A victory, but probably not the end of the NC Green Party's legal battles for ballot access this November. There is a ballot access fund, linked below, as is the court's ruling. The Green candidates for this fall are Matthew Hoh for US Senate, Michael Trudeau for NC Senate District 16 in Wake County, and Joshua Bradley for Raleigh City Council; the 2022 general election candidates are or will be listed at: www.ncsbe.gov/results-data/candidate-lists#current
|
This statement from UNAC regarding the recent Israeli attacks in Gaza and the West Bank was originally posted at: nepajac.org/palstatement89.htm
STOP ISRAELI TERROR IN GAZA! FREE PALESTINE!
8/6/22
The United National Antiwar Coalition stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine and strongly condemns the most recent violent attacks by Israel on the people of Gaza. At the time of this writing, 15 Palestinians (including a five-year-old girl) have been murdered by the latest acts of Israeli aggression, which targeted residential buildings and communities. We oppose all US funding of and military support for Israel, without which Israel would be unable to continue to wage war against Gaza and illegally occupy Palestinian land.
For decades, the people of Palestine have been made to suffer through: constant bombings and military strikes in Gaza and the West Bank, the mass imprisonment of their children, the demolition and destruction of their homes by Israeli settlers and the IDF, and evictions from their historic homes in Jerusalem. We denounce not only this most recent atrocity by Israel against the people of Gaza, but Israel’s illegal and immoral occupation Palestine, which has been ongoing for nearly 75 years now.
Those following the situation in the Middle East can easily see the connection between the timing of Israel’s aggression in Gaza and the resumption of nuclear talks between the United States and Iran, the former happening 24 hours after the latter. Israel has long opposed any nuclear deal between the US and Iran, as it hopes to remain unchallenged in the region by keeping Iran militarily and economically weak. The Israeli government will continue to use the tired excuse of, “preempting terrorist threats,” as it always does, to try and justify its most heinous crimes. It will continue to point fingers and claim self-defense.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and support their resistance to Israeli occupation.
We call on all antiwar, peace, and justice organizations to take to the streets and join the in global condemnation of Israeli aggression in whatever capacity they can.
We encourage participation in all local actions in support of the Palestinian people
STOP ISRAELI TERROR IN GAZA!
FREE PALESTINE!
NO US AID TO ISRAEL!
https://www.pcof.net/tunisie-apres-lechec-du-referendum-mascarade-saied-nest-ni-legal-ni-legitime/
Tunisia: after the failure of the sham referendum, Saïed is neither legal nor legitimate
Statement by the Workers' Party in the aftermath of the constitutional referendum organised by Kais Saied. "The time has come to resist this institutionalization of a new autocratic regime and the accumulation of forces."
The curtain has closed on the sham constitutional referendum organized by Kaïs Saïed, by which he wanted to legitimize his coup d'état and send the country back to a new era of absolute autocracy. By claiming pharaonic powers, he is destroying the democratic gains won by the Tunisian people at the cost of blood and sacrifice.
To carry out this pivotal stage of the coup process of July 25, 2021, material, administrative and propaganda resources of great magnitude were mobilized.
Extended voting hours, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., were set up.
The public media, including the first national television channel, were transformed into a crude propaganda tool for the benefit of Kaïs Saïed's project.
Serious excesses were noted, including the violation of the electoral silence by the president himself on election day, not to mention the serious doubts surrounding the veracity of the figures announced by the established electoral body.
Despite all this, three quarters of Tunisians registered on the voting lists ignored this electoral farce, in which Kaïs Saïed was not even able to gather as many votes as in the second round of the 2019 presidential elections.
Given their crucial importance, constitutions can generally not be adopted with participation rates below 50%, or even 75% in some cases; this is a practice recognized worldwide, except by Kaïs Saïed. As an assistant professor of constitutional law, he welcomed the total success of the election, just as he applauded a national referendum in which the turnout did not exceed 5%.
