#Anti-Fascist Internationalist Front

[guerillas-of-history]

Anti-Fascist Internationalist Front

Anti-Junta rebel group in Myanmar comprised of veterans from the Kurdish YPG and other foreign volunteers.

[captain-price-unofficially]

Group photo of some of the Anti-Fascist Internationalist Front, a group of YPG vets and other foreign volunteers fighting for the anti-junta Chin in Myanmar.

[padonvillogo]

Hi, if I had to define myself, I would say I'm closest to a left communist, so I want to address some of your points, mostly the last two, as you yourself had said that the first one on dogmatism is more or less just an impression you've got.

On anarchism

I don't really engage with anarchist discourse online so I'm speaking from an irl experience. I'm sympathetic to anarchism a lot! There are a lot of anarchist concepts and practices that have great revolutionary potential. What I see as a problematic continuing limitation for them is that their refusal/inability to clarify basic concepts and their own positions often leads them into contradictory positions, which are at best soc-dem and therefore counter-revolutionary and/or into this simplicistic worldview that is black and white, such as "rich people are bad, poor people and good". More to that on the second point.

On Ukraine

I'm a revolutionary defeatist, so I'd like to react to your critic as such. And let me preface that these are not my own personal opinions, they come from a clear revolutionary tradition and is a position both held by internationalist anarchists and (non-bolshevik) communists.

The war in Ukraine, like all capitalist wars, is a war against the working class: a war against the working class in Ukraine, who are used as cannon fodder for the defence of imperialist NATO in the interests of their homeland, and a war against the working class in Russia, who are sent to the front to kill and die on the nation's gruelling altar. And indirectly, war against all working class people.

The Ukrainian state, for its part, is neither "better" nor "less bad", nor more or less "fascist" or democratic than the Russian state, since it is qualitatively no different from the latter, but only quantitatively, since it is smaller and has less imperialist power, but is just as bourgeois and anti-proletarian.

It is perfectly legitimate to want to protect the lives of people in bombed cities. But to do so in the form of conventional warfare is to effectively protect the integrity of one state or another. Moreover, it is questionable to claim that most lives can be saved in this way. Continued mobilization for war leads to a progressive brutalization of war and the death toll increases.The state doesn't require soldiers to participate in the war to protect their own community, their own home. They couldn't care less about that, in fact, after the war, some Ukrainian capitalists will have a great investing opportunity in rebuilding the destroyed properties. They need the military to serve the bourgeoisie state's interests and as such, the interest of capital, and the capitalist class.The only one who loses in this case, again, as always, is the working class.

I have not seen anyone claiming that holding a revolutionary defeatism position is easy or that "soldiers should just shoot their superiors". But there have been historical examples since at least WW1, of sabotaging military actions, both from inside from soldiers, and from civilians. And it is also happening right now, on both sides of this war! Soldiers refusing duty, deserting, civilans throwing Molotov cocktails on military bases, on recruiting centers, burning down relay cabinets. Of course, mainstream media won't report these acts, as they are entirely contrary to their framing of the war as a moral duty for "Ukrainians protecting their homeland and their nation from invasion" or for "Russians to fight against the far-right/fascist Ukrainian government". And of course, these actions are individual examples, nowhere near mass organized movements, but shouldn't be this the priority of self identifying anarchists and communists? To support and help the self organization of the working class in a way that would lead to international communist revolution? Instead of taking action in support of the interest of capital, and cooperating with the bourgeois nationalist state and fascist para militia?

Random Thoughts on Marxists

This is gonna be me just rambling about things I saw on marxist spaces. I'll be focusing on experiences I had with council communists (CC) and Left communists (LC)

Dogmatism

Ok, I wanna be honest, this is just a vibe I got. If u had to ask me for tangible evidence, I'd be 🤷‍♂️

Is just a feelin I got of "this is the way to go cause Dude in 1924 said so". It feels very restricting, takin away the potential that human imagination has in socialist movements

It felt like "this is the way! Oh ure more keen on this idea? Let me see what Dude said in '32...mmm sorry! Can't do it!"

But maybe is just me! I'm the type of kid to ask why a 100 times! Did I ask why a 100 times? Not really I was a shy kid, but in my mind I did it so it counts

On Anarchy

Idk the hate coming from Marxists towards anarchists! And I'm not even talking about MLs, I'm talking about marxists/communists that have more in common with bakunin that with lenin!

Like, I remember a CC (council communist) talking about an anarchist revolt (in a hypothetical communist revolution) on the same terms of a counter revolution by reactionaries!!

Or how a CC insta page made fun of an anarchist comparing Lenin to Lasalle (socialist that though that socialism could be achieved by takin control of the state. Marx didn't like him) and being something like "anarchist critique of lenin is bad!"

And I was like "Bro, half the memes u posted are just you sayin that lenin and lasalle are the same!!"

Another thing that I notice is this mentality off "if a marxist said X, that's good, if an anarchist said the same thing, then bad!"

I heard ppl talk about Marxists sayin that the "dictator of the proletariat" is the revolution itself and I was like "ok, that feels like anarchism but with some marx sprinkles in it!"

The end goal is the same, the way of achieving it is the same, the anti-authoritarian sentiment is the same BUT we ain't anarchists! No no no, we're total opposite actually!!

On Ukraine

Since the beginning of the invasion, I heard so many shit takes from the left. When I heard em from MLs I was like "shit take? Yes, but I wasn't expecting something else from yall" But from the left communists?

They can only chant "no war but class war" wich is nice, don't get me wrong, but is...just bs

They always go against the MLs cause they're not good enough on examining the world, that MLs are just too blinded by propaganda, how MLs don't have a grip on the world, and then the only solution they give is "the Russians and ukranians soldiers should go against their generals and politicians (to achieve socialism)"

In what world will this happen? Defenetly not in this one!! How distant can you be from the real world to say that ukranian soldiers just have to go and fight their politicians!

I'd be like telling someone's who's house is burning down to go and beat the cops that arrived at the scene cause they're class traitors! They are, but saving the house from the flames maybe takes the priority!!

I'm not a patriotic person. I never was. So my thinking doesn't come from "we must save our country!" type of sentiment. It comes from a "This is my house, the street where I used to walk my dog, the bar where I used to go and chill with friends"

Idk how to end this ramble...if u read it all, damn, ure one cool person. If u have something to say, be nice about it. Have a good day!!

[fromgreecetoanarchy]

In remembrance of anarchist internationalist fighter, Lorenzo Orsetti, who died in battle against the darkness of ISIS in Syria in the morning of March 18, 2019.

Lorenzo Orsetti (February 13, 1986 – March 18, 2019), also known as Orso, Şehid Tekoser and Tekoşer Piling, was an Italian anarchist and antifascist from Florence who fought alongside the forces of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria.

Lorenzo Orsetti bravely fought in the ranks of TIKKO and Anti-Fascist Forces in Afrin, Syria. He survived the savage onslaught from the turkish invading forces. As an anarchist he later joined the ranks of Tekoşîna Anarşîst, the autonomous anarchist battalion in Rojava. With the anarchist unit he made several tours to the front in Deir Ez Zor and fought the final battles against ISIS.

Lorenzo was killed in action on the Monday morning of March 18, 2019 in the village of Baghouz, Syria. He was in that locality fighting in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani against the last bastion of the Islamic State in Syria. He was attached to an Arab unit when he and his comrades were killed by ISIS jihadists in an ambush, his death was announced by ISIS media and was confirmed by his unit of Tekoşîna Anarşîst.

When his comrades announced his death they shared his last will in which Lorenzo explained why he had decided to travel to Syria driven by his political beliefs.

This was the letter he wrote in the case of his death:

“If you are reading this message then it means that I am no longer of this world. Don’t be too sad, though, I’m OK with it; I don’t have any regrets and I died doing what I thought was right, defending the weak and staying true to my ideals of justice, equality and liberty.

So in spite of my premature departure, my life has been a success, and I’m almost certain that I went with a smile on my face. I couldn’t have asked for more.

I wish all of you all the best in the world and I hope that one day, you too will decide to give your life for others (if you haven’t already) because that is the only way to change the world.

Only by combatting the individualism and egoism in each of us can we make a difference. These are difficult times, I know, but don’t give in to despair, don’t ever abandon hope, never! Not even for a second.

Even when all seems lost, when the evils that plague the earth and humanity seem insurmountable, you must find strength, you must inspire strength in your comrades.

It is in the darkest moments that we have greatest need of your light.

And remember always that “every storm begins with a single raindrop.” You must be that raindrop.

I love you all, I hope you will learn from these words.

Serkeftin! Orso, Tekoşer, Lorenzo.

