Written by Working Group “Just Do It!” of AntiFa AK Cologne, Published March 2012.
Introduction
The following article was written in the context of the mobilisation for the international project “M31”, a European day of action against capitalism and the crisis. It is a first attempt to describe our approach of “antinational communism”*. Antinationalism is a fairly new, German-specific perspective on left-wing radical politics. It came about in the early 90s in Germany as a reaction to the reunification of a new, greater Germany and the occurrences of racism/fascism by a reactionary civil society. What is its central tenet? Nationalism or – to be more precise – the idea of the nation itself is seen as the central ideology, the all-time dominant, undeniable category in the global, oppressing power relation of capitalism and the capitalist state, which we want to see abolished. From our point of view, an antinational perspective goes beyond traditional left-wing approaches (classical anti-imperialism). And yet, we do not like to focus on Germany and its specifics alone and instead pick up a certain idea of international networking. We want to free this approach from its Germany-focussed isolation and – especially now at a time of crisis, when we can develop transnational reference points – start discussions with comrades in other European countries. Hence we decided to call this approach “international antinationalism”. This is also one of the main motivations for us and our antinational, German-wide network “…ums Ganze!” to engage in the project “M31”, which was largely initiated out of Germany.
*For us, communism has so far never existed. Communism is “the real movement which abolishes the present state of things” (Marx), i.e. the total negation of the present, capitalist world order for an emancipated, liberated society. The Soviet Union and “real-existing socialism” never was able to get rid of certain basic-capitalist categories, like value or wage labour. Thus, our use of the term communism distances itself from historic attempts at “Real Socialism”.
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The following is a post written to the Marxism email list by Henning Böke, titled simply “Antideutsche, once again”. It presents a nuanced overview of the development of the anti-Germans, one of the very few english-language resources on the topic. It was originally posted here: http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2006w24/msg00284.html
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This text was written by the West German radical Left group “Revolutionary Cells” in 1983, and addresses nationalism and anti-Americanism in Germany and in the German peace movement. [Source] — eds. Contested Terrain
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February 15th, 2012 | admin
Announcement: The Yivo Institute for Jewish Research’s Conference “Jews and the Left”. May 6-7, 2012, New York City.
Description: Since the nineteenth century, Jews have played prominent roles in a variety of leftist political movements. At the same time, associations between Jews and communism have been a frequent leitmotif of antisemitic thinking. While the political Left often spoke out against antisemitism and promised Jews tolerance and an end to distinctions between Jews and non-Jews, specific, prominent, leftists espoused antisemitic ideas. In addition, Jews cultivated their own, uniquely Jewish, socialist parties and ideologies. In recent years, the relationship between Jews and the Left has been further complicated by left-wing opposition to the State of Israel and debates about the extent to which this opposition bleeds into outright antisemitism. YIVO, in association with AJHS, will bring together historians, political scientists, philosophers, and journalists from Europe, Israel, and America to discuss some of the important topics pertaining to the relationship between Jews and the Left.
Info here: http://www.yivo.org/events/index.php?tid=183&aid=893
November 14th, 2011 | admin
From Occupy Judaism:
The following statement was approved by the NYC General Assembly November 12, 2011.
Friday’s anti-Semitic, racist acts that occurred on Ocean Parkway in the Midwood Section of Brooklyn and the attempt by the Daily News to link Occupy Wall Street (OWS) to these heinous acts have compelled us to release this statement. When an act of violence and bigotry occurs in our community, we, as a group, need to take a leadership role and stand with other community leaders and fellow New Yorkers to speak out in opposition to these acts. History teaches us that silence can be interpreted as approving or condoning the bigotry.
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October 25th, 2011 | admin
From Radical Archives:
Kalle Lasn (Adbusters): “Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?” (full image)
“Why Won’t Anyone Say They Are Jewish?”, Kalle Lasn’s infamous Adbusters article (March/April 2004), is often talked about. But it is curiously hard to find a copy of the actual image—especially since much of its notoriety derives from it being a list political figures in which the Jewish ones are marked with symbols next to their names! So, with all the brew-ha-ha lately about antisemitism at Occupy Wall Street, we thought we’d pull this one out of the archives.
We have a lot to say about antisemitism and the critique of finance capital; the failure of the left to oppose antisemitism at OWS and how this has handed openings to the right; the left’s pathetic failure in the response to these accusations, which have some validity; and the comparison between the anti-globalization and “Occupy” movements in terms of antisemitism, the critique of finance capital, and Left/Right crossover. But it will all have to wait.
