We also signed the following statement:
Over the past few years, quite a few organizations and groups have appeared in the anarchist milieu that actively exclude activists from Solidarity Collectives, ABC-Belarus, and a number of other anarchist and anti-authoritarian organizations from public events, blocking their participation and writing various kinds of “statements” condemning their work in support of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion. The basis for such behavior is often the distorted positions of activists from Eastern Europe on the war. Anarchists are accused of becoming militarists, supporting the war, and not being critical enough of the Ukrainian state.
In our opinion, such behavior is not worthy of the anarchist movement — we believe in the need for dialogue on controversial issues. Attempts to force anarchists to say the “right” things so that Western comrades are willing to listen to them and donate to them look like coercion. We do not consider the work of the Solidarity Collectives and ABC-Belarus to be in any way pro-war or supportive of state militarism. We categorically condemn any attempts to isolate anarchist collectives from Eastern Europe on the issue of the Russian regime’s military expansion.
We call on other anarchist collectives to show solidarity with anarchists who are fighting here and now against the regimes of Putin and Lukashenko with weapons or stones in their hands. Resistance to the state is not possible without solidarity, critical thinking, and dialogue on complex political issues.
You can find the list of signatories to this statement at the ABC-Belarus website as well as a longer text about the recent exclusion from the ACABB bookfair in Berlin.