EDITED BY: Laure Akai, Ivan Papugai, Ivan Pomidorov, and Ivan Babushkin
CONTRIBUTORS: (involuntary) Chernaya Zvezda (Black Star), Anarchia (from Belarus), Novy Nestor (New Nestor), An-Press, Anarcho-Syndicalist, Chernaya Vyvorka (Black Squirrel)
CONTENTS:
PART TWO:
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PART THREE:
NEWS THIS MONTH (and a half)
PART FOUR:
THEORY: INTERVIEW WITH VASYA LEVATSKY
FRONT PAGE NEWS
*From page one of the Gomel paper, "Anarchia", we hear the following, very
important news.
- RESOLUTION OF THE SECOND CONGRESS OF THE BELARUSAN ANARCHIST FEDERATION ON ITS EMBLEM
(Minsk, Oct.2, 1993) decided by consensus
The emblem of the federation will be the federation name written inside a five-pointed red star, the symbol of the revolutionary movement for workers' liberation.
The points of the star should be straight and of the same size, geometrically equal and the lines should be absolutely straight, continuing to the triangle next to the one next to it. The background of the star should be black. Inside the star is a golden circle and inside it is a stylized letter A - the symbol of anarchy - an A with it's horizontal line stretching out byond it's diagonal ones, an "incomplete star", golden in colour. On the black part of the golden circle (the cut out part of the background that shows up in the middle), on the lower lefthand and upper righthand scetors (between the planks of the A) should be the letters F and B (in that order), of a goldish colour, written so that inside the circle you should be able to read (diagonally) the name of the anarchist federation, FAB.
There is also a black and white variant: the star and the letters should be black while the circle inside the star can be white.
* ANARCHISTS FULFILL THEIR FIRST FIVE YEAR PLAN!
Groups around the country are celebrating the fulfillment of the first
five year plan (1990-1994) and are busy compiling their production
statistics for the (collective) commissars of anarchy.
A special award has been given to the Donbass Anarchist Federation (Heroes
of Propagandistic Labour) for exceptional distribution of anarchist
literature.
From issue no.5 of ANARCHO-SYNDICALIST: Informational/Analytical Bulletin Published By the Donbass Anarchist Federation (yes, that's the title), we can see the astonishing feats of anarchist labour.
-RESULTS OF OUR PROPAGANDA WORK:
Distributed amongst the population of the Ukraine:
The Donbass Anarchist Federation Paper, "Anarchia" - 1200 copies
"Pryamoye Deistviye" (Direct Action) - 30 copies
"Svobodny Golos" (Free Voice) - 120 copies
"Basta" (the Syndicalist issue) - 200 copies
"Chernaya Zvezda" (the Syndicalist issue) - 168 copies
Pamphlets:
"Syndicalism" - 15 copies
"Superstition of the State" - 29 copies
"Organizing Workers and the Methods of Syndicalist Action" - 42 copies
"Privitization and the Workers' Movement" - 11 copies
"IWA Principles" - 20 copies
Leaflets:
"To the Workers of the Donbass" and "Working People" - 400 copies
"An Appeal to Anarchists and Inhabitants of the Ukraine" - 100 copies
"What Choice Do We Have?" - 1000 copies
"The Donbass Anarchist Federation Platform" - 63 copies
"Freedom Loving Individuals" - 50 copies
Posters:
"Anarchists to the Workers of the Donbass" - 250 copies
Congratulations guys, and thanks for the accurate accounting! See, it just goes to show you that there ARE people here who publish something with all that donated money, not just throw beer parties with it. Back to the anarchist press... (which, by the way, you should support...)
*Chernaya Zvezda (Black Star, published by some people from the group Irean) Recently published an anthem for our generation, a brilliant, well written text that everybody is reading called "Nostalgia for The Molotov Cocktail". Here are some of the most brilliant parts.
-"In order to make a revolution today, you don't need to storm the Winter Palace or Ostankino, you just have to know how to edit film."