[comrade-meow]

BARBARA ANNA KISTLER was a Swiss revolutionary, anti-imperialist, and guerrilla fighter. She became interested in politics when she was 16 and began to organize groups and people who were critical of the ruling system. In 1973, the imperialist-backed coup against Allende in Chile destroyed all illusions of a “peaceful road to socialism” and other such counter-revolutionary lies for her; it became clear to her that revolutionary violence is a universal law for the destruction of the old and the construction of the new.

Comrade Kistler was at the forefront of the anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle in Switzerland. She also worked in various women’s groups, seeking to bring a Marxist-Leninist line to the women’s movement. She was a member of an organization called Group Against Isolation which was working to form a Communist Party in Switzerland. A journalist by profession, she published an interview with the top leaders of the Communist Party of Peru in the newspaper she worked for, thus contributing to the international spread of the most advanced proletarian ideology: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism–Gonzalo Thought.

In the mid-1980s, through her consistent anti-imperialist and internationalist work, Comrade Kistler came into contact with supporters of the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TKP/ML) who had fled to Switzerland after the military coup. Through these contacts, she studied the Programme of the Party closely and she moved to Turkey to become active in the class struggle under the leadership of the TKP/ML. In 1991, she was arrested in a big raid by the reactionary Turkish State, in which two of her comrades were martyred. Despite being subjected to torture in prison, she proved herself as an unyielding Communist. In front of the fascist court of the Turkish State, she defended herself with these words: “You have no right to condemn proletarian internationalism!”

An international campaign demanding her freedom developed which helped secure her release later that year. She was deported back to Switzerland, but after only a month she returned to Turkey clandestinely, where she became a combatant of the TKP/ML’s Liberation Army of the Workers and Peasants. For over a year, Comrade Kistler fought with fearless conviction in the mountains and countryside of Turkey to advance the New Democratic revolution. In late January 1993, the location of her guerrilla unit was deciphered by enemy forces, and so the comrades were forced to make a difficult escape with limited equipment through the Munzur Mountains. Many perished on this march, including Comrade Kistler who fell to blood poisoning from pneumonia after two weeks on the march.

Comrade Kistler gave her whole life to the struggle of the international proletariat against imperialism, fascism, feudalism, capitalism, and all forms of reaction. Her struggle is our struggle, and she lives on in our struggle. Comrade Kistler is immortal!

———

CAMPAIGN FOR PROLETARIAN FEMINISM:

TO THE STREETS ON MARCH 8!

To mark #InternationalWorkingWomensDay this year, the Revolutionary Student Movement is posting one profile per day about a revolutionary woman on our social media, building toward #March8. There will also be actions to educate, agitate, and propagandize the working women’s struggle in the lead-up to March 8 and on the day itself – so stay tuned for upcoming announcements. Additionally, we intend to conduct social investigation into the conditions of working women in the Greater Toronto Area and across Canada. To get involved in this campaign, send us a DM or reach out via toronto@mer-rsm.ca. Check out bit.do/fNwUc for more info.

Women! Unite around the revolutionary slogans:

IT IS OUR DUTY TO RECONSTITUTE THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA!

WAVE AFTER WAVE, BLOW AFTER BLOW – AGAINST IMPERIALISM AND PATRIARCHY!

PROLETARIAN FEMINISM FOR COMMUNISM!

[anti-pedophile-action]

The Forgotten History of when Portland IWW was Infiltrated by Pedophile Supporters

Every political movement faces tough questions about how to reject reactionary entryism from fascists and pedophiles. What matters is how a community or organization responds. As radical leftists and antifascists we believe in drawing hard lines and exposing monsters. As one IWW member put it, “The state didn’t invent the idea that there are consequences to our actions.“ For real consequences institutional memory must be preserved.

In 2014 it was revealed that an IWW member, Tomas Bernal, had committed an act of sexual violence while travelling in Mexico against a person who was 12. This was revealed when Tomas sent a confession email to the IWW listserv. There was never a question about whether he had committed the act or not. He had been in a relationship with another IWW member who said they felt unsafe and had experienced interpersonal violence from Tomas. They will be referred to here as the PDX Survivor.

As a result of his confession, which many found to be very self centering and deflecting of blame, a number of members immediately asked for his expulsion from the IWW.

Over the proceeding months a small group of members of which Ashley Jackson, Jessica Harris, and Adam Nee were a prominent part, created an intense environment of confusion, intimidation, and harassment for people demanding his permanent expulsion and for his PDX Survivor and allies. Some of the tactics they employed included:

creating procedural blocks and criticizing the process

blaming the PDX survivor for creating an “unsafe space” and endangering people, in addition to framing the ask for expulsion as some kind of revenge plot

saying that people discussing the community safety risk were breaking security culture

claiming that people wanting to exclude Tomas were engaged in a secret cabal in violation of IWW process

claiming that their voices (Ash and Jess) as survivors (in a general sense) were being sidelined and silenced through listening to the PDX survivor and other survivors of childhood sexual assault and IPV

trying to force their way into meetings for survivors directly processing the trauma around their and Tomas’ actions

When the final PDX IWW vote was taken to exclude Tomas, 28 voted for permanent expulsion….and 9 voted for no expulsion.

This harassment campaign persisted for months upon months and generated a mass exodus from the PDX IWW from people who fundamentally could not put up with the endless discussion around whether you could expel a member for an act of sexual violence against a minor.

This created intense and deep divisions within the community, and to this day many people choose to avoid organizing spaces as they fear seeing Adam, Jess, & Ash. After the exodus, Adam, Jess, & Ash, and others were still in positions of leadership and started to rewrite history within the wobs. New and incoming members were told a MUCH different story. In 2016/17 it started to become clear to some active wobs that the IWWPDX had an official relationship with Class Struggle Workers (Adam, Jess, & Ash’s most public group) and The Internationalist Group (which they are also in). Some workers knew that these groups have a history of endorsing and defending NAMBLA. From the Internationalists Group website: http://www.internationalist.org/lficonferencedocument1712.html "We have already had a taste of witch-hunting by red-baiting reformist leftists and feminists intent on provoking retaliation for our principled defense of gay and lesbian rights and our opposition to anti-gay repression of unpopular groups such as NAMBLA." When this was brought up in a meeting, Adam, Jess, & Ash did their normal routine of harassment, deflection, derailing of process, and intimidation of workers. They claimed that people were being homophobic and oppressive for having critiques of NAMBLA. They shortly left the wobs after this to focus solely on Class Struggle Workers (which is a front group for the Internationalist Group). Meeting notes from that IWW meeting can be found here: https://libcom.org/forums/north-america/portland-wobblies-31082016?fbclid=IwAR23Wu1x3kKusDAd95nd5ecCa9KrpThkmapQar74vZsutDapya9OYbEtZeo “When the motion came under discussion, the 3 CSWP members immediately formed a bloc, roundly condemning the motion with a flurry of accusations: calling it slander, a witch-hunt, anticommunist, patriarchal, racist, and homophobic. One member recounted a personal anecdote in an attempt to justify the notion that very underage people should be able to enter into sexual relationships with adults, and claimed that my opposition to this was a patriarchal attempt to tell young women/underage children what to do with their bodies. Furthermore, they claimed that I made them feel unsafe and said that by talking publicly about these issues with the IG that I was calling for what they said amounted to the “murder” of IG members. They then called into question my emotional and mental stability, as they claimed that I was “mentally disturbed” to think that the IG supported pedophilia, and that I and the motion itself violated the safer space rule.” Throughout the years people have directly questioned them about their ties to NAMBLA. They alternate between obfuscation, lying, harassment, and intimidation. Here are some of their own words from their newsletter about where they stand on NAMBLA https://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/1099/salt.html "Foaming with rage at our opposition to reactionary “age of consent” laws and our forthright defense of NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association) against state repression, they slanderously raved about predator “pedophiles” and “child rape.”" "Groups like NAMBLA who are slandered, framed up and witchhunted by the capitalist state must be defended! Only a party that actively champions the rights of all the oppressed can lead the struggle for proletarian socialist revolution." Considering their past defense of a person who molested a 12 year old while visiting Mexico as a tourist…….it is hard to see their support for NAMBLA as anything but part of a long history of supporting and propping up pedophiles and childhood sexual violence. Most recently, their group Class Struggle Workers came out to a proposed Klan Rally and flew their banner, while Adam, Jess, & Ash also repped the Internationalist Group.

To this day, Adam Nee, Jessica Harris, & Ashley Jackson have never admitted to any wrong-doing, and continue to stand by the totality of their actions.

