UN General Assembly condemns Russia’s imperialist invasion of Ukraine; USA and Russia Vote No : Anti-imperialist left everywhere at a fork in the road – With Ukraine or Against Ukraine?
The Trump-Putin Imperialist and Ethnic-Cleansing attack on Ukraine is a major turning point.
The anti-imperialist left everywhere is at a fork in the road : Either With Ukraine or Against Ukraine
UN General Assembly passes resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
The Financial Times reported (February 24 2025) :
The UN General Assembly has passed a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine co-sponsored by Kyiv and EU nations, despite the US voting against it and urging other states to do so.
The resolution passed with 93 votes in favour. The US and Russia were two of 18 votes against. China abstained, alongside 64 other countries.
The US had urged countries to vote against as it has its own resolution that calls for peace in the three-year long war, and does not condemn Russia’s invasion or its ongoing aggression against Ukraine.
The UN Security Council, in which the US and four other permanent members have veto rights, is likely to vote on the issue later in the day.
The General Assembly vote, which came shortly after G7 leaders failed to agree on a joint statement condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine on the third anniversary of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, has exposed the widening gulf between the US and Europe in the early months of Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump has pushed for a rapid peace deal through bilateral talks with Moscow that bypassed Europe and Kyiv, spooking European capitals who fear a schism in an 80-year transatlantic relationship that has underpinned the continent’s security.
Spain’s Izquierda Unida (United Left) Defends the Trump-Putin Pact over Ukraine
In the Spanish state, the trade union activist Alfons Bech examines the extraordinary gyrations of an organization styling itself IU (United Left).
Link :
Izquierda Unida (Spanish State) Defends Trump-Putin Pact regarding Ukraine
“As Putin’s war against Ukraine enters its fourth year, the European radical left struggles to find an internationalist response. The Spanish United Left (IU), which considers itself an anti-imperialist force, is embracing a potential Trump-Putin “peace” deal that would effectively sacrifice Ukrainian sovereignty. In this piercing critique, trade unionist Alfons Bech exposes the contradictions of those leftists who, while claiming to stand against imperialism, have effectively aligned themselves with Russian aggression and American realpolitik.
The article challenges the left to confront an uncomfortable truth: how can self-proclaimed anti-imperialists support a “peace” that would reward Putin’s invasion and Trump’s interventionism? As Ukrainian trade unions, feminists, and civil society continue their resistance against both Russian imperialism and neoliberal pressures, Bech argues that true internationalist solidarity means supporting Ukraine’s fight for self-determination while building independent networks of resistance against all forms of imperialism.”
Examples of left-wing red-brown Ukraine policies exist all across the globe – the nearest Irish equivalents are the former MEP’s Clare Daly and Mick Wallace who experienced two deserved electoral defeats in 2024.
Here is a very simple and clear guide for the anti-imperialist left everywhere. It is not rocket-science :
I don’t think Zelensky can be described by anyone on the left as a hero. He has stripped back labour rights in Ukraine and believes that the market should regulate itself. But that doesn’t mean that the left shouldn’t fully support Ukraine’s right to resist the Russian invasion. Churchill was a complete bollix (racist, imperialist, given to having striking miners shot, etc) but he was obviously right to resist Nazis and appeasement. Harris and Martin, similarly, are cynical, hard-centre bollixes, but that hardly means that we shouldn’t resist if we’re invaded while the likes of them are in office. In short, Zelensky is no hero of the left, but he doesn’t have to be for Ukraine to have our full support. Ukrainian leftists and trade unionists tell us that.
Tom Dwyer
Tomás Ó Flatharta 
Hi,
Independently of your efforts, which I support, being unwell and not
able to do much else, I thought I would put a few thoughts down about
Ukraine. I welcome your comments!
Why should Socialists defend Ukraine?
We hear the call of the Campists to cease the supply of weapons to
Ukraine by “NATO”. Why the quote marks? NATO has never supplied weapons
to Ukraine. It is individual countries that supplied the weapons. NATO
has stayed clear of the conflict. In fact, Putin’s invasion has
paradoxically given NATO its largest boost since, perhaps, its
foundation, with Sweden and Finland joining, and seeming like the “good
guy” to most people.
