A-Infos (en) Italy, FAI, Umanita Nova #16-26 - Restarting from Antimilitarism. The Controversial Tour (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In April, screenings of the documentary "Anti-Authoritarians at War" 
were held in several Italian cities. According to the graphics 
advertising the events, the work highlights the "participation of 
anarchist and anti-authoritarian militants in the resistance in Ukraine 
after the Russian invasion." The meetings were attended by a member of 
Solidarity Collectives, a group founded in Ukraine a few years ago that 
raises funds to equip those who call themselves anarchists and fight in 
the Ukrainian army. This tour preceded the screening of the documentary 
at the Perugia International Journalism Festival on April 15.

The more general issue of war has been addressed on several occasions in 
the pages of Umanità Nova, including criticism of political positions 
advocating participation in the ongoing war in Eastern Europe. It has 
expounded the reasons for antimilitarism and asserted that "the 
struggle, with or without weapons, to be effective must be waged and 
organized from the bottom up, outside the apparatuses of states, 
governments, and, above all, the armed forces." Therefore, we will not 
repeat ourselves here, but focus on the more specific topic of the 
series of initiatives held in Italy and the issues that arose alongside 
them. Indeed, there has been no shortage of protests of various kinds, 
as well as support from political circles distant from anarchism, a 
dynamic limited to the contexts where these initiatives took place, to 
which the newspaper Il Manifesto has given some visibility.

The organizers of this Italian tour are reportedly Solidarity 
Collectives and the Antiauthoritarian Alliance. The latter is a new 
group, unknown to most, which recently created its own social media 
channels and website. From the "manifesto" published online, it almost 
seems like a new international, but the published articles suggest it's 
a small group that publishes a few in-depth articles and focuses 
primarily on the Ukrainian issue. It seems like an acronym created to 
provide political support in Italy to those who support participation in 
the war in Eastern Europe. After all, the only initiative so far 
publicized by the Antiauthoritarian Alliance's channels, along with 
participation in the April 25th demonstrations in Bologna and Milan, is 
the tour organized with Solidarity Collectives.

In fact, these positions have never enjoyed much traction in our country 
and, at least within anarchist circles, have lacked a solid political 
base in Italy. The various tendencies of the Italian-speaking anarchist 
movement-despite profound internal differences-have maintained clearly 
antimilitarist positions regarding the war, especially regarding the 
conflict in Eastern Europe. Few groups, which could be counted on one 
hand, had in recent years taken more open positions or openly supported 
those anarchic elements in Eastern Europe who believe that, faced with 
Russian imperialism, it is necessary to enlist in the army. Today, this 
small group appears to be further diminished. Indeed, it can be noted 
that even in other countries, where certain positions undoubtedly held 
greater weight, a certain disillusionment has arisen, especially over 
the past year, in the face of European rearmament, the reintroduction of 
conscription initiated by several governments, growing authoritarianism 
in Europe, and the chronicity of the war, which is leading to a greater 
centralization of power in Ukraine as well as, obviously, in Russia, 
already governed autocratically.

For those of us who were not fooled by the calls to arms, what we see is 
the obvious consequence of the spiral of war into which governments are 
plunging the entire world. But it is clear that for those who have taken 
different positions, disillusionment can be an important step.

Of course, partly because of this context, Solidarity Collectives' first 
tour in Italy, more than four years after the Russian Federation's 
invasion of Ukraine, coincided with this documentary's participation in 
an official event, and did not visit any social spaces, venues, or clubs 
that could be defined as anarchist. Indeed, the organizers immediately 
identified public venues, such as those in Bologna, or those run by 
associations linked to the Democratic Party, such as in Turin, ARCI 
clubs, such as in Milan, or otherwise left-wing institutions, in one 
case Trotskyist, such as in Bari. This demonstrates the lack of any 
connection between the organizers of this tour and the anarchist 
movement in Italy. Indeed, in many of the locations visited, anarchist 
groups took a stand and protested, carrying out leafleting, banners, and 
interventions outside the venues.

Of course, in the general climate of war we're experiencing, others were 
also critical of these initiatives, and in some cases the organizers had 
their rooms withdrawn because the initiative was deemed incompatible 
with the principles of the hosting associations.

It seems there was no shortage of pressure on the venue management 
bodies, even from individuals who certainly distanced themselves from 
any antimilitarist vision, and who instead had the Russian Federation as 
their point of reference.

But the press releases published by the Antiauthoritarian Alliance don't 
spend many words on the campists and pro-Russians. Instead, there are 
pages and pages criticizing the anarchists who contested the 
initiatives. If you take the time and patience to read these pages, it's 
sad to see that every criticism and protest, normal in political debate, 
is delegitimized, ridiculed, even accused of "Stalinism." It is on these 
grounds that those who argue that anarchists belong in the army lament 
the lack of willingness to dialogue and listen.

This is nothing new. This attitude has already been revisited on several 
occasions. If anyone has lost their memory, just reread some articles 
from Umanità Nova from 2023 and 2024. One of the Antiauthoritarian 
Alliance's press releases revisits what happened during the 
international anarchist meeting in Saint-Imier in July 2023. They 
dramatically denounce the disruption of a conference held in the main 
hall, organized by groups supporting the so-called "anti-authoritarian 
fighters" enlisted in the Ukrainian army. But the reality was quite 
different: after a comrade who dared to raise an anti-militarist sign in 
the hall had it snatched from his hand, individual comrades protested 
against the censorship. Some dared to ask questions the organizers 
didn't like, but a sort of well-coordinated security service immediately 
intervened to silence critical voices, with insults and even physical 
threats. Meanwhile, insults and anathemas were hurled from the stage at 
antimilitarists. This was happening during an international meeting, 
where one should be able to engage with positions different from one's 
own. This is just part of the "dialogue" we witnessed in Saint-Imier.

Since the Antiauthoritarian Alliance's statements feature fanciful 
stories, it's necessary to remember how things actually happened. 
However, I want to thank this group for raising this issue. Nearly four 
and a half years after the start of the large-scale conflict between 
Ukraine and the Russian Federation, war is increasingly present in our 
societies and our lives. War is increasingly an unavoidable part of the 
landscape we live in. This is why, albeit not always openly, 
warmongering ambitions, military solutions, and hopes for a clean slate 
created by the war are resurfacing in the political discourse of 
movements, transcending traditionally "militarist" and "camp" political 
spheres. I think it's good to take this opportunity to reconsider and 
clarify a series of issues, to try to better orient ourselves in these 
difficult times.

Dario Antonelli

https://umanitanova.org/ripartire-dallantimilitarismo-il-tour-delle-polemiche/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en