A-Infos (en) Australia, Melbourne: MACG Statement of Shared Positions (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

This document is to be read as a supplement to the Aims & Principles of 
the Melbourne Anarchist Communist Group. Agreement with the positions in 
this document is a condition of membership. ---- 1. The social 
revolution will be the act of the working class, organised primarily in 
the workplace. Other social groups may play a positive role in this 
struggle, but they cannot be a substitute for a revolutionary movement 
of the working class. We attribute this unique role to workers, at the 
point of production, for a few reasons. Firstly, the working class forms 
the vast majority of society. Secondly, the experience of social 
co-operation in production tends to produce the values that promote 
solidarity in the struggle against the employer. Thirdly, and above all 
else, it is the working class which is in the structural position to 
directly seize control of the means of production and uproot the power 
of capital, at its own initiative. By doing so, production can be 
repurposed to meet human needs under conditions of generalised 
self-management by the whole of society. One corollary of the fact that 
the struggle will be decided in the workplace is that it will not be 
decided by street brawls with the cops or by trying to drop out of 
capitalist society. While it is certainly necessary to defend ourselves 
against police attack, capitalism's achilles' heel is in the workplace, 
and so our strategic orientation - both in regards to reform and 
revolution - must be there.

2. We stand for the complete equality of all people and in solidarity 
with people of all marginalised genders and sexualities. Capitalism 
oppresses women, LGBT+, and people who don't conform to the gender 
binary. The liberation of all will not be achieved without the overthrow 
of capitalism and the destruction of class society. In turn, the 
overthrow of capitalism will not be achieved without the participation 
of all segments of the working class. It is therefore in the interests 
of all workers to support the struggles for the liberation of those 
oppressed on the basis of gender and sexuality. Oppression based on 
sexuality or gender identity is completely antithetical to anarchist 
principles. Such oppressions serve only to divide the working class, and 
deny our LGBT+ comrades the capacity to freely live and express 
themselves as they truly are. The oppression faced by trans people must 
be combatted at every opportunity. Solidarity between everyone - 
regardless of sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression - 
can only be built on the principle that 'an injury to one is an injury 
to all'. We support the right of women and LGBT+ comrades to organise 
autonomously within the wider working class movement and also within 
Anarchist organisations.

3. Australian capitalism and the Australian state are founded upon the 
murderous disposession and genocide of Aboriginal and Torres Strait 
Islander peoples. The processes of domination, oppression, and 
resistance that began with colonisation have not ended. Aboriginal 
people are subjected to mass incarceration, deaths in custody, and 
Aboriginal children continue to be removed from their families. 
Aboriginal control of land is attacked by mining companies and other 
capitalists who destroy sacred sites and cultural heritage while 
government policies reflect an ongoing defacto position of assimilation. 
Aboriginal peoples have resisted invasion, colonisation, genocide and 
assimilation since 1788, and they continue to resist.

Our full solidarity is with the ongoing resistance of Aboriginal people, 
particularly where that resistance is exercised through militant 
self-organisation. We recognise and support the right of Aboriginal 
peoples to self determination. We acknowledge the desire of Indigenous 
people for a treaty that recognises their continued rights. However we 
argue that no just treaty will be possible whilst capitalism and the 
state endure. The capitalist state will never accept genuine land 
rights, economic justice and self determination for Aboriginal people, 
as the continued expansion of capitalism demands ever greater 
dispossession. Justice for Indigenous people can only be achieved 
through a revolution which abolishes class society and the state.

4. We are internationalists, anti-imperialists, and anti-militarists. 
Capitalism produces a system of competing states, each dominated by the 
interests of a domestic ruling class. States are compelled to compete 
for influence, resources, and access to markets, in the interests of 
their domestic ruling classes. We need revolutionary working class 
organisation, not just within our own country, but across all countries. 
A successful revolution will need to spread to encompass the whole 
world. To do this, we need to fight against imperialism, racism, and 
nationalism, and unite workers of the world on the basis of class 
solidarity.
We therefore oppose the policing of borders under capitalism, and 
advocate their abolition as part of the revolutionary struggle against 
the State and capitalism. In particular, we support the struggle of 
refugees for asylum in Australia and oppose both immigration detention 
and deportation.