However, the Left that defends Ukraine finds itself in the uncomfortable
position of being on the same side as the EU, the Starmer government and
even the Daily Mail. How so and can we defend ourselves against the
accusations that we are supporting Ukrainian fascists etc.
This call is allegedly to stop weapons from killing Russians fighting in
Putin’s army. Well, who sent them there? Stating the obvious, Putin and
his acolytes. Ukraine is fighting to defend its independence and
territory. Its people don’t care where the weapons come from.
We hear that Ukraine’s president Zelensky is right wing, corrupt and his
army full of fascists. This is certainly true but misses the point.
However mistaken or corrupt they are, Ukraine’s army is strongly
motivated to defend its territory and people. How else have they fought
on for three years and held at bay one of the world’s largest
militaries? The ingenuity of the Ukrainian forces in developing
home-designed drones has been devastating against the lumbering Russian
forces, and Ukraine’s forces are highly motivated.
Ukraine is defending its right to exist. There is simply no question
about it. Regardless of who is lined up with it. We march separately
from bourgeous supporters in its defence, but strike together, along the
lines of those that demanded that the UK and France arm the Spanish
republic against Franco.
And of Russia? The campists simply live in the ancient history of Russia
as a worker’s state, when all sensible socialists defended it. It now is
the very essence of corruption, cynical violence and is itself an
imperialism, something that actually never really disappeared during the
decades of Stalinism, in which the Soviet Union was a prison-house of
nations.
Today’s Russian ruling class is a descendent of the Nomenklatura of the
time, translated into a set of robber barons that systematically stole
the assets of the Soviet Union and made themselves obscenely wealthy as
a result. The Russian state is the very essence of corruption. And it’s
dominated by the far-Right politics that the Campists complain about in
Ukraine. Fascism is minority pursuit in Ukraine, but in Russia it’s an
embedded part of the State. And the other former Soviet states in Asia
such as Kazakhstan, all ruled by brutal and corrupt dictators, are all
effectively client states of Russia. In Europe, Georgia and Moldova
along with Ukraine dared to try to separate and were invaded for their
pains (the fake pro-Russian fighters, along with the Ukrainian ones are
effectively Russian. Don’t kid yourself!) Only the Baltic states managed
to escape. And as for Belarus with its mini-Stalin ruler Lukashenko,
it’s the very definition of patsy and involved itself in downing a
civilian plane Ryanair Flight 4978**so that opposition activist and
journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, could be
arrested by the authorities.
And now we have Trump. I’m personally dubious of the idea that he’s
simply a Russian tool, but the dramatic reversal of US foreign and
military policy has given Putin the finest boost possible. Given that
Russia and China are allies, I’m also dubious of the theory that Trump
is using its new alliance to break China. To be quite honest, China is
now so powerful that I think it has escaped the ability of the US to
contain it without WWIII. I don’t think that Putin will help Trump
against it (in fact I think that idea is simply kidology).
The Campists are now having to execute all sorts of ideological
somersaults in order not to be seen as supporting Trump, following his
and Vance’s public “execution” of Zelensky (which was one of the most
disgusting things I have ever had the misfortune to see on TV). Many of
them are people I respect and have worked with in the past. Their
position is completely untenable, regardless of Daily Mail editorials.
I remain fully in support of Ukraine’s right to defend its right to
exist and to retain its territory against the on-going Russian invasion.
Very best regards,
Mark Findlay
mark.h.b.findlay@gmail.com
23 Cornwall Gardens
Brighton
BN1 6RH UK
+ 44 7941 257288
Mark Findlay
Mar 3, 2025 at 4:48 pm
I think that Israel voted against.
But Starmer’s welcome to Zelensky really showed the difference between civility and the vile/evil people that Zelensky had to deal with. I understand that Ukrainians think he did well.
joanmckiernan
Mar 4, 2025 at 3:26 am
Joan McKiernan
joanmckiernan
Mar 6, 2025 at 9:53 pm
Fortunately your friends went to Canada!🍁
Joan McKiernan
joanmckiernan
Mar 7, 2025 at 5:15 am