Ukraine war, Opportunism
and the Working Class
: Disruption of the Imperialist order and the Reorganization of the International Proletarian Leadership
Background of the War/ Military objectives of Russia/ Russia's Desire to End the War/ What US Imperialism Wanted/ Root of the Conflict/ Imperialist Motives of Marching Toward East/ Promise and the Reality of Imperialism/ Thirty Years of NATO Expansion Toward East/ 2004 Orange Revolution/ Imperialist Servants/ Yanukovych Re-elected/ Orange Revolution MK 2: “Euromaidan”/ Nature of Euromaidan Government/ Racist Policies of the Kiev regime/ Odessa Massacre/ Struggle for Independence in Donbass/ Azov Battalion/ Minsk Agreements/ Struggle of the Communist Party of Ukraine/ Putin's Anti-Communism/ What Putin Government Wanted/ Provocations of the U.S./ Putin’s Russian Government: Bonapartist-Nationalist Regime in Neo-Colony/ Rise of Putin/ Yeltsin, The Predecessor/ Is Russia Imperialist?/ Ukraine and the Left/ 1) Defining Russia as an Invader and supporting Ukraine and NATO’s victory/ 2) Defining Russia as imperialism and claiming defeat on both sides/ 3) It may not be imperialism, but Russia is also reactionary, so should be neutral/ 4) “Imperialism vs. Colony” due to the eastward movement of American-centered Western imperialism, therefore the victory of Donbas and Russia/ The Phase of “General Advantage of the World's Working Class, the General Disadvantage of Imperialism”/ Rift in the Unipolar System/ Ukrainian War and Class Relationship of Force/ Our Missions
This time last year, on February 24, 2022, Russia intervened in a civil war that broke out since an imperialist regime change coup d'état in 2014. As a result, the conflict expanded into an international war.
We issued a statement on February 26, two days after the escalation. Since then we explained the nature of itand correct position on the conflict in Ukraine several times. The development of events over the past year has repeatedly proved our position to be right.
「We Support the National Self-Determination of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia!」, October 1st, 2022
「MARXIST SPEAK OUT: 200 DAYS OF WAR」, September 8th, 2022
「OPEN LETTER FOR MAYDAY on Ukraine War」, April 18th, 2022
「Russian military action is a just retribution against provocations of NATO puppet regime」, February 26th, 2022
「Thoughts on Ukraine」, February 26th, 2014
Now, more than a year passed after the civil war escalated into an international war, we would like to explain our positions in more detail.
Russian entry into the direct war on February 24, 2022 was a response to the request of Russian speakers living in the southeastern part of Ukraine located on the border of Russia and the need to prevent entire Ukraine from becoming a forward base for imperialists targeting Russia.
29.6%, about a third of the Ukrainians, recognize Russian as their first language. They mainly live in the southeastern part of the country. According to a survey in 2004, 72% of Dnepr-Petrovsk province, 93% of Donetsk province, 89% of Lugansk province, 81% of Zaporizhia province, 85% of Odessa province, 74% of Kharkov province, and 66% of Nikolaev province were Russian speakers.
Among them, Donetsk and Lugansk province in the Donbass region declared independence shortly after the pro-imperialist fascist regime was established in Kiev. After the Russian military intervention in February 2022 drove out the Fascist army in Khersson and Zaporizhia, they also joined the ranks. During a five-day referendum in Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, the four provinces respectively voted 99%, 98%, 87%, 93% yes for “secession from Ukraine and annexation toward Russia.”
Initially, Russia would have expected the same development as the 2008 Georgia War. In other words, securing Russia's national security by preventing the establishment of a pro-imperialist state that is extremely hostile to its own country at the border and securing a pro-Russia or neutral buffer zone.
Beyond that, however, subjugating entire Ukraine by force is impossible and rather suicidal. If so, it would not have been a just war defending itself from imperialist aggression, but an reactionary invasion suppressing the right to self-determination of Ukrainians in the western region by force. This would have given the imperialist gangster NATO a cause for full-scale intervention and laid huge burdens for Russians.
We made this point in a statement announced two days after Russian intervention as follows.
“In this regard, if the Russian army tries to continue its military occupation to establish a pro-Russian regime, it would be a dangerous gamble and would not be beneficial to the working class. It would be an infringement of the Ukrainian right to self-determination. It is likely to stimulate the right-wing nationalist sentiment among the working people in western Ukraine, thus intensifying national hostility between two countries. Furthermore, the main culprit, imperialist strategy of expanding NATO toward east, since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, will be concealed.” -「Russian military action is a just retribution against provocations of NATO puppet regime」, February 26th, 2022
However, Russia does not have the power to realize it, nor does it have the will to do so. Due to low productivity, it lacks ability to extract super-profit from abroad, so, as a result, it has no imperial motivation.
As such, Russian military actions are very limited because subduing entire Ukraine was not Russia’s goal for intervention. For this reason, western Ukraine, including the capital Kiev, was quite free from the fire of war. Zelenskyy and Biden strut the streets of Kiev at ease because they know Russia has no intention of attacking western Ukraine.
Russia's Desire to End the War
The war, which has been dragging on for a year, is a huge burden for Russia. Western media claim that the death toll of Russian troops has exceeded 100,000, and report that the fiscal deficit has soared to the largest in 25 years(The Chosun Ilbo, February 9, 2023). The specific figures must have been exaggerated and need to be verified, but it is clear that Russia is experiencing serious difficulties due to the war.
Having secured the southeastern part of the Russian border, Russia has been proposing a peace treaty since shortly after the war. However, the negotiating table has not been held since April of last year due to the rejection of Zelenskyy, The field agent of NATO.
On February 20, right before the year one, US President Joe Biden visited Kiev and promised additional aid worth of $500 million, including tanks, missiles and armored vehicles, saying, “The Americans stand with you” for “as long as it takes.”
It is our judgment that Zelenskyy has never been a commander-in-chief of Ukrainian armed forces but merely a clown which has usage for public relations. A real owner of Ukraine behind the scene is NATO, which US imperialist financial capital centered at the core. Zelenskyy, stationed at safe rear, is working hard on filming contents deceiving people around the world and begging supports from western backers.
War makes enormous profits to imperialist financial capital. And the ultimate prey or prize for imperialist financial capital is Russia. In other words, Swallowing vast natural resources of Russia by setting pro-imperialist regime. It tries to exhaust Russia as much as possible to poke its toenail into Russia's torso and bite off its neck at the decisive moment. The document of RAND corporation,「Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground」(April 2019) accounts for this intention in detail. We deeply analyzed and explained on this issue in our previous document「On the Belarusian Crisis」(January 2021)
The war itself escalated into an international war on 24 February 2022, but still it is an extension of the civil war caused by the 2014 Euromaidan coup. And the root of this conflict is marching of US and NATO toward east after the collapse of socialist bloc in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union during 1989 to 1991.
It was explained in our article 「On the Belarusian Crisis」(January 2021) as follows.