This confirms once again the tyrannical spirit that guides Saïed and that he is trying to impose on the Tunisian people.
He alone decided to hold the referendum, to present a constitution that he drafted on his own and that no one discussed with him. It is a constitution that is only a catalogue of absolute powers that he attributes to himself, destroying the gains of the revolution in terms of rights, freedoms and equality.
He also reviewed the composition of the organizing body for the elections, in order to appoint only his supporters, just as he is proceeding to the appointment of his faithful within the administration.
He mobilized the resources of the State in the service of his project and incurred huge expenses to achieve a bitter failure, although he refuses to admit it.
Kaïs Saïed derives his legitimacy as president of the republic from the 2019 elections, held on the basis of the 2014 constitution that he abrogated. He tried to build a new legitimacy for himself through a tailor-made constitution, believing that the people would applaud and follow him.
Today he no longer has any legitimacy, he only has the strength of the institutions to impose his domination and his economic and social orientations that will bleed the popular classes even more.
Like the heads of state who respect each other and their peoples, he could have acknowledged his failure and submitted his resignation, but he continued in his stubbornness by announcing a new electoral law, which he will, as usual, be the only one to draft and which he will promulgate by an unquestionable decree.
The Workers' Party, which denounced the coup d'état of July 25 from the beginning, and warned against the dangers of the tyrannical project of Kaïs Saïed, who took advantage of the crisis that our country is going through and the resentment of our people following 10 years of calamitous management of the country by Ennahda and its allies, declares that:
– It reaffirms the failure of the sham referendum and the subsequent invalidity of the constitution. It confirms that this proven failure of Kaïs Saïed makes him lose all legitimacy, and leaves him no other way out than that of resignation to let the Tunisian people, 3/4 of whom boycotted the pseudo election, decide his fate.
– It is convinced that Saïed will not go back on his project of his own will; he will pursue it by relying on the institutions of the State and resorting to the flagrant repression of his opponents, in order to establish his autocratic regime.
– It considers, therefore, that our country is entering a new phase of political and social instability that will inevitably be exacerbated by the ongoing economic and financial crisis. This is a situation whose consequences the popular classes are suffering full force, and which results from the subjection to the injunctions of the international monetary institutions.
This new stage will be marked by resistance to the despotic aims of Saïed in order to save our country and our people, without returning to either the period before July 25 or before January 14.
– It calls on all democratic and progressive revolutionary forces, parties, associations, organizations and personalities that reject the path of arbitrariness and autocracy, to join forces to define together a rescue plan as well as the means to unite the majority of the people around it.
The challenge is to overthrow the system of tyranny, corruption and collaboration in order to build the foundations of a new Tunisia.
– No to the imposition of a failed referendum and a minority constitution on the people.
– No to a constitution of an absolute autocracy, rejected by the overwhelming majority.
– Down with the system of tyranny, corruption and submission.
– Yes, to an alternative democratic and social national project to save our homeland and our people.
Tunis, July 26, 2022 [Workers' Party Arabic website: albadil.info ]
Federal District Judge Rules In Favor of NC Green Party; Issues strong Rebuking of SBE, DSCC and Democrats
|
The NCGP received renewed state recognition Monday, August 1st but due to the State Board of Elections the Greens missed this year's candidate filing deadline and a legal victory will still be required for the Greens to appear on North Carolina ballots in November. In a separate lawsuit the NC Democratic Party wants the new state recognition removed. For more information see: www.ncgreenparty.org/news and www.matthewhohforsenate.org/category/media/statements/ and previous posts. There will be an Emergency Rally for Democracy and Voter Choice in downtown Raleigh later today, Friday, August 5th. Below is the NCGP's announcement email:
NC Democrats Sue Against Democracy: NC Green Party to Hold Press Rally for Voter Choice
WHAT Emergency Press Conference for Democracy and Voter Choice
WHERE: Outside of Dobbs Building (Halifax Mall side), Raleigh NC
WHEN: 4:30PM-5:15PM (arrive no later than 4:15) [3:50-4pm to volunteer]
CONTACT: [ ]
EMAIL: cochair [ ncgreenparty ]; secretary [ncgreenparty ]
Most outrageously, the Democratic Party lawsuit claims that NC Green Party, a new small independent dues-paying party of working class members being on the ballot will somehow hurt the Democratic Party’s vast resources and encumber a burden on their own responsibilities to get their voters to the polls!
