Response to the public reaction of Vrije Bond Utrecht
Response to the public reaction of Vrije Bond Utrecht.
Dear comrades from Vrijebond,
It would be better, if you were able to make it to our last assembly but we hope we can meet you and speak directly some time in the future. We say this, not because we don't want to write out our position, but mostly because we prefer to speak in the assembly where we can have a better dialectic and ideas can flow more freely than over the internet. Still, we appreciate the time and thought you have put in your critique and we generally find it positive that the movement is using Indy Media for campaigns and sharing ideas more frequently—we believe that Indy Media should be the main platform of the resistance and the anti-authoritarian movement. (Though we do have our criticisms of the way Indy Media NL is structured and we will share our thoughts on this privately with our comrades from indymedia.nl)
You were right to point out that our statement that "the proletariat of the Netherlands are the immigrants" requires some explanation. So let us elaborate on our position. We did not intend to state that we see immigrants as 'one homogenous group', like when we use term working class, a diverse group of people also fall under the label of 'immigrants'. What unites these diverse groups of people and individuals under the label Immigrant, in our understanding, is their position in society. The way in which immigrant is generally used, implies both a position of social class and a having reduced rights to work and welfare in comparison to (Dutch) 'nationals'. Of course, the ruling class and the micro bourgeoisie also cross borders, immigrate and live and work abroad- but we do not include them in our definition of immigrants (after all, if you are rich you're an expat or an émigré) because they belong to a different social class and do not suffer under the same reduction of rights as immigrants do.
The nature of work and social class have changed quite a lot since Marx's time- life and work under post-fordist, neo-liberal capitalism is far more precarious, and our understanding of social class needs to be updated to reflect this. There is a difference between what we see as the 'working class' and 'the proletariat'. The working class includes the proletariat in it, but is not the same as the proletariat. In our definition the proletariat is the part of the working class that is solely reliant on their labour power for survival. When we say that "the proletariat of the Netherlands are the immigrants", we do not mean that there are no Dutch workers or that there is no Dutch working class, we mean that the immigrants are in a hyper-precarious position because they have reduced rights to work and social welfare compared to Dutch workers. A Dutch worker, even if fired or unemployed, will have some legal and financial support from the regime, but immigrant workers will not receive the same special support when they lose their job.
In fact, the legal and financial support that the Dutch workers receive from the regime is the result of the wealth that all the workers have created, with the difference that the Dutch workers benefit a little from it, while the immigrant workers do not. By Dutch worker is meant any person who has acquired Dutch citizenship. We believe the immigrants in the Netherlands are the proletariat precisely because we believe they have the biggest revolutionary potential- their hyper-precarious situation means they have the least to lose. The ruling class exploits these inequalities betweenlocals and immigrants in order to stop class solidarity and the creation of a common struggle. We strongly emphasise the importance of class solidarity between locals and immigrants – the fact that this does not exists means that there is no struggle to build equality amongst the working class.
(EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE) This political and social stance does not mean that we believe in reform, but that we believe in equality, and ultimately the main goal of these struggles is to overthrow capitalism and to create a structure based on socialism (without a state).
This is not just a political analysis and a statement, but the fact that the anarchist organization for the reconstruction of the militant proletariat is made up out of immigrants and local people proves materially that we have engaged in this kind of struggle since the beginning. For these reasons, we must note two points on political resistance:
1-Political groups, especially workers' organisations, which are made up out of only local people - are not politically acceptable to us.
2-Any statement or political discourse that does not have a materialistic background behind it is not acceptable to us. For example, we believe that if a person or group has not engaged in armed struggle, they are not allowed to comment on how such a struggle should be waged. For this reason, everything published by the anarchist organization for the reconstruction of the militant proletariat will have(and had) a materialist basis.
We have observed that in the Netherlands many anarchists and leftists tend to victimise immigrants instead of organising with them. There is a clear and important difference between charity and solidarity. It is only through self liberation that people can achieve their own freedom. And even mostly those anarchists and leftists who organise with immigrants, not only do not move the potential of immigrants towards self-defense, but humanitarian and reformistic activities is the result of such unity.
There are so many excuses we've heard being used; cultural differences, language barriers, pre-existing hierarchies, the need to prioritise some material conditions, the list goes on – why some anarchists/squatters and leftists choose to exclude those they are supposedly helping from being involved in making decisions about the things that directly concern them. When you are doing this it seems that you think it is impossible for immigrants to self govern. Your views are not only wrong, they are racist too. Self liberation and self governance is not an after thought, it is the means by which we liberate ourselves.
We generally say that the anarchist organization for reconstruction of militant proletariat has no intention of 'helping' immigrants- rather our goal is to organise the locals and immigrants to solve common problems stemming from the existence of capitalism and the state. We do not want to help immigrants but we believe in class solidarity which comes from the common struggle of locals and immigrants. Many anarchists and leftists in the Netherlands are counter-revolutionary because they do not understand the common class struggle between immigrants and locals, they are only carrying out humanitarian activities that try to keep immigrants happy in their oppressed position.
The power of immigrants has been proven historically, let's recall the forty thousand rifles sent as solidarity, within just a few days, to the strikers (who were also migrants) in Ludlow, Colorado in 1914, and in March 2020, let's recall the historical responsibility that anarchist refugee Abtin Parsa carried to call for armed uprising (He asked for weapons to arm immigrants in the borders of Greece and Turkey) to open the borders for everyone. This is the real identity and the history of the struggle of immigrants, not humanitarian activities, do not help immigrants—fight alongside them.
At the moment, we do not need to name groups and individuals who are para-state, but our future activities will materially determine this.
In solidarity.
Anarchist organization for reconstruction of militant proletariat
24 January 2021