Here is the document.
October 15th, 2011 | admin
On the Federal Reserve
I have noticed some strange, Ron Paul-ish stuff about the Federal Reserve around Occupy Wall Street. I do want to file a complaint about that.
The Federal Reserve is admittedly manna for conspiracists. It’s a fairly opaque institution that does work for the big guys. But it’s not their puppet exactly. A friend who spent many years at the New York branch of the Fed once told me that within the institution, the thinking is that bankers are short-sighted critters who come and go but the Fed has to do the long-term thinking for the ruling class. So it has more autonomy than the popular tales allow.
The founding of the Fed is also a great subject of mythmaking—like secret meetings involving more than a few Jews. (The conspiratorial mindset often overlaps with anti-Semitic stories about rootless cosmopolitans, their greed and scheming.) There were some secret meetings, but the creation of a central bank was a major project of the U.S. elite for decades around the turn of the 19th century into the 20th. There’s a great book on that topic by James Livingston that I urge anyone interested in the topic to read. It was a long, complex campaign, and not the task of a secret train ride to a remote island. Continue Reading »
October 7th, 2011 | admin
Wall Street protests marred by anti-Semitism
New Jewish Resistance | October 6, 2011 | By Seth Weiss
While the Left celebrates the Wall Street occupation with much fanfare — including endorsements from Michael Moore, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, and Susan Sarandon — an anti-Semitic undercurrent in the protests goes largely unchallenged. Continue Reading »
October 6th, 2011 | admin
“My Life Was Linked with that of the Race”
Emma Goldman’s Memoir Living My Life on Jewish identity and Antisemitism on the Left
By Olaf Kistenmacher*
The american anarchist Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and her lifelong friend Alexander Berkman are well-known for their early critiques of Bolshevism, as well as their reflections on radical politics and direct action. When Goldman’s autobiography Living My Life, originally published in 1931, was released in German in the late 1970s, she also became an inspiration for the second-wave feminist movement. For Goldman anarchism did not only mean the overcoming of state power, but also the liberation of the individual from all forms of social domination. Throughout her life, she was engaged in the struggle for women’s rights. As an educated midwife and nurse she was closely familiar with the plight of working-class women. In her memoir she described the challenges of free love with an honesty that makes Living My Life worth reading even 80 years after it was published. Even amongst anarchists, Goldman noted, it was not particularly common for women to live independent lives. Although the “equality of sexes” was discussed in anarchist circles, she wrote, “the only men among them who practiced what they preached were the Russian and Jewish radicals.” (1)
With the new German edition of Living My Life (2010) however, another aspect of Emma Goldman’s political life can be discovered, one that played a minor role in her reception until now: She was a self-confident Jew, and she attentively observed judeophobic resentments in her environment – including within the left. On her self-understanding Goldman wrote: “My life was linked with that of the race. Its spiritual heritage was mine, and its values were transmuted into my being.” (2)
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September 29th, 2011 | admin
Here is a link to an article by someone who, as a response to her criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protests, has received a huge amount of antisemitic hate mail:
After spending hours at the protest on Saturday and Monday, talking to participants, listening in on people’s assemblies and taking pictures, I wrote a report on it for the London-based online magazine, spiked. It was an unflattering account of what I saw as a farcical happening, like something taken straight out of a Monty Python skit. It was surreal and I was astonished that the protesters could expect, let alone demand, to be taken seriously when they engage in such shenanigans as ‘political yoga’, human megaphone meetings, face-painting and fancy-dress parades. One woman even had her boobs out, with the words ‘Free Bradley Manning’ written across them (a reference to the jailed WikiLeaks whistle-blower).
But the responses I got to my article were even more astonishing than the carry-ons in the Financial District. I received a string of indignant emails and tweets about my Jewish, kleptocrat banking connections; demands that I reveal the details of my pay checks and that I come clean about my not-so-hidden agenda. I was told that my family name disqualifies me from having any opinion about the protest and that I have ‘the karma of a demon’. One reader posted my article online, headlining the post ‘Journalist & Jew – Nathalie ROTHSCHILD’.
Read the article here.
And for more examples of this, see the responses to “Concerns about antisemitism” on the protest organizers’ web forum.
