On the 24th day of the Russian attack against Ukraine, Sunday 20th of March, something important happened. Around 150 activists and workers from Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Georgia, Bulgaria, Czech, Romania, Hungary, Greece, UK, Italy, Slovenia, Moldova, Germany, USA and other countries gathered in an online assembly against the war and for a transnational politics of peace. This assembly was called after a statement released by the Transnational Social Strike Platform soon after the Russian attack was signed by more than one hundred political organizations, collectives and unions around the world and has been translated into twenty languages.
The large amount of feedback received gave us the sense that something more was needed and with the support of some of the first signatories we decided to call for a public online assembly to discuss together and find the road towards a different politics amidst the fogs of war. We were overwhelmed by the number of registrations and participation in Sunday’s assembly: 175 people registered for the assembly, around 150 participated in different moments, and some more couldn’t take part because we reached the account limit. We apologise for this. However, there will be more chances to join the process as we decided to make this political space open and continuous.
We collectively called ourselves the Permanent Assembly Against War. The Permanent Assembly will be a political infrastructure where collective discussion and collective power can grow in the direction of a transnational politics of peace and coordinated initiatives.
The Permanent Assembly is against the war, but it is not neutral: we are on the side of people trying to survive this war in Ukraine, on the side of people fighting against this war in Ukraine and Russia, on the side of people suffering because of this war far beyond the affected regions, on the side of people bearing the weight of economic sanctions, on the side of refugees who are escaping from this war as well as of all refugees and migrants seeking a better and safer life, on the side of workers fighting against exploitation and the attempt to use this war to implement even harsher conditions upon their lives, on the side of women and LGBTQI people claiming freedom against patriarchal attacks.
The Permanent Assembly does not substitute current initiatives: we support many local mobilizations against the war, solidarity initiatives, practical support, assemblies and gatherings in their different forms. But we think that against the militarisation of our lives, a transnational politics of peace is the only possible condition for empowering social struggles, movements and our collective capacity. The Permanent Assembly will be a political infrastructure where collective discussion and collective power can grow in this direction and coordinated initiatives can be organized. In this perspective, we also support the idea of making the next 1st of May a day of struggle against war.
We will regather online on the 9th of April and we will make sure that everyone that shares the goals of the Permanent Assembly can participate. Meanwhile, in the next few days we will work collectively to translate the variety and richness of the contributions to the assembly into a common text. A new section of our website will host more contributions, articles, useful links and initiatives of solidarity and support.
Read here the introductory text to the meeting: What do we mean by a transnational politics of peace?
Whoever is interested in taking part in the process can sign up in the No-to-War mailing list by sending an email to: tss-no-war-list-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
More from us soon: stay tuned!
Permanent Assembly Against War
For a Transnational Politics of Peace
