For internationalist solidarity between Ukrainian and Russian workers
For Ukrainian and Russian workers’ resistance to Putin’s attack on Ukraine
For Russians overthrowing the Putin regime
For Ukrainian self-determination
No to NATO, no to interference by the US and its allies
As Putin invaded Ukraine, Russians bravely responded with illegal anti-war demonstrations in 53 cities. This was a great internationalist response. And in Ukraine the resistance is proving tougher than Putin expected. There is a long history of Russian repression, from the Czarist period to the Stalinist era. Ukrainians remember this – it is for them to resolve their own fate. We must be for the defeat of the Russian invasion by resistance in Ukraine and a growing anti-war movement in Russia resulting in the downfall of Putin.
Our politics starts from below, not from the moves of the great powers. We believe in the agency of working people. Of course this crisis is a product of the rivalries between Russian and US imperialism. But they are not the only forces. Workers’ resistance in Ukraine, and the anti-war movement in Russia, can shake history. And they are the only prospect for real peace.
If Putin succeeds in occupying all or more of Ukraine – more than the Crimea and that part of Eastern Ukraine taken in 2014 – socialists must support resistance by any means: underground warfare, strikes, socialist arguments to turn Russian troops, and political action against any Russian or puppet rule.
We are for the Ukrainians’ right of self-determination. The Ukraine was subjugated by the Russian Tsarist Empire and again by Stalin’s Russia. The Ukraine only became independent in 1991. The defeat of the Ukraine will only benefit nationalism there and in Russia.
Hypocritical US imperialism, shedding crocodile tears for ‘democracy’, and its NATO alliance have nothing to offer the Ukrainian people and only strengthen Putin’s hand in Russia. Hope for democratic rights in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus lies elsewhere: with the rise of workers’ movements and socialist organisations in the region.
Our main enemy is at home, and we oppose the talk of the New Zealand government’s allies in Washington, London and Canberra that they can be forces for peace. Look at the carnage and suffering in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and weigh their words as so much hypocrisy. NATO should be dissolved.
But our main enemy is not the only enemy. Putin’s invasion and attack on Ukraine should be condemned and our solidarity should extend to those resisting his assault. No to war, Russian troops out: neither Washington nor Moscow but international socialism.
