Wir haben das Statement von ABC-Belarus zur Ausgrenzung anarchistischer Persepktiven aus Osteuropa unterschrieben.

Wir wollten ebenfalls zur ACABB – bookfair in Berlin fahren, um das im September veröffentlichte Buch Bachmut, 19. April 2023 – In Gedenken an Dimitri Petrow, Finbar Cafferkey und Cooper Andrews in einer Lesung vorzustellen und einen Büchertisch mitzubringen. Wir wurden kurz und knapp ausgeladen:

„Wir sagen euch ab sowohl die Buchpräsentation als auch den Bücherstand.
Wir wollen an der Buchmesse keinen Positionen Raum geben, die Anarchist*innen dazu anhalten sich in staatliche Armeestrukturen einzureihen.“

Das Buch, das wir vorstellen wollten, ist eine überarbeitete Übersetzung der Broschüre Dmitry Petrov – A Life in Combat. Es dokumentiert Perspektiven und Diskussionen um Strategien und Aktionen gegen den russischen Imperialismus entlang Dimitri Petrows politischen Werdegang. Wir können in dem Buch strategische Debatten und selbstkritische Reflexionen über Theorie und Praxis anhand verschiedener politischer Ereignisse in Russland, Belarus und der Ukraine verfolgen.

Die Übersetzung war uns aus verschiedenen Gründen wichtig, vor allem aber ist es für uns ein Akt internationaler Solidarität: Solidarisches Handeln bedeutet in diesem Fall für uns, Stimmen und Perspektiven unserer Genoss*innen in anderen Ländern hörbar und zugänglich zu machen.

Zum einen finden wir es wichtig möglichst viele Persepktiven in unsere Diskussionen einfließen zu lassen, um daraus zu lernen. Gleichzeitig finden wir es notwendig vor allem in aktuellen und komplexen Etwicklungen die Gedanken der Menschen einzubeziehen, die direkt involviert und betroffen sind.

In der aktuellen Entwicklung innerhalb der anarchistischen Bewegung sehen wir eine unbeschreibliche Ignoranz und Arroganz gegenüber der Lebenssituation der von Diktatur und Krieg betroffenen Menschen in der Ukraine, Belarus, Russland und allen vom russischen Imperialismus betroffenen Regionen.

Auf komplexe Situationen und Fragen werden mit vermeintlich einfachen Antworten abgetan, und damit „Ein Richtig und ein Falsch“ konstruiert. Machtpositionen auf Grund von Herkunft und Ressourcenverteilung werden ausgespielt, um unbequeme Positionen nicht hören zu müssen.

In der Sowjetunion wurde die anarchistische Bewegung durch massive Repression weitgehend zerstört. Mit dem Zerfall dieser Großmacht 1990 gab es einen politischen Raum sich neu zu organisieren. Mit Putins Repressionsapparat, Militärmacht und seiner faschistischen Ideologie stehen wir allerdings erneut vor der Situation in der die Existenz der anarchistischen Bewegung in der Region auf dem Spiel steht.

Kriegskritische Aktivist*innen aus Russland sind entweder im Exil oder kämpfen in der Ukraine, der verbleibende Teil der Bewegung ist zum Großteil passiv gegenüber dem Regime. Die anarchistische Bewegung in Belarus befindet sich seit 2020 im Exil, ebenfalls im Krieg in der Ukraine oder wird in Belarus Knästen und Lagern jahrelang eingesperrt und gequält.

Und die Bewegung in der Ukraine ist entweder an der Front, isoliert im Kriegsalltag oder völlig erschöpft in verschiedenen Initiativen engagiert, jeden Tag bedroht mit dem Vernichtungswahn Putins.

Und Aktivist*innen in Westeuropa haben nichts besseres zu tun, als diesen Menschen vorzuwerfen, dass sie sich gegen ein mörderisches Regime wehren!

Vermeintliche Antikriegsaktivist*innen verweigern jegliche Solidarität, weil es nicht ins überholte simplifizierte Theoriekonzept passt, dass die Welt komplexe Antworten auf komplexe Fragen braucht. Sie sprechen anderen das Recht ab sich zu entscheiden, wie sie sich gegen solch ein zerstörerisches faschistisches Regime wehren und stellen sich damit als moralisch richtig auf.

