Abolition Media Statement on Editorial Decisions Regarding Palestine and Anti-Colonial Resistance

In regards to Palestine, the historic resistance to occupation by the most brutal and formative of settler colonial projects is of extraordinary importance for the international revolutionary movement. It is always important to analyze the revolutionary forces in a given struggle, then examine the larger context and then position solidarity efforts in a more pinpointed manner. As a news source our work is primarily the former.

The left forces in Palestine (PFLP and DFLP) are supported by revolutionary groups around the world, including those based in Rojava, and have, or had, historic military alliances with forces fighting the colonialists, including the Black Panthers. The success  of their struggle will strengthen the international revolutionary cause. The PFLP and DFLP have vocally and publicly formed an alliance with other local resistance groups in Palestine and beyond. While those groups may not reflect our political ambitions, it is important (especially as militants not based in Palestine) to not leap to judgment but to try to understand why they would do this and to appreciate the merits of such an approach. While we are aware of ideological differences between the groups that are currently in alliance, it is important to honor their choices and strengthen and support them while they are currently fighting together against the brutal colonial system of apartheid that is backed up by the enthusiastic support of the US and other Western countries. Additionally, it is helpful for us to understand the tactical and strategic approaches of the only groups in the world having a material effect against the genocide of the Palestinian people.

Throughout history, there have been several examples of organizations and individuals who differ politically, but who we believe anarchists should clearly support in their efforts. For example, the FLN in Algeria, Nat Turner in the US, or Pancho Villa in Mexico. Many of these actors had questionable politics from an anarchist perspective, but in terms of anti-colonial struggle, they were very important for pushing liberatory movements forward. We do not view struggles against oppression as a zero-sum, black and white process, but a complex process that unfolds with waves of contradictions and tensions that will change with the world situation.

It must also be appreciated that there is an ongoing genocide in which Western radicals have a tremendous degree of complicity. The burden is on Western radicals to fight against the barbarism doled out by the countries they reside in. The well-being of people around the world and the relevance of anarchist politics depend on it. It is with this in mind that we make the editorial choices that we do. We want to see greater degrees of organization and far more complicity in anti-colonial struggles. Western anarchists need to know about these struggles, be aware of the actors, study their tactics, etc. Unfortunately, anarchism is not a prominent political tendency in the world today, nor is it associated with the most poor, culturally excluded, or those struggling against imperial domination. We hope to change that. By featuring both explicitly anarchist actions and anti-colonial warfare strategies, we hope to bring these struggles into anarchist consciousness and intent, as well as to raise awareness about anarchist political ideology with those who are already fighting for liberation.

We are exceptionally aware that the world situation is rapidly changing and that many of the actions of the United States and Europe are driven by fear of a non-white, non-Western global hegemony. We are also painfully aware that the imperial powers have ruthlessly colonized the global south, massacred its people, installed puppet governments while fighting tooth and nail against left wing forces. The collapse of the left in the global south is from this process and now the situation is vastly more complex.

We know that without a viable anarchist movement in many places, it is sometimes difficult to sort through who to support. However, it must be pointed out that there is hypocrisy in the harsh condemnations of resistance groups in Palestine from some anarchists, who were more supportive toward anarchists fighting in a NATO-backed military alongside fascists in Ukraine. Why was it acceptable for the anarchist movement to ignore or even endorse the far right in Ukraine and the Ukrainian state but not to give a mouthpiece to anticolonial resistance combating an ongoing genocide?

These are the questions we grapple with. We think the movement would be in a stronger place if it worked through these questions and took advice, or listened to global south and anti-colonial voices more than the Euro-American ones that dominate these projects.

We are aware that our positions are not the most popular within Western anarchism but we feel strongly that to become relevant again and to do the right thing in terms of the history of humanity, it is important that Western anarchists also grapple with these questions and consider perspectives outside their own.

Finally, the process of anarchism is founded in questioning and understanding other perspectives, and not just adhering to hard and fast rules. We hope that our readers will see the importance and value of bringing these connections and questions to the forefront of anarchist consciousness, and that we can strengthen international connections as we strive to support the courageous resistance of Palestinian people in the face of genocidal colonialism.