A-Infos (en) Bulgaria, FAB: Rethinking Struggle and Anarchist Tactics by Denise Kozak (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Notes on the philosophy of anarchism, Actors, Ideas close to us, 
Position, Politics, ---- World, Articles ---- A discussion text, the 
idea of which was born in my head while I was in prison. I am talking 
about why our main task is the need to recreate our counter-society - 
alternative economic, cultural and political associations of citizens 
that will become the embryo of a new system. I will briefly outline my 
vision for the future (which, it seems, does not exist in Russia). I am 
trying to present the idea that in times of crisis it is the 
counter-society that will have to make a real revolution in social 
relations and consciousness through the uprising (I want to believe it) 
of the working masses.

Do you agree with the thoughts? Show it to your friends. Don't you 
agree? Criticize - or better yet, suggest. Better yet, show in action 
what you offer.

We are anarchists - and therefore revolutionaries, because, being 
bearers of social-revolutionary ideas, we oppose the current state 
apparatus based on a hierarchically organized structure of society, in 
which citizens have no real political and civil rights and freedoms, but 
the actual participation of the civil society in the management of the 
country (with feedback) is minimal. We do not believe in the possibility 
of changing the current status quo through elections that exclude real 
mechanisms and institutions of democracy, because we are convinced that 
the only legitimate source of power is the people themselves.

In modern Russia, where there is no freedom of speech, freedom of 
assembly, independent judiciary, freedom of the press, as well as the 
right to participate in public organizations, the young generation, 
filled with revolutionary romanticism, wants to achieve the realization 
of its universal ideals of freedom and justice, being in extremely 
unstable conditions, in which the whole of Russia is. Not knowing where 
to start, he tries to organize a radical resistance to the state, which 
inevitably ends in a long term prison without having time to organize. 
The other part, which wants social reforms in Russia, but does not try 
to start doing them, simply does not know where to start.

Fear, passive attitude to what is happening, panic anxiety and fear of 
one's own fate are the main reasons for the failure of many novice 
anarchist organizers. It has long been known that a person has only two 
choices: the desire to escape from the dreary or boring reality into the 
world of illusions, or a passionate desire for a goal and a willingness 
to extreme stress and sacrifice to achieve that goal. In the modern 
world, a person either escapes from the world or changes it. There is no 
third time. It's time to finally understand that running away from 
reality is a road to nowhere. Instead, we must act because constant 
action is the only way to organize.

So where do we start?
Many may think that while in prison I abandoned my former ideological 
convictions, trying under the guise of revolutionary anarchism to 
promote reformism among the masses, denying the necessity of revolution 
and defending the possibility of creating a society of social justice, 
through the means of gradual evolutionary approach to socialism. But 
this is not true. I am not proposing incremental improvements to the 
modern capitalist model. I propose to create a counter-society based on 
the principles of mutual aid and solidarity, organized on the principles 
of decentralization and federalism, based on the idea of an association 
of developed individuals.

But first, it's worth answering a number of questions...

The defeat of the anarchists in Russia
In 2018-2019, the police state launched an offensive against anarchists, 
which ended with the complete defeat of the anarchist movement in the 
form in which it existed. Thus, in October 2017, nine young people with 
left-wing convictions from Penza and St. Petersburg were detained and 
accused of creating a "terrorist community" that was about to carry out 
terrorist attacks on Russian territory and started the sensational case 
network...

A year later, on October 31, 2018, the anarcho-communist Mikhail 
Zhlobitsky held a direct action at the FSB headquarters in Arkhangelsk 
to draw attention to the state's torture and repression of anarchists:

"Comrades, now a terrorist act will be committed in the FSB building in 
Arkhangelsk, for which I take responsibility." This message was left by 
Mikhail Zhlobitsky on the morning of October 31, 2018, in the anarchist 
Telegram chat "Speeches of the Rebel". Immediately after the explosion, 
the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the problem of 
"youth radicalization" in Russia, promised to fight it and prevent cases 
like the attack on the FSB. Searches were carried out across the 
country. Criminal cases for "justification of terrorism" (paragraph 2 of 
Article 205²) continue to this day - and have affected completely 
different categories of citizens (from activists to Zhlobitsky's aunt), 
including me.

In April 2019, RIA Novosti reported that law enforcement officers 
directly linked the terrorist attack to the anarchist organization 
"People's Self-Defense", which is why almost all detained anarchists 
(especially due to publications mentioning Zhlobitsky) became activists 
of this movement. At my first interrogation, they made it clear to me 
that they considered me a member of the People's Self-Defense Force, 
which, as FSB officers put it, was "a sect created by the terrorist 
Rechkalov." All my claims that I had nothing to do with this 
organization and that I had never contacted Rechkalov himself were 
ignored. Later it became known that anarchists were accused of 247 
"extremist actions" in 40 cities of Russia, and after the recognition of 
"People's Self-Defense" as a "terrorist organization" - that it includes 
up to 400 "radical anarchists".

