Workers’ Revolutionary Direct Action Against War

For at least 100 years, most organized working-class anarchists have adopted pretty much the same approach to the anti-war movement. And nowadays, movements are living up to that again.

A century long anti-war anarchist narrative

In a 1919 speech in Erfurt, Germany, Rudolf Rocker suggested that the military industry needed to be stopped with a coordinated working-class boycott/strike/propaganda campaign.

This was also the approach behind the foundation of the International Anti-Militarist Bureau against War and Reaction (I.A.M.B.) in 1921:

“[…] the IAMB fights militarism to make war and the oppression of classes and races impossible. It seeks to strengthen in the minds of workers the awareness of the determining importance of their economic power. The IAMB designates the most effective means of action to combat war as general strikes and mass refusal of military service. It advocates for the immediate cessation of all production intended for war. It vehemently opposes any attempt at armed intervention and strives to make the closest collaboration possible among all fighters of all races for a freer society. The more the means indicated by the IAMB are employed everywhere, the more violence decreases in all countries, and the more likely the idea of human personality is to penetrate the masses.’’*

For its part, the IWA’s statutes, from 1922, state pretty much the same thing, but add an exception for solidarity with revolutionary movements that would be engaged in armed struggle:

 “[…] revolutionary unionism fights against militarism and war. Revolutionary unionism advocates anti-war propaganda and the replacement of standing armies, which are only the instruments of counter-revolution at the service of capitalism, by workers’ militias, which, during the revolution, will be controlled by the workers’ unions; it demands, as well, the boycott and embargo of all raw materials and products necessary for war, with the exception of a country where the workers are in the midst of social revolution, in which case we should help them defend the revolution. Finally, revolutionary unionism advocates the preventive and revolutionary general strike as a means of opposing war and militarism.

“No workers in, no weapons out!”

Such was the slogan sung by 600 “Workers for a Free Palestine” unionists and activists gathered on a morning of December 2023 in Wimborne (South UK) to block Eaton Mission Systems factory that ships war plane parts to Israel. Palestine action has also been part of this anti-war direct action movement in the UK, with several property destruction actions. This comes as the anti-war movement learned that large demos don’t have the same impact as direct action does. Indeed, even though 1.5 million UK people marched in London against the war in Iraq, their government engaged militarily in Iraq.

“Together against capitalist wars and capitalist peace”

That’s the motto of the coming 2024 “Action Week” in Prague (starting May 20th) where a congress, some direct actions, a bookfair and a coordination of anti-war actions will take place. Their call for the event fits the 100-year-old anarchist narrative about revolutionary anti-war direct actions:

“[…] let’s talk about how to sabotage the war, how to prevent the proletarians from being sent to the slaughter, how to block the supply and transport of weapons, how to organize desertions, mutinies and fraternization among the proletarians in uniform on both sides of the front line, how to turn our guns against the organizers of the massacre, i.e. against “our own” bourgeoisie and its lackeys…

Let’s talk about how to turn the imperialist war into a revolutionary war for the abolition of the class society of capital based on misery.”

As we’ve seen previously in the IWA statutes, anarchists add the aim of revolutionary overthrow of oppressive structures, such as the State and capitalism, to anti-war direct actions. Both immediate improvements through workers’ direct action, along with revolutionary aims, are the answers anarchists have given to war for 100 years now. That needs to be applied today if we are to live free of war and oppression.