Resistance happens every day. We often don’t see it or hear about it
but across the world different people unite together to challenge the
systems that exploit, alienate and oppress them. These struggles are
humble fights – inspired by a desire for change – against the constant
attacks on communities and workplaces that push for profit over our
health, well-being and happiness.
These fights are the angry voices of those that demand progress, fought
by those who bravely stand face-to-face with an enemy that seeks to
brutalise and repress them. They are the teachers and indigenous people
of Oaxaca, they are the people of El Barrio, the anarchists of
Venezuela, they are locked out strikers, the fired union activist and
the student who raises their fist – they are the people on the streets.
It is important for us all to be aware of and understand these
struggles happening around the world; to educate each other about our
historical circumstances and equip ourselves with the ideas, spirit and
inspiration to take these struggles into our daily lives. Anarchism
2009 will bring together an international community of resistance to
share these experiences and draw on lessons for the future. It will
unite workers, students and activists from around the world in
celebrating cultures of resistance.
Anarchism 2009 – celebrating a culture of resistance
World Renowned Speakers
International Campaigns
Activist Workshops
Film, Music and Much More …
A two day festival hosted by the Anarchist Federation, devoted to
global working class resistance.
Statement produced by the Manchester Anarchist Federation branch on the conflict in Gaza, in solidarity with the victims of the conflict, and for internationalism.
One thing is absolutely clear about the current situation in Gaza: the Israeli state is committing atrocities which must end immediately. With hundreds dead and thousands wounded, it has become increasingly clear that the aim of the military operation, which has been in the planning stages since the signing of the original ceasefire in June, is to break Hamas completely. The attack follows the crippling blockade throughout the supposed ‘ceasefire’, which has destroyed the livelihoods of Gazans, ruined the civilian infrastructure and created a humanitarian disaster which anyone with an ounce of humanity would seek an end to.
But that’s not all there is to say about the situation. On both sides of the conflict, the idea that opposing Israel has to mean supporting Hamas and its ‘resistance’ movement is worryingly common. We totally reject this argument. Just like any other set of rulers, Hamas, like all the other major Palestinian factions, are happy and willing to sacrifice ordinary Palestinians to increase their power. This isn’t some vague theoretical point – for a period recently most deaths in Gaza were a result of fighting between Hamas and Fatah. The ‘choices’ offered to ordinary Palestinian people are between Islamist gangsters (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) or nationalist gangsters (Fatah, Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades). These groups have shown their willingness to attack working class attempts to improve their living conditions, seizing union offices, kidnapping prominent trade unionists, and breaking strikes. One spectacular example is the attack on Palestine Workers Radio by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, for “stoking internal conflicts”. Clearly, a “free Palestine” under the control of any of these groups would be nothing of the sort.
As anarchists, we are internationalists, opposing the idea that the rulers and ruled within a nation have any interests in common. Therefore, anarchists reject Palestinian nationalism just as we reject Israeli nationalism (Zionism). Ethnicity does not grant “rights” to lands, which require the state to enforce them. People, on the other hand, have a right to having their human needs met, and should be able to live where they choose, freely.
Therefore, against the divisions and false choices set up by nationalism, we fully support the ordinary inhabitants of Gaza and Israel against state warfare – not because of their nationality, ethnicity, or religion, but simply because they’re real living, feeling, thinking, suffering, struggling human beings. And this support has to mean total hostility to all those who would oppress and exploit them –the Israeli state and the Western governments and corporations that supply it with weapons, but also any other capitalist factions who seek to use ordinary working-class Palestinians as pawns in their power struggles. The only real solution is one which is collective, based on the fact that as a class, globally, we ultimately have nothing but our ability to work for others, and everything to gain in ending this system – capitalism – and the states and wars it needs .
That this seems like a “difficult” solution does not stop it from being the right one. Any “solution” that means endless cycles of conflict, which is what nationalism represents, is no solution at all. And if that is the case, the fact that it is “easier” is irrelevant. There are sectors of Palestinian society which are not dominated by the would-be rulers – protests organised by village committees in the West Bank for instance. These deserve our support. As do those in Israel who refuse to fight, and who resist the war. But not the groups who call on Palestinians to be slaughtered on their behalf by one of the most advanced armies in the world, and who willfully attack civilians on the other side of the border.
Neither one stare nor two states, but no states
Whoever dies, Hamas and the Israeli state win
From Anarchists Against The Wall:
Gaza atrocities continue, and so does resistance
SOLIDARITY IN JAFFA
Tuesday saw between three and four hundred of Jaffa’s residents come together in yet another protest against the war (third one in Jaffa since the latest military offensive was launched ten days ago). Jews and Palestinians stood as one, voicing a message of resistance and solidarity with chants and placards in both Arabic and Hebrew.
The demonstration – loud, energetic and empowering – was yet another link in the strengthening chain of resistance to Israel’s war crimes from within its borders. Protesters dispersed after two hours without incident from the large riot police contingent amassed nearby.
07.01.2009
NI’ILIN MOURNS, PROTESTS, RESISTS
Wednesday morning, Israeli and international activists joined residents of Ni’ilin in a small protest, led by teenagers, against Israel’s expropriation of over a third of the village’s agricultural land, as well as against the siege and war on Gaza. Since its struggle against the Wall began, Ni’ilin has seen 4 of its young shot dead by Israeli army and police (two of them last week) and countless others injured, curfew and all manner of collective punishments imposed, new weapon tested, night raids and arrests carried out, etc. – but its residents are determined as ever to resist Israeli land-grab and military occupation.
Protesters carrying Palestinian flags attempted to march on their own lands, but soon after they reached the village’s hilly olive tree plantations the entire demonstration was attacked by Israeli troops. Soldiers, standing so close as to be unable to shoot their teargas canisters in the required, arched trajectory, shot them directly at demonstrators’ bodies instead, who had to duck for cover behind trees and rock levees.