From the day the Network case began, it became clear: the defeat of the 
anarchists was beginning. And the way to counteract this - the action of 
Mikhail Zhlobitsky - led to repressions against the anarchists. It 
should be noted that it was not Zhlobicki's explosion that became the 
impetus for repression against anarchists, but rather Zhlobicki's action 
was a response to state violence against anarchists and full-scale 
repression of movement participants.

Anarchist errors
Anarchism-as a political tradition hostile to any state whose adherents 
fundamentally refuse political interaction with the state-has given rise 
to much heated discussion and debate about the creation of anarchist 
organizations (including anarchist trade unions), which is why many 
anarchists strongly oppose the creation of mass organizations. 
anarchism, defending the principle of action through affinity groups, 
when activists are grouped on the basis of personal acquaintance. But 
even affinity groups are unable to withstand the onslaught of the penal 
structures of the police state.

In modern Russia, since 1993, a political system has been formed that 
has formal democratic legislation and formal observance of all electoral 
procedures, as well as other formal signs of democracy, but excludes 
real mechanisms for maintaining and protecting human rights and civil 
society there are no real levers for putting pressure on the authorities 
in order to make certain political decisions. According to political 
scientist Dmitry Furman, a system of imitation democracy has emerged in 
Russia, which was predetermined by the illegal and undemocratic nature 
of the Belovezhsky Agreements. The system of imitation democracy in 
Russia under Yeltsin successfully overcame three crises: the events of 
1993, the presidential elections of 1996, the crisis of the transfer of 
power in 1999 - and with the election of Putin as president, it was 
complete, then in Russia has established a "hidden dictatorship".

At the same time, despite pressure and prosecution, anarchists in Russia 
were able to continue their activities: developing alternative media, 
creating media projects, organizing cooperatives, open spaces and 
publishing projects, waging economic struggle in production and 
supporting environmental actions to always be on the side of the people 
in their struggle with the state and applying the populist tactic: "go 
among the people". There were examples of such a struggle, but due to 
the personal selfishness of individual actors, everything was destroyed.

The only way for anarchists to resist state violence was to organize a 
political movement free and independent of existing parties and 
organizations. A movement that cannot be controlled by the system, that 
cannot be prohibited, and in which there is no interorganizational 
struggle. Anarchists-including the coming new generation-must be guided 
by new invincible tactics. Instead of cells of competing organizations, 
it is necessary to create autonomous decentralized communities, united 
by the idea of belonging to a common movement, the principles of social 
activity, interconnectedness, above subcultural struggles and beyond 
artificial frameworks and dogmas

But in addition to that, remaining anarchists and supporters of the 
social-revolutionary struggle, it was necessary (and still necessary to 
this day) to integrate into the Public Observation Commissions (POC) for 
the protection of human rights in places of forced detention, to 
cooperate actively - and work together - in the legal field of human 
rights, to cooperate more actively in the media, to form unions in 
support of the strike struggle (which continues to this day). In order 
to support our comrades in captivity and our movement as a whole, it is 
necessary to develop institutions for extrajudicial protection, 
non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as to support individuals 
carrying out voluntary human rights activities.

At the present moment, Russian anarchists - both in Russia itself and in 
exile - have only one thing left: to create social initiatives for the 
achievement of social, charitable, cultural, educational, political, 
scientific and managerial goals, in the sphere of spiritual satisfaction 
and other non-material needs of citizens, protection of rights, 
legitimate interests of citizens and organizations, resolution of 
disputes and conflicts, provision of legal assistance, as well as for 
other purposes aimed at achieving public benefits.

We anarchists had to work simultaneously in several fields of 
revolutionary struggle, but we failed to organize and implement a method 
of self-defense in the event of state repression, which is why we were 
defeated without giving us the opportunity to oppose the state monopoly 
on violence. Someone will rightly say to me: "The state will never allow 
us to organize!" To which I will reply: "Our defeats are entirely our 
own fault, because we, incapable of real and necessary struggle, were 
forced to wait for a revolutionary situation." The problem was us. We 
have destroyed ourselves. Unwilling to fight the state - including its 
resources - we betrayed ourselves, betrayed our ideological inspirers, 
but to a greater extent - without even rudimentary self-defense, we 
destroyed our comrades, forced to languish in damp prison dungeons.

