JOINT DECLARATION
OPCIÓN MARXISTA INTERNACIONAL and DEMOCRACIA DIRECTA – 18 de Marzo 2022
This is not our war!
In defense of the sovereignty of Ukraine and to defeat the invasion: turn weapons against governments! [from Russia, Ukraine, the EU and the US]
The criminal invasion by Russian troops in Ukraine has triggered a new war in Europe. Its trail of horror and death is falling on the workers and people directly involved and, indirectly, on those of Europe and the world. This has led to a sudden change in reality around the world.
Although the geographical setting for this robbery is Ukraine, it is not limited to its borders. Economic sanctions, reprisals against Russian artists and culture, European military rearmament and a hike in militarization, the untimely change in the Yankee policy towards Venezuela, as well as Iran and Russia’s agreements with China and Cuba, etc., show that war transcends everything.
It reveals a war caused by deep contradictions and disputes between the major powers of the capitalist system. On the one hand, the side led by the United States with the support of the European Union and its armed wing, NATO, does not appear directly on the battlefield. And the other, Russia and its allies China, Syria, Belarus among others under a military umbrella, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO.
Seeking to expand, encircle and weaken their Russian adversary, the “Western” imperialists launched an offensive to put Ukraine under their complete influence, not only economically and politically, but also militarily, seeking its entry into NATO. That triggered the invasion of Ukraine by one of the greatest military powers on the planet.
None of the opposing camps represents something progressive for the peoples of the world or the working class. Both seek to have territorial control of that country for the benefit of their ruling classes and their transnationals. Their guiding principle is the desire for profit and world power, regardless of the destruction, pain and death they cause to their workers and people by using their powerful war machines and nuclear power, unparalleled in the history of mankind. They would cease to be capitalists if they did the opposite, therefore, both sides are reactionaries.
Once again, as so many times in history, the imperialists lead humanity to this war because «they are too tight in the capitalist ship that is sinking, it is necessary to displace others and delay the end of capitalism» (Lenin).
After two years of an unending Pandemic, this new tragedy shows that, beyond the fantastic technological and scientific advances of the 21st century and the immense accumulated wealth, this capitalist-imperialist system is a threat to the survival of the human species and the planet. A system where the forces of destruction grow while the capacity to produce wealth and well-being for the majority of the world’s population (the Productive Forces) has been in decline for years.
A war limited to Russia against Ukraine?
This belief is a national vision and helps very little. All the previous crises and clashes in Ukraine prove that behind the current confrontation are the powers. The legitimate Maidan revolt in 2014 that overthrew a pro-Russian government was used by its leaders to install a pro-European (pro-imperialist) one. This was followed by the seizing of territories by pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region with Russian military support and the decision of the Zelensky bourgeois government, docile to the US, to attack them militarily for eight years. This was implemented using the participation of neo-Nazi gangs, without success. Finally, there was the annexation of Crimea by Russia, etc. All this reveals that, rather than being mere “national” episodes, both the US and EU imperialists, as well as Russia, were behind the respective “Ukrainian” factions.
But the bourgeois machine in charge of manufacturing public opinion has been put into action by taking advantage of the brutal invasion to present the great Russian authoritarian power attacking a country that “resists alone and heroically”. A supposed struggle between «democracy» and «tyranny». This exerts a powerful pressure that pushes workers, activists and the population to place themselves on that side. Therefore, the great «Western» imperialist powers hide behind the Ukrainian government and army. Based on the fact that to date NATO soldiers have not yet entered the arena of combat and that the United States and Europe do not intervene directly -as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc.-, doesn´t mean that they are not pulling the strings from afar, which only adds to the deception and confusion.
They are intervening in the war fully, only indirectly. Or how can we explain that while Biden and the Europeans say they are not entering the war because Ukraine does not belong to NATO, while arming, financing and militarily assisting Zelensky and his army, along with a cascade of international sanctions and blockades. There is a clear political, economic and military intervention by the imperialists on the military side of Ukraine.
