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We've got an attitude! -Bad Brains
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NEWS & VIEWS FROM (THE FORMER) SOVIETSKY SOYUZ
No.3 February 1995
=================================================================
Jahrbucher fur Psychoanalitik und Psychopatalogik
der Russischer Radikalbewegungs
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GENERAL COMPLAINTS
Greetings from the weak link of the worldwide revolutionary
resistance!
In spite of the word 'news' in the name of this bulletin it has
always been views that dominated it. Just as any other
publication from the former USSR, ours is very opinionated, not
to say sectarian (we haven't got a sect). Since, due to our
irregularity, we fail to deliver news that doesn't stink, we
always make reviewing some tendencies in the anarchist scene here
our main preoccupation. This time too, we offer you the following
general complaints. (Well, there will be some news and events.)
The period since the previous issue of 'News & Views' (August
1993) was characterized by the more and more evident withering
away of the ideological federations (that is the Confederation of
Anarcho-Syndicalists (KAS) and the Federation of Revolutionary
Anarchists (FRAN).A third federation,the Association of Anarchist
Movements (ADA) never was an ideological federation and due to
its very informal character just can't die, because it was never
actually so much alive). This fact however shouldn't bother you
so much, since in places where there's enough will to continue
anarchist activities, they are still carried on - on a more
humane and non-sectarian basis. Unfortunately not everywhere it
is so and anarchist groups that actually do something can be
counted by numbers, plus, information exchange between different
groups is in fact falling apart due to the fact that almost all
the anarchist info-bulletins collapsed -the Petersburg-based "An-
Press" which was published by libertarian capitalists is now
defunct while its publishers finally did what they should have
done long ago - joined some liberal party. "KAS-Contact" that was
moved from Moscow to Tomsk 2 or 3 years ago finally collapsed,
too, and was moved to Irkutsk where it was being published very
irregularly due to lack of actual information and activities and
technical problems. The only bulletin that carried some
occasional news that was buried under heaps of gossip was Moscow
IREAN's "Novy Nestor", that many people were forced to read since
there was nothing else. (When I say the bulletin was filled with
gossip and not news, I present not my personal point of view, but
the position of the editors of the bulletin, who from the very
beginning looked at it as a joke. It's very ironic that they were
delivering crap ahead of schedule (about 30 or 40 issues were
published since the beginning of the last year), while they
failed to publish their paper with the same regularity - although
the latter only served the interests of anarchism in Russia since
the paper was filled with RAF communiques and salivating about
how IREAN loves them.)
UKRANIAN ANARCHISTS RE-GROUP (WHAT ELSE CAN THEY DO?)
In September-October last year some Ukranian anarchists, tired of
sectarian fights between KAS and FRAN and the absence of any
workable anarchist network in Ukraine itself, decided to launch
some kind of an all-Ukranian federation. Although not all the
Ukranian anarchist groups participated in the gathering, the
organizers (the Donetsk KAS group) got positive responses from
various groups and activists from Lvov, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov,
Nikolayev and some smaller towns. As a result of discussion at
the conference they decided to put an end to sectarian debates
(that were mainly 'imported' from Russia anyway) and quit all
the federations they were part of - KAS, FRAN and ADA - and form
the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (KRAS).
(In fact the Donetsk KAS group proposed to create the
Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists with a more
traditional, IWA-type program at the last KAS gathering in
Moscow, but this proposal was declined partly because of the lack
of substantial reasoning behind it and some rather bureaucratic
proposals for how this new federation should be run.) The new
all-Ukranian federation adopted a traditional anarcho-syndicalist
program modelled on the one of the IWA. The latter seems to
arouse a lot of comradely interest for KRAS, although their
position on the possibilities of affiliation with the IWA is
different from that of the "Friends of the IWA" in Moscow - KRAS
feels that the question of affiliation is still not on the agenda
and it won't be in 1996 (the planned date of the next IWA
Congress) due to the obvious weakness of anarcho-syndicalists in
the former USSR and the absence of the "critical mass" for a
syndicalist union. And it's true - none of the syndicalist groups
in this country can be called a union, because of their miniscule
size.
Although the anarchists of Donetsk region who were the motor
behind the creation of KRAS are rather optimistic about the
future of this organization, they obviously will face some
serious problems - like the one they had last year when the
officials warned them that they can't be an "anarchist
federation" and publish a paper of this "federation" since it is
not legally registered with the state. In case they will try to
violate this, they were promised to be charged several hundred
dollars worth of fines. This was one of the reasons why the
second issue of their "Anarchy" paper wasn't published (the other
reason was the primitive stage of capitalism in Ukraine and
virtual inavalability of accessible printing places). Anyway,
Ukranian anarchists didn't abandon their desire to continue their
publication. So far they launched a small internal discussion
bulletin that aims at creating a discussion about the activities
and principles of their organization.
