Dear comrades,

My name is Ratibor Trivunac, I am antiquarian bookseller by profession, from Belgrade, Serbia. I am anarcho-syndicalist and anti-militarist activist for more than two decades, with primary focus on activism in the Balkan region of Easter Europe. I was very pleased to get an invitation to this videoconference and I am very sorry that I will not be able to participate in it directly, due to previously planned engagements, but via this video message. I do hope, on the other hand, that there will be other opportunities in which we will be able to exchange our opinions and coordinate joint actions against inter-imperialist bloodbath that is the war in Ukraine.

Some of us, working-class activists from ex-Yugoslavian region of the Balkan peninsula, who are unlucky enough to have lived through and remember the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, have ourselves directly witnessed civil war, nationalist bloodshed, imperialist aggression, sanctions, anti-war movement, coloured revolution, brutal transition to neo-liberal capitalism, mass impoverishment of the working class, retraditionalization and general lowering of the civilization level in our societies and Eastern Europe as whole. Therefore, our understanding of this events is not only theoretical, but has an experience note in itself, and is thus providing us with important additional insight into the nature of Ukrainian war, that is eluding many of the comrades in the West.

Specially us, anti-militarists from the Republic of Serbia, apart from the above-mentioned things, had an experience of the proxy-war during the Yugoslav civil war. Slobodan Milošević, leader of Serbia (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), which was not an official participant in the war in Bosnia and Croatia, has been arming, training, organizing and directing Serbian forces in those places. This experience sheds additional light into nature and praxes of proxy-war that US and EU are engaged in the inter-imperialist conflict in Ukraine. But also, into mechanism that warmongers are using to deny participation in the war, while providing infrastructural and every other practical support for the working-class slaughter.

War is not lead only via direct military clashes, via funding, arming, training, organizing and directing armies, but also by imposing sanctions. As we, anti-militarists from Serbia, have lived during the 1990s under strict regime of sanctions, we have experience, apart from rational understanding, that confirms that sanctions are in fact war against the population of the sanctioned state. There is no doubt in our mind of horrifying social consequences of sanctions politics. Thousands of preventable deaths and all other form of additional suffering were imposed on the population which did not have any responsibility for the war politics of their ruling class. It is never the ruling class that suffers from sanctions: in the case of war in Ukraine, Putin and his cronies will not be the one who will have difficulties in obtaining needed medicaments and other necessities, but, as always, ordinary working class people. This is why all states that are sanctioning Russia are part of this war, leading the war in fight against the Russian population. And this is why anti-militarist struggle must include vehement fight against sanctions.

As with all wars, this war has led to rising of nationalism and chauvinism. In this context, for us as European anti-militarists, it is important to underline anti-Russian racism that is prevalent in the EU, discrimination of people of Russian (and Belarusian) origin, denial of their right to move, study or work freely, banning of Russian culture, etc.

We have to remember that our primary role as anti-militarists – and especially during capitalist and imperialist war conflicts – has to be fight against our own ruling class. We should never allow our ruling class to convince us that the ruling class that is the enemy of our own masters should be primary target of our activities. In case of war in Ukraine this means for anti-militarists active in NATO states or NATO controlled states, that our primary target has to be NATO side of the war. This does not mean that we support Russia, but that we understand that, apart from abstract declaring that we are against both sides in this inter-imperialist conflict, our practical focus can and should primarily be on the activities of our ruling class. And in Balkan, as it is in majority of Europe, this is the ruling class whose military arm is NATO. Concretely in Serbia: in period before the war Serbia was publicly claiming to be militarily neutral as it held joint military exercises with NATO and Russia in 10:1 ratio – 10 with NATO comparing to one with Russia. Since the war started, Serbia proclaimed neutrality in the war, which it is in reality keeping by jet not imposing sanctions on Russia, but also proclaimed terminating all joint military exercises with both sides. But, just after one year of war, Serbia restarted its joint military exercises, now /only/ with NATO, while Serbian produced guns and ammunition are being sent in huge volumes to NATO side in the war and territory of Serbia is used for the transport of military equipment to Ukraine, again to NATO side in this bloodbath. I do hope my short presentation didn’t take too much of your time, and that we will be continuing our joint fight against the war in the near future.