A-Infos (en) France, CNT-AIT: Anarchosyndicalisme #185 - OLGA TARATUTA Solidarity Initiative (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

"War is a kind of action, thanks to which people who do not know each 
other kill each other for the glory and benefit of people who know each 
other very well, but do not kill each other" (Paul Valéry) -- -- This 
text is an abridged version of the November and December 2023 
publications of the Kharkov online site "Assembleia". You can find many 
references, videos, etc. there. ---- http://assembly.org.ua. ---- Dead 
end. This word began to appear in almost all analytical materials of the 
Western press on the Russian-Ukrainian war. Since the withdrawal of the 
Russian army from Kherson in November last year, the front line has been 
frozen, almost without movement, despite bloody attempts by each side to 
reach a breaking point in their favor and gain ground. operational 
space. After the new Verdun - the meat grinder which took place during 
the winter and spring of 2023 around Bakhmout - came a new "battle of 
the Somme"[1]for a dozen villages in the steppes of the coast of 'Azov, 
which from October gradually transformed into another Verdun/Bakhmout 
around Avdeevka. If the latter falls, the same mechanism will be 
reproduced on new front lines a little further away. Meanwhile, the 
chaos of mud and corpses in Krynki[2]may already seem like a new 
Passchendale[3].

If the reference to the First World War - to compare the current balance 
of positions - is not
only used by lazy commentators, on the other hand few people recall how 
this war was ended. The war was thwarted by the workers of the warring 
countries: "The war did not end in 1918 because of military defeat on 
one side or another. The generals would have happily spent a few more 
years killing millions of people to achieve their goals.
The war ended because different armies and populations in Europe opposed 
it. Most
people know that Russia emerged from the war in 1917 thanks to the 
Russian Revolution. One of the key factors of the revolution was the 
revolt of Russian workers and peasants against the war and against their 
own ruling class. What is less known is that there were significant 
mutinies in the French army, as well as smaller but equally important 
mutinies in the British army, in 1917. The key uprising which ended the 
war was the German naval mutiny at Kiel in 1918.

The high command, in a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the war, 
ordered the fleet to put to sea with it virtually intact. But the 
clandestine naval organizations, among which were anarchist sailors, had 
already prepared for this. In response, they formed Councils (Soviets) 
and seized their ships, ports and surrounding barracks. This sparked a 
wave of military mutinies and workers' strikes, forcing the panicked 
ruling class of not only Germany, but Europe as a whole, to come to the 
negotiating table and hammer out a peace treaty.»

By the time Trump or another isolationist candidate likely becomes 
president of the United States, the Russian-Ukrainian war will have been 
raging for three years. This is approximately the same time it took for 
the revolutionary situation to mature.[In 1917], neither the "rear guard 
barriers", nor the military tribunals, nor the hordes of fanatics who 
shouted in the streets "we will fight to the last" saved[the supporters 
of the war].

The very threat that those who will celebrate the next New Year 2024 in 
the trenches will come out of their shelters,
meet in neutral territory, drink together, and then return home with 
weapons, can become a powerful incentive for the Kremlin and Bankova 
[4]to begin negotiations in order to prevent something much more 
dangerous for both warring parties. But even if the scenario of the 
beginning of the last century repeats itself - instead of, for example, 
that of the Iran-Iraq war, which got stuck in the same massacre for 8 
years and then both declared victory, which has only strengthened both 
regimes - which means that next year will bring many more rivers of 
blood. According to BBC News Ukraine, with the new draft law on 
mobilization, Ukrainians may be required to report to recruitment 
centers within 48 hours after receiving a summons by email or registered 
mail.

"Death postmen" will be given more tools to check the military registry 
documents of citizens on the streets, arrest them and hand them over to 
enlistment offices or put them on the wanted list. In the event of 
non-compliance with summonses, arrest periods and fines will be 
increased, offenders may be prosecuted in absentia and the categories of 
people entitled to a suspended sentence will be restricted. It is also 
proposed to enlist incarcerated people in the army. Will prisoners want 
to go to the front, knowing that even law-abiding people, to put it 
mildly, are not very well trained and equipped - a big question that 
could threaten prison riots. The situation will become particularly 
difficult for "escapers" who prefer to escape the fighting by going to 
prison. When "Assembleia" began to sound the alarm that Kharkov courts 
had stopped handing out suspended sentences for failure to report to 
one's military unit, many local readers brushed aside this information. 
backhandedly saying that it was "better to be in prison than in the 
grave". Well, let's see how long before the first option ceases to be an 
alternative to the second.

