cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6943504
cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/11749
The voice of an anarchist who fled Ukraine to escape mobilization and war thecollective Thu, 12/04/2025 - 15:10
Mainstream media and even some “anarchist” or “radical left” media outlets bombard us with reports about soldiers on the front lines, but stubbornly refuse to listen to the voices of those who reject war and violent mobilization for war purposes. We take a different approach. We prefer to give space to the voices of those who fled the war rather than to hypocrites who describe the war as a liberation struggle.
Viatcheslav is an anarchist who fled mobilization. To quote him: “I refused to join the army and fled at the beginning of the war in 2022. It’s not that I particularly like Putin’s regime; I know very well that he is a dictator and that under his regime I would have no freedom and, as an anarchist, my life would even be in danger. But I have no desire to sacrifice my life so that the Ukrainian bourgeoisie can enjoy their privileges, so that the sons of oligarchs my age can continue to sunbathe on the beaches of Odessa while I tremble with fear in a trench, waiting to be bombed by a drone. War is also a class issue: if you are rich, it is very easy to obtain a medical certificate and be exempted from going to the front. That is not my case. It is not fair. That is why I decided to leave. Here in France, I was not welcomed with open arms.”
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I don’t know how I feel about this.
On the one hand I find it hard to blame somebody for skipping out on war - especially if we’re talking about someone who will most definitely be press-ganged into being the unwilling cannon-fodder.
On the other, we’re still talking about leaving your fellow working-class people in the lurch - it doesn’t matter that it’s the politicians who cause it… the people you leave behind will be paying the price for it.
I suppose I can only speak for myself - if the US does a regime-change here (as the Biden-regime was threatening to do), I couldn’t be able to bring myself to leave. The people living in this country deserves my loyalty first and foremost - and that trumps any and all amount of abstract politics.