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Ugh, here we go with the annoying contrarian anti-anti-imperialists. Russia is not imperialist - in fact, it has faced the second-largest drain from unequal exchange of any country (after China, which is also not imperialist).
Stalin writes in The Foundations of Leninism:
"The struggle that the Emir of Afghanistan is waging for the independence of Afghanistan is objectively a revolutionary struggle, despite the monarchist views of the Emir and his associates, for it weakens, disintegrates and undermines imperialism; whereas the struggle waged by such "desperate" democrats and "Socialists," "revolutionaries" and republicans as, for example, Kerensky and Tsereteli, Renaudel and Scheidemann, Chernov and Dan, Henderson and Clynes, during the imperialist war was a reactionary struggle, for its results was the embellishment, the strengthening, the victory, of imperialism."
Proletaire, Markevia, and Che triumphant reborn
Statement of the Political Council of ЦК РКРП-КПСС (Russian Communist Workers' Party):
By and large, i.e., from a class standpoint, the Russian authorities, just as the rulers of the United States and the EU, do not give a damn about the working people of Donbass, Russia, or Ukraine. We have no doubt that the true goals of the Russian state in this war are quite imperialist - to strengthen the position of imperialist Russia in world market competition. But since this struggle today to some extent helps the people of Donbass to fight back against Bandera fascism, the communists in this part of it do not deny, but allow and support as much as it is waged against fascism in Donbass and Ukraine. And they categorically oppose the actions of their government when, under the guise of fighting fascism, the expansion and strengthening of Russian imperialism and its allies will be addressed.
As long as Russia's armed intervention helps to save people in the Donbass from reprisals by the punishers, we will not oppose this goal. Among other things, we consider it acceptable if, due to circumstances, we have to use force against the fascist Kiev regime, insofar as it would be in the interests of the working people.
https://rkrp-rpk.ru/2022/02/24/%d0%bd%d0%b5%d1%82-%d1%84%d0%b0%d1%88%d0%b8%d0%b7%d0%bc%d1%83-%d0%bd%d0%b5%d1%82-%d0%b8%d0%bc%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b8%d0%b0%d0%bb%d0%b8%d1%81%d1%82%d0%b8%d1%87%d0%b5%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%b9-%d0%b2/
Stukov and Che triumphant reborn
I feel like people are confusing the liberal concept of "support" as a moral claim for the communist concept of "oppose" which is a concrete, political policy. Lenin's dictum is above all a practical call for what communists can actually do to accomplish revolution within a nation-state, which still remains the unit of inter-imperialist politics (if no longer inter-imperialist economic relations). Are communists in America sending fighters to Russia? Are they acting as a front for Russian intelligence in the US? Are they smuggling money to Putin? If not, "supporting" Russia in war means nothing.
America's slow war against Russian sovereignty has been going on for decades and now suddenly American communists want a pox on both houses and think it's extremely important to call out Russian "fascism" and "Putinism". It's hypocrisy to suddenly think we are in inter-imperialist war because Russia finally fought back. But the goal of communism is not to be morally consistent, the goal is to make revolution, and if this event presents an opportunity we seize it. What's key is that by turning inter-imperialist war into civil war and eventually socialist revolution, imperialism will unify against socialism. The contradiction between imperialists, while a useful opportunity, is a secondary contradiction against the primacy of class struggle.
War is kind of a tautology: we are at war when everyone thinks we are. Like fascism and "democracy", there is no clear distinction between war and peace under capitalism and bombs and sanctions have the same deadly results. At best, it's a matter of ones point of view and whether one is on the giving or receiving end. For Russia, this is business as usual. But for us it's an opportunity to change how Americans think about sanctions and fight against them as weapons of war. Colonialism had gone on for centuries and imperialism was victorious almost everywhere for decades before WWII. But WWII by bringing them out into the open in the form of war made the normal state of affairs impossible to return to and fundamentally changed the world. Will this event change the world in some way so that "color revolutions" are no longer the normal state of affairs? It is clearly the beginning of something.
Stukov and Che triumphant reborn
There is not an inter-imperialist conflict here. Russia's economy does not depend on appropriating labor and resources from other nations; it in fact suffers significantly from that itself.
I am completely serious when I say that Liechtenstein is more appropriately described as imperialist than Russia, regardless of their individual actions.