Fascist and fascist-friendly reactionary groups like Patriot Prayer have a long history of welcoming with open arms pedophiles like Bob West and Deme Cooper. As antifascists our struggle is to hold the radical left to a higher standard.

These are all their OWN publicity photos:

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Greetings from Struggle-La Lucha for Socialism (U.S.) to International Anti-Fascist Forum in Donetsk  (Russian/English)

From the belly of imperialism, we send warm greetings to the participants of the May 10, 2019, International Anti-Fascist Forum in Donetsk. Now more than ever, international solidarity and collaboration of anti-fascist forces is urgently needed.

The five years since the U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine have seen an explosive resurgence of fascist and white supremacist movements around the globe, from the U.S. to Germany to Brazil. The people of the Donbass republics and the internationalist volunteers have been on the front lines of this battle, and have many important lessons to teach us.

Today Washington and its allies are trying to impose their coup model on Bolivarian Venezuela. But the Chavista movement has sunk deep roots among the masses, raising millions out of desperate poverty and giving them a voice for the first time, and the people are determined to resist. It is obvious that to impose the puppet Juan Guaido or a foreign occupation on the Venezuelan people would require a fascist terror like that of Pinochet in Chile. We refuse to accept that scenario.

[maximuswolf]

Greetings from Rojava! via /r/Anarchism

Greetings from Rojava!

Dear friends and supporters of the Rojava revolution,

as #riseup4rojava we would like to introduce ourselves.

Who are we??

riseup4rojava – smash turkish fascism is an internationalist campaign and platform that started in spring 2019.

We are different organizations, initiatives and campaigns from many countries. With this campaign we are building on our common experiences of the internationalist solidarity with the revolution in Rojava, North-East Syria and the kurdish liberation movement. With the campaign and the platform, we want to extend this solidarity and bring the different existing organizations, campaigns and initiatives together. Our diversity is our strength. Our political traditions and practices may be different, but we are united in defending the revolution in Kurdistan and its achievements. Through different actions in many places around the world, we will fight for our goals. It is time to stand up against fascism and imperialism. Worldwide. While the population of Rojava continues their struggle for self-determination, women’s liberation and radical democracy, defending itself against the attacks of jihadist gangs and the fascist Turkish state, the representatives of hypocritical governments shake hands with the Turkish oppressors. While liquidation plans against the revolution in Kurdistan and Syria are made in Ankara, the European, Russian and USA weapon industries become richer day by day as a direct result of the wars in the Middle East. They make profits which cost millions of lives. While hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from Afrin by jihadist gangs supported, equipped and monitored by the Turkish army, these jihadists and their families are settling and exploiting the resources of the people. They are selling the symbol of Afrin itself, olive oil from olive trees that have been cultivated there for hundreds of years, through Turkey to Spain and other European countries. This is what the Turkish state means when it claims to be securing its border: ethnic cleansing and jihadist gangs attacking the local people. Not only in Afrin, but also in the mountains of Kurdistan and in the Turkish prisons, a huge resistance is being waged against these policies and attacks. In Northern Syria, the SDF, YPJ and YPG recently wiped out the remains of the Islamic State. This historic victory was only made possible through the bravery and sacrifice of thousands of martyrs, and the heroic resistance of local people. Thousands of women have organized and liberated themselves, and countless communes and cooperatives have been founded. The societies of Kurdistan, of Northern and Eastern Syria, have risen and are advancing day by day. With the ongoing success of the revolution, Erdogan’s threats of further major military attacks on Northern Syria with the aim of total annihilation of the revolution, are increasing. Turkey is proclaiming its success in “containment” of the refugee crisis outside the borders of Europe, but more and more people are realizing the true face of this regime. In reality, until Turkish fascism is defeated, ISIS will continue to be a threat and the revolution of Rojava will be under attack. We must expose and attack the military and diplomatic cooperation between the AKP-MHP government and opportunist governments of the USA and Western European states. We have to build a collective resistance against the cooperation of our governments with Turkish fascism. The physical fight against Turkish and jihadist aggression in the Middle East must explicitly be connected to the fight against the policies of complicit governments around the world. If more democratic and revolutionary movements mobilise and organise through our communities and class rooms, agitating in our workplaces and the media, we can establish a second front against Turkish fascism and imperialism in Middle-East. We must expand our actions, connect them and internationalise them. We have to trespass from a politics of protest to permanent political resistance. The Turkish army is firing their weapons, and NATO is providing the ammunition. The people of Kurdistan and Northern Syria are already responding to these attacks. We, as anti-fascists and revolutionary forces, will take action – through occupation, blockade and disruption – against the places of military, diplomatic and economical cooperation for Turkish fascism in our countries. In solidarity with the people of Rojava, we will show solidarity through the following goals and actions: 1. We defend the Revolution and its achievements. We align ourselves with the revolution in Kurdistan, the defining struggle against the biggest manifestation of fascism of our time, and for the liberation of women and society.We see this revolutionary process as being in line with the ongoing resistance in the history of humanity, following the October Revolution, the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban Revolution. 2. We will disrupt, block and occupy companies and financial institutions which support Turkish fascism militarily or financially. This includes exposing truths and spreading information, as well as mass actions and civil disobedience. 3. We denounce all associations, governments and alliances supporting the Turkish fascist state. We have to analyze their cooperation and disclose their self interested motives. The enemies of the revolution in Kurdistan and Syria are also our enemies. We oppose the intervention and occupation policies of the NATO-countries and the Russian Federation in the Middle East. 4. We will prevent the lies of the Turkish propaganda from spreading and in this way deny Turkish fascism any breathing room. Through lobbying and propaganda they try to spread their ideology and gain support for their criminal war. We will fight this ideology. Turkish fascism is our common enemy, our unity is internationalist anti-fascism! We call on all activists and militants to join riseup4rojava! The revolution in northeastern Syria will prevail, Turkish fascism will be smashed! Long live anti-fascist internationalism!Solidarity with the anti-fascist forces in Turkey, Kurdistan and in the whole Middle-east!

Submitted October 22, 2020 at 01:06AM by RiseUp4Rojava_ via reddit https://ift.tt/2Hm5zIu

[leftpress]

As the Right Urges You To Fear Refugees, Antifa Are Fighting ISIS

Anonymous Contributor | February 8, 2017

“IF YOU’RE NOT CAREFUL, THE NEWSPAPERS WILL HAVE YOU HATING THE PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING OPPRESSED, AND LOVING THE PEOPLE WHO ARE DOING THE OPPRESSING.” -MALCOLM X

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, the far-Right regime and their media outlets have put a lot of effort into demonizing the growing resistance to their wildly unpopular presidency, and have continued to gaslight those they seek to single out and attack. The fabrication of a terrorist attack, the ‘Bowling Green Massacre,’  that was a blatant distortion of reality to justify the ban on refugees is altogether unsurprising from an administration that prefers to create and rely on “alternative facts” to justify its racist agenda. In Trump’s America, “truth” is whatever aids his tyrannical abuse of power.

So it’s hard to say we didn’t see it coming that the far-Right would seek to obscure the truth about the antifa and anarchist dissidents who seek to counter fascist violence and ultimately undo the systems that allow people to wield this kind of power in the first place. Breitbart writer Joel B. Pollack wrote, “the black masks of the Black Bloc and so-called ‘Antifa’ activists should be regarded like the white hoods of the Klan — as the uniforms of extremist hatred.” Some have even gone as far as to imply that we are similar to or even work with ISIS, and should be considered a domestic terrorist group.

The far-Right often mistakes reality for what they want to see as reality. Here, YPG militia members have retaken a town that was under the control of ISIS and display an antifa flag in victory, a fact obviously lost on the twitter poster.

Yet while these same cowards sat comfortably behind their computer screens and encouraged you to see the refugees fleeing ISIS’ terrorism as your enemies, an international network of anti-fascist activists organized the International Freedom Battalion to support the Rojava Revolution and stop ISIS in their tracks. Some American anti-fascists and anarchists, such as Jordan Mactaggart and Michael Israel have even died in the fight against ISIS.

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To give context, the editors of A Small Key Can Open A Large Door, an English book on the Rojava revolution, write:

“THE WORLD WATCHED IN HORROR LAST AUTUMN AS THE RUTHLESS ISLAMIC STATE (COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS ISIS) MARCHED ON THE SMALL CITY OF KOBANE IN NORTHERN SYRIA. NO ONE EXPECTED THE CITY TO SURVIVE THE ATTACK. BUT IT DID. MIXED-GENDER MILITIAS WITH SMALL ARMS HELD ONE OF THE MOST FEARED ARMIES IN THE WORLD AT BAY. THE SMOKE CLEARED, AND KOBANE STILL STOOD.

