Home Truths About Ukrainian Resistance to the Russian Imperialist Invasion
“Marine Le Pen’s party is binning its 8-page electoral tract, which features a picture of her shaking hands with Vladimir Putin. Apparently that’s not a vote-winner any more! 1.2 million copies had been printed.”
Hint to Left-Wingers in Anti-War War Movements everywhere :
Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now!
Solidarity with the Ukrainian Resistance!
Adopt a policy proposed by Noam Chomsky :
“The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major war crime, ranking alongside the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Hitler-Stalin invasion of Poland in September 1939, to take only two salient examples.
https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-us-military-escalation-against-russia-would-have-no-victors/.
…
Meanwhile, we should do anything we can to provide meaningful support for those valiantly defending their homeland against cruel aggressors, for those escaping the horrors, and for the thousands of courageous Russians publicly opposing the crime of their state at great personal risk, a lesson to all of us.”
Confused About Ukraine and Russia? A Fable Sparks Debate “Ukraine used to be in an Abusive Relationship with Russia”
We wish to thank Sandra Kavanagh for circulating a brilliant fable :
“For anyone that’s confused about what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine, here it is in layman’s terms:
Sandra Kavanagh
-Ukraine used to be in an abusive relationship with Russia, feeding him, letting him use her car, and giving him whatever he asked for until she built up the confidence to call it quits back in 1991.
-Since then, Ukraine has been working on herself, becoming a strong independent woman with help from friends like France, America, Poland, and others. They give her support, loan her money, and are helping her find her way.
-Ukraine has been enjoying being single for 30 years and looking forward to continuing to grow and create new friendships.
-Now Russia, being the toxic ex that he is, wants her back, and doesn’t want her meeting new people or creating any new relationships.
-A couple of weeks ago Russia started sitting in the front of Ukraine’s house & when her friends ask him what was he doing there, he said “Oh nothing, just getting a little bit of exercise in, that’s all.”
-After her friends told her that Russia was potentially getting ready to do something bad to her, he said “They’re lying, they just want you to be scared of me and that’s not what it is.”
-Yesterday Russia broke into Ukraine’s house, beat her up & “took advantage” of her while live-streaming and double dog dared any of her friends to do something about it. She’s still waiting for help.”
Solutions :
The Russian man should be shackled with an effective barring order, backed up with aggressive legal sanctions. The house of the Ukrainian woman must be fortified. Concretely during this war : the anti-war movement must declare: Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now!
John Meehan March 1 2020
We Are All Ukrainians Today – Everywhere on this Earth : Left Wing Parties, Progressive Social Movements, Labour Movement Activists Oppose the Barbaric Russian Invasion of Ukraine
A new mass international anti-war movement is emerging in 2022. There is one test :
Demand : Russian Troops Out of Ukraine Now!
Remain up-to-date by visiting this site :
http://www.europe-solidaire.org/
Michael Taaffe, SIPTU Trade Union Researcher, Dublin : “At times, the debate over the Russian invasion of Ukraine reaches the bottom of the rhetorical barrel. Some commentators portray an informed and intelligent discussion as an apology for one side or the other. If you criticise NATO policy over the last two decades, you are a tool of Putin. If you criticise Putin, you accept the many US-led abuses. It is reminiscent of Albert Camus’ observation: when I criticise Franco, I’m called a communist; when I criticise the invasion of Hungary, I’m called a stooge of Western powers”. https://notesonthefront.typepad.com/politicaleconomy/
In this spirit we continue to reproduce and report on solidarity actions and statements. The first comes from Die Linke (The Left) in Germany, which is represented in that country’s parliament the Bundestag with 39 seats. .https://www.bundestag.de/en/parliament/plenary/distributionofseats This war is producing seismic changes on the international left. Some, like Die Linke, have origins in the old pre-1990 communist parties of Eastern Europe – but have shifted to to the left, confronted with the criminal 2022 Russian imperialist assault on Ukraine.
Die Linke Statement :
DIE LINKE strongly condemns attack on Ukraine, Russia must immediately cease hostilities!
