First of May 2009:

To finish with the bosses and build a free, revolutionary workers' alternative!

Workers of the world celebrate this year's First of May with a new peril looming over their heads—The Global Financial Crisis. Yet, every capitalist crisis is a crisis for the bosses and politicians and an opportunity for the workers! Interests of world's working masses are always sharply opposed to the interests of our rulers! We must always recognize this simple and profound fact and use it to promote our liberation.

What started as house price crash—caused by almost a decade long real estate bubble, originating mainly in the US but quickly spreading to other parts of the developed world—in late summer of 2008 became the worst global financial market crisis since The Great Depression of 1930's, affecting every region of the world, developed or undeveloped.

Most politicians and “responsible” capitalists, in an effort to ideologically preserve this perverted system of the rule of man over man, are bombarding us with metaphysical theories as to how this could have happened in this “finely polished” free-market system. They claim that the true cause behind the crisis is not the nature of capitalism itself but the greed of a few rotten apples on Wall Street. Some claim that the cause is, perhaps, not enough state regulation of the “free market” which enabled these greedy individuals to slightly spoil, but still not ruin completely, the happy ending of the capitalist fairytale. Some, on the other hand, claim the true cause is in fact too much state intervention: the bankers on Wall Street are good and honest people but the politicians, in their effort to woo the masses, made them behave “unethically”.

But we know that these theories are nonsense. We know that the nature of capitalism is, in essence, a perpetual crisis. A system of contradictions that constantly produces poverty and misery in order to preserve a small parasitic ruling class. In the 20th century alone there have been no less than eleven major financial crisis and stock market crashes. We know that the only way to “correct” the system is to abolish it all together—to destroy capitalism and state, and all authoritarian and hierarchical social relations that they produce. Workers of the world must recognize that they alone can and must do this, because they are the ones that produce all the wealth in the world and not the bosses and politicians who can only produce misery.

The consequences of the current crisis for the working people of the world will be grave. From 2007 to 2008 some 10 million people lost their jobs worldwide. In 2009 it is predicted that another 40 million will be laid off, and the global unemployed population will number 230 million people. Another 100 million people will find themselves below poverty line.

Is the system trying to give any help to these people? No, the priority is, of course given to “bailing-out” those who drove us into this crisis in the first place. Many trillions of dollars, the wealth that workers created, will be poured down the hungry throats of wealthy banks' executives and failed capitalistic mammoths. As many times before we will be forced to pay to remain in poverty so that our bosses can remain in wealth that we created.

It is important to notice a great danger that is arising form this: the re-emergence of state capitalism. We have seen this scenario all too well in the past. This is the mechanism that the bosses will use in time of crisis to try to preserve their rule when the workers revolts begin to endanger them. This all comes in the form of nationalization of big failed financial institutions around the world. Capitalist propagandists are trying to present this as a form of socialisation of capitalism, a back-door reintroduction of state socialism. Because the failed financial firms are “too big to fail”, they say, we all have to pay to save them. We agree that this is socialism—socialism for the bosses and plain old capitalism for the workers.

In that line of problems facing the workers in this situation is the use of the current crisis by authoritarian socialist and social-democrat regimes around the world to legitimize themselves. They, after all, were saying all along how free-market capitalism is a ruthless system and how they present a “realistic”, “humane” alternative. Indeed, this crisis is something that “Chavez and co.” could only dream of. But we must not be fooled by this propaganda. History has showed brutally well that dictatorships of state “socialists” are not roads to freedom.

Last, but certainly not the least, of the problems that workers around the world are confronted with is the usual last defenders of capitalism – fascist movements that are getting stronger every day. Fascist gangs, on the streets and in the parliaments and governments, are already placing their repressive and racist politics into practices. As capitalism’s crisis is deepening, we can expect that large segments of capitalist will turn to open support of the fascist movements, and in that sense antifascist struggle, run on direct-democratic principals with direct action as a method of struggle will become of even larger importance in following days.

We must recognize that the only true liberation can come from worker antiauthoritarian revolutionary struggle and in the establishment of a truly free society— that of libertarian communism: anarchy.

Hand in hand with capitalism and its perpetual crisis comes imperialism. Since last First of May we have seen imperialist clashes in Georgia, massacres in Gaza, but also clashes which didn’t go to the extant of full war, but had taken casualties, such as Russia – Ukrainian gas conflict, which left 18 European countries without gas during winter 2008/9. We have seen some of the failures of the ruling class strategy, such as failure of the Treaty of Lisbon, but on the other side, it should be noted that NATO, which has recently marked 60 years of it’s criminal existence, has incorporated new states in it’s military machine.