REVOLUTION OF THE SPECTACLE IN THE SOCIETY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
The lack of appeal of 'radical' ideas and actions to the general
population forces 'radicals' to think of new ways to seek popular
support. The latest frenzy in the anarchist, communist and proto-
fascist circles is the concept of being 'cool' and presenting
your ideas and activities in the most spectacular way. The first
to dive into this marketing strategy was Edward Limonov, a
scandally-famous Russian writer, founder of the spectacular-
extremist National-Bolshevik Party. That Limonov, this re-
incarnation of Malcolm MacLaren, decided to gain some popularity
and money on the scandals surrounding his 'political' activities
was quite predictable. What was hard to predict was the recent
obsession of pretty traditional Young Communists (RKSM) with
creating a new image of communism, which is to be marketed to the
youth.
I doubt that they would ever have arrived at such a 'modern'
concept, had they not been surrounded by some 'anarchists', who
were in fact the main orchestrants of this frenzy. Already a
while ago some people from IREAN headed to the Stalinist-lead
"Student Defence" "trade union", where some monarchists and other
miserable creatures were also involved. Anarchists wrote some
'cool' articles for the Young Communists' paper giving these
bores some brand new ideas and images - some class war, some
poorly-digested feminism, etc. "Student Defence" managed to
organize some 'cool' protest in April last year with some
occasional 'anti-capitalist actions', which were afterwards
disproportionally blown up in their papers. After that the
concept of 'spectacular revolution' was given final shape with
statements like "to make a revolution today... it is enough to
film the moment of rebellion and make a videoclip".
On January 17, 1995 Young Communists organized a "theoretico-
practical conference on "New Revolutionary Communism", where they
talked a lot about the need for a new ideology. Also they spoke a
lot about the 'similarity' between the new left and new right and
the necessity of acting together on some concrete issues. The
reason for that was found in the 'numerous historical examples of
Communists acting together with {left} fascists'. However, the
reasons for such activities and their possible outcomes were not
analyzed at all - it seemed that analysis of any kind is out of
their reach. These tendencies were rather well articulated in the
papers of IREAN, RKSM and the National-Bolshevik Party recently
and thus it became possible for the Russian Section of the Last
International and the Clandestine Committee for the Eradication
of Professional Revolutionaries, Militants and their Sympathizers
to go to considerable lengths denouncing all these stupidities of
these self-proclaimed 'radicals'. The communique of these
organisations called "A Good Cure for Obsolete Communism: An
Appeal to the Victims of the Theoretico-practical Conference..."
attacked the superficial claims about putting the spectacle to
the service of revolution, the discovery of the similarity
between the new left and the new right that we should somehow
'use' and the general stupidity of the above-mentioned
tendencies.
=================================================================
CHRONICLE
=================================================================
On December 7, 1994 about a dozen anarchists picketed the
Indonesian embassy in Moscow, protesting against the continuing
occupation of East Timor and the genocide of its population. A
couple of articles about the tragedy of East Timor was published
in some (almost mainstream) paper, thus putting an end to the 20-
year-old silence of Russian propaganda on this topic. Protesters
handed a letter to the ambassador. Unfortunately this time the
Moscow office of the BHP (a company extracting oil from East
Timor in spite of occupation and genocide there) wasn't
spraypainted and thrashed, but we'll sure do it next time.
Protests against the war in Chechnya sparked some life into the
anarchist scene in Moscow. Anarchists participated in most of the
demonstrations and pickets against the war. On December 12, which
saw the biggest demonstration against the war (several thousand
people, ranging from Communists to liberals and the Chechen
community of Moscow), they tried to organize a small 'radical'
march on the Defence Ministry together with some young
Communists, Trots and radical liberals, but were stopped by the
police. Several people were arrested later in the evening. On
December 19 five activists of radical Democratic Union and
anarchists painted the Defence Ministry with anti-war slogans and
even 'bombed' it with fireworks. Some of them were reported to
the police and arrested, but the court set them free without any
fines. There was also some leafleting in Moscow metro (which is
now filled with policemen and military, looking for "Chechen
terrorists"), with a couple of people arrested and fined, and
some spraypainting around the city. On January 30 some Moscow
anarchists and radical liberals from the Democratic Union (DS)
spraypainted 13 military call-up stations with anti-war and anti-
imperialist slogans. They are also planning an active campaign
against the military call-up this spring.