Read the rest of this entry »Protest Outside Russian Embassy in Dublin – Monday February 28, 5pm, Orwell Road, Rathmines – Solidarity With Russian Anti-War Protesters
Statement Issued by Paul Murphy TD :
Thousands of anti-war protesters have taken to the streets of Russia opposing the invasion of Ukraine. They have faced repression and arrest, and they need our solidarity.
The real hope for stopping the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and future conflicts between NATO and Russia, lies in an anti-war movement that crosses the border of East and West and opposes both Putin and NATO.
Join PBP for this solidarity protest outside the Russian Embassy on Orwell road in Rathmines on Monday 28 February at 5pm in solidarity with the Russian anti-war movement.
The best way to stop war is by an international movement of ordinary people to force their own governments to end the warmongering.
Sinn Féin President Mary-Lou McDonald calls for expulsion of Russian Ambassador Yuri Filatov from Ireland https://cedarlounge.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/another-response-to-the-russian-attack/
Other casualties of the Russian attack on Ukraine
This Cedar Lounge Revolution article is valuable reading.
If anything were calculated to push people in under NATO’s umbrella – Nordic states, that have been hesitant to do so, most immediately, this will do…
Other casualties of the Russian attack on Ukraine
If anything were calculated to push people in under NATO’s umbrella – Nordic states, that have been hesitant to do so, most immediately, this will do so.
Thanks to Putin’s policy, more and more countries want to join the bloc, and Russia’s position is deteriorating. The outcome of the coming war is likely to include Sweden’s entry into NATO, and public opinion in Finland has also changed. During Putin’s rule, Russia has offered nothing to European countries to make NATO membership unattractive for them. On the contrary, thanks to the real danger of aggression from Russia, NATO again makes sense as a security option and its strengthening has begun to look like a basic development option for Europeans. Under Putin, the NATO bloc has become stronger than ever.
And the threat from NATO is overstated. To put it mildly.
Read the rest of this entry »Against Russian Imperialism, Hands Off Ukraine – Statement from the RSD (Russian Socialist Movement)
Statement from the RSD – Russian Socialist Movement. (Thanks to Peter Saxtrup Nielsen). The Russian Socialist movement was founded in March 2011 by two organizations, the Socialist Movement Vperiod (“Forward”), Russian section of the Fourth International, and Socialist Resistance. It is part of the Left Front, an alliance formed during the protests against the falsification of the elections in 2011 and 2012.
Against Russian imperialism, hands off Ukraine!
Putin’s address to the Russians has just ended. The man who calls himself president began his speech with an anti-communist panegyric and said that the creator of Ukraine is Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, and its existence in its current form is the result of the national policy of the Bolsheviks. By accusing the Bolsheviks of “cultivating nationalists,” Putin is covering up the most terrible and disgusting kind of nationalism – Great Russian chauvinism. Against this background, Putin threatened the Ukrainians to show what “decommunization” is. Given the context of his speech, one can perceive these words only as a threat of direct intervention on the territory of Ukraine. Not surprisingly, in criticizing the Leninist nationality policy, Putin threw stones at the planned economy, nationalization and complimented Stalinism.
Paul Murphy TD Message : Immediate Withdrawal of Russian Troops from Ukraine; Anti-War Protest, Dáil Éireann, February 24, 5.30pm
Paul Murphy TD Tweeted Message https://twitter.com/paulmurphy_TD/status/1496770211176804352
Solidarity with the people in Ukraine. Join the @IrishAntiWarMvt protest at 5.30pm today.
Demand an immediate withdrawal of Russian troops.
Oppose any NATO escalation in response which will just threaten an even bloodier conflict.
New Message from former leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn :
Russia’s shocking invasion of Ukraine will inevitably lead to more fear, misery and death. It is a frightening escalation of the ongoing crisis.
Russia must withdraw its troops and return to diplomacy. If it does not, dark days are ahead for Ukraine, Russia and all of Europe.
