Anonymous Comrade writes:

"The goal of Autonomous Action (AD) is to form a common libertarian communist organisation in the area of the former Soviet Union.


Autonomous Action was organised in its first general meeting in January

2002, until then it had existed two years as a project. Currently Autonomous

Action has local groups in dozen or so cities of Russia and Armenia, and

supporters in Belarus, Lithuania, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Read more about us from our website at www.avtonom.net.

A report from our February meeting follows below:Conferences of Autonomous Action are not for discussing organisational

documents and principles of Autonomous Action, they are dealt in general

meetings which is a superior decision making mechanism of Autonomous Action.

Next general meeting will be organised in the summer of 2003 in South of

Russia. During both of the general meetings of Autonomous Action (1st in

Nizhni Novgorod in January 2002, and second in Krasnodar 2002), as well as

in all the 4 preparatory meetings in prior to foundation since January 2000,

considerable amount of time was sacrificed to organisational questions of

the movement. The practical and creative side of the activities had if not

been ignored, at least dealt very hastily in the strict time frame limited

by organisational needs. The 1st conference was the first real opportunity

to define ourselves in terms what we are actually doing, not only in terms

what we declare ourselves to be. Unfortunately the fact that conferences

have only right to make recommendatory decisions maybe also reduced

eagerness of activists to travel, only one delegate came from south (from

Rostov-na-Donu), and only one from Siberia (from Tyumen).



Friday 14th of February



People arrived during Friday, and during first evening people just presented

their local situation. There were delegates from Moscow (Autonomous Action

of Moscow, ADM), Nizhni Novgorod (Anarchist group of Nizhni Novgorod),

Ivanovo, Yaroslavl (Union of Young Anarchist Communists, SMAK), Tyumen,

Rostov-na-Donu and guests from Praxis (Moscow), MPST-AIT (Moscow), Belarus

Anarchist Front (BAF, Minsk), Movement Against Violence (DPN), ATTAC of

Nizhni Novgorod and Anarchist-Communist Union of Youth (MAKS, Yaroslavl).

Maybe 30-40 different persons participated to discussions during the

conference.



Before presentations there was a discussion about the anti-war demonstration

of the next day. 15th of February demonstration in Moscow was organised by

exceptional anti-racist, pro peace in Chechnya but not anti-authoritarian

coalition of ATTAC (in Moscow a trotskist front), anarchists who run Russian

Indymedia and Rainbow Keepers. Some conference delegates had principal

reservations against participating to such an event as an organisation, so

it was decided that those who want to go may go as individuals, and

conference will begin 4 hours later than planned in Saturday. In the end,

action was successful in Moscow scale (180 participators, in comparison

latest trotskist demo against Chechen war mobilised 20 persons in March

2000), but anarchist presence was small and we failed to present ourselves

as an anti-authoritarian alternative.



Situation in Moscow



In Moscow Autonomous Action has grown considerably during last 6 months, but

there are usual problems, such as every time different people in meetings.

There is a sizeable distro (www.avtonom.net/adistro) but not enough effort

to distribute products. Autonomous Action has participated to a broad

anti-war coalition which is offspring of the dissident movement and has

organised most massive demonstrations against Chechen war, but this

coalition is a forum of constant intrigue and political ambitions of

liberals, and some members of AD Moscow are in outright opposition against

participation to the coalition. Moscow group also publishes website on

working place issues, www.antijob.nm.ru, and its free paper version

òÁÄÉËÁÌÎÉÊ ìÅÎÔÑÊ, Radical lazybones, not to forget about music publication

and distribution. Two projects which are not projects of Autonomous Action

but to which activists participate were also mentioned -- "Bespartshkola"

discussion club which is 2 years old now, and new anti-clerical campaign

"Radicals Against Church" (RPTs, same initials which Russian Orthodox Church

uses). On anti-fascist issues networking with football hooligans has been a

success, but this has also resulted to escalation of conflict where

activists have been assaulted at least 3 times with knives during the last 6

months.



