Communiques

Blockade of War Propaganda in Russia, Ukraine and Czech Republic

2023/10/05
abolitionmedia

During September 2023, several entities actively involved in war propaganda have been attacked, especially in so-called Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. For direct actions were used method “initiation of evacuation” (1). The following targets were under attack (2).

  • TASS = The Russian News Agency
  • The Moscow Kremlin = The official residence of the Russian president
  • Ukrinform = The National News Agency of Ukraine
  • MAFRA, a.s. = Czech media group
  • Riot Over River Fest = The festival provides space for propaganda initiatives supporting the Ukrainian army

 

These war propagandists have different perspectives, but they are equally committed to convincing their “audience” of the supposed need to actively support the war, even at the cost of the countless deaths and other suffering it brings. As our anarchist comrades in so-called Italy declare:

„ In this hybrid war the media are an integral part of the war apparatus! (…) The war of information is first and foremost a war against our brains, which aims to enlist us and convince us that this massacre is not only inevitable but also just and advantageous. For this reason, it must be clarified that those responsible for this information are integral parts of the war machine, and should be treated as such.“(3)

Direct action against the makers of war propaganda is the result of concern for the future of humanity and the world in general. This is a similar concern expressed by anarchist groups from so-called Slovenia and Croatia in their statement, where they say:

„The anxiety of many across the world is fueled by the stubborn warmongering proclamations on either side of the frontline. The official speakers for the ruling class that is presiding over both sides of the war routinely evoke the possibility of nuclear armageddon and the necessity of the nationalist driven militarist revival in their respective geographies. All the war parties try hard to impose their truths on the populations that they rule over and on the world in general. Yet, as in most other wars there are many people that choose not to comply with the orders of the commanders on either side and they often do so at the risk of being ridiculed, stigmatised, censored, criminalised, imprisoned or harmed in other ways.“(4)

The founding propaganda tool of all pro-war parties is the propagation of the demagogic claim that it is necessary to accept and support a low-intensity war in order to prevent a future big, world, global, nuclear war. Under the cover of the same deception, the proletarians in Russia and Ukraine are being mobilized for war. The same propaganda is being used by the US, NATO, European democracies and even some supporters of the left and anarchism. They all operate on the same terrain of war propaganda and are complicit in the war massacres, because promoting war between states never brings peace. On the contrary, it always leads to an escalation of brutalisation, or just a temporary pause that serves to prepare the powers for the next and even more brutal war of aggression. As French-speaking anarchists aptly note:

„Every capitalist war requires the formation of sacred unions behind such and such a state or bourgeois faction, in other words, the dissolution of our class into “the people” united (and obedient) behind the flag.“ (5)

The Communist Left makes the same argument when it claims that

„In fact, every state, every bourgeois regime – whether “democratic” or “totalitarian” – cannot limit itself to repressive means in its efforts to mobilize the masses to defend the national economy and the regime itself; it must motivate them ideologically, as well as economically and socially, to participate actively in this defence.“ (6)

Ideological motivation for the war effort is the central essence of war propaganda. It needs to be attacked, ridiculed, its circulation blocked, its centres sabotaged. That is why the named targets have been selected and why further direct actions will follow without a black and white perception of reality. A sober view of reality is undermined by the fact that murderous war propaganda is not only coming from the Kremlin, but also from the democratic states. Here again one can quote French-speaking anarchists who state:

„The Western European media, unleashing obsessive “Covid” statistics, immediately jumped on the many ugly day-to-day details of the Russian invasion that we hear less about when it comes to the equally disgusting weapons exploits of “our good states”, “friendly” states (those we sell arms to) or Western-led coalitions around the world.” (…) “The Ukrainian state is simply trying to survive, and to achieve this it wants to teach us that not wanting to sacrifice our lives to protect it is treason pure and simple.“ (7)

However, even the anarchist milieu is not immune to the reproduction of war propaganda, as evidenced, for example, by a quote from a Solidarity Collectives statement issued after Sam Newey was killed at the front “and we will be remembered as a comrade who stood for his ideas and feelings, and who could selflessly throw himself in front of enemy fire to protect whoever was in the rear.” (8) reported by Solidarity Collectives, feeding the war propaganda that claims that massacres and interested killing at the front serve as a shield to protect lives away from the front. It is sad that such bullshit is asserted by people claiming anarchism without noticing that it serves as fodder for the cannons of the state, which in fact forcibly prevents people from leaving and hiding from the horrors of war. Their blindness is so great that they are able to deny that they sacrifice themselves for the state, even though they serve in its army, are subject to the command of its authorities, dress in uniforms bearing the state symbolism of Ukraine next to the black and red symbolism of anarchism.