In Nizhny Novgorod (former Gorky) the local Anarchist Club,
Rainbow Keepers and the local Green Party launched a campaign
against the military institutions and the war in Chechnya. Local
call-up stations were spraypainted with slogans like "Russia
shouldn't be a gendarme!", "Turn your arms against those who send
you to kill!" and "Here are the headquarters of the fascist
army". This happened after the local authorities remained deaf to
the demands of protesters who were organizing pickets. Well, if
they still will be deaf, anarchists promised to go further than
words.
Khabarovsk in the Far East is also bubbling - some anarchists
make a radio show "While Mommy Watches Santa-Barbara", bringing
some music and attitude to a young audience. Khabarovsk
anarchists also launched a campaign against bus controllers,
agitating for going without paying, collective obstructing of
controllers and damaging some bus equipment. This campaign is an
answer to another increase in the cost of public transport. Among
the other activities of these joyful Far Easterners are
continuing attempts to organize a rock club and a 'free
university' (regular seminars and discussions on different
topics).
In Tver, a city located in the middle of the road between Moscow
and St.Petersburg, anarchists participate in a campaign against
the construction of a superhighway between the two capitals.
Construction of the superhighway, that will have a deep base is
likely to destroy the natural underground water system of the
region.
On February 11 activists from various anarchist, ecological and
radical liberal groups held a discussion in Moscow. Originally,
the topic of the discussion was rather broad - from the
traditional ways of organizing in this country (and why they
can't help us achieve anything) to the role of family in
undermining broader communities to what we can do this spring.
However, people who have gathered for the discussion preferred to
discuss how it happened that radicalism lost even the tiny
grounds that it had in the emerging social movements of the
perestroika era (this discussion has been around for several
years already), but didn't pay attention to what was really wrong
with the existing forms of organizing (i.e. ideological groups).
Anyway, since recently we witnessed the creation of some down-to-
earth groups oriented on specific issues (mainly ecological), the
radical movement is moving in the right direction. It's a pity
that this is done in some unconscious fashion. As the discussion
proceeded, issues of cooperation between different groups were
discussed, namely around the anti-war and anti-draft campaign. It
was more or less agreed to hold regular meetings and stop inter-
personal and inter-group infights that were going on for several
years. The groups that decided to participate in the future
meetings included the Confederation of Anarcho-syndicalists, the
Group of Radical Anarcho-syndicalists (GRAS), Rainbow Keepers
(anarcho-ecological group), "A" Cultural Centre, "Cherepovets-95"
ecological group,the Democratic Union (radical liberals), The
Emma Goldman Dancing Brigade and some other activists that are
active in other groups. (All of these groups are rather or very
tiny.)
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DON'T EAT YOUR REVOLUTION! MAKE IT!
On November 7 all the Stalinists gathered on Oktyabrskaya Square
in Moscow under the still-standing huge Lenin. Later they headed
to Red Square, followed by some small groups of Trotskyists and
even some anarchists who successfully created an illusion that
"young people" were with them. While the latters' red-n-black
banners and dull papers were surely unable to destroy the
traditional way of celebrating the October revolution day, the
assault came from where nobody expected it. As the demonstrators
were going down their route they inevitably confronted a small
group of some vocal revolutionaries who were standing on the side
of the road under the banner of 'primitive communism' (made of
fake red fur) who were fearlessly banging their big drum. As the
crowd passed by them and tried to find out what they wanted to
say, the atmosphere was getting more and more tense. "The Blind"
(that is the name of an artistic group) announced that people who
gathered at the demo had nothing to do with revolution, that they
'ate' their revolution and shitted it out, that the only thing
they can do is ask the government for more money. Their poster
announced "Proletarians of all lands, enough eating!" Instead of
asking the government for money, The Blind announced, we should
make another revolution and realise the real - primitive -
communism. We should care less about material things and instead
turn our attention to people around us. After the demo passed and
the shouts "They are Jews, Zionists! Go back to Israel!"
addressed to The Blind finally dissolved in the air, the
'primitive communists' headed back home and were stopped by
police, who asked for their IDs. In spite of that, the affair
ended peacefully.
