Political statement of the 3rd Congress of the Anarchist Political Organization (A.P.O.)
The 3rd Congress of Anarchist Political Organization-Federation of Collectives took place on the 1st and 2nd of December at Mundo Nuevo squat in Thessaloniki. During the morning of the first day, there was an open discussion-analysis on the social and political situation, and also the collectives’ open political assessment concerning the function of the organization. Apart from the collectives-members of the A.P.O. (anarchist collectives “Circle of Fire” and “Omikron 72” from Athens, collective for the libertarian communism “Libertatia” and collective for the social anarchism “Red and Black” from Thessaloniki and the anarchist collective “Untamed Horse” from Patras), the anarchist collective “Pueblo” from Thessaloniki, took also part on the discussion. We continued by enriching the positions of the political statute of A.P.O (by incorporating two new positions concerning the “destruction of nature” and the “educational process”), and by assessing the general collective and decisive procedure of APO, the working-groups (counter-info group, translation and international communication group), the editorial board of the anarchist newspaper “Land and Freedom” and the special thematic group (Group against patriarchy). Moreover, we assessed the political initiatives and actions taken by A.P.O. during this year and formed our political strategy up to our next Congress.
The Congress was completed with the validation of the decisions taken on issues of political position, strategy and tactics, and with scheduling of our next Colloquy in summer 2019, in Patra, and of our next Congress in a year’s time, in Athens.
The collectives-members of the A.P.O. positions are based on their understanding of the organization as part of the wider movement against state’s and capitalism’s barbarism. It refers to it and interacts with it, by proposing the choice of the organized anarchist struggle as a realistic and efficient prospect. It attempts to become a vehicle in order to pass from partial and reflexive protest, to a unified revolutionary anarchist proposal, inspired by today’s struggles. The experience and long term involvement to the struggle led us to the understanding that the organization is an important condition for its development, aiming to the creation of an –as much as possible- complete revolutionary plan, which can contribute to the increasing needs of present struggles, but also to place a realistic proposal, which would have the vision of an emancipated and self-managed social organization at its center, into society. Just as life is not possible without solidarity and cooperation, revolution and struggle are not possible without a preexisting revolutionary organization.
At the current period the -politically, ideologically and economically- bankrupted system cannot promise anything more than wars, exclusions and misery. It is fortifying itself against the perspective of a dynamic expression of the generalized social discontent, at a local and a global level. It is the period when the states and the bosses are trying to impose to the social majority their announcement on “the end of the history”, in order to convince us that there is no alternative for human societies, but the one, in which the large social majority is forced to live in penury, poverty, diseases, destitution and wars. The State and Capitalist machine attempts to intensify inequalities, repression and exploitation. Domination, aiming to increase power and control, does not hesitate to form war conflicts in the periphery, while it proceeds with its attack against the plebeians in the West, establishing the dark reality of modern totalitarianism. The state of Emergency is expanding, by establishing the state of exception as an essential norm of the organization of every-day life, and by opening the way for the creation of a “Camp-Society”.
This generalized attack of the dominants aims to impose total control on human societies and to gain absolute power over them, to loot and to destroy nature. From Syria to USA, from Istanbul to Western Europe and South America, the political and economic bosses have targeted the majority of the oppressed and exploited, foreshadowing even more repression, destruction and death.
On parallel, the infinite liberating possibilities of the struggles, which erupt all over the world, are emerging against the international antisocial alliance of the global elites and their projected war societies. From Rojava to Chiapas, from the favelas in Brazil to the antifascist blockades in Western Europe and the Balkans, the cause of Social Revolution is still alive, placing barricades to the attack of the state and the bosses and forming the conditions for the social and class counter-attack.
