ACN/AKN: The Reformist Left – Capitulation for US (and EU-) imperialism in regard of Ukraine

Declaration from the ACN/AKN:

The Reformist Left – Capitulation for US (and EU-) imperialism in regard of Ukraine

During the current crisis in Ukraine the truly revolutionary sections of the left have taken a steadfast position against the machinations of US imperialism and its counterparts in Europe. However the vast majority of the reformist left groups, both in the USA as well as in entire Europe, who in way or another all positioned themselves to support the “democratic” imperialist powers.

The USA and the European imperialist powers played an essential role in initiating and agitating the unrest in Ukraine, which began with the outbreak of protests on the Maidan square last November, after the then President Victor Yanukovitsj rejected an “association treaty” with the EU. By supporting these protests with money and publicity it was especially Washington which played an essential role in the formation of the new government, which was installed after the coup d’état of the 22th of last February. The goal of the US (and EU-) imperialists was the installation of a satellite state at the border of capitalist Russia, that is under the reign of the strongman Putin, who is becoming more and more a rival as well as a “pain in the ass” for them.

Since the very first beginning we warned for the presence of a substantial fascist segment in the center of the Maidan protest, grouped around the Svoboda party, which came forth from the Ukrainian national movement led by Stepan Bandera, whose armed forces committed several mass murders on Jews and Poles in cooperation with the German Wehrmacht during the last world war. After the war the Bandarists sided with American imperialism and continued their war against the Sovjet Union, but from then on under the direct command of the CIA. The coup against Yanukovitsj was carried out by the fascists and actively supported by the USA and the EU. One of the first decisions of the new parliament was the abolishment of the official status of Russian and other minority languages, a decision, against which the observing President later on exclaimed a veto – because of outside pressure to give the coup a “democratic” face.

The installation of a very rightwing orientated regime of Ukrainian nationalists in Kiev let all the alarm bells go off amongst the Russian speaking population in eastern and southern Ukraine. Confronted with the prospect of further expansion by the NATO (the aggressive military alliance of western imperialism) directly by its front door, (capitalist) Russia reacted by strengthening its troops on Crimea to secure their national interests, especially the Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol. We spoke out our support for this intervention based on the democratic right of national self-determination for the ethnic Russian population of Crimea. Against the lies of imperialism, that Russia would intervene in a “foreign” region, we pointed out the fact that Crimea was always Russian since its historic connection with Russia, and clarified:

“The people of Crimea have all the right on national self-determination, including independence or unification with Russia. In the current situation it is very possible that using this right depends on the support of the Russian armed forces. And it was indeed the newly formed government of Crimea that called for Russian intervention.”

The correctitude of our position was emphasized by the overwhelming electoral results in favor of unification with Russia in the following referendum on Crimea.

However, our defense for Russian intervention implied (and still implies) in no single way even the slightest political support for the Putin-regime, a bourgeois government based on great-Russian chauvinism. We rejected the murderous interventions in Chechnya (in 1994 and 1999), a region in the Caucasus, whose population is almost entirely Muslim, and supported their struggle for national liberation (independence). During the war in Georgia (in 2008) we were revolutionary defeatists towards both sides: The class interests of the workers of Russia as well as those of Georgia were overthrowing their own bourgeoisie in the struggle for a proletarian revolution. We also speak out for the rights of the Tartars and other oppressed ethnic minorities on Crimea and elsewhere in Russia.

After Crimea had unified itself with Russia, the regime in Kiev launched a military campaign against the insurgents in eastern Ukraine, which lasts up till today. Hundreds have fallen victim as a result of the bloody suppression by the Ukrainian army. On the 2nd of last May mob led by fascists, set ablaze a union building using Molotov cocktails in the southern city of Odessa, burning alive more than 40 anti-government activists. Behind the oppression we can see the arm of the patrons of Kiev – the US and EU-imperialism. While Washington and the EU are busy organizing sanctions against employees of President Putin because of his “intervention”, the CIA and FBI are busy with instructing Kiev how to knock down the rebellion. We strongly reject all sanctions of western imperialism as well as all military provocations from the NATO against Russia.

Urged by the repression by Kiev, the insurgents in the eastern provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk organized referenda on the 11th of May, in which a convincing majority voted in favor of “self-government”. We defend the right of the peoples there to organize a referendum and to act in accordance with the result of the vote, which could mean a step towards a federal Ukraine, independence or unification with Russia. The defense of the democratic rights of all nationalities is crucial for our goal to forge the revolutionary unity of the proletariat, apart from any national, ethnic and communitaurist dividing lines whatsoever. An urgently needed expression of such a workers union would be the formation of non-sectarian self-defense units to defend against the fascists (in Kiev), who form a threat to all workers and all national/ethnic minorities in the Ukraine. This perspective demands a steadfast opposition against all schemes of the imperialist powers.

