Saint-Imier: Fédération Anarchiste statement against attacks

About a fascist-like attack that occured during the St Imier "anarchist international gathering" Bookfair, a communication from the French Anarchist Federation.

FA statement against attacks
From Le blog de Floréal
Translated by Tachanka Makhno (on facebook)
July 24, 2023

From July 19 to 23, one of the cradles of anarchism, the International Anti-Authoritarian Meetings, were held in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. The event was unfortunately marked by the attacks suffered by the militants of the Francophone Anarchist Federation (FA) who held a press table.

The FA issued a statement, which I reproduce below. To better understand why this communiqué recalls that "the struggle against religion, all religions, and theocratic powers" constitutes one of the fundamental principles of anarchism, it should be noted that the aggressors demanded that the militants of the FA remove René Berthier's book Un voile sur la cause des femmes and Hamid Zanaz's L'Impasse Islamique from the press table. Religion against life.

According to the information I received, which remains to be confirmed by the comrades present at the Meetings [and which have since been confirmed], the little soldiers of militant Islamism or their useful idiots who committed the attacks were even hooded. [one of the anarchist militants of the Anarchist Federation was even injured during the attack and had a bloody nose]

WILL THE CRADLE OF ANARCHISM BECOME ITS TOMB?

The book stall held by the activists of the Francophone Anarchist Federation in the Book Fair of the International Anti-Authoritarian Meetings of Saint-Imier 2023 suffered several attacks (books stolen, torn, soiled, burned, intimidation, physical attack, etc.).

These acts contradict the fundamental principles of anarchism:
⁃ Freedom of speech;
⁃ The fight against religion, all religions, and theocratic powers;
⁃ Solidarity.

They are dangerous because they establish a thought police echoing the worst regimes we are fighting.

Against obscurantism and intolerance, let us mobilize libertarian forces!

(Saint-Imier, July 23, 2023, Francophone Anarchist Federation)

There are 16 Comments

"Freedom of speech;" is a liberal principle, GTFO

As for "The fight against religion, all religions, and theocratic powers", okay, this is consistent with anarchy.

So you could have just dropped the freezepeach issue as not only it's arbitrary but not really wanted... you don't want your anarchist gatherings to be having fascist, racist publications or pedo defenders, right?

Aside from this, part of the French radical milieu is infested by these pro-Islamist knuckleheads and it's way too bad I wasn't there to punch them in the face personally as they're fucking toxic.

So the fact that all the classical anarchists endorsed free speech is, what? their mistake?

And if free speech isn't sufficiently anarchist, what is? censorship?

A slave cannot be held responsible for what the masters tell them to do and say, but free people can.

"all the classical anarchists endorsed free speech"

Even if that'd be true, they're classical anarchists.. i.e. not living or struggling in OUR CURRENT SOCIAL CONTEXT, but people that wrote from the standpoint of how the context was 100-150 years ago. Only the bigoted zealot cannot see how context is everything, and act & think as if we're still in 1886, or 1936.

not "even if" ... it's just true

i believe you're perhaps mistaking the bad faith reactionary arguments about free speech, mostly in the american context, for the real argument? which is quite old and not controversial at all to claim as a fundamental anarchist principle?

liberalism includes a highly conditional and unevenly applied "guarantee" of free speech, so that's garbage

reactionaries want to sneak in hate speech and totally ignore the paradox of tolerance, also garbage

anarchists should be able to discern who is making legitimate claims about their speech being denied by applying a critique of power, that's what we do. actually use our brains.

Freedom of speech is a liberal principle and whistle and even within the disgusting sess pool of liberal ideas, freedom of speech does not mean absolute freedom of speech. When its held to that standard then they'd might as well break out tables for fascist organizers (I'm saying I agree but expanding upon it.)

"As for "The fight against religion, all religions, and theocratic powers", okay, this is consistent with anarchy."

Yes, but just as freedom of speech isnt absolute, The fight against religions and the faithful is also not absolute.

We can and should take a more aggressive approach against fascists and their ideological beleifs. With religion and the faithful, which that distinction need always be considered, there are degrees of oppression and oppressors. Not all of the faithful are oppressors. Most of them come working and impoverished communities. Because their are varying degrees amongst them, our response to them must also be multi faceted.

Being against all religions doesn't mean being against all religious or all the time. Not in that way that being against the institution of policing while simultaneously being against all cops because they are each, in their way, actively participating in the oppression and abuse of others. Not all of the faithful are actively participating. Plus, a person chooses to be a cop. Many of the faithful were indoctrinated as children, as I was. A pederast rapist priest is not the samething as an old woman that goes for the community. Many of them have a faith that would be described as weak, for others it's non existent.

Furthermore, we do not live in anarchy. We each of us make sacrifices to our principles on a near daily basis to several times a day to exist in this world. Compromise is necessary in many regards while intolérable in others. Neither can we afford dogmaticism. We have to recognize when it's appropriate to adopt tactics that are not anarchistic. We have to be flexible enough to remain relevant or be blown away by the winds of modernity.