This social and class counter-attack frightens the dominants so much as to bring forward the darkest force of human history, in order to suppress it. Due to the generalized crisis of the state-capitalist system, their ability to extract social legitimization for their plans has reached its limits. This is the reason why the far-right and fascist reserves of the dominants – the counter-revolutionary bloc – are dragged up from the system’s arsenal and are taking action internationally, in order to pave the way for the strategic plans of the Authority. From Bolsonaro’s Brazil, to Visegrád’s Fortress-Europe, to the far-right shift in Italy and France, to Balkan nationalisms, and Erdogan’s Turkey, fascism is the system’s response to its profound and total crisis, to its own contradictions. Contradictions that are caused by the incurable conflict imposed by its basic principle, the exploitation and repression of one human being against the other. These elements, along with war and the threat of its generalization, are forming the iron fence of authority, which is spreading globally.
In Greece, the administrative delusions that the Social Democratic version of modern totalitarianism has sowed the previous years have played their part fully. The state and capitalist attack continues, by imposing the one-way course of exploitation and oppression, attempting, at the same time, to extend the life of the already bankrupt system, by forming conditions of decomposition of social-class resistances, national reconciliation and inter-class cooperation. At the same time, through a renewed rhetoric about “exiting the memoranda”, it is once again attempted to extract legitimization for the next rounds of plunder of the overwhelming majority of society, by cultivating once again delusions of embellishing the system.
In parallel, the counter-revolutionary side is already here and is preparing to play its special role. On the occasion of raising the so-called “Macedonian issue”, according to the EU’s and NATO’s instructions, nationalism is being reconstructed to prepare the strategic plan for the mutual extermination of the exploited classes. The fascist groups are coordinated with the most conservative parts of the national core (paramilitary groups, religious organizations, far-right parties, parastatal mechanisms), in order to constitute the counter-revolutionary and fascist reserves of the state and the dominant class. At the same time, they are disorienting the exploited away from their real social problems, spreading intolerance and bringing together the most reactionary social reflexes.
In addition, in the present political occasion, the regime takes advantage of the “left” political management by simultaneously promoting, along with the attack, the integration and disarmament of the social and class resistances, the merge of the wide anti-government social frustration with the fascist rhetoric of nationalism, racism, intolerance and security, aiming to expand its influence. At the same time, the governing left, as another aspect of modern state totalitarianism, vulgarizes, denigrates and misrepresents the universal human values of solidarity, humanism and equality.
The dissolution of every social tie, the lack of class consciousness and the absence of a culture for collective problem solving, which emerge from the war of the state and the bosses against any sense of community and collective, with the clash between the poor and excluded as its most obvious outcome, critically contribute in the configuration of conditions of social fascistization. Thus, a recycling violence amongst the plebeian social classes. Social cannibalism is a condition desired and promoted by the dominance, as it can manipulate social rage by transferring its burst away from the truly responsible for the degeneracy of this world, channeling it into an never-ending “everyone vs everyone” war among the exploited.
In this reality of complete decay, the extraction of social consent for its plans is much desired by the system. However, no electoral “solutions” or consent can be granted to the state and capitalistic brutality. For the exploited masses, the upcoming elections have nothing to offer, but the intensification of the existing slavery conditions through the strengthening that the re-legitimization of political representation will produce. Nothing less than the intensification of the exploitation and the oppression, the social threatening through unemployment, impoverishment and repression.
On the one hand, the continuation of the existing political administration will lead to an even greater numbness of the social and class resistances and a disarmament of the movement, in a period that the recovery and the expansion of the collective struggles of society – and especially of those struggles that emerge from below – is a constant goal, in
order to stop the advance of the state, the capital and the fascists. On the other hand, the reinstatement to the neoliberal version will initiate a new round of war against all those -the poor, the outcasts and the people of the struggle- who are already targeted by the political-economic system. The obvious aim of the authority is their subjugation, in order to open the way for the unhampered imposition of the plans of the political and economic elite, which desire to create conditions similar to those of the labor camps.