AND WESTERN MEDIA ATTENTION MOVED ON.

THE YPG AND THE YPJ, THE MILITIAS WHO HELD THE CITY, WERE FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIVES AND THEIR LAND. BUT EVEN MORE THAN THAT, THEY WERE FIGHTING TO DEFEND THEIR THEIR REVOLUTION: THE ROJAVA REVOLUTION. WHEN THE ASSAD REGIME BEGAN TO FALL, KURDS AND OTHER ETHNIC MINORITIES IN NORTHERN SYRIA CARVED OUT POCKETS OF LIBERTY AND STARTED ONE OF THE GREATEST SOCIAL EXPERIMENTS THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. BASED ON THEIR OWN HISTORY OF STRUGGLE AND ON THE WRITINGS OF SOCIAL ECOLOGIST MURRAY BOOKCHIN, THE PEOPLE OF ROJAVA HAVE DEVELOPED AN ANTI-STATE AND ANTI-CAPITALIST WAY OF LIFE. IT’S A WAY OF LIFE THAT VALUES FEMINISM, DIRECT DEMOCRACY, ECOLOGICAL STEWARDSHIP, AND ETHNIC, LINGUISTIC, AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM. AND RIGHT NOW, 2.5 MILLION PEOPLE ARE TRYING THEIR HARDEST TO DEFEND THEIR REVOLUTION AGAINST ISIS ATTACKS FROM THE SOUTH AND AN INTERNATIONAL TRADE EMBARGO RUTHLESSLY ENFORCED BY TURKEY TO THE NORTH.”

With their focuses on direct democracy, women’s liberation, ecology, and inclusiveness beyond ethnic and religious differences, along with the direct inspiration taken from the ideas of the late Vermont-based anarchist philosopher Murray Bookchin, the Rojavan revolutionaries inspired anarchists and anti-fascists from across the world. In a manner reminiscent of the Spanish Revolution, where international contingents of anti-fascists (including George Orwell) came together to support the revolutionaries in their fight against Franco. Now, anarchists and others have come to aid the struggles of the YPJ and YPG against ISIS and the Assad regime.

Meanwhile, Trump cozies up to Putin and ignores the atrocities that have been committed by him and Assad against the people of Syria, as his administration closes the gates on refugees and attempts to create an atmosphere of fear and panic against them.

Anti-ISIS fighters in Rojava hold antifa flag while stepping on capture ISIS flag.

To the typical reader of Breitbart, this might seem unbelievable. You might ask: “Why haven’t Breitbart, Fox News, or even the liberal media told me that antifa are fighting ISIS? Why are they deliberately creating a narrative so that I’ll think they’re out to get me?” …and that is the exact question you ought to be asking.

While the cowards in the Whitehouse and the alt-right have been drumming up fear, antifa have been fighting for you — and you may not have even known it.

Info on the Rojava Revolution:

Submedia YPG International

Books:

A Small Key Can Open A Large Door To Dare Imagining

Info on the International Fighters:

Wikipedia YPG International Website Statement of Internationalist Anti-Fascist Battalion Interview with Turkish Anarchist Reportback from Antifascist Action Stockholm

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[utopiedujour]

Le colloque Walter Lippmann : aux origines du « néo-libéralisme », par Serge Audier (III) Face au fascisme, le libéralisme sur la défensive

Le colloque Walter Lippmann : aux origines du « néo-libéralisme », préface de Serge Audier – Penser le « néo-libéralisme », éditions Le bord de l’eau, 2012. Madeleine Théodore nous propose un résumé en plusieurs parties de cette réflexion essentielle. Ouvert aux commentaires.

La séduction de l’anti-libéralisme fasciste

Si les néo-socialistes veulent dans les années 1930, un changement radical, c’est aussi parce qu’il y a la menace et la concurrence fasciste. Un livre qui résume le mieux cette tendance est celui signé de Bertrand Montagnon, Adrien Marquet et Marcel Déat, intitulé « Néo-socialisme, », avec pour sous-titre « Ordre, Autorité, nation », qui a épouvanté Blum en raison d’un parallèle avec le fascisme. Montagnon évoque, en utilisant le mot « réviser », le vieux débat sur la révision du marxisme. Il reproche à la S.F.I.O., toujours attachée à un vieux discours prolétarien et à ses utopies internationalistes, de n’avoir pas su répondre à la détresse sociale des classes moyennes, à la demande d’un « État fort » et à l’exigence de réhabilitation de la Nation. Il constate que le rôle de l’économie dirigée et des syndicats a volé aux socialistes une partie du programme syndicaliste. S’ensuivit cependant une dérive fasciste de nombreux « néo ».

Le futur fondateur du courant « néo-libéral » et du Colloque Lippmann, Louis Rougier, en plus de plusieurs voyages en U.R.S.S. à partir de 1932, qui l’ont définitivement convaincu de la catastrophe communiste, observe de très près la situation de l’Italie et se dit consterné devant le ralliement de la quasi-totalité des universitaires, par leur serment, au régime de Mussolini. Ainsi, l’anti-libéralisme fasciste, tout comme l’anti-libéralisme communiste, sont au coeur de sa réflexion.

Lors du Congrès fondateur du corporatisme de Ferrare, en 1932, Werner Sombart souligne que l’humanité est en train de passer de l’époque économique à « l’époque politique » : l’Etat et la nation sont les deux puissances qui domineront dans l’avenir et l’économie sera mise à sa place pour servir l’Etat et la Nation. Le capitalisme est en train de s’acheminer vers un « Etat d’économie à objectif », dont le corporatisme sera la réalisation positive. Le dépassement des « principes de l’économie libérale » reste selon lui un impératif premier, notamment à l’intérieur du mouvement corporatiste.

Cette fascination pour le corporatisme dépasse alors largement les cercles des sympathisants officiels du fascisme. La très prestigieuse revue économique internationale consacre tout un dossier au modèle fasciste, le comité de rédaction belge n’est pourtant pas composé d’activistes fascistes ou nazis, on y trouve même Paul van Zeeland, un libéral, futur chef du gouvernement belge en 1935. L’éditorial de la rédaction est bienveillant sur le fascisme et le texte est suivi d’une « Lettre-préface » de Mussolini lui-même. Giuseppe Bottai, directeur de l ‘Ecole des sciences corporatives de l’université de Pise, considère que le corporatisme fasciste constitue le dépassement dialectique du libéralisme.

A cette époque, certaines passerelles entre planisme et corporatisme se déploient également. Ego Spirito, disciple du grand philosophe du régime mussolinien Giovanni Gentile, reproche au planisme socialiste une orientation trop bureaucratique qui serait inacceptable dans la visée plus globale du corporatisme, « qui fait coïncider gouvernement et gouvernés, activité normative et activité productrice, centre et périphérie ». C’est seulement à cette condition que socialisme et libéralisme peuvent parvenir à une synthèse supérieure. Cet anti-libéralisme de Spirito trouve de nombreux échos en Europe, notamment chez Mihaïl Manoïlesco, professeur d’économie, ancien ministre du gouvernement roumain, dont le livre « Le siècle du corporatisme » sera édité chez Alcan en 1934. Selon lui, la crise du capitalisme libéral est une crise du système lui-même, et ne se résorbera pas d’elle-même comme jadis. L’humanité, pour s’en sortir, est confrontée à un « impératif de décapitalisation », qui ne pourra pas être satisfait par le vieil Etat démocratique et libéral au service du droit du plus fort, la crise est idéologique, il faut repenser les droits de l’homme, mettre au centre de l’Etat les devoirs et non les droits, et utiliser l’éducation pour atteindre cet objectif.

Le corporatisme conservateur et « l’agonie du libéralisme »

Dans les années 1930, on assiste à une flambée éditorialiste du corporatisme. Cette effervescence idéologique trouvera un de ses débouchés dans le corporatisme de Vichy, et dans la Charte du Travail, défendue par le Maréchal Pétain.

Dans cette littérature, tous ne se situent pas sur le même pied que le fasciste Manoïlesco. Chez les corporatistes, on trouve nombre de conservateurs catholiques. Par exemple Paul Chanson, patron, catholique et technicien, s’inspire de l’Encyclique Rerum Novarum. Il incarne avec son collègue Eugène Mathon un mouvement qui trouve un écho dans des cercles de patrons paternalistes du Nord. Il deviendra un des piliers du régime de Vichy. Chanson évoque la doctrine de François René de la Tour du Pin, monarchiste et catholique social, le maître d’Alfred Rolland à l’Institut d’études corporatives et sociales.