Situation in Minsk



Belarus Anarchist Front was formed in autumn of 2002, after some 2 years of

discussions. Anti-fascist activity plays important role in Minsk. Relations

with older anarchists are not really good, old FAB (Federation of Anarchists

in Belarus) is not really functional anymore in Minsk, none of them showed

up on the streets in mayday or in October revolution memorial day 7th of

November. In Gomel FAB is doing well. but reports of at least one of their

militants running as a candidate in local elections were heard by other

conference delegates with a disappointment (eventually one member of

Autonomous Action from Gomel was excluded). In Minsk BAF has 6 members and

some 20 supporters. First action by these people was organised in 1st of

May, NBP (National Bolshevik Party) scum came up parasiting. In Grodno there

is also an active group called Razam, but politics of this group are not

anarchist. Nationalist pro-West opposition of Belarus which was strong in

mid-nineties is now in a state of complete collapse.



Situation in Nizhni Novgorod



In Nizhni Novgorod Autonomous Action has some dozen regular attendants of

meetings and several supporters. There is a sort of positive competition

which ATTAC, which unlike in Moscow is not a trotskist front but some 10

students who have very recently got involved in political activity. They are

helped by Voronezh ATTAC. Less positive competition from the side of nazis

and NBP. Nazis know some of anarchist activists, and unlike in many other

cities anarchists have not been able to challenge fascists on the streets.

Level of social conflict is low in Nizhni Novgorod, about all opposition

forces came up to a meeting against housing reform, and all in all it was

only 300 persons. AD organised 2 anti-militarist pickets in November, which

were attended by some 40 persons. There is a distro and discussion club

"Pozitiv" as well. Lecture organised as a part of visit of George Katsifikas

to Russia was a success. Rainbow Keepers has some 3 persons in Nizhni, they

organise actions together with AD. Old Federation of Anarchists of Nizhni

Novgorod Area (FANK) still exists because not everyone is content with the

way AD is organising, but it has maybe 1 member.



Situation in Yaroslavl



Main issue in discussion about Yaroslavl was for sure the split. This has

been a big source of confusion in other cities, since during half years

there were two groups with name SMAK (Union of Young Anarchist Communists),

who published paper with the same name (ôÒÏÔÉÌÏ×ÉÊ üË×É×ÁÌÅÎÔ, Trotyle

Equivalent). Now however another group decided to change its name to MAKS

(Anarchist Communist Union of Youth), and the first group will change name of its bulletin. In general situation has calmed down, and after a period of bitter exchanges groups are now co-ordinating their activities together. MAKS participated to conference of AD as a guests, and both sides agreed that one important reason of the split

was in inter-personal dynamics.



There has been lots of activity in Yaroslavl since summer, such as picket

for anarchist

Stas Pochobut, who was cruelly beaten by police in Grodno, Belarus and

hospitalised for a month. 5th of September there was an action against

educational reform, which received good echo in media. There was nice

footage in TV about pensioners carrying anarchist banners... group

participated to Social Forum of Yaroslavl, which was a bad experience.

Anarchists withdrew from ATTAC which they were once co-founding, but SMAK

still maintains contacts. There was a successful action in opposition to

mainstream communists in 7th of November, this was jointly organised by

SMAK, local ATTAC and a local splinter group from KPRF (Communist Party of

Russian Federation) called Organisation of Workers Councils (OST), which is

developing to a positive direction. This was attended by some 400 people,

but resolution of the meeting was somewhat reformist. Social situation in

Yaroslavl is more heated than average in Russia, for example as a protest

against new housing bill one block of flats collectively refused to pay for

electricity and water.



In the end SMAK and MAKS debated their differences... MAKS described SMAK as

reformist, since they raise simple reformist and economic demands and try to

network with any kind of oppositional groups and non-stalinist workers. SMAK

criticised anti-fascist activities of MAKS -- "since we do not beat up

junkies or alcoholics, why should we beat up nazis who are just another

symptom of a general disease called capitalism?".



Other cities



Tyumen group really never get off to air, last mayday they mobilised 4

persons. Now one person emigrated, and one spent half a year in Polish

squats... but the "left" in general is in trouble as well, for example

RKSM(b) collapsed altogether. (This is one of the several komsomols, this

has more extreme orientation than the biggest SKM and is sort of Maoist, it

has lately severely suffered due to imprisonment of many of its activists).

Tyumen is a rich city because of oil, and thus there are not really social

conflicts. In Ivanovo only two persons regularly attend meetings, and

everything is in the very beginning. Activists in Ivanovo are also involved

in the Esperanto movement, and it was decided that AD should establish

contacts to this movement.