There is no public information to what level the mobilization plan for 
Kharkov is currently being implemented, but state authorities released 
information about neighboring regions in the fall. In Poltava, 
implementation is only 13%, in Sumy - 8%. A week ago, the head of
Ukrainian defense intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, acknowledged the minimal 
effectiveness of the forcibly mobilized Ukrainians: "All the volunteers 
who wanted to fight came in the first 6 months. Who is being drafted 
now? Unfortunately, there is no right answer. If you don't find 
motivation for these people, no matter how many people are driven by 
force or according to legal standards, their effectiveness will be 
almost zero. This is, overall, what has happened recently." Alexei 
Arestovich, a former advisor to Zelensky's Cabinet and one of his main 
propagandists, said in late November:
"Let me cite some figures: 100 people left military units without 
authorization per day in Ukraine. 100 people per day is a brigade per 
month. A brigade escapes from the front every month. 4.5 million draft 
dodgers do not want to register for military service. In the
units, there are 30 to 40 and even up to 70% refusals. They just say, "I 
won't fight, do with me what you want." What are the boundaries of the 
year 1991 [5]? " Knowing this ex-advisor's need for hype at every 
opportunity, his estimates may be exaggerated, but our sources spoke of 
many conscientious objectors in the Ukrainian armed forces even during 
the summer counteroffensive.
These are not desertions strictly speaking, but refusal to fight, which 
is why these soldiers should be transferred to non-combatant units.

On the Russian side, a 44-year-old Belgorod resident snapped at a police 
major, who tried to
summon him to the military registration and enlistment office. For his 
part, St. Petersburg liberal activist
Grigory Sverdlin, founder of the "Go Forest, Go" project aimed at 
helping Russians avoid participating in the war, shared the following 
statistics on his Facebook page:

"There are more and more deserters. In October, almost one in five (!) 
calls to Go Forest Go was
a request for help leaving the unit:

April: 121 out of 4288 calls, or 2.8% of cases;
May: 87 out of 997, or 8.7%;
June: 54 out of 644, or 8.3%;
July: 115 out of 1142, or 10%;
September: 185 out of 1614, or 11.4%;
October: 218 out of 1197, or 18.2%

About 30% of Russian defectors remain in Russia. Because there is 
nothing to live abroad, it is
scary to cross the border and not to leave your loved ones behind. They 
hide, move from one
place to another, but stay. We also help them as much as we can. ". This 
increase, according to him, is due to the fatigue of the mobilized, who 
no longer hope for rotation, and to the general fatigue of the war. 
Other journalists at the organization learned that several unrelated 
deserters reported that nearly 80 percent of their squads had escaped 
and that only about 15 percent of them had been captured.

According to the "Mediazona" count, published on the occasion of the 
anniversary of the start of the Russian mobilization[September 21, 
2022], over the past year in the Russian Federation there have been 
almost four times more convictions for unauthorized abandonment of a 
unit and desertion than there were each year in such cases before the 
war: since July 2023, courts have handed down more than 500 convictions 
on these grounds each month. This represents 2-3% of the Russian army 
group in Ukraine, which seems like a small number at the moment, but it 
is still a significant percentage when you relate it to the losses of 
Soviet troops killed in Afghanistan compared to to the total number of 
those who served there. Not to mention that many of the "disappeared" 
from Afghanistan are in fact deserters who managed to escape and never 
returned... It should also be taken into account that the Russians' 
motivation to desert is weakened by borders European powers that remain 
closed to Russians, the system of social control in Russian cities, 
unprecedented in the history of wars, and the essentially open terrain 
of southeastern Ukraine, where it is difficult to hide from the police 
military.

The collapse of Russian military morale is also hindered by Ukrainian 
propaganda, which presents as enemies all Russian citizens who do not 
openly speak out for Ukraine, even if they refuse to fight (Ukrainian 
propaganda says that they are all the same "orcs", but only cowards). 
This is happening for the same reason as for the defense of Ukraine, the 
Power places emphasis on increasing pressure on people rather than 
allowing voluntary initiatives to develop: horizontal links at the base 
are dangerous for anyone who holds the power. But this same barracks 
slavery can contribute to the fraternization of yesterday's workers in 
camouflage uniform, making them quickly understand that forced people 
have nothing to share, and that the enemy is the one who pushes them to 
massacre.

