To: Detroit/Seattle
Workers' Voice mailing list
November 28, 2022
RE: The crisis of the anti-war movement - part 3
by Joseph Green, Detroit Workers’ Voice
In this issue of the D/SWV list we continue to report on the crisis in the anti-war movement over whether to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We include three statements that, taken together, show the participation of the Ukrainian left (except for the pro-Stalinist groups) in the resistance to the Russian invasion, and the empty nature of the anti-imperialist claims of the apologists for the Russian invasion.
We include a statement from Ukrainian feminists, who back resistance to Russia, and write in defense of the heroic women’s resistance to the Iranian regime. This is one of many examples that show that support on the left for the Ukrainian resistance and the Iranian protest movement are closely linked.
There is a statement by a Ukrainian anarchist, who says that the reality of the Russian invasion changed his views on war and peace, and who describes the Ukrainian left as throwing itself into the resistance against the Russian invaders.
And it includes a report on the “Real Path to Peace” forum held in New York City, which demanded that Ukraine should not be able to receive arms from outside. This is not the path towards peace, but the path to capitulating to dictatorship and denying the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian nationality. It is the path of paving the way towards new wars. It is reminiscent of the “Non-Intervention Committee” of European powers during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), which blocked the arming of the anti-fascist forces, paving the way for the victory of the fascist Franco and helping lead, not to a durable peace, but to World War II. Back in the late 1930s the communist left in the US took pride in defying the Non-Intervention Committee and mobilizing aid to the anti-Franco forces in the Spanish Civil War. Today the crisis in the anti-war movement has gone to the point where much of the anti-war movement has become its own Non-Intervention Committee, seeking to block aid to the victims of aggression. <>
The following statement is reprinted from the website of the Feminist Initiative Group of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign, Nov. 9, 2022. A list of its signers can be found at https://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2022/11/09/statement-by-ukrainian-feminists-in-solidarity-with-iranian-women/.
We, Ukrainian feminists, express our solidarity with Iranian uprising, triggered by the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini by the Iranian Morality Police. Thousands of women responded to this crime by going out on the streets, cutting their hair and publicly taking off and burning hijabs as a symbol of their oppression. What started as a protest against police brutality and obligatory hijab, quickly transformed into a general resistance of the Iranian people against the patriarchal and dictatorial mullah regime and the authoritarian form of capitalism that it represents. The grassroot mobilization is today being joined by schoolgirls, students, trade unions, ethnic minorities, and people from other social groups affected by the economic crises, high food prices, social cuts, and privatization. This new wave of struggles thus continues and expands the series of uprisings against socio-economic inequalities, political oppression and ethnic discrimination that shook Iran during the last decade.
Slogans “Woman, life, freedom” and “Death to the dictator” have been spreading from Iranian Kurdistan all over the country and to squares all over the world. Crossing the boundaries of social groups and classes, this wave of resistance holds the figure of an Iranian woman in its center – the one who struggles for her own and others lives. We express our support of the protesters’ demands, including:
The popular uprising in Iran is facing severe repression. Hundreds of demonstrators have already been murdered, wounded or arrested. But the Iranian state is not only oppressing its own citizens. It also provides support for other oppressive and imperialist regimes. During the last few weeks, Iranian drones employed by the Russian army have killed tens of civilians and destroyed countless housing and critical infrastructure objects in Ukraine. The fight of the Iranian people for their own freedom is also a fight for the freedom and the security of ordinary Ukrainians.
For eight months now, Ukrainian men and women have been resisting Putin’s imperialist aggression. Iranians continue to struggle against their own dictatorial, ultraconservative regime and elite-profiting economy.
Freedom for Iran! Freedom for Ukraine! All together we will win! <>
Below are excerpts from a three-part article by Brenden S., an activist who was led to revise his views by the reality of the Russian war on Ukraine. He writes that prior to February this year, he “was part of the crowd” who were “reluctant to expend much energy on a European frozen conflict between two capitalist states [Russia and Ukraine] surrounded in a mainstream circus of Cold War rhetoric.” But the Russian invasion changed his views, and he how says it is necessary to take account of such things as ”the recent rise of progressive armed forces in Ukraine who counter both Ukrainian statism and the Russian invasion.” He says that “Understanding Ukrainian progressive responses to the war is paramount to any internationalist analysis”, and it is important to oppose “Western approaches both in the ‘anti-war left’ and mainstream politics.” Thus the reality of the threatened Russian destruction of Ukraine has led him to rethink some of his previous views. While we don’t agree with various points of anarchist theory in his article, he presents a picture of what’s happening to different trends, and a vigorous defense of the Ukrainian resistance.
