For us, organizing ourselves means to weave networks of solidarity and collectivity, developing a common attitude and culture of comradeship. This involves friction and conflict but also the promise of fighting together for liberation from the oppression that pervades us. Building such relationships of solidarity is not merely another aspect but permeates through all of our politics: How do we become revolutionary subjects together? How can a perspective of global liberation be organized transnationally? How are politics at eye level possible in the context of inequality?
Transnational
In a global system of exploitation and oppression, the struggle for liberation must also be global. From a decolonial perspective we want to learn from the struggles of this world, question and cross the national boundaries of our political action. We especially want to set ourselves in relation to uprisings and revolutionary projects, like the self-administered structures in North and East Syria/Rojava and the Zapatista region. The destructive role of Germany is obvious: weapon supplies and military missions to support dictatorships on the one hand and the destruction of livelihoods in the Global South through the German economy model and in Southern Europe through European crisis policies on the other hand. We understand revolting against this imperial devastation and organizing the broadest possible resistance not merely as an expression of solidarity. We are at the heart of the beast. From that accrues a special responsibility but also the power to act.
Neither our analyses nor our strategies would be complete or even sufficient if we do not overcome Eurocentric ideas and integrate the perspectives of our comrades from the Global South. It is our task as the organized and radical left to create spaces of critical and solidaric negotiation and reflection. Moreover, we must ask ourselves the question of how we provide resources and practically support organizing processes, for example when our Eastern European comrades forge transnational and feminist alliances under the most adverse conditions - not as a charity but as a way to self-position us within these struggles. At the same time, the growth of local counter power is important for a left-wing hegemony project, globally and locally. It is not about the question of whether the focus is international or local - the two dimensions are inseparable. Capital operates across borders and relations of exploitation are transnational. The same applies to the emergence of cracks and fault lines in the capitalist system.
The crisis protests against European austerity politics were an important experience for us. Within the context of Blockupy, we have fought our struggles for a moment on the European level. Yet it has not worked out to initiate a more binding and transnational organizing process within the framework of Commune of Europe. A significant reason was that the determination of our politics continued to be nationally grounded and internationalism was rather thought of as a north-south solidarity. The platform Transnational Social Strike was also founded in this period. Despite crises protests tailing off, the platform succeeded in maintaining transnational structures. It is where we encounter many of our former companions and new comrades once again, mainly from Europe but also from other parts of the world. Here we will primarily look for linkages between our struggles to develop an outset for a transnational practice in the next years. We also seek to forge closer ties with those asking the same questions as we do and sharing a political understanding with us. Additionally, we will consolidate and intensify processes in which we learn and exchange ideas with our comrades from the Kurdish liberation movement who already operate transnationally.
Radically antiracist
Antiracist struggles have not been this diverse and visible for a long time. They affect all dimensions of societal life and are part of global struggles for life itself. It is not just about a reaction to racist murders. It is about the interplay of institutional and everyday racism that permeates all spaces, including left-wing spaces. They are struggles of desire and rage against the state order that is enforced by cops with deadly violence in everyday life, against humiliation, against categorization. Based on the experiences of these struggles, there is a broad controversy about identity and class politics. We reject the false juxtaposition of “economy” and “culture”, “class” and “identity”. Racism cannot be reduced to an attitude or a discourse nor an instrument for the exploitation and division of the working class. Racialization is produced through images and language, as well as used by the capitalist system and institutionally organized through the distribution of rights and access. Racism is a comprehensive social question, produced in structures and inscribed in individuals.
Radically antiracist practice fights the unequal global conditions, acknowledges the interconnectedness between global and local labor divisions, defends the right to freedom of movement and supports those that practically enforce this freedom. It also affects the conditions among us, in the Interventionist Left and the societal left at large. Taking the post-migrant reality as a point of departure, the antiracist movements question the normal state of society. In doing so, they challenge their white German comrades in the radical left and make it clear: Racism is not only the problem of a few, even though it affects some more than others. To live as free and equal people we must become others. Therefore we engage with the way racism inscribes itself into us and our connections: with varying experiences regarding the police and other state institutions, with the interweaving of political ideologies and economic relations such as racism, capitalism and neoliberalism.
One thing is clear: Whoever wants to overcome the racialized and oppressive relations is dependent on including the knowledge of those oppressed. We have a critical perspective on the concept of (passive) allyship that is propagated in parts of the left. We counter this with the active relationship of comradeship. That is because the racist state of normality can only be overcome if racism also marks the struggles of those not immediately affected because they do not want to be part of a racist society. BIPoC and migrants have always been comrades in social and emancipatory struggles. We neither want to stand voiceless alongside the struggles nor dominate them. Knocking over the literal paddy wagon, fighting in solidarity, in inequality but at eye level, that is our aspiration.
Living comradeship
Within our joint organization, we encounter each other as comrades. We share a political desire for radical political change. A long breath is needed for that. We want to enable each other to become political subjects with such a long breath. We are aware of the adversities of everyday life, the isolation and individualization, the exhaustion and the impositions that are forced upon us by the social conditions. For us, to be organized together therefore also means to promise each other to walk this path of the long breath together and collectively oppose (our) powerlessness.
We work towards a culture of seriousness that is necessary for this path. This has something to do with (self-)discipline but nothing with militant toughness. Seriousness also means being caring, warm and connected. It does not mean that, in false mindfulness, we stop letting each other make mistakes, as is suggested in the neoliberal ideology. Neoliberalism leads to the moralization of the political and places the problem in individual misbehavior. The unfulfillable demand for self-optimization leads to isolation, individualization and retreat. Instead, we want a form of collectivity in which critique and self-critique are not understood as an individual pressure to change but as an expression of solidarity, liveliness, kindness and commitment between comrades.
One aspect of comradeship is our attempt to address structural discrimination within the organization. To this end, we have created various formats in the last years and comrades have taken these on themselves. Gender-separated spaces, the internal self-organization of BiPoC and exchanges about discrimination experiences in regard to class origin are instruments for making discrimination addressable. This makes it possible to meet in inequality but at eye level nonetheless. We have collectivized the experiences with criticism of masculinity and articulated a minimum standard on that base. An important step for us as an organization was to develop a guideline for dealing with sexualized violence and creating approachable structures on the foundation of solidarity-based partiality with those affected. We are aware that neither a guideline nor coming together in certain positions can replace the political stance and responsibility of any individual comrade. It remains a constant task to fill the guideline with life and sharpen our understanding of how we want to deal with patriarchal violence and perpetrators or the concrete meaning of solidarity-based partiality. In cases of sexualized violence, we want to take collective responsibility. This includes the possibility of making mistakes when doing so. To learn from mistakes and good examples as well as being able to negotiate different assessments, we need an exchange within and outside our organization. This is the only way to create renewed and resilient networks of solidarity.
Networks of solidarity are also tied between different generations. Several generations of struggles converged into the founding of the Interventionist Left. That has always meant a concurrence of different experiences and political traditions. We view these differences in knowledge and experience as an opportunity to learn from each other. Yet in the last years, we have engaged too little in how knowledge can be collectivized and experiences made accessible. Partly because of that, we strive to expand our educational work. We hope that this will enable us to evaluate struggles, strengthen our analytical skills, better position ourselves within the societal left and develop a shared historical consciousness. This will help us to remain calm in turbulent times when events rapidly accelerate and conflicts escalate.
Especially in times of increasing repression, solidarity is more important than ever. The criminalization of political protest, the shattering of left-wing groups by the application of terrorism paragraphs and the expansion of police authority are a taste of the fierceness of conflicts to come.