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The war and "the left" - what do "we" do?

Which of the following would you support?

  • Oppose all actions by the UK govt/NATO, whatever they can do will only fuck things up worse

    Votes: 22 21.4%

  • Support them sending troops in

    Votes: 11 10.7%

  • Oppose them sending troops in but support non-military actions, eg sanctions, other?

    Votes: 48 46.6%

  • Support military aid to forces resisting the invasion

    Votes: 56 54.4%

  • Don't ask the govt to do anything but send direct aid and assistance to resistance forces

    Votes: 28 27.2%

  • Other, please expand

    Votes: 8 7.8%
  • Total voters
    103
DaveCinzano said:
Before answering I will first address what is meant by the terms 'war' and 'the left', define who 'we' are, and discuss the nature of 'doing' [continues in this vein for further 4,474 words]
Click to expand...
By “doing” you basically mean “reform”, don’t you? 😡
 
Enough is Enough has a load of translations from Ukraine/Russia, a fair few of them are stuff that's been posted already or short texts that don't say that much new, but this one's worth a read:

Note №2: “On city”​


Lviv has become a key hub for receiving refugees. Similar processes have taken place throughout all of Western Ukraine, but so far I can only talk about the city where I personally interact with people and see them with my own eyes. The fear of generalizations will be discussed later, and for now, I will simply outline the geography of my reflections. What has happened to Lviv during the last two weeks?


I’ll start with the housing issue. The city housing market is split into two parts. The first is the commercial housing market. Despite the mayor’s calls to impose a moratorium on rent, prices have risen several times depending on the landlords’ appetites. The free market has shown itself as it is. People fleeing the bombings will be left homeless if they cannot pay $1000 for a small apartment. Another part of the market shows the opposite tendency. Many landlords leave the “old” price because they know that instead of three tenants they now have ten. Some apartments left by those who went abroad became shelters. District administrations, schools, and other municipal institutions, as well as offices and yoga studios, become temporary housing places for thousands of refugees, their children, and animals.


There is a redistribution of wealth impossible to imagine before the attacks on Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other cities. Similar processes occur to varying degrees with clothing, food, cars, and other basic goods, including psychological support.


This redistribution is activated by thousands of people who spread the information about available goods and requests for them, prepare, deliver, arrange housing, bring things, unload humanitarian aid, communicate a lot, negotiate, listen to and hear each other. But the main thing is that they self-organize, find a way invent how to be useful in times when individualistic strategies do not work.


Chats – from activist to district and sport – spread mutual assistance. Municipal, private, public institutions have changed their function. The city has become a large network, where one can find even the strangest things nobody knew about. They chats include both people with activist experience and those who are skeptical of any form of the grassroots movement. Self-organized networks are becoming more effective than separate actions of city and regional authorities. All this is led by the fear that tomorrow we will not be able to find shelter, the food will run out, there will not be enough people willing to transport others from the station to the shelters at night. And so it happens – someone is left to freeze at the railway station, especially those who have fewer skills to use social networks, fewer contacts in the city, and less physical strength. But most find help. I hope it will be the same tonight.


Simultaneously with humanitarian activism, similar networks operate for military purposes as well. Lviv deals with everything at once – from transporting equipment to Kyiv to weaving camo nets for the army. These networks of solidarity extend far beyond the city and the country.


Note №3: “On breakdown”​


At the times of revolutions or wars, there also are breakdowns of social structures that have shaped the flow of our lives before. We face the things the most daring utopian dreamers could not have imagined before. If a month ago someone told me that thousands of people would have an opportunity to sleep warm, wash, get dressed and eat in Lviv for free, I would have just smiled. Now I spend money only on the needs of others, mine are satisfied with the strength of the team I am in, except for the coffee and pastries that I buy during a daily walk on my own.


In a certain part of society, commodity-money relations have disappeared, and instead, we are building “something qualitatively different.” I will not articulate now what exactly. My ideas of the world, both political and theoretical, were ruined along with the other world I lived in. As Volodymyr Artyukh aptly pointed out, the “old” frameworks for analysis no longer work. They need to be reconsidered. The new ones have to be invented.

New theoretical frameworks need to be more sensitive to the practice. And now we can observe it, to be involved, to see people behind institutions and structures. So far, this “new” has a lot of “old”. We hear about situations of xenophobia against Roma and transgender people, about sexual harassment in shelters, about the violence of patrols. And we will hear a lot about exploitation, gender-based violence, and other darkness we lived in, and which is still here. The violence of the Putin regime is pushing other forms of violence. But let us hope that the breakdown we are experiencing now will give us a chance to develop this “something qualitatively different.”