Does this mean that Russia is waging a righteous crusade? No, of course not. But if imperialism is the primary contradiction, it is important to get the facts about it right. Russia is one of the imperialized countries, and Putin represents the national sovereigntist faction of its national bourgeoisie.
Proletaire, Stukov, and Che triumphant reborn
Lots of well-meaning comrades lately don't seem to understand that imperialism is a financial system, and quite obviously get their cues from corporate media. It's a shame, really, how quickly they turn on their own comrades without realizing they're being manipulated to serve the interests of the ruling class.
Comradeland and Che triumphant reborn
It's telling that the capitalists in the West resent Russia's actions so much but won't cease the commerce that could stop it (energy trade, SWIFT banking, etc).
Comradeland and Che triumphant reborn
Well put comrade, I think that the only real discussion is whether Russia (and China) are imperialist nations. I have argued they are not in the past, but I would add that they must act as if they are on a regional scale in order to survive against American imperialism in moments of crisis. Unfortunately Lenin could have been clearer on what makes Russia (and Germany for that matter) "imperialist" in the same way as Britain and France but there is a clear implication that the existence of monopolies and state capitalism can coexist with general backwardness and in fact this necessarily occurs in the era of imperialism since there is no more possibility for rising in the world system through competition.
Russia is exploited by US imperialism but at least in its backyard and in a few key industries it is attempting to act as a monopoly capitalist in the hopes that military victory (the one industry it has to an advanced monopoly standard) will retroactively make the rest of the economy advanced through spoils. I don't think the term "sub-imperialist" works well for this but the term "inter-imperialist" is more of a political category (about what is actually occurring) than an analytic tool for really understanding the Russian economy. But politics is ultimately what matters.
Diamatiya and Che triumphant reborn
Exactly comrade. Thats why I had to rouse myself from my long slumber on NS, to rant a bit. Leftist circles are filling with the same type of drivel I see on CNN. Its exactly like I saw with Libya when NATO turned Gaddaffi into paste and Libya into an open air slave market. Too many people thinking with liberal emotions, and not enough people thinking with materialist class relations.
That this is even an issue is because Ukraine has failed to benefit from EU imperialism and therefore America has resorted to fascist coups and politics. 14,000 people have been killed in the Donbass region by this puppet government, and now suddenly people suddenly tune in enough to care, but not for the people who have actually been having violence committed against them.
Proletaire, North American Communists, Diamatiya, Xuanji, and 1 otherChe triumphant reborn
I see this as a failure of education on our part. What you say about Liechtenstein and Russia is true, very obviously so when looking at data on financial flows. That you feel you have to qualify your statement as serious underscores that the majority of the Western left, including self-described "Marxist-Leninists", have an ambiguous, amorphous conception of imperialism.
Seeing John Smith humiliate probably the most popular "Marxian" academic in the West in his discussions with David Harvey over this conflict between concrete and subjective conceptions of imperialism a couple years ago starkly demonstrated to me the vitality and power of this analysis. His Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century isn't a hard read, but there's still a desperate need for even more accessible contemporary materials in this area and for us to be more forward in challenging vulgar understandings of imperialism.
That John Smith isn't even Marxist-Leninist, more a Trotskyist, should make it clear that this analysis doesn't belong to us exclusively by any means. Any anarchist should find how Smith demonstrates that the German state is a direct beneficiary from the superexploitation of Bangladeshis in the first chapter of his Imperialism a powerful indictment of the state, of its parasitism. Theory on unequal exchange could be another feather in the cap of intersectional leftists challenging "Marxist" class reductionism, but instead this analysis languishes in relative obscurity. In my eyes this isn't related to the validity of unequal exchange theory or any conflicts it may have with these tendencies but rather how deeply it challenges these leftists' own self-identity and implicit chauvinist notions they're based on.
Comradeland, North American Communists, Diamatiya, Xuanji, and 2 othersOdweesha, and Che triumphant reborn
I almost don’t want to say this because of the immense suffering involved but this conflict really made me realize that we now live in a multipolar world, there’s absolutely nothing the US can do about this without sabotaging itself, I’m so excited so a thousand liberatory struggles bloom now that the US has fully shown itself to be a paper tiger
And I was so happy when I saw that Russia had annihilated the Azov battalion, we can only hope that a similar fate lies in store for all fascist scum
I am outraged as you all probably are by how blatantly Western chauvinism has reared its ugly head.
