certainly not bring favorable conditions for the 
development of any anti-capitalist revolutionary project. But even in 
the case of the so-called victory of Ukraine and its "Western allies", 
it is illusory to expect the emergence of something like that. Indeed, 
precisely in the context of war between rival blocks of capitalist 
power, the banner of a transnational revolutionary working class engaged 
in class struggle should be explicitly placed at the center of any 
militant activity. It is the only banner under which workers, fighters 
and the rest of the population from both sides of the front can fight 
together for their lives and against their common enemy: the military 
commanders and their bosses.

We strongly oppose the creation and reproduction of any sympathetic 
depiction of war. We observe that despite the fact that this portrayal 
is strongly based on patriarchal values, it is also spread throughout 
all supposedly progressive media. Images of macho-looking warrior-men in 
all sorts of romantic situations - images that contrast with narratives 
of "reprehensible deserters" and those who dare to question 
participation in the ongoing carnage. Accordingly, we see practically 
total denial of the existence of desertions "on our own side." The right 
to life outside of war must be recognized for everyone, regardless of 
gender, age or social status.

We are strongly opposed to the distinction and promotion of the division 
into "good refugees" and "bad refugees" that we observed immediately 
after the beginning of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine. We have 
witnessed further confirmation of the fact that the European migration 
system is based on racial and religious prejudices and discriminates 
between refugees based on their skin color and perceived religious 
affiliation. The systematic violence either directly by the European 
Union states or on their behalf against refugees and other migrants from 
various countries that we have seen over the last 20 years at least has 
made life hell on earth for millions of people - those fleeing war were 
greeted with further humiliation and new death traps. We cannot adapt to 
a world where empathy and solidarity is based on the passport a person 
holds, the language they speak or the place of birth. We cannot accept 
that a person from Syria is less worthy of a safe home than a person 
from Ukraine, we will not accept that a person fleeing from Ukraine is 
worth less than a person fleeing from Syria. The principles of 
solidarity either apply universally or they do not apply at all.

We absolutely reject any war profiteering. We do not support the 
production and trade of weapons that are controlled by the state and 
primarily serve the interests of the shareholders of the 
military-industrial complex. Weapons, war industries and military 
alliances are the problem, not the solution. That is why we reject the 
acquisition and sale of weapons and all other forms of strengthening the 
war apparatus. We are not in solidarity with the states and their armies 
that are now measuring the power of their weapons of mass destruction in 
Ukraine. Our interests cannot be aligned with those of the war mongers 
who are already making hard money and wringing their hands over the 
promise of a long war with exciting opportunities. Our boundless 
solidarity goes out to all those suffering the consequences of war on 
both sides of the front line. We stand in solidarity with all those who 
raise their voices against war, with those who do not put their own 
bodies at the disposal of the war machine, and with those who become 
targets of repression precisely because of their opposition to war. Like 
us, they did not want war, they did not seek it, but became its 
prisoners and captives.

We oppose the normalization of the discourse on preparations for the 
next great future conflict, a normalization that creates the illusion 
that the only answer to war is more war, more tanks, more guns, more 
ammunition, more submission to the plans of military commanders. On the 
contrary, we need to seriously address the question of how to radically 
change society in a way that dismantles the conditions for war. We 
believe that this is one of our main goals as anarchist political 
groups, organizations and networks. To really achieve this, we should 
understand what these conditions are and what can be done about them. 
Patriarchy, nationalism, selective empathy and solidarity, 
militarization and security policy lead among them. These are all tools 
of class struggle that the ruling class uses to divide the working class 
and keep it subservient to the interests of capital while it - the 
ruling class - reaps the dividends. All of these must be constantly 
rejected, resisted and dismantled in all their many localized 
manifestations. We know that this is easier said than done, yet we 
believe that we have no other instrument at our disposal that can 
prevent the continuation of war and militarism. We also believe that 
some meaningful effort of this kind can be engaged in by any, even the 
smallest anarchist group and in the least favorable context, and it is 
something that in the long run can make a tangible difference in one's 
immediate environment and even in the wider society as whole. In a 
sense, war can only begin when and where many of the conditions just 
outlined become normalized and naturalized. Only when war is 
successfully planted in people's minds as necessary, viable, honorable 
and just, even joyful and adventurous, does it also become a practical 
possibility.

