Archive for the ‘Soviet Union (USSR)’ Category
Two Contrasting May Day Celebrations in 2023 – Ghent (Belgium) V Dublin (Ireland)
Ghent, Thomas Weyts Reports
This year we also participated in the 1st May parade in Ghent with a beautiful group of Ukrainian people and solidarity Belgians.
With a clear message: Russian troops out of Ukraine, stop the bombing. Solidarity with Ukraine and its people! We will continue to take action as long as necessary.
We also continue to shake the high tree of the trade unions and the progressive movements: come out of your room, show your solidarity with Ukraine, in words but especially in deeds!
We thank the fine people of Peace for Ukraine-Ghent, the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine, Ghent4Humanity Refugee Support, SAP Anti-capitalists and all the other people who were there, but also all the participants at the parade and by the side who showed their sympathy.
https://www.facebook.com/100049340987344/videos/788647199647966/?idorvanity=1354716241617827
Dublin : John Meehan Reports :
Dublin Council of Trade Unions (DCTU), organisers of the May Day march in Ireland’s capital city, made sure that nothing politically worthwhile was said from the platform about Ukraine. Mick O’Reilly spoke about “War and Peace” – at best the speech was woffle; at worst it was a left-evasionist exercise which avoided making a clear call for the immediate withdrawal of the Russian genocidal troops from Ukraine, or demanding an end to the murderous Russian bombing of civilian targets (including hospitals and schools) in the invaded territories.
Read the rest of this entry »RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN THROWS LEFT SUPPORTERS UNDER THE BUS – by Brendan Ogle
The Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for several hours to a captive audience in a Moscow palace on February 21, describing LGBT Rights as “Pure Satanism”. Brendan Ogle, a UNITE Trade Union official in Ireland, responds. Source : https://www.facebook.com/camilo.ogle
It had to come to this.
In fact for those watching, those not completely blinded by their understandable hatred of US and NATO imperialism, it came to this a long time ago. But yesterday it happened in horrific awful technicolour. Putin threw left supporters – and there are still far too many of them – under the bus.
A year from his invasion of Ukraine Putin’s war with what he calls ‘the west’ has now openly gone full #FarRight. The language of the toxic fascist inspired racist protests that took place here and elsewhere recently is 100% Putin’s language. He helped to create it. Yesterday in a lengthy monologue in front of a room of nodding donkeys applauding rapturously in case they got a nerve agent in their lunch, he described LGBT rights as ‘pure satanism’, engaged in transphobic hate speech and described paedophilia as the ‘new norm’ in the west.
A year from his invasion of Ukraine Putin’s war with what he calls ‘the west’ has now openly gone full #FarRight. The language of the toxic fascist inspired racist protests that took place here and elsewhere recently is 100% Putin’s language. He helped to create it.
Yesterday in a lengthy monologue in front of a room of nodding donkeys applauding rapturously in case they got a nerve agent in their lunch, he described LGBT rights as ‘pure satanism’, engaged in transphobic hate speech and described paedophilia as the ‘new norm’ in the west.
Sound familiar?
Read the rest of this entry »“The Dark Side of Neutrality” – “The primary goal is not for Russia to lose and be humiliated, but for Ukraine to survive” – Slavoj Zizek
Neutrality is not an option as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues at the heart of the European continent. This writer explains “If a passerby saw a man relentlessly beating a child on a street corner, we would expect the witness to try to stop it. Neutrality is out of the question. On the contrary, we would deplore the moral turpitude of inaction.”
Neutrality is not an option as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues at the heart of the European continent. This writer explains “If a passerby saw a man relentlessly beating a child on a street corner, we would expect the witness to try to stop it. Neutrality is out of the question. On the contrary, we would deplore the moral turpitude of inaction.”
The author of this article Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana‘s Department of Philosophy.He primarily works on continental philosophy (particularly Hegelianism, psychoanalysis and Marxism) and political theory, as well as film criticism and theology. More information here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavoj_%C5%BDi%C5%BEek
Sources for this article : https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article65734 and https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/neutrality-functions-as-support-for-russian-aggression-by-slavoj-zizek-2023-02
As an independent voice who follows Russian media very closely, I am well acquainted with what Putin and his propagandists “actually say.” The major TV channels are full of commentators recommending that countries like Poland, Germany, or the United Kingdom be nuked. The Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov, one of Putin’s closes allies, now openly calls for “the fight against Satanism [to] continue throughout Europe and, first of all, on the territory of Poland.”
Indeed, the official Kremlin line describes the war as a “special operation” for the de-Nazification and de-demonization of Ukraine. Among Ukraine’s “provocations” is that it has permitted Pride parades and allowed LGBTQ+ rights to undermine traditional sexual norms and gender roles. Kremlin-aligned commentators speak of “liberal totalitarianism,” even going so far as to argue that George Orwell’s 1984 was a critique not of fascism or Stalinism but of liberalism.
https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article65734
In the year since Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine, large developing countries like Brazil, India, and South Africa have sought to remain above the fray. Yet, as with Western “pacifists,” these countries’ non-alignment amounts to tacit support for imperialism.
