2007-05-29

Communist comrades from Kirov and Altaj: Dear Comrades at the Convergence Centre, Dear Visitors,

In the middle of the star, we used a symbol which spurred a hot discussion as soon as it was there: hammer, sickel and a book. We admit that we made a mistake not to discuss this earlier than when it was practically finished. Comrades of us from Germany and other countries make it clear to us that they do not want such symbol in this place. At least we succeeded in communicating one thing: this symbol did not appear there by chance.
We sadly understood that hammer and sickle means just communist parties and their ruined experiment to build anti-capitalist state out of the SSSR, the GDR and other countries. All right, let’s talk about history then. We have not singled out our history for deportation as bourgeois media is suggesting to us every day. Experience from the past might be painfully incomplete and unsatisfactory… nevertheless, we can hardly build another future without drawing upon it, can we?
Long before World War one, hammer and sickle appeared in the dissenting labour movement. Yes, socialist parties as well started to use it, especially those who later called themselves Communist. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels described in their manifesto of the same name that: „The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties. They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole. They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.“ Hammer and Sickle started as a symbol for working people against the daily violence of Capitalist and Feudal Exploitation in the cities and in the countryside. Hammer and sickle promise thast unity of the working classes can help put an end to the exploitation of women and men by man and state. This promise made lots of different parts of the left use hammer and sickle at the beginning of the 20th century, comprising socialist as well as anarchist backgrounds. We think they were on the right track: without unity of the exploited class against our exploiters, there will be no classless society in our lifetime. What else should we fight for? To liberate labour, maybe that could be a common aim of our most diverse movement?
Our understanding of social conflicts develops alongside to the personal development of ourselves and the society around us. Intelectual workers face the same machine of exploitation and repression of creative faculties as do manual workers in late capitalism. That is why since the 1990s many people in Russia add a book to hammer and sickle. To be precise, hammer, sickle and book is really not a symbol of the past: it came to life when the Soviet Union was already stiff and dead. For us hammer, sickle and book are a symbol belonging to the future, a future we can only build with the help of your inputs.

And there is another issue tied to the first two elements which is especially dear to many comrades who came to fight the G8 from todays Russia. Hammer and sickle are the signs under which Europe was liberated from German Fascism. That, actually is not a thing of the past for us, but a legacy burning in our senses. Just this year, the Russian right-wingers in power tried to rid the commemorations of the End of World War II on 8th, ie. in Russia 9th of May from hammer and sickle. They want to censor the legacy to predetermine future oblivion. They would not succeed. Thanks to the stace of many anti-fascists and war veterans we could preserve the sign. Putin and his oligarchs in power had to give in reluctantly. It is painful to us that right wing provocators as the so-called „National Bolsheviks“ in Russia equal hammer and sickle to Nazi symbols. No passeran! HAMMER AND SICKLE ARE FOR THOSE WHO REALLY USE THEM… e.g. tomorrow when ATTACKING THE G8 FENCE AROUND HEILIGENDAM.

Your communist comrades from Kirov and Altaj,
Rostock, 25th May 2007

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