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89 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
89 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
[The following appeared in Insurrection, an anarchist magazine
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from Britain of the late 80's. This is one kind of discussion
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which we do not find so often in North America. In the next
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week Autonomedia hopes to make several of these articles
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available electronically.]
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INTERNATIONALISM
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A restricted view of the struggle is doomed to failure.
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If not in terms of immediate results (improved conditions,
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growth of revolutionary consciousness, development of
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the movement, etc) at least in the long term modifying of
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power relations.
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The revolutionary struggle is "total". It involves the
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possibility of life for the exploited in all the diffeent
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parts of the world, hence the need for the "total"
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intervention of the revolutionary even when operating in
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a circumscribed and therefore "immediate" struggle.
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But this interest cannot limit itself to simply reading
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the newspapers and keeping oneself informed on what is
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happening in the world. It must go a little (or a lot)
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further than that.
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Proletarian internationalism is an active intervention,
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a participation in the struggles of the exploited that
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extends everywhere.
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But there is a mistaken way of considering this basic
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revolutionary perspective. It was applied by the
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authoritarian parts of the movement in the seventies
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with disastrous results. This mistake has mechanical
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characteristics and consists of taking what one
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considers to be the highest point of the clash
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(ie the situation of the peoples in the third world)
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where social and economic conflicts are more obvious,
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and carrying them-as a strategic and methodological
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propsal-to within the situation of the more advanced
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countries (the so-called metropolitan situations). In
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the past one heard of bringing Vietnam to Berlin or
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London or Milan. The mistake was in sanctifying the
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open armed clash unreservedly and in transferring these
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aspects to situations which had, and still have very
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different characteristics.
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But in practice it was not a question of real
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proletarian internationalism. The far-off situation was
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seen as an occasion for pushing the local situation.
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The transferral en bloc was done with a view of obtaining
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sympathy and propaganda on the wave of results that the
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struggles of those far-off peoples were achieving.
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We feel that today more than ever real proletarian
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internationalism can go towards one of two solutions.
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Firstly, the classical one which is spoken about less and
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less now and has come to be seen only through the
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distorting lense of a now out-dated romanticism, is that
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of direct participation through internationalist groups or
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brigades. A lot could be said about the subject which we
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shall put off until some future date where it can be gone
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into in more detail among comrades.
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Alternatively there is the other aspect, that of real
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"support" to the internationalist struggle.
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It should be said that this support cannot be reduced
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to a simple subscription. Even if very useful, it is
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certainly not the first thing that the exploited engaged
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in a struggle expect. There is also the so-called
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"political" support, ie counter-information, demonstrations,
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picketing of consulates and embassies, letters of protest.
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All very useful things.
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And then there is the attack against those responsible
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for exploitation. Both internally and externally. Without
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wanting to give this aspect priveledge over all the
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others, we must say-very clearly-that to do only the first
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renders such activity ineffective. It means reducing the
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manifestation of thought and and opinion to a banal
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exercise of democratic dissent. It means the transformation
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of financial support into an act of charity which is mainly
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an alibi for oneself. To do the two things together has a
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more serious signifigance and corresponds to what we
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consider to be true proletarian internationalism.
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a.m.b.
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