It is of no surprise that we see the ruins of an apocalyptic nature in a European city once again, Mariupol becoming the new Aleppo is not a coincidence, the memory casts back to similar images of Sarajevo during the Yugoslav civil war. Conflict between nations, between imperialistic superpowers have never left us. If anything, the war in the Ukraine is a continuation of the conflict waged against all life on this planet, geo-politics, the war itself are symptoms of a destructive process on a scale that is coming to a head, that of civilization and its mechanized total control. The warning signs are all around us of a dying planet and the technocratic elites are very aware of this.
War has always been the tool of regimentation to control the masses, but also to restrict the individual. The war in Ukraine we see as no exception along with any other continuing conflict as we see in Syria and Yemen. It is an illusion of propaganda, of a social media proportion, to believe this is a simple conflict between an apparently democratic nation and a fascist oppressor. Zelensky is no innocent amongst all this, there is plenty of evidence that he welcomed with open arms the neo-Nazi’s who threatened the young Ukrainian state, Zelensky has even used the Azov alongside the SBU (the Ukrainian security service, trained by the CIA) to crackdown on the opposition, whether it is pro-Russian or leftist or communist and this is not to excuse Russia and Putin as it has also been documented with the contractors, Wagner Group, filled with Nazis committing atrocities in Syria, Libya and recently in Mali. Add to all this the fact that NATO has supplied arms, training and actively fomented the openly fascist groups such as the Azov Battalion and the whole picture of a proxy war reminiscent of the cold war is complete. Who pays the cost of such a war? Those men who are forcibly conscripted, those women and children dead underneath the rubble, those buried in mass graves, those who believe the propaganda of a war fought under the mythological pretences, while the heads are turned away from the real strategy of the powers in play, which is to control those populations within the conflict, while the rest of the world engages in the spectacle, happy that their social peace is maintained, their comfort undisturbed, the safety of their endless consumerism continuing, the Leviathanic machine devouring what is left of the natural world, replaced with the veneer of the artificial.
Throw into all this one of the great beneficiaries of war, technology and the profit that is gained from it. Already in this conflict we see the hailed international help in the form of new technological weapons. Apart from the anti-tank missile launchers, NLAW’s and Javelins. Drones are seeing a much larger use within the war, whether is it for surveillance or attacking purposes, but also AeroVironment Inc’s, Switchblade drones that are described as kamikaze drones small enough to fit in a backpack, which is one step closer to the concept of “swarm drones” using artificial swarm intelligence.
Facial recognition that has been used already in a repressive context especially in surveillance, whether on the streets, on borders or during riots to identify anyone who dares to resist are now also being used to identify enemies or bodies of soldiers, using the biggest provider in the world Clearview Al. The company itself has already admitted to storing billions of images from Russian social media site Vkontakte, even from people’s selfies, in a similar fashion to the program used by Facebook. As usual this technology is being justified with supposed beneficial uses such as uniting refugees with each other, but there is already evidence that it is been used by other Ukrainian government departments for other purposes, to keep its own population under control, surveillance society colonising another corner of the world.
Further to this, after an appeal from Zelensky, Elon Musk’s Space X Starlink satellites are being used to provide internet to Ukraine after the breakdown of the internet network in many parts of the country. This is a further legitimacy of a new technology that not only furthers the colonisation and polluting of space, but increases the power of a technocrat and reliance upon them even within a war. The dream to blanket the planet in high-speed broadband is well on its way because you can’t not be able to access Twitter or TikTok while your house is been bombarded into rubble and everyone is dying around you.
As we have mentioned before in previous publications we are surrounded by a monumental shift in the operation of society, the states, capitalism and all of civilization. Through this technological and scientific shift that will permeate further control into all our lives, there will be conflicts, wars, as certain powers compete to become not only the main controller of technologies, but to increase influence over parts of the planet and be the first to access dwindling resources and also new ones to create the new technologies. We see the war occurring in the Ukraine as a continuation of a process that has already been acted out in the still continuing pandemic, along with the multiplied controls upon whole populations. Before this we had the “economic crisis”, the “war on terror”, always a continuation of a crisis of the authoritarian systems being created, but also a perpetuation of a state of fear, no matter whether they were created by it or symptoms of its failure.
Along with these recent occurring shifts, the so-called perfect picture of social peace is becoming unhinged. Already we are entering what is being described as a “cost of living crisis” that is seeing inflation along with energy prices increasing, a consequence of the breakdown of the economic system because of the pandemic but also not without its perpetuation by the capitalists and elites to force populations back to the galleys of work that have become even more so a prison of surveillance and utter control, whether it is the increase in automation or constant monitoring of every action or even absolute transformation of work to a slavery of Amazon proportions. Amongst all this it is also clear that not only is there a state of a “new cold war” brewing but also that which has been described as an “energy war”. Russia as everyone knows is one of the biggest sources of gas and oil in the world and the Western powers have already talked of their need to not be dependent on them, whether that is becoming autonomous in energy in their own right further exploitation of their own fossil fuel sources or increase renewable energy sources. The destruction of the planet by further increasing exploitation of fossil fuel in new areas, using even more destructive methods, along with the parallel increase of “green technologies” extracting further polluting resources seems more of a priority than ending a war.