Both of the major Wall Street parties see themselves as primarily responsible to the big donor class and not the interests of their voters. The Democratic Party is desperate to keep the political discussion within their narrow spectrum of non-solutions and therefore sees a party that provides an answer to militarism, infrastructural decline, debt and inequity as a major threat
NC State Board of Elections was unable to challenge enough signatures that were already validated by county board and conceded by giving [the NC Green Party recognition.]
Below are two statements condemning violent FBI and police raids on Friday, July 29th targeting the African People's Socialist Party in Florida and Missouri, allegedly over "Russian propaganda," which even if true would seem to be protected free speech. The first document is a joint statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the second is from the Black Alliance for Peace. For more reactions see: apspuhuru.org/category/all-news/
[The United National Antiwar Coalition has a petition at: unac.notowar.net/condemn-fbi-raids-on-african-peoples-socialist-party-and-uhuru-movement/ More statements have been posted on the APSP's website, including a statement by NC-based Black Workers for Justice. I'm posting a third statement, from Defend Rights and Dissent: www.rightsanddissent.org/news/fbi-raids-homes-and-offices-of-activist-groups-claiming-russian-influence/ ]
Condemn the FBI raids in St Louis, MO & St Petersburg, FL!
On the morning of Friday, July 29th, the FBI conducted raids at multiple locations, including the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida, the private residence of Omali Yeshitela in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as the Uhuru Solidarity Center, also in St. Louis. The FBI employed flashbang grenades and handcuffed Yeshitela and his wife while the house was raided. The FBI says that the raids are connected to the federal indictment of a Russian man, Aleksandr Ionov, alleging that he has been working to spread "Russian propaganda" in the United States.
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression unequivocally condemn these raids. We oppose all efforts by the U.S. government to target activists in any progressive movement in this country. We call for an end to investigations, political harassment, and threats against activists and our movements.
The DOJ is alleging that those raided collaborated with a "Russian asset" to spread "Russian propaganda." At a time when the U.S. is engaged in an imperialist proxy war with Russia in the Ukraine, these raids have all the makings of a witch hunt. All progressive people should oppose any attempt by the FBI and police to attack people's movements and organizations. We must always be vigilant about defending our democratic rights to organize and speak out against injustice - including communicating with activists in other countries and building international solidarity. It should also be said this repression come in the context of upsurge of struggle in the Black community.
The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression are committed to pushing back against this repression and we stand in solidarity with those under attack.
We know from experience how importance resistance to repression is. On September 24, 2010 the FBI raided seven homes of anti-war activists and the office of the Twin Cities Anti-War committee. Twenty-three activists were subpoenaed to a Chicago-based grand jury that claimed to be investigating "material support for terrorism." As time went on, the FBI continued their attack on anti-war and international solidarity activists by targeting important veterans of the movement who worked with the Anti-war 23, including Chicano activist Carlos Montes in Los Angeles and Palestinian organizer Rasmea Odeh in Chicago. A national defense campaign defeated most of these attacks.
All those active in the movements for peace and justice should use this moment as a reminder to never speak with agents of the federal government prying into your activism or the activism of others. "I have nothing to say, please speak with my lawyer," are all that need to be said. If you are being taken into custody, all you are required by law to do is confirm your name and tell them that you would like to speak with your lawyer. If federal or local agents show up at your home or organizing office, do not let them in without a warrant, and if they have a warrant, inspect the details of the warrant closely - if any detail is incorrect, such as the spelling of a name or address, point out the error and do not permit entry onto the premises.
