Protestbrief, 17 september 2001
Auteur: De Fabel van de illegaal
Protestbrief naar Attac De Fabel van(de illegaal zond op 17 september 2001 de onderstaande brief naar de Nederlandse, Belgische en
Franse afdeling van Attac, een organisatie die streeft naar de invoering van de zogeheten Tobin-tax$(belasting
op speculatiekapitaal). Met de brief gaf De Fabel gehoor aan eån oproep om te protesteren tegen de
financiering door Attac van een Russiscle delegatie die deze zomer de demonstraties tegen de G-8 in Genua
bezocht. Deze delegatie bestond voor een deel uit mensen die aanhangers zijn van politieke partijen in Rusland
met nationalistische, racistische, antisemitische en homofobe standpunten.
Leiden, the Netherlands, 17.9.2001
Dear Attac,
We, members of the anti-racist organisation "De Fabel van de illegaal" in the Netherlands, are writing to you to express our extreme disappointment on learning that, during the recent anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa, Italy, a Russian-Ukrainian delegation mainly funded by the international association Attac (via its French and Belgian sections) included leading members of a red-brown organisation, the Russian Communist Workers Party (RKRP), an individual responsible for promoting the fascist National Bolshevik Party in Russian labour campaigns, and a former Yeltsin money-launderer who, during the demonstrations, praised Putin in front of the mass media. Further, these individuals manoeuvred to assume political leadership of the delegation and afterwards stole the limelight in the mass media.
In July 2001 Attac largely financed the trip of the joint Russian-Ukrainian delegation to Genoa. Alexander Gelenin, a Russian left activist known for his uncompromising stand against racism, nationalism and collaboration with neo-liberals, has exposed the participation in the delegation of racists (the so-called "red-browns") as well as a former Yeltsin money-launderer. In Genoa, and then back in Russia, these right-wingers succeeded in taking almost all the credit for the delegation in the mass media.
Two participants of the delegation, Nicolaev and Vedernikova, are leading members of the RKRP, an extremely racist and homophobic party whose members worship the murderous dictator Stalin. Many of the youth closest to the party are admirers of the butcher Pol Pot. The party recently published material urging Russians to struggle against rap music (!), on the grounds that Russians and Black people can never agree. In 1997 the party approved an official statement blaming the economic crisis in Russia on Jews, and they have also published material urging that gay men be locked up in prison.
In the anti-globalisation movement internationally, all kinds of nationalists are advocating protectionism and racism as the antidote to "globalisation". Therefore, according to De Fabel van de illegaal, left activists should not fight against the socalled "globalisation", but against the capitalist system as a whole. Left activists should build up a movement against capitalism, racism, nationalism and sexism, and not against "globalisation". Because the word "globalisation" means nothing and everything at the same time, it is useless in the left struggle for emancipation and liberation. You simply cannot be an internationalist (or an anti-nationalist) and an anti-globalisation activist at the same time. So the anti-globalisation movement should make an end to their vague and diffuse ideology and should become a genuine anti-capitalist, anti-nationalist, anti-racist and anti-sexist movement.
Greetings,
De Fabel van de illegaal