Regardless of the election’s result, it is certain that the next day will mark the beginning of a new fierce round of repression against the social and class struggles, and especially against the anarchist – antiauthoritarian movement, against which a sweeping repressive attack has been preparing, aiming not only to its confinement, but to its complete extermination. The political presence and actions of the anarchists all the previous years, the proposal of the self-organized resistance from below, the vision of Social Revolution as the only realistic alternative for society against the alleged inescapable choice of the state and capitalistic decay, the darkness of fascism and the dead-ends of the reformist illusions, make the anarchists a real danger for the dominants and that’s why they are the main target of regime’s oppressive strategy.
Against the dark perspective of Modern Totalitarianism, the social and class resistances, the struggles of people worldwide for the overthrowing off the state and capitalistic brutality, emerge as the only hope. In these struggles, we, the anarchists, live and breathe. We aspire, through our organized political presence and our action in the existing fronts of struggle and the creation of new ones, to connect the real social needs and the anarchist worldview and practice, in order to transform those resistances into springboards of social and class emancipation. These struggles inspire and give us strength to carry on:
The struggles against war, military bases and militarism, especially at a time that the clouds of a bigger war are getting thicker above humanity.
The mobilizations in solidarity with the immigrants and refugees against the state of exception, prisons and concentration camps. For the freedom of movement and solidarity between people.
The internationalist barricades against war, nationalism and fascism. From Kamara to Propylaea and the Pan-Balkan internationalist demonstration of solidarity with the Libertatia squat in Thessaloniki.
The struggle against parastatal and fascist forces on the streets, in the neighborhoods and the schools, in every field they attempt to rise.
The struggles for the defense of squats and self-organized spaces of life and resistance, as reference points of the struggle for Social Revolution. The realization of rebuilding Libertatia squat by the movement, in order for solidarity to win!
The struggles for the defense of class rights. From the defense of the main residence and Sunday off work, to the preservation of the right to strike and the potential for the development of a competitive and combative syndicalism from the base, as it was pointed out by the 1st November strike, which was multi-sectoral and organized from below.
The struggles for the defense of basic social needs and of the people’s free access to them. From food and accommodation to electricity, water and public transport.
The mobilizations of women – from Mexico to Turkey – against the state, capitalism and patriarchy, for emancipation and freedom.
The struggles for the defense of nature and local communities against their looting and destruction. From Acheloos and Skouries, to Lefkimi and Agrafa.
The dynamic mobilizations against drug mafias, state oppression and social cannibalism in Exarcheia, that revitalize resistance and the movement’s culture in a place of historical symbolic significance for the struggle.
The struggles for collectivity and solidarity, against individualization and social cannibalism.
The demonstrations for the preservation of the social and class memory and for the promotion of the historical importance of today’s revolts. From May 1st, to the uprising of the Polytechnic school and the revolt of December ’08. And from Chile to Mexico and from the U.S.A. to France and Turkey.
Against the brutality of war and modern totalitarianism, which is unfolding worldwide (restructurings, state of emergency and state of exception, nature’s looting, military operations and constant preparations for new ones, as anarchists,) we have to juxtapose our weapons of social, class and international solidarity, acknowledging that nowadays the connection of all those who fight internationally and our common struggle against the common attack we are receiving are more crucial than ever. In every open front of the social and class struggle, wherever the aggression of the state and the capital is expressed, aiming to radicalize the struggles through their connection with the universal social vision of class and social emancipation.
Against the attack of decayed world of authority, we have to juxtapose the solidarity of our common struggles. Against the dystopia of modern totalitarianism, in which the vast majority is being impoverished and subdued, we propose the libertarian society, organized through confederate social councils “for the Freedom of each one and the Equality of all.
AGAINST THE GLOBAL DICTATORSHIP OF THE STATE AND THE CAPITAL
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE UNIVERSAL SOCIAL REVOLUTION, ANARCHY AND LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM WILL WIN!
January 2019
Anarchist Political Organization – Federation of Collectives