Read the rest of this entry »We Say: War on War! Russian socialists on the nature of the war in Ukraine and the delusions of Western “pacifists”
We Say: War on War! Russian socialists on the nature of the war in Ukraine and the delusions of Western “pacifists”
Wednesday 15 February 2023, by Russian Socialist Movement (RSD) immigrant section
Sources : https://fourth.international/en/europe/504 and https://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article65692
For us Russians who oppose Putin’s aggression and dictatorship, it has been a year of horror and shame over the war crimes committed daily in our name.
On the one-year anniversary of this war, we call all those who yearn for peace to turn out for demonstrations and rallies against Putin’s invasion. Unfortunately, not all the “peace” rallies taking place next weekend will be actions of solidarity with Ukraine. A large part of the left in the West does not understand the nature of this war and advocates compromise with Putinism. We have written this statement to help our comrades abroad understand the situation and take the right stand.
A spontaneous picket organised in the heart of Ekaterinburg, in 1905 Square, on 24 February, the day Russian troops entered Ukraine to carry out a so-called “special operation”
A counterrevolutionary war
Some Western writers attribute the war to causes like the collapse of the USSR, the “contradictory history of the Ukrainian nation’s creation,” and geopolitical confrontation between nuclear powers. Without denying the importance of these factors, we are surprised that these lists overlook the most important and obvious reason for what is happening: the Putin regime’s desire to suppress democratic protest movements throughout the former Soviet Union and in Russia itself.
Read the rest of this entry »Ireland Fought for Freedom against an Empire – Now we on the Irish Left Support Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom – Global Week of Action Events in Ireland – February 21-26 2023
A global week of action for solidarity with Ukraine – Stop the Russian war of aggression! Peace for Ukraine!
Friday February 24 will mark one year since the Russian army invaded Ukraine on the orders of Putin and his regime. A year of indescribable suffering and bloodshed for the Ukrainian people.
The completely unjustified invasion has already cost the lives of many tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians and military personnel. Every day the Ukrainian people face brutality and violence. Millions of civilians have been forced to flee abroad, millions are internally displaced.
Entire towns and villages have been reduced to rubble by Russian bombing and airstrikes. Civilian infrastructure (electricity and heating networks, schools, hospitals, railroads, ports, etc.) is being systematically destroyed, making the country unliveable.
Calendar of Events
February 21-26 2023 Events Supported or Organised by ILWU
Tuesday February 21, 7pm
Why You Should Support Ukraine (via Zoom)
Speakers :
Vladyslav Starodubtsev (Sotisalniy Rukh); Vlad Dziuba (Ukrainian Action in Ireland)
Join us on Tuesday February 21 at 7pm to discuss Why you should support Ukraine – Hear two Ukrainian activists. Email irishleftwithukraine@gmail.com for zoom link
Friday February 24 2023 Dublin, GPO, 2pm.
Called by Ukrainian Action on Ireland : 1st Anniversary of Russian Invasion of Ukraine : “Fighting for Europe”
Immigrants Involved in Irish Radical Left/National Liberation Movements – Before, During and After the Easter 1916 Rising
A Maurice Casey Walking Tour – supported by Irish Left With Ukraine (ILWU)
Saturday February 25 – 1-3pm – Portobello to the GPO
1pm to 3.00pm, starting at Portobello Square (at 1 Portobello Harbour, opposite BelloBar), finishing at the GPO.
The route and the stories Maurice Casey will be covering at each stop :
Portobello Place – Harry Kernoff
Harry Kernoff’s woodcut of James Connolly in the uniform of the Irish Citizen Army, whose flag is on the banner of the ILWU.
Lombard Street West – The Harmel Family
St Stephen´s Green – Casimir Dunin
Mansion House – Sidney Aronson and Rose McKenna, WILPF Ukraine
delegates
National Library of Ireland – Nora Dryhurst and Georgian Independence, Kropotkin
Peterson´s Pipe store – Conrad Peterson, Helen Lena Yeates
Trinity College Dublin – Russian Department – Daisy McMackin
GPO – The Bolshevik delegation to Dublin – Point up to the Mater
Hospital – End with story of the Finn and the Swede in 1916
The Strange Rebirth of Stalinism – Colm Breathnach (Independent Left)
THE STRANGE REBIRTH OF STALINISM
The editors of this blog offer recommended reading – an article By Colm Breathnach of the Irish Left-Wing organization Independent Left.
Source : https://independentleft.ie/rebirth-of-stalinism/
A more colourful literary description of this phenomenon was offered by Yuliya Yurchenko at a November 2022 Dublin public meeting organised by Irish Left With Ukraine. The Ukrainian Marxist and Feminist offered us the idea that the USSR is dead – it is not coming back. The worst features of the dead ☠️ USSR have been imported into a new capitalist-imperialist-genocidal monster headed by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. The good bits have been discarded and killed off permanently. Think of Stephen King’s horror story Pet Sematary :
A well-tended path leads to a pet cemetery(misspelled “sematary” on the sign) where the children of the town bury their deceased animals.