Pierre Lucius, auteur de « L’Agonie du libéralisme », a les honneurs d’une publicité en 1938 dans la Revue d’ économie politique, qui édite également les écrits du libéral Charles Rist, ainsi que le compte-rendu par Pirou de la Cité libre de Lippmann. Pour Lucius, par-delà la sphère économique, l’enjeu est spirituel : l’agonie du libéralisme dénonce « la conception matérialiste libérale ou marxiste qui, en fait, ne pense qu’au bien-être matériel de l’espèce et assimile ainsi l’homme à une bête ».

D’autres ont un regard plus nuancé sur le libéralisme, comme François Perroux, économiste hétérodoxe qui, dans son ouvrage « Syndicalisme et Capitalisme », fait l’éloge du syndicalisme comme cadre privilégié de réalisation et d’épanouissement des travailleurs. Il cherche une communauté de travail essentiellement opposée au corporatisme autoritaire.

Il y a aussi, dans la gauche chrétienne, la critique « personnaliste » du libéralisme, comme chez Emmanuel Mounier et sa revue Esprit fondée en 1932. Mounier rend hommage à Marx. Jacques Ellul conclut un article dans la revue Esprit en disant que « le fascisme est le digne fils du libéralisme ». Dans la nébuleuse personnaliste, il faut citer Ordre Nouveau, animé par Alexandre Marc, et dont le manifeste stipule que la crise mondiale ne pourrait avoir d’autre issue que révolutionnaire. Les trois assises de cet Ordre Nouveau étaient le personnalisme, le communisme antiproductiviste, et enfin le régionalisme terrien, racial et culturel.

Les libéraux face à la « crise du libéralisme »

Même dans les milieux industriels et patronaux, et plus largement dans les élites françaises, des perplexités s’expriment publiquement sur les vertus du modèle libéral, en réaction à la crise et à l’effroi produit par le Front Populaire.

Comme le rappelle Richard F. Kuisel, ce type de remise en cause du libéralisme se développe au milieu des années 1930, à l’intérieur même d’un courant que l’on peut définir comme celui des « planistes néo-libéraux ». On peut résumer ainsi cette approche : « Dans la production des biens de consommation, les caprices de la demande rendaient indispensables l’initiative privée et le jeu des mécanismes des prix. Mais, dans le secteur des grandes sociétés, qui fournissent la plupart des produits vitaux et où les forces du marché agissent moins, c’était la planification qui se révélait tout aussi indispensable ».

Le mot « néo-libéralisme » prendra alors plusieurs autres sens. Dans une thèse publiée en 1937, « La crise et les doctrines libérales françaises », Denise Laroque mentionne qu’il y a une grande variétés de réponses à la remise en question du « néo-libéralisme » : le « libéralisme orthodoxe »,le « libéralisme modéré », le « directionnisme » et le « corporatisme ». Il y aurait aussi une catégorie intermédiaire, celle de l’« interventionnisme libéral », porté par Emile Labarthe, le théoricien du néo-étatisme et surtout par Emile Truchy, l’un des futurs invités du Colloque Lippmann. En tout cas, conclut Laroque, il sera difficile de revenir en arrière: une certaine dose d’interventionnisme, au-delà même de celui garantissant le fonctionnement d’un marché concurrentiel efficace, s’impose désormais à presque tous, même parmi les cercles libéraux. Certains vont même parler d’« interventionnisme libéral », comme Alexandre Rustow.

Un théoricien, Henri Noyelle, dans son traité de 1933 intitulé « Utopie libérale, chimère socialiste, économie dirigée » mène un combat sur deux fronts : contre la « chimère socialiste », mais aussi contre l’utopie du « libéralisme automatiste ». L’originalité du livre tient d’abord à la dénonciation de l’« utopie libérale » qui laisse croire que « l’intérêt personnel est générateur de concurrence et par conséquent d’équilibre automatique » alors que cette erreur est démontrée par « les faits de non-concurrence et les méfaits de la concurrence ». Contre quoi Noyelle défend « la vitalité d’un capitalisme social mis au service du libéralisme politique ». Adversaire des socialistes collectivistes mais aussi des vieux libéraux, il prône un modèle d’« action directionniste » et même d’« économie mixte » dans lequel l’Etat est un collaborateur et non un usurpateur. Il s’en prend aux « néo-libéraux orthodoxes ».

Tout au long des années 1930, la réflexion des libéraux se poursuit en vue d’améliorer la doctrine. En 1938, dans un article paru dans la Revue d’économie politique intitulé « Jugements nouveaux sur le capitalisme », Gaëtan Pirou écrit : « Au total, le milieu dans lequel nous vivons aujourd’hui, par tous ces traits qui le différencient de celui d’hier, ne nous permet plus de nous en tenir aux prescriptions simples de l’abstentionnisme libéral. Dans un monde où le souci de la sécurité et de la puissance l’emporte souvent sur la recherche du plus grand profit ou du meilleur marché, à une époque où les masses exigent des pouvoirs publics qu’ils assurent leur défense lorsqu’elle n’est pas spontanément réalisée par le jeu des libres conventions, il est fatal que l’Etat exerce sur l’économie un large droit de regard et de contrôle. Aussi bien aucun des auteurs dont nous analysons les vues ne s’est-il fait le défenseur du laisser faire, laisser passer ».

(à suivre…)

