As the torchlight parades and flaunting of nazi insignia were proceeding with impunity on the streets of Kiev back in 2016, a group calling itself the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign (USC) had emerged in Britain to warn workers against ‘taking sides’ in the conflict. Its argument was, that there are oligarchs and nationalists on both sides in the conflict, with one side backed by western imperialism and the other by ‘Russian imperialism’. Its conclusion was that workers have nothing to gain by affiliation with either side, and that they should concentrate instead upon advancing their own class interests – that’s how the argument still runs nowadays.
‘Not taking sides’ against fascism in the Ukraine should be hard to accept but when it is backed up by all the Russia-baiting war propaganda churned out hourly by the imperialist media, it becomes easier. Unfortunately, the ultra-left nonsense of ‘neither Washington nor Moscow but the working class’ still has traction in Britain with a working class movement so bewildered by long association with the Labour party’s imperialism.
So where do the real interests of the working class lie in all this? They lie in fighting imperialism.
Our party said it back in 2016 and repeats it today that If Ukraine’s workers become complicit in the national oppression of the Donbass, they place an obstacle on the road to their own social emancipation. If Ukraine’s workers recognise the struggle of the Donbass against fascism and against the imperialist agenda as their own, they clear away an obstacle for themselves. And if British workers understand what is really going on in the Ukraine, if they stand in solidarity with the resistance against NATO-backed fascism, then they will strengthen their own fight against capitalism at home.
The government in Kiev demonstrates its fascist character, to the embarrassment of all those who preach that we should not ‘take sides’ in the Ukraine conflict.
Right from the start the Maidan demonstrations had at their core violent fascist groups like Pravy Sektor (Right Sector) and Svoboda (formerly the ‘Social National Party,’ The violent overthrow of the democratically elected President Yanukovich was led from the front by fascists, as was the massacre of at least 48 people in Odessa’s Trade Union House in May 2014.
In summary, our analysis is that it is not Russia but NATO which is the aggressor in Ukraine. NATO has been carrying out aggressive actions in Ukraine ever since the end of World War 2 and has consistently used Nazis and their descendants as its proxies there. The USA in particular, with support from Britain, sponsored fascist remnants to wage a guerrilla war in the years after WW2, they helped the leaders of that defeated war to escape into comfortable exile in the west; many of them were then absorbed into the CIA. They were brought back to Ukraine after the collapse of socialism and have been a tool of the imperialists ever since. Two coups have been carried out at the behest of Nato/the USA since 1991: the first in 2004 (the so-called ‘Orange revolution’), the second in 2014 (the so-called ‘Maidan movement’).
Both times, elected governments whose policy was one of friendly neutrality towards both east and west were removed in order to make way for a more controlled anti- Russian leadership. Since the Maidan coup, it has become ever clearer that the ‘government’ has no control over the country, no ability to make policy or direct its own economic or military forces, but is merely a CIA front.
The war to resist this coup government and to resist the second-class citizenship it immediately imposed on Russian-speakers has been going on in the Donbass region ever since the Maidan coup of 2014. This context is totally disappeared by western media, who cared nothing for the lives of the 14,000 Ukrainians who had already died in the interests of imperialist profit and domination, for the silencing of opposition voices, or for the rampaging of fascist thugs on Ukrainian streets. The imperialists want to control and loot Ukraine’s resources and to use Ukraine as a base from which to attack Russia.
The fascist forces, who have always had an ideological hatred of Russians, communists and jews, can be relied upon to misdirect the anger of any worker who will listen to them, as well as to be a militaristic force on the streets to put down the resistance of the people. We should be clear that the fascists of Ukraine, although their roots can be traced back to the revolutionary period a century ago, have always been willing tools of outside forces, whether British, German or American imperialism. It is to the imperialists’ money, training, weapons, propaganda support, diplomatic cover etc that these forces owe their strength.
The present escalation in Ukraine actually begun by the Ukrainian/US side. The Ukrainian side had signed up to the peace process at Minsk, a process ‘guaranteed’ by France and Germany, but Ukraine’s fascists, armed and emboldened by the US/Britain/NATO, would not allow the implementation of its terms and viewed it merely as a delaying tactic. When Zelensky made a small show of going to the border of the liberated areas to ‘talk peace’ it became apparent that he was port parole of Azov.
In the end, under pressure from the Russian people and parliament, who had been watching the war’s progress for eight long years (unlike workers in the west, who have been given no information about it at all), President Putin recognised the independence of the territories of Lugansk and Donetsk and agreed to give them military support against attack.
If the Russians wanted to avoid a massacre in Donbass and the spill-over of the war into Russia itself, they had no choice but to act swiftly to remove Ukraine’s ability to wage such a war against its own people. It also had to take note of the existence of the biowarfare programme and the growing evidence of a nuclear programme.
Who is the real responsible for the escalation?
We argue that the global capitalist economic crisis and the desperation of US imperialism to restore its waning hegemony is bringing the possibility of a third world war closer than ever.
The US-led NATO wants to keep the war in Ukraine going by any means necessary, desperate to overthrow Russia’s government, break up its vast territory and loot its valuable resources.
The economies of the USA, the European Union, and Britain are sinking and they have staked a lot on winning this war with first Russia and then China.
War exercises are scheduled for June, when the Baltic states and Poland will host what Nato describes as “Europe’s largest integrated air and missile defence exercise”, involving 23 countries.
While it is not possible for us to know NATO’s precise plans, it is worth noting that while US-backed Poland is making increasingly belligerent noises regarding Russia and Ukraine, US-backed Israel is also making regular threats against Iran, and various US- backed east Asian and Pacific countries are making ever-more menacing moves towards China. Most left wing parties in Britain, have remained deadly silent on the huge increase in imperialist military hardware in the Pacific. Allowing the US stationing of the Thaad missile system and spying equipment in South Korea represents a major threat not only to DPRK but to China and Russia. It brings more danger than security to the people of Korea and closes the door to peace and reconciliation. Facing a common threat to national security imposed by Washington and Seoul, China and Russia and other regional countries can only come closely together to address the issue.