"Politics is show business and political activity is a commodity. That's the way it is. Our commody differentiates itself from that of the fat cats because we have a different consumer market: not the pseudo-elites, but the people. But they still have to pay all the same - with their interest, support and money."
"The non-conformism of the new left is related to that of the new right and this is stronger than the ideological barriers which divide them. Actually, they are mostly divided by their paraphanelia and slogans. Some have a red flag, some have a black flag..... But even here, they have more in common than not. Remember the skull and crossbones on Makhno's flag and on the SS hats. "Anarchy is the Mother of Order" and "the New Order" and the ideological asthetic of the colour black."
* From the Interview with New Left Activist, Businessman and Fraud,
Nikolai Mikhailovich Ozimov, Chernaya Zvezda's cult icon, entitled
"Nikolai Ozimov - Anarchist, Pagan and Sex Giant".
- In our ancient pagan religion, the male and female sex organs are sacred
and so sex is an act of sacrifice. ... Our rituals are not just about sex.
A woman comes to me and gets completely undressed - that's obligatory in
our cult of the naked body. ... I say a prayer over her... I cut a chicken
over her so that the blood drips on her body and then I cut out the heart
and give it to the woman to eat.
The bloody act of sacrifice helps to create an idea/image associated with
God. Then at the end, we have a ritual sex act.
- Can't you do without that?
- No way. Our rituals are connected with sexual energy.
- What purpose does your rituals serve?
- For example, a woman comes to me and says that she loves Vanya and wants
him to be hers so I help her so that Vanya will love her.
- Do people pay for these rituals?
- Of course.
[Editors. Not as bad as last year's "anarchist" conference where they ripped apart a live black cat. See "OPB No.1]
* Issue number 3 of News and Views from (the Former) Sovietsky Soyuz is out. Misha is right on with his analyses BUT he has made a awful mistake. Yes, he has mixed up his would-be anarchist federations again! He reports that some Ukrainian anarchist groups would like to form KRAS - the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists- and that they don't want to affliate with the IWA yet, unlike the Moscow "Friends of the IWA" group. But the Ukrainian group that he was thinking of is RKAS or the Revolutionary Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists, not to be confused with KRAS, the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndiclaists. How could he make such a mistake? So, to get this all straight, the Revolutionary Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists is one group, the Confederation of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists are another. Part of KRAS's crass orgnizational platform, actually its second organizational principle is that
-KRAS supports the program and organizational principles of the IWA and intends on joining the IWA as an eastern-european (with only Russian members!!!-eds.) or euro-siberian (eurasian) section.
* Of course, this would be of great help to some folx in Moscow, cause if they could work with the IWA, they wouldn't have to work (and share the xerox machine, donated) with their devil-worshipping comrades. So we wish them the best of luck. Of course, there is already some controversy about KRAS, and it hasn't even been formed yet. Seems like the comrades don't intend on joining it.
From An-Press:
-We feel that communism... is not the only economic model. ... In our
opinion, the anarchist commune ... is only one of an infinite number of
voluntary economic interaction. ... Also, point nine of its proposal
states that decisions will be made by vote ... They propose formal
democratic voting in place of anarchist agreement; this will inevitably
lead to the suppression of the minority who disagree with something and to
splits in the organization. Anarchy is not only the rejection of
government, but of power.
...collectives and individuals will not be equal in this
organization...because of the proposed system of delegation... minorities
within a regional group will not be able to express their opinions...
...we also feel that an administrative or governmental division into
regions should not be the same criteria by which to organize an anarchist
group...
..and dues... no anarchist organization here has ever asked for dues
before, not even Moscow KAS at the end of the eighties...
And finally, we find the authors proposal to represent all the
anarcho-syndicalists from the former Soviet Union to be unwarranted.
...since RKAS might later join the IWA, we feel that the "euro-siberian
(eurasian) KRAS should not represent the Ukraine in the IWA...
