No to the Imperialist War in Ukraine!

On 24 February Russia launched war against Ukraine. What must be underlined in the first place is that this is an imperialist war and it forms a new link in the Third World War. The long term accumulated tension in the Ukrainian fault line by imperialist rivalry has now violently ruptured. Although it is true that the US imperialism and NATO have been using Ukraine as a tool to limit Russia’s sphere of influence and weaken it in the ongoing imperialist rivalry, and playing a provocative role, this does not change the fact that Russia has started an imperialist war! It is not acceptable from the standpoint of Marxism to produce arguments to justify Russia’s imperialist policies and invasive operations while standing up against those of the USA! Revolutionary Marxists call on the working class in all countries that are parties of the war for standing up against this unjust and imperialist war!

Russia declared on 21 February that it recognised Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbass region in the eastern part of Ukraine, which had proclaimed their independence in 2014. Recognising these regions as independent states, where Russians constitute majority, is nothing but a disguise, a justification for war. Accordingly, the governments of these regions called for military aid from Russia, and Putin rushed to their help! In fact the Donetsk and Lugansk authorities that control a small part of Donbass region have a claim for the entire region. And Russia tries to justify the occupation by declaring that its military operation is limited only to these areas. But the Russian army carries out a military operation not only to occupy those areas but also to crush Ukraine militarily all over the country, destroy its war apparatus, debilitate it. It is not known where Russia will stop after it achieves its declared target.

There is no doubt that Russia’s occupation of Ukraine expanded the terrain of imperialist war, and most importantly, it has driven the entire region into a conflicting and uncertain course, with a deep impact on Turkey. The war in Ukraine can be an important breaking point in the course of Third World War. For the USA, Russia, China and European imperialists so far have been settling their accounts without coming into direct conflict with one another. For instance the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq are different from the one in Ukraine. Ukraine is home to military build-up by the US-British imperialist bloc and directly backed by them against Russia. In response, Russia pursues its own imperialist agenda by occupying Ukraine and setting a limit to the USA and NATO in a harsh way. So while the imperialist war is aggravated in Ukraine and rose to new level, it also increased the likelihood of imperialist powers coming into direct conflict.

The tension between Russia and the US-British imperialist bloc has been escalating in recent years. What lies beneath this tension is the desire of the imperialist bloc of the USA-UK to get Ukraine into NATO and use it as a battering ram against Russia. And protests had been organised to overthrow the pro-Russian government, fascist paramilitary groups set in motion and a new government formed, being an instrument of the interests of Western imperialism. And Russia made its move by annexing Crimea and supporting separationist movements in Donbass region. So there has been no de-escalation of tensions and no resolving of problems. Instead they have become aggravated especially after Biden took office. The US imperialism intensified its moves to contain Russia, while at the same time defining China as the primary threat since China has become the second largest economy and a rapidly growing military power.

Russia seeks to justify its policies by the argument that Western powers have failed to keep the pledge that NATO would not spread to Eastern Europe, a pledge that was given when the USSR was falling apart. It is true that the Western imperialist powers made pledges to Russia that they would not make NATO spread to Eastern Europe in exchange for Russia’s military withdrawal from Eastern Europe, including handing over of East Germany without making trouble. But these pledges were not kept and NATO pursued an insistent policy of spreading to Eastern Europe, armed these regions, which, in a world of imperialist rivalry and conflict, could not be otherwise.

Imperialist rivalry and war is in the nature of capitalism. While US imperialism strives to maintain its hegemony and spread its influence in order to weaken its rivals, Russia, China etc. act to save those areas that they consider their natural spheres of influence. For Marxists there is no right side in this rivalry and conflict. Undoubtedly it is the US imperialism that started the Third World War, which has been developing in a way peculiar to itself. The main motive of the US imperialism has been to restore its eroding hegemony. However, while it is necessary to expose the aggressive attitude of US imperialism, it should not be forgotten that the attitudes of Russia and China are also determined by their imperialist nature. It cannot be a Marxist approach to consider the territory of the former Soviet Union as Russia’s natural sphere of influence or backyard, and condemn interference of the US imperialism in these areas on the basis of this assumption. Or conversely, it is like considering Latin America as the backyard of the US and making similar assessments based on this assumption.

