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Statement from Stop the G8 regarding the summit in Fermanagh next year international |
anti-capitalism |
press release
 Tuesday December 11, 2012 13:08 by STOP G8 stopg8 at riseup dot net
 We are an autonomous group of activists who have been meeting over the past 6 months to organise a resistance to the G8 summit. We have already put out a call out for a week of action against the G8. We have decided to adopt the PGA hallmarks, and we try to organise non-hierarchically using consensus, respecting the autonomy of groups and individuals involved. As we are not based in Ireland we do not feel we are able to make a call out for a mobilisation in Ireland. We are continuing to organise a week of action to coincide with the summit and as a part of this there will be a convergence in London. We do not want this to preclude any action at the summit and we would like to support and work with groups that have similar aims and principles to ourselves. We understand that the political focus in Ireland may be elsewhere and want to know if our network can show solidarity with mobilisations against the EU presidency or the G8 summit. We are stronger together and we are all part of the same anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist struggle. |
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4" We are stronger together and we are all part of the same anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist struggle."
In the context of Northern Ireland using the phrase "anti-imperialist struggle" and the reference to Ireland (but not the UK) is likely to be read as a pro-republican statement.
Personal cards on the table, I am not involved in Stop G8 and don't even think organising against the summit is a good idea but this is not why I am making this comment. I care about you folks and worry that statements like this which are clearly partisan towards one nationalism endanger you; both physically (if you end up going to N.Ireland) and mentally (if nationalism regains a foothold in the anarchist/activist left).
"Anti-imperialist struggle" has often meant supporting those who aspire to becoming prison guards, politicians and police over those that hold these positions now. In N.Ireland republicans "day" has not "come" but they have won through hard anti-imperialist struggle the right to become part of empire: prison guards, politicians and police.
I would highly recommend, especially to those who signed onto the above Stop G8 statement, the excellent "The Continuing Appeal of Nationalism" by Fredy Perlman.
Available at: http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/fredy-perlman-th...alism
In response to the usual lefty liberal weak willed hand wringing, I would refer readers to Mao Zedong's inspiring text, "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War," in which he writes:
"Can a Communist, who is an internationalist, at the same time be a patriot? We hold that he not only can be but also must be. The specific content of patriotism is determined by historical conditions....Thus in wars of national liberation patriotism is applied internationalism. "
Full text:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-...0.htm
“It is historically impossible today for a great people to discuss earnestly its internal problems as long as it lacks national independence . The Irish and Poles are most internationalist when they are nationalist”
Engels, letter to Kautsky, 7 February 1882.
The Socialist who aids directly or indirectly in perpetuating the privileged position of one nation at the expense of another, who accommodates himself to colonial slavery, who draws a line of distinction between races and colors in the matter of human rights, who helps the bourgeoisie of the metropolis to maintain its rule over the colonies instead of aiding the armed uprising of the colonies; the British Socialist who fails to support by all possible means the uprisings in Ireland, Egypt and India against the London plutocracy – such a Socialist deserves to be branded with infamy, if not with a bullet, but in no case merits either a mandate or the confidence of the proletariat.
Trotsky.