Where do we place ourselves as anarchists within wars fought by nation states, superpowers and technocrats? Already anarchists in Ukraine have formed what is called the “Resistance Committee” that openly admits it is part of the “Territorial Defence of Ukraine”, which is in turn directly part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. These “anarchists” are participating in a unit of the army of the Ukrainian state, the same Ukrainian state that has welcomed neo-Nazis into its army, those whose commanders were decorated by Zelensky himself who have openly declared their desire to “lead the White races of the world in a final crusade.” We could go on with the utter corruption and links of the Ukrainian state to fascists but we save that for a future text analysing the rise of nationalism, fascists and neo-Nazis in Ukraine and Russia, how it has actually become a focal point and training ground for the international fascist movement, encouraged by both NATO and the Russian state.
The Ukrainian state cannot be confused with some kind of throwback to the Spanish civil war with the Republic state, neither even an alliance of Makhnovists with the Bolsheviks, this is willingly joining an army that also has neo-Nazis as part of it and anyone who proclaims to be an anarchist should have nothing to do with it.
Further to this these “anarchists” have even forgotten the basic principles of anarchism and past anarchist involvement in conflicts. Anarchists do not fight within a state army, put on the uniform, take the orders, obey the authority of officers. Anarchists in the Spanish civil war lost their lives during the May Days in Barcelona in 1937 opposing not only the formation of a state or a counter-revolution but also resisting the militarisation of their militias. In 1916 Kropotkin, Jean Grave and other anarchists wrote an inexcusable text called the “Manifesto of the Sixteen” encouraging anarchists to join World War I on the side of the Allies because the Central Powers apparently must be defeated, while millions were dying in the trenches for nationalism and imperialism. The same mistake again would be committed with World War II, Rudolf Rocker argued that the Allied effort in World War II, was just, as it would ultimately lead to preservation of libertarian values!
If the amnesia of the past is not enough, these “anarchists” seem comfortable joining an army that is supplied and trained by NATO countries soldiers, as other “anarchists” are who join the Kurdish forces in Syria. In that war they were even comfortable with the air and special forces of NATO countries joining in with them in the fight against Islamic State. There is a crossover here between what has been occurring in Rojava and now in Ukraine, a militarised and libertarian communist tendency that is not anarchist, that has its roots much further back, that has corrupted the international anarchist circles to such an extent that they start to mirror communists, liberals and leftists, descending into a practice that is not a threat at home, because their supposed revolution is never violently enacted where they originate from, encouraging an even more worse version of civility and activism. We have a long overdue critique to make in the future about this deviation in anarchist circles internationally.
Anarchists by principle are anti-militarist. They have refused conscription in many wars, even that of military service like in Italy and Greece. Anarchists threw themselves into anti-fascist armed struggle as partisans during World War II, establishing where possible (Carrera, Pistoia, Genoa and Milan) autonomous formations, or, as was the case in most instances, joining other formations, who were not part of the Italian army that was already under the control of Mussolini and his fascists, who had allied themselves with Hitler and the Nazis. The “Galleanisti” continued their own war against the American state despite it entering World War I against Germany. The military and its industry have been targets of anarchists for decades now. Whether it is against the U.S. missile base in Comiso, Italy in the 1980s, the Informal Anarchist Federation internationally attacking military targets and suppliers such as in the UK against a railway line connecting the Ministry of Defence and military companies, an arson attack on Royal Marines Reserves and an incendiary attack against BAE Arms. The last years arms companies and the military have become targets once again as Direct Action Cells in Greece attacked with an incendiary a military residence and several targets were hit in Germany by Autonome including the arson attacks against MAN military vehicles and the burning of defence company OHB’s offices in Bremen.
From this short and limited chronology, it is clear that the military and its suppliers, the profiteers of war and death have always been targets of anarchists, but as is shown even further back there is a tendency to fight against all states even in a time of war. When is there not a war going on somewhere in the world? Are we not constantly at war with our enemy, be it the state, capitalism, technology, fascists, civilization? And does this not include their armies?
Anti-militarism is part of our war against the existent, we are not the pacifists of the anti-Iraq war demonstrations that stopped nothing or the popular eco-liberals laden with doom. We do not fight nationalist or imperialist wars making impossible fronts with those who would torture and kill us once our backs are turned. Past anarchist struggles should teach us that there is no negotiation with anyone who perpetuates the existing prison, no matter how libertarian or democratic they promise it to be.
What occurs in the Ukraine with “anarchists” fighting within the armed forces of a nation state, one that has allied itself with fascists, is a betrayal of anything anarchist and should not be called as such. It is the failure to realise autonomy, to create conflict against all authority, against all states, all manifestations of power, with actual insurrectional violence rather than concentrating so heavily upon a post-modernism, identity politics, liberal leftist and even communistic deviations.
Instead, we […] call once again for a new international co-ordination, not only against NATO and the Russian state, but against all states.
Our war is against all militarisation, against all regimentation, all negotiation with power and authority that permeates through all of society. It will not only be against the military targets, but against all manifestations of control, from the cops to the bosses, from the technocrats to the soldiers, all politicians and bankers, all that profits from and imprisons us, that destroys and kills all life on this planet. The military industrial technological prison complex must be shot, blown up and burned to the ground!
For 10, 100, 1000 Insurrectional & Revolutionary Anarchist Cells!
For a new International Anarchist Co-ordination!
325 Collective
Source: https://darknights.noblogs.org/files/2022/05/dark-nights-51.pdf