 

The situation of Sam being killed evokes feelings of regret for the unnecessary loss of another human life. Although war propagandists speak of him as a martyr, in reality his death is a rather horrifying testament to the lengths to which war propaganda can drive a person.

As the anarchist groups from so-called Slovenia and Croatia state in their statement:

„Only when war is successfully planted in people’s minds as necessary, viable, honourable and just, even joyful and adventurous, it also becomes a practical possibility.“(9)

And so humanity is plunged deeper into the drama of war, and daily shares new reports of proletarians in army uniforms killed because war propaganda convinced them of the supposed meaning of such sacrifice. One cannot but agree with what the internationalist revolutionaries say: „War has always been a tool of regimentation to control the masses, but also to limit the individual. The war in Ukraine is no exception, as are the other ongoing conflicts we see in Syria and Yemen. To believe that this is a simple conflict between an apparently democratic nation and a fascist oppressor is an illusion of propaganda that has the dimension of social media. Zelensky is no innocent in all this. There is plenty of evidence that he welcomed neo-Nazis with open arms. Zelensky even used the SBU (Ukraine’s security service, trained by the CIA) to crack down on opposition, whether pro-Russian, leftist or communist. But that does not excuse Russia and Putin, as has been documented with the Wagner Group contractors, full of neo-Nazis committing crimes in Syria, Libya and most recently Mali. Add to all this the fact that NATO supplies weapons, conducts training and actively encourages 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 costs of such a war? The men who are forcibly conscripted, the women and children who die under the rubble, those who are buried in mass graves, those who believe the propaganda of a war waged under mythological pretexts while heads are turned away from the real strategy of the powers that be.“

Perhaps direct action against war propaganda will be denounced as an irresponsible and insensitive refusal of self-defence by a people attacked by an imperial army. Therefore, it must be said that attacks on war propaganda is not an attack on self-defence. But it is war propaganda that creates the false image that the army of this or that state is there to defend the people it governs. An article by Ukrainian anarchist Saša Kaluža makes this clear:

„The goal of the Ukrainian state and their military structures in this war is to keep their power, the goal of the Russian state and their military structures is to seize power. The participation of anarchists in the structures of either of these states does not make the situation any easier for the people living in Ukraine, who are suffering from the war between two states. All the words about the army defending people, society and their land are only part of state propaganda, and history shows this. It is only possible to stop the war by opposing both states.“ (10)

German-speaking anarchists speak in a similar vein when they claim:

„The Ukrainian ruling class is so sure of itself that it even hands out weapons among the population without worrying that they will be turned against it, even if the workers there (as well as here) have every reason to do so. The question is not only that the proletariat arms itself, but what it does with the arms. (…) Nothing seems more seductive than the call for flags in defence of the nation, which in the end is always the defence of the bourgeoisie of a certain territory.“ (11)

Yes, it is above all a bourgeois project and state interests for which the proletarians are shedding blood in the war, even if the war propaganda tells us that it is about defending “the people” from the aggression of the army from the other side of the war line. The ICG speaks in clear language on this subject when it claims:

„There can be no unity between the exploiter and the exploited that does not benefit the exploiter. Any united front or critical support of one camp against the other helps the bourgeoisie against the proletariat.“ (12)

The reaction of the London International Anarchist Group during the First World War was described in the same way, but in different words.

