This morning most of us woke up to the news that the war we had been waiting for had started, or more properly escalated since this war has been going on since 2014 and already claims many thousands of casualties.
As a network, we feel the need to make our stance clear in this for two reasons. Firstly, local black metal scenes, the kind the Antifascist Black Metal Network was created to fight against, were intimately involved in the preparation of this conflict in both Russia and Ukraine, from spreading nationalist hatred to outright funding right-wing paramilitaries, and second, as leftists, communists, and anarchists we need to address the proverbial elephant in the room.
This is a war where no side fights for justice. It is waged between a NATO-backed right-wing government that has been consistently propping up its own neo-Nazi movement and an imperialist, de facto dictatorship propped up by totalitarianism, institutionalized racism, nationalism, and religious fundamentalism.
We make it clear that we choose to take the side of neither of these opportunist warmongers in neoliberal disguises.
In the name of class solidarity, we choose to stand with the working people in Ukraine, caught in the middle between the imperialisms of NATO and the invading Russia with their own government being complicit in their victimization.
As internationalists, we stand with the Ukrainian and Russian minorities who have already suffered by the racist tension purposedly intensified to create the conditions for the war.
We stand with the anti-war movements of both countries, the communists, anarchists, and antifascists who are trying to stop a conflict between nations in such a harsh time and while being repressed and arrested by their governments.
As we oppose any oppression, we stand with the minorities and the LGBT+ people who will still be persecuted, and with women who are subjects of abuse in every war, no matter who wins (if anyone actually does).
We stand with Ukrainians fleeing their homes, not knowing when and if they will return, and being “welcomed” by the xenophobic authorities of the neighboring EU countries. We urge everyone to aid them any way they can.
But being anti-war also means going on the offensive. Some of the countries we are from are already preparing their own invasion. The war machine must be disrupted everywhere.
No war but class war is still the hill we choose to make our stand.