STRANGE FRUIT
On September 5 some Moscow anarchists and punks were trying to
defend their 'property rights' to a basement that was for some
time used as a non-commercial club named first after the infamous
sell-out Jerry Rubin and later after Ho Chi Min (due to the fact
that the club was situated not far from a square named after him
and a surreal monument to Ho). On New Year's Eve anarchists had
a rather nice party there after which the club finally moved out
- into nowhere. Since both the Jerry Rubin/Ho Chi Min Club and
the "A" Club which was run by anarchists were homeless, they
decided to join their forces. There are some reasons to believe
that this union will bring about not only a cheap club where kids
can hang out, but some constant place for radical meetings and
activities. So far we found a basement that was given to us and
now we are looking forward to cleaning it up and using it for
meetings and some kind of infoshop and anarchist library.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THE ABC OF LIBERTARIAN LENINISM
(this will be a comix)
Characters:
Male announcer - a hero of some
comix, more or less like a Superman
Comrade Lenin - the leader of
proletarian revolution, founder
of Leninism
Male announcer: Contrary to what is usually believed, Leninism
too has strong libertarian potential. Unfortunately anarchists
tend to disregard it while they point out that only on one
occasion Lenin supposedly 'stole' their ideas when he wrote
"State and Revolution". If we dig a little deeper, we will
discover the unknown terrain of Leninism which is highlighted by
aphorisms, not less poetic than those of Bakunin, Marx and the
situationists. Please, comrade Lenin, give us just one example.
Comrade Lenin (sitting on a chair, his arms on his knees, seems a
little depressed, announces in mechanic voice): You can't live in
society and be free from society.
Male announcer: Brilliant, don't you think? For years and years
philisters exploited just one of the numerous creative methods
appropriated by Marx from Hegel, namely Marxist dialectical
double-speak. Here we find another creative tool for building a
critical social theory, the one that can be called critical
reductionism. Let us now take the same phrase, but this time
without the last word. Please, comrade Lenin!
Comrade Lenin: You can't live in society and be free...
Male announcer: Terrific! But we still haven't seen the rest of
the method. Let's take out some more words. Please, comrade
Lenin!
Comrade Lenin: You can't live in society and be...
Male announcer: Fantastic! Do you understand now what a great
potential libertarians missed when they claimed Leninism to be
inherently authoritarian? Contrary to this narrow opinion it is
as critical as, say, young Marx... Let's see, what will happen if
we take out some more.
Comrade Lenin: You can't live in society... You can't live...
(Clenching his fists, angrily.) You can't, you can't, you
can't!!!
Male announcer: Assistant, please! Can you take comrade Lenin and
provide him with another dose of morphine? His authoritarian
syndrome is back, we need to calm him down!..
=================================================================
some @narchist e-mail contacts in the former USSR:
cube@glas.apc.org :
a little cell of cyberspace occupied by Laure Akai and Mikhail
Tsovma. The name comes from Cube Press, a project that they hope
to lift off the ground sometime. So far one pamphlet was
published - on Bakunin's philosophy and social ideas. The plan
for 1995 includes Daniel Guerin's "Anarchism", George Bradford's
"Triumph of Capital", Fredy Perlman's "The Continuing Appeal of
Nationalism" and probably a small anthology which we so far plan
to name "Mickey Mouse, Fuck Off! An introduction to critical
theory" (it will contain some articles from "Anarchy: A Journal
of Desire Armed", some Bob Black, Fredy Perlman, etc.)
tretyput@glas.apc.org :
"Trety Put" (Third Way) anarcho-ecological magazine edited by
Sergei Fomichov, part of the rather loose network called Rainbow
Keepers that is organizing some ecological campaigns every year
since late 80's
ecodefense@glas.apc.org :
Vladimir Slivyak in Kaliningrad/Konigsberg on Baltic Sea, also an
anarcho-ecologist
nadia@glas.apc.org :
Nadezhda Shevchenko from Kiev, Ukraine, anarcho-ecologist
volga@glas.apc.org :
Olga Pitsunova, anarcho-ecologist in Saratov
rk@glas.apc.org :
Moscow group of Rainbow Keepers, still in the process of building
their technical base, that's why you might not get response if
you write to them
Also available for GlasNet (Russian APC network) is a conference
glas.radical. We intend to keep it mainly Russian-language and
thus it is not networked to other APC networks (there's also a
problem with transfering/decoding cyrillic letters.
=================================================================
COMING SOON:
In the next issue of News&Views I hope to give some materials
about:
- anarcho-ecological groups in Russia and their activities, both
in the recent years and the ones that they plan for the next
summer
- the activities and the current state of syndicalists groups in
projects
- "the wonderful world of ZAIBI", THE most interesting
(anti)music (anti)group and some of its ideas
=================================================================
Contact us:
via e-mail: cube@glas.apc.org
via regular mail: POB 500, 107061 Moscow, Russia
Compiled by Mikhail Tsovma.
Long live the ANC (Absolutely No Copyright)!
Materials published above reflect only the personal opinion(s) of
the author(s), but this doesn't mean they should be treated
differently from the positions of the so-called federations.
=================================================================
If I can't be a graphomaniac once a year, I'm not part of your
revolution! (Sorry for all the non-existent English words that I
put into this bulletin.)