I have family who live in southern Lebanon, very close to the border with occupied Palestine. Some were imprisoned and tortured at the infamous Khiam detention center for joining the resistance against the Zionist plague of 1978-2000. They've been displaced several times. Cluster bomblets, millions of which were dropped in the last few days of the 2006 war despite the ongoing ceasefire negotiations, still litter the area, effectively landmines. Apparently if I'm too emotional in describing this, I'm being antisemitic according to the "Working Definition of Antisemitism" adopted by countless Western governments, universities, etc. But depicting Arabs, Chinese, and now Russians in the most vile ways is endemic.
Xuanji and Che triumphant reborn
Why aren't western nationas ever outraged at Zionist militarism like how they react to Chinese, Russian or DPRK military actions?
NATO, EU, US imperialists – Get your bloody hands off the peoples of Donbas and Ukraine!
The US and the EU, through their support for the fascist coup in 2014, tried to take Ukraine completely under their control. The imperialists, who forced Ukraine to become a member of NATO, have extended their political and military siege against Russia and prepared the ground for the outbreak of the war. While the imperialist media accuse Russia of “violating the international law”, they don’t say a word about Ukraine killing the people of Donbas.
https://anti-imperialistfront.org/2022/02/28/nato-eu-us-imperialists-get-your-bloody-hands-off-the-peoples-of-donbas-and-ukraine/
‘Cut through wall of imperialist propaganda’ on Ukraine
During a war crisis, when the capitalists push out campaigns like “Pray for Ukraine” or “Stand with Ukraine,” preying on the humanitarian impulses of uninformed people, we have to ask: Who are they actually trying to rally support for? The “suffering Ukrainians” aren’t an undifferentiated mass. Hidden from the people here is the fact that many Ukrainians have been ruthlessly repressed since the 2014 Euromaidan coup: imprisoned, killed, exiled or terrorized on the streets. Progressive organizations were outlawed. Journalists and people who opposed the war against Donbass were jailed. National minorities were banned from using their native languages.
As revolutionary Marxists and Leninists, we understand that pacifism, especially of the “plague on both your houses” kind, amounts to backhanded support for imperialism and its goals. Unfortunately, many anti-war organizations and even some groups that describe themselves as revolutionary socialists and communists have bowed to the intense pressure of imperialist propaganda and taken positions of denouncing Russia or drawing an equal sign between the U.S./NATO and Russia.
https://www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2022/03/04/cut-through-wall-of-imperialist-propaganda-on-ukraine/
Thoughts on the Russian military advance in Ukraine? Western media is painting it as slow and problematic but for one week of fighting they look like they've made considerable gains.
I think that the West is desperate to portray Russia as incompetent and unwieldy as much as possible. I also think war is messy, brutal, and ugly, and that there will always be screwups, happenstance, and error. Sorry but I am not particularly comfortable armchair generaling about a subject matter which I dont honestly know much about. Real war is way different than how it looks on TV.
Ukrainian Communist youth leaders arrested by government, reportedly targeted for death:
Mikhail Kononovich, leader of the youth wing of the outlawed Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU), and his brother, Aleksander Kononovich, were arrested by Ukrainian authorities in Kiev and could reportedly be facing execution. The government that took power in Ukraine in the wake of the U.S.-backed “Euro-Maidan” coup of 2014 outlawed the Communist Party and banned it from running candidates in elections. The party’s youth group was also made illegal and its members subjected to political persecution by the police and in the courts. Across the country, the government enforced a so-called “de-communization” law that not only outlawed the CPU, but also forbid the use of any Communist names or symbols in public, mandated the destruction of Soviet war memorials, and prevented any teaching about the positive aspects of Soviet history in schools.
https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/ukrainian-communist-youth-leaders-reportedly-arrested-by-government-targeted-for-death/
Self-Criticism and Lessons RE: Ukraine
As revolutionaries based in the imperial core, we have been asked by 3rd world comrades to self-criticize our failings regarding the crisis in Ukraine. Part of this self-crit is to acknowledge the Left’s collective inaction and functional endorsement of US warmongering in Ukraine for the last 8 years. Another part of the self-criticism is that the left here today is largely engaged in chauvinist cheerleading of imperialism from the sidelines. The American left has overwhelmingly refused to criticize and combat imperialism operationally. We have been fed so much anticommunist, American-exceptionalist and xenophobic propaganda in the 1st world that it has completely altered the contours of thought and discourse across the “political spectrum.” What follows is a conversation between affected comrades and people in the know about what the Left in the imperial core needs to understand about the present armed conflict in Ukraine.