Modern History of Eastern Europe: The Counter-Revolution of Capitalism and the March to the East of NATO
In 1917 October Revolution abolished private ownership and established a workers’ state for the first time in Russia and its vicinity. As a result of World War II, imperialism, the core violence that supported capitalism, was overthrown in the Soviet victory zone and in some areas where the national liberation struggle won. The private ownership was abolished and the achievements of the October Revolution expanded. It had a weakness of low productivity and Stalinist bureaucracy, but workers’ state expanded to Eastern Europe, North Korea and China, and then Cuba and Vietnam.
However, as the left-wing opposition led by Trotsky analyzed and predicted, the contradictions, such as ‘the failure of spread of revolution to advanced capitalist countries, corruption and incompetence of Stalinist social parasite groups, and low productivity levels‛, did not eliminate capitalist regression factors in the region. Capitalist elements grew more and more, taking advantage of the weaknesses of a degenerated/deformed workers’ state. In 1989-1991, capitalist counter-revolutions broke out in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and one of the axes of the so-called “real socialism” fortress collapsed.
Power fell to capitalist regression, and the red flag was lowered. Private ownership and the flag of the bourgeois state were raised again. The capitalist ruling party, which took over the power of the state, soon proceeded to completely expand private ownership. The tank, which became a platform in August 1991 for Yeltsin, the leader of the capitalist counter-revolution, shelled the building of Supreme Soviet, who disagreed the disolution of state owenrship, in October 1993. The living standards of the people of Russia and Eastern Europe have fallen into abyss.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO, which is an imperialist axis supporting capitalism, such as the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, expanded its influence eastward and eastward.
Imperialist Motives of Marching Toward East
After the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, US & European imperialist forces initiated an action to grip over the market of Eastern Europe and Russia. Restoration of private ownership and capitalist state is not fully satisfying. Profits maximize when pro-imperialist regime that obeys the orders of imperialist financial capital without question is established.
“Of course, finance capital finds most “convenient,” and derives the greatest profit from, a form of subjection which involves the loss of the political independence of the subjected countries and peoples. In this respect, the semi-colonial countries provide a typical example of the “middle stage.” It is natural that the struggle for these semidependent countries should have become particularly bitter in the epoch of finance capital, when the rest of the world has already been divided up.”—V. I. Lenin,「Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism」
The pro-imperialist regime change named "Color Revolution" that has taken place in Eastern Europe over the past 30 years, is the result of this social dynamics.
Promise and the Reality of Imperialism
After the collapse of East Germany in 1989, the Soviet Union was anxious about the new security environment during process of German reunification. To eliminate the risk at the stage on the brink of success, the United States had to reassure the Soviet Union, which still has a presence in East Germany. On February 9, Secretary of State George Baker promised then-Soviet President Gorbachev, “not one inch eastward.”
The reactionary tsunami of capitalist restoration that swept over entire Eastern Europe in 1989 reached to Russia in 1991. Even Yeltsin, who took power through the capitalist counter-revolution, was worried about Russia’s security. He announced opposition to NATO membership of Eastern European countries. Then, in a meeting with Yeltsin on October 22, 1993, US Secretary of State Warren Christopher reassured the president that Eastern Europe will enter the Partnership for Peace which will include Russia, not NATO.
However, in 1999, Czech, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO, followed by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 2004, and most of the Eastern bloc, including Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia joined.
Covering and deceit are the basics of predators. The sweet promises on the lips, even if they were sincere at the time, do not restrain the nature of predators. Preys fall a victim because they always get fantasized not realizing the truth.
Thirty Years of NATO Expansion Toward East
From 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed until now, for about 30 years, imperialist forces have been moving eastward, carrying out a pro-imperialist regime change through the so-called “color revolution.” The Yugoslav bulldozer in 2000, the Georgia Rose in 2003, the Ukrainian Orange in 2004, the Kyrgyzstan Tulip in 2005, and the Belarusian Jeans Revolution in 2006 are well-known examples. Through this process, over the past 30 years, NATO, led by the United States, has advanced “east, east” with Russia as its final goal.
And the country where the pro-imperialist regime change took place joined NATO without exception and joined the siege of Russia. And as always, U.S. military bases were built in these countries, first suppressing local labor resistance and then becoming part of an over-exploitation net surrounding semi-colonial Russia and worker-state China.
The eastward movement of imperialism reached Ukraine under Russia's chin. The U.S. intervened in the “civil society” by providing huge amounts of funding to take control of Ukraine. Government agencies such as the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Democratic Institute of the Democratic Party and the International Republican Institute of the Republican Party, Freedom House, and billionaire George Soros' Open Society Institute led it. In 2004, the Associated Press reported, “The Bush administration spent more than $65 million to help the Ukrainian opposition, and helped Yushchenko meet with U.S. leaders.”
The results of these works were shown in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election.
Viktor Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine, defeating pro-imperialist Viktor Yushchenko in the Ukrainian presidential election, which was held under the watch of election observers sent by the West. The United States and the European Union could not accept this result.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States does not accept the results of Ukraine's presidential elections as legitimate, citing “credible reports of fraud and abuse.” Of course, Western election observers were organized with the support of Freedom House and the Democratic National Institute of Democracy. They attended the election even wearing orange clothes, which means support for Yushchenko. One of them even gave a speech in support of Yushchenko. (CNN, November 25, 2004, Powell: 'Fraud and abuse' in Ukrainvote)
Civic groups backed by Western imperialism then protested against the election results. ‘Fora’ was the organization leading this protest, and one of the people in charge, Vlad Kaskif, was employed by George Soros' ‘Open Society Institute’. He becomes an aide to Yushchenko, who will later become president. Eventually, two weeks later, the Supreme Court overturned the election results and a re-election was held. In the re-election, pro-Western candidate Yushchenko was finally elected. (CanadianDimension March 17, 2022, Revisiting our secret role in Ukrain's 2004 Orange Revolution, The Guardian, November 26, 2004, US campaign behind the turmoil in Kiev)
Groups that are colonial servants of imperialism are those who serve imperialism against the interests of the local people. Because of its nature, they are consistently anti-people and corrupt. So was Yushchenko, who was elected by the West's irrationality and coercion. It was disgusting even from his side. Yushchenko's chief of staff, Oleksandr Zinchenko, has accused several presidential aides, including Petro Poroshenko, of corruption. Congress' ruling party leader Mikola Martinenko was accused of massive misappropriation of state-owned enterprise public funds. Yushchenko's other aides have been charged with pursuing illegal private interests, including smuggling and arms exports. His wife, Caterna, raised more than $18 million through a charitable foundation registered in 2006, which was not explained how the money was spent (EurasiaNet, May 28, 2020, A brief history of corruption in Ukraine: the Yushchenkoera).
Tired of rotting corruption, the Ukrainian people have returned to Yanukovych. In the 2006 general election, Yanukovych's "Ukraine Regional Party" became the largest party in the party's parliament. Four years later, Yanukovych defeated rival Yulia Tymoshenko in the January 17, 2010 presidential election.
The Yanukovych regime, unlike its predecessor which entered the so-called "Orange Revolution" in 2004, sought to benefit from both Europe and Russia. Russia provided $15 billion in aid and gas at one-third cut in international prices on condition of not joining the European Union. Yanukovych, who was wary between Russia and the EU, hesitated to join the EU, which had been underway since 2012.