In our ranks and in our closest sister movements, we have comrades who 
directly experienced the wars of the 1990s in Yugoslavia and the NATO 
bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. We share time and space with people who 
experienced the wars in Syria and in Palestine/Israel. They all teach us 
that even in the worst of times it is possible to take a strong 
anti-nationalist, anti-militaristic stance and act according to the most 
universal ethical principles. Admittedly, the price for this is often 
not small - poverty, social exclusion, isolation from society, forced 
migration and outright repression. But it's a price many have paid and 
still pay in wars around the world. When Yugoslavia was torn apart, we 
saw how transnational and local solidarity helped people survive and 
maintain dignity in the worst situations. Desertion was fairly 
widespread on all sides of the conflict. In Serbia, entire military 
units with hundreds of soldiers refused to go to the battlefield. While 
the authorities searched the streets and bars for soldiers, many went 
into hiding and many fled the country altogether. In this they were 
supported by family members, friends, neighbors and others who all 
worked together to weave a web of social resistance against the war 
imposed on them by the nationalist elite. In those troubled times, it 
was self-organization and solidarity within communities that kept many 
people alive and, crucially, became a source of dignity when the flame 
of war died down. It is from these experiences that we recognize that 
among the most tangible things many of us can do is to offer help and 
support to deserters from all armies and those fleeing conscription. And 
if this situation arises, we ourselves must become these deserters and 
military resisters.

As with other wars, the war in Ukraine poses the central question of qui 
bono - who benefits? While we cannot predict with certainty how this 
great geopolitical game will play out, it is already clear that there 
will be no winners among the general population. There will be no 
prosperity, freedom and the possibility of self-determination. In the 
absence of a meaningful future, patriarchy, nationalism, religious 
fundamentalism and other systems of oppression will continue to rule 
over the population. Where a multilingual reality existed for 
generations, a cultural monoculture will thrive. Perhaps even, as the 
Zapatistas wrote, there will be no landscape after the war. The war 
could spread to other geographical areas and new armies could openly 
join the fighting. This will further guarantee the never-ending 
production of refugees, which the EU capital will suck up as cheap 
labor, which from their racist point of view will this time be white and 
therefore much more welcome. We assume that peace will be accepted only 
after the successful implementation of arms deals and the distribution 
of control over the fertile land of Ukraine. A division that will 
satisfy investors praying for healthy returns to be assured by the 
rulers of the Ukrainian state, who would probably promise and possibly 
sign anything, what they can just to secure their personal and political 
future. Of course, all these carousels of business are taking place 
regardless of the consequences that will fall on the general population 
of Ukraine, who will eventually have to pay for all this in many ways. 
When peace is finally agreed upon in the ruins of war, people will try 
to rebuild their lives, wrapped in huge amounts of debt to pay for all 
the 'donated' weapons, and will mourn the loss of family members and 
friends. What they will offer them will be capital-driven reconstruction 
with all the known brutality: privatization of public services and 
resources, further curtailment of workers' rights, many of which have 
already been suspended under the pretext of "war economy necessity", 
individualization, austerity, repatriarchalization, religious renewal, 
etc. That this horizon is not a pessimistic fantasy is confirmed, among 
other things, by the Ukrainian state itself, which shortly after the 
start of the invasion launched an advertising campaign for investment 
capital from the so-called West, the central theme of which was that 
Ukraine offers a great investment opportunity for those willing to take 
risks . This offers a clue to the idea that the future being fought for 
in Ukraine is not something most people can look forward to. It is the 
promise of a special economic zone catering to the interests of capital, 
where people are once again reduced to cheap highly exploitable labor.

Again, we express our support for any practices of self-organized 
anti-authoritarian self-defense and communal organizing in areas 
directly affected by the war, as long as they are based on clear 
anti-nationalist principles. Furthermore, we express our readiness to 
build concrete solidarity with comrades involved in such projects. We 
also want to say explicitly that any new way in which Ukraine will be 
integrated into the global capitalist system will entail the need for 
large-scale workers' self-organization, as this will be the only lever 
available to the workers to defend themselves against the known 
predatory schemes of war and post-war economy. We are well aware that 
the propaganda machine of each state involved would keep us in the dark 
about the existence of any such project on the territory of Ukraine (or 
anywhere else). We therefore insist that anarchist movements everywhere 
continually invest in building stable networks of information sharing, 
discussion and coordination. It is they who can offer the possibility of 
independent analysis and action before it explodes. By the time the 
conflict starts, it may already be too late. Therefore, it must be done 
while there is still time, but it is always better to start late than never.

The war is not fought only with bombs and tanks, and this applies not 
only on Ukrainian territory. A significant part of war is fought in 
societies seemingly safely removed from the scenes of direct violence. 
There it takes the form of arms production and trade, promotion of 
nationalism, propaganda, repression, racism, selective treatment of 
victims of war, prohibition of free speech, funding of gun campaigns, 
and many others. To reject war is to reject all the forms in which it 
takes place and wherever it takes place.

