alanjjohnstone
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TS – “all at the cost of less than 20-30,000 lives.”
TS ensures that he is not one of those lives lost, as he cheer-leads the “special military operation”…oops, I nearly said the war.
“All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.” – George Orwell
As a personal aside, when I decided to become an ex-pat, I seriously considered re-settling in Crimea (Yalta, to be precise) then part of Ukraine and Edinburgh had a consulate.
A work colleague visited Ukraine to monitor the elections in 2006 and discouraged me by pointing out the number of corrupt police he kept encountering. Not sure where he was actually based in Ukraine but his warning was enough that I chose not to go and picked India, Kerala, on the recommendation of some Indians I worked alongside.
PGB – As you say there are economic factors in any war and Marxists usually highlight these as the root causes of a conflict – the control of the State to benefit its ruling class’s interests.
But to openly declare that people should sacrifice and suffer for the capitalist class – the oligarchs – won’t arouse much sympathy and isn’t a vote winner.
So to mobilise support the conflict is phrased in ideological and identity terms ie nationalism and patriotism.
Was the Russian-speakers a problem prior to 2014? I don’t think it was. Why did it become one?
To polarise the working people into pro-EU and pro-Russia to reflect the different economic interests of the ruling class.
Think Brexit here.
Why did Putin draw the red line of NATO expansion at Ukraine and not earlier with the Baltic nations? Militarily it was an equal threat but was it economically?
People tend to forget that Russia initiated a trade war prior to 2014 to pressure Ukraine into an economic pact with it – the Eurasian Economic Union, a race to the bottom for Ukraine as it competes with the various former Soviet countries that were more Third World.
Some Ukrainian oligarchs would then face the influence of Russian oligarchs encroaching on their markets while other Ukrainian oligarchs saw the advantages of closer ties with the Russian economy.
I suggest that economics was the main instigation for the war – and caused the divisions within Ukraine
Albeit, an individual author rather than an organisation’s statement, this anarchist anti-war statement makes a number of valid points that many of us can recognise, although the potential actions of the anti-war movement are optimistically inflated.
https://libcom.org/article/british-anarchism-succumbs-war-fever
Another hypocrisy
The EU will launch a humanitarian de-mining programme in Ukraine worth €25m, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has confirmed.
De-mining is “crucial to save the lives of civilian population”, Borrell wrote on social media.
The Ukrainian army injured scores of Ukrainian civilians when it fired thousands of illegal mines across the city of Izium last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged. The mines, similar to those allegedly used by Ukraine against civilians in Donetsk, were found near schools and kindergartens.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/01/31/ukraine-banned-landmines-harm-civilians
While HRW believes that Russia has also used these mines, Ukraine’s “moral high ground has been compromised” by the latest findings.
PGB asserts_ “Nor is there any credible evidence that they are acting at the behest of capitalists or in the broad interests of capital.”
Once again I refer to my earlier post that drew attention to the trigger for the Maidan protests and overthrow of Yanukovych. His decision against the Parliamentary majority not to sign the political association and free trade agreement with the EU.
Ukraine’s oligarchs were divided. Those with closer Russian connections seeking the Euroasian Economic Union mainly in the industrialised Donbas and the more agricultural western Ukraine that saw their market being with the EU. For example, Rinat Akhmetov initially supported the Donbas separatists as he owned the steelworks in Mariupol.
Israel and Sudan will sign an “historic peace agreement” in Washington in a few months’ time…
Formalising relations with Israel has been condemned by the Palestinians, who see it as a betrayal of their cause.
USA has secured four additional military bases in the Philippines in its encirclement of China.
Jonathan Cook’s text from his address at #FreeTheTruth: Secret Power, Media Freedom and Democracy, at St Pancras Church, London, on Saturday, Jan. 28 January.
Further to my earlier comment on Putin’s tentative hold on power
https://thehill.com/policy/international/3837575-former-putin-aide-coup-a-real-possibility/
Abbas Gallyamov, Putin’s former speechwriter predicted that a military coup was possible for the country in the next year, pointing to a deteriorating economy and the growing unpopularity of the war in Ukraine.
Marxist Internet Archive has a children’s literature section
https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/children/index.htm
The legality and illegality of the war explored
Saying it as it is and being pressured to retract.
Kim Johnson, the MP for Liverpool, Riverside apologised to the Commons after provoking anger by calling the Israeli government “fascist” during prime minister’s questions.
“Since the election of the fascist Israeli government last December there has been an increase in human rights violations against Palestinians, including children. Can the prime minister tell us how he is challenging what Amnesty and other human rights organisations refer to as an apartheid state?”
Labour whips then intervened and she had to say
“I was wrong to use the term ‘fascist’ in relation to the Israeli government and understand why this was particularly insensitive given the history of the state of Israel,” she said. “While there are far-right elements in the government, I recognise that the use of the term in this context was wrong.
“I would also like to apologise for the use of the term ‘apartheid state’. While I was quoting accurately Amnesty’s description, I recognise this as insensitive and I’d like to withdraw it.”