Orange Revolution MK 2: “Euromaidan”
This behavior has angered Western imperialists. They carried out the plan they had been preparing. Pro-Western “civic groups” began protesting on November 21, 2013 to call for EU membership. It was called “Euromaidan,” meaning a demonstration to support EU membership. The demonstrators were led by fascist organizations such as “Svoboda” and “Right Sector,” and they were again fully supported by U.S. imperialism.
Senator John McCain, who is also known for being behind the infamous ISIS(the Guardian Jan 6, 2015), visited Kiev on December 15, 2013, during the Euromaidan protests. It was to encourage the far-right who were leading the protests. McCain, who took the podium with Svoboda's party leader, said, “People of Ukraine! America is with you. The future of Ukraine and Europe is in your hands now. The free world, the U.S. and I will be with you!“ he said, reviving the energy of the fascist-led anti-government protesters.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasia Victoria Nuland also moved actively without being aware of the eyes of the people. He went to the rally site three times only at the beginning of the Euromaidan protests. They distributed snacks to the demonstrators and expressed U.S. support. Even though Yanukovych was still in office, the schemers of U.S. financial capital, including Nuland, were already discussing Yanukovych's replacement(Channel4 Dec 16 2013, Far-right group at heart of Ukraine protests meet US senator, Sen. John/ NPRnews Dec 15 2013, McCain Addresses Anti-Government Protesters In Kiev/ CATOinstitute Aug 6 2017, America’s Ukraine Hypocrisy).
On her visit Ms Nuland met opposition heads (L-R) Oleh Tyahnybok, Vitaly Klitschko and Arseniy Yatseniuk
Nature of Euromaidan Government
The parliament was occupied by protesters, and Yanukovych was impeached on 22 February 2014. On the 26th, a provisional government was established in which a number of fascists entered the government and held several positions (RadioFreeEurope, February 27, 2014, Who's Who In Ukrain's 'Kamikaze' Cabinet).
On May 25, Petro Poroshenko became president. Unsurprisingly, the Poroshenko government's task was to solidify the understanding of US financial capital in Ukraine. According to a telephone conversation between Victoria Nuland and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Jeffrey Piyat, after the Meidan coup, they discussed who would be a suitable successor among Klitschko, Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleh Tiahnybok, leader of the neo-Nazi party Svoboda. In fact, among them, Yatsenyuk, whom Nuland recommended as the right person, became prime minister.
Furthermore, Poroshenko's cabinet had ministers with close links to the United States. The fact that three foreigners have been appointed ministers, all three of whom have studied in the United States, gives us an idea of the nature of the administration (BBC, December 5, 2014 Foreign-born ministers in Ukraine’s new cabinet).
—Natalie Jaresko, finance minister, U.S.-born Ukrainian, studied at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, relocated to Kiev shortly after Ukrainian independence in 1992 and worked at the U.S. Embassy.
—Aivaras Abromavicius, economic development and trade minister, Lithuanian-born, studied at Concordia University in Wisconsin, USA,, joined Hansabank operating in the Baltic states in 1996, joined East Capital in 2002 and managed Eastern European portfolios at several banks.
—Aleksandre Kvitashvili, health minister, from Georgia, studied at Robert Wagner Graduate School in New York in 1993, minister of labour, health and social protection under President Saakashvili in 2008-10.
And,
—Valeria Hontareva, president of Ukraine's central bank, Valeria Hontareva, joined the Netherlands ING Bank in 1996 and vice president in 2001 and president in 2007
Following Poroshenko, Volodymyr Zelensky, who became president in May 2019, is also a pro-U.S. government. Anti-labor class, anti-democratic and racist. “Donbas will soon become Ukrainian territory. If you think you're Russian, leave for Russia.” he said in a 2021 interview.
Racist Policies of the Kiev Regime
The pro-U.S. fascist regime in Kiev suppressed the native Russian language spoken by one-third of Ukraine. In 2015, the ‘Derussification Act’ was enacted. The bill revised the Soviet-era place and road names, allowed information on airports, roads, and railways to be displayed only in Ukrainian and English. The Education Act enacted in 2017 reduced language education originally used by minority students to special classes. Under the law, students above secondary school can learn more than one subject in the European Union's national language, but Russian is excluded. The Language Act, enacted in 2019, mandated the use of Ukrainian by Congress, public sector workers, doctors, soldiers, and teachers. Under this law, publicly provided information such as political activities, administrative processes, advertisements, signs, and direction signs can only be displayed in Ukrainian.
The racist regime's violent oppression of Russian, which emerged as the Euromaidan riots, dimmed the future of Russian speakers. They were overwhelmed by anxiety and fear and angry at anti-Russian and racist policies. It led to resistance, which caused several bloodshed in clashes with Ukrainian fascists.
The arson of the Odessa trade union building is a representative tragedy in the midst of this. Odessa is a port city on the Black Sea in southwestern Ukraine. More than 60% of the population of about 1 million speaks Russian. They were forced to protest the Russian language suppression measures.
Kulykove Square, near the Odessa trade union building, has been a major gathering place for pro-Russian protesters and left-wing politicians since the Euromaidan crisis. They called for the defense of Russian language and the guarantee of economic autonomy in the eastern region, where Russians and Russian speakers are majority. It was unacceptable to pro-imperialist fascists who antagonized Russia.
During March and April, armed uprisings broke out in Donetsk and Luhansk in the east, refusing to be incorporated into pro-NATO Ukraine. Armed Euromaidan activists, including the fascist group “Right Sector,” arrived in Odessa on May 2 amid such heightened tensions. They used firearms and firebombs, causing armed clashes with pro-Russian activists. Anti-Euromaidan protesters, pushed by sudden attacks and numerical inferiority, fled to the union building. Fascists set the building on fire. Many were trapped in the building where the fire broke out, and some who fled from fire and smoke were beaten to death by fascists who were waiting. The incident killed 48 anti-Euromaidan activists (RT 2 May 2022, How the 2014 Odessa Massacre Became a turning point for Ukraine).
Struggle for Independence in Donbass
Russian speakers in southeastern Ukraine have called for federalization in protest of the Kiev regime's racist policies. However, the Kiev government ignored the request. Russian speakers in the Donbas region then launched an independence movement.
On 7 April 2014, thousands gathered in Donetsk to hold a referendum on independence from Ukraine. Police launched a crackdown, but the protesters broke through the riot police and entered the state government building. They declared the Republic of Donetsk.
On 8 April, protesters in Luhansk captured the parliament, declared the Republic of Luhansk, and asked for Russian support. The Kiev government sent troops to suppress them. On April 27, however, protesters eventually won against the opposition forces and declared independence.
When the Luhansk and Donetsk declared independence, the Kiev regime began to suppress the military. The infamous Azov Battalion was the mainstay of the crackdown. The Azov Battalion was founded in May 2014 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol with Andre Biletsky as its head.