The next Irish Anti-War Protest needs to take place outside the Russian Embassy
John Meehan February 24 2022
British Anti-War Movement : “Attack on Gilbert Achcar only divides anti‑war Left”
The British organization Anti-Capitalist Resistance (ACR) responds to Lindsey German’s recent Counterfire Weekly Briefing that unfairly characterised Gilbert Achcar.
Who is Gilbert Achcar? “Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon. He is currently Professor of Development Studies and International Relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. His most recent books are Morbid Symptoms: Relapse in the Arab Uprising (2016) and The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising(2013). Other books include The Clash of Barbarisms (2nd expanded edition 2006); dialogues with Noam Chomsky on the Middle East in Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy (2nd edition 2008); and The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives (2010)” Achcar left the British Labour Party after Sir Keir Starmer started his Blairite turn. He is now a member of the ACR. Readers can judge his politics from this recent article published on the International Viewpoint site. https://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article7530
At a time of impending conflict between Russia and NATO over Ukraine, with each side driven by internal needs to intensify austerity and repression in their own spheres of influence, revolutionary socialists will need to be standing shoulder to shoulder in activity to stop the war machine. This will be at home, where we face our most immediate enemy, and internationally, in solidarity with our comrades and with those facing occupation and brutal calculated military action.
This will be a time of joint struggle against imperialist war and intense debate on the left, with different assessments of the situation and our tasks. In this context the recent comment by Lindsey German in a Counterfire weekly briefing (reproduced in the Morning Star) about our comrade Gilbert Achcar, accusing him of siding with imperialism, was a dishonest and unfair representation that sows division among the anti-war Left. It should be retracted and there should be an apology.
Gilbert is described by Lindsey German as someone who has gone over from the Left to supporting imperialism, along with Christopher Hitchens, Nick Cohen and Norman Geras. Anyone familiar with the names invoked and with Gilbert Achcar’s writings would know that putting him in the same category with the former is both slanderous and preposterous.
Lindsey German herself, in the name of the Stop the War Coalition, recently rebutted Keir Starmer’s slanderous attack in The Guardian. This makes it even more important for her to respect the conditions of honest and comradely debate when arguing with other comrades of the radical left. If Lindsey German is willing to have such a debate in public with our comrade, he would be very happy to oblige.
We urge all comrades on the antiwar and anticapitalist left to refrain from unfounded accusations and conduct debate constructively.
A good friend and comrade Paul Stewart adds this context :
For those, so many good, solid comrades, many indeed who have fought imperialism, its not too later to stand not just against NATO but also Putin, to stand with the people of Ukraine. No more parsimonious mealy mouthed, “yes Putin is bad too”, while spending your time showing pictures of Ukrainian fascists while ignoring Russian fascists’ support for invasion. It will be salutory to know that throughout Europe from the north to the south, it’s the far right who support Putin……Le Pen and Eric Zemmour in France, Farage in Britain….and so on …
Paul Stewart
John Meehan February 24 2020
Russian Anarchists – Autonomous Action – Issue Excellent Statement on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine – Against Annexations and Imperial Aggression
Against Annexations and Imperial Aggression
The source for this statement is a Facebook Group “Leftist Trainspotters”.
Yesterday, on February 21, an extraordinary meeting of the Russian Security Council was held. As part of this theatrical act, Putin forced his closest servants to publicly “ask” him to recognize the independence of the so-called “people’s republics” of the Luhansk People’s Republic [LPR] and Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] in eastern Ukraine.
It is quite obvious that this is a step towards the further annexation of these territories by Russia—no matter how it is formalized (or not formalized) legally. In fact, the Kremlin ceases to consider the LPR and DPR part of Ukraine and finally makes them its protectorate. “First the recognition of independence, then annexation”: this sequence was already worked out in 2014 in Crimea. This is also clear from Naryshkin’s stupid reservations at the meeting of the Security Council (“Yes, I support the entry of these territories into the Russian Federation “).1. Since the meeting, as it turned out, was broadcast on tape [rather than live], and these “reservations” were not cut out, but left in—the hint is clear.
Tomás Ó Flatharta 