Anstatt diese wertvollen Erfahrungen und Positionen, wie die von Dima zu diskutieren und eigene Handlungsmöglichkeiten auszuloten für aktuelle und kommende Krisen und Kriege, werden diese einfach ausgeschlossen, weil sie nicht ins eigene Weltbild passen.

Das macht uns nur noch wütend!

Danke an alle die trotz komplizierter Weltlage internationale Solidarität nicht als Phrase verstehen!

Und zum Glück gibt es davon sehr viele Menschen innerhalb und außerhalb der anarchistischen Bewegung!

Für alle die, die das Buch Bachmut, 19. April 2023 lesen wollen, ihr könnt es bei Sabotage Distro bestellen.

abcdd.org/2025/11/09/buchvorstellung-auf-acabb-zensiert

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When there is no interest in dialogue – ABC-Belarus once again excluded from the book fair in Berlin

Anarchist Black Cross Belarus

A year and a half ago, we published a bigger text titled “When ideology stands in the way of solidarity” about how certain anarchist groups in various Western European countries manipulate facts to exclude Eastern European anarchists from discussions about the war in Ukraine.

Since then, unfortunately, the situation has taken a turn for the worse, and the popularity of old anti-militarist and pacifist perspectives within the Western European anarchist movement has only grown. This month, we received another refusal from Berlin regarding our participation in the anarchist book fair, whose organizers emphasized that they had no connection to last year’s organizing group.

For transparency’s sake, we were well aware of the high probability of rejection before submitting our application for this book fair. On the one hand, we were pleasantly surprised that the rejection did not come in the form of a single rude sentence, as it did last time, but with detailed reasoning. However, the arguments presented in the letter confused us even more than the attempts to accuse us of supporting the war, as the organizers of last year’s anarchist book fair did.
“We are done here, here our powers are over…”

The organizers cited “distrust of the ABC collective due to numerous previous violations of agreements with other collectives” as the main reason for their refusal, although they also mentioned that they consider it “unacceptable to give space to positions calling for joining the state army during an anarchist fair.”

In particular, the organizers mentioned two previous cases of violations of agreements:

At the presentation in Bremen, we allegedly violated the agreement with the organizers “not to praise participation in the war / be apologetic about military service”[1]. Moreover, we did so not only verbally, but also brought a distro that violated these agreements.
The same materials were laid out on the table during the presentation in Berlin, although they were not “part of the presentation topic” [1]. We were also accused of starting the presentation three hours late and of one of our group members constantly talking on the phone with someone.

We took these comments very seriously and asked for more details, which the organizing group was unable to provide. In a private conversation with one of the organizers of the event, we were also unable to clarify the details of the accusations.

We also contacted the organizers of the event in Bremen, who confirmed that we had absolutely no agreements regarding the censorship of presentation content and that they had no complaints against us. Nor did they prohibit certain materials on the table. We contacted a person who was part of the organizing group in Berlin and were also told that the organizers had no complaints about our distro.

We passed all this information on to the organizers of the book fair in Berlin. A few weeks later, we received a response in which their position had changed. Now, the Berlin anarchists are no longer insisting on a breach of agreement, but simply write that the difference in our views on the war in Ukraine is so profound that they do not see the possibility of constructive dialogue with us at the fair. Moreover, in the new letter, they wrote that “we see no benefit for us or for you in a presentation or stand where joining the state army and serving in the army can be justified.”

One of the important features of the Belarusian regime is the extreme formalization of repression. Very rarely do detentions and arrests take place outside the framework of existing laws. Even though people are sentenced to 20 years for completely fabricated cases, there will still be a trial, presentation of evidence, and dozens of days of closed-door hearings. Political life in the country is also often limited by such formal procedures. You are not imprisoned for opposing the regime, but for “actions that violate public order”

Until 2020, any public protests were banned on trumped-up grounds, and no one pointed to the incorrect political views of the organizers of a demonstration or rally in the refus letter. Instead, the regime referred to the law on mass events, which prohibited gatherings near metro stations, for example. At the same time, the wall of bureaucracy was impenetrable, and all attempts to question the officials’ silly wording were met with closed doors.

In such an atmosphere, we have become accustomed to the state using formal, non-political reasons to exclude political opponents. What we did not expect was a repetition of this approach within the anarchist movement. But this is exactly what we encountered when submitting our application in Berlin.