Don’t talk to the FBI!
Stop FBI repression!
Black Alliance for Peace Condemns FBI Attack on the African People’s Socialist Party
For Immediate Release
Media Contact
communications [at blackallianceforpeace]
[ ]
AUGUST 01, 2022—The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) unequivocally condemns and opposes the latest domestic U.S. state repression and intimidation tactics currently being leveled against the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP).
On Friday, July 29, 2022, the FBI executed multiple raids against APSP’s Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Florida and their Uhuru Solidarity Center in St. Louis, Missouri and the private residence of APSP Chairman Omali Yeshitela also in St. Louis. The FBI employed flashbang grenades and handcuffed Yeshitela and his wife while their house was raided. The FBI claims that the raids are connected to the federal indictment of a Russian national, Aleksandr Ionov, alleging that he has been working to spread "Russian propaganda" in the United States.
BAP believes that these raids continue the history of state repression directed against Black people in the U.S. This repression now occurs under the guise of opposing “adversary” nations but regardless of how these actions are characterized, Black people still bear the brunt of surveillance and police violence. The APSP has the right to freely associate with people around the world, to hold any political beliefs it may choose, and to express them without fear of intimidation, persecution, or prosecution.
We believe this repression to be a hysterical response to the United States’ loss of legitimacy in the context of the deepening crisis of capitalism and U.S. global hegemony. The unleashing of policing and counterintelligence forces domestically and increased militarism and warmongering abroad in the name of national security are the only avenues left to the U.S. ruling class that is engulfed in an irreversible economic crisis. They represent the hallmarks of a naked fascism that the U.S. ruling class appears to be increasingly committed to in order to maintain the rule of capital.
BAP reminds the public that the war against working class people generally, and Black, Brown, and Indigenous workers particularly, is ongoing. The masses must acknowledge and resist this reality. While it is APSP today, it will ultimately be the rest of us tomorrow. Resistance is our only option.
Given our steadfast commitment to rebuilding the broader anti-war, anti-imperialist peace movement, BAP is not intimidated and will not retreat. We are guided by the position articulated by the Black is Back Coalition, of which BAP is a proud member, that "Now is the time to throw off all hesitation, open up new forms of struggle and to launch every protest, demonstration, and anti-imperialist action - from the ballot box to the barricades - as an act to deepen the crisis of imperialism."
The treatment of the APSP is reminiscent of McCarthyist witch hunts that targeted and criminalized workers, immigrants, and colonized people who organized domestically and internationally against capitalist imperialism. Likewise, the FBI’s actions represent COINTELPRO-like tactics employed to crush organizations and individuals fighting to protect and expand the rights of oppressed people in general, and Africans in particular.
These tactics came back forcefully in response to the 2014 uprisings in Ferguson, Missouri. FBI agents tracked the movements and monitored the individuals tied to the protests. In 2016, when the murder of Freddie Gray ignited protests in Baltimore, the FBI admitted to providing an aircraft for surveillance in the weeks following the unrest. In 2017, the FBI created the designation “Black Identity Extremist” to monitor Black movement organizers. The term was updated to “Racially Motivated Violent Extremism” in 2018. FBI surveillance was rampant going into the summer 2020 rebellions, with FBI agents attempting to infiltrate protests in Portland.
The Black population in the United States has historically stood at the forefront of resistance and condemnations of war and state repression. In this spirit, the Black Alliance for Peace reiterates the critical, moral stance against such government aggression and stands in resolute solidarity with the APSP.
By comprehensively linking the issue of state violence and militarism, BAP will continue to concentrate its efforts on not only opposing the U.S. war agenda globally but the war and repression being waged on Black and Brown communities within U.S. borders.
In this charge, The Black Alliance for Peace says there will be "No Compromise and No Retreat!”
