It is 11th year of Russian military attack on Ukraine and 3rd anniversary of full-scale invasion. What was believed to be a 3 day military operation to take Kyiv ended up to be the largest and deadliest war currently happening on the planet. People in Ukraine showed strong will to resist the occupation. Anarchists in Ukraine decided to resist the Russian invasion through military and civil means. That includes Russian and Belarusian comrades who escaped Putin and Lukashenko regimes and came to Ukraine.
Worldwide anarchist movement found itself in disagreement about how to view the war in Ukraine and what position to take on it. It grew to a serious split. We believe that disagreements on ideological, strategical and tactical questions inside anarchist movement should be kept between us until all differring parts are ready to publicize their positions. There is a lack of serious organizational approach and principles of basic comradeship and diplomacy in the movement.
We must have integrity within the anarchist movement and not allow our enemies to exploit contradictions between us. Differences and conflict should be something to grow from. We do not have to agree on everything, including on very serious questions – but we must keep respect and comradeship as a minimum standard. Where we disagree, we need not help the enemy by actively undermining each others’ works and efforts, nor waste effort in attacking each other. This does nothing to develop each others’ understanding or analysis, nor further any of our struggles.
We call for unity in the anarchist movement. And we call on all comrades, especially on those disagreeing with choices of Ukrainian anarchists, to be directly in touch with them, visit them in Ukraine, see their reality, and debate about differences on a basis of mutual understanding and shared struggle. We too, in struggling alongside the Kurdish liberation movement, also face contradictions and times where we have different views. Critical solidarity means not losing sight of those things, discussing them on a basis of comradeship, while continuing to struggle together for a free life. If anarchists, after engaging in dialogue rooted in solidarity with comrades in Ukraine, still do not agree with their chosen lines of action, there are many more constructive things needing done than to undermine them.
For our part, we express solidarity with our comrades who are living, organizing, fighting and dying in this war. We need to remember the comrades who lost their lives opposing the invasion, and understand the reasons and motivations why they chose to organize in that way.
Têkoşîna Anarşîst
March 3rd 2025
