This is a very good polemical article, written by the Canadian author David Gutnick, examining Professor David Mandel’s calls for Ukrainians to accept a ceasefire and negotiate with Russia immediately.

The source is :

Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

David Gutnick’s article was originally published in :

Canadian Dimension

https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/correcting-mandel-why-arming-ukraine-is-the-road-to-peace

Monday 14 August 2023, by GUTNICK David

• Campism vs Internationalism /Tankies

Correcting Mandel: Why arming Ukraine is the road to peace

“Pacifism has its place, but not here and not now,” writes David Gutnick

David Mandel and I share much more in common than our given name. We’re both French-speaking Anglophones who live in Montréal. Like professor Mandel, I worked for decades at a publicly funded institution: he taught at universities, while I produced documentaries for CBC Radio. We both consider ourselves humanists who want to help build a kinder, more democratic and socialist world.

But while reading Mandel’s August 2 piece in this publication, it became clear that we profoundly disagree on how to get there.

In a nutshell, Mandel calls for Ukrainians to accept a ceasefire and negotiate with Russia immediately, while I—following the lead of Ukrainians—believe the country needs more arms: the deadlier the better, unfortunately.

Mandel—like Vladimir Putin—says his position is the humanist one, as it will save lives.

I think that is wrongheaded. A wealth of evidence proves Volodymyr Zelensky’s position is right: Russia’s present leadership is bloodthirsty, intent on building an untrustworthy imperialist power. Putin slaughtered Chechens and Georgians when they would not submit to Russian domination, and now he is slaughtering Ukrainians. He will not hesitate to slaughter whoever is next to get in his way.

Humanists think of peace-building in the long term, and that means standing up to aggression now, not turning the other cheek.

Pacifism has its place, but not here and not now.

Unless Putin pulls back his army, Ukrainians have no choice but to fight.

Mandel writes that over the decades he has been “opposed to the policies of the regimes of these states, which were and remain deeply hostile to workers’ interests.”

We share that view.

But since the first Russian tanks illegally crossed Ukraine’s border into Crimea on February 20, 2014, then again into Kyiv on February 24, 2022, it is not just “workers’ interests” which have suffered: tens of thousands of Ukrainian trade unionists, kindergarten monitors, university students, mothers and fathers and innocent children have been killed by Russian invaders.

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