The criminal Russian invasion delivered the flags of democracy into the hands of western imperialism and allowed them to show themselves as transgressors of democracy and freedom. It gave them time to appear as «neutral» defenders of «democracy.» But, above all, to hide the confrontation between two military camps whose strings are in the hands of the great world powers.
It was Biden, accompanied by the governments of the European Union, who pressured Ukraine to join NATO and the EU. The dispute escalated after they relaunched a political offensive to completely dominate Ukraine and expand in the region. For that, they had the complicity of the Zelensky government and the bourgeois sector it represents, as an agent of that imperialist initiative. For its part, Russia had responded in Donbas, annexing Crimea, with the support of the other bourgeois sector whose interests are linked to the Russian oligarchy and sectors of the Russian-speaking population.
Therefore, justifications such as the invasion being a crusade to “liberate Ukraine from the Nazis,” according to Putin, or the response from the “West,” as a gesture of “solidarity and humanitarianism with the people of Ukraine”, are nothing more than falsehoods. Neither side is interested in the fate of their peoples or the dead, the horror of war, or the fate of the millions of refugees. Expansionism, wars, colonization, constant invasions, looting and devastation of countries are inherent to the capitalist system. The «imperialist democracies» have always acted this way. They are the same ones that have imposed, on the peoples of the countries under their rule, their economic plans of hunger, misery, violence, famine and unemployment for millions in the world. Those who trample on national sovereignty to defend the interests of their monopolies. They are the same ones that have deepened the calamities of the workers and the popular masses through the economic measures to overcome the pandemic guided by their supreme principle of profit and the progress of their businesses.
Therefore, it is naive to expect that, as a result of this war between the powers, Ukraine will emerge as a sovereign nation. Heads, Russia wins, tails, the United States-EU-NATO side wins. Ukraine loses however the coin lands since this country is only a geographical pivot for both reactionary sides. A territory in the center of Eurasia, prey to dispute and plunder.
Why Ukraine?
For both camps, Ukraine is a key territory due to its geostrategic location where the side that manages to dominate it will have predominance over Eurasia and could gain access to the base of global hegemony or supremacy, this region of Europe “that has been the epicentre of all decisive historical events of humanity…” (The Ukrainian conflict, Luis Miguel Benavides M).
The new offensive launched by Biden has become an extremely sticky point. Neither the United States nor the EU, much less Russia, has been willing to give in. Putin warned at the time that Ukraine’s entry could lead to a war between Russia and NATO and «accused the US not so much of worrying about the security of the neighbouring country, but of using Ukraine as an «instrument to» contain the development From Russia«. In other words, taking advantage of the servile attitude of the current Ukrainian government to expand its territorial control, neutralizing Russian expansion and preventing it from advancing and positioning itself as another world power within the imperialist system, and disputing resources and areas of influence in the world. All this has allowed Russia to present itself as a weak cornered victim.
A reactionary war
In general, all wars mean death and destruction. However, there are times when these dramatic episodes have positive implications for the working class and the popular masses of some of the military camps. We believe that controversial as it may be, this is not the case.
In several cities of Russia – and around the world – there have been demonstrations against the war. In Spain, they chant: “Your war…our dead”. They stand against the war. They note that while the deaths, injuries and destruction are borne by the youth, the workers and the general population placed as cannon fodder, the war is in the exclusive interest of the governments of the imperialists.
Western imperialists present themselves as the defenders of «democracy» and «freedom.» They lie! Russia invades, destroys and bombs under the typical imperialist argument that there is no nation there because the territory belongs to them, both implicitly and brazenly pointing out that depending on who wins, this war will be beneficial for the workers and the people.
If the character of the war is analyzed from the broad perspective of Marxism and from the interests of the workers and the masses, and as the world-class struggle between the exploited and the exploiters, it will not be viewed as just a confrontation between national states. If the liberal visions, the social-democratic Stalinists and the opportunist points of view were overcome, the whole picture could be seen more clearly.