Part 1, “The Class War in Ukraine", from the “New Politics”, Nov. 3, 2022, excerpts:
“A large portion of anti-authoritarian internationalists and Ukrainians alike would much rather fight a hard-fought resistance to secure lasting self-determination than a diplomatic appeasement that leads to lasting suffering under a colonial military regime. ... The ‘just let the Russian state colonize and ethnic cleanse because [it will supposedly lead to] peace’ approach puts any thinker on a path to social Darwinism, and Chomsky is clearly not immune from this. All roads lead to Rome just as all Western ‘anti-war left’ talking points lead to ‘weak must submit to strong’ talking points.”
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“Needless to say, the Ukrainian people are disproportionately affected by Russian hegemony, and the vast majority of the population either supports or participates in self-defense. The shallow narrative that the Russian population is somehow falling victim to NATO in this process places Russians with Ukrainians in a false equivalence. The nuance to this is really more simple than it appears: most Russians are absolutely fine, most Ukrainians are not. There is a sizable gap in ethics between a short period of controlled inflation in Russia and missiles leveling entire cities in Ukraine, not that either are justified in any way.”
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“Narratives falsely equating the questionable effect of Western sanctions to the sheer destruction enacted on the Ukrainian population serves the Russian war machine and the Russian war machine alone.”
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“Even with all of the West’s malevolence in mind, emphasizing blame for the conflict on NATO frames the Russian state as a victim, insisting that the Russian elite somehow require sympathy. From this analysis, it was only because NATO incited tensions that the Russian state invaded, therefore it is apparently an ‘inter-imperialist’ conflict. The population defending its homeland from invasion then gets conflated into the ‘inter-imperialist’ label, as if there is no distinction whatsoever separating the intentions of Russian and Ukrainian forces. Somehow it is assumed that the Ukrainian population is at fault for resisting invasion from the Russian state, at fault for defending itself from annihilation, at fault for defending its homeland from absolute destruction. It is assumed that both sides are just workers blindly being manipulated by the elite into conflict, and therefore the conflict is undeserving of closer social consideration. In many statements of the ‘anti-war left’ there seems to be more solidarity for the Russian ruling class than for actual workers in this conflict.
“This analysis completely neglects the relationship between an invading force and a population in self-defense, attempting to homogenize all actors under the reductive labels of ‘inter-imperialism’ and ‘working people.’ ”
“Thus, Ukrainian progressives had to wait for the right time to organize, which happened to be the 2022 invasion. Since then, we have seen the rapid rise of Ukrainian radical left-libertarian and anarchist forces such as RevDia, United Anti-Authoritarian Forces of Ukraine, Arsenal Kyiv Hooligans, Black Flag Ukraine, Solidarity Collectives, Operation Solidarity, and others, who fight both the crony capitalism of the Ukrainian police state and the greater immediate threat of the Russian invasion. Belarusian anarchists and anti-authoritarians have also formed their own units within the Kastus Kalinowski Battalion.”
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“To confront feminist pacifism, Ukrainian progressive feminists wrote a manifesto in July which has since gained the endorsement of over 70 progressive organizations across the world. Ukrainian feminists assert that the invasion must be resisted by women, as gender violence and patriarchy are common pillars of the Russian war machine, and that telling a woman to disarm is essentially telling her to accept rape.”
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“In spite of Ukrainian state union crackdowns, AUITU [the All-Ukraine Independent Trade Union] finds the invasion to be an existential threat both to itself and its workers, and thus prioritizes self-defense against Russian occupation. In other words, this is the class war side of the resistance. AUITU went on to say that the invasion ‘united the trade union and labor movement in Ukraine’ and that ‘we now need increasingly active international solidarity with our anti-imperialist resistance.’”
“The Ukraine Discourse and Its Consequences”, November 6, 2022, excerpts:
From the section: “Deconstructing the ‘Anti-War left’ ”
“The ‘anti-war left’ response to Ukraine has been a strictly performative one, pouring energy into vague statements while refusing to support even the most basic relief efforts for affected populations. In many cases, the ‘anti-war left’ looks fruitlessly to US Congress and Nancy Pelosi for a diplomatic solution in the classic social democratic move of appealing and appeasing instead of resisting. It is rather odd when an organization suggesting that the US is at the core of all imperialism also turns to the US for a resolution while legitimizing both its diplomacy and electoralism. ... Strictly performative “anti-war” campaigns have popped up in cities across the West while affected populations have been entirely ignored, diverting solidarity from those who need it.”
