Russia

Eric Lee’s latest column ( 2 March ) contains the occasionally repeated claim that Marx supported the Anglo-French forces in the Crimean War (1853-6). Reading Marx’s articles in the New York Tribune from the time, which were written in the style of a war reporter and most likely by Engels, it is difficult to discern any clear support for the war. Certainly the articles unequivocally denounced Tsarism and Russian expansionism. It is clear that Marx/Engels saw the Anglo-French axis as more “progressive” than Tsarist Russia. They were scathing of British and French conservatives who showed pro...

Eric Lee’s column in Solidarity 626 gives a potted social-democratic history of NATO, and all but makes the claim that Karl Marx would have supported NATO against Russia, as he supposedly supported “British and French troops in the Crimean War” against the Tsar. Solidarity and Eric Lee both trace our political inheritance back to the erstwhile American Trotskyist Max Shachtman, who fought for independent working class politics in the face of a Trotskyist movement which lent its support to the imperialist Russian state, but in old age moved towards the right and supported American imperialism...

“As Russian citizens and feminists, we condemn this war. Feminism as a political force cannot be on the side of a war of aggression and military occupation. The feminist movement in Russia struggles for vulnerable groups and the development of a just society with equal opportunities and prospects, in which there can be no place for violence…” The Feminist Anti-war Resistance manifesto (#FeministAntiWarResistance) has called for solidarity action for International Women’s Day, against Putin and his war and in solidarity with Ukraine. Hardly surprising, it’s difficult to find any up-to-date...

"Peace Labour Putin" - Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia banner According to its website, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) is “a national trade union centre independent of the state, political and business structures.” Founded in 1990, it is the successor to the state-controlled labour fronts of the Soviet era, and it claims to be the largest national trade union centre in the country. It boasts of having some twenty million members -- “which is about 95 percent of all organised workers in Russia,” they say. They are one of two national trade union...

A fortnight into the invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s mafia state the erroneously termed “social media” are awash with whataboutery. What about Palestine? What about Iraq? What about Afghanistan etc.? Such stances are the political equivalent of not being able to chew gum and cross the road at the same time. It shouldn’t take much intellectual effort for people who regard themselves as socialists to denounce the actions of one imperialist power and also condemn similar actions by another. The “what about” brigade are effectively excusing dreadful crimes against humanity which the Putin...

Shortly before Putin’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine Socialist Appeal poured scorn on all those warning of the risk of invasion. It has made no self-criticism of that, nor of its history of denying Ukrainian rights and soft-pedalling Russian imperialism. Socialist Appeal is these days a noticeable presence on some demonstrations. Unsurprisingly it has turned up to no pro-Ukraine protests. I didn’t see them even at the Stop the War Coalition demo in London on 5 March. SA has not published much on the war itself — as opposed to denunciations of the Tory government, its stance on refugees and...

A flurry of worker-imposed boycotts on Russian trade in solidarity with Ukraine has followed Russia’s invasion. On 6 March workers refused to unload Russian oil from the tanker Seacod docked at a terminal on the River Mersey. Unite’s General Secretary, Sharon Graham said: “Unite workers at the facility will under no circumstances unload any Russian oil regardless of the nationality of the vessel which delivers it.” At the time of writing, the boat is sailing directionless in the Irish sea. On Monday 28 February, Unite issued a statement that they would support a workers’ boycott of the NS...

Ukrainian and Russian socialist organisations are saying that the war on Ukraine is an act of Russian imperialist aggression. They have nothing but contempt for the argument “Of course, Russia should withdraw from Ukraine — but it’s really all the fault of NATO.” Ukraine's left Even before the launch of the Russian invasion the Ukrainian anarchist website Nihilist had defined any such invasion as an act of imperialist aggression. It would be: “A conflict between the empire and the former colony: domination and enslavement on their part, and emancipation and decolonization on our part. Russia’s...

Putin’s claim that he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in order to “de-Nazify” the country is nonsense. But it is the continuation of a narrative developed over almost two decades. And one that sections of the left in Europe and America have bought into. Party of the Regions In the early 2000s the electoral base of the pro-Russian Party of the Regions (PoR) was predominantly in the Donbass: The PoR was a party of oligarchs who owned the major enterprises in the Donbass and presented themselves as the region’s defenders. One way in which the PoR sought to consolidate that base was by...

On Friday 4 March, Russia introduced a new law was introduced allowing up to 15 years of imprisonment for promoting “fake” messaging about Ukraine — including on placards, making public protesting potentially much riskier. Yet Sunday 6 March saw large protests across the country, and social media channels (for those still able to access them) were flooded with images and videos of tasered bodies, protestors packed into riot vans like sardines, and one particularly shocking recording of a young woman being beaten by a police officer in Moscow for refusing to cooperate during her interrogation...