The Chernaya Zvezda Club invites male bulldogs, Russian or imported for stud duty. Also, bitches needed for breeding work. Food, consultation and exhibition. Call 488-55-11 (I kid you not.-LA)
COMMITTEE TO REHABILITATE CUBE, KAS and KOLYA
The committee was formed in attempt to stop the revisionist history-making as practiced in the anarchist press. Like Trotsky, Bukharin, Makhno etc., certain people do not exist except as enemies of the people. Chronicles claim all their actions as actions organized by the anarchist federations, do not list their papers and only slander the above mentioned parties. We say, GLASNOST PLEASE! For more on the work of the committee, please write to the editors.
QUE VIVA ANARCHIA!
The Mexican Embassy was attacked by a couple of seething anarchists.
The guard, being caught off guard, stood in shock while the place was
vandalised.
THE BEST ANARCHISTS ARE THE ONES YOU NEVER HEARD OF
A conference on Alexei Borovoi will be held in November in Moscow. Some of
his books will be republished to commemorate the event. Currently only his
pamphlet on Bakunin, entitled "Bakunin" and published to commemorate last
year's Bakunin conference, is in print.
(Bakunin himself, by the way, isn't.)
IF YOU DON'T MAKE A REVOLUTION, YOU WON'T GET ANY DESERT A meeting was held in Moscow to discuss future projects and strategies for the anarchist movement. By all assessments (well,almost all), it was a dismal failure. The cake was good.
AKAI: Vasya, you describe yourself as an anarchist. What does that mean to you?
VL: It means I'm an anarchist. I think that's clear enough.
AKAI: Well, actually it's not. Not only are there various recoginised schools of anarchist thought, but there are many individual interpretations of what it means to be an anarchist.
VL: I'm an anarcho-communist. I'm categorically opposed to capitalism and the bureaucratic state...
AKAI: Is that the main difference between communism and anarcho-communism - the role of the state.
VL: Of course. We want to build workers' self-management and representative democracy. We can only attain economic justice when the workers own the means of production.
AKAI: Isn't that all just a reorganization of capitalism? How to you imagine workers' self-management will work in practice?
VL: Not at all. Workers' self-management isn't capitalism because it's .... self-management. As far as how this will work in practice, that's a difficult question. Nobody knows. I can't say what can happen in the future. I'm a revolutionist, not a fortune teller.
AKAI: Well, would people be earning wages? Would money be the means of exchange? Would all workers be compensated equally, regardless of their output or consumer demand of their products and how would this be organized without an apparatus, which could become, by the nature of its work, bureaucratic?
VL: That's a lot of questions. Of course there will be committees that will oversee all aspects of production, but they will be delegated and fully recallable and everyone will be paid equally. Everyone has a valuable role to play in society. Nobody is more valuable than another.
AKAI: There are many a politician who are also "delgated and fully recallable" but they aren't because people don't know what's going on, and when they do, they don't care.
VL: Exactly. But our representatives - they can't be called politicians because they don't represent any political parties, but the workers - will be picked for their honesty and the workers will keep abreast of what he's doing because it's in their best interests.
AKAI: Will factories like the Cherpovetz plant and coal mines still run?
VL: Of course but they will have to be more ecological.
AKAI: And of course people "need" metal, cars, plastics and so on.
VL: Do you expect us to live in the dark ages? Anarchism will be great scientific progress.
AKAI: That's very enlightened of you. Let me ask you then about how life would change in your anarchist visions.
VL: Well, everybody would be more politically active and interested in their work. Nobody would feel worried about going to bed hungry and they would know that their children would have a good future.
AKAI: Well, I meant more of how relations between people would change.
VL: I don't quite get what you mean.
AKAI: OK., you mentioned children. How would children live?
VL: Very well. They'd all have nice schools and camps and their mothers would be able to take care of them because they wouldn't have to work.
AKAI: That sounds very progressive. Doesn't sound any different than the Soviet Union.