BAP Coordinating Committee
Link to online version: https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/bapsolidaritywithapsp
[ FBI Raids Homes and Offices of Activist Groups, Claiming Russian Influence
On Friday July 29, 2002 the FBI raided homes and offices associated with the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Solidarity Movement in St. Petersburg, Florida and St. Louis, Missouri. These related groups describe their political views as socialism and African Internationalism. Property, including cell phones and computers, documents, and a car were seized. One member of the party alleges that during the raid FBI agents set off flash bang grenades, used drones, and handcuffed him.
None of these individuals have been charged with any crime, however, they are widely understood to have been labeled as unindicted co-conspirators in the indictment of Alexander Viktorovich Ionov. According to the indictment, the US government believes Ionov and the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia acted with Russia intelligence to get three domestic US political organizations to act as unregistered foreign agents of the Russian state. Ionov has been charged with “conspiracy against the United States.” Multiple unnamed US political activists and unnamed Russian intelligence operatives are described as “unindicted co-conspirators.” Given that Ionov is a Russian national who lives in Russia, it is unlikely that this case will ever be brought to trial.
Defending Rights & Dissent takes seriously the problem of a foreign intelligence service interfering in the domestic political affairs of another nation. Nonetheless, we have serious concerns about the raids, which seem deeply disproportionate to the allegations, as well as the potential chilling impact an overly broad response to perceived foreign influence could have on dissent in the US. While the indictment alleges the group received money from the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (which they have denied), it includes as overt acts in the conspiracy a speaking tour in support of reparations for slavery and a petition to the United Nations condemning the US’s treatment of Black Americans as “genocide.” These views have been held by the African People’s Socialist Party, and other Pan-Africanist and Black Liberation organizations for decades. Conflating these points of view with “Russian misinformation” and foreign attempts to “sow division” runs the risk of stigmatizing dissent.
This is made all the more concerning given the US government’s history of suppressing Black Liberation organizing based on fears of foreign influence. The Uhuru Solidarity Movement’s UN petition appears modeled after the “We Charge Genocide” petition of the Civil Rights Congress. Paul Robeson and W. E. B. DuBois were unable to deliver the petition in France, as they had their passports revoked. When William Patterson of the Civil Rights Congress did so, the US government seized his passport while he was abroad. DuBois was later himself indicted as an unregistered foreign agent, but was acquitted. Similarly, in the early 1970s J. Edgar Hoover kept a file on “Foreign Influences in the Black Extremist Movement” and tasked the NSA with helping the FBI to reveal it.
While this does not refute the veracity of the indictment, it gives reason for caution. Defending Rights & Dissent will continue to monitor this situation as it develops. ]
WE SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF THE PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA
A Verdade, No. 252, July 2022, a Workers' Journal in the Struggle for Socialism [ averdade.org.br newspaper of the PCR, Brazil's Revolutionary Communist Party, pcrbrasil.org ]
The Communists and the independence of Ukraine
Luiz Falcao
PCR CENTRAL COMMITTEE
The war over the annexation of Ukraine waged between the major imperialist powers continues to murder thousands of Ukrainians and turn a sovereign country into a shattered nation with eight million refugees.
Putin's government says the goal of the invasion of Ukraine is to defend Russia threatened by nuclear missile facilities from the United States and NATO in countries near its borders. It also states that the "special military operation" aims to protect the Russian-speaking population living in eastern Ukraine, a region known as Donbass and of great economic and strategic importance. Of course, incorporating territory from a country recognized by both the UN and Russia itself, for more than 100 years, no matter how many beautiful words one uses, cannot hide the imperialist character of this act.
In turn, the United States and the European Union are supplying tanks, missiles, ammunition and billions of dollars to the corrupt government of Volodimir Zelensky and say they want the independence of Ukraine. Moreover, they are speeding up the process of entering the European Union, which in practice guarantees the dominance of the Ukrainian economy.