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Expert: It was late at night but the new Terminal 3 at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport outside Jakarta was still bustling with families and friends waiting for their loved ones returning from abroad. My friend Noor Huda Ismail was just arriving from Singapore, and I decided to pick him up and discuss ‘certain issues’ with him in the car, on the way to the capital. Lately he and I were busy, awfully busy, and a one-hour journey seemed to be the most appropriate setting for the exchange of at least some essential ideas and information. Noor Huda Ismail and I Huda could easily pass for the most knowledgeable Indonesian “expert on terrorism”; a Muslim man who grew up and was educated in the madrasahs that have produced some of the most notorious jihadi cadres in the country. Later he became the man who managed to ‘get away’ from the extremism, to study, and to finally become a respected filmmaker and a thinker. For years, both of us have been studying a complex web produced by Western imperialism – a web, which has literally destroyed entire countries, while locking other ones ‘behind bars’, in virtual neo-colonialist slavery. All this done in the name of ‘freedom’ and democracy, naturally, and often using various religions as tools, even as weapons. Inside the car we managed to quickly ‘compare notes’. Huda filled me in on his groundbreaking film Jihad Selfie, while I informed him about my political revolutionary novel Aurora, and my big work in progress, a book about Afghanistan. I also mentioned my future ‘Afghan’ film, a dark love story, a drama about betrayal, collaboration and the virtual collapse of one family; a film which I’m preparing to produce and direct sometime during the next year. “Afghanistan,” he says, “that’s where the roots of so many things lie… You recall that in the 80’s, the U.S. was using some local, Indonesian, jihadi cadres, sending them to Afghanistan…” I knew about it; I knew something, but not everything. The fact that both Indonesian and Malaysian citizens went to fight against the Soviet Union, Karmal, and then Mohammad Najibullah’s government in Afghanistan, was something that I have never yet addressed in my books or films. Now I suddenly felt that it was important, extremely important, to address this fact. “Huda,” I asked, as we were slowly progressing through perpetual traffic jam of Jakarta, “how many Indonesian men went to fight in Afghanistan, after the 1979 Soviet intervention?” Huda didn’t hesitate. He always knows the numbers: Just from one group, there were 350 fighters. Indonesians fought in Afghanistan, and were based in a camp belonging to Ittehad-al-Islami (Islamic Union). Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf ran the camp. Of course Rab Rasul Sayyaf is Wahhabi, and the Wahhabis have been fully funded by the U.S. What we are seeing now, all those ‘terrorist threats’, is a blowback effect, of what the U.S. has done in the region, specifically in Afghanistan. And even the ISIS now: in 2003 they came to topple Saddam… Could I meet one of the Afghan ‘alumni’ here in Jakarta? “Of course you can,” he nodded, “I’ll arrange it, while you are here.” ***** Before an encounter with an “Afghan” jihadi cadre, I travelled to the city of Bandung, where I met Iman Soleh, a professor at the Faculty of Social and Political Science (University of Padjadjaran – UNPAD). He is yet another renowned authority on ‘terrorism’. He came to my hotel, accompanied by his wife, Professor Antik Bintari, a conflict management expert who teaches at the same university. Prof Iman Soleh and Prof Antik Bintar For quite some time, professor Iman Soleh and I discussed the link between the ‘old guard’ Southeast Asian (mainly Indonesians and Malaysians) jihadi cadres, so-called ‘Afghan alumni’, and the vanguard, a ‘new wave’, that which is now trying to destabilize, even destroy both Syria and the Philippines. While the name ‘jihad’ itself has been used habitually and ‘liberally’ all over the Western mainstream media, it was clear to all of us at the table that behind the brutal combat as well as most of the horrors unleashed in such places like Syria and Philippines, hidden are the geopolitical interests of the West in general and of the United States in particular. Professor Soleh has explained the latest ‘dynamics’: Since World War Two, the U.S. was afraid of so-called ‘domino effects’. Among other things that are now happening in the Philippines under president Duterte, the government is curbing activities of the multi-national mining conglomerates, and the West cannot accept that. Philippines are putting its environmental concerns above the short-term profits! For the millions of left-wing activists here in Indonesia and all over Southeast Asia, Duterte is a role model. Therefore, following the imperialist logic, the Philippines have to be attacked and destabilized, as has already been done to Syria. Defiance is punishable by death. And how else other than through the most effective weapons which the West has been utilizing for years and decades: extremist religious terrorist groups. What better assembly of fighters to choose for that difficult task than the jihadists from the groups that had already proven to be so effective and lethal in places such as Afghanistan? Islamic Defender’s Front (FPI) goodies on display in Jakarta By now, almost nobody who is at least to some extent informed on the subject has any doubts that the West is mainly interested in maintaining ‘perpetual conflict’ in several regions of the world. As Professor Soleh observes: I think all this is not just to ‘destabilize’ the Philippines, but also because the country has conflict areas that could be ‘nurtured’. The best example is predominantly Muslim island of Mindanao, vs. the rest of the Philippines, which is predominantly a Catholic country. As we know, the Philippines is also involved in the South China Sea dispute with the PRC, and the U.S. is trying to fully dominate the region… And President Duterte is committing an ‘unpardonable crime’ in the eyes of Washington and London, by trying to resolve the territorial conflict with China, as quickly and efficiently as possible. ***** But back to the “Jihadi Express…” It is important to understand the background: The Indonesian jihadi, Salafi group Darul Islam, fought for a caliphate and against the secular and socialist state headed by President Sukarno, in the 1950’s and well into the 1960’s. “Terror is halal”, they used to say. Professor Saleh further clarifies: Eventually the Indonesian state dismantled ‘Darul Islam’, but there was an off-shoot of it created soon, ‘Komando Jihad’. Komando Jihad later transformed into a transnational Southeast Asian group Jamaah Islamiyah (with its spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir). The group has been maintaining active links and cooperation with al-Qaeda and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines, to name just two religious guerillas. Fighters from Komando Jihad then went to Afghanistan. Ideologically they were hard-core Salafis, but with the Western support. They received Western help to acquire weapons and other basics. According to my contacts in the Indonesian intelligence community, the U.S. was backing this infiltration of Afghanistan by ‘Komando Jihad’ and by others. I’m also in possession of a piece of information that the Indonesian army (TNI) commander in the 1980’s, General Moerdani, was supporting Indonesian and Afghan jihadists, by supplying them with the weapons (including the AK-47’s). Again, according to my Indonesian intelligence sources, the ‘departure’ itself of the Indonesian jihadists for Afghanistan was also directly helped by the U.S., under the cover of ‘Islamic study groups’ and other ‘communities’, and the route that was utilized was: Indonesia – Malaysia – Philippines – Afghanistan. These are not well-publicized facts, but they should not surprise anyone familiar with Indonesian history: after the brutal 1965 U.S.-sponsored military/religious coup, Indonesia rapidly transformed itself from an anti-imperialist, internationalist and progressive country into the closest Western ally in the entire Southeast Asia. The main ‘ideology’ of the new fascist pro-Western regime of General Suharto became “anti-Communism”. For months and years, the Communists as well as alleged ‘Communists’ were slaughtered all over the archipelago, while Communist ideology was banned, as were the Chinese language and culture, including dragons and cakes. The anti-Communist propaganda became the main sample of the ‘intellectual’ diet. The fourth most populous country on Earth went through a total reset, became one of the most ‘religious’ places on Earth, and soon after collapsed both socially and intellectually. Poster of Radical FPI in Jakarta Allegations of “atheism” against the Communists were used in Indonesia in order to stir and radicalize thousands of potential and already existing jihadi cadres. Anti-atheism, even anti-secularism, became the rallying cry of those who were ready to sacrifice their lives for the ultimate goal and dream – a caliphate. The West in Afghanistan played the same ‘game’, during the “Soviet era”, as it did in Indonesia after 1965, and elsewhere. It is clear and obvious that the imperialist scheme designed in Washington and London has been interchangeable and successfully applicable in many different geographical locations. In Kabul, in March 2017, a legendary Afghan intellectual, Dr. Omara Khan Masoudi, explained to me: The biggest mistake the Soviet Union made here was to attack religion outrightly. If they’d first stuck to equal rights, and slowly worked it up towards the contradictions of religion, it could perhaps have worked… But they began blaming religion for our backwardness, in fact for everything. Or at least this is how it was interpreted by the coalition of their enemies, and of course by the West. Now, why is the present Western invasion so ‘successful’; why is there so little in terms of intellectual opposition? Look at the regime in Kabul… During its rule, the US convinced people that Western intervention was ‘positive’, ‘respectful of their religion and cultures’. They kept repeating ‘under this and that UN convention’, and again ‘as decided by the UN’… They used NATO, a huge group of countries, as an umbrella. There was a ‘brilliantly effective’ protocol that they developed… According to them, they never did anything unilaterally, always by ‘international consensus’ and in order to ‘help Afghan people’. On the other hand, the Soviet Union never had the slightest chance to explain itself. It was attacked immediately, and on all fronts. In reality, the West has always been using (and finally it has managed to divert) Islam. Some great Muslim scholars, including those that I met in Teheran, believe that Washington, London, Paris and other centers of the Western imperialism and neo-colonialism, actually succeeded, in many parts of the world, to create a totally new and (to many true and intellectual Muslims) unrecognizable religion. ***** Indonesian jihadi cadres hardened in Afghanistan and trained by the Pakistanis eventually returned to their country. There, they went to “work”, participating in such bloodlettings and killings as those in Ambon (Maluku) and Poso (Sulawesi). In Ambon the conflict continued from 1999 to 2002, and while it lasted, allegedly 8,000 people died, while thousands belonging to both sexes were involuntarily and brutally circumcised and genitally mutilated. In Ambon, I saw the jihadi cadres in action, hacking to death a young innocent boy, right in front of the eyes of a cheering crowd of onlookers. I later described the horror of this incident in my novel Point of No Return. Little did I know, then, what I was really witnessing and trying to document. Only much later, in Bandung, in May 2017, a couple of professors, Iman Soleh and Antik Bintari, explained to me: Poso and Ambon, that’s the “Afghani Link”. During those massacres, there were still some ‘old jihadists’ from the Afghan days, participating in the actual fighting. However, there were also some ‘fresh’ fighters there, many of them undergoing exercises with the Indonesian ‘Afghans’. Poso and Ambon conflicts were in fact serving as two training grounds. After that, a new generation of combatants had risen. ***** That same night – very late at night – after driving for hours on hopelessly congested highway that connects the cities of Bandung and Jakarta, I met Mr. Farihin, an active member of the outlawed “JI” (Jamaah Islamiyah), a man who personally met Osama bin Laden, a warrior who fought in Paktia and other provinces in Afghanistan, a former Mujahedeen, an unapologetic jihadist. I was longing to know, to understand, how the old ‘Afghan alumni’ were thinking, how they saw the world, and what their goals were. JI fighter Farihin Mr. Farihin was actually an impressive human being: upright, strong, manly, proud, extremely polite, and totally brainwashed… His hatred for Communism knew no boundaries; it was epic. He dreamed, he ‘saw’ Communists everywhere, all over the world: in Syria, in the present-day Russia, even in Karzai’s and Ghani’s Afghanistan. Anything remotely secular, anything that was not a caliphate, was “Communist” in his simple but determined mind of a combatant. We began with Osama bin Laden: I met Osama fleetingly, in 1987 and 1988, but in those days he was not an ‘ulama’. He was funding Mujahedeen. He was a contractor in Paktia Province and he was based in the north of that province, in an Arab camp, helping Mujahedeen and also building the roads. After Soviets entered Afghanistan, Osama’s people made a ‘council’; it was like a shadow Mujahedeen government. Mr. Farihin came to Afghanistan in 1987. After his group NII (Negara Islam Indonesia – Islamic State of Indonesia) received ‘an invitation’ from Mujahedeen. What prompted him to go to Afghanistan? There was news all over Indonesia, that a Muslim country was attacked by the Soviet Union. My initial desire was to fight the USSR. At the beginning I was not allowed to fight, and it was not Afghanistan where I was sent; it was Pakistan. I was ordered to study at Etihad Islami Military Academy there. At some point, all foreign jihadis had to leave Pakistan, so we were moved directly to Afghanistan. In Paktia Province they built an entire camp for us. We were attacked by the Soviets there, on several occasions; us, as well as the ‘Arab Camp’. MIG-21 jet fighters were used. But by then, Russians were already beginning their withdrawal. After the Soviets left, Afghanistan was still governed by a Communist government, so we fought it, too. I was ready to fight: first the Soviets, than that Communist Afghan governments. I saw Russian prisoners, pilots, shackled, in Pakistan. I was not affraid of them. I quickly noticed that Mr. Farihin was not proud of the support his group and Mujahedeen in general were receiving from the United States and the rest of the West. He kept repeating that he did not “see” any direct U.S. support, that supplies just kept coming from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Muslim countries. For him, it was essential that his fight in Afghanistan would be seen as a ‘pure’, pan-Islamic struggle. I was not there to contradict him, I was there to listen. He spoke about the fronts on which he had fought: Nangarhar, Jalalabad among others: “I was rotating between the fronts. The war, the battles were ‘orderly’”. “But what was the goal?” I asked. He didn’t hesitate one single moment. The goal was simple: in Afghanistan we wanted to prevent the Communist ideology from being accepted. How much did he know about the Communism? Actually, my knowledge about it was very shallow. That’s fine: we were war machines for Mujahedeen. What we were told was that the Communists don’t believe in God, and that they are professing secularism. I wondered whether they knew anything about the improving medical system, about the all of a sudden decent education, about public housing, transportation, and culture? Almost everything done by the Communists was good, I know… But because they believed in Communism and socialism, it was not right, it was ‘haram’. Our pledge to God was what really mattered. In terms of importance, God was Number 1, and only then came the world of humans. I asked him how he sees Afghanistan now. As long as their government is Communist, we’ll fight it… And I pray that Taliban wins. For a moment I thought that I had misunderstood: the Afghanistan government is Communist? Doesn’t he know anything about the U.S., about the Western occupation? Yes but the U.S. went to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, not Communism. The government is still Communist; a puppet regime of Russia. I quickly changed the subject, but things did not improve. I asked him about Syria, about Iraq. He replied politely: I train, we train volunteers who are ready to go and fight in Syria. It is because Syria is not only Communist, you know – Assad and Russians – but also it is Shi’a. Being Shi’a is an arch crime in today’s Indonesia. People are getting killed, ostracized, and intimidated for being Shi’a. I witnessed it once, on the island of Madura. ‘Aghan alumni’ are training fighters that are ready to go abroad, both ideologically and militarily. Whether the government knows, I’m not sure. Perhaps intelligence knows. During Suharto era, the fight against Communism was supported. I saw Indonesian intelligence operating in the Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar, Pakistan. We were told by the Pakistani intelligence that the Indonesian intelligence was deployed in the region. Indonesia was then supporting Mujahedeen, and we were receiving some Indonesian supplies, including food. Indonesia and Pakistan were then very good friends; Pakistani intellegence made our life very easy: we were going back and forth, freely, between Afghanistan and Pakistan, across the border, while civilians were not allowed… And what was their fee? Certainly jihad is not fought for free? The lowest pay was then US$150 per month, a lot of money in poor Indonesia, in the late 1980’s. Between US$300 and US$400 for the officers. Before we parted, we talked about Afghanistan, the country. He remembered it fondly: I like the country, it is beautiful. I liked religious life there. Afghans were very kind to us, treated us like guests… We were offered their women, too, to marry, but the dowry was too high. Some had blue eyes, and we wanted to marry them, badly, but really: we couldn’t afford their women with our modest ‘salaries’. Does he miss Afghanistan? “Yes.” “Me, too,” I nodded. “But I’m going back, soon.” We didn’t embrace. By then he sensed that we belonged to the opposite sides of the barricade, and that most likely we were arch enemies. But until we parted, both of us remained polite, excessively polite: the Afghan way. ***** Dina Y. Sulaeman “Jihad in Indonesia – against the Western imperialism? Oh no, no way…” smiles Dina Y. Sulaeman, an Indonesian political analyst, an author of the book Salju Di Aleppo (Snow of Aleppo): Jihad in which Indonesians want to participate is based on hate… In my book, I explain that the Indonesian fighters in Syria are mainly affiliated with several groups: ‘Ikhwanul Muslimin’, ‘Hizbut Tahrir’ and Al Qaeda/ISIS. Unfortunately these groups have supporters in Indonesia. They keep spreading fake photos and videos about Syria, to ignite sympathy, even anger of Indonesian people, so they give donations or even join jihad. It’s a good deal for them. They are waging ‘holy war’, they’ll go to heaven, and plus they get paid. They accuse president Assad of being ‘infidel’. That’s their rallying cry. Indonesian mass media ‘coverage’ is only directly translating what is said by the Western media: the CNN, the BBC and others…. If not those, then at least Al-Jazeera which is often even worse… As a result, Indonesians are ‘very concerned’ about Syria.’ Of course, in my books I’m trying to correct the misconceptions, but the propaganda apparatus is so powerful. “Like in Afghanistan,” I add. Earlier I asked Noor Huda Ismail: “But the Afghan ‘alumni’ and the ISIS do not necessarily like each other, do they?” Huda nods, but then he adds: Al-Qaida and ISIS do not get along well. In the context, most of the fighters, those who support ISIS, they have been gathering in the same mosque. They are using social media. Maybe the Afghan ‘alumni’ and the ISIS supporters do not like each other, but they share the same ideology; the root, the matter is the same, which is toppling and challenging the secular systems. “Including the one in Indonesia.” “Yes, including the one here.” Jihadi Express is now rolling, gaining speed. One country after another is being shred to pieces under its merciless wheels. Those who think that it is “all about oil” are mistaken.  The West is, of course, trying to control, fully and brutally, all that moves in the Middle East, North Africa and as far as Iran and Afghanistan. But that’s definitely not all: jihadi groups, created by the West and its allies in the Gulf, have been used to destabilize the two greatest adversaries of the West: Russia and China. Soviet Union was tricked into Afghanistan in 1979, and then brutally destroyed. Afghanistan itself was ‘sacrificed’ in the process, its social structures broken, and all hope its people were enjoying, choked. China is now also greatly suffering from the operations of several Muslim terrorist groups, as well as from other religious implants, which are without exception supported by the West. The Philippines is most likely the next ‘front’. It has been for years and decades, in Sulu and elsewhere, but as this report goes to print, things are deteriorating, getting more and more desperate there. To fight terrorism in such places like Syria and Afghanistan, has been and will be increasingly, one of the main foreign policy goals of both Moscow and Beijing; in order to help those countries under siege, but also in order to prevent them from becoming the training grounds of the ‘anti-Communist’ and anti-secularist terrorist armies. • All photos by Andre Vltchek http://clubof.info/