Saturday 15th of February



First discussion of the day was no more nor less than about "Situation in

Commonwealth of Independent States, strategy and tactics of anarchist

movement in the conditions of today". A glaring difference between xUSSR and

Western anarchism is that although in xUSSR movement is tiny, people

definitely believe that the system is about to collapse. Sight of system

ruining itself around you pushes feelings inside the anarchist movement to a

completely other level. Not that there is much optimism around, it is more

like a bitter struggle about the future of world after capitalism - either

anarchy or disorder. This puts for example anti-fascist activity to another

perspective - although fascists are not so many, they are one of the few

forces who will be there robbing the corpse of the system after its rigor

mortis, and better to face them now than then. A delegate from Yaroslavl

defined the situation in his city like "anti-globalist consensus",

legitimacy of the system is in a freefall but there is a lack of

alternatives.



There was a discussion about to whom we should orientate, different opinions

were said for example about relevance of youth subcultures, but nothing very

new. Several delegates advocated getting involved in concrete struggles

instead of ultra-radical sloganism. There was some frustration since only

already politicised people come to mass actions - it was proposed that we

should push for abolition of any party- or political symbolics in mass

actions.



Ecological protests



Next part of days program were working groups, but these had to be organised

one by one due to lack of space. First discussion was about ecological

protests. It was pointed out that ecological protests are one field where

anarchists may get into concrete issues. There are lots of potential, for

example in Moscow some small-scale ecological initiatives pop up about every

month, but no-one has resources to network them. Things like clean air are

important to every person, no matter how apolitical. System also knows

this, just see how much they used pressure to silence protests in Votkinsk,

although even city major was supporting protestors. But now few people who

are continuing the campaign in Votkinsk feel themselves abandoned. The fact

that no major ecological protest camp was organised in summer 2002 was a

problem for anarchist movement in general, since these have been important

both as convergence and discussion platforms, as well as to have new people

involved in activities -- a sort of activist school of self-organisation.



A question was raised about the situation of Rainbow Keepers in general.

Movement is indeed in a crisis, as its inability to organise a protest camp

in the summer of 2002 shows. These problems date back to mid-nineties, but

blew up in the summer of 2001 when a major protest camp was organised in

Votkinsk. But although future of Rainbow Keepers is unclear, it makes no

point for AD trying to replace Rainbow Keepers since latter has a very

different kind of organisational dynamics. One important factor in the birth

of AD has been the aspiration to get rid of the tyranny of structurelessness

rampart in Rainbow Keepers. But in the same time the informality of the

latter has been the main reason why it has had the best dynamics and least

barriers to involve new people among all anarchist groups during last 12

years, which has also lead it to being the most successful, at least to some

moderate extent. Role of AD should be more like ensuring that tradition of

the protest camps does not die even if Rainbow Keepers is unable to organise

them.



There was a discussion on protests against Taman ammoniac terminal project,

organised jointly by Atshi community and Rainbow Keepers. This was a minor

protest camp last summer, with less than 20 persons participating. Some

persons from second Autonomous Action general meeting travelled to camp, but many

AD activists decided not to join due to involvement of Cossacks. And indeed,

one AD activist who had participated to protest told about her funny

feelings when sitting in campaign HQ, provided by Cossacks, and having a

portrait of Nikolai II hanging on her head... she also pointed out that

Atshi is really an NGO nowadays, and thus there will always be problems when

we try to co-operate with them. (Ed. note: Roots of Atshi community are in

Maikop group of Confederation of Anarcho Syndicalists of 80's, since then it

has developed through many phrases, latest being turning from an ecological

community to an NGO. Soon after AD conference Atshi confirmed that they will

organise a protest camp in summer of 2003 as well).


There was also discussion about relation between social and ecological

issues (one old criticism of Rainbow Keepers has been that they ignore

workers in facilities they aim to close). It was pointed up that anarchists

should always demand guarantees to those who may suffer after closing a

plant, one person also recollected a protest at Cherepovets in the beginning

of the nineties, in a city where life expectancy had dropped to below 50 but

there were not even theoretically other jobs available than horrible open

pit mines and industry connected to them.