We need the working and impoverished on our sideand we need to be there for them when we can. It's where we pull the majority of our numbers, naturally.

We can act against a person's religion and make a distinction between them and their religion. I mention all of this because in the West there is a particular antislamic repression. People in struggle is one of the ways in which we can connect to through solidarity and aid. We can be against their religion and be distinctly against the répression they are facing. A lot of the anti Islamic sentiment is rooted in racism anyways. Taking an active stance against the répression they face will allow us to build bridges between our communities and that will provide opportunities for discussion and pulling some of them away from Islam. In the fight against religion, those are exactly the kind of comrades we need to undermine the oppression that Islam creates.

I noticed that there was no mention as to the escalation from the FA. It's fine if they believe they were in the right, which I personally disagree with, but by not providing the context of their own escalation allows the issue to be intentionally mischaracterized by omission.

They are not the victims the OP makes them out to be. The books were stolen and destroy, there was a brief scuffle and one had their nose hurt and that was also in part due to the actions of the FA whether or not the other side was wholly correct, incorrect or somewhere in between. Failing to mention their own actions and ignoring their own culpability is intentional misrepresentation. If they want to promote sincere discourse so that we can all understand, learn and grow so that issues like this are less likely to be repeated then a good place to start is an honest account from thier perspective. And it's not like they sudden forgot that they were also aggressive and uncompromising.

"We need the working and impoverished on our sideand we need to be there for them when we can. It's where we pull the majority of our numbers, naturally."

you sound like a communist, or anyway an "organizer." go preach from a pulpit, convert the masses. i am an anarchist and i make common cause only with those who also fight for their freedom. i am not here to rescue the scum who embrace authoritarianism , nor do i bring the torch of enlightenment to teach them how to act in their own best interest. i don't need the approval of "the workers."

"They are not the victims the OP makes them out to be. The books were stolen and destroy, there was a brief scuffle and one had their nose hurt and that was also in part due to the actions of the FA whether or not the other side was wholly correct, incorrect or somewhere in between. "

your careful passive voice, "one had their nose hurt" and saying it was somehow their own fault sounds like the "officer involved shooting" doublespeak one hears from the mainstream press.

you are correct that western anti-islam sentiment is almost all reactionary and racist but that doesn't mean islam isn't despicable.

i'm curious who did it and what their justification is. we're talking about some dingy back room in st imier so i assume the attackers were other anarchists-in-name, but that's only supposition.

pro-islamist "antifa" types remind me of the insane cult of antideutsch. both are to be avoided and despised

They represent a somewhat opposite corner of the spectrum, tho. Antideutsch afaik are pro-Israel where the pro-Islamic "antifa" (who're antifascist only for non-Islamic cultures and groups) got an antisemite skeleton in the closet.

If you look at the awesome work that the dudes at The Empire Never Ended did, there's a hugely larger ground for fascism within political Islam, and it only got worse through Euro and American imperialism. As a matter of fact several prominent fascist figures have embraced Islam as the perfect traditionalist ideology.

Neonazi groups and the rest of the Far Right are still a problem, yet a dangerous issue these days in antifascism is antifas overlooking Islamic fascism, (because of some ID pols)... or even going after those talking about the matter.

i agree with a lot of what you're saying, including that it's been kind of interesting to see fringe dominionists praise the taliban -- but imo zionism & islamism aren't at all opposite corners, just another "China vs USA" false dichotomy.

You don't know whom they are or their reasoning or justification and you make grand presumptions about whom they are and their reasoning. Well, I suppose that's one way to do it.

Jackie, if you can't be bothered to learn the difference between who and whom, then just always use who so you don't sound like nitwit. Those of us who do know the difference can only cringe when someone botches it, not once, but twice in a single sentence...

disagree that anti-religion is an anarchist tenet unless one defines religion in a particular way. there are aspects to/types of even christianity that can be liberatory, and define their god in some anarchist-friendly ways. iblame xianity for mos tof the ills of our current society, but even i have to leave a little room for the wide diversity, and i expect islam is similar. 99% shit, but 1% something interesting.

thankds 23:44 for the link.

Just want to mention that the FA brought at least 5 batons (70cm of 4cm diametre) to the bookfair. Two of the FA were ready to use them against people, but were fortunately disarmed. (Imagine where you hit, when you're in a crowd!)

this depiction of events is largely false and the anarchist federation is a bunch of people who openly said they are islamophobic. as far as im concerned the real mvps are the german nihilists who disarmed the french federation when they took out batons and started beating folx. stop listening to these old white dudes who are stuck in a racial context of the 80s and start listening to bipoc comrades who have spoken out during the gathering about this situation. you'll see that y'all are building strawmen that aren't real and are finding reasons that aren't behind these actions at all. goddamn, leave your bubbles.

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