Reflections on Internationalism

Today, many Indonesian anarchists criticize the implicit pedestal over the working classes implied by going "down" to the so-called masses. While I empathize with the critique, the practice itself promotes identification with the working classes and catalyzes an understanding of the material conditions from the standpoint of our working classes, producing an emotional and intellectual resonance that is impossible to otherwise obtain. Learning how to do revolutionary work is an affective process that requires prolonged and thorough immersion, as much an orally transmitted form of art as a rigorous scientific inquiry. Such learning is impossible to obtain in Singapore alone, was impossible in 1990s Indonesia, and remains impossible for many others, whose memories and traditions of revolutionary work have been severely repressed. But through experiencing immersion in revolutionary work elsewhere, organizers can access the shared international heritage of our struggle and their own alienated national histories, too. Through the other, we discover ourselves.