Anti-War Black Solidarity Committee, Japan

ロシア軍はウクライナ全土から撤退しろ！
ロシア・欧米・日本帝国主義はウクライナをめぐる争奪戦を止めよ！
世界のプロレタリアートはウクライナ・ロシアのプロレタリアートと団結して、侵略戦争を止めよう！
地球上から帝国主義、国家主義を一掃しよう！

Russian troops withdraw from all over Ukraine!

Russia, Europe, America and Japanese imperialism stop the battle for Ukraine!

Let’s stop the war of aggression by uniting the world’s proletariat with the Ukrainian and Russian proletariats!

Let’s wipe out imperialism and nationalism from the earth!

[Note from Olga Taratuta initiative : we publish the statement of our friends of the Japan Anti-War Black Solidarity Committee,  even if we do not share their enthousiasm  for the people who joined the Ukrainian army. We consider that people who joined the State army - for survival reason we can understand - stop to be regarded as anarchists]

Osaka, anti war demo, 9th of March 2022

Statement from the Anti-War Black Solidarity Committee, Japan

1. Our position on the war of aggression on Ukraine by Russian imperialism

On February 24, 2022, the Russian military invasion of Ukraine began. We must never forgive Putin's war of aggression, which advocates "Great Russianism." Putin calls Ukraine a "brother country" and bases the war on the protection of two Russian-dominated states. We must recall that since modern times [1868-1945], the Empire of Japan has dominated the war of aggression and colonial rule in the name of protecting its own residents in the then-colonies of Korea and China.

 We must also criticize the EU, NATO, and American imperialism after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the so-called "western" eastern expansion policy. Japan also provided bulletproof vests and helmets to the Ukrainian army, kept pace with economic sanctions, and entered the war as a "western" ally.

 "Poor Ukraine, do your best" and "pacifists" are waving the Ukrainian flag during demonstrations and protests. We do not support nor express solidarity with the defense of Ukrainian Motherland Defense. We must show solidarity with anarchists, workers and people who are desperately fighting on the front and back of Ukraine, and those who have stood up in anti-war demonstrations with 15,000 arrests in Russia.

 We are the revolutionary defeatists against the nation and we take an anti-fascist position. We condemn Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine and at the same time we oppose the war between nations.

 2. Anarchists' struggle over Ukraine

 [different initiative of solidarity have sprouted both in East Europe and elsewhere in the world]

 (1) Anarchists who resist the Russian army have organized a "Resistance Committee (RC)", each of which has a mission.

(2) "Solidarity Initiative (Olga Taratura)" for Ukrainians, Belarus and Russian deserters, refugees and pacifists. Anarchist-named organization of the Tolstoyan descent, which founded the Anarchist Black Cross (ABC) in Ukraine 100 years ago, reports that about 220 soldiers from the 155th Brigade of the Russian Marine Corps refused to serve. The soldiers said, "Arrested by the authorities, but it's better than being killed on the front lines."

(3) ABC and AIT Russia chapters such as Belarus and Russia (Moscow and St. Petersburg). In particular, ABC is fighting on the streets for its lives by analyzing and disseminating information based on its own defeat principle with the 1905 Revolution after the defeat of the Russo-Japanese War and the 1917 Revolution after the First World War in mind.

(4) "Operation Solidarity (OpeSol)" to support African workers and student refugees at the Polish border.

(5) "ABC Dresden", which provides logistical support for the "Resistance Committee", refugees, the lives of Ukrainian residents, and the community.

(6) Debate meetings that connect Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian anarchists online.

(7) In addition, a wide variety of anarchist struggles are underway, including statements and demonstrations by organizations such as CNT-AIT, IWA-AIT, FAU in Germany, anarchist groups in Poland [ ZSP-AIT is helping Ukrainian workers and homeless], and Rojava in Kurdistan, Syria.

 In the almost antagonized war between imperialism, defeatism is the anarchist principle, but fighting the resistance struggle against the war of aggression by Russia is also in line with the anarchist principle.

On top of that, we firmly support the Makhno army, and the Ukrainian anarchists who succeeded the movement , which fought against the four enemies of the White Army, the Red Army, the nationalist bourgeois army, and the foreign army during the Russian Revolution, .

 3. What should we do now?

 The purpose of our solidarity in the fight against anarchists over Ukraine is as follows:

 First, to resist the Russian army, which is directly invading the military, both by an armed struggle and by encouraging Russians soldiers to desert from the Russian army. And to weaken and overthrow the Putin administration in solidarity with the anti-war struggles of Russia and Belarus.

 Second, we do not allow the ambition to embrace Ukraine into the alliance of US-Europe-Japan imperialism. And when the local anarchists repel the Russian army, we will strengthen the struggle against the imperialist nation together.

 Third, we struggle against the far right, which the Zelenskyy administration used as nationalist vanguards, and the struggle against the military organization "Azov Battalion" (now integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine), which also included Western neo-Nazis. When Ukraine enters the civil war, some time, it is about sharing an understading of a problem with a revolutionary strategy in range.

 The fund campaign is surely passed to the "Resistance Committee" and "Solidarity Operation" through the Dresden ABC, which is the contact point.

One month after the invasion, the amount was 170,000 euro, about 22 million yen. The funds donated to them are used for bulletproof vests, vehicles, medicines, daily necessities including clothing and food, tents, and infrastructure repairs. In addition to requesting the participation of anarchist volunteers, they are SNS to support not only donations but also "resistance committees" fighting in Ukraine and "solidarity operations" that are engaged in refugee and inhabitant community activities. We are requesting the organization of websites, videos, interviews, lectures, and debates.

Now that we are accepting "peace" under the power of the state, we must be in solidarity with the anarchists who are fighting in Ukraine. And we must unite with workers and people all over the world and stand up in the anti-war struggle.

All we can do right now is to donate, but we hope that a little support will help the anarchists fighting in Ukraine. Our power may be small and weak. The revolution may have become a dead language. However, Ukrainian anarchists are fighting for a revolution by resisting the Russian army with all their small and weak beings!

 Overwhelming support for the anarchists fighting in Ukraine!

Voices of solidarity with workers and people all over the world!

Now it's our turn!

 Anti-War Black Solidarity Committee, Japan   April 11, 2022, for May Day