[fromgreecetoanarchy]

Lorenzo Orsetti: Video from the last  farewell from Rojava to the anarchist fighter that gave his life fighting ISIS On Sunday May 5, 2019, Lorenzo Orsetti, the anarchist internationalist fighter that gave his life fighting the darkness of ISIS (aka. Islamic State, Daesh, IS) in Syria left the land of Rojava with military honors to be laid to rest in Italy. The ceremony was held in Derik and consisted of a larger ceremony and a convoy funeral procession. Tekoşina Anarşîst were joined by many revolutionary organizations who paid homage to the fallen anarchist fighter. Lorenzo Orsetti (February 13, 1986 – March 18, 2019), also known as Orso, Şehid Tekoser and Tekoşer Piling, was an Italian anarchist and antifascist from Florence who fought alongside the forces of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. Lorenzo Orsetti bravely fought in the ranks of TIKKO and Anti-Fascist Forces in Afrin, Syria. He survived the savage onslaught from the turkish invading forces. As an anarchist he later joined the ranks of Tekoşîna Anarşîst, the autonomous anarchist battalion in Rojava. With the anarchist unit he made several tours to the front in Deir Ez Zor and fought the final battles against ISIS. Lorenzo was killed in action on the Monday morning of March 18, 2019 in the village of Baghouz, Syria. He was in that locality fighting in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani against the last bastion of the Islamic State in Syria. He was attached to an Arab unit when he and his comrades were killed by ISIS jihadists in an ambush, his death was announced by ISIS media and was confirmed by his unit of Tekoşîna Anarşîst.

When his comrades announced his death they shared his last will in which Lorenzo explained why he had decided to travel to Syria driven by his political beliefs.