It should also be said that for us this is ultimately not just an 
abstract discussion that we can close with some statement and then move 
on to other things. Exactly opposite. We live in a part of the world 
where war is not only a lived experience for many people, but a very 
realistic future. Whenever there is any kind of massive social 
mobilization against a political class and its capitalism, that 
political class quickly raises the specter of war, as is so often the 
case in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He uses it as a warning of what can 
happen when workers demand too much. Another clear example of the threat 
of war being regularly used as a political tool is Serbia. Whenever 
there is a more serious danger that the government could lose virtually 
complete control of the mainstream discourse on any major social issue, 
it draws attention to the many unresolved issues surrounding Kosovo. It 
often sends the army to the borders, military exercises are held, a 
state of heightened alert is declared, and battle proclamations are 
issued. All this is often reflected on the Kosovo side, and it is the 
latter that often provides an apparent flashpoint for confrontation. 
After days or weeks, the situation calms down again. Only for reasons of 
domestic politics will it flare up again. But the almost grotesquely 
ritualistic nature of this dynamic, which has been going on for years, 
doesn't mean cheap public tricks can't get out of hand. This is why the 
way the war is routinely staged in front of domestic audiences in 
various parts of the Balkans should not be seen as just a cheap 
propaganda ploy. The threat is real and comes precisely from those who 
are able to fulfill it. It comes from entrenched nationalist elites who 
have proven incapable of offering the people anything other than hatred, 
national flags and nationalism. When they lose legitimacy, they are 
likely to turn to the same tools that brought them to power. One of them 
is war. The same can happen if they willingly accept or are forced to 
play a minor role in major geopolitical struggles by one or another of 
their global superpower benefactors.

In a volatile geopolitical context, all sorts of political tensions can 
develop into war. For this to happen, beyond the calculations of the 
rulers, the population, which has already suffered so much, would have 
to either be convinced that a new conflict against the "others" makes 
sense, or be forced to accept it. In any case, anarchists and other 
anti-nationalists in the Balkans should focus on not allowing this ploy 
to win another victory. This is the reason why we advocate building 
transnational networks and participate in their development. This is why 
we meet, communicate, learn, build bridges of support and struggle, and 
work on joint projects. This is why we encourage even the seemingly 
smallest gestures of disloyalty to official narratives. Therefore, 
whenever we find ourselves in the middle of an authentic social 
upheaval, we consistently argue against the use of national flags on the 
streets, against the use of any ethnic label, and against the use of 
other symbols and other expressions of nationalist ideology. For us, 
national flags, including the Slovenian and Croatian flags, mean the 
crimes on which they were and continue to be built. We feel no 
allegiance to the Slovenian or Croatian nation, and for us the only 
community we claim is the one constituted through the worldwide struggle 
against oppression. We believe that if we remain isolated in our own 
geographical situation, we will not achieve much. And we are also 
convinced that we will achieve nothing if we are separated from society 
and social struggles.

In the atmosphere of war, it is important to create spaces of 
anti-authoritarian resistance against everything that enables and drives 
war. Let us fight the states that claim the land we live in, the armies 
that seek to mobilize us, the military industries that feed off the 
wealth we produce, the rulers who claim to rule in our name, and all 
that allows the cylinder to flourish. Among the spaces in which it is 
necessary to be present and active is also the space of public debate on 
the one hand and especially the space of the anarchist and 
anti-authoritarian movement. We believe it is still important to engage 
in a self-organized exchange of information, opinion and organization to 
offer practical solidarity to all those who need it most in this 
difficult situation. We do not avoid open debate; in fact, we appreciate 
any opportunity where our own opinions and positions are challenged in a 
respectful and friendly environment. We do not and will not accept any 
kind of patronizing attitude or emotional blackmail in the normal 
process of debate. We know that the stakes are too high to let our 
emotions blind our vision and paralyze us at historically critical and 
otherwise important moments.

We are under no illusions: this war in Ukraine will continue for a long 
time. More wars will be added to the already long list as long as 
capitalism thrives. Just since we started writing this text into the 
current version, a new war has broken out in Sudan. To continue the 
struggle against this monstrous reality, we will need all our 
imagination and courage, all our analysis of historical and current 
events, our bodies, our hearts, and we will need comrades. We sincerely 
hope that we will continue to find them around the world and that they 
too will find us in present and future struggles to abolish the 
conditions for war throughout the world.

Let's fight against nationalism, patriarchy, imperialism and war!
Solidarity with the oppressed working class in Ukraine and Russia!
Let's abolish borders!
For the international solidarity of the workers!
Let's abolish the conditions for war!
Let's destroy capitalism!

https://oafed.noblogs.org/post/2024/01/27/fao-ifa-vase-valky-nasi-mrtvi/
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