Anti-fascism



Second theme-discussion was about anti-fascist activities. It was quite

generally agreed that really fascism is just another form of organisation of

capitalism. In discussions inside the fascist movement, one may see that

they just feel they do the dirty work which majority supports but does not

want to do. FSB (ex-KGB) plays double game, in another hand repressing nazis

but in another hand using them against leftists, they armed Tsarytsino

pogromists since they hoped they would crush antiglobalists who would

protest against WEF in Moscow, and they distribute anti-fascist addresses to

nazis. NNP (People's National Party, hardcore nazi sect having pagan rituals

and all that with some 500 members) fighters train in OMON (ministry of

interior special forces) bases. It is also a myth that street fascism is a

working class movement, first fascist football hooligan group in Moscow,

Flint's Crew of Spartak fans, has plenty of graduates from prestigious MGU

and GMIO universities.



One person wanted opinions about "reformist" strategies, since majority of

anarchists may never get involved in the streets anyway. She was

disappointed that soon after anarchists in Volgograd successfully stopped a

nazi concert by appealing to mainstream media and Union of veterans, no-one

was supporting her when she was trying to do the same in Moscow, claiming

such strategies being "reformist".



One should also not confuse racism and fascism. The former often has a

legitimate face, and we should pay more attention to that. For example about

every orthodox church distributes Russkiy Dom and Russkiy Vestnik-papers,

which carry openly racist materials in almost every issue. We should target

also target these kinds of organisations, and for example sabotage events of

Eurasia and other respectable new-right institutions with respectable face.



Workingplace issues



Third theme discussion was about conflicts in working places in general, and

about Radical lazybones-bulletin published in Moscow. In Yaroslavl people

have some success in networking workplace struggles. In historical faculty

of local university, practically all of the students, 460 subscribers

altogether, signed a petition against expulsion of a student who had been

fighting when drunk. There was a mass layout in one of local factories, FSB

panicked but in the end workers were just passive. However they have find

some great union militants. Yaroslavl activists do not like Radical

Lazybones -- new forms of oppression, toyotism and situationism are just not

actual in Yaroslavl where fordism is still as strong as ever and conveyor

pulse of the city.



People in Moscow replied that it is true that points of view of

antijob-website and Radical Lazybones are Moscow-centred. According to web

statistics and messages in the guestbook, main group visiting the

antijob-site are office workers so stealing their bosses time, that is

really the group we reach most successfully.



Another Moscow activist described the conflict in MGPU university to which

he was participating, and which was described in Radical Lazybones. In the

end students were passive, and no-one wanted to get into regularly union

activity. He also thinks that RL is really trying impossible by trying to

mix revolutionary syndicalism to situationist and "anti-work" tendencies.



One veteran of the movement noticed a huge contrast between universities of

Perestroika years and today. About all what was then gained has been lost

now, students do not even have their own announcement boards anymore!



Antimilitarism



The following theme discussion was about anti-war movement and

antimilitarism. Nizhni Novgorod group had submitted a proposal about

campaign against law on alternative service which will come to force in 1st

of January 2004 (this was actually the only formal proposition submitted to

conference). To be honest, this proposal was written in somewhat formal and

boring language, but it was approved without much of discussion since there

was not really anything to disagree with. One concrete criticism of the text

was the demand about militia-kind of army -- in distant past these kind of

structures have been used against workers movement. Such demands should

never be separated from the total of revolutionary movement. In general this

campaign which Nizhni has been organising since summer has at times had a

strange mixture of reformist and radical revolutionary slogans, you should

not really separate demands like right of everyone to carry arms from the

ideal of total social revolution.



Another part of the proposal questioned was its obligation to organise

common anti-draft actions locally in certain dates, such as in "Day of the

defender of the fatherland" 23rd of February (which happens also to be the

date of beginning of Chechen genocide of 1944), first date of the spring

draft and so on. Yaroslavl commented that last time they had such an action

they got beaten up by both cops and patriot bigot passerbys. They were

replied that action does not necessarily have to be a picket, it could be a

discussion, graffiti or whatever your imagination enables. Street actions

were sawn impossible in Ivanovo as well due to tiny number of activists and

repression.



In Moscow people have distributed stickers of website

http://antimil.narod.ru made

by anarchists from Kazan which gives advice to those who want to avoid

draft, but

later it was recognized that in Moscow they manage to draft only some 8%

anyway,

and some 10 commercial or NGO structures offer exactly similar kind of

services

more effectively than we do, so there is no really demand for such an

activity.