The current situation is the result of the destruction of the Sovjet Union, the first worker state in the world, in 1991-92 as a result of the contra-revolution. The imperialist-led contra-revolution led to the economic collapse and the bloody revival of national contradictions, which caused immense suffering and misery for the peoples of Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. The position of true revolutionaries worldwide was always the defense of the USSR against the capitalist restoration and the advance of a political revolution of the working class to overthrow the party bureaucracy, whose politics fatally undermined the achievements of the October revolution of 1917.

The mouthpieces of imperialism in the bourgeois media warn us for a “new Cold War” between Russia and the West. However, this characterization lacks the class division which existed between American imperialism and her west-European allies on the one hand and the (degenerated) Sovjet worker-state and the (bureaucratic deformed) people’s democracies in Eastern Europe on the other. The current regime in Russia represents the same capitalist class, which imperialism tried to get back in power by all means possible during the entire Cold War. After the capitalist restoration the oligarchs enriched themselves by exploiting the former state industries.


Apologists of US- and EU-imperialism

In sharp contrast to the proletarian-revolutionary perspective of all true revolutionary forces worldwide, the vast majority of the reformist left in the US and Western Europe sided with their capitalist masters in practice, among others by parroting the imperialist lies about a so-called "Russian aggression". For instance in the USA, the International Socialist Organization (ISO) cheered for the mass mobilizations on the Maidan and called them "an action from the grassroots", even pointing out the involvement of the fascists themselves. And while the White House was ranting against the re-unification of Crimea with Russia, the ISO and the Socialist Alternative/Committee for a Workers’ International joined the wolves howling of imperialism with hysterical cries about a "Russian imperialism". In Great Britain the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the leading section founded by the former Tony Cliff, reserved most of its outrage for Russia, notwithstanding some small critical remarks at the address of the USA and the EU. In an article in the Socialist Worker (3 march) from the hand of SWP-boss Alex Callinicos it is suggested that:

"The takeover of military control in Crimea by Russia has pushed Ukraine towards the edge of war." Callinicos washed the role of the fascists in the coup d'état clean by pretending that "those who say that the overthrow of Yakunovitsj was a 'fascist coup' are repeating the propaganda from Moscow." However, in reality the fascists of Svoboda and Pravy Sector were the shock troops for the coup and became prominent components of the new regime in Kiev.

These kind of details are symptomatic for the SWP, which is known to follow almost any "peoples"-movement, no matter how reactionary. This can be traced back to its origin, when the SWP surrendered to her own "democratic" imperialist rulers by rejecting to call for the defense of the Chinese and North-Korean worker-states during the Korean War in the 50's. Moreover the British Socialist Worker (edition 6th of May) grotesquely offered an alibi for the fascist mass-murder in Odessa on the 2nd of May, by only reporting that "the Russian and Ukrainian government each blamed the forces who sympathized with the respective other side", despite the fact that video documentation clearly showed that it were the fascists who opened fire on the burning Union building, while people in panic tried to jump down from the higher floors to escape the flames.

It was an attempt from the side of the (by the BRD dominated) EU to spread out its tentacles towards Ukraine which ignited the current crisis. Important segments of the European left support this EU-expansion by canvassing the lie that this imperialist alliance could somehow be transformed into a "social Europe", in which democracy and prosperity would get the upper hand.

The German Imprekorr (edition of March-April), speaking-tube of the United Secretariat (US, supporters of Michel Pablo, pseudo-Trotskyists), published a declaration from the hand of Catherine Samary (activist of the French Nouvea Parti Anticapitaliste and spokesperson for the United Secretariat), in which it was suggested that the solution for the current crisis in Ukraine would be a "Greater Europe". In her May-June-edition the Imprekorr published a declaration from Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski, in which the right for the Ukraine to join the EU is defended, because all the other would mean "the chauvinism of the privileged".

The pseudo-Trotskyist groups, who these days glorify the by fascists tainted Maidan-movement, in earlier times also supported all kind of fascist and other anti-Sovjet forces during the second phase of the Cold War at the end of the 70's and 80's. It is remarkable that some Stalinist influenced organization did not go so far. In Germany, which has extended trading relations with Russia, the government does some kind of tightrope walk to find a balance between support to the new government of Kiev on the one hand and not to break all connections with Russia on the other. The concern of a part of the German bourgeoisie was strikingly expressed by a declaration from the "left" socialdemocratic party Die Linke (formerly PDS/Linkspartei consisting for most part out of east German ex-Stalinists), which stated: "The answer for the secession of Crimea by the Russian Federation, which is in contradiction with international law and which is condemned by us, must be found in diplomacy.

And then of course there are those who always were a bit more critical in regards to world imperialism and their fascist backup troops in Ukraine. In Italy the Rifondazione Comunista (Reconstituted Communists) condemned the USA and EU because of their support of fascists in Kiev and spoke out against the sanctions imposed to Russia by Western imperialism. But Rifondiazione stated in her declaration that her struggle is aimed to secure that "Europe becomes independent from the USA", with which it expressed support to EU imperialism, which is supposed to be more "enlightened" than the blunt American imperialism.


To be continued