2022-05-01 12:01:21
#statement
We are the Ukrainian anti-authoritarian volunteer network Operation Solidarity.
Though we are people who carry many differing points of view, we share a common understanding of Russian aggression. That understanding is, in summary: that we condemn the invasion by the Russian Federation and their leadership who has orchestrated it.
As anti-authoritarian activists, we immediately joined the resistance movement at the onset of the war. Many of our comrades joined the ranks of the defence forces. Our purpose, therefore, is to supply them with everything they need as well as help others in need whenever we are capable.
One Might ask, “How could people who have consistently opposed the state for many years now defend it with arms and solicit military gear from around the world?”. Our understanding of this war as imperialist and an act of aggression against the people unites us. Here are our reasons why:
This is not–to use the Kremlin’s words–a “war of denazification” Ukraine certainly does have a far-right problem, but its scale and influence are exaggerated by Russian propaganda, which exploits and parasitizes the language and tradition of anti-fascism. Ukraine is a much freer country than Russia, which has increasingly resembled a fascist regime more and more each day since the war began.
This is not a war to liberate Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Today the majority of combats taking place in Ukraine take place in the predominantly Russian-speaking areas, where Russian-speaking people are the main victims of these atrocious war crimes. That is why Ukrainians do not greet the Russian army with flowers and instead enlist with the Territorial Defence to meet “the liberators” in a far different way than Russia claims.
This is not Russia’s war against NATO. It is not NATO’s war against Russia with Ukraine as a proxy either. We are critical of Western imperialism that is so evident in other parts of the world. However, it is Russia – a state that tries to impose its hegemony in the region - that is responsible for this particular war. If Ukraine’s neutrality and NATO’s expansion to the East were the real reasons for war, it would already end. Or, perhaps, it wouldn't even start.
This is also Putin’s war against his own people. The “special operation”, as the Russian state demands and enforces it be labelled, allowed the Kremlin to institute a brutal dictatorship, repress anti-war demonstrations, eradicate all opposition mass media, and leave so very many Russian citizens who disagreed with the government to leave the country. Belarus, too, finds itself in the same situation. Russian policy treats this systematic repression of dissidents and freedom as a blueprint for the hegemony it wishes to establish over this region as a whole.
Russia’s ambitions of empire yield demands of a magnitude far too costly for anyone to agree with for “peace at any cost”. To kowtow to their demands would inevitably lead to the defeat of all the regional progressive forces. What a peace treaty entails is highly dependent on the situation on the battlefields. That is why we call everyone for whom freedom, equality, sisterhood, and brotherhood are not empty words, to support the Ukrainian resistance movement. There are several ways you can do this, such as by:
Directly supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the Territorial Defence;
Supporting volunteer movements and humanitarian initiatives;
Helping Ukrainian refugees;
Demanding that your governments provide financial, humanitarian or military aid to Ukraine;
Advocating for the cancellation of Ukrainian external debt, which would be vital for post-war reconstruction.
Finally, you can support Operation Solidarity. In doing so you can be assured that your support will help anti-authoritarians who fight for a free society. A society free from prejudices, inequality, and aggression.
1.2K viewsedited 09:01
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