„Producers of social wealth, manual and intellectual proletarians, people of an emancipated mentality, we are in fact and in will people without a homeland. Besides, the fatherland is only a poetic name for the state. Because we have nothing to defend, not even the acquired liberties that the state cannot give us, we reject the hypocritical distinction between offensive and defensive wars. We know only wars fought between governments, between capitalists, at the cost of the lives, pain and suffering of their subjects. The present war is a clear example of this.“ (13)

But these are not just words that are more than a century old and unrelated to current reality. Similar voices are being heard today. For example, in a discussion on the Solidarity Federation (SolFed) Facebook page, one poster states:

„Perhaps Ukraine is less imperialist and its military less harsh, but what of its allies like the USA? The West is clearly using Ukraine as a proxy war (just as Russia has done before but the other way round). War itself will not end so long as we support one side, we need to oppose war itself and all of the tyranny that comes with it. (…) Historically nothing good has come from anarchists supporting war.“ (14)

The antimilitarist anarchist comrades in Italy rightly point in the same direction:

„We cannot be silent on some fundamental issues when we know – without needing to be reminded – how comfortable it is to talk away from the bombs. But precisely because some debates become almost impossible when the war is at home, it is necessary to ask questions clearly where they can still be asked. (…) Our weight as internationalists is so small that it would be a pity to put the wrong ideas on the scales. In our opinion, cooperation with the Ukrainian state against the Russian invasion and the attempt to win autonomy of action within this cooperation is a serious mistake. Not only because it contributes to the continuation of the war, but also because it is arbitrarily fighting on behalf of NATO and Western capitalism.“ (15)

So, just to be clear. It’s not about shaming someone for defending themselves in a war. It’s about debunking and dismantling the myth that portrays the state and its military as part of a self-defense infrastructure. That is why it is appropriate here to quote anarchist groups from so-called Slovenia and Croatia again:

„We support popular self-defense and see it as an integral element in struggles in defence of already achieved social, political and other gains or in creation of conditions in which these gains can be achieved. To us popular self-defense refers to a set of many different activities conducted in a way that allows for autonomous political, social, economic and militant practice in adherence to the principles of antiauthoritarian self-organisation. Even though it might take the form of organised armed struggle it is antimilitarist in the sense that it is based on voluntary involvement, it claims no authority over non-combatant population and its ultimate goal is the dissolution of a system that needs war and military structures to reproduce itself. (…)  According to what we have been able to understand until now about the military conflict in Ukraine we do not see the involvement as part of the armed forces of Ukraine state or in a military coalition under its command as consistent with any model of antiauthoritarian self-organisation that we can envision. We do however understand and respect the impulse of many towards self-defence that lead them to take the decision to join the armed struggle against the invasionary forces. But to do this as a part of the national army or as its proxy and under the command of its officers is not anarchist politics and can not be articulated as such. (…) If we speak about war it is on the back of the fact that war has been woven into the daily social fabric of our geography. It is because we are still affected by the consequences of the one that happened within living memory. And yes, some of us did experience it in the form of bombs falling on the cities where we have lived, in the form of family members being mobilised, in the form of friends deserting the military forces, in the form of ourselves becoming refugees or economic migrants, looking for a way to create a new life in a new environment.“ (16)

Similar concerns are also expressed by anarchist groups in so-called Italy when they state:

„We consider it dangerous and disturbing that some comrades, in Ukraine and elsewhere, support the Kiev government and the “Ukrainian resistance” economically, with propaganda, and even militarily, without a single word on this. Historically, since World War I, this blindness derives from interventismo, the same moral plague which, in the aftermath of the first global conflict, opened the doors to the rise of fascism.

The parallel between the “Ukrainian resistance” and the partisan resistance against nazi-fascism (and with freedom struggles in general), which has become popular in the media, is historically, politically, and ethically unacceptable. Leaving aside the profound differences in historical context (and a small detail: the presence of nazi groups in the Ukrainian army…), the parallel is unacceptable because of the relationship between means and ends, between what the fighting is for and how the fighting is done.(…) Participation in the partisan armed struggle was free and on a voluntary basis, while Ukraine currently enforces martial law, and those refusing to fight end up in prison. The political and military autonomy of partisan groups was also related to the means of combat used: rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, and incendiary bombs can be used without a centralized coercive apparatus, whereas satellite-controlled drones, rocket launchers, tanks, and long-range missiles reflect a precise hierarchy, namely the NATO chain of command.