Why did this moment remind us of Belarus? Most likely because of the feeling of absolute powerlessness in communication and the lack of any desire on the part of those whom we could have considered comrades yesterday to clarify the situation. It feels like we are working with bureaucrats who are not interested in the real facts.
The problem of manipulating facts to exclude groups/people

In our statement a year and a half ago, we already wrote that in the situation surrounding the war in Ukraine, objective reality is being sacrificed for the sake of an anti-militarist colossus with feet of clay. The presentation in Berlin once again convinced us that facts are often simply invented in order to discredit opponents.

Thus, we are not in a situation of equality where we can debate different political views on the situation in Belarus, Ukraine, or even Germany. Instead, we are forced to justify ourselves, saying that we have never violated any agreements. We are forced to write a text explaining that an ABC-Belarus activist was late for a presentation in Berlin because of Germany’s crumbling transport infrastructure (which the Germans themselves are well aware of). We are forced to justify that an activist from our team found out about the death of a comrade in Ukraine right before the presentation and had to urgently organize transportation for this comrade’s family from Germany back home.

The latest situation reminded us of an essay by Dina Naeri, who left Afghanistan as a child and was granted asylum in the United States. In her text, she describes how, in order to be accepted into Western society, refugees must be eternally grateful for the privilege of being where they are. Moreover, refugees are obliged to constantly express this gratitude to those around them and under no circumstances enter into conflict with the locals. There is nothing worse than an ungrateful refugee. Similarly, in the anarchist milieu, we must be extremely grateful for the opportunity to speak in Berlin and do everything possible to show our gratitude to each of the organizers of the presentation in one form or another. And under no circumstances should we express problematic views that would make Western anarchists feel uncomfortable…

The willingness to exclude anarchist organizations from public events based on such “facts” shows a part of the anarchist movement in Berlin in a less than favorable light. Why are fabricated incidents enough for them to exclude an anarchist organization from Eastern Europe that has been engaged in solidarity work for the last 16 years? It is ironic that Western anarchists and Western leftists often take Russian propaganda at face value without attempting to understand it in depth.

As a result, we are forced to spend time trying to prove our own innocence in response to fabricated accusations. Our task should not be to seek refutation of such statements based on unverified facts. The organizing group could have checked them themselves by writing a few letters, instead of shifting this work onto our collective, which has enough other tasks in anti-repressive solidarity work.

In reality, we are being excluded precisely because people consider us “militarists” who support Ukraine’s military machine and praise the state army.

Such is the price of solidarity with the Ukrainian people in their struggle against the Russian invasion. It does not matter how critical we are of the Ukrainian state and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It does not matter how much effort we have spent in the past fighting Belarusian militarism. Once again, none of this matters, because someone told someone else that ABC-Belarus supports the Ukrainian government.

Often, we cannot even respond to these accusations because they are raised behind closed doors, and those who shout the loudest about boycotting ABC remain silent about it in public. And here we can note the cowardice of a certain part of the German anarchist movement, which uses lies and incitement to try to exclude people who do not share their political views.
Not our war?

Over the past few years of speaking in Western Europe, we have become convinced that a significant part of the anarchist movement there deeply believes that the war in Ukraine is not their war, based on outdated political analyses. We see how these people have chosen to sit comfortably in the back rows of history and simply wait to see how the situation in Eastern Europe will develop without their participation. In the event of the political rise of the far right in our countries, it will always be possible to say, “Well, we told you so,” and in the event of alternative scenarios, to pretend that this was the plan all along.

And perhaps somewhere one can sympathize with the position that “it’s not our war.” After all, for the average resident of the Western empires, this war concerns people they have never seen. Places they have never been to and most likely never will. Contrary to all public statements, in the minds of many anarchists and leftists in the so-called first world, the border of civilization still lies somewhere in Eastern Europe, and depending on how much you agree with Western analyses, it can begin in Poland, Belarus, or Ukraine. Not our war means that Ukrainians are still not seen as part of that mythical European “we.” Not our war means that we have to try every day to prove that we are worthy of being equal to anarchists from Germany or other “developed” countries. This is precisely why myths about the ABC being an organization that violates agreements, spreads war propaganda, and is incapable of dialogue so easily take root in the minds of many Western activists. In their minds, we are still the same barbarians who have not learned the civilized way of political interaction, we continue to break the rules in the anarchist community, and the only way out is to exclude those very barbarians and ensure the triumph of Western thought at events such as the anarchist book fair in Berlin.