In 2010, Biletsky declared, “Ukrainian nation’s mission was to lead the white races of the world in a final crusade…against Semite-led Untermenschen [subhumans]”(The Guardian March 13, 2018 'We're not in no-Nazis, we just want to make country' on March 13, 2018).
The Azov Battalion was at the forefront of the suppression of the Donbas region, starting with the recapture of Mariupol, which was occupied by Donbas rebels in June 2014. In November of the same year, this blatant fascist force was officially incorporated into the Ukrainian army. Since then, it has increased its size even faster with smoother and richer support.
When the brutality and barbarity of the unit became a problem, the U.S. government pretended to impose sanctions briefly in 2015, but soon lifted the ostentatious sanctions. Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Office accused the troops of committing crimes in the Donbas region, including torture and the looting of civilians.
Ukraine's local militants were also trained by the U.S. military, as was the case with Libya and Syria and numerous other regime change operations. In 2016, Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Abakov said, "The U.S. military will train several units at the western base of Ukraine, and the Azov Battalion is one of them. About 290 U.S. paratroopers and 900 Ukrainian defenders will participate in the project(DigitalJournal January 31, 2016 U.S. to train alleged neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine).
Zelensky, whose main task is to appeal for support through SNS, is likely not to have military control, like the South Korean government. In the 2019 presidential election, Zelensky was very different from what he now looks like as a warmonger. He was elected on a promise to ease tensions with Russia. Shortly after taking office, Zelensky went to the front line of Donbas and met with Azov troop to appeal for easing tensions. But Azov's commanders rejected President Zelensky's request. Rather, they threatened to send more troops (GrayZone March 4, 2022 How Ukraine jewish President Zelensky made peace with Neo-Nazi paramilitaries on). They even threatened to drag Zelensky out and kill him if he wanted to negotiate peace under the Minsk Agreements (FairObserver, March 11, 2022, The Presence of Neo-Nazis in Ukraine). A smart dog knows exactly who feeds it.
The Minsk Agreements were a peace agreement that promised to end the civil war in Donbas. Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and representatives from the Donetsk Republic and Luhansk Republic participated and were signed twice in September 2014 and February 2015. The main contents are “a bilateral ceasefire” and “guarantee of autonomy in Donetsk and Luhansk states.” But even shortly after the signing of the ceasefire, NATO's imperialist-backed Azov forces did not stop their attacks on the Donbas region.
NATO imperialism clearly understood the nature of the agreement. As former Ukrainian President Poroshenko and German Chancellor Merkel acknowledged in June and December 2022, respectively, the Minsk Agreements were not meant for peace. It was just an ulterior motive to disrupt Russia to slow down armed aid to Donbas and buy time for Ukraine's military preparations. Meanwhile, it took eight years for Russia to fully recognize NATO's intentions.
The pro-U.S. government and its henchman Azov unit attacked Donbas for about eight years from 2014. The attacks killed more than 14,000 civilians from 2014 to early 2022, most of whom were residents of Donbas. More than 750 educational facilities were destroyed. 145 hospitals were bombed. Radio stations and power plants were also bombarded.
Struggle of the Communist Party of Ukraine
The Ukrainian Communist Party (KPU) was founded in Ukraine in 1993 after the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party (CPU) due to the counter-revolution of capitalism. The KPU was a powerful political party, winning 20~40% of the votes in the presidential and general elections before the 2014 EuroMaidan coup.
When the Euromaidan demonstration to bring down Yanukovych took place in 2013, the KPU called it a pro-imperialist regime change coup and opposed it. They claimed a united front with Yanukovych against Euromaidan. It was the right line. Subsequently, when the Donbas region declared independence, the KPU bravely supported the independence and its defensive war.
After the 2014 Euromaidan coup, the KPU faced a very risky situation as the Kiev region was dominated by imperialists and conflicts intensified due to international wars. It became a blatant target of pro-American fascists. Even Ukraine's pro-NATO parliament passed the Decommunization laws in May 2015. It banned communist symbols and propaganda. Participation in the election of the KPU led by Petro Simonenko and the official publication Labochaya Gazeta were banned. Many members of the party were imprisoned and faced lynching by far-right groups.
But the KPU did not give up. Despite all these difficulties, they organized protests against “decommunization, pro-business land reform, government support for neo-Nazi organizations, electricity and water price raise, and NATO expansion” (PeoplesDispatch July 6, 2022 Ukrainian court upholds ban on Communist Party).
True character is revealed in adversity. The Ukrainian Communist Party (KPD)'s principled and courageous struggle came to the heart of the people of the Donbas region struggling for independence. Pro-communist and anti-capitalist sentiments rekindled in Donbas.
Russia's Putin government is the executive branch of capitalist power that emerged after the overthrow of the Soviet Union, a workers’ state. That's why Russia was not happy with the pro-communist atmosphere of agitation in the Donbas region again. It would be a big problem if the wave of pro-communism flooded the Russian mainland. Thus, the Putin government checked the growth of Communist forces in the Donbas region. Russia's economic and military influence over the Donbas region was almost absolute, so it was sufficient to enforce its political demands on the Donbas region.
As explained earlier, the Communist Party contributed greatly to the construction of the Donetsk Republic. For this reason, it was expected that communists would win significant seats in the general election held on 2 November 2014. But Russia did not let it go. It breathed into the general election.
Russian presidential aide and election expert Surkov was dispatched. Russia called for the Communist Party to be prevented from participating in elections as a political party and to receive a quota on the list of candidates for a social movement called the “Donetsk Republic Movement.” The Donetsk Communist Party had no choice but to agree. In the end, the Communist Party won only three seats.(Dec 2021 The First Four Years of the Donetsk People’s Republic/PDF)
Russia hesitated for eight years from the establishment of a pro-U.S. government in eastern Kiev in 2014 until its participation in February 2022. Once the war begins, it must deal with the world's strongest U.S. and turn all NATO imperialist countries, including Britain, France, and Germany, into enemies. It was not an easy decision. That's why Russia tried to avoid a direct confrontation with NATO imperialism until the end.
In 2014, the Donbas region became independent among Russian-speaking regions in the southeast, establishing the Donetsk Republic and the Luhansk Republic. Kherson and Zaporizhia, who were restored after Russian military intervention in February 2022, also decided to merge into Russia after independence from Ukraine through a referendum.
But this result now was not what Russia's Putin government had hoped for in the first place. Putin did not want this level of independence. Russia, contrary to the will of the people of Donbas, wanted the two regions to remain in Ukraine under the Minsk Agreements. This was because if the Russian-speaking region was separated from Ukraine, the distribution of voters in Ukraine would change rapidly, eliminating the possibility of a pro-Russian president. Russia wanted the entire Ukraine to remain as a pro-Russian or at least neutral region as before (The First Four Years of the Donetsk People’s Republic/PDF).
Thus, Russia balked at military aid to the Donbas region. Hanging on to the Minsk agreements, Russia waited in vain for the imperialist hyenas to change their diet. Even just before it intervened directly in Ukraine, Russia was counting on such “agreements” and “negotiation.”