The West led by the US pursues a hypocritical policy. When the US imperialism invaded Afghanistan and Iraq causing immeasurable sufferings, it presented this atrocity through Western media with the disguise of “democracy and freedom”. And now they present the same imperialist method as “occupation”, “invasion” when it is done by Russia. They try to justify the imperialist policies of the West by likening Putin to Hitler. Likewise, Putin and Russian rulers utilise the hypocritical policy of the West in order to legitimise their own irredentist ambitions. Making his move on 21 February by recognising the independence of Donetsk and Lugansk, Putin accused Lenin in his speech for Lenin’s defence of the right of nations to self-determination. He said Lenin created Ukraine, and that it was a historical mistake for Ukraine to be an independent state, in an effort to legitimise his irredentist ambitions as a representative of Great Russian chauvinism with roots going back to Tsarist times. It is not accident that he accuses Lenin and not Stalin’s policies that actually paved the way for today’s problems. For Lenin represents the October Revolution, the overthrow of Tsarist Russia and scrapping of its chauvinist policies.

With Russia’s attack on Ukraine there are arguments about the beginning of a new cold war era, and that the world has become bipolar again. Yet, since the start of the millennium, our world has been increasingly burning in the flames of a hot imperialist war. Regional wars from Afghanistan to Iraq, military coups, civil wars, trade wars, use of non-state forces, imperialist rivalry and wrestling for spheres of influence that grips all countries, are nothing but peculiar forms and manifestations of the Third World War. Having come at a time when capitalism is in its historical stalemate, the present crisis of hegemony in the imperialist system is getting deeper, generating new and growing problems in the system.

A hot war means parties of it. On one side there is Western imperialism led by the US and UK which have escalated the imperialist war by attacking Afghanistan in order to restore its eroding hegemony. And on the other side, we find Chinese and Russian imperialism which have been consistently gaining strength for years and making closer collaboration in recent years. It should be noted here that Germany as the engine of Europe is trying to take a different attitude. In fact, one of the reasons why the US and British imperialism escalate tension by using Ukraine is to deprive Germany of room for manoeuvre and put her in line. With the beginning of war in Ukraine the US-UK alliance succeeded in putting Germany and France in line on the question of sanctions against Russia. While Germany halts the construction of the natural gas line North Stream-2, the EU declared that it would apply extensive sanctions together with the US against Russia. But economic sanctions against Russia will have a deep impact on both the world and European economy. For Russia, as the eleventh largest economy of the world, holds the taps of energy pipe lines flowing to Europe.

And the Erdoğan regime takes sides in this war in the basis of its own survival and the interests of capital. But it is in a contradictory position. On the one hand it has no free hand before Russia in terms of the economy and the question of Syria, and on the other hand it is a NATO member in search of deepening the economic and military ties with Ukraine. Therefore, while it declares a pro-Ukraine position, it also tries not to anger Putin. There is no doubt that the Erdoğan regime does not care in the least the Ukrainian labourers being driven into the flames of war. He will try to use this war in his favour with a view to alleviating the troubles gripping him for a long time. The labourers in Turkey must be vigilant in face of the lies and manipulations of both pro-NATO and pro-Eurasia sections of the bourgeoisie. It should not be forgotten that all sections of the bourgeoisie act on the basis of not the peace between peoples but the interests of capital.

This war will not imperil the lives of millions of labourers only in Ukraine, but, directly or indirectly, all peoples in the region, including the ones in Turkey. There can be no interest of the working class in imperialist and unjust wars. Therefore, opposing the imperialist war, including the one in Ukraine, is an urgent task of all labourers of the world, the ones in Russia being in the first place.

No to the imperialist war!

Russia and NATO, get out of Ukraine!