They are the enemies of hope, my love, of flowing water and the fruitful tree, of life growing and unfolding. Death as branded them – Rotting teeth, decaying flesh – and soon they will be dead and gone for good. And yes, my love, freedom will walk around swinging its arms in its Sunday best – workers’ overalls! – yes, freedom in this beautiful country …
Nazim Hikmet
The creation of the modern Turkish nation-state is an expressive example of the violence of active and institutionalising nationalism. From the death-throws of the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish War of Independence after WWI, to the founding of the Republic in 1923, genocides, massacres and the ethnic cleansing of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrian and Syriac Christians, Alevis and Kurds (and accompanied by an almost permanent repression of political contestation and dissidence) would provide the socio-cultural, economic and political foundations of an ethnically and religiously homogeneous Turkish state. This was “nation” making on a grande scale, and the tragedies induced would be equal to the ambitions. And in this sense, there is no doubt some justification in describing Kemal Atatürk’s republican movement as revolutionary.
The Gezi Park/Taksim Square uprising of of 2013 involved, among other things – and herein lay its radicalness, above all perhaps in the Turkish context -, the scrambling or fracturing of identities, in a confluence generative of a new, yet to be defined, political community. The repression that the movement would suffer at the hands of the authorities is testimony to the political regime’s fear of something that began modestly enough as a protest to save a relatively small urban garden, but which then metamorphosised into an unheard of singular-plurality; a new “people” – short lived, yes, but a new people nonetheless. And the fear of this new “people” continues in the prohibition of any commemoration of the events of 2013 (Bianet 31/05/2023)
We return to these events with an article of 2014 from the former Roarmag magazine (with links to a collection of articles for a Roarmag symposium dedicated to the Gezi-Taksim uprising). This is preceded by news from Turkey surrounding the anniversary, and is followed by a background piece from the CrimethInc. collective entitled the “Roots of Turkish Fascism”. And we open with a video essay by Brandon Jourdan, the “Taksim Commune: Gezi Park And The Uprising In Turkey” and close with links to websites which offer collections of news and analyses of politics in Turkey.
As Wayne Price writes, the anarchist debate around the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the anarchist response to it continues; a debate that we continue to follow.
Anarchists Support Self-Determination for Ukraine: What Did Bakunin Say About National Self-Determination
This is a response to a challenge by Tridni Valka, a Czech anarchist group. They denounced an article of mine. I had defended anarchists who support the Ukrainian people in the Ukraine-Russian war. Bakunin and other anarchists have supported oppressed nations and national self-determination, as part of their revolutionary program, as I demonstrate.
Les Soulèvements de la Terre have succeeded in reorienting the gaze of city dwellers towards the countryside
In this in-depth interview, Kristin Ross discusses her recently published book, La forme-Commune, and the protests that have been erupting across France.
Mass disobedience against mega-reservoirs, ‘manif’actions’ against motorway projects, rallies against industrial farming: Les Soulèvements de la Terre are a form of contemporary Commune, according to historian Kristin Ross, who has just published an essay on ‘struggle as a way of inhabiting’.
Professor of comparative literature and a specialist on French history and culture, in her books Kristin Ross has revisited the history of the Commune. Rather than exploring a bygone past, she endeavours to bring into the present the revolutionary inventions and practices of the Communards and those who inherited from them. In her new book, La Forme-Commune. La lutte comme manière d’habiter, she goes in search of the way in which the commons are lived during moments when the state withdraws. She revisits some pioneering experiences of the late 20th century: the Nantes Commune of May 1968, the struggle against Narita airport in Japan in the 1970s, and the ZAD of Notre-Dame-des-Landes. She also talks about Les Soulèvements de la Terre, a movement she supports and with which she marched against the Sainte-Soline mega-reservoir in Deux-Sèvres on 25 March.