The demonstration was then transformed into a pitched battle between troops firing teargas canisters from two different positions in a pincer-movement, and Ni’ilin’s youth responding with slingshots as well as the occasional firecracker. One boy received minor injuries to his leg from a teargas canister hit.
07.01.2009
TEL AVIV: SILENCE EQUALS COMPLICITY
On Wednesday evening over 50 demonstrators gathered in central Tel Aviv to make sure the general public gets to hear the other side of the story, the side downplayed or ignored altogether by the media’s “fog of war” policy: the impoverishment and hunger caused in Gaza by years of siege, and the hundreds of dead, the terror and devastation wrought by Israel’s attack.
As rain trickled down sporadically, activists representing various groups held their banners high and shouted at the top of their lungs for an end to the killing. The cry “citizens are being lied to – missiles do not bring security!” was heard by all cars and pedestrians passing through the busy intersection of King George St. and Ben-Tzion Boulevard.
The Anarchist Federation is an organisation of class struggle anarchists (based in Britain and Ireland, but with many contacts overseas) which aims to abolish Capitalism and all oppression to create a free and equal society. This is Anarchist Communism.
We see today’s society as being divided into two main opposing classes: the ruling class which controls all the power and wealth, and the working class which the rulers exploit to maintain this. By racism, sexism and other forms of oppression, as well as war and environmental destruction the rulers weaken and divide us. Only the direct action of working class people can defeat these attacks and ultimately overthrow capitalism.
As the capitalist system rules the whole world it’s destruction must be complete and world wide. We reject attempts to reform it such as working through parliament and national liberation movements (like the IRA) as they fail to challenge capitalism itself. Unions also work as a part of the capitalist system, so although workers struggle within them, they will be unable to bring about capitalism’s destruction unless they go beyond these limits.
Organisation is vital if we’re to beat the bosses, so we work for a united anarchist movement and are affiliated to the International of Anarchist Federations.
Aims and Principles – point by point
The Anarchist Federation is an organisation of revolutionary class struggle anarchists. We aim for the abolition of all hierarchy, and work for the creation of a world-wide classless society: anarchist communism.
Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class by the ruling class. But inequality and exploitation are also expressed in terms of race, gender, sexuality, health, ability and age, and in these ways one section of the working class oppresses another. This divides us, causing a lack of class unity in struggle that benefits the ruling class. Oppressed groups are strengthened by autonomous action which challenges social and economic power relationships. To achieve our goal we must relinquish power over each other on a personal as well as a political level.
We believe that fighting racism and sexism is as important as other aspects of the class struggle. Anarchist-Communism cannot be achieved while sexism and racism still exist. In order to be effective in their struggle against their oppression both within society and within the working class, women, lesbians and gays, and black people may at times need to organise independently. However, this should be as working class people as cross-class movements hide real class differences and achieve little for them. Full emancipation cannot be achieved without the abolition of capitalism.
We are opposed to the ideology of national liberation movements which claims that there is some common interest between native bosses and the working class in face of foreign domination. We do support working class struggles against racism, genocide, ethnocide and political and economic colonialism. We oppose the creation of any new ruling class. We reject all forms of nationalism, as this only serves to redefine divisions in the international working class. The working class has no country and national boundaries must be eliminated. We seek to build an anarchist international to work with other libertarian revolutionaries throughout the world.
As well as exploiting and oppressing the majority of people, Capitalism threatens the world through war and the destruction of the environment.
It is not possible to abolish Capitalism without a revolution, which will arise out of class conflict. The ruling class must be completely overthrown to achieve anarchist communism. Because the ruling class will not relinquish power without their use of armed force, this revolution will be a time of violence as well as liberation.
Unions by their very nature cannot become vehicles for the revolutionary transformation of society. They have to be accepted by capitalism in order to function and so cannot play a part in its overthrow. Trades unions divide the working class (between employed and unemployed, trade and craft, skilled and unskilled, etc). Even syndicalist unions are constrained by the fundamental nature of unionism. The union has to be able to control its membership in order to make deals with management. Their aim, through negotiation, is to achieve a fairer form of exploitation of the workforce. The interests of leaders and representatives will always be different from ours. The boss class is our enemy, and while we must fight for better conditions from it, we have to realise that reforms we may achieve today may be taken away tomorrow. Our ultimate aim must be the complete abolition of wage slavery. Working within the unions can never achieve this. However, we do not argue for people to leave unions until they are made irrelevant by the revolutionary event. The union is a common point of departure for many workers. Rank and file initiatives may strengthen us in the battle for anarchist communism. What’s important is that we organise ourselves collectively, arguing for workers to control struggles themselves.
Genuine liberation can only come about through the revolutionary self activity of the working class on a mass scale. An anarchist communist society means not only co-operation between equals, but active involvement in the shaping and creating of that society during and after the revolution. In times of upheaval and struggle, people will need to create their own revolutionary organisations controlled by everyone in them. These autonomous organisations will be outside the control of political parties, and within them we will learn many important lessons of self-activity.
As anarchists we organise in all areas of life to try to advance the revolutionary process. We believe a strong anarchist organisation is necessary to help us to this end. Unlike other so-called socialists or communists we do not want power or control for our organisation. We recognise that the revolution can only be carried out directly by the working class. However, the revolution must be preceded by organisations able to convince people of the anarchist communist alternative and method. We participate in struggle as anarchist communists, and organise on a federative basis. We reject sectarianism and work for a united revolutionary anarchist movement.
We oppose organised religion and religious belief(s).
Swindon Anarchist Group (SwAG) 