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Dear comrades, the text below is an open letter that I, as international secretary of the Confederation of Anarcho-syndicalists (KAS) in Russia, wrote in response to the false information spread by the Moscow-based IREAN group. Currently some people from that group are in charge of producing an information bulletin of the International Workers Association (IWA) on Eastern and Central Europe. A comrade just told me that the Secretariat of IWA is sending out messages to its sections and different syndicalist organizations informing about "KAS's sectarian role in the conflict". Unfortunately we never get any materials of the IWA neither directly, nor through "the friends of the IWA" (IREAN) in Moscow. Vadim Damier, the editor of the Eastern European IWA bulletin, also doesn't feel obliged to send us a copy of the stuff that he sends out to IWA sections (though I personally gave him a copy of the letter, because I think it's honest to let other organization know what information you send out about it). In the same time, the editors of the Eastern European IWA bulletin are very active in spreading their materials through KAS groups nationwide trying to split our organization. I hope that our comrades that will get this letter will try to analize positions of both KAS and IREAN and instead of taking sides will promote direct cooperation between revolutionary syndicalists East and West. Yours against sectarianism, Mikhail Tsovma (international secretary of Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists, KAS) November 3,1993. Moscow, Russia. ARE THERE ENEMIES OF THE IWA IN RUSSIA? An appeal to the national sections of the IWA and to all revolutionary syndicalist organizations Lately amongst the international anarcho-syndicalist movement, especially amongst IWA organizations, there has been information circulating which presents the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (KAS) in a negative light. This information is getting around partly thanks to the decision at an IWA conference that the group that is spreading this false information, the Initiative of Revolutionary Anarchists (Irean), be responsible for putting out an international anarcho-syndicalist bulletin on Eastern Europe. Distorted information about the activities and ideas of KAS has appeared on the pages of foreign anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist publications before, mostly thanks to the SMOT bulletin, but this is mainly due to the fact that the editor of the SMOT bulletin, Alexander Tchoukaev, is not well informed as to the events going on in the former Soviet Union. As far as Irean is concerned, they are in a totally different position as they are well informed of our activities and always have the opportunity to approach us to clarify any aspect of our activity. Instead they prefer to present extremely distorted information and unfoundly accuse KAS of working together with all sorts, from Trotskyists to communists to the AFL-CIO. In addition they have been saying lately that KAS has a negative opinion of the activities of the IWA and is bad mouthing this orgnization. I therefore wanted to inform everybody that: 1. KAS has always stood for the formation of self-managed syndicalist unions independent of party and state. The particularities of the situation in Russia are such that, irregardless of the appearance of an independent workers' movement after the 1989 miners' strike, there aren't really any mass workers' organizations which could become a serious alternative to the former official communist trade unions. In the majority of cases, the old trade unions are the only ones in the workplace and serious changes in this situation don't come about due to the low level of activity of the workers. Also, the majority of the new unions, more specifically their leadership, support the government and its reforms. At the same time, these new trade unions are no better than the old ones - there are the same problems of corruption and bureaucratic centralism. Therefore in response to the concrete situation at the workplace where the KAS activists work, one can either fight to build independent unions or try to reform the existing ones, be they of the old sort or the new. This must only be done from below, not by using bureaucratic tricks on the workers. As far as we know, we are not the only ones who think this way; some of our anarcho-syndicalist comrades, including members of the IWA, also advocate a like strategy. All of the accusations about us working with trade union bureaucrats are false. 2. Another thing KAS is accused of is working with communists and Trotskyists and of taking part in the formation of the Party of Labour. It's true that at the beginning a few members of KAS took part in discussions leading to the formation of this party and eventually signed its declaration. But for them to participate in this party they would have to renounce their anarcho-syndicalist ideals, which some of them did. At present nobody from KAS participates in the Party of Labour or any other socialist or communist party. In comparison, it is the members of Irean who hold joint actions with different Trotskyist groups and regularly take part in their discussions. A good example of this was at the Nov.7, 1992 demonstration in Moscow where the flag of the Spanish CNT flew next to the flag of the 4th International. For us, it was not only strange that anarchists would want to celebrate the Bolshevik coup d'etat, but even more so with the successors of one of the forces that strangled the revolution. It is true that Russian anarchists had taken part in this uprising, but the events that followed proved it was one of their biggest mistakes. Irean denies having organizational ties with any communist groups but what about the fact that some members of Irean help put out the "Left Information Bulletin" which in fact serves as an information bulletin for stalinist and nationalist groups? 3. Irean claims that it is a group which carries on anarcho- syndicalist propaganda in contrast to KAS which, according to them "refuses to join the IWA and doesn't form anarcho- syndicalist unions". It's strange to hear this from people who had not so long ago spoke negatively about anarcho- syndicalism. Few members of Irean carry on syndicalist work but those that do should know how hard it is to form independent syndicalist unions and that these can't be formed from thin air. It's not true that KAS doesn't want to form syndicalist unions, we just don't want to create mythological organizations because we take our work seriously. It's not true that KAS doesn't want to join the IWA because it shows contempt for that organization; rather the reason we don't want official affiliation has to do with something different, as is clear from the resolution which was adopted at the 4th KAS conference in May 1991. This resolution clearly outlines the reasons why we wouldn't want to join the IWA, and members of Irean are well aware of this position. The resolution reads: We feel that at present KAS cannot join any of the existing international political and syndicalist workers' organizations, including the IWA, because such a step could serve to deepen splits and rivalries between syndicalist organizations. We feel that it is necessary to strengthen contacts with all anarcho-syndicalists, revolutionary syndicalists and libertarian socialist organizations, including those in the IWA and those who don't work with this organization. As well we would like to build ties between the growing free trade unions in the USSR and with the militant unions in the West which have a democratic structure and which aren't integrated in the bourgeois state-party system. 4. It's a lie that KAS is putting out information that is disparaging to the IWA. On the contrary, we often wrote about the actions and the principles of the IWA in our publications. We are always ready to exchange information with IWA organizations but unfortunately we don't always have the possibility of participating in their conferences. The actions of Irean which are aimed at discrediting our organization and excluding it from the international anarcho-syndicalist movement sadden us. A good example of their attempts to exclude us is the fact that after it was decided that they would put out an Eastern European bulletin, they preferred to ask SMOT to collaborate on it with them, a group whose leaders support monarchism. Despite the fact that KAS is the largest anarcho-syndicalist group in the country, the editors of the bulletin never asked us to help with its publication. Furthermore, it seems to us that Irean's actions are an attempt to break up KAS. It is unfortunate that the statutes of the International does not allow for two groups from one country to work with it in case these groups may not work together. Therefore I am asking the sections of the IWA to carefully weigh all the pros and cons in case one or another group from Russia asks to be admitted into the International. I would also ask to seriously consider whether the activities of Irean conform to anarcho-syndicalist practice and whether this group would be able to work together productively with different syndicalist organizations. In closing I would like to reiterate that KAS is prepared to work together with the national organizations of the IWA and with all syndicalists and militant trade unions. In solidarity, Mikhail Tsovma (International Secretary of KAS)