This was the letter he wrote in the case of his death: “If you are reading this message then it means that I am no longer of this world. Don’t be too sad, though, I’m OK with it; I don’t have any regrets and I died doing what I thought was right, defending the weak and staying true to my ideals of justice, equality and liberty. So in spite of my premature departure, my life has been a success, and I’m almost certain that I went with a smile on my face. I couldn’t have asked for more. I wish all of you all the best in the world and I hope that one day, you too will decide to give your life for others (if you haven’t already) because that is the only way to change the world. Only by combatting the individualism and egoism in each of us can we make a difference. These are difficult times, I know, but don’t give in to despair, don’t ever abandon hope, never! Not even for a second. Even when all seems lost, when the evils that plague the earth and humanity seem insurmountable, you must find strength, you must inspire strength in your comrades. It is in the darkest moments that we have greatest need of your light. And remember always that “every storm begins with a single raindrop.” You must be that raindrop. I love you all, I hope you will learn from these words. Serkeftin! Orso, Tekoşer, Lorenzo.

[fromgreecetoanarchy]

Giant graffiti in Athens, Greece dedicated to Lorenzo Orsetti, the anarchist fighter that gave his life fighting ISIS On Sunday May 5, 2019, Lorenzo Orsetti, the anarchist internationalist fighter that gave his life fighting the darkness of ISIS (aka. Islamic State, Daesh, IS) in Syria left the land of Rojava with military honors to be laid to rest in Italy. Watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KURl1hxvWl8 The ceremony was held in Derik and consisted of a larger ceremony and a convoy funeral procession. Tekoşina Anarşîst were joined by many revolutionary organizations who paid homage to the fallen anarchist fighter. Lorenzo Orsetti (February 13, 1986 – March 18, 2019), also known as Orso, Şehid Tekoser and Tekoşer Piling, was an Italian anarchist and antifascist from Florence who fought alongside the forces of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. Lorenzo Orsetti bravely fought in the ranks of TIKKO and Anti-Fascist Forces in Afrin, Syria. He survived the savage onslaught from the turkish invading forces. As an anarchist he later joined the ranks of Tekoşîna Anarşîst, the autonomous anarchist battalion in Rojava. With the anarchist unit he made several tours to the front in Deir Ez Zor and fought the final battles against ISIS. Lorenzo was killed in action on the Monday morning of March 18, 2019 in the village of Baghouz, Syria. He was in that locality fighting in the Battle of Baghuz Fawqani against the last bastion of the Islamic State in Syria. He was attached to an Arab unit when he and his comrades were killed by ISIS jihadists in an ambush, his death was announced by ISIS media and was confirmed by his unit of Tekoşîna Anarşîst. When his comrades announced his death they shared his last will in which Lorenzo explained why he had decided to travel to Syria driven by his political beliefs. This was the letter he wrote in the case of his death: “If you are reading this message then it means that I am no longer of this world. Don’t be too sad, though, I’m OK with it; I don’t have any regrets and I died doing what I thought was right, defending the weak and staying true to my ideals of justice, equality and liberty. So in spite of my premature departure, my life has been a success, and I’m almost certain that I went with a smile on my face. I couldn’t have asked for more. I wish all of you all the best in the world and I hope that one day, you too will decide to give your life for others (if you haven’t already) because that is the only way to change the world. Only by combatting the individualism and egoism in each of us can we make a difference. These are difficult times, I know, but don’t give in to despair, don’t ever abandon hope, never! Not even for a second. Even when all seems lost, when the evils that plague the earth and humanity seem insurmountable, you must find strength, you must inspire strength in your comrades. It is in the darkest moments that we have greatest need of your light. And remember always that “every storm begins with a single raindrop.” You must be that raindrop. I love you all, I hope you will learn from these words. Serkeftin! Orso, Tekoşer, Lorenzo.

[maximuswolf]

Greetings from Rojava! via /r/socialism

Greetings from Rojava!

Dear friends and supporters of the Rojava revolution,

as #riseup4rojava we would like to introduce ourselves.

Who are we??

riseup4rojava – smash turkish fascism is an internationalist campaign and platform that started in spring 2019.

We are different organizations, initiatives and campaigns from many countries. With this campaign we are building on our common experiences of the internationalist solidarity with the revolution in Rojava, North-East Syria and the kurdish liberation movement. With the campaign and the platform, we want to extend this solidarity and bring the different existing organizations, campaigns and initiatives together. Our diversity is our strength. Our political traditions and practices may be different, but we are united in defending the revolution in Kurdistan and its achievements. Through different actions in many places around the world, we will fight for our goals. It is time to stand up against fascism and imperialism. Worldwide. While the population of Rojava continues their struggle for self-determination, women’s liberation and radical democracy, defending itself against the attacks of jihadist gangs and the fascist Turkish state, the representatives of hypocritical governments shake hands with the Turkish oppressors. While liquidation plans against the revolution in Kurdistan and Syria are made in Ankara, the European, Russian and USA weapon industries become richer day by day as a direct result of the wars in the Middle East. They make profits which cost millions of lives. While hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from Afrin by jihadist gangs supported, equipped and monitored by the Turkish army, these jihadists and their families are settling and exploiting the resources of the people. They are selling the symbol of Afrin itself, olive oil from olive trees that have been cultivated there for hundreds of years, through Turkey to Spain and other European countries. This is what the Turkish state means when it claims to be securing its border: ethnic cleansing and jihadist gangs attacking the local people. Not only in Afrin, but also in the mountains of Kurdistan and in the Turkish prisons, a huge resistance is being waged against these policies and attacks. In Northern Syria, the SDF, YPJ and YPG recently wiped out the remains of the Islamic State. This historic victory was only made possible through the bravery and sacrifice of thousands of martyrs, and the heroic resistance of local people. Thousands of women have organized and liberated themselves, and countless communes and cooperatives have been founded. The societies of Kurdistan, of Northern and Eastern Syria, have risen and are advancing day by day. With the ongoing success of the revolution, Erdogan’s threats of further major military attacks on Northern Syria with the aim of total annihilation of the revolution, are increasing. Turkey is proclaiming its success in “containment” of the refugee crisis outside the borders of Europe, but more and more people are realizing the true face of this regime. In reality, until Turkish fascism is defeated, ISIS will continue to be a threat and the revolution of Rojava will be under attack. We must expose and attack the military and diplomatic cooperation between the AKP-MHP government and opportunist governments of the USA and Western European states. We have to build a collective resistance against the cooperation of our governments with Turkish fascism. The physical fight against Turkish and jihadist aggression in the Middle East must explicitly be connected to the fight against the policies of complicit governments around the world. If more democratic and revolutionary movements mobilise and organise through our communities and class rooms, agitating in our workplaces and the media, we can establish a second front against Turkish fascism and imperialism in Middle-East. We must expand our actions, connect them and internationalise them. We have to trespass from a politics of protest to permanent political resistance. The Turkish army is firing their weapons, and NATO is providing the ammunition. The people of Kurdistan and Northern Syria are already responding to these attacks. We, as anti-fascists and revolutionary forces, will take action – through occupation, blockade and disruption – against the places of military, diplomatic and economical cooperation for Turkish fascism in our countries. In solidarity with the people of Rojava, we will show solidarity through the following goals and actions: 1. We defend the Revolution and its achievements. We align ourselves with the revolution in Kurdistan, the defining struggle against the biggest manifestation of fascism of our time, and for the liberation of women and society.We see this revolutionary process as being in line with the ongoing resistance in the history of humanity, following the October Revolution, the Spanish Civil War and the Cuban Revolution. 2. We will disrupt, block and occupy companies and financial institutions which support Turkish fascism militarily or financially. This includes exposing truths and spreading information, as well as mass actions and civil disobedience. 3. We denounce all associations, governments and alliances supporting the Turkish fascist state. We have to analyze their cooperation and disclose their self interested motives. The enemies of the revolution in Kurdistan and Syria are also our enemies. We oppose the intervention and occupation policies of the NATO-countries and the Russian Federation in the Middle East. 4. We will prevent the lies of the Turkish propaganda from spreading and in this way deny Turkish fascism any breathing room. Through lobbying and propaganda they try to spread their ideology and gain support for their criminal war. We will fight this ideology. Turkish fascism is our common enemy, our unity is internationalist anti-fascism! We call on all activists and militants to join riseup4rojava! The revolution in northeastern Syria will prevail, Turkish fascism will be smashed! Long live anti-fascist internationalism!Solidarity with the anti-fascist forces in Turkey, Kurdistan and in the whole Middle-east!

Submitted October 22, 2020 at 01:02AM by RiseUp4Rojava_ via reddit https://ift.tt/34kW0m6