The participation of some anarchists and left-wing activists in the ongoing war forces them to fall under that same hierarchy: obedience to orders, identification of objectives by Western intelligence, subordination to a highly oppressive government and to the interests of international capital. Joining the NATO front implies giving up on any revolutionary and internationalist perspective, and on an ethical level it is causing criticism of the authoritarian, repressive, and anti-proletarian policies of the Kiev government to be pushed aside.“ (17)

It needs to be said clearly. This is not just a matter of measuring what is right or even idle moralising from a safe distance. It is about being active agents of change. Because war reaches into different spheres and parts of the world, it can be sabotaged and subverted wherever we are. As the French-speaking anarchists aptly put it:

„The revolutionary wager will never be peace or a return to the “pre-war” situation, but the transformation of the imperialist war into a class war against the exploiters. Similarly, the question of revolutionary defeatism only makes sense from an internationalist point of view: the need for capital to be constantly at war and its ability to wage it takes place on a world level, not just in a given theatre of operations.“ (18)

Italian-speaking anarchists continue to make a similar statement:

„We sympathize with our Russian comrades who are attacking and sabotaging Putin’s military infrastructure, but the best way to be worthy of their courage is certainly not to attack the Russians from the West as well (which would mean putting a NATO helmet on your head), but to attack your own government as they do.“ (19)

Text “Don’t fight for “your” country!” says:

„Peace demonstrations alone cannot stop the war if the population continues to endure the war and all its consequences. It becomes possible only when the great mass, the working class, turns against the war. World War I was stopped by the working class’s revolt against war, first in Russia in 1917 and a year later in Germany. But that was some time ago. Today there is no atmosphere of mass rebellion in Russia but the disastrous consequences of the war may awaken a sleeping giant.“ (20)

Let us remember that no nation unites the proletarians and no war can divide us!

 

 

sources:

(1) How to start evacuation https://revolutionarycells.noblogs.org/post/2018/11/13/how-to-start-evacuation/

(2)

(3) Sabotage the War! Call for an international and internationalist mobilization against the war in Ukraine https://www.autistici.org/tridnivalka/italy-sabotage-the-war/

(4) Your Wars – Our Dead – Contribution to a debate on War and Militarism https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/federation-for-anarchist-organizing-your-wars-our-dead

(5) Contre toutes les guerres… sauf les guerres « justes » ? https://stuut.info/Contre-toutes-les-guerres-sauf-les-guerres-justes-1131

(6) https://komunistickalevice.info/

(7)  Contre toutes les guerres… sauf les guerres « justes » ? https://stuut.info/Contre-toutes-les-guerres-sauf-les-guerres-justes-1131

(8) https://www.facebook.com/SolidarityCollectives/
8 September 2023

(9) Your Wars – Our Dead – Contribution to a debate on War and Militarism https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/federation-for-anarchist-organizing-your-wars-our-dead

(10) Anarchist Organization in Times of War and Crisis (Ukraine) – Saša Kaluža https://libcom.org/article/anarchist-organization-times-war-and-crisis-ukraine-sasa-kaluza

(11) Gegen die Kriege des Kapitalismus, lautet unsere Antwort sozialer Krieg https://panopticon.blackblogs.org/2022/03/02/gegen-die-kriege-des-kapitalismus-lautet-unsere-antwort-sozialer-krieg/

(12) [GCI-ICG] The invariance of the revolutionary position on war – The meaning of revolutionary defeatism (en, cs, fr, de, es, hu, pt, tr, el) https://www.autistici.org/tridnivalka/gci-icg-the-invariance-of-the-revolutionary-position-on-war-the-meaning-of-revolutionary-defeatism/

(13) Reaction of the London International Anarchist Group to the Manifesto of the Sixteen (April 1916)

(14) https://www.facebook.com/SolFed/

(15) “Des idées pour la récréation?” https://sansnom.noblogs.org/archives/13780

(16) Your Wars – Our Dead Contribution to a debate on War and Militarism Federation for Anarchist Organizing https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/federation-for-anarchist-organizing-your-wars-our-dead

(17) Sabotage the War! Call for an international and internationalist mobilization against the war in Ukraine https://www.autistici.org/tridnivalka/italy-sabotage-the-war/

(18) Contre toutes les guerres… sauf les guerres « justes » ? https://stuut.info/Contre-toutes-les-guerres-sauf-les-guerres-justes-1131

(19) Guerra, crisi e anarchia
https://lanemesi.noblogs.org/post/2023/03/19/guerra-crisi-e-anarchia/

(20) Don’t fight for “your” country! https://libcom.org/article/dont-fight-your-country