But, fortunately, there are enough people in the world who have overcome xenophobia and the arrogance of empires. People who put in a tremendous amount of effort every day to support the anarchist movement in Belarus and in the diaspora. During this time, we have found a huge number of comrades in the West who are passionate and have been engaged in solidarity work for many years. And yes, we believe that these people often do not receive enough attention because of anarchists like the organizers of the book fair in Berlin described above. Instead of positive examples of organization, cooperation, and victories, we are forced to once again talk about the failures of that very solidarity. About the struggle for equality within the anarchist community. About the lies that become part of the movement and may even be written into history as fact.

Despite this, we still want to thank the hundreds of people who organized our events across Europe. Thousands who donated to support Belarusian anarchist prisoners. To the dozens who support the anarchist Black Cross Belarus on a monthly basis. You are one of the parts of our belief that solidarity works, and that somewhere ahead of us, a just society may await us if we push a little harder.

1: Quote from a letter sent to us by the organizer:

You can send a letter of protest or publicly condemn the approach of the anarchist book fair in Berlin on your own resources. At the time of writing, we know that the book fair has also refused to allow Solidarity Collectives from Ukraine to participate.

abc-belarus.org/en/2025/10/28/when-there-is-no-interest-in-dialogue-abc-belarus-once-again-excluded-from-the-book-fair-in-berlin
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Anarchist Convergence and Bookfair Berlin: Why isn’t malobeo taking part in it?

We were invited by the bookfair to participate with our zine stand, but we decided against it.

Our decision follows the disinvitation of ABC Belarus, the Solidarity Collectives, and ABC Dresden by the bookfair organizers. These collectives are directly involved in solidarity work with people in Ukraine resisting the full-scale Russian invasion. The organizers justified their exclusion by claiming these groups are “militaristic,” “pro-war,” and “encourage anarchists to join state armies.”

After learning about this exclusion, we chose to use our space to display statements from Solidarity Collectives and ABC Belarus to make this exclusion visible to visitors who might not have heard about it online. One person brought these statements to the bookfair independently. However, the texts were immediately torn down, removed from the table, and the person was surrounded and accused of “war propaganda” and “provocation” — simply for putting the papers on a table reserved for their collective.

This incident again demonstrates that the bookfair is not genuinely interested in open discussion, despite its claims. If even a printed statement cannot be tolerated, then there is clearly no space for the perspectives of those directly affected by the war in Ukraine. The organizers claim to want a conversation about war and militarization, yet deliberately exclude those with first-hand experience and discuss who’s a „true anarchist“ and what is the only legitimate way of dealing with wars. Instead of engaging with those directly affected by the Russian invasion, they retreat into abstract theorizing about war and militarism.

Also we, as anarchists, we see ourselves in opposition to state armies and the military-industrial complex. Neither we nor our comrades in Ukraine or Belarus want war or to enforce state interests by military means. And yet we see that when our own lives and those of our friends and comrades are under threat, sometimes nothing less than armed resistance, whether in a state army or not, is possible.

We would have welcomed a discussion about why some anarchists chose to join the Ukrainian army, to hear their reasoning, and to learn from their experiences. The disinvited groups hold critical analyses of both military and other state institutions, and their perspectives are essential to the broader anti-militarist discourse.

However, the Anarchist Book Fair Berlin has deliberately chosen to suppress this perspective, and is choosing to ignore dozens of other anarchist collectives from Eastern Europe who stand in solidarity with it.

This is not an isolated case. By silencing these voices, the Anarchist Bookfair Berlin aligns itself with a wider Western leftist tendency to treat Eastern European comrades with paternalism and suspicion.

Instead of going to Ukraine themselves and/or talking to their comrades who are affected by the war, they make themselves comfortable in the narrative of militarism and loyalty to the state. Instead of seriously considering what it means when the country you live in is invaded by an imperialist regime, your friends are murdered and tortured, and you live every minute in the certainty that you are the target of a killing machine, they take the easy way out and philosophy about war.

This shows many things, but not an awareness of solidarity and internationalism, and giving space to the affected. We call this toxic “anti-militarism.”

We want to support our comrades in Ukraine, who are making this difficult decision under dangerous circumstances, and listen to them instead of categorically condemning them for making certain choices. We stand alongside our comrades from Solidarity Collectives, ABC Dresden, and ABC Belarus. In solidarity with the people living in Ukraine and in open hostility toward the Russian empire and all its useful helpers in the West.

malobeo

malobeo.org/anarchist-convergence-and-bookfair-berlin-why-isnt-malobeo-taking-part-in-it