Thus, according to the capitalist powers, none of them have an interest in the exploitation of Ukrainian riches. But lies have short legs. Indeed, Ukraine is one of the countries with the most fertile land in the world and one of the largest producers of cereals, grains, vegetables, seeds, sugar, meat and milk, being called the great granary of Europe. In 2021, according to the International Grain Council, it was the world's fourth largest exporter of corn and the sixth largest exporter of wheat. Ukraine is rich in iron ore, coal, manganese, graphite, titanium, magnesium, oil, nickel, wood and has an important industrial base. It is therefore a country with a large consumer market for Russian, Chinese, European and North American capitalist monopolies.
DIVIDING THE WORLD AMONG THE GREAT POWERS
Regrettably, petty bourgeois historians draw up theories to hide the imperialist character of this war and despise the heroic and fearless struggle that the Ukrainian people have undertaken for centuries to be entitled to their homeland. They argue that the borders established by the Tsarist empire must be accepted, completely ignoring that the great Socialist Revolution of October guaranteed the right to self-determination of all peoples living under Russian tyranny.
What drives these masters of academia to this position is, in addition to a total lack of confidence in the proletarian revolution, the illusion that in the time of the domination of financial capital the contradictions of capitalism diminish, which makes it impossible to imagine a revolutionary alternative towards war.
However, in the imperialist phase of capitalism the dividing of the world by the great powers not only continues to occur, but also develops even more violently, as shown by the weakening of organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the advance of the trade war mainly between the USA and China, the so-called "deglobalization" and dozens of military conflicts. Moreover, due to the sharpening of the general crisis of capitalism, new divisions of territories and the possession of the sources of raw materials have become vital for capitalist monopolies and financial capital, as Lenin showed in his important and relevant work Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.
Indeed, the reduction of the world market, the risks of a new recession in the US and the European Union, and the constant trade and financial crises require that, in order to continue concentrating and accumulating more capital, the capitalist class increases the exploitation of workers, but also has absolute control of the sources of raw materials and agricultural production, fuels and ores.
Well, in the face of this world of wars, unemployment, violence, hunger, which path should the working class and oppressed peoples follow both in Ukraine and in other countries?
The path of revolution, the path that led the Ukrainian people to build the Socialist Republic of Ukraine and crush Nazism and fascism in World War II.
In fact, since the 9th century, the people who inhabited Kiev, then the headquarters of the Slavic state, faced several empires whose goal was to enslave their people and exploit their lands. In the 13th century, the region was conquered by the Mongol Empire and then annexed to the Polish-Lithuanian Community. Between the 15th and 17th centuries, the Tatars built a state on the shores of the Black Sea and Ukraine suffered from invasions by the Hungarian, Ottoman, Swedish and Russian peoples. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was the turn of the Austro-Hungarian empire to take over the lands of Ukraine. Now, in the 21st century, Russia (with China's support) is waging war with the United States and the European Union to decide who will dominate Ukraine.
There was, however, a period – the period of socialism – when peace and friendship triumphed in Russia and Ukraine. Let us remember. In the first decades of the 20th century, the Russian people, led by the Bolshevik Party, fought for the end of Tsarism and for a democratic and revolutionary republic. In October of 1917, the workers and peasants, led by the communists, seized power and began the construction of the Russian Socialist Republic.
With the birth of the Russian Socialist Republic, there was recognition of independence and the Ukrainian State, as Lenin's Manifesto of December 1917 shows, on behalf of the People's Commissars to the Ukrainian people: "We, the Council of People Commissars, recognize the People's Ukrainian Republic, and its right to secede from Russia.... We… recognize at once, unconditionally and without reservations everything that pertains to the Ukrainian people’s national rights and national independence."
It is, moreover, this proclamation of Lenin recognizing the creation of Ukraine that Vladimir Putin uses to affirm that "Modern Ukraine was total and completely created by Bolshevik Russia, communist Russia".
