One week after the invasion of Ukraine, none of Putin’s stated goals has been achieved. The Russian ground forces have besieged Kiev and have started shelling it. However, even the capture of Kiev will not mean the defeat of the popular resistance and the victory and domination of the Russian army. This will just be the beginning of a mass armed resistance throughout Ukraine.
Putin dreamed of a quick victory, and even Western governments thought so. But what shattered these perceptions and calculations was the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people, as well as the anti-war protests and the support for the Ukrainian people around the world. Even in Russia itself, the anti-war protests, in which more than 7,000 have been arrested so far, are spreading.
This defiance and resistance of the people of Ukraine and the world, which were widely reflected on social media and in the Western media, turned the page entirely in favour of the Ukrainian people and to the detriment of the Russian government. Even if Putin succeeds in seizing Kiev and bringing his puppet government to power, he will not be able to maintain this position. For Putin, Ukraine will become a swamp that will swallow him and his government completely.
Politically, the military invasion of Ukraine is a continuation of the rivalry between the two reactionary blocs: NATO member states, on the one hand, and the Russia-China bloc, on the other. In this sense too, the loser of the war will be the Russian bloc. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, NATO was divided and did not have a clear vision. The Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine has breathed new life into NATO’s half-dead body. The United States and Western Europe have become more coordinated and NATO member states have become more active in pursuing economic and financial sanctions against Putin and the Russian financial oligarchy and in providing weapons and intelligence to the Ukrainian government. The German government has increased its military budget to an unprecedented level, and even the traditionally neutral Switzerland has taken a stand against Putin and joined the economic sanctions on Russia.
These advances by NATO amount to a weakening of the position of Russia and its allied bloc. However, in contrast to the rise in people’s resistance and protests against the invasion, it is totally opposed to the interests and demands of the people in Ukraine, Russia and around the world.
NATO is a military treaty formed during the Cold War against the Soviet bloc. At that time, the forces around the Soviet camp were also lined up in the Warsaw Pact. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the NATO treaty also lost its reason – or rather justification and pretext – for existence. Since its inception, NATO has been an instrument for the global expansion of the domination of the US and its European allies, and continued to play this role openly even after the end of the Cold War. In the first decades after the Cold War, NATO acted as the military arm of the US government’s hegemonic ambitions in the New World Order; however, with the failure of this project, especially in the Middle East, and with Russia’s return to the political stage of the region and the formation of the Russia-China bloc, NATO also became a tool in the West’s competition with this bloc. The recruitment of East European countries to NATO is one of the levers for expanding the influence of the Western bloc to Eastern Europe and for exerting pressure by the West on the Russian bloc. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has now created new grounds for NATO to reactivate itself and make itself relevant.
On the other hand, Putin’s nuclear threat has once again fuelled the market for nuclear rivalries and for governments’ turning to nuclear weapons. Along with the Russian government’s war crimes in Ukraine, which have so far killed more than 2,000 civilians, the militarisation of the global political climate, the escalation of the arms and nuclear race and the revival and strengthening of NATO are the other reactionary and inhumane consequences of the Russian government’s invasion.
Only a global mass movement of the people and progressive forces in support of the Ukrainian people’s struggle against the Russian military aggression can end this devastating war in the interest of the people and neutralise its inhumane and harmful effects. Mere opposition to war and call for peace is a passive position and does not respond to this situation.
The people of Ukraine, like the people of other East European countries, rightly do not want to go back in time. They do not want the repetition of the period of the iron rule of Soviet state capitalism, this time under Putin’s mafia dictatorship and the Russian financial oligarchy. At the same time, the Ukrainian people do not want their desire for freedom and liberation to be translated into economic austerity and the domination of global capitalism over their lives and their turning into an army for the hegemonic ambitions of the United States and its allies. Zelensky’s low popularity in the period before the invasion and his unprecedented popularity today reflect these two desires of the people. In peacetime, Zelensky represented the ruling 1% and their corruption and tyranny; today he represents the resistance of the people to the revival of their dark past.
The desire of the Ukrainian people to be free and liberated is the motive for resisting invading Russia, expelling the Russian army and putting an end to the rule of the top 1%, and in general to conditions which give rise to such wars. The Ukrainian people want to take control of their lives not only against the invading Russian government, but also against the economic aggression of the capitalist 1%, represented by the likes of Zelensky.
The Russian people too, alongside the Ukrainian people, must do the same. Hence, the anti-war movement that has taken shape today on a massive scale cannot limit itself to the slogan of peace. Peace that is in the interest of the people of Ukraine and the people of other countries is possible only with the progress and victory of the resistance movement of the Ukrainian people. The immediate withdrawal of the occupying forces from Ukraine and the prosecution of Putin and Russian officials for war crimes are two important elements of the current anti-war movement, just as the movement against the invasion of Iraq rightly called for the prosecution of George Bush and Tony Blair. The current anti-war movement must also oppose conditions that lead to catastrophes such as the invasion of Ukraine. The demands for the dissolution of NATO and the nuclear disarmament of all states are demands against such a situation and should be inscribed on the banner of the global movement against the Russian invasion.
Specifically,
– categoric and full support for the resistance of the Ukrainian people against the occupying Russian army;
– an immediate ceasefire and an end to the war;
– withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, including from Crimea;
– prosecution of Putin for war crimes;
– standing up to rising militarism and militaristic policies and bloc-building;
– nuclear disarmament of all states; and
– dissolution of NATO
are the most important demands and goals that can build an active and fighting global movement to not only end the current war in the interest of the people, but also prevent the recurrence of such catastrophes by either the Western or the Eastern bloc.
The people of Iran with their slogan “Down with Putin and his supporters” form an important part of this global movement. This slogan is the common feature of the global movement against Putin’s invasion and the Iranian people’s movement for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, which, from this viewpoint, can be an example and a model for the radical movement of the freedom-loving people against war and reactionary governments all over the world.
Worker-communist Party of Iran
2 March 2022
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