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In search of Solidarity...

From the point of view of the global struggle, whatever happens between Russian Nazis and anarchists is meaningless. It is just some marginal freaks slaying each other. And also it is important to point out that it is a war started by anti-fascists only. As a rule, Nazis didn't have the slightest interest in killing white people before some comrades began beating them up - with a few exceptions such as the homeless. In November Nazis massacred 5 homeless people at in Himki, Moscow suburb. On the other hand antifascist activities have given anarchist movement in Russia more public space than anything else during last 15 years except ecological protest campaigns.

Abolishing the Borders from Below has been one of my favourite projects for years, but during last autumn I just began to feel frustration, that it is never going to make it to the next level. For me the current attempts of the editorial collective to regularly produce analytical issues on the most wide array of themes seems to be way out of the capacities of the correspondents, level of analysis and real situation of the movement of Russia.

I am pretty sure that few of us want to be confined to a framework of some marginal subculture for all our lives. But as we seem to be there from one year to another, we really must do the analysis of what is this "subculture"/"usual scene" and what are our needs right here right now. And I am wondering could "trying to reach more people outside the usual scene" bring something to me and my friends here in Moscow? And what could we possibly give to these "people outside the usual scene"?

Keep in mind that I am not a political or social analysist, and often attempts of those people in the radical scene who aren't, acting as if they were, ends embarrassingly. So I will not write a social analysis. If I analyse something, it is me or our movement, but it is a question if this would be interesting for "people outside the usual scene". And anyway, if someone wanted some serious political analysis, I doubt he would be picking up ABB but rather something like Le Monde Diplomatique.

And while there certainly are faults in the likes of Le Monde Diplomatique, not to talk about mainstream press, many of their stereotypes are actually true, for example the following:

j There is more poverty and violence in Russia than in the West

j That there are huge income disparities in Russia and that they are growing

j That the Russian elite is just interested in looting natural resources instead of long-term development

j That the course of the government is moving in an increasingly authoritarian direction

j That there is little resistance to all of this, people lack solidarity and the hope that something can be changed, or accuse various scapegoats (illegal immigrants, Jews etc.) for their problems.

And the problem among the public in the West is not a lack of understanding of what is happening in Russia, but a lack of understanding of their own society and social processes in general. And this is not a matter of analysis but a matter of ideology. People do not understand that civil rights in the West exist not because there is a strong "civil society", but because they are an important propaganda asset for the Western elite. They do not understand that no matter the liberal paradigm being hegemonic amongst the Western elite, the population almost everywhere is just as xenophobic and racist as in Russia. They do not understand that the vast majority of the authoritarian governments in history have not been totalitarian - that democracy and authoritarian rule is totally compatible. That until now, the majority of Byelorussia's have indeed supported Lukashenko, because they see how the 90's were in Russia and they know that without Lukashenko they would have all that. Byelorussian people understand that the lack of free speech is definitely not the worst problem you may have - neoliberal ransacking of the economy may be much worse. People in the West do not understand that the "Communist party" does not necessarily mean left, and "left" perhaps means nothing at all. And people in the West do not understand, that as pro-market liberals, Politkovskaya and Litvienko were part of the same menace that eventually had them killed.

Thus I am not working in a realm of analysis, but in a more fundamental realm of worldview. And the weapon in this field, in my opinion, is not information but developing the "movement" - which in the current situation is in the phase of "subculture". Thus instead of the often futile attempts to gain respect among people outside of our subculture by writing "serious analysis", I am trying to create solidarity by making our subculture more strong.

This is why instead of writing analysis of issues like the dynamics of nationalism in Russia, I am writing about some miserable group in some distant Siberian town giving soup to some homeless and waving some fetishist flag. This will never be interesting for people outside the usual scene (and obviously also not interesting for most of the people inside the usual scene). But also, I do not see what these people outside the usual scene may provide us. A typical problem we may face right now is that someone stabbed some Nazi and some money is necessary to get him out of some trouble. Would people outside the usual scene be any help to us in this situation? No they would not be. And also, not any "syndicalist" or "base" unions would be of any help to us, as they are not interested in "subculture freaks" but mass workers movements. And none of the "solidarity with Chiapas/Oaxaca/Argentina/Venezuela/Palestina" types would be of any help to us, because here we have nothing like Oaxaca.

Actually the real question for me right now is if there will be anyone interested in helping us at all. This far I've had hope, that there are some people out there, for whom waving some fetishist flag and giving soup is a reason enough for solidarity, but it could well be that I am mistaken - in this case it would be definitely time for us to find something new.

Igor