Note №4: “On structures”​


I do not know what will happen to me, my family, and my loved ones tomorrow. Maybe we will wake up, respond to messages with requests for housing and transportation, write that we are fine. Then we will drink coffee and prepare food in the shelters for refugees, work, volunteer, read the news, cry, smoke a lot, and hope. Or maybe we will run away from the bombing. But now I see new social structures that did not exist before. What will happen to them? These structures may be destroyed. They may move to other countries and continue to develop there. When Ukrainian society wins this war and lives the dream of a peaceful life, these structures can serve the needs of the state’s repressive apparatus and reproduce various forms of oppression. But at the moment of this breakdown, there is hope that they will remain, strengthen and focus on the main thing – people’s lives.
Click to expand...
 
I’ve not contributed before as there was nothing meaningful I could do. But now am considering putting my name down to have some refugees. My eldests old bedroom. I’m DBS checked so could possibly take unaccompanied teen, or Mum plus one child. (I wouldn’t take a man, but I doubt there are many anyway).

Anyone else in position to and considering?

My main concerns are:
Do I have the capacity to support traumatised people in my home, given I work with kids with trauma quite a lot in my job.

What impact might this have on my lad still at home- would he be able to study if there was noise and disruption?

I’m guessing we’re gonna be funding them in no small part cos £350 doesn’t buy much school uniform, food, bus fares, utility bills for potentially two people.

On the positive, your helping someone and we have more than we need. We might all learn about another culture.
 
New article from Peter Gelderloos, partly about "what do 'we' do?", partly about the geopolitics:
itsgoingdown.org

The Invasion of Ukraine: Anarchist Interventions and Geopolitical Changes

by Peter Gelderloos The current war in Ukraine is difficult to grapple with and not only for those of us with friends and comrades who are over there, fighting or surviving, or who have already fled and now find themselves homeless, many of them for a second time, in the case of the many refugees...
itsgoingdown.org itsgoingdown.org
The historical lesson seems to be that in these situations, we need to maintain as much autonomy as possible, to continuously think about a revolutionary, transformative horizon, and not place any naïve trust in the decency of state allies. We also learn that revolutions, subordinated to the needs of pure warfare, wither and die, but sometimes, for mere survival, people need to engage in warfare and fight back. In the Spanish Civil War, even disciplined individualists supported engaging with the imperfections of the situation rather than running away to maintain their bubbles of purity.

This can be a hard lesson to affirm, because in all other moments our position of not making alliances with political parties or other governmental structures has proven correct. As far as I know, the false pragmatism that justifies such alliances—with this new law in place, with that new government in power, our revolutionary movements will be stronger—is never borne out.

But we have also seen that when a major social conflict erupts, we need to find a radical position within it, even and especially when the mainstream framing of that conflict leaves no room for anarchist positions. Staying home as the proper anarchist thing to do nearly always facilitates centrists or the far Right taking over such conflicts.

War is the health of the state and war is where revolutions die, but ignoring them is not an option as they threaten our individual and collective survival, destroy social movements, and crush communal infrastructures. In situations of warfare, anarchists have no easy answers; we must balance the conflicting needs of short-term survival and a revolutionary horizon, the conflicting lessons of always making space for anarchist positions in a conflict, never trusting states, and not being able to act from a place of purity and isolation.

I would suggest another lesson. We have not done an adequate job of analyzing the failings of anarchist movements throughout the 20th century. It has been vital to remember our dead, but often that has translated into romanticizing a collective death wish. We need to acknowledge how the deaths of our collectives has caused a grave interruption to the continuity of our struggle. This resulting loss of memory and intergenerationality has set us back. The lesson is that we really do need to place more value on survival.
Click to expand...
 
danny la rouge said:
A way of cooking potatoes.
Click to expand...
In joke I’m not getting.

You have to complete a form on the Department of Levelling up, Homes & Communities website.

The Department of Levelling up? It just makes you want to punch them in the face doesn’t it.

Apparently I’m expected to find someone thro a charity? :confused:

Anyone here have any contacts or know a charity? I’m guessing there’s gonna be quite a few here with spare rooms now our kids are working/apprenticeships or Uni who might also be doing this, or people who may have contacts there or in the charity sector?
 
Edie said:
In joke I’m not getting.