For this reason, few Russian troops were deployed to Donbas before 2022. There was little arms support. The armed forces of the two Donbas regional republics were largely attributed to the capture of Ukrainian weapons or the transfer of Russian-speaking Ukrainian troops to the rebels(MonthlyReview April 10 2022, The military situation in the Ukraine).
But the imperialist rulers were different. There was no illusion or hesitation. U.S. President Biden, who took office in January 2021, has officially vowed to check Russia and support Ukraine. On February 26, 2021, shortly after taking office, President Biden declared, “The United States will stand on Ukraine's side and hold Russia accountable for its attacks on Crimea…The United States will never recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea.” Ukraine's Kiev regime and fascist armed thugs, who confirmed their owners' firm will and hindsight, became more fierce.
NATO imperialism centered on the United States and Ukraine's will soon moved into action. On February 3, 2022, just before Russian intervention, about two-thirds of Ukrainian troops were deployed to the Donbas area, and the Ukrainian attack with artillery began in earnest on February 15, 2022(연합뉴스 2022년 2월 3일/ 뉴데일리 2월 18일).
It was not until February 22, when the Donbas region was on the verge of falling, that Russia made up its mind. Russia approved and began to intervene in the Republic of Donetsk and Luhansk(한겨레 2022년 2월 22일).
Putin’s Russian Government: Bonapartist-Nationalist Regime in Neo-Colony
Bonaparte power means “a temporary but strong power that is supported by both forces, located on the interface where the two opposing forces are pushed and pulled, in a balanced state where one side cannot completely overpower the other.”
Lenin cites Engels and explains this Bonapartist power as follows.
“By way of exception, however, periods occur in which the warring classes balance each other so nearly that the state power as ostensible mediator acquires, for the moment, a certain degree of independence of both.…” Such were the absolute monarchies of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Bonapartism of the First and Second Empires in France, and the Bismarck regime in Germany.…Such, we may add, is the Kerensky government in republican Russia since it began to persecute the revolutionary proletariat, at a moment when, owing to the leadership of the petty-bourgeois democrats, the Soviets have already become impotent, while the bourgeoisie are not yet strong enough simply to disperse them.”—State and Revolution
Even in colonies, especially in colonies with vast natural resources, Bonapartist power often emerged against imperialist aggression. Trotsky explains this as follows.
“In the industrially backward countries foreign capital plays a decisive role. Hence the relative weakness of the national bourgeoisie in relation to the national proletariat. This creates special conditions of state power. The government veers between foreign and domestic capital, between the weak national bourgeoisie and the relatively powerful proletariat. This gives the government a Bonapartist character of a distinctive character. It raises itself, so to speak, above classes. Actually, it can govern either by making itself the instrument of foreign capitalism and holding the proletariat in the chains of a police dictatorship, or by maneuvering with the proletariat and even going so far as to make concessions to it, thus gaining the possibility of a certain freedom from the foreign capitalists. The present policy [of the Mexican government–Translator] is in the second stage; its greatest conquests are the expropriations of the railroads and the oil industries.”—Nationalized Industry and Workers’ Management
Venezuela after Chavez, Libya during Qaddafi, Iran after the 1979 revolution, Syria in Assad, and now Putin's Russian regime are these colonial Bonapartist regimes. These regimes, on the one hand, serve as a link to the world's capitalist exploitation system and at the same time defend their resource-rich interests against imperialism.
The colonial Bonapartist government exploits and suppresses the working class and suppresses socialist progress, but it also serves as a breakwater to prevent imperialist looting of local resources. For this reason, the local working people resist the colonial Bonapartist government on one side, but on the other hand, they support the government in the face of imperialist invasion.
Indeed, Iran after 1979, Venezuela after Chavez, and Putin's Russia partially resisted imperialist super-exploitation, administering part of it to welfare. It was the “National Priority Projects,” which were implemented with the aim of improving education, health, housing, and agriculture after Putin took power in 1999. This project has resulted in meaningful improvements in life expectancy, education, fertility rate, absolute poverty, and suicide rate. It was similar to the Bolivar Mission, which Venezuela's Chavez has promoted since 2003.
Putin is a politician chosen by Russia during the upheaval, including the collapse of the worker state, rapid capitalization, growth of Russian capitalism, and imperialist looting.
Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952 (“St. Petersburg” after the capitalist counter-revolution). He joined the Soviet KGB in 1975. He worked in East Germany before returning to Leningrad after the collapse of East Germany in 1989. He later became an aide to Anatoly Sobchak, who became Leningrad's counter-revolutionary leader.
During the August 1991 coup, Putin inertially supported the coup, but as the defeat deepened, he changed his position without much conflict and moved to the pro-capitalist camp.
“It meant the dismemberment of his country, and the putsch’s leaders, he would later say, simply aimed to stop that. He considered theirs a noble purpose.…He had watched the new “acting president” of the Soviet Union, Gennady Yanayev, hold the news conference the night before…Putin said he knew then that the putsch was doomed.…after sixteen years of service to the KGB, he wrote his resignation.…he told Sobchak of his decision to quit, making it clear to his boss and mentor that he had sided with him.”—Steven Lee Myers, “New Tsar”
Putin was appointed Deputy Mayor of St. Petersburg in 1992 and led the privatization process.
In 1993, Yeltsin, who led the rapid privatization policy, stood on the side of Sobchak and Yeltsin when he bombarded with tanks the Capitol where opposition lawmakers were protesting.
In the June 1996 presidential election, Yeltsin narrowly defeated Communist Party candidate Zyuganov. Putin joins Yeltsin's second regime. In 1997, he was appointed director of the Central Control Bureau in a key position with the authority to supervise government departments.
Putin escapes his former owner, Sobchak, to Paris when he is arrested on corruption charges. Worried about his retirement, Yeltsin is said to have been moved by Putin's loyalty.
“When I learned that Putin had helped send Sobchak abroad, I had mixed feelings. Putin had taken a great risk. Yet I profoundly admired his actions.”—Ibid.
In July 1998, Putin was promoted to director of the Federal Security Agency (FSB). The situation became unstable in August 1998 when Russia defaulted and the Communist-led Duma pushed for Yeltsin's impeachment. Putin responded like an iron wall, saying, “Those who violate the Constitution and try to undermine Russia’s state system by unconstitutional methods and with the use of force will run up against appropriate resistance(Ibid).” Yeltsin and the ruling class would have been more fond of Putin's charisma.
In May 1999, Prime Minister Primakov of the Yeltsin regime led the impeachment of Yeltsin was dismissed, and Putin was appointed as prime minister in August. Yeltsin's popularity was only 6% in the candidate poll(UPI April 5 1999, Yeltsin's popularity in single digits). Yeltsin eventually announced his resignation on December 31 and Putin became acting president.
Putin finally became president in the March 2000 election.
Putin's rise was the result of disillusionment with his predecessor Yeltsin. Yeltsin was a comprador politician who implemented Western imperialist capitalism in Russia.
Immediately after the capitalist counter-revolution, large-scale privatization, named ‘Shock Therapy’, proceeded at as rapid speed and intensity as its name. It was based on the design and command of the U.S. finance capital. Jeffrey Sachs, an economics professor at Harvard University who designed the ‘Shock Therapy,’ was Yeltsin's leading economic adviser.
