A-Infos (en) Italy, Sicilia Libertaria #469 - ATHENS 3-5 APRIL 2026. Extract from the report of the 13th Congress of the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA-IAF) (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The 13th Congress of the International of Anarchist Federations 
(IFA-IAF) was held in Athens over the weekend of 3-5 April 2026, hosted 
by the Anarchist Political Organization - Federation of Collectives - 
APO). The other participating federations were the Italian Anarchist 
Federation (FAIt, Italy), the French-speaking Anarchist Federation (FA), 
the Sicilian Anarchist Federation (FAS, Sicily), the Argentine 
Libertarian Federation (FLA), the Federation for Anarchist Organization, 
FAO, Slovenia and Croatia, FACB, the Federation of Anarchists-Communists 
in Bulgaria, and the Anarchist Federation (AF, Great Britain). Observers 
included guests from Brazil (Aurora Negra and Terre Livre) and Serbia 
(Klasna Solidarnost). Members of the federations and associated groups 
from Mexico, Brazil, the Czechoslovak Federation, the German-speaking 
Federation, and the Kurdish Anarchist Forum did not participate, the 
latter due to concerns about the situation in the Middle East. Cuban 
comrades were also invited, but contact with them became increasingly 
difficult due to the economic blockade. To ensure the smooth running of 
the congress, it was held in a single location, the Lelas Karagianni 37 
(LK37) squat.

The IFA Congress is held every three or four years; between Congresses, 
intermediate delegate meetings (CRIFA) are held. These meetings serve to 
maintain contact between the federations and plan agendas and 
activities, as well as develop documents for discussion and consensus. 
The IFA's decision-making process is organized such that the federations 
initially propose agenda items and then develop their own documents and 
positions on those topics to present to the congress.

The Athens congress was structured with plenary sessions attended by all 
federations, for example, on the topic of anarchist perspectives on 
global uprisings (such as the uprisings in Iran, in some areas of the 
Mediterranean, Madagascar, Indonesia, and Nepal). Additionally, the 
federations participating in the congress co-organized a series of 
workshops on the following topics: Sudan, far-right extremism, struggles 
in education, the environment, patriarchy and gender-based violence, and 
the digital sphere (online materials and cybersecurity). Administrative 
aspects of the IFA were also discussed.

The first plenary session, entitled "Against the Modern Totalitarianism 
of the State, Capitalism, and War," offered an exchange of perspectives 
on antimilitarism. Topics covered included opposition to NATO air bases 
or aircraft (Italy, Sicily, Crete) and NATO expansion into Eastern 
Europe, the reintroduction of compulsory military service (Croatia, 
France), state repression of Palestine solidarity activities (such as 
the anti-terrorism law used against Palestine Action in the United 
Kingdom), and increased military spending, including dual-use 
investments such as the expansion of airports, seaports, or rail 
networks in which workers could intervene.

Both the Italian and Greek federations developed detailed positions on 
gender struggles, with documents approved by their respective 
federations containing insights into systemic gender violence (APO) and 
transfeminism (FAIt). The APO focused on patriarchal violence. The APO 
highlighted attacks on abortion rights in the United States and the 
systematic use of gender-based violence as a weapon of war in Sudan and 
Palestine, as well as, similarly to what is happening in Italy, 
nationalists' appeal to "female nature" to assert the role of motherhood 
in the national interest.

The session "The Rise of the Far Right and the Anti-Fascist Response" 
was presented by the AF and the FA. The AF used the context of the rise 
of Reform UK to discuss the cultural aspects of far-right ideologies and 
activities. While in some countries it is often possible to appeal to 
history, in Brazil, Bulgaria, and Serbia the threat of neo-Nazi street 
violence remains a grave danger today.

The session on education provided an important opportunity to understand 
the changes underway in Greece, where private partnership models are 
gaining ground in secondary schools and where teachers who oppose 
privatization and the growing use of intensive assessments of students 
of all ages face persecution. There has also been an increase in threats 
to anarchist organizing in universities.

The session on "The Plundering of Nature," presented by APO, focused on 
the political, cultural, and social issues related to the climate crisis 
and the plundering of nature and local communities by the state and 
capital. Clear connections were made to antimilitarism in relation to 
protests against infrastructure development. At the end of the weekend, 
the 13th IFA Congress produced a joint declaration entitled "Against the 
Global Dictatorship of the State and Capitalism, Against War and 
Fascism," which focused on antimilitarism, during the plenary session. A 
declaration of solidarity with Cuban anarchists was also drafted. There 
was great applause when Klasna Solidarnost (a collective from Serbia) 
announced its intention to apply to join the IFA as an associate group 
(a status reserved for groups intending to evolve into a federation). A 
location for the next congress was proposed, and the FA has agreed to 
assume the role of Secretariat, following the excellent work FAO has 
done in recent years.

A program was agreed upon to organize an international meeting in a 
Mediterranean location, as well as a forthcoming issue of the IFA 
magazine on antimilitarist perspectives, for which IFA member 
federations will submit articles. Following the information session on 
Sudan held by the FAS and the FA during the Congress, a new solidarity 
poster highlighting Sudan's anarchist struggles was unveiled.

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/wp-content/uploads/maggio-2026_compressed.pdf
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