downas

Like change itself, crises are a constant for social life across planet Earth. Yet the past few months & years of newly prominent wars have brought particular crises into focus among opponents of the global status quo.

Anticapitalist reactions to these explosions have been diverse, contradictory, & occasionally confused. Without believing that dialogue can “solve” this condition, we remain convinced that an intentional & open conversation can at least clarify our alignments & enable opponents of the world-system to better act against it. Besides, people are already talking about these things.

We are calling for an intentional, public discussion around the following issues:

• anarchy, abolitionism, internationalism & antinationalism;
• inside/outside collaboration against jails & prisons;
• squats, “land projects”, & [anti-]colonialism;
• strengths & weaknesses of anti-border work in North America & Europe;
• relations with liberal progressives, peace police, electoralists, & Marxists;
• u.s-centrism, eurocentrism, & anglophone linguistic domination in radical spaces & networks;
• pervasive apathy & ignorance regarding past & present struggles in Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, the Pacific;
• honest assessments of defeats/setbacks like Lützerath, U.S. summer 2020 (police funding increases), Egypt 2011-2015;
• white supremacy, colonialism, & the disparate responses to [anti-]colonial wars in Palestine, Kurdistan, & Ukraine.

There have already been quite a few open critiques, arguments, & denouncements touching on the above subjects & no doubt there will be more. Our hope is that by encouraging others to lay out the context behind these “internal” conflicts, anticapitalists will find better ways to navigate their consequences & bring an end to the scourges of modern empires.

(If you're interested in having these discussions online, consider basing them off of social media, whether or not they're to be had publicly.)