The dissolution of state-owned assets and the revival of privatization have wreaked havoc on the working class. All figures measuring the level of life, such as population, average life expectancy, suicide rate, crime, and prostitution, fell vertically. (For an analysis of the causes and effects of Soviet privatization, refer to the 「소련 붕괴에 대한 맑스주의적 분석Marxist Analysis of Soviet Collapse」)
The society, which was greatly shocked by the dismantling of the state-owned system, resisted. Unfortunately, however, the working class did not have a leadership with revolutionary insight. Rutskoy and Khasbulatov, who confronted Yeltsin by occupying the Capitol building in October 1993, had only afterimages of the already abandoned in past and had no prospects for the future.
With the help of Western financial and political support and the incompetence of the opposition, Yeltsin won the confrontation, but faith of Russian in Yeltsin, who served as a frontman for Western imperialism, was fading. Above all, Russian capitalists and the working people were furious when they saw the powerful military power inherited from the Soviet Union being neutralized and Russia's vast natural resources falling into the hands of imperialists.
Under such pressure, Russian society moved slightly to the left in the direction of nationalism. In the process, Russian capitalists who had grown for about a decade, and people longed for a leader who would stabilize a chaotic society and confront imperialist looting. At the heart of this relationship of force was Putin.
Russia is a great country in terms of territory, population, resources, and military power. In that sense, Russia is a ‘great power’. But it is not imperialism. Similar categories include countries such as Brazil, India, Iran and perhaps Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, countries such as Belgium and Norway can be seen as militarily weak countries, but they are imperialist that receive super-profit in the global economic system.
The Marxist tradition defines imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. It simply does not mean being ‘strong.’ It refers to a country that has the ability to receive super-profits in international relations.
The following is an excerpt of the subject-related part of the article On the Belarusian Crisis in January 2021.
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Russia: ‘Capitalist Power, But Not Imperialism’
Along with the United States, Russia is one of the decisive factors in the situation in Eastern Europe and Belarus. Therefore, the analysis of Russian social characteristics is significant.
Russia has returned to capitalist state since 1991. Capitalist Russia features ‘a vast territory, enormous natural resources, great military power and backward productivity.’ The first three features follow the Soviet Union’s halo and allow it to act as a powerful nation, one of the world’s “great powers.” However, productivity, which shows a wide gap over advanced imperialism, makes Russia not to rank among imperialism, namely the ‘colonialism of finance capital motivated by pursuit of super-profit.’
The policy of colonial expansion of imperialism is not due to the subjective wishes of the country’s capitalists. It is the result of being attracted to the nature of capital towards maximizing profits. The imperialist expansion policy is the realization of the instinct of imperialist finance capital: the pursuit of super-profit (the over and above profits which capitalists squeeze out of the workers of their “own” country/Lenin).
However Russia’s monthly minimum wage as of 2020 is only 12,130 rubles (about $ 210). In this situation, it is extremely limited for capital to go abroad to get “the over and above profits which capitalists squeeze out of the workers of their “own” country”. Furthermore, considering the military costs of defending the exploitation structure overseas from the local people and imperialist rivals and bringing safely the exploited goods and profits to their home countries, the calculation is completely out of place. In this regard, Russia cannot be an imperialist state, regardless of the subjective self-identity of the Russian capitalist class. It can’t be a predator because it can’t digest meat.
Economically, Russia is a country, where some of the value produced by its labor is leaked to imperialist countries through commodity exchanges, foreign capital loans, and direct investment. Thus it is a colony. Meanwhile, politically, Russia maintains some of its sovereignty. In this regard, Russia is an semi-colonial state.
Meanwhile, Russia is a resource-rich country. Russian capitalists never want to lose their political power and be reduced to the subordinate of Western imperialism. Then, as the example of Saudi Arabia shows, the imperialist Army will march in, and local capitalists will have to stand in the background and watch as it waste resources like they are its own yard’s resources. Social status will be reduced to a poor, and they should earn only crumbly profits in a servile manner.
This is why since Yeltsin, from 2000 until now, the Russian capitalists have maintained a strong bonapartist nationalist regime led by Putin. (Such situations include Venezuela, Iran, and Libya during Gaddafi’s era, where Bonapartist nationalist regime was located in resource-rich countries.) Yeltsin was just born as a capitalist regime and had to face opposition to the dissolution of state ownership within Russia. Internal support was weak and survival was possible only when leaning to the West. However, in those 10 years, capitalist power has grown, and it has begun to speak in a rather thick voice. Precious natural resources on their land gave them a strong incentive not to succumb to Western imperialism. The powerful military power inherited from the Soviet Union gave them the guts to protect their voice.
Russia has been passive and defensive in the U.S. race. On the world stage, where the strong competitor disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, American imperialism had no obstacle. It used economic, military and political methods to subjugate countries that were formerly under Soviet influence. It either invaded Somalia in 1992, Serbia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, Libya and Syria in 2011, or supported pro-U.S. forces in the region to create a civil war or coup. Then it came to Russia, the most coveted prey.
Russian capitalists, including Putin, were pro-Western and even had a naive fantasy of becoming partners with the U.S. in global operations. The decisive awakening of Russia was the 2013–14 Ukraine crisis. After the former Soviet-influenced countries fell into the hands of the United States one after another, they could no longer sit by and watch as countries become Russia’s enemies. The teeth became very cold when the lips were damaged, just like the old saying.
Russia finally moved in 2015 at the request of Syria’s Assad regime, which has been suffering from a U.S.-led regime change since 2011. Along with Iran, which was suffering from the same situation, Russia sent troops to Syria to defend the Assad regime. It realized that if it want to protect its teeth, it have to protect its lips first.
* * *
We add some data on this subject.
1) Russia's GDP: Russia's GDP ranks 11th, lower than Korea's. Russia has a population of 146 million, and Korea has 51 million people, about a third of Russia's. Russia's GDP is about 7.6% of the U.S., which has a population of 330 million.
2) GDP per capita
According to World Bank, GDP per capita in major countries in 2021 is as follows. It is about one-sixth of the United States and one-third of Korea, and it is almost the same as China.
3) World's top 500 companies
Russia is not among the top 10 countries with many Fortune 500 companies (2018). (Fortune Global 500)
As of 2021, there are four Russian companies among the top 500 companies. Three of them are Gazprom, Lukoil, and Rosneft Oil, as the name suggests they are energy companies, and the other SberBank is a state-run bank (Fortune Korea September 2, 2022).
The positions of the world's left wing in this Ukraine war can be classified into four categories.
1) Defining Russia as an Invader and supporting Ukraine and NATO’s victory (RCIT, etc.)
2) Defining Russia as imperialism and Dual Defeatism (IST/Labour Solidarity, IBT Remainers, Worker’s Institue of Social Science, etc.)
