A-Infos (en) France, OCL: For a united antifascist front? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

We have received a call from our comrades in the Libertarian Communist 
Union for the creation of a "broad and united antifascist front." We are 
publishing it, along with our response explaining why we will not be 
signatories to this initiative. ---- More than ever: united and 
antifascist! ---- On the evening of Thursday, February 12, in Lyon, 
Quentin Deranque, a fascist activist, was hospitalized in critical 
condition before dying two days later. The far right immediately 
launched a communications campaign to impose its version of events, 
although many questions remain unanswered regarding the sequence of 
events. We, left-wing political organizations, wish to place this death 
within its Lyon and national context.

In Lyon, the far right has perpetrated over a hundred attacks since 
2010. Targets include people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, union 
members, and anyone displaying left-wing symbols. Threats and attacks 
are proliferating against activists, as well as against public spaces 
and events. In their training ground, "La Traboule," fascists practice 
fighting, killing, and dying for their cause. Any left-wing 
activism-whether union, community, or political-now exposes individuals 
to physical danger.

In France, statistics show it unequivocally: the far right commits over 
90% of political murders. It has already killed 59 people since 1986. 
Drowned in the Deule River: Brahim Bouraam, Clément Méric, Federico 
Aramburù, Mahamadou Cissé, Djamel Bendjaballah, Rochdi Lakhsassi, 
Kurdish activists from Rue d'Enghien, Hichem Miraoui, Ismaël Aali on 
January 6th... The list is too long, and the moments of silence too rare 
for the victims of racism and the far right.

In this context, associations, unions, political parties, residents, and 
business owners in Lyon and elsewhere have been mobilizing for years to 
raise awareness about the increase in this violence. In this context, 
activists from all walks of life have built popular and mass 
self-defense structures against Nazism, fascism, nationalism, white 
supremacy, royalism, antisemitism, and the entire nebula of the most 
reactionary ideologies.

We acknowledge the necessity of this self-defense.

We call for the formation of a broad and united antifascist front, 
present in the streets to defend our feminist demands on March 8th and 
our antiracist demands on March 14th and 21st.
Facing the fascists: a united front! Not a step backward!

Signatures:

Libertarian Communist Union
Dear comrades,

We have received your proposal to sign your "brief unified statement."

As we stated in our press release of February 23, "It is within the 
framework of social struggles that the anti-fascist, not 
anti-capitalist, response to the bourgeoisie can become widespread, and 
that we can rid ourselves of the monstrous beast, which is but one of 
the faces of capitalist barbarity." Therefore, it seems to us pointless 
and ineffective to form a united front with forces that support the 
capitalist system and that, in some cases, use anti-fascism for 
political score-settling.

A united front is not a temporary alliance against commandos, nor is it 
simply solidarity against repression; currently, this would be a 
strategy that would inevitably lead to electoral opportunism. It is 
unthinkable for us, and probably for you as well, to call for blocking 
fascism through the ballot box. That would be a republican front, not a 
class front.

Furthermore, summarizing the current situation with the term "rise of 
fascism" seems to us a sign of our inability to understand the new forms 
of domination being established and to effectively combat them, which 
are undoubtedly as terrible as fascism itself.

Joint discussions and research on these issues would seem more useful to 
us than "appeals" that sound somewhat hollow. Moreover, not considering 
ourselves a vanguard, we are generally reluctant to "appeal," but that's 
another matter.

We are always available to discuss these issues calmly, including publicly.

Therefore, we will not sign this statement. We are also forwarding you 
the one published by the OCL on February 23rd.

Libertarian Communist Organization

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4651
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