An example of our opportunities in times like this were massive protests and riots in Greece in December. After a ruthless murder of a fifteen year old boy, Alexandros Grigoropulos, by a policeman and a member of a Greek fascist organization “Golden Dawn”, violent protests of workers and students broke out in all of Greece and lasted for nearly a month. The revolutionary message of these protests was clear: banks, capitalist firms and state buildings were smashed and burned, labour union centrals, universities, schools and other institutions were occupied by people hungry for freedom. But the protests quieted down, and now we can see how the Greek state is using this as an excuse to tighten up its grip on society by increasing police authority through new laws.

We must learn an important lesson from this episode: while people of Greece understood that for a revolution it is necessary for the people to take control of the whole social infrastructure, what was lacking is a clear, organized, revolutionary, radical workers' perspective. It is essential to have a strong revolutionary workers' organizations, free from all authority and hierarchy, with a clear goal of destruction of state and capitalism. If we don't have that, small spaces of freedom, that are created by atomized resistance, will be easily overrun and taken over by either fascists or authoritarian socialists.

The authoritarian system that we live in is falling apart. The ruling classes, while seemingly in control of situation, are actually in a state of total confusion. The liberal capitalist, post-modern, de-ideologisation of economy which has been their propagandist agenda since the fall of the Soviet block up until now has taken a toll on them. In their efforts to make us believe that ideologies and politics are a thing of the past, and that idea-less “free-market” economy is “the best practical and possible system”, that it represents “the end of history”, many of them came to believe their own lie. In lack of any coherent ideas about what to do they are in panic and are trying to save them selves by making us, workers, even poorer and more miserable than before. They do not understand that they are digging their own grave.

Their lies are easy to see through, easier than ever before, and we must use this tremendous opportunity to build a free alternative to their system of exploitation. An alternative without authorities or hierarchies, a system where each individual and collective will truly be free to express their life potentials in their fullest. A system where creativity, imagination, true progress and uninhibited joy of life will triumph over passivity, boredom, “stagnation and recession” and their “managerial diseases”.

In order to accomplish this hard task of liberation we must work to strengthen our organizations. We must organize in our working place, in our communities—indeed in all spheres of our life if we are to finally see the freedom that humanity, through its history, has been seeking. Time that we live in is a tremendous opportunity to build a libertarian, revolutionary, anarcho-syndicalist movement that will be able to throw tyranny and oppression into its true place—the dustbin of history. We must not waste this opportunity—we owe it to all those that came before us, who selflessly fought and died for the ideals of true freedom like the brave workers of Chicago in whose memory we celebrate the First of May, and to all those that will come after us.

IWA-AIT Secretariat,

Belgrade, 30th April 2009

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First of May 2008:

Against the State and Capitalism, in Memory of the Haymarket Martyrs!

Another Mayday has come, and with it the time to remember, in struggle, our comrades – five anarchist workers who died in a war between classes that we are still fighting today. They were murdered by the State because they didn't accept without resistance that they had bosses who lived off of their labour, because they didn't accept that the State and the Capital had power over their lives.

But it is not only those five anarchists – let us remember all those countless workers, syndicalists, anarchists, libertarians, proud human beings who died, because they didn't accept the idea of one human being exploiting another. All of them survive in the 1st of May as the international day of working class struggle.

It is with their noble ideas in our hearts and with our unions in the streets that we have to defend our rights and lives against the ferocious attacks of neo-liberal capitalism and fight for a free world. Today, just like more than hundred years ago.

In the EU, workers suffer from the break down of the welfare state and the massive growth of precarious work. The treason of social democracy, the incapacity of bureaucratic unions and three right wing governments in central Europe will still worsen the situation.

In Latin America the poor still struggle against the yoke of multinational enterprises plundering the whole continent, the destruction of the environment and a life in utmost misery. But also Africa remains nothing but a toy in the hands of post-colonial imperialists who fan the flames of war between the poor, let whole populations starve and die from diseases in order to rob a whole continent of it’s natural resources.

The world is reshaped with the sword by US, Chinese, European and Russian imperialism. In endless wars the poor and the working class is slaughtered to secure the interests of military industries, private mercenaries and the power of ruling cliques over the resources.

In this situation of economic crises, wars and increasing misery the International Workers' Association calls for a Mayday of struggle against exploitation of the working class. It calls for a Mayday of solidarity and mutual aid against racist divisions of the poor. It calls for a Mayday of resistance to capitalist wars and it calls for the working class to regain their dignity, to take their fate in their own hands, and to emancipate itself from the interests of bureaucrats, capitalists and politicians.