“Small countries, such as Belgium, should be well-advised to rally to the side of the strong if they wished to retain their independence.” (Kaiser Wilhelm II to Belgian King Albert, November 1913)
“It may even be true that none of the States concerned ‘wanted’ war: it is certainly true that none of them wanted war if they could achieve their objects without. What is more important is that without exception they were pursuing policies of which war was the inevitable outcome.” (A.L. Morton, A People’s History of England, Lawrence & Wishart, 1979 [1938], chapter XVI, § 4, “The Road to Sarajevo”)
“A great war is inevitable in the first decades of the 21st century, but it will suppose a maturing economic crisis, massive overproduction, a sharp fall in profitability, exacerbated social conflicts and commercial antagonisms, resulting in a new division of the world.” (10 + 1 Questions sur la guerre au Kosovo, 1999)
“Don’t believe the propaganda, they’re lying to you here.” (Marina Ovsyannikova, interrupting a TV news programme on one of Russia’s main channels)
“War for peace”, “the cause of the weak against the strong”, “crimes against humanity perpetrated in the heart of Europe… a battle for civilisation”, “a genocide in progress in Ukraine”…
The first quote is from Droit du Peuple, a socialist paper, the second from the London Times, a bourgeois paper, both written in 1914; the third comes from the Prime Minister of France during the 1999 Kosovo war, and the last from the Ukrainian Prime Minister, March 9, 2022.
French media will never talk about the dictatorship in Chad (supported by France) as they do about the Belorussian dictatorship (supported by Russia). No more than Western media will invoke the millions of civilians killed by the French and American armies in the wars in Indochina in the same way as they comment on the massacre of Ukrainian civilians by the Russian army today. As for the 150,000 killed in Yemen, mainly by US, British and French weapons, they seldom make the BBC News at Ten.
Verbal inflation gnaws away at the meaning of words. In particular, genocide becomes a synonym for large scale massacre, whereas the word designates the extermination of a people as a people, which Hitler did to European Jews. But Stalin was not exterminating the Ukrainian people as such in the 1930’s, and Pol Pot was not trying to exterminate the Cambodian people. Nor is Putin now trying to annihilate the Ukrainian people.
Everything seems permitted in political mythology. Socialism having become openly national in 1914, the Nazis could claim the word: Nazi literally means “national socialist”. If ideologies are confused and confusing, if anyone can lay claim to socialism, to communism, to proletariat, even to revolution (such was the title of a book by the incumbent President of the French Republic), it is because up till now social movements have not made a radical break with the order of things.
It is when we are reduced to passivity by failed or deviated struggles that we receive information and images as spectators of a reality against which we cannot act. Only deeper struggles will give back meaning to words… revolution included.
Kirill Butylin carried out the first known arson attack on a military enlistment office following the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 28th of February 2022 the young man threw Molotov cocktails at the enlistment office in the town of Lukhovitsa in the Moscow region. Beforehand, he had painted the office gates with the colours of the Ukrainian flag and had written: “I won’t go to kill my brothers!” Kirill managed to upload the video of his action and his anti-war manifesto to the internet, but he was detained soon after.
On 15 March the Western Regional Military Court convicted Kirill Butylin for three offences: “vandalism” (Part 2, Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), a “terrorist act” (Point “c”, Part 2, Article 205), and “terrorist propaganda” (Part 2, Article 205.2). Butylin was sentenced 13 years imprisonment: the first three years he should spend in a high-security prison, and the rest in a strict penal colony.
On 17 May the Military Appeal Court considered the defence’s appeal against the imposed sentence. As relayed on SOTAvision from the courtroom, during the hearing, Kirill himself spoke out against the war in Ukraine and also said that Russia was recognised as a terrorist state, and therefore he couldn’t care less about its laws. Butylin’s final words to the court ended with the phrase: “Glory to Ukraine!”
The Appeal Court left the original decision unchanged, and imposed the sentence in full.
It should be remembered that arson attacks on military enlistment offices do not constitute terrorism. Even under Russian laws. In this, and in other similarly politically motivated cases, the Russian authorities are attempting to justify their own criminal acts in Ukraine with the harsh sentences they are handing out to opponents of the war.
You can write to Kirill Butylin, although he has said it is currently hard for him to reply from the pre-trial detention centre where he is held. Nonetheless, he will be glad to receive letters and news.
Address for letters:
Russia, 107996, Moskva, ul. Matrosskaya Tishina, d. 18, SIZO-1, Butylin Kirill Vladimirovich 2001 g.r.
It is possible to send via the electronic service “FSIN-pismo” (sending from anywhere in the world, subject to payment by a Russian card) and the volunteer resource “Rosuznik” (sending from anywhere in the world and the ability to remain anonymous).
For a new space for the Centro de Cultura Libertária/Libertarian Cultural Center!
