We are calling for organizing a big international campaign of support and solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance for the defeat of the Russian army invasion! No to NATO!
The government of Vladimir Putin unleashed an invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. Using methods of extreme cruelty, it attacks and destroys cities, including “targets” such as hospitals and maternity hospitals, with the goal of taking over Kyiv (the Ukrainian capital), hence dominating the entire country. Despite Russia’s immense military superiority, the invaders have faced greater, often heroic, resistance than expected from the Ukrainian people.
Regardless of the different opinions we may have about the global context in which this war is taking place, the undersigned organizations fully agree in defining its origin as the aggression of a much stronger nation (Russia, one of the world’s major military powers) against a weaker one to subjugate it. This aggression takes place in a framework in which both Stalinism and the Russian capitalist governments have always considered Ukraine as “their backyard,” except for a short period during the initial years of the Soviet Union (when Lenin’s policy, which is now heavily criticized by Putin, was in effect).
Therefore, we support the resistance of the Ukrainian workers and people against the invasion, and we stand for the defeat of the Russian troops in this war without such stance representing any support to or political confidence in the Zelensky government or the Ukrainian bourgeoisie that call for resisting the invasion on their end.
We denounce the role of NATO as the military arm of imperialism and fight for its dissolution. But this is not a military invasion by NATO of the Russian territory or against the Ukrainian people. There are no NATO soldiers fighting the Russian troops in Ukraine (or, as far as we know, anywhere else). It is the Russian army that is currently attacking Ukraine. That said, we reject all imperialist interference in Ukraine, be it Russian, North American, European, or undertaken by NATO. We demand the dismantling of all Russian and NATO nuclear weapons.
Our proposals
On the basis of these agreements, we propose to develop and promote common actions towards the aim synthesized in the title of this declaration. There are, of course, several possible ways to do this:
First, disseminating this proposal among the vanguard and the workers. This could be done via organizing talks and debates to help clarify the existing confusion about the character of the current war.
Second, pushing for public mobilizations to demand “Putin’s troops out of Ukraine! Support for the Ukrainian resistance! No to NATO!” as they have already been happening in Europe and in other parts of the world. In this direction, it is likely and necessary to set up solidarity committees to organize them. We also support the local mobilizations against the invasion taking place in Russia, which have been harshly repressed by Putin’s government.
Third, together with trade unions, student and popular organizations, promoting aid collections of all kinds for the Ukrainian people, which can be delivered through workers’ and popular aid convoys.
Finally, and most importantly, promoting and supporting the actions that the working class decide to take by way of their own organizations. For instance, workers at the Ellesmere refinery port in Cheshire, England refused to unload oil from Russia, replicating what workers at the gas terminal in Kent and in other ports in the Netherlands had done. It is said that “a wave of this type of protests is spreading through European ports in response to the invasion of Ukraine.”
In the face of the war in Ukraine and based on this common position we have taken; these are the tasks we propose to be undertaken by the workers and masses of the world.
Putin’s and Russia’s troops out of Ukraine!
Support the popular resistance of the Ukrainian people!
No to NATO!
All governments must break diplomatic relations with Russia!
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
International Workers’ League – Fourth International (IWL-FI)
Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT)
March 13, 2022
We invite all organizations that agree with this statement and campaign to join us in signing it.