Ukraine has been used and abused by its ‘friends’ in the west. They subordinated the country’s national interests to those of imperialism, bankrupted its economy, shackled it to IMF debt slavery, groomed the monster of Banderite fascism, encouraged Kiev to a vicious eight-year military campaign of genocide against the people of the Donbass and finally exposed the Ukrainian people to the inevitable backlash
Having incited Kiev to pick a fight with Russia, the USA slipped away, leaving the regime to face the music. Tragically, it is the Ukrainian masses who will suffer the most.
When it became clear that the supposed ‘defence of the nation’ was in the shaky hands of a demoralised and disintegrating army, supplemented by neo-nazi militias like the Azov battalion whose military expertise consisted primarily in kidnapping civilians and using them as hostages, and an assortment of jihadis and mercenaries, not excluding some from Britain – then it was from the outset obvious that the Kiev junta must face defeat, and would be best advised to sue for peace and save further bloodshed.
But that does not suit Zelensky’s ‘friends in the west’, who are ready to fight to the very last drop of blood.
And the longer Britain, the USA and the rest of the imperialist pack can keep pouring endless amounts of very expensive weaponry into the bottomless pit of the Ukraine war (330 million pounds until now), then the longer can the admission of defeat be postponed and the more scope remains for imperialist war propaganda to try to get a grip on the collective psyche of the imperialist countries.
Above all, imperialism needs to soften up public opinion ahead of the coming wars with Russia and China.
Perhaps for Ukraine the end of the war, or this phase of the war, is in sight. But the other war – the economic war of sanctions initiated by Washington against Moscow – has only just begun, and will have repercussions that will affect the whole world, a world that is already in the grip of a massive overproduction crisis.
China on the other hand has denounced the sanctions against Russia, thereby boosting the morale of those who, pricked by economic necessity, seek to challenge or evade third- party sanctions. International relations forged in the context of resistance to American bullying may settle into more durable bonds later on. The move from a unipolar to a multipolar world gathers pace and there is a gravitational shift from Washington to Beijing and Moscow.
We argue that the war in Ukraine may come to be seen as a significant milestone on that road.
Our party is one of the very few voices that present the context of this conflict to workers in Britain:
The west-backed fascist coup of 2014 , eight years of brutal war by west-trained fascist militia against Russian-speakers in the Donbass, the constant provocations of NATO war rehearsals on Russia’s borders, the deployment of troops and missiles in neighbouring countries … all this context has been disappeared by the leaders of Britain’s mis-named ‘antiwar movement’, who are only too happy to jump on board with the imperialist media’s demonisation of Russia.
Anyone who wants to truly ‘stand with Ukraine’ must surely welcome the chance for its citizens to rid themselves of the fascist thugs and to regain a modicum of independence from the imperialists who have been recolonising their once-proud land.
Imperialism is mortally offended by the very existence of strong and independent countries like China and Russia, countries which are ready and able to defend their sovereignty and which can offer smaller countries relations of reciprocity, not hegemony. The sight of Russia and China carrying on and succeeding whilst imperialism plunges ever deeper into crisis, drives the west into a paranoid frenzy.
To the imperialist mindset, it is unthinkable that the markets and resources of such countries should not be freely available for plunder and domination by foreign monopoly capital. By this logic, the sooner Russia and China can be broken up and assimilated into the ‘rules-based international order’, the sooner will the west secure a temporary reprieve from the consequences of its own crisis of overproduction.
What can and must be done:
The decline of the Euro-Atlantic axis under the US as global economic, political and military power is clear.
The rise of China and the pole formed around it is also clear.
China’s economic power does not have the corresponding military acquis, apart from its clear superiority in the navy and in some other areas.
Today, Russia, utilizing the USSR-acquired military arsenal, currently has a clear advantage in certain super-weapons.
However, even a quick victory in Ukraine will not solve the problem of the next day for the peoples of Ukraine, Russia and the whole post-Soviet space from the impasses of the bourgeois counter-revolution / capitalist restoration.
Without China’s economic power, present-day Russia is doubtful as to whether it can withstand long-term conflict. As a matter of fact, the pole forming around the role of China unites the countries that have emerged from the most important early socialist revolutions of the 20th century and the associated anti-imperialist / anti-colonial movements.
Russia today is by no means the USSR and should not be confused with it. However, present-day capitalist Russia owes all its power to what remains of the October Revolution and socialist construction, and is compelled to invest its movements with meanings and references to the glorious Soviet era and its antifascism. Because NO GREAT REVOLUTION OCCURS WITHOUT LEAVING A TRACE IN HISTORY.
The outcome of this conflict will depend on the upgraded role of the rising China. The same goes for the character of the ongoing world war. At present, China without the Soviet-made arsenal of Russia is as much at risk as Russia without China’s economic power. To the extent that the escalating shift of power crushes fascist forces while defeating NATO and the Euro-Atlantic axis militarily, this can only be a gain for the future of the revolutionary movement.
We must proceed in siding with the right front and forming anti-imperialist alliances without ILLUSIONS
Without illusions ABOUT THE INTERESTS that the current Russian ruling class serves, WE MUST nevertheless UTILISE EVERY DISORDER, EVERY MATERIAL & ETHICAL DAMAGE AND WEAKENING OF THE MAIN ENEMY, EVERY CRACK, EVERY OPPORTUNITY ARISING, Because the main target of our struggle and THE MAIN ENEMY OF STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE IS THE US-led Nato and its proxies.