One alternative to pickets is to participate to common anti-war actions. It

is not really that much about by side whom you walk, but how you do it -- if

it is forces hostile

to anti-authoritarism, you should prepare and make your point accordingly.



Anti-patriarchalism



Last discussion of the day was about anti-patriarchalism (or anti-sexism, or

feminism, or gender issues, or whatever...). This became quite funny process

in the end. In the beginning it was about to be cancelled altogether, since

those people from Krasnodar who had most to say had failed to travel to

conference. But then a comrade from Minsk made a point - against marriage

and for free love! What a blast from the past, an issue which seems to have

been completely buried in the anarchist movement during the last 60 years!



Some issues relating to more modern feminism were dealt as well. Some people

raised cliche arguments criticising such feminist projects like critic of

male majority in the anarchist movement, and were verbally baited

accordingly.



Sunday 16th of February



This day most were outrageously late, supposedly having partied the night

before. This was only breach of the iron discipline, which conference

organisers had successfully imposed in a form of a prohibition, first time

in the history of AD... only one person dared to open a bottle during

conference, and had it confiscated in 10 seconds.



Repression and Anarchist Black Cross



Since after more than hour of waiting there were only 7 persons around, a

decision was made to start program with discussion about repression, this

was an extra-point proposed on Saturday, but not dealt then due to lack of

time. Questions related to current projects of Avtonom had to be dealt later

in the day with bigger group of people, when there were some 20 persons

around.



There was usual discussion on the always controversial issues about who is a

political prisoner, what a solidarity group should do and who we could help.

There are currently dozens of political "leftist" prisoners in xUSSR, from

small urban guerrilla groups and also completely trumped up cases. However

there are no clear anti-authoritarians in trouble, and in Autonomous Action

there will never be consensus about need of supporting any of the current

prisoners.



Instead a point was made in favour of forming a working Anarchist Black

Cross group inside AD, which would work strictly by principle for anarchists

by anarchists.


This because although right now there are maybe not clear anarchists in

trouble in xUSSR, it is just a matter of time when there will be. And also

if we do not help those currently in trouble abroad, such as Polish

anti-fascists, we may not expect any help from abroad when the shit blows up

in xUSSR. Any lawyer in Russia costs $1000, Á sum far beyond our capacities.



It might be that issue of supporting some unknown anarchist in a far-away

country is not a killer mobiliser to a picket, but there are also other

things we may do, such as writing letters. Any number of Avtonom should

dedicate a page or two to issue of prisoners. In the end, a decision was

made to found a Black Cross group inside AD, and that in the beginning

Nizhni Novgorod group would co-ordinate this work..



Publications of Autonomous Action



The official program of the day started by discussion about common journal

of Autonomous Action, Avtonom, which is also most widely distributed

libertarian publication in xUSSR. At first people raised usual criticism

against punky style of layout and language in the paper, but this discussion

was soon halted -- the same discussion took place in every single preparatory

conference, and both 2 general meetings of the AD during the last 3 years.

And as usual, the conclusion is that change of the style demands change of

the editor-in-chief, but there are no volunteers. And those wanting more

intellectual and theoretical journal should set up a separate paper anyway,

since "most intelligent" journal in the scene, Naperekor has finally ceased

to be published after its 12th issue. Some new people were accepted to

redaction of Avtonom.



Yaroslavl group raised a completely new idea to make their now monthly

bulletin, formerly known as Trotyle Equivalent, as federative. Everyone

agreed that we need more regular publication than Avtonom which seems to be

unable to catch its quarterly publication pace, but people had reservations

against Trotyle Equivalent, since it has extremist rhetorics, and thus is no

less subcultural than Avtonom although it is not that much oriented to any

musical subculture. It was decided that Yaroslavl tries to take into account

these criticisms, they will publish new bulletin and if people like it they

may distribute it in their locals.