3) Not imperialism, but Russia is also reactionary (Left Voice, ICL)
4) Conflict between Imperialism and colony due to the eastward movement of U.S.-centered Western imperialism and For Donbas and Russia's victory (Bolshevik Group and MSO organizations)
1) Defining Russia as an Invader and supporting Ukraine and NATO’s victory
RCIT defines Russia as an aggressor and claims victory for Ukraine, a NATO imperialist puppet. RCIT said on the day of February 24, 2022, which developed into an international war, “Let's overthrow Putin's imperialist war on Ukraine!…we support the Ukrainian people and their struggle for resistance against Russian aggression." RCIT came from both criticism that most of the conflicts caused by U.S. imperialism, including Hong Kong, Myanmar, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Taiwan, hold "imperialist China" or "imperialist Russia" responsible for the issues, or that it is a matter of both U.S. imperialism and China/Russian imperialism. Even the new colony, Korea, is upgraded to imperialism. Always be careful to expose American imperialism as a major enemy in this way.
In recent years, Trotsky deftly distorted his 1937 position, explaining his position of support for Chinese military against imperial Japan, giving his pro-imperialist position a Marxist color.
“It is not difficult to recognize the similarities between the current Ukraine War and the Sino-Japanese War in 1937-41. In both cases, a semi-colonial country (Ukraine resp. China) was attacked by an imperialist power (Russia resp. Japan). In both cases, the resistance of the oppressed country was led by treacherous bourgeois forces (Zelensky resp. Chiang Kai-shek). In both cases, the national liberation war has been combined with inter-imperialist rivalry between Great Powers resulting in escalating tensions and economic sanctions (NATO vs Russia resp. U.S. vs Japan).
In both cases, Marxists supported the legitimate war of defense by the oppressed people while taking a revolutionary defeatist position in the conflict between the Great Powers. In both cases, Marxists opposed imperialist sanctions but advocated workers sanctions against the aggressor.”—The Ukraine War and the Second Sino-Japanese War: A Historical Analogy
In this way, RCIT, as always, exonerates the United States. The legitimate self-defense of the people of colonial Russia and Donbas region is rather defined as an imperial act. RCIT is very harmful. It is hoped that advanced parts of the world's working class, including Korea, will soon notice this.
2) Defining Russia as imperialism and claiming defeat on both sides
It is not new that the International Socialist Tendency (IST) and its Korean branch, the Workers' Solidarity, have an opportunistic imperialist view. We have explained this point several times (레닌주의 제국주의론 vs 클리프주의). Their neutrality in the Ukrainian war is a logical consequence.
“The Ukraine war should be viewed as an imperialist war. It is true that Russia is launching ruthless attacks in Ukraine, but the United States and Western European powers are also important parties to the conflict through sanctions and arms aid. Russia's advocacy position is as wrong as the West's. It is not right to regard the enemy as a friend unconditionally. We must oppose both the United States and Russia.…Many leftists have understood imperialism as the domination of a weak nation by a particular power (such as the United States). However, imperialism cannot be reduced to colonialism in this way, and it must be understood as a global competition system between great powers. If so, Russia, like the US and Western European powers, is clearly an imperialist country vying with the West over Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and increasingly wants to do so at global level.”—Workers' Solidarity March 8, 2022, “Marxism and War in the wake of the Ukrainian War”
The IBT remainer comrades, who fought with us until 2018, have insisted that Russia is imperialism since 2008. Now it's almost like Cliffism. Nevertheless, the title says that the main cause of the conflict is NATO imperialism. Is it because they’re still embarrassed?
“Marxists condemn imperialist brinkmanship and oppose the reckless drive toward a military conflict that could potentially cost the lives of hundreds of millions of people. In any armed conflict between the US/NATO and Russia, we take a position of dual defeatism, actively favoring the defeat of both camps.”—NATO Imperialists Escalate Ukraine Crisis
Many of the so-called Stalinist organizations have also joined the ranks of labeling Russia as imperialist, absolving the United States and NATO imperialism, or at least reducing their sins as the main culprit of the war. This is the case with the Greek Communist Party and Korean Worker’s Institue of Social Science(WISS).
“The root cause of the war in Ukraine is the competition over the division of markets, the control of the wealth-producing resources and areas of strategic importance. It is being waged and led by the bourgeoisie; it is imperialist on both sides; it is directed against the peoples and there are great dangers of its generalization, even with the use of nuclear weapons.”—Contribution of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) at the 22nd International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties (IMCWP) in Havana
WISS does not stop at introducing the Greek Communist Party. It has repeatedly published articles that Russia is imperialist (even China too!) and that both Russia and Ukraine are at fault.
“The current Ukraine war is a war of “imperialism versus imperialism” that broke out in the conflict between the U.S. and NATO's imperial ambitions, the interests of the Ukrainian ruling class and the brutal repression of the eastern part of the country, and the interests of the Russian ruling class. The responsibility for the war lies with both the American and NATO imperialists, the ruling classes of Ukraine and Russia, but in the end, all the sacrifices are coming to the working people.”—정세와 노동
3) It may not be imperialism, but Russia is also reactionary, so should be neutral
Unlike the IST/Worker's Solidarity, Left Voice does not define Russia as imperialism. But Russia, too, is “reactionary,” so it comes up with an unrealistic and ultra-leftist position that the working class must “fight against both sides.” It also equates the Kiev regime's nationalism with the Russian-speaking nationalism suppressed by them, ignoring the ethnic oppression the former inflicts on the latter.
“Only through a policy of independence will it be possible to confront imperialism, Putin’s reactionary policies, and the reactionary nationalisms that divide Ukraine — whether the neo-Nazi pro-Western nationalist organizations that support the Ukrainian government or the pro-Russian nationalists. … Only this way out, led by the working class, down a path of a working-class and socialist Ukraine, can guarantee the respect of all democratic and national rights, as well as an end to systematic plunder at the hands of foreign companies and the local oligarchies.”—Sanctions Are an Imperialist Tool That Hurts Working People
ICL also makes a bizarre sophistry that says, “Russia is not fighting imperialism, but Ukraine.” Like Left-Voice, they conclude that workers must fight against both sides.”
“Should workers side with Russia?” Some on the left believe that since Russia is challenging the imperialists it should be supported in its war. This is a capitulation to Great Russian chauvinism. Russia is not at war with the imperialists but with the Ukrainian government. The proletarian strategy to fight imperialism in Ukraine and Russia lies in common revolutionary struggle of Ukrainian and Russian workers, not in supporting the designs of the Kremlin. The subjugation of the Ukrainian nation to Russia would further inflame national antagonisms, erecting a tremendous obstacle to this perspective.”—NATO/EU Aggression Provokes War in Ukraine: Ukrainian, Russian Workers: Turn the Guns Against Your Rulers! Down With the EU and NATO!
* * *
The hypocrisy of Bolshevik Tendency (BT) needs to be addressed separately. During the 2014 coup d'etat of the “Euromaidan,” an imperialist regime change operation, BT insisted on neutrality, equating Yanukovych, who was elected by democratic elections, with Timoshenko, an American servant. Then, when the war broke out in 2022, they suddenly pretended to be revolutionary and insisted on defending Russia and Donbas.