The emancipation of the working class can only be done by the workers themselves.
For libertarian communism and social revolution.

Belgrade, First of May 2008
IWA Secretariat

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First of May 2007:

For Freedom and Equality: Direct Action and Solidarity!

These are the days when we celebrate the great victory of Chicago workers of 1886, and commemorate our five anarchist workers comrades who paid with their lives our right to an eight-hour workday. But in these days, in May 2007, we must also notice how this hard won right, as well as many other rights, is slipping away further and further, as the capitalist machinery is now trying to “liberate” itself from obligations that we imposed on it through our struggles and direct action.

In Europe, end of the Cold War also brought us the end of that social-democratic pro-capitalist propaganda tool known as the “Welfare State”. Since then capitalism has again come to show its true face to the workers throughout Western Europe. There is an ongoing campaign, a true capitalist crusades, that has a character of coordinated attacks against workers rights. The precaristion of the work place, commodification of education, health service, privatization of social services, etc. But we should not mourn for the disappearance of this decades long daydream. It was all, in the best case, just a small capitalist charity to the oppressed. Charity? No thanks, we do not need the good old Christian charity! For everything we need, for everything that, in fact, belongs to us, we will fight and get it ourselves. We have done it before, and we will do it again.

On the global scene we see that the competition between capitalist and imperialist powers is taking up pace. As the Russian state is becoming more and more powerful under Putin's dictatorship, the US is rushing to confine and quarantine its growth and influence. The search for new oil sources and routes, independent of Russia, is currently one of US's main priorities. It doesn't stand idle in the military field either — the new ballistic shield the US is building around the northern hemisphere is again awakening the spirits of the Cold War and a new arms race between US and Russia. This is a dangerous game in which the Chinese role should not be neglected too. Although American officials are trying to convince the world that the shield is targeted against “rogue” states, such as Iran, N. Korea and such, it is pretty much clear, when one looks at the deployment pattern of radar and rocket bases, whose missiles are the true “customers” of this shield — the only “rogue” states that are in fact capable of attacking the US and its allies are Russia and China. As China became the third country in history to launch a human being into space, as Russian space program is once again coming ahead in a new, “friendly”, space-race, and both countries are announcing Moon landing programs, the US is in a hurry to divert their technological efforts to the military domain once again (a strategy that has played so well before, during the 80's), and at the same time make an effort to secure its global military dominance.

But the political aspect of this new arms race is, perhaps, even more interesting. There is an ongoing struggle by the US to try to undermine the rising economical power and eastward expansion of EU. NATO is a perfect tool for this kind of job. We could clearly see this tactics of the USA of dividing the EU into “Old Europe” and “New Europe” when it was openly exposed during the initial phases of the Iraq campaign. Now we can see that the US is using NATO to install ballistic shield bases in Poland, Czech Republic and possibly some other former Soviet block states that are now part of EU and NATO. “Old Europe” is, of course, not delighted to find itself in a possible conflict with its potential ally, Russia. On the other hand, “New Europe's” political elites, the ones that emerged through anticommunist revolutions, and probably quite often CIA-sponsored, are happy to engage Russia and bathe in American “partnership”.

Along comes another frightening phenomenon of the post-Soviet Eastern Europe — radicalisation of, state-sponsored, right wing propaganda and historical revisionism. The destruction of countless WWII anti-fascist struggle monuments (the fact that those monuments are products of Stalinist propaganda is, in this case, irrelevant) in the Baltic states, the closing down of the Russian part of the exhibition in Auschwitz, to name just a few, are just external examples, visible to the outside observer, of a rapid fascisation campaign in Eastern Europe. From inside we can see more malignant symptoms, some of which are long present in “Old Europe” — building up of xenophobia, racism, vulgar anticommunism, etc.

“Fortress Europe”, the EU, is, naturally, adding fuel to the fire, or better, starting the fire in the first place, with its policy of cultural racism, euro-centrism and propagation of a fabricated set of values, the so called &ldquoEuropean values”. In their free-market fantastical world, it is thus implied that European culture, or specifically — EU culture, is the one of civilization, refined culture, tolerance and peace, in contrast to the outsiders — outside the EU, that is — the blood thirsty barbarians.

As occupation of Iraq is entering its fourth year, with more than 600,000 Iraqis killed and more than 1.6 million who left their homes since its beginning, the end of this orchestrated chaos brought on Iraqi people by the US business interests is nowhere in sight.