Recently, a statement from Russian soldiers from the Moscow and 
Ulyanovsk regions regarding
extortion of money and beatings by the command was published. Soldiers 
from military unit 41680 said that two weeks after signing their 
engagement contract, they were sent to attack in the direction of 
Avdeevka without training or preparation. According to them, most 
fighters are "beaten and kept in basements" before being sent on 
missions. Their colleague Artyom Yakupov was diagnosed with a concussion 
after another beating. In these images provided by the army, the man can 
be seen with bruises on his face. Artyom's girlfriend also confirmed to 
journalists that he was beaten by his commanders. On October 12 he 
received a shell and on the 20th he was sent to attack, after which he 
did not return. They also claim that monetary "extortions" of up to 
50,000 rubles per month are collected by the sergeants major of the 1st 
, 2nd and 3rd companies . The money would be for "construction 
materials, vehicle parts, uniforms, funeral services and psychological 
assistance for relatives of the dead." In fact, according to the 
military, the funds collected are dedicated to the personal needs of the 
command. "We repeatedly hear the prices to avoid storms. Some pay 
100,000 rubles," the military said.

The New York Times, citing US officials, warned on December 11 that 
"without a change in strategy, 2024 could be akin to 1916, the deadliest 
year of World War I, when thousands of young men lost life and where the 
battle lines have changed very little."
So the Overton Window opens wider and wider and may eventually open so 
wide that it will break its hinges and blow someone's head off.

The policy of war to the last of the Ukrainians / Russians is largely 
based on patriotic women who are not afraid to go into the trenches 
themselves to watch the fights from the tribune like in the days of the 
gladiators (but the Colosseum had at least one paid entry, whereas in 
this case, going to support "our team" is available for free). If they 
were forced to try to overcome this problem with their own hands[and 
with their own blood], they would immediately say "let's reach an 
agreement", "I owe this state nothing" and "why do I need this 
Ukraine/Russia." The two dictatorial regimes will therefore delay the 
mobilization of women until the last minute.
But even without this, the critical mass of those who do not want to 
defend each other's villas and yachts is gradually increasing...

What should we wish our audience of freethinkers, refuseniks and 
cosmopolitans in the coming year
? At the very least, stay in touch with Assembleia.
We wish those who plan to leave warring countries to do it successfully 
and settle in a new place. For those who do not want to leave, we want 
them to have as little contact with the state gang as possible and to 
become as self-sufficient as possible, even to the point of creating 
autonomous settlements in rural nature. And of course, help people and 
animals in need, stay healthy, develop yourself, study anarchist 
communism. This may come in handy sooner than it seems.

Higher, higher, the black flag!
the State is the executioner of the workers!
The soldier - at home!
The State - in the trash!
Peace between people, war on the authorities!

How to concretely support Assembleia companions:
For Assembleia, information is crucial. Its production and maximum 
distribution is of prime
importance. There are several possibilities to contribute:

you can distribute the newsletter of the Olga Taratuta Initiative, which 
translates and distributes news from Assembleia and
other anti-war groups in Russia (notably KRAS, section of the AIT in 
Russia). Write to
contactchezsolidarite.online to receive the newsletter;
if you have translation skills (Russian, Ukrainian, English, or others) 
and you have a little time
and energy, you can join our team of volunteer translators;
you can order stickers in solidarity.
2 models of stickers are available ("deserters from all countries unite" 
and "war to the palaces,
peace to the cottages"). Sending in packs of 25, 50 or 100. (You can mix 
the models). The price (shipping included) is EUR2.50 for 25, EUR5 for 
50, EUR7.50 for 100 copies. Checks payable to CNT-AIT
(mark Ukraine stickers on the back) to be sent to
CNT-AIT 7 rue St Rémésy 31000 TOULOUSE
Money is - in this capitalist world - the sinews of war. Financially 
support the companions
of Assembleia:
by donating online on their platform: 
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/mutual-aid-alert-for-east-ukraine/
by bank transfer (in Euro) to the following account:
IBAN: FR81 2004 1010 1603 1175 7H03 7 45
BIC: PSSTFRPPTO
Account holder: CNT-AIT
Bank: Banque Postale
(Please send us an email to contactchezsolidarite.online to inform us of 
the bank transfer)

https://cntaittoulouse.lautre.net/spip.php?article1383
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