And yes they are exploitative capitalist countries behaving how capitalist countries do. But unless you have some magic wand to eliminate the global capitalist system before overcoming unipolar imperialist military and economic domination then we’ll take what we can get to survive.
https://www.crowlouder.org/rookery/re-ukraine-self-criticsm-and-lessons
I dont agree with every thing they say, especially as it pertains to China, but I found the overall piece interesting.
Russia, Ukraine, and the Desert of the Real:
The instantaneity with which the entire western political spectrum was whipped into line during the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has no match, from a media-narrative-discourse point of view, in my opinion. This is so visible in this case: immediately after the Russian operation, we saw all of the signs of a manufactured narrative in something which felt quicker than real-time. Infographics, the 'Ghost of Kiev', Zelensky as 'war bae', quippy one-liners from Zelensky that read as if they are from the latest Call Of Duty installation: "I don't need a ride, I need ammunition". In a much darker vein, Pornhub's number one search is ‘Ukrainian women’, the 'refugees are welcome here' discourse from the liberals, 'anti-war' protests being staged (in reality they are pro-war and pro-sanctions).
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/blog/russia-ukraine-and-the-desert-of-the-real
Marxist-feminists, North American Communists, Feyrisshire, and Diamatiya
Happy International Women's Day comrades. Women hold up half the sky.
https://www.marxists.org/subject/women/iwd.htm
Marxist-feminists, Proletaire, North American Communists, Diamatiya, and 1 otherAlbatrozhiya
People are just saying that because of how fast the news is nowadays. The invasion of Iraq in 2003 took several weeks or months to complete. They also haven't just gone all-in to take Kiev as quickly as possible despite being fully capable of doing so, presumably because of how militarily and politically costly that would be.
Iraqi media: Ballistic missile attack targets US base, Mossad training centers in Iraq’s Kurdistan region
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/03/13/678455/Iraq-Kurdistan-base-American-forces-attack-Erbil
All this talk about how the Ukrainian government is bad is all well, good and very true, as well as the stuff about Donbass, but the fact is that it barely comes close to justifying the blatant war crimes that Russia is perpetrating against mostly innocent Ukrainian people, in spite of a large amount (probably a majority) of Russian people standing against the war. At least Russia is doing what they said they would and fash-bashing, but still...
The Saharawi people resist and Cuba stands by them
"Cuba has always supported our people, the historical ties we share are inalterable and will be maintained as long as the Saharawi people exist," insisted Omar Bulsan, registered under the name Mohamed Salec, who, serves as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Arab Democratic Republic in Cuba.
In an interview with Granma, he recalled that bilateral ties were established before the 1973 war of national liberation, when Saharawi lands were still under Spanish occupation. Spain subsequently ceded the territory to Morocco and Mauritania, and independence was proclaimed on February 27, 1976
Today the area remains occupied by Morocco, along with the extensive mineral deposits found there, including phosphate, oil, gas, iron, uranium and others. The Saharawis are confined in camps, where they suffer abuse and violations of their human rights, as Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro noted in 1980, when he expressed support for the Saharawi people’s anti-colonial cause:
"I remember the moment when we received the first delegation of Cuban doctors in 1976, who evaluated, on the ground, the assistance needed in the refugee camps in southern Algeria, after the outbreak of a measles epidemic that left 400 children dead," the diplomat said, highlighting the training of thousands of young Saharawi professionals in Cuba, over the years, and the Cuban medical brigade that has remained to date.
Diplomatic ties were established in the 1980s and the two countries established embassies in the other’s territory, but first exchanges at the political level were conducted between the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and members of the Polisario Front, the legitimate leading force of the Saharawi people.
https://en.granma.cu/mundo/2022-03-09/the-saharawi-people-resist-and-cuba-stands-by-them
Post self-deleted by Marxist-feminists.
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