You have to complete a form on the Department of Levelling up, Homes & Communities website.

The Department of Levelling up? It just makes you want to punch them in the face doesn’t it.

Apparently I’m expected to find someone thro a charity? :confused:

Anyone here have any contacts or know a charity? I’m guessing there’s gonna be quite a few here with spare rooms now our kids are working/apprenticeships or Uni who might also be doing this, or people who may have contacts there or in the charity sector?
Click to expand...
Over on another thread, Pingety Pong recommended this lot:

Homepage - Refugees at Home

Homepage - Refugees at Home
www.refugeesathome.org www.refugeesathome.org
 
hitmouse said:
Over on another thread, Pingety Pong recommended this lot:

Homepage - Refugees at Home

Homepage - Refugees at Home
www.refugeesathome.org www.refugeesathome.org
Click to expand...
That charity has apparently got a long lead in time, probably as overwhelmed.

This is apparently a much simpler system- stick your name and contact down and refugees can match with you and get in direct contact. Ukraine Take Shelter
www.ukrainetakeshelter.com

Ukraine Take Shelter

Housing for Ukrainian Refugees. UkraineTakeShelter.com is an independent platform connecting Ukrainian refugees with potential hosts and housing.
www.ukrainetakeshelter.com www.ukrainetakeshelter.com
 
Edie said:
I’ve not contributed before as there was nothing meaningful I could do. But now am considering putting my name down to have some refugees. My eldests old bedroom. I’m DBS checked so could possibly take unaccompanied teen, or Mum plus one child. (I wouldn’t take a man, but I doubt there are many anyway).

Anyone else in position to and considering?

My main concerns are:
Do I have the capacity to support traumatised people in my home, given I work with kids with trauma quite a lot in my job.

What impact might this have on my lad still at home- would he be able to study if there was noise and disruption?

I’m guessing we’re gonna be funding them in no small part cos £350 doesn’t buy much school uniform, food, bus fares, utility bills for potentially two people.

On the positive, your helping someone and we have more than we need. We might all learn about another culture.
Click to expand...
Thinking of doing this, but for various reasons not until July. After that we'll see how the situation has developed. I'm sure there will still be demand then.
 
This stuff about housing Ukrainian families etc is commendable. Even Peter Hitchens (who is, whatever else you can say about him, not lacking in humane sentiment) says so.

But it has absolutely nothing to do with any 'left-wing response.'
 
Putting people first, rather than profits or an "I'm all right, jack" attitude, is hardly a right wing response though. But I don't think that's what you mean.
 
Serge Forward said:
Putting people first, rather than profits or an "I'm all right, jack" attitude, is hardly a right wing response though. But I don't think that's what you mean.
Click to expand...
It isn't what I mean. I never said it was a right wing response.

Putting refugees up for a while is something anybody who wants to can do, whatever their politics.
 
RD2003 said:
This stuff about housing Ukrainian families etc is commendable. Even Peter Hitchens (who is, whatever else you can say about him, not lacking in humane sentiment) says so.

But it has absolutely nothing to do with any 'left-wing response.'
Click to expand...
Absolutely true (and will probably be predominantly rw people linked to faith groups who take action in reality). I was ignoring that part of the thread.

The reality is that hardly any of us can do anything. Putting up refugees is one small thing. Going out there to help with specific skills (medic, armed forces, humanitarian aid, press etc)- but there won’t be many here with both skill, opportunity, and courage. Maybe giving & raising money. But difficult to think of much else.

Endless analysis, thoughts & prayers, voyeristic news, social media takes by people not involved, Western opinion pieces, all prob do more harm than good. We’re powerless, don’t really understand, and it’s (not yet) our war.
 
Edie said:
I’ve not contributed before as there was nothing meaningful I could do. But now am considering putting my name down to have some refugees. My eldests old bedroom. I’m DBS checked so could possibly take unaccompanied teen, or Mum plus one child. (I wouldn’t take a man, but I doubt there are many anyway).

Anyone else in position to and considering?

My main concerns are:
Do I have the capacity to support traumatised people in my home, given I work with kids with trauma quite a lot in my job.

What impact might this have on my lad still at home- would he be able to study if there was noise and disruption?

I’m guessing we’re gonna be funding them in no small part cos £350 doesn’t buy much school uniform, food, bus fares, utility bills for potentially two people.

On the positive, your helping someone and we have more than we need. We might all learn about another culture.
Click to expand...

Have replied on the Ukraine refugee thread Edie.
 
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