VL: It's very different!! First of all, the children would be taught to sing anarchist songs instead of communist ones. They wouldn't have to look at Lenin on the walls, but Makhno...
AKAI: But the structure of socialising children, and women remains the same.
VL: How is it the same? I just explained it to you.
AKAI: Well, it's the same because you expect women to bear the responsibility of child rearing instead of a partnership or communal arrangement and because children will be sent off to schools where they will be educated in the mores of the society.
VL: Of course. I don't understand your point. Do you expect children to go without education or something? And do you want women to be slaving in some factory while somebody else watches after their children? Don't you consider it uncivilized?
AKAI: No, I consider it very "civilized". I also hold civilization in the upmost contempt, but this is something you won't understand. Sounds to me like everybody will have their social roles in society...
VL: Nobody has to do anything they don't want.
AKAI: Don't you think that society expects people to conform to it and this leaves many people abolutely miserable, that in order to enjoy life, one has to destroy the system at its roots, its means of socialization, and that putting people in charge of their work doesn't solve all that much.
VL: That's a really bourgeois attitude. If some people have some problems dealing with society, that's their problem. The main task is to control the fruits of our labour. After that, we need to concentrate on improving conditions for our children.
AKAI: That's very Marxist of you.
VL: How is it Marxist?!
AKAI: How is it not?
VL: You don't know the difference between Marxism and anarchism.
AKAI: I think I do. Perhaps YOU don't know the differnce between Marxism and anarchism.
VL: Don't try to tell me what anarchism's about. You don't even belong to
any of the federations. We're out there trying to get people to sign up
for the revolution and you're just sitting around worried about the rights
of minorities. What about the rights of the majority? You don't even care
about the rights of Russians - all I ever hear you talk about is the
rights of the blacks, women, queers.
We need to ensure the rights of the majority first.
AKAI: That's a pretty twisted way of looking at things. Sounds a bit like the republican reactionaries in America.
VL: Look, did you call me here to provoke me or to do an interview? What kind of interview are you doing - you haven't even asked me any questions about the work of our federation. I've come here to talk about the work we're doing and you're asking me questions about petty details. You never told me, by the way, where you're going to print this.
AKAI: I don't know yet.
VL: Well, what gave you the idea to interview me if you weren't given this as an assignment? If you go around to editors after you do the work, you might get nothing - you've done this work for nothing. You should ask the people in charge what they need first, see if they're interested in what you want to do.
AKAI: OK, let me ask you about your federation.
VL: Our federation is comprised of 2000 people. At our last conference...
AKAI: 2000!? How come I only ever see two names in the newspapers.
VL: Me and Sasha? Well, we're the leaders...
AKAI: Who are these people? What do they do? If you have 2000, where are they? Do you have a mailing list? I only saw 30 old Stalinists nodding off at the last conference.
VL: Attendence was low because the conference was scheduled the same time as final exams.
AKAI: Why'd you do that?
VL: Well, we couldn't hold off with our conference until everybody could attend. We had some emergency resolutions to pass.
AKAI: You passed the resolutions at the conference that nobody attended?
VL: We can't wait around for some bouregois students to get done with their exams.
AKAI: So you passed the resolutions with the Stalinists?
VL: What's the problem? They agreed with our resolutions. There's nothing there that goes against anarchist principles.
AKAI: Well, perhaps the way you passed the resolutions go against anarchist principles. I mean, don't you think it's wrong to pass the resolutions for your organization at a meeting where none of the members of your supposed organization are present?
VL: They would have all been in agreement anyway! They're all anarchists and it was an anarchist resolution, so how could they disagree with it? They wouldn't be anarchists if they did!
AKAI: You don't think that there would have been any questions about this resolution - any disagreements at all within your federation?
VL: Of course not.
AKAI: OK., then I guess I have no further questions about your organization.
(Excerpted and transcribed from interview taken March 12, 1995)
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