Let us continue. Also, in 1917, the Ukrainian Central Rada a union of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties, took over the government of Ukraine, which refused to recognize Soviet power and kept the wealth of the people in the hands of the bourgeoisie and landowners. In February 1919, with the support of Socialist Russia, Ukrainian workers and peasants overthrow the Rada government. As soon as this battle had ended, Germany invaded Ukraine, carried out a coup d'état and put in government a Cossack chief under direct order of the German Army. In November 1919, after months of fighting, the Red Army and the Ukrainian people expelled the German invaders and established the Socialist Republic of Ukraine.
In the early 1920s, Ukraine and the North Caucasus were completely liberated from the power of the white guards. However, in April 1920, Polish troops invaded Ukraine and occupied the city of Kiev. The Soldiers of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, liberated Kiev and drove the Poles out of Ukraine (History of the Communist Party Bolshevik, Manoel Lisboa Publishers).
On January 4, 1920, V.I. Lenin wrote the Letter to the Workers and Peasants of the Ukraine, which stated: "The independence of the Ukraine has been recognized both by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of the R.S.F.S.R. (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic) and by the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks). It is therefore self-evident and generally recognized that only the Ukrainian workers and peasants themselves can and will decide… whether the Ukraine shall amalgamate with Russia, or whether she shall remain a separate and independent republic, and, in the latter case, what federal ties shall be established between that republic and Russia....
“We want a voluntary union of nations – a union which preludes any coercion of one nation by another – a union founded on complete confidence, on a clear recognition of brotherly unity, on absolutely voluntary consent. Such a union cannot be effected at one stroke; we have to work towards it with the greatest patience and circumspection, so as not to spoil matters and not to arouse distrust, and so that the distrust inherited from centuries of landowner and capitalist oppression, centuries of private property and the enmity caused by its divisions and redivisions may have a chance to wear off." (Collected Works, Volume 30, Progress Publishers, 1974)
With the creation of the Soviet Union in December 1922, a new era of great friendship and cooperation between the peoples of Russia and Ukraine began. The USSR was founded on the principle of self-determination of the peoples, respect for cultural differences and for the purpose of suppressing private property of the means of production, liquidating classes and building socialism, aiming to continuously improve the material and spiritual conditions of all the peoples.
After decades of building socialism, in 1941, the Germans invaded Ukraine and Russia to try to take over their lands and riches. Hitler orders the destruction of socialism and the murder of Communists and received the support of what was left of the Ukrainian bourgeoisie. However, the Bolshevik army and the Ukrainian workers' army united and fought to defeat the German invaders, historic battles were fought and again the red flag triumphed.
As it turned out, the Communists, in addition to being the first to recognize Ukraine's independence, fought and shed their blood to drive German and foreign troops out of that country and helped the Ukrainians to build a prosperous nation. During the existence of the Soviet Union, not a single city was bombed, invaded or annexed by Socialist Russia. On the contrary, the Russian and Ukrainian armies fought together and together defeated the foreign invaders and sealed a deep commitment to the sovereignty of both peoples. To make any comparison between the position of socialist Russia and Lenin with Putin's bourgeois government is, at the very least, a historical falsehood.
SOCIALISM OR CAPITALISM IS THE QUESTION
Put another way, the enmity between Russians and Ukrainians spurred on today by the governments of Russia, the United States and the European Union aims to hide the fact that the real enemy is the capitalist system. Indeed, private ownership of the means of production and capital in the hands of a minority of billionaires produces wars and hatred between peoples and nations. Such a rivalry never existed in the USSR; on the contrary, what prevailed was collaboration between the peoples that formed the Soviet Union.
To be a socialist, therefore, is not to capitulate before one of the capitalist blocs, but to defend the principle of self-determination of peoples and denounce all imperialist wars. To be revolutionary is to believe that true peace will only be possible with a new victory of the socialist revolution in the world, the end of the capitalist system and private property. It is to work to develop class consciousness and the organization of workers and youth, it is to spread the truth, that is, that there are only two paths for humanity: socialism or barbarism!
Posts
All Comments