While we haven't seen any Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the US military hasn't shied away from using its own chemical weapons, as they did, for example, in The First Battle of Fallujah in April 2004, when white phosphorus was used against insurgents in the city.

As public services are being privatized, children on their way to school can take a look at an exhibition of a variety of dead bodies that pile up on the streets because there is no one left to clear them. Health care is rapidly becoming a thing of a long forgotten past as hospitals and other key services are desperately short of staff, with more than half the doctors having already left the country.

Iraq has become a convenient playground for Islamic and American imperialism, with the US, Iran and Syria using it as a stage for a trilateral proxy war in much the same fashion as Vietnam, and other parts of South-East Asia, was used by France, Soviet Union and the USA during most of the second half of the 20th century.

Although it is hard to predict how things are going to develop, it is certain that one of the goals of the invasion is accomplished — Iraqi oil will remain to be traded in US dollars. Saddam's regime became a definite target when Iraq converted their oil transactions from dollars to euros, and in this fact we can also see the background of EU's “humanitarian” and “civilized” cries for a peaceful sollution during 2003.

There is a similar scenario unfolding in case of Iran. The main concern of the US and EU is not the Iranian nuclear program — which can, realistically speaking, target directly only Israel — but its plans to also switch its oil trade to, more stable, euros.

As Israel is becoming more and more nervous because of an emerging Islamic nuclear power in its own backyard, with prepared plans for a series of preemptive strikes against key Iranian nuclear facilities, waiting only for green light from the USA, people of the Middle-East and its working class are facing an uncertain and grim future.

Economical roots of all these crisis are clear. Capitalism, with its “divide and conquer“ tactics, needs to make us, workers of the world, fight among us over irrelevant and nonexistent issues like race, sex, nationality, etc. It seeks to divide our forces and turn us against each other instead against our real enemies — State and Capitalism. But what governments and employers want is not necessarily what they get. While capitalism creates the basis for division, it also creates the conditions for workers' direct actions and solidarity.

As we struggle on in the industrial field, a new front is opening in Europe, a front in the battle for knowledge and education. Since the start of higher education reforms in Europe under the banner of the Bologna accords, which seek to commercialize higher education and universities in Europe and bring them in line with the demands of the “free market”, we are witnesses of more and more radical student strikes throughout Europe, from Germany and France, to Greece and Serbia.

All over the world workers are becoming aware of the need for radical confrontation and direct action against State and Capitalism. From Balkans to Central and South-East Asia to Latin America, workers are becoming assured that anarcho-syndicalism is the only sure and realistic way to fight these two plagues that have bothered humanity for too long now.

Unfortuantely, in Latin America, in spite of all the great workers' victories there, we must beware of a resurrection of an old ideological and economical vampire — state-socialism, this time in the form of fanatical catholic, nationalist Bolshevism. One of its main proponents, a famous Venezuelan radio and talk-show comedian known by his stage-name, “president Chaves”, is starting to engineer a Cuba-like, only with added religious fervor, police state in Venezuela. Personality cult build-up is in progress, and it is announced that children will have a new subject in schools — “chavesism”, no doubt devoted to such crucial topics as making lame jokes on Bush's account, being Castro's “bestest” buddy and simmilar.

This goes to show that no welfare for the working class can be obtained, in the long run, within the state-capitalism framework. Also, we can truly gain nothing, no freedom, if we rely on our self-appointed masters to provide for us and to “show us the way”. We, ourselves, through uncompromising solidarity and direct action must make our way to freedom and the true beginning of human history and progress.

In order to win this battle we must make our struggle global. This First of May, IWA and its Sections will, once again, put its forces in the fight against precarious work, and in that way contribute to the global fight for freedom. A strong emphasize must be put on the development of anarcho-syndicalism in the Third World, in places far away from the media attention, where working people are experiencing, as we speak, the worst atrocities ever committed in the name of State, Authority and Capitalism. There are many signals that workers in Indonesia, Pakistan and the rest of Asia are showing the will to take the route of revolutionary syndicalism, and the IWA is strongly looking forward to the world in which there will be no safe place for capitalist and authoritarian exploitation of the working class. A world strongly headed towards freedom which can only be in a society without statist and capitalist oppression, in a society of libertarian communism — anarchy.

For Freedom and Equality: Direct Action and Solidarity!
Long live the IWA and Anarcho-syndicalism!

Belgrade, 19th April 2007
IWA Secretariat