Russia

Putin pushes rail workers to join army

A Russian human rights group has revealed documents which suggest that the Russian government are pressuring the railway companies to recruit ten thousand railway workers into the army to fight in Ukraine. Alexey Tabalov, head of the human rights group “Conscript School” (Shkola Prizyvnika), shared photos on Facebook of a document from a Russian Railways HR manager. The document claims that Putin has announced a quota for various companies and corporations for how many workers they should recruit to the Russian army. For Russian Railways, the quota is ten thousand recruits. Workers are to be...

Ukrainian feminists on the front line

By Katya Gritseva: instagram.com/cmrd_grits In May three members of Workers’ Liberty visited Lviv , Ukraine, to meet with members of Sotsyalnyi Rukh (Social Movement) and other leftists. We spoke to Brie (Kateryna) Kostrova in Lviv, and Yana Wolf and Katya Gritseva in the weeks following the trip. More about Sotsyalni Rukh: rev.org.ua/english instagram.com/social.ruh facebook.com/social.ruh twitter.com/socruch In the summer of 2021, Ukraine celebrated its independence day from the Soviet Union with a series of symbolic parades and parties. This year, it lined the streets of Kyiv with the...

Why we back Ukraine's offensive

Ukraine’s long-planned counter-offensive in Kherson Oblast, southern Ukraine, continues to make small territorial gains towards its aim of retaking Kherson city. Workers’ Liberty supports Ukraine’s fight. Here’s why. Russian forces invaded Kherson region on 25 February, and by 3 March claimed to control the main town, Kherson. The population of the area is overwhelmingly hostile to Russian military rule. In March the people of Kherson city regularly demonstrated against the Russian occupation before their protests were crushed with violence and a regime of terror was imposed across the whole...

Sanctions are not effective solidarity

An assessment in the Economist magazine suggests that Western sanctions against Russia introduced to force Russia to withdraw from Ukraine are not working. The editors conclude that, eventually, over a period of some years, the bans on exports to Russia may seriously impact on Russia’s economy, limiting Russia’s ability to innovate and develop high-tech industry. However, damaging Russia’s economy is not the same as forcing Putin to leave Ukraine. And pulling the Western states’ and Russia’s economies apart, and realigning Russia somewhat with India and China, may well push the world towards...

How Gorbachev's attempts to save the USSR system undid it

Gorbachev with striking Soviet miners, 1991 On 30 August 2022, former Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev died. This 1988 article from Socialist Organiser discusses the USSR's Stalinist system during his rule. History has many examples of it: when the rulers of moribund repressive systems themselves decide that there must be change, and set about tinkering with their system, then it can blow up in their faces. Gorbachev's attempts at reform from above may well unleash revolution from below. The English Revolution of the 1640s broke out when the tyrant king Charles I called the first Parliament...

Ukraine fights to drive back Putin

On 29 August Ukraine launched its Kherson ground offensive. It claims to have broken through in three places. Initial reports, as Solidarity goes to press, suggest it has made some limited gains. Since the Russian army destroyed and then overran the eastern Ukrainian towns of Sievierodonetsk (24-25 June) and Lysychansk (3 July) the battlelines in Ukraine have remained largely unchanged. Russian forces have seemed to be temporarily exhausted, having suffered debilitating losses in the six months of fighting since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February. Russia has also been forced to...

Shortages and repression in Russia

Access to insulin is becoming a growing problem for diabetics living in Russia. The artificially synthesised hormone is a daily necessity for type 1 diabetics, who make up roughly 0.5% of the global population.

Don't let Putin grind down Ukraine

The Russian imperialist war against Ukraine shows no sign of ending, although Russia’s military progress has slowed in recent weeks.

No tears for Dugina

Darya Dugina on a day-trip to the Azovstal plant in "liberated" Mariupol For a shorter version of this article as a leaflet, click here . Darya Dugina was killed in a car bomb explosion last Saturday night (20th August) on the outskirts of Moscow. She was returning from the Tradition festival, where she had spoken on the themes of the Russian Idea, Empire, and culture wars. Earlier in the day she had given what was to be her final television interview, in which she had declared “the end of liberal totalitarianism, liberal fascism and Western totalitarianism. The special military operation [i.e...

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