From this point of view, the military side of Ukraine is really the side of traditional U.S., EU and NATO-led imperialism although they intervene in a hidden way in a dispute with Russia that represents the expansionist interests of the new great power. Therefore, we define this war as a predatory war between the main capitalist powers. Reactionary or counterrevolutionary for being contrary to the needs and interests of the workers and the popular masses. And unjust because neither of the two opposing camps represents a just or progressive cause for humanity.
And what about the sovereignty of Ukraine?
Both military and political camps use patriotic feelings to defend the interests of their «homeland». The military «camp» led by the US fueled this war and states that if Zelensky wins it, the country would maintain its «sovereignty.»
This is an attractive plot that infiltrates many sectors of the Ukrainian population and around the world. It is natural that Ukrainian people do not want to be dominated by Russia. In its historical memory, there is still the horror and atrocities of the enforced collectivization carried out by Stalin´s regime (1930); that is the meaning of Russia to them. A plot that also finds fertile ground in the humanitarian sentiments of the middle class, European academics and intellectuals who place themselves on the side of the Ukrainian government without being able to unravel that it is an agent of imperialist interests and constitutes the military side in this war. If the Ukrainian working class entrusts the defence of its national sovereignty to the army commanded by Zelensky, mortgaged on behalf of the Yankees, its sacrifice and death will be in vain. The desire to defeat the Russian invasion and stop the bombing is not only a military task but also a national one. Stopping the invasion, or defeating it, is urgent but does not follow some military tactic or a national policy like everyone might think. It follows a revolutionary international policy that indicates that it is in the hands of the working class and the Russian population in their struggle to possibly force Putin to withdraw the troops. And it is in the hands of the Ukrainian working class and people to prevent their government from continuing to lead them to sterile sacrifice in order then to completely hand over the country to US-EU imperialist interests. This is an international policy that calls for the use of weapons and mobilization to turn against their respective governments, those responsible for this disaster, and the mobilization of the European and international population against this atrocious war.
Opportunism in this war
Relating to the saying, «The eyes are useless when the mind is blind», today many organizations that call themselves leftists have divided, placing themselves implicitly on one or another military side that each one defines as progressive. Neither characterizes both sides as reactionaries. Some hide behind the criminal Russian invasion, the atrocities of the bombings and a supposed «defense of sovereignty» of Ukraine, to place themselves on the military side of Zelensky. They are misled by the fact there are no Yankee troops on the ground or that NATO is not bombing, so they delude themselves that there is no clear intervention, conveniently overlooking the fact they are now in the military «camp» of the traditional US/EU/NATO imperialists. There are others who have been convinced that Russia has been attacked, that its security has been put in danger or that it is an «independent» country (a weak semi-colony). These same people have become accomplices of Putin’s criminal expansionism and invasion. They deny it is an economic and military-nuclear superpower.
All abandon the focus of the international class struggle to place themselves at the rear of one or other military camps led by the opposing powers; tragically, they have fallen into campist politics. This is natural in Stalinist organizations or union bureaucracies, but in organizations that define themselves as Trotskyist, it means a setback and a shameful renunciation of their roots and political path.
Mobilize to defeat the invasion and this rapacious war
The working class and the poor youth have nothing to gain in this predatory war. It is imperative they reject «nationalism» with which each government poisons the population and divides it to turn them into cannon fodder in this war. The multiple atrocities, invasions, wars and genocides perpetrated by the US or the EU show the true predatory nature of these imperialisms and the falsity of the democracy they promise.
Therefore, the broadest unity is vital to oppose this war and seek its defeat. The respective countries, the trade unions and political organizations of the working class, today have before them the challenge of organizing the mobilization. Call for the general uprising of the working classes and the populations in Russia, Europe and the rest of the world against both sides.
Take advantage of the fact that today sectors of the working classes and the population take up arms. Call for them to be turned against their respective governments with the aim of achieving the defeat of the two capitalist-imperialist camps.