The space that the Libertarian Cultural Centre (Almada, Portugal) has occupied and rented for almost 50 years is again in danger. The continued pressure exerted by gentrification and the real estate market that has evicted and forced out of city centres hits us once again. After years of threats and eviction processes that we resisted, in March 2024, the CCL will have to leave its historic headquarters in Cacilhas.
Over these nearly 50 years, several generations of anarchists have given voice to their hopes and struggles in this place through the most varied activities and means. Many collectives, publications, cultural and recreational activities have passed through here and inhabited it, which ‘carried a new world in their hearts’. The CCL is a unique space, with a history that insists on persisting, that resists and fights for its place in the minds and actions of those who dare to think and act without god or masters. The CCL also houses an archive of libertarian memory and a unique library in the Portuguese region. It is a space for the continuity of the anarchist struggle in this region, and that is why we intend to keep that flame burning for many more years.
We have therefore launched an appeal and a fundraising action with a view to acquiring a space for the Libertarian Culture Centre. A space that belongs to you and from which you cannot be evicted. A space that houses the CCL library, archive and bookshop. A space for the diffusion and protection of libertarian culture that has as its objective the recovery and protection of memory, the meeting and dynamism of anarchist ideas.
In the coming months, we will multiply fundraising initiatives and we call on all people and collectives, who are in solidarity with our goals, to contribute through donations, holding charitable events and publicising the campaign.
Saturday, May 20th at the CCL
18h-Presentation of the fundraising campaign for the Centre of Libertarian Culture
20h-Fundraising dinner
CCL bank account details for donations
Account Holder: LIBERTARIAN CULTURE CENTER IBAN: PT50003501790000215493029 BIC: CGDIPTPL
While the French people strike, protest against, and decry Macron’s law raising the pension age, Macron remains unmoved, immune to the people’s demands. This, Jacques Rancière argues, inaugurates a new era for the French state: one of brutal police repression.
Jacques Rancière, 11 May 2023
(This piece was commissioned from Jacques Rancière by the French daily online AOC and published in its April 21st edition. It was translated by David Fernbach and published with the Verso Books’ Blog).
Editorial honoring the life of Cooper “Harris” Andrews, an anarchist from Cleveland, Ohio who was killed fighting in Ukraine against Russian invasion forces. (It’s going down, 04/05/2023)
On April 19th, 2023, Cooper (Harris) Andrews, 26, passed alongside three other anarchist internationalist volunteers in Ukraine. Comrades Dimitri Petrov of the Russian Anarchist Resistance, Finbar Kafferkey, a volunteer from Co. Cork, Ireland, and Cooper Andrews, a former Marine and an anarchist volunteer from Cleveland Ohio, were members of a unit of the international Resistance Committee (unit name withheld for security). They had chosen to take on the most dangerous assignment in Bakhmut, protecting “The Road of Life” humanitarian corridor, and were ambushed whilst defending evacuees. Cooper had been serving in Ukraine for almost a year, fighting in Kherson, outside Kyiv, and spending the last several months in Bakhmut. As soon as his application to volunteer was accepted, he flew to Ukraine and began with the Foreign Legion before joining up with the Resistance Committee later.
We share below a reflection by the russian anarchist Dmitry Petrov, recently killed fighting on the Bakhmut front against the russian invasion of ukraine, from July 2022. Its importance requires no comment from us, except to say that it raises fundamental question for anarchists today. (From libcom.org)
A member of an anti-authoritarian platoon in Ukraine reflects critically on the platoon’s activity, their relationship to the traditional armed forces, and the wider political significance of the experience.
This article was written in the first part of July. Now the anti-authoritarian platoon has moved forward. It transferred to the new unit, where it will recover trainings, recruitment, and, after the required preparation, it is promised that it will be moved to battle. This is the moment for conclusions after the first phase of the existence of the platoon—in the frame of territorial defense of Kiev oblast.
The [anti-authoritarian platoon](https://telegra.ph/A-little-bit-about-our-platoon-04-20) is the unofficial name for a unit in one of the brigades of the Territorial Defense Forces (TDF) of Ukraine in the Kiev oblast. It came into being when anarchists and leftists of different backgrounds and groups, including anti-fascists and football hooligans, came together during the earliest stages of the war to participate in a fight against the imperialist invasion carried out by Putin’s regime.