From the section: “People’s Summit”
“This year’s People’s Summit includes not just actions but also a series of conferences within the belly of the beast, as Guevara would say. It is an important presence of dissidence against the most destructive empire on the planet. It is not a summit that is actually internationalist, however, as there is a highly selective criteria for which marginalized populations get solidarity and which do not. This is because a large portion of its panel guests are associated with state ruling classes.
“In one concerning example, in the Democracy Beyond the US Empire forum on September 24, 2022, Eritrean diplomats were invited no less than three weeks after the Eritrean state launched its second invasion of Tigray and extended the Tigray Genocide, which the Eritrean state had already been participating in for two years. The People’s Summit preconception that the Eritrean state is anti-US is questionable, given that there is a history of incumbent Eritrean dictator Isaias Afwerki begging the US to build a military base then turning on the US for a Russian base instead when the US declined.
“The People’s Summit, [was] organized by ‘anti-war left’ engines including CODEPINK and ANSWER Coalition, legitimizing a regime currently causing immense violence, war, and destruction in East Africa while sending indigenous populations to the brink of extinction. Why not just invite the Russian state too? Why not invite every imperialist state if the injury of some has no relevance to the injury of all? To People’s Summit, if you can have genocidal powers boost your anti-US talking points then surely the struggle of their subjects is meaningless.
“The host of one People’s Summit forum, in his opening statement, said:
“ ‘We also know who our enemy is. We know who the enemy of the planet is, we know who the enemy of humanity is, and that is the one and only US empire.’ This sounds wonderful until ‘one and only’ suggests all imperialism and all suffering is grounded in the US alone, and Eritrean diplomats are sitting in the room right after helping their regime rape and slaughter thousands.”
From the section: “Trotskyist Responses”
“Trotskyists appear to be the most conflicted on Ukraine, with one faction supporting the Ukrainian right of self-determination, another taking the ‘inter-imperialist war’ route, and another yet claiming that the Russian state is not imperialist at all.”
From the section: the “ ‘Anti-war Left’ as a Philosophy of Contradictions”
Perhaps most importantly, the ‘anti-war left’ policy of selective solidarity for marginalized populations makes it pseudo-internationalist. Organizations such as ANSWER Coalition and PSL have directly supported US policy in some cases without asking questions, as we see with the Tigray War. In fact, ANSWER Coalition and PSL have been among the Ethiopian state’s most vocal genocide supporters in the West, trying to create a US-Ethiopian state dichotomy that doesn’t actually exist at all. Western backing of the Ethiopian state is completely neglected while regime narratives of anti-Tigrayan racism are normalized.
“The ‘anti-war left’ has also, on occasion, shown its support for
fascist protests in Europe. The International Magazine, a widely
acclaimed campist magazine, tweeted its endorsement of the September
2022 fascist protests in [the Czech Republic] simply because they were
anti-EU and anti-NATO. ...”
“Deconstructing Campist Narratives on Ukraine”, November 8, 2022, excerpts:
“In the US ‘anti-war left’ in particular, intellectual laziness on internationalism is often derived from the privilege of not living next to a state power that will brutalize and murder everyone around you. ...
“It is difficult for a lot of folks in the US to conceptualize what external threats feel like since there are none surrounding the US. ..
“Separation of the existential threat imposed on the Ukrainian people with the Ukrainian state itself is absolutely crucial in this understanding. Critique of the Ukrainian state is of utmost importance, but so is the necessity of popular self-defense amid the grasp of an invading empire. The Ukrainian people are fighting for their homes and their lives, the Russian state is invading them. This is a relationship that cannot be buried under assertions of Western involvement and pontifications about ‘inter-imperialism.’ The Ukrainian people are not NATO, nor is NATO the Ukrainian people. One is an ethnic group, the other a state institution. Conflation of the two amounts to a deeply flawed social analysis rife with dehumanization and social Darwinism.” <>
On November 19 the “Real Path to Peace” forum in New York City demanded that weapons shouldn’t be sent to Ukraine. It had no demands on the Russian military force and no denunciation of the ravaging of Ukraine. It aimed at uniting pacifists and the trends that think there’s something progressive in the oppressive Russian government and also naive people who think there will be a lot more social programs if it weren’t for aid to Ukraine, and it stressed that everyone “may have different analyses of Russia, Ukraine, and this tragic war” but would “unite around one thing”, which was denying weapons to Ukraine. (https://peoplesforum.org/events/the-real-path-to-peace-in-ukraine/) This is the same line of agitation followed by most of the American anti-war movement throughout this year.
