Ukraine’s missile strike on Russia’s Bryansk region fuelled tensions between the two countries. In response, Vladimir Putin signed a decree expanding the possibilities of resorting to nuclear weapons.
We cannot rule out the risk of further escalation of the confrontation. It is as if it is part of the dangers of the growing decadence of the capitalist-imperialist system. That is why, as revolutionary socialists, we say that we oppose all forms of imperialist armament, be it from the USA, Russia, or China. The dilemma remains ‘Socialism or catastrophe’.
This war is the product of the genocidal invasion of Russian imperialism to colonise Ukraine and its people. A thousand days have passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. Putin calculated that in a few weeks he would take the capital Kiev and triumph over the invasion. But the heroic resistance from the Ukrainian people pushed back the Russian troops. It was this popular-military resistance that prevented Putin’s assassin from taking over the country.
The war clash has created logical confusions and debates. When an imperialist power invades an oppressed nation, revolutionary socialists side with the exploited. We are not neutral in such wars. Doubts arise from the fact that Biden and European imperialism and NATO appear on the side of Ukraine. Of course, these imperialists have frictions and clashes of economic interests with Russia and the business of its multinationals. The US and Europe’s policy, from the start, has been to prevent either a clear Ukrainian win or a clear Russian defeat.
The USA and European imperialism have never wanted Putin’s defeat, but a negotiated solution
They’ve consistently blocked military aid to Ukraine and pressured Zelensky to negotiate territorial concessions. This was made public at Davos 2022 by the late Henry Kissinger and manifested in various ways through Macron and the Vatican. So much so that at the time of the invasion, Biden, and Macron offered Zelensky a plane to take him into exile and provide him with security. They recommended he gave himself up to the authorities. The heroism of the Ukrainian popular-military resistance only stopped the invasion of Russian imperialism. Zelensky himself has been declaring for a long time that they do not receive the promised armament and ammunition. Only at the end of 2023, they sent some modern tanks and Biden still refuses, for example, to provide combat aviation support which Ukraine lacks.
After a thousand days of war, Biden authorised the use of long-range ATACMS missiles over some Russian territories. Until this moment, Ukraine was directly ‘forbidden’ to use them. Meanwhile, Russia has been bombing Ukraine for years, both civilians, and dams and power plants. It is even said that the ‘authorisation’ implied to the Kursk region, which was partially seized by the Ukrainian army. Russia is now trying to recapture it with the support of ten thousand North Korea soldiers.
It is also important to point out that, although military support for Ukraine is limited, the boss governments of Germany, France, and other EU countries still use the argument of the ‘danger of war’ with Russia to increase military budgets in to favour their arms companies. Meanwhile, they continue with social cuts and squeezing the European working class.
That the focus of US imperialism is negotiation and the announcements Trump also showed not the military defeat of Putin has made for when he takes office on 20 January 2025. And the negotiation is to pressure Zelensky to cede the territory already occupied by Putin, as simple as that.
We support the Ukrainian military-popular resistance without giving political support to Zelensky’s government and saying No to NATO
We also denounce that the anti-worker measures implemented by the Zelensky government, which protect the interests of the bosses and the oligarchy, and which were protested by the trade unions, do not help the Ukrainian resistance either. It is not the oligarchs who are defending on the military front, but the working people. Nor does Zelensky’s capitalist project of ‘optimisation’, with the privatisation of the main public services such as health and education and other important enterprises.
To please the powerful, Zelenski distances himself from the people. And the powerful will turn their backs on him at any moment, if they believe it’s time to reach an understanding with Putin or if some other conflict – such as Israel’s genocide against the heroic people of Palestine – is more important to their interests.
We defend the workers and the peoples against the oppression and military aggressions of the enormous powers, wherever they come from and against all imperialism, be it the US and NATO or Russia or China. We are with the oppressed peoples against the oppressors. We are with the peoples who rise up against the reactionary regimes. That is why we are with Palestine, with the peoples and women of Iran against the theocratic and repressive regime. That is why today we are with the Ukrainian people who refuse to remain under the boot of Russian imperialism.
From the International Workers’ Unity, Fourth International (IWU-FI), we have worked with the Ukrainian anti-authoritarian left and have made several convoys of aid to the independent trade unions of metal, mining, railway, teachers who are on the front line in Kryvyi Rih, Dobropillia, Zaporijia, Korosten and Mikolaiv. We call on the peoples of the world and the anti-imperialist and leftist fighters to continue to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people’s military resistance without giving political support to the Zelensky government, saying No to NATO and demanding the dismantling of the nuclear armament of NATO and Russia.
International Workers’ Unity, Fourth International (IWU-FI)
21 November 2024