From the CrimethInc. collective (03/05/2023), we share an incomplete biography and translation of the anarchist Dmitry Petrov’s work.
On April 19, 2023, three anarchists were killed in battle near Bakhmut: an American named Cooper Andrews, an Irishman named Finbar Cafferkey, and a Russian named Dmitry Petrov, known to us until then as Ilya Leshy. People in our networks have shared undertakings with all three of these comrades over the years.
You can read about Cooper’s motivations in his own words here and consult a eulogy from his comrades here. You can learn about Finbar’s lifelong activism here, read an interview with him here, and listen to a song of his here. In the following eulogy, we explore the life of Dmitry Petrov, who also went by the noms de guerre Ilya Leshy and Fil Kuznetsov. For background, you should start by reading the statements from his comrades in the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization, the Resistance Committee, and Solidarity Collectives, as well as Dmitry’s statement from beyond the grave, all of which are available here.
A few weeks before the war began, Dmitry participated in an interview that we included in our coverage of the unfolding situation. On the first day of the Russian invasion, under what must have been challenging conditions, Dmitry took time to speak with us about how anarchists were responding. Throughout our exchanges over the following year, we were impressed by his humility, the earnestness with which he approached his efforts, and his sincere desire for critique.1
When Dmitry was killed, his comrades revealed that he had been involved in some of the most significant anarchist initiatives in 21st-century Russia, including co-founding the Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization. Here, we will provide an overview of his efforts as a snapshot of the past two decades of struggle in the post-Soviet world, concluding with a translation of his text, The Mission of Anarchism in the Modern World.
No one in our collective believes that state militarism can bring about the world we desire to live in. We are internally divided over the issue of anarchists participating in military resistance to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some of us believe that serving in a state military formation can never advance the anarchist cause. Others believe that the decision to do so can only be understood in view of the brutal autocracy that prevails in Russia, in which committed anarchists like Dmitry had tried virtually every other approach. If we reject state militarism, it is an open question how else to respond to imperialist invasions—and we will be better equipped to approach that question if we understand the life trajectory of Russian anarchists like Dmitry. For a discussion of the complexities of formulating an anarchist anti-war strategy that does not effectively cede the field to state militarism, you could begin here.
Remembering the Gezi Park/Taksim Square uprising of 2013
They are the enemies of hope, my love, of flowing water and the fruitful tree, of life growing and unfolding. Death as branded them – Rotting teeth, decaying flesh – and soon they will be dead and gone for good. And yes, my love, freedom will walk around swinging its arms in its Sunday best – workers’ overalls! – yes, freedom in this beautiful country …
Nazim Hikmet
The creation of the modern Turkish nation-state is an expressive example of the violence of active and institutionalising nationalism. From the death-throws of the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish War of Independence after WWI, to the founding of the Republic in 1923, genocides, massacres and the ethnic cleansing of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrian and Syriac Christians, Alevis and Kurds (and accompanied by an almost permanent repression of political contestation and dissidence) would provide the socio-cultural, economic and political foundations of an ethnically and religiously homogeneous Turkish state. This was “nation” making on a grande scale, and the tragedies induced would be equal to the ambitions. And in this sense, there is no doubt some justification in describing Kemal Atatürk’s republican movement as revolutionary.
The Gezi Park/Taksim Square uprising of of 2013 involved, among other things – and herein lay its radicalness, above all perhaps in the Turkish context -, the scrambling or fracturing of identities, in a confluence generative of a new, yet to be defined, political community. The repression that the movement would suffer at the hands of the authorities is testimony to the political regime’s fear of something that began modestly enough as a protest to save a relatively small urban garden, but which then metamorphosised into an unheard of singular-plurality; a new “people” – short lived, yes, but a new people nonetheless. And the fear of this new “people” continues in the prohibition of any commemoration of the events of 2013 (Bianet 31/05/2023)
We return to these events with an article of 2014 from the former Roarmag magazine (with links to a collection of articles for a Roarmag symposium dedicated to the Gezi-Taksim uprising). This is preceded by news from Turkey surrounding the anniversary, and is followed by a background piece from the CrimethInc. collective entitled the “Roots of Turkish Fascism”. And we open with a video essay by Brandon Jourdan, the “Taksim Commune: Gezi Park And The Uprising In Turkey” and close with links to websites which offer collections of news and analyses of politics in Turkey.
Continue reading →