#title Bitter experience #author Rev Dia #SORTtopics Ukraine, war, anti-war #date 30 November 2016 #source Retrieved on 26th January 2022 from a translation of [[https://revdia.org/2016/11/30/girkij-dosvid/][revdia.org]] #lang en #pubdate 2022-01-26T09:44:42 Why are we being agitated to take part today in the holiday of death and exile called ATO? Is this the struggle aimed at establishing a powerless society of equal people? If this is not such a struggle, is it possible to justify bloodshed for the benefit of the capitalists? Do our beliefs allow us to kill other people for the benefit of oligarchs and politicians? We believe this is directly contrary to our beliefs, but why do some who call themselves anarchists do so? Our answer is no. We forgot. Anarchism opposes all forms of exploitation, but isn’t a state war exploitative? Or does anyone think that if you fight on the other side of the barricades, you will oppose exploitation? No, on both sides — the state. As we take part in this war, we support the state machine of oppression, which will later crush us, remember that. Makhno did not fight the Germans in a “united front” with other participants in the Civil War, Makhno engaged in the assertion of anarchist society in all its glory on his land — Huliaipole. And not because it was his “Fatherland”, but because there were his friends, relatives, people close to him, there were peasants, who louder than all responded to the call for freedom thrown by the anarchists. Some people justify their participation in the anti-terrorist operation by saying that they need “experience”. But is a person’s life on the other side of the barricades worth such an experience? Is this life worth the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians? This is not a war of liberation, but a form of problem-solving by the bourgeois government. And this must be understood. Neither side wants to improve the lives of the beggar, the enslaved hired worker, the looting of the peasant. Like any government, this one only supports capitalism, a means of taking away the products of labor from the worker. And it also creates hatred between nations. The anarchist movement opposes all forms of government and the state and their results — poverty, hunger, war, injustice and ignorance. All those who support the war today forget that innocent people are dying there, dying for the benefit of others, that on both sides they are ordinary people, of flesh and blood, who love and rejoice, the growth of children and have loved ones. Can we deprive them of such joy because of the benefits of the oligarchs? Anarchists should fight against the state and capital, and not play pawns in games freaks in uniform. Our goal is an uncompromising struggle with the state and its allies, in any form and by any means. Can innocent people die? Our primary goal is freedom, human dignity, so we will not allow even a tenth of the destruction that even a tiny war can bring, unlike politicians.