Anarchist Days Leipzig

Yesterday we met in a manageable round to discuss the current state regarding the demo on May 1st at Südplatz, to exchange our positions and how we can still act under the given circumstances.

Self-critically, it should be noted that Aale made a mistake when the group, without sufficiently checking its own capacities and assessing the situation well, called for the anti-authoritarian block on the said demo or promised the demo orga. The same can be said of the groups behind the climate justice block and the A-Day-Orga group. The actionist reflex behind them becomes a problem where it is not matched by structures capable of action and where there are no more conscious goals and methods.

At the same time, we think it is too easy either to simply stay out of this messy situation or to deny the highly problematic aspects of the authoritarian-communist groups. Historical revisionism, a truncated critique of capitalism, a sectarian sense of mission and an instrumental understanding of politics are not mere “opinions” but red lines on the basis of which it is necessary to separate. In the future, we do not want any direct or indirect cooperation with KO and KA and their subordinate organizations.

So all this will be different next year. But a more detailed evaluation can only happen after that date. It does not have to lead to self-dissection at this moment.

Despite this fundamental problem, people will participate in the demo who would join the “anti-authoritarian block”. In our spectrum there is really a deficit in clearly formulating own contents and carrying them to the outside. There are several reasons for this, which are to be discussed and reflected elsewhere. Changing them is a longer process. Within a limited framework, we can nevertheless initiate something on May 1.

Regarding the concrete situation, we make the following suggestion in coordination with Aale:

• If the commies perform a reenactment, let us understand this as a carnival event. Let’s come in colorful ourselves. Black clothing seems to us to be a hindrance for the specific occasion. Those who like are welcome to come in garish, so that together we are conspicuous.
• We want to have our own expression to bring our positions against wage labor, state and capitalism, ecological destruction, patriarchy and racism to the streets. This can be done with signs, flags, banners, chants. We would like many to participate and bring something.
• It is important to articulate our own content and to give voices and mood to our gathering. We can also do this with our doubts, questions and uncertainties. For this purpose we try to set up a sound system. In short contributions and a moderation we want to make especially the participants in the anti-authoritarian block aware of what anti-authoritarian / autonomous / anarchist analyses, critiques and perspectives on the form of society are.

We would be happy if more people find this proposal good. We are anything but satisfied with the messy situation. But we still think that it is important (once again) to try to interfere and to make an offer from our side to people who will come anyway. Since we neither have the capacity nor see ourselves in the positions to do so, we will not offer a consumable demo service. Instead, we want different people to bring and contribute something: a song against wage labor, a thought snippet for the microphone, a sign or transpi, their frustration and their desire.

Jej, we finally found a location for the concert Thursday:

It is the Scherbelburg, a trolley site in the west.

There Florence Rain will briefly cover struggles in the US and then play a set, plus Arbeits Titel Tortenschlacht and the Brazzbandits will perform.

We are happy that everything still worked out,, thanks to all involved :)!

As an organization group of the A-Days we have called for participation in the so-called “anti-authoritarian block” at the demonstration with starting point at Südplatz 15:30. This demo indirectly follows the one with the motto “Red is the May”, which started last year from the same place. Therefore, it is necessary to make some remarks on this:

The first of May is as a day of struggle of the working class until today a symbol for the struggles against oppression and exploitation of the people. Originally, it emerged from conflicts in which anarchists were strongly involved. Later it was rededicated by social democrats as a sausage festival and fetishized by communists. For anarchists, it is important to address the issues of critique of capitalism, struggle against wage labor, and unregulated exploitation because they, like the state, patriarchy, white supremacy, and domination of nature, represent a fundamental relationship of domination.

That is why a May Day demonstration should have in it the great concern, the strong longing for fundamental social change – rather than just being a folkloric procession.

The struggle against wage labor is to be thought in a gradual way, because a break with the economic relationship of domination, the profit maximization, the money and wage labor relationship, is a prerequisite for people to be able to organize, educate and act at all. This requires time at one’s own disposal and self-organized structures. A break with capitalism requires to continue to build socialist economic forms at least in rudiments, in order to be able to fall back on other forms at all, if the existing ones collapse in themselves and are overcome.

