[YS: The following is a translation of an article by Israeli Anarchist group Unity on the actions of Ukrainian Anarchists during and since the uprising there against Russian imperialism. Many on the left have treated the uprising as a uniformly reactionary movement due to its admittedly rotten leadership, thus committing the usual falsehood of all middle-class Marxist groups with regards to anti-imperialist struggles. Among those who have taken this position is the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency, including my comrades in its local section, the Internationalist Socialist League.
Thus, due to the importance of this issue, I have decided to translate and share this article. In the past, I have condemned Unity's support of the imperialist attack on Iraq, under the excuse of defending the Yazidis and Christian minorities from ISIS pogroms. I stand by what I said, but while I have disagreements with Unity and with the positions expressed in the article (for instance, I hardly think it would be correct to characterize the uprising as a "bourgeois revolution"), the importance of this article is in my opinion rather obvious.
You can find the Autonomous Workers' Union's website here, and the original article on Unity's website here. Out of respect, I would like to stress again that I have only translated the article, and took no part in researching or writing it. I have endeavored to translate the article as literally as possible, without altering formulations.]
The Anarchists During the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution / Yigal Levin
What do we know about the revolution which took place in Ukraine during the winter of 2013-14? Do we know that a bourgeois-democratic revolution took place? We do. That the twisted government of the pro-Russian oligarchy was toppled? Also true. That Ukraine is now being smothered by a brutal, bloody civil war? Without question. But what do we know about the Ukrainian revolutionaries? Did they accomplish anything in the midst of the struggle between thousands of hostile forces? We will answer these questions in the following paragraphs.
The Autonomous Workers' Union
In Ukraine, there is an Anarcho-Syndicalist organization called the Autonomous Workers' Union (ACT in Ukrainian). The organization is a small workers' union (a syndicate) with about 50 members across Ukraine. The organization takes parts in a variety of struggles, including workplace struggles, creating workers' co-ops, running an informal school, as well as writing and distributing original articles. During the revolution, the organization supported the uprising of the Ukrainian people, with its members often joining first aid groups which took care of the injured (of whom there were quite a few due to the struggle against regime forces - the "Barkut"), but the organization's most meaningful accomplishment was the occupation (or liberation, depends on how you look at it) of a building complex which used to be a factory (closed down due to the breakdown of Ukraine's economy) and its socialization* into a community center and a home for civil war refugees.
The "Autonomy" Community Center
During the revolution, the Kharkov local took advantage of the crumbling government's weakness and the helplessness of the municipal authorities and took over (due in no small part to the help of the organization's students and youth) over a factory complex, where most of the buildings used to serve as offices and workers' housing. In the factory's large halls, the organization set up a movie theater which screens movies dealing with social issues several times a week, a public dining hall, bike repair shops, laundry rooms, public showers and rooms for entire families. Today the center is home for twelve families which fled from the civil war raging in East Ukraine (between the new pro-Western regime and the pro-Russian separatists who wish to secede from Ukraine and join Russia). Many refugees come to the center every week to receive food or medical care, and the showers are also widely used. Every day, dozens of social activists (mostly anarchists) work there to expand the center and prepare it for new families (there are all in all around half a million refugees from the war zones, thousands of them in the city Kharkov), with the potential to make the place into a truly liberated zone (including creating a tent city and taking over several buildings). With winter approaching, this means a wide and thorough preparation, including ovens, water heating instruments, clothing and warm sheets. But not all is perfect in the Anarchist utopia in Kharkov, as the forces of reaction are not sitting idly by either.
The Battle Over "Autonomy"
It did not take long for reaction to show its ugly face, and after a few months of the center's activities, the new government in the city opened up a campaign against the anarchists. At first gangs of pro-Russian neo-Nazis were sent to the center to try and take over it. However, after a few fights from which the anarchists came out on top, the gangs were expelled. At that point, city hall decided the send in the police (which was re-organized after the revolution) to put an end to the center and jail the revolutionary anarchists. But the anarchists were prepared. Together with locals and refugee families, they made the center into a fortress. After a failed attempt at a takeover by police, and in light of the anarchists' local supporters' rage, the police stopped trying to disperse and close down the center. The revolutionaries and the rest of the center's residents learned their lesson, and organized a guard for the center, always ready to make it into a fortress once more.
Theory and Practice
The Ukrainian experience shows us that only organizing within a given structure can be of use. It shows that anarchists have their place in a revolution, even if it is a bourgeois revolution. It shows that a violent struggle and self-defense do lead to important results in practice (and not just in theoretical blabbering). Without a strong organization, without the ability to concentrate the effort, Ukrainian anarchists would never have been successful in any of the initiatives which we have recounted here. As disorganized individuals, they would have been cast to the sidelines, and any activity would at best amount to Facebook "activity" in the vein of "ah... the Nazis are taking over our revolution again, this isn't our revolution". The Ukrainian experience shows us that even a small organization, if it is consolidated and united, can accomplish a lot during a revolution. We must learn for them and adopt only the positive.
*The alternative economic organization put forward by anarchism. The property (factory, workshop, house, school etc.) will belong to the local collective (workers, craftsmen, tenants, students...) as opposed to private property (privatization) or state property (nationalization).