This approach is reminiscent of the Non-Intervention Committee set up during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 by a number of European governments. Franco’s fascists were backed by arms from Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany, who continued to back Franco while taking part in the Non-Intervention Committee, while the French and British governments blocked weapons supplies to the anti-fascist forces. This facilitated the victory of the fascist side and helped pave the way for World War II.
A handful of people demonstrated outside against the New York forum. Below we reproduce a report on this action by the League for the Revolutionary Party. The Trotskyist movement is split on the issue of the war in Ukraine, and the LRP is one of the groups that back the Ukrainian resistance. Their report, which gives a good picture of what the “Real Path to Peace” forum was about, does not, however, go into what are the theories that have led to the Trotskyist movement as a whole being in crisis about this war.
Report on the Protest Against the “Real Path to Peace in Ukraine” Travesty at the People’s Forum, November 27, 2022, excerpts:
“The world continues to be horrified by the genocidal violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ... And yet the most prominent figures and largest groupings of the western left, habituated to believe that the U.S. is the world’s only imperialist oppressor, oppose solidarity with Ukraine’s struggle to defend its national independence against its old colonial ruler.
“For as long as there have been imperial powers and rivalries between them, imperialists have sought to advance their own interests by supporting this or that oppressed people fighting their rival. The socialist movement has always understood that the oppressed have every right to take advantage of such rivalries to obtain the weapons they need to defend themselves. And yet in the case of Russia’s invasion, most of the Western left says that the West’s support to Ukraine proves that its resistance is illegitimate.”
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“So we in the LRP welcomed the chance to join other socialists to protest outside the ‘Real Path to Peace in Ukraine’ rally at the People’s Forum in New York City on November 19. The event featured several of the most prominent figures on the left who call for Western governments to stop providing Ukraine with arms. Cutting off the supply of weapons to Ukraine, however, would not bring peace. All it would achieve would be to allow Russia to win its war. The leftists promoting this demand in the name of peace are engaged in a profoundly dishonest and manipulative bait-and-switch. The Forum’s Orwellian call for ‘Peace, Not War’ would in reality allow Russia to crush Ukraine and force Kyiv to surrender land and people to Putin as war booty.
“The biggest name advertised as a People’s Forum speaker was former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. But at the event it was announced that he would not be participating due to ‘technical questions.’ It later emerged that this was a lie: Corbyn had made clear in advance that he would not be participating and the organizers continued to promote the event by featuring his name anyway.[1]
“Other advertised celebrity leftists did participate, including Noam Chomsky and, in an insolent act of shamelessness by the organizers, the Green Party’s Jill Stein. Stein notoriously was once Putin’s dinner guest in Moscow; she boasted afterwards that he listened to ideas ‘made by myself and three other political figures’ on foreign policy and agreed with them on many issues.[2] (Among those unnamed other figures accompanying Stein was Donald Trump’s arch-reactionary, QAnon-adhering former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.)
“There were also Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, Vijay Prashad of the Tricontinental Institute, and speakers from the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), a Stalinist group that hides the fact that it operates the People’s Forum as a recruitment front. Benjamin, Prashad, the PSL and the People’s Forum are funded to the tune of millions of dollars a year by the mega-rich Roy Singham, who made his money through dealings with China and is the partner of Code Pink founder Jodie Evans.[3] Most important about this is not the funding itself but that it is a reward for Code Pink, Prashad and the PSL taking positions on international issues that are favorable to China’s rulers, such as denying their genocidal oppression against the Uyghur people [4] and, of course, opposing the defense of Ukraine.”
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“... the only ‘real path to peace in Ukraine’ is the withdrawal or defeat of Putin’s forces. So we gathered with others outside the People’s Forum event with placards in Ukrainian and English reading ‘Ukraine Needs Weapons to Defend Against Imperialism. Real Socialists Say – Arm Ukraine!’, ‘Real Socialists Say – Victory to Ukraine!’ and ‘Real Socialists Say – Solidarity with Ukraine!’ ”
1. https://twitter.com/fash_busters/status/1594860855878991873.
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Qhx2ON8RE&ab_channel=antikriegtv2.
3. Singham was a socialist in his youth and still claims to be,
but Fortune magazine was closer to the truth when it ran a profile of
him that pointed out that his “biggest fans” are “Corporate
America.”Singham spent his adult life amassing phenomenal wealth
providing computer programming services to
companies connected with the Chinese Communist Party and military and
now funds select “left-wing” operations around the world with donations
laundered through an anonymous Goldman Sachs Fund.
4. https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-big-business-of-uyghur-genocide-denial/.
5. https://www.factcheck.org/2022/03/the-facts-on-de-nazifying-ukraine/. <>
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