Anyone can make a mistake. If you realize your mistake and return to the right position, you deserve praise and welcome. However, the problem is that they suddenly blames other organizations for being neutral, covering up their chronic disease of being neutral(UK/NATO: stay out of Russia’s territorial waters! Neutrality equals ‘conscious or unconscious’ support for imperialists).
War is just a continuation of politics. The 2022 war is no different from the conflict in 2014. It's on the line. BT should have first confessed and reflected on the “Neutrality equals ‘conscious or unconscious’ support for imperialists” position they took in 2014. BT doesn't do that, though. Our “Worst Enemy of the Working Class: Capitulation to Imperialism, Neutrality and ‘BT’” is about that double standard and hypocrisy.
BT has entered Marxists Speak Out(MSO) which we are in as well and is participating in the discussion. We believe that the joint statement is one of the joint actions, as of The Zimmerwald Manifesto (1915). BT, however, seems to think differently. They never joined the MSO's joint statement.
Of course, not attending in the joint action because of different opinions itself does not mean the betray the class cause. BT's problem, however, is that they are ignoring even the existence of MSO, which they agree with, united by the claim for Russia and Donbas's victory.
It is called sectarianism to try to put oneself in front of the cause without dedication to the historical cause of the class. The working class of the world should remember not only the hypocrisy and double standards of BT, but also sectarianism that hinders the unity of the working class.
Two days after the outbreak of the war, the Bolshevik Group published “Russian military action is a just retribution against provocations of NATO puppet regime: Resist against NATO imperialist expansion! For the self-determination of Donbass!” And we searched international organizations that have the same position as us. Thus, around March, it was combined with left-wing organizations in Brazil, Australia, the United States, Greece, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Argentina, and East Timor. Class Conscious, Liaison Committee for the Fourth International(LCFI), Socialist Fight are leading organizations in MSO. Under the name of Marxist Speak Out, they have consistently organized joint actions such as the May Joint Statement (OPEN LETTER FOR MAYDAY).
“On May Day, the international day of solidarity of the workers of the world, the following groups and individuals proclaim our united opposition to the greatest threat to the global working class: imperialist war. We declare our refusal to accommodate ourselves to the war drive of world imperialism against Russia. We hoist on our banners today the following: • Down with NATO’s proxy imperialist war in Ukraine! • for the right of Russia to defend itself against imperialist encroachment!”
Western imperialism, centered on the United States, controls most parts of the world. That is why the position for Russia and Donbas's victory must suffer from strong social pressure. So they are a minority. It is similar to the fact that immediately after the outbreak of World War I, Marxists who maintained a revolutionary position were in a minority to the extent that they were “almost negligible.” However, the minority united by the Zimmerwald Conference kept the continuity of revolutionary thought, led the Russian Revolution to victory and built the proud Third International.
MSO has various organizations with different histories. There are differences on the issue of China, a key issue of this era. Nevertheless, the organizations gathered at the MSO have, at least, overcome the strongest pressure in the current Ukraine war situation. In this regard, the MSO, like the Zimmerwald Conference, passed the first gateway to the construction of the revolutionary international leadership.
* * *
The centerpiece of the imperialist camp America is going downhill. The elimination of Qadhafi in 2011, Egypt's military coup in 2013, and Euromaidan in 2014 might be the last success examples. On the other hand, failure cases are increasing. Despite the 2011 regime change revolt in Syria, Assad is still in power. The 2016 coup to remove Turkish president Erdogan failed. In 2017, U.S. threatened North Korea which was developing nuclear weapon and ICBM, but it did not go its way. The pro-U.S. coup in Venezuela in 2019 also finally failed. In January 2020, U.S. assassinated Iran's top military commander, but Iran did not surrender. Agnes, who staged a pro-U.S. coup in Bolivia in 2019, was jailed in March 2021. The anti-government insurgency in Belarus in August 2020 and Kazakhstan in January 2021 were also unsuccessful. The most symbolic of these series of failures is the defeat of U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan in August 2021. For the United States, it was a war of 20 years.
The international situation over the past decade means that the imperialist holiday has ended, and the phase of “the general advantage of the world's working people, the general disadvantage of imperialism” has begun. In the future, the collapse of the imperialist and capitalist systems will proceed faster. The super exploitation of imperialism will be met with more intense resistance around the world. Imperialism will require a lot more manpower and resources than before to achieve something. Still, there will be more and more obstacles. The internal split of the ruling class will occur more explicitly. Colonial subordinate regimes have been losing confidence in their imperialist masters.
Even in this Ukraine war, the United States is using almost every means it can. But the hope of winning is growing further and further away. It seems that German, French, and British imperialist partners already judge that there is no chance of winning. ““We keep repeating that Russia mustn’t win, but what does that mean? If the war goes on for long enough with this intensity, Ukraine’s losses will become unbearable,” a senior French official said. “And no one believes they will be able to retrieve Crimea.””(WSJ Feb 24, 2023 NATO’s Biggest European Members Float Defense Pact With Ukraine)
Even India and Saudi Arabia, which had been obeying to the U.S., deal with China and Russia without hesitation. Trade in yuan or rubles, not dollars, disturbing dollar hegemony.
Ukrainian War and Class Relationship of Force
The Ukrainian war is an expression of imperialist nature which is impossible to hide. Imperialism and the working class are sharply conflicting in this war. If imperialism wins the Ukrainian war, Russia will be as precarious. Imperialism, led by the United States, will rejuvenate with new energy, as it did after the capitalist counter-revolution in the 1990s. China, too, will be compromised. But if Donbas and Russia, which we have military support for, win, it will accelerate the phase of “the general advantage of the world's working class, the general disadvantage of imperialism.”
Trotsky's explanation of the Anti-Imperialist Struggle is always clear.
“In Brazil there now reigns a semifascist regime that every revolutionary can only view with hatred. Let us assume, however, that on the morrow England enters into a military conflict with Brazil. I ask you on whose side of the conflict will the working class be? I will answer for myself personally—in this case I will be on the side of “fascist” Brazil against “democratic” Great Britain. Why? Because in the conflict between them it will not be a question of democracy or fascism. If England should be victorious, she will put another fascist in Rio de Janeiro and will place double chains on Brazil. If Brazil on the contrary should be victorious, it will give a mighty impulse to national and democratic consciousness of the country and will lead to the overthrow of the Vargas dictatorship. The defeat of England will at the same time deliver a blow to British imperialism and will give an impulse to the revolutionary movement of the British proletariat. Truly, one must have an empty head to reduce world antagonisms and military conflicts to the struggle between fascism and democracy. Under all masks one must know how to distinguish exploiters, slave-owners, and robbers!”—Anti-Imperialist Struggle Is Key to Liberation
-Defeat the US-led NATO imperialism and the local subordinate regime in Kiev!
-Victory for Russia and the Donbas region against imperialist aggression!
-Let's overthrow the first link of the imperialist slave chain: ‘Social Democracy, Social Patriotism, Bourgeois Pacifism, and Anglo-Chauvinism!’
-Let's break the chains of slavery and build a revolutionary international party!
March 8th, 2023
Bolshevik Group
[Portuguise & English] Contribution of Bolshevik Group(So...