Getting new people involved



Following section of the program was rather confusingly named -- as "cadre

politics of AD" in lack of a better term. Really it the point was about

getting new people involved, and what is even more important, about

transferring hangers-around to self-organising active subjects. Some groups

of people are difficult to integrate to movement, for example in Yaroslavl

and Votkinsk pensioners have shown militancy in actions organised by

anarchists, but attempts to get them into movement have failed. It was

pointed out that AD should have more public activity, since conferences and

general meetings must be somewhat closed we should also have some kind of

public presentations, bit like the way trotskist are seducing people with

events on "antiglobalism", whatever it means. It was also decided that AD

should make a well-made booklet about itself including manifesto and other

basic information.



Also other "agitational materials" were discussed... since Ivanovo is a

concentration of textile industry, they will take care about our federal

flag investments! Several provincial cities, such as Yaroslavl, Nizhni

Novgorod, Ivanovo and Minsk are setting up small anarchist libraries for

activists to use.. Moscow group may buy books from bookstores and to

distribute to these locals. It was also decided to more effectively share

information about available resources, for example Moscow has an old

notebook (486 DX) which we could pass to some group. It just spent few years

in Grodno. There should be other funds than that of the federal, since

membership payments are too small. It was also decided that AD should more

effectively react to actual events in form of resolutions and press

releases.



Summer camps



Next discussion was about summer camps. One person appealed for forming an

xUSSR co-ordination group to encourage xUSSR participation to Warsaw

anarchist conference of June, in vain. However there was some interest about

travelling to Warsaw, as well as to border camps which have been planned at

least in Poland and Romania, something might get organised in Grodno as

well. However many may not travel to abroad because you need a costly

special passport for that, so it would be important to have some kind of

camp in Russia as well. Either a camp similar to Rainbow Keepers camps, or a

discussion-training camp on our own which have been talked about for years.

Rainbow Keepers do not yet plan any camps, but Atshi wants to organise a

camp, maybe in Taman as last year. A new referendum should be organised in

Votkinsk, a delegation of radical ecologists will head there in the end of

March to evaluate the situation. There will be some kind of camp in Minsk as

well, organised by BAF.



Discussion about coordinatory council was one of the more depressing moments

of the conference... it is organ of AD, which co-ordinates work between

meetings in the real life with a strictly limited mandate. Collective works

in an e-mail list, and has a decisionmaking period of 2 weeks. During last

autumn council collapsed for difficulties of access and general ignorance of

members, but conference failed to find more than one new member. Each

collective of AD has one vote in council. This work is seen as boring and

bureaucratical, also working guidelines of council and AD in general are

difficult to grasp since there is plenty of grammatical errors in them. A

person was delegated to correct these documents. It was decided, that no

general referendum will be organised during the spring, and that in case it

is not possible to organise general meeting in South of Russia next August,

Yaroslavl will be an emergency variant. Nizhni Novgorod will collect

materials for and publish next issue of óÁÍÏÏÐÒÅÄÅÌÅÎÉÅ (Self-definition), internal bulletin of AD.



Anarchism and "antiglobalism"



There was a spontaneous discussion about Attac. It was noted that Attac in

xUSSR is a very different than in the West. In some cities of former USSR

it is a trotskist front, in another ones a grassroots group. The scale is

everywhere small. But it was pointed out that the theoretical roots of the

movement come from the West anyway, where movement is militantly reformist

and very hostile to any kind of anti-authoritarian ideas. One person said

that even if xUSSR Attac is different, participating to it is an act of

unsolidarity with Western anarchists whom Attac is persecuting. However

no-one demanded cutting all links to any local Attac groups in xUSSR. One

person was delegated to write an article revealing those sides of Attac

unknown to many anarchist in xUSSR.



Last point of the program was discussion about movement against global

capitalism and PGA, for which there was no time in Saturday. As for the PGA,

talk was more like a monologue since most of the people had not really grasp

about it, and little ideas how to participate. Some people had information

that G8 would maybe come to Russia in 2004, and there was a discussion about

possibilities to organise international protest in Russia. Some people were

more pessimist, some more optimist, but in the end it was decided that we

should go for that anyway in order to get our level of activity to next

level. It should be possible to get at least few hundred international

protestors to Moscow, and it is unlikely that it will be anything more

dangerous for them than Genoa.



In the last minutes of the conference a very good and concrete proposal came

up -- to organise an all-Russian anti-militarist action in prior to beginning

of the spring military call-up, 30th of March. It was decided that in

northern Russia activists of AD will converge to Nizhni Novgorod, since we

should travel to other events except conferences and too often everything is

centred around Moscow."