Greetings from Ukraine: "We need to think together about self-defence and security"

My name is Sergei. Currently I am fully dedicated to Solidarity Collectives. Before the war, I was involved in a wide range of left-wing projects, perhaps the most successful of which was student union "Direct Action". I have also done left-wing media work, as well as monitoring far-right movements in Ukraine. I still do that, but at the moment almost all my time is spent on Solidarity Collectives’ volunteer work.

Earlier Takku interviewed a comrade serving in the Ukrainian army who called for anarchists to organise. I agree that it is definitely time for anti-authoritarian groups, both in Ukraine and elsewhere, to try to create their own structures. In the time of war, we are laying the foundations for the post-war period.

Ukrainian political life will be very active after the end of the war. For a year and a half after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, political life was on sort of a pause. Lately it has gradually revived. At the beginning of the war, there was little criticism of the regime. The main thing was the common enemy. Now the situation is changing. Different groups have begun to criticise the regime and put forward their own alternatives. New candidates for political leadership are emerging. All political groups understand that the future depends on the extent to which their voices are heard now.

That is why it is important that we have our anti-authoritarian soldiers and our volunteer activities. In this way we can build up social capital and media visibility. We have an answer when someone will come and say: "What did you anti-fascists do, and what is your anti-fascism anyway - Putin's anti-fascism?". No, our anti-fascism is fight against Putinism. Indeed, one of our collectives’ aims is to show the Ukrainians that anti-fascists are against Putin's invasion and that Putin's Russia has nothing to do with anti-fascism. This is also worth pointing out to comrades all over the world, because for an inexplicable reason, some see modern Russia as the successor to the Soviet Union, as some kind of anti-fascist alternative world order force that can lead us to a fairer, more multipolar world. This is not the case. The multipolar world that Russia is now offering will certainly disappoint you.

At first I thought of Solidarity Collectives as a wartime project, and I didn't see a future for it beyond that. We came from different backgrounds and groups, and no one planned to continue Solidarity Collectives after the active phase of the war. We thought that we would split up again into different groups. But now I see a need for these collectives to continue to operate and develop their political content also after the war. There will be reconstruction of Ukraine, in which we can play a very practical role. Therefore, it makes sense to continue organising around voluntary activities and practical, concrete issues, but in such a way that the political, ideological side is highlighted and anarchism is popularised more actively.

So I think there is a future for the collectives. I think it's important that we have active people and also a large number of others around us who know about us. As I said, this is laying the foundations for post-war political action - activism that is not alienated from reality but has its feet firmly on the ground.

As for the anti-authoritarian soldiers in the Ukrainian army, as is known, initially there was an attempt to create a whole unit of comrades. That attempt failed for bureaucratic reasons, and the group disbanded as comrades joined different brigades and scattered across the army. However, a few groups were left, with not just one or two, but between five and ten anti-authoritarians together. Such groups include Kaifariki, made up of former Arsenal Kyiv anti-fascist football hooligans, and the Belarusian group, which has been joined by several Belarusian anarchists and, more recently, a comrade from the Czech Republic. Then there is the mortar group, which has been joined by more than ten anti-authoritarians, including a well-known anarchist artist David Chichkan.

I think groups like this are important because their voice is much stronger than that of individuals. Usually, individual anti-authoritarians do not even make much of an effort to make their case, but concentrate on their military tasks. Solidarity Collectives is of course in contact with them and we can occasionally write about their situation and their role, but individual comrades do not have a particularly large media impact. Their ability to represent the anti-authoritarians in a meaningful way is limited. Instead, a group can have its own profile, its own face, which gives it visibility and impact. Concerns have been raised that as a group, comrades may be killed off in one fell swoop. However, this is highly unlikely, and such a threat has not prevented the far right from forming their own military units and amassing their own forces. They have grouped together and then managed to get their political views into the public domain, not just those of individual soldiers, but of whole groups and units. These groups are producing social media content and are actively engaged in PR work to promote far-right ideology. They have been interviewed in the mainstream media as representatives of their units. It is a good strategy, unfortunately implemented by the extreme right. In theory we could do the same, but in practice things do not always go as we would hope. Transfers within the army are difficult and individual comrades in different brigades have already adapted to their environments and will stay there. The initial failure to form a core anti-authoritarian unit, to which all comrades would then have joined, makes it difficult to create such a unit anymore. All hundreds of comrades in the army cannot now be called to join the Kaifariki, for example. That is not how the army works. There are numerous reasons why comrades cannot and do not want to move to one unit. Whether we like it or not, we have to make do with several separate anti-authoritarian military groups. Comrades from Ukraine and from outside Ukraine can join these groups, and the groups welcome all volunteer anti-authoritarians. The involvement of new, motivated volunteers is very valuable. We can strengthen existing cells and make them more visible and influential. There will not be a single anti-authoritarian unit, but a series of influential cells is still possible and in fact it is getting stronger all the time.

As for the broader issue of organisation, it seems to me that there is a kind of general crisis of political worldviews going on, also among anarchists. The major events of today are dividing opinions and creating confusion. The war in Ukraine is one of such major events. The attitudes towards it have torn all movements apart, although there are certainly regional differences. Of course, there have been divisions before, but now the fact that someone supports anarchist principles and goals does not tell you anything about their attitude to the situation in Ukraine. Anarchists have completely opposing views on this issue. The principles of anarchism that once seemed so clear no longer give us the answers to how to interpret world events. This is a sign of an ideological crisis. Right-wingers, though, now have the same problem: half of the extreme right is of one opinion, the other half of the other.

All in all, I think this is an important moment. In the past, there were certain dogmas that were topical and possibly correct, during the few decades when the United States was indeed in such a hegemonic dominant position that it could be spoken of as the sole or by far the greatest imperialist. Advocating alternatives, even problematic ones, might have seemed reasonable. Today, though, it is wrong to claim that all those who oppose the US are somehow good, or that the alternatives they offer are certainly progressive. Often the opposite can be true. It is good to keep an eye on new developments, to note that new imperialists have emerged in the world, imperialists that - just as the USA has done up to now - are trying to gain control of territories. The left must analyse the situation and seek new responses. In recent decades, pacifist thinking has been quite widespread among the left. Being against war is of course logical: no war but class war. In the present situation, however, we must be able to take a stand on hostilities, to say who is right and who is wrong. We cannot simply say “war is bad” and look smart. We must analyse situations carefully and then decide our opinion. We anarchists, too, must ultimately think about security and self-defence at local, regional and even global level. We need to think about the production of arms: perhaps it is not always just about the profits of big business, but about the fact that we need to be able to defend ourselves. We need to think about how to manage the process of arming ourselves so that it is really about self-defence and not about big business and war dictating our logic. These are difficult questions to which no one has the answers at the moment. The debate on these questions is really important.

It is also important to take into account the experiences and views of those who are currently in the midst of war. In this sense, the leftist, anarchist movement in Ukraine should now be listened to. An attempt should be made to understand our views and also to examine them critically. I am not saying that we can tell others what to do. We have our own weaknesses. But believe me, so do you. All this should be considered and reflected on together. We need to work together, both on a practical level (fortunately, there is already practical cooperation!) and on a theoretical level. We have many problems, but also opportunities to find solutions. Even in all its horror, the war has helped Ukrainian and European anarchists to find each other. The Ukrainian anti-authoritarian movement is becoming part of the international movement. We are no longer isolated. I believe this is for the benefit of all.

https://takku.net/article.php/20250101151830732