It will be argued that the tactic of cooperating with POC and working in 
the legal field in the field of NGOs is hostile and to a greater extent 
completely contrary to anarchist principles. But it is worth recalling 
that in 1936 the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists abandoned the idea of a 
complete boycott of the elections, as a result of which the votes of the 
members of the National Confederation of Labor - the Spanish 
confederation of anarcho-syndicalist trade unions, which included more 
than million people - who went to the polls, ensured the victory of the 
Popular Front. (NB: What should be done is to enter such organizations 
in order to tear off their revolutionary parts and attract them to 
revolutionary positions, as Bakunin did with his entry into the League 
and the International!) One of the results of it was the release from 
custody of several thousand political prisoners, the number of strikes 
increased, which led to one of the most legendary social revolutions of 
our time, suppressed by the force of reaction. (In the Spanish 
experience, there are many tactical mistakes THAT DIVERTED US FROM OUR 
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE, and facilitated the victory of Francoism!)

What can you do?
It is obvious that in order to achieve the anarchist goals, the struggle 
must combine the spontaneous insurrectionary practice (which is carried 
out by the radical groups of BOAK and ERA) with the work of class 
organizations (the path to the revival of the trade union struggle), and 
with the activity of purely propaganda groups ( affinity groups and 
media activists).

The present task of the anarchists must be open opposition to the 
Russian state, in effect arguing that the only alternative to Russia's 
modern political system and an urgent need is a society of victorious 
direct democracy, the highest value of which is the individual who is 
capable to independently participate in the process of making binding 
decisions, to participate in the formation and functioning of the 
self-governing system, as well as to influence the development of 
domestic and foreign policy.

To do this, we must all make every effort to continue our struggle in 
the conditions of authoritarianism prevailing in Russia.

In the current situation, the only thing we can do is to organize and 
support initiatives for social mutual assistance based on the efforts of 
extra-parliamentary horizontal civil structures. Let's support them not 
in words, but also in deed.

Instead of endless and mindless arguments and discussions, it is 
necessary to engage in a multi-sector struggle on the front of the class 
war to promote public understanding of the need to dismantle the state 
and capitalism, with the subsequent aim of explaining to the people (the 
working people) masses our program of revolutionary changes so that they 
are comprehensible even to those unacquainted with anarchism and 
left-wing ideas in general, for anarchism is the ideal not only of the 
advocates of industrial and local self-government, but also of the 
fighters against violent military service and militarism, as well as 
pacifists, feminists, eco-activists, human rights activists, free trade 
union activists, strikers, student movements, LGBT activists, 
cooperators, journalists - freedom of speech fighters, supporters of the 
humanization of the penitentiary system, public lifestyle and revival of 
anarchist pedagogy (the list could be endless).

That is why today it is necessary to provide support (financial, 
informational, voluntary) to horizontal initiatives for human rights, 
such as the "Solidarity Zone" and the "Anarchist Black Cross", not 
forgetting to encourage the development of alternative media, media 
projects , as well as targeted assistance to those groups who, under the 
pressure of the security forces, continue to provide support to those in 
need.

We should all support (create and develop) small initiatives for mutual aid.

We should all support publishing cooperatives such as "Radical Theory 
and Practice", "Dossier" and other educational initiatives - anarchist 
book publishing and journalism.

We should all support those who are helping to reduce the number of 
political prisoners: Vyvozhuk, InTransit.

Don't be afraid to engage with legal human rights mechanisms as well. 
Support not only in words, but also in deed - after all, even a small 
donation in support of political prisoners is a thousand times better 
than silent disagreement with the actions of the FSB, the Ministry of 
Internal Affairs and other criminal structures of Russia. Sending a 
statement to the prosecutor's office (especially if the protest is 
widespread) about the fact of torture and other inhuman, degrading forms 
of punishment is a thousand times better than endlessly discussing it 
with like-minded people.

All of us must rethink the struggle - and instead of banal and 
unnecessary graffiti - develop social horizontal initiatives for mutual 
aid, providing support to a large number of political prisoners, using, 
among other things, the resources and means that the state gives us, 
without forgetting about anonymity and security measures. After all, 
even a rotten POC - having access to the institutions of the 
penitentiary (penal system) - is still able to affect the improvement of 
the living conditions of our comrades.

Therefore, our primary task is the need to recreate our counter-society 
- alternative economic, cultural and political associations of citizens 
that will become the seed of a new system. During the crisis, they will 
make a real revolution in social relations and consciousness, due to the 
uprising of the working masses.

This is what we anarchists call a revolution.

https://www.anarchy.bg
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en