A cat called Church dies, then :
after Church is run over outside his home around Thanksgiving. Rachel and the kids are visiting Rachel’s parents in Chicago, but Louis frets over breaking the bad news to Ellie. Sympathizing with Louis, Jud takes him to the “sematary”, supposedly to bury Church. But instead of stopping there, Jud leads Louis farther on to “the real cemetery”: an ancient burial ground that was once used by the Miꞌkmaq Tribe. There, Louis buries the cat on Jud’s instruction. The next afternoon, Church returns home; the usually vibrant and lively cat now acts ornery and, in Louis’s words, “a little dead”. Church hunts for mice and birds, ripping them apart without eating them. He also smells so bad that Ellie no longer wants him in her room at night. Jud confirms that Church has been resurrected and that Jud himself once buried his dog there when he was younger. Louis, deeply disturbed, begins to wish that he had not buried Church there.
WHAT IS STALINISM?
Read the rest of this entry »Stop the bombing! Russian troops out! Solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance! – Global Week of Action Against the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and for Solidarity with Ukraine – February 20-26 2023
The European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU) and its Irish supporters (Irish Left With Ukraine) are working with other organisations and individuals for a full Russian withdrawal, and social Justice for Ukraine.
Call for solidarity actions with anti‑war activists in Russia – Week of January 19 to 24
The article below is written by Ilya Budraitskis on behalf of The Russian Socialist Movement. Source : https://anticapitalistresistance.org/call-for-solidarity-actions-with-anti-war-activists-in-russia/
Irish Left With Ukraine will work with other organisations and individuals answering this call.
See also : https://www.tempestmag.org/2023/01/to-remember-is-to-fight/?fbclid=IwAR0WOTwC6AqdjHclwo59krczHCaYZPE39Av4HxNTXW1ZuySXwwI9t9Qhf3g – Tempest shares the call of the Russian Socialist Movement for solidarity with Russian anti-war and anti-fascist activists.
For over a decade, Russian antifascists have commemorated January 19 as their day of solidarity. This is the date when in 2009, in the center of Moscow, the human rights and leftist activist Stanislav Markelov and the journalist and anarchist Anastasia Baburova were gunned down by neo-Nazis.
The murder of Markelov and Baburova became the culmination of the ultra-right terror of the 2000s, which killed hundreds of migrants and dozens of anti-fascists. For many years, while it was still possible, Russian activists held antifascist demonstrations and rallies on January 19 under the slogan “To remember is to fight!”
Today, when the Putin regime has invaded Ukraine and unleashed unprecedented repression against its own citizens who oppose the war, the date of January 19 takes on a new meaning. Back then the danger was posed by neo-Nazi groups, often acting with the connivance of the authorities.
Read the rest of this entry »Your Man Over There Thinks the Anti-Franco Republican Forces Should Not Have Sought Weapons from the Brits, Yanks and French Imperialist Hypocrites during the 1930’s Spanish Civil War – A Proxy War if Ever I saw One!
In this respect the British writer Paul Mason is correct :
Imagine an alt-history of the Spanish Civil War where, after some initial reversals, the anti-fascist side starts winning. They drive back Franco’s armies largely because France, Britain and the USA reject “non-intervention” and send in heavy weapons, offsetting the support coming from Hitler and Mussolini. In this scenario, does anyone seriously think the global left would have pulled its support for the Republican side because of “imperialist aggression”? Would they have denounced the Spanish conflict as a “proxy war”. Would they have convened an international conference calling for the end of all arms supplies to the anti-fascists in the name of “Peace”? Would they have called for negotiations with Franco, advocating a settlement “acceptable to all”?
https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2022/12/20/ukraine-which-side-are-you-on/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook
The same point is made here, drawing on an example from the actions of Irish revolutionaries during World War 1 – the Easter 1916 Rebels launched an uprising against British Imperialism using weapons supplied by the German Kaiser.
Read the rest of this entry »Solidarity With Palestine, Solidarity With Ukraine – Sotsialniy Rukh (Ukraine) Compared With People Before Profit (Ireland)
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African Anti-Apartheid Activist
Sotsialniy Rukh Statement on Palestine and Ukraine (in English and Ukrainian)
📣 November 29 since 1978 has been celebrated as the Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people. For 44 years, the world officially talks about the Palestinian tragedy that has no end.
This day reminds us of Palestine’s ongoing struggle for life and freedom. Despite condemnation of Israel’s policy, which leading human rights organizations say fits the crime of apartheid under the Roman Statute, the de facto Palestinians and Palestinians still have neither protection nor independence. Their homes are being taken, cities bombed, and their lives are totally in vain.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tomás Ó Flatharta 