As anarchists we do not support the state or its military. We oppose the 
provision of money, weapons or personnel to the military forces of any 
State. Here in Australia, we have a special responsibility to oppose 
Australian militarism.

In the event of war between states, we oppose all belligerents and raise 
the slogan "No War but the Class War". Instead of supporting national 
militaries, we advocate fighting the class struggle, against both the 
invader and domestic ruling class.

In anti-imperialist struggles, we side with the oppressed and argue for 
working class methods of struggle. We criticise the leadership of those 
struggles by capitalist parties and reject reactionary tactics like 
deliberate attacks on civilians.

5. We reject both pacifism and terrorism. Adopting pacifism would render 
us helpless before our enemies, while to use terrorism would be to join 
them. Instead, our principle is to recognise the right of the working 
class to use necessary and reasonable force for individual and 
collective self defence against capitalists, the state and reactionary 
violence.

6. We oppose State bans on any opinion, even ones with which we 
passionately disagree. Any such bans would end up being used, in the 
end, against the working class and its organisations. We also, 
therefore, recognise complete freedom of conscience. We support the 
right to believe in any religion or none, to practise any religion or 
none, and to preach any religion or none. Adherence to religious 
precepts must therefore be entirely voluntary. Attempts by religious 
leaders or denominations to compel adherents to conform to their 
teachings or discipline must be resisted and we resolutely reject any 
attempt to give them State backing.

7. There is no parliamentary road to anarchy and communism. The ruling 
class will not allow us to vote away their wealth and power. The working 
class will only get rid of capitalism by seizing control of capitalist 
property, re-organising production and distribution according to need, 
and defending this transformation of social relations against all 
attempts to undo it. That is to say, through social revolution.

Similarly, there is no parliamentary path to working class power within 
capitalism. The experience of 150 years across the world proves that 
Socialists don't conquer Parliament, but instead Parliament conquers 
Socialists. The process of campaigning for election, operating in 
parliaments, and reproducing a viable electoral organisation necessarily 
alters the behaviour of those involved in it.

Elections engage workers as 'voters' deferring to candidates, rather 
than as individuals capable of exercising power where they are exploited 
and dominated. It alienates them from their potential power as a class, 
with the capacity to organise and act on the job.

Bourgeois elections ultimately reproduce bourgeois politics, and those 
who find themselves in power are inevitably tasked with maintaining the 
interests of capital.

As anarchists committed to building genuine working class power - for a 
social revolution that overthrows capitalism - we do not run in 
elections, join electoral parties, or campaign for them.

8. A free communist society will be one that is ecologically 
sustainable. Even if capitalism were just and supportable on other 
grounds, it would fail the test of sustainability. Capital accumulation 
requires endless growth, and so ever-expanding energy consumption. Even 
if the obstacles posed by highly profitable fossil fuel companies could 
be overcome within capitalism, the emissions produced by a green 
transition could also prove environmentally destructive given the levels 
of consumption demanded by capitalist production. We need to reject the 
instrumental thinking inherent to capitalism and realise that we are 
part of nature - a conscious and creative part, but a part. As such, 
nature is not something to be dominated, but to be protected.

There is no freedom on a dead planet. A revolutionary movement must 
rapidly decarbonise the world while simultaneously meeting the just 
needs of the global south for the modernisation of essential industries. 
We are strongly opposed to Malthusian population theories, primitivism, 
and other currents which would dispense with the useful (and, in many 
cases, life-saving) advancements of industrial and technological 
society. Instead, we advocate for an advanced industrial and 
technological communism, which should be harnessed under workers 
control, under conditions of cooperation, in a system of sustainable 
production for use, rather than exchange.

https://melbacg.au/macg-statement-of-shared-positions/
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