Because the struggles involved, if thought of in social-revolutionary terms, are potentially relevant to most people, we have a clear problem with communist groups, which we rightly describe as authoritarian. The influx of authoritarian communist groups in Leipzig in recent years frightens us. We know that with their supposedly clear answers and seemingly convincing strategies they meet a zeitgeist in which disorientation and uncertainty are strongly pronounced.

In April 2022, for example, the so-called “Federation of Class Struggle Organizations” was founded to give the impression that this was a union of diverse and decentralized organizations at eye level. This is not the case, however, as they very clearly emerge from the same quagmire. We observe such tactical behavior again and again, where certain communist cadres try to establish their approaches in an emancipatory left (in the broader sense).

This leads to the point where openly Stalinist groups such as the “Communist Organization” or the “FDJ” waffle for years about how the GDR would have been the “better state,” just as they cultivate a highly problematic solidarity with Russia, completely misjudging the character of the Russian regime. That this authoritarian spirit is accompanied by pronounced Mack behavior, transphobia, and discrimination against sex work is accordingly not surprising. For the same reasons, we reject the anachronistic and idealistic ideology of groups like Communist Construction. Other groups could be listed here as well.

Another factor for the strengthening of authoritarian tendencies, as well as for truncated liberal critiques on the other side, we also see in our own weakness as anarchists. This is not only about those groups and contexts that explicitly call themselves anarchists or to which this obviously applies. It is also about the way emancipatory and rebellious currents imagine and organize themselves to change society, about their understanding of history, and about how they relate to other currents and groups.

As anarchists, we clearly reject political revolution, the takeover of state power. It is a fallacy that states can be used as neutral instruments. We also do not believe that society will develop quasi by itself for the positive. It is necessary that we steer social development in an emancipatory direction. Rather, we rely on social movements, but not only to bring about reforms, but also to create real utopias in a self-organized and autonomous way.

We think that the best organizations should be based on the principles of decentralization, autonomy, federalism and voluntarism. This applies equally to a form of society that we aspire to and to social movements that seek to fight for it – and thus already embody it.

We believe that history does not follow any necessary laws. Instead, we start from many stories that different groups experience in parallel. They are not simply at the mercy of historical developments, but can actively participate in shaping them.

We want to cooperate with all groups and individuals who meet us at eye level and share our basic values. To make this possible, we also need to better organize our own camp and develop a common awareness of our histories, positions and perspectives – and to better communicate them.

Therefore, the actions of certain Marxist-Leninist groups must also be a warning to us. We must respect currents, groups and individuals who are different from us and who have different views. Because alliances at eye level, real unions – in which groups do not merely impose their labels, but are in common processes with each other – are only possible through the recognition of the respective differences, but not when running after (or being driven by) a self-declared avant-garde.

Despite our criticism, we point to the anti-authoritarian block on the demo. Of course, there is a need for a common action of different currents also with regard to the relations of domination of capitalism and the state, which are inseparably linked. In this respect, anarchists have a lot to contribute. We also want to make this clear in order to clear up with the completely arbitrary designation “anti-authoritarian”.

But it is easy to stay out of it and not to get your fingers dirty. It is also clear that demonstrations do not change the world and that they are only as meaningful and good as they are actively shaped. We wish that anarchists, despite contradictions, unfinished discussion processes and different points of view, take to the streets to interfere with their positions. For this reason we will join the anti-authoritarian block.

The precariat does not need hierarchy! No communism without anarchy!

Hello, the program is as good as ready! Feel free to look over it 🙂

With the paperflyers that are already in circulation, the error devil has crept in, 2 events are unfortunately wrong. The flyer version at the page Material is the updated one 🙂

Specifically, the film screening on Wednesday of QD, and the lecture “Strategy of the Snail – Zapatista Autonomy”, which will take place on Saturday, 16:30 in the Meuterei.

Also, a few important things and a description of the program items are only on the blog!

If you need a sleeping place during the A-Days or can offer a place to stay for someone else, please contact schlafplatz_atage[ät]riseup.net

We look forward to seeing you all at the A-Days!

We try to update our english translation regularly. The program will be updated when we have it finished, including short descriptions of the events. You can visit the page “Infrastructur” and “Call” for additional Information regarding the Anarchist Days 🙂