Update as of February 27: We published the following analysis shortly after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Since that time, as of February 27, Russian troops have attacked and laid siege to Ukraine’s two largest cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv. Ordinary people within Ukraine have taken up arms to repel the invaders. Thousands of people within Russia took to the streets to demonstrate against the war, with many arrested. And the U.S. has continued to use the war to strive to further forge its control of its bloc, imposing increasingly harsh economic “sanctions” (punishments) against Russia. At the same time, the basic dynamics outlined in the editorial below, and basic orientation toward this war, remain the same.
But the Biden administration and those who support it have also been taking the opportunity presented by this war to wage an ideological offensive. Shortly after we posted the editorial we are re-running below, we received the important and hard-hitting essay from Bob Avakian, “Shameless American Chauvinism: ‘Anti-Authoritarianism’ as a ‘Cover’ For Supporting U.S. Imperialism.” In that piece BA makes the following important point:
Certainly, the big power bullying and aggression by Russia, with its invasion of Ukraine a clear example, is something that all decent people should oppose. But no decent person should be joining in with the U.S. imperialists in their rivalry with Russian imperialism. For reasons I will get into here, it is utter, disgusting hypocrisy for the U.S. imperialists, and their media mouthpieces and other representatives, to be self-righteously condemning this Russian invasion, when the U.S. is the country which has, by far, carried out the most invasions and other acts of violent interference in other countries.
So the editorial below should be returned to in tandem with getting deeply into the new piece by BA.
On February 23, Russia began to invade and bomb Ukraine, a neighboring country of 43 million people. The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, said his aim was to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” Ukraine. Putin has also claimed that Ukraine has always been part of Russia and is not actually a separate nation (and he has falsely blamed the leader of the Russian revolution, V.I. Lenin, for supposedly “creating” it).
Attacks and bombings were reported throughout Ukraine with many casualties among both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, and Ukrainian civilians. And this, of course, is only the beginning.
The U.S. condemned the attack, with Biden saying that “Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring.” Biden said that the U.S. and its allies in NATO (a military alliance of 30 countries that was formed and is headed by the U.S.) would respond by isolating the Russian economy and continuing to aid the Ukrainian military. Already some senators in both parties are clamoring to “get tougher,” with one Democrat saying that “every option must be placed on the table to stop Putin’s malevolence”—which is a code word for saying that the use of nuclear weapons should be considered.
This war will certainly cause massive death and destruction. The possibility that it will spread is real, and dangerous; and there is indeed a chance that this could spiral all the way to the use of nuclear weapons, which would be catastrophic. Once it begins, war is not in the control of any single force until it’s over.
People gather in a shelter during Russian shelling, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022. As Russia began its attack on Ukraine on Thursday, civilians piled into trains and cars to flee. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
WHY Is This Happening?
To answer this, we have to refute the lies that both sides are telling. That means briefly getting into some history.
Putin’s claim that Ukraine has never been a real nation is false. Ukraine began to be forged into a distinct country with new cities several hundred years ago. By the 17th century, it was subordinated to and oppressed by the Russian empire. The Soviet revolution in Russia in 1917 granted the right of self-determination to the many nations that had been oppressed by the now-overthrown empire (which had been ruled by an oppressive monarchy), and Ukraine, along with many others, chose to join in a confederation with the new Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
By the mid-1950s, the socialist revolution in the Soviet Union had been reversed.1 It was transformed back into an imperialist power, while retaining the name and some of the trappings of socialism, and contended for domination around the world against the U.S.
In the period 1989 to 1991, that empire collapsed from a combination of external pressure and internal unraveling. The U.S. at that point moved in to grab up what it could of the former empire, drawing some nations into the NATO military alliance and working to pull others, like Ukraine, into its economic and political web. In part, their intent was to put Russia so firmly under its thumb that it could never threaten U.S. control again. And that leads us to now.
Some Basic Truths About the War Against Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with taking back a part of the Russian nation nor is it about “de-Nazification”—it is a move by Russian imperialism to bring back into its bloc a nation that the U.S. was steadily aiming to pull away and turn into an outpost against Russia. It is a move to strengthen itself to contend in a world where the old imperialist division of the world is increasingly contested.
For its part, the U.S. has armed the Ukrainians to fight the Russians, it has sent troops and nuclear weapons to surrounding countries, and it is now moving to isolate and cripple the Russian economy. All this has nothing to do with “seeking peace,” but is part of a strategy to both weaken Russia through enabling Ukraine to put up resistance while America, for now, stays out of direct battle; and it is a way for the U.S. to strengthen its grip on its alliance.
Here it has to be said that the U.S. promised the new Russian rulers that they would NOT integrate the countries surrounding Russia into NATO; but consistent with its entire history, the U.S. was lying, and over time added a total of 13 countries to NATO.
Where Do the Interests of Humanity Lie?
NOT with either imperialist bloc. Bob Avakian, BA, the revolutionary leader and author of the new communism, has said:
The interests, objectives, and grand designs of the imperialists are not our interests—they are not the interests of the great majority of people in the U.S. nor of the overwhelming majority of people in the world as a whole. And the difficulties the imperialists have gotten themselves into in pursuit of these interests must be seen, and responded to, not from the point of view of the imperialists and their interests, but from the point of view of the great majority of humanity and the basic and urgent need of humanity for a different and better world, for another way. (BAsics 3:8)
Pull the lens back for a minute. This capitalist-imperialist system presides over the grinding up of billions of people in sweatshops, plantations, mines, and warehouses to serve their blind, compulsive and competitive drive for profit, profit and more profit. That same drive for profit is making the very earth unlivable, and we find ourselves every day hurtling toward catastrophic destruction of the precious web of life. That same capitalist-imperialist compulsion has destroyed the ecology and violently warped the social relations in oppressed nations throughout the global South, giving rise to millions of refugees who the imperialists then either cruelly detain, murder at sea or in the desert, or—for the “lucky few”—grossly exploit as “cheap labor.” This system presides over the domination of women in every corner of the globe, including the literal enslavement of millions internationally in the so-called sex industry. It presides over the systematic oppression of whole nations of people—as the U.S. does within its borders to Black and other oppressed nationality people, with its system of white supremacy. All this, again, rests on the foundation of the bitter, grinding, life-sucking exploitation of billions.
So, again, with that in mind, how can anyone refute what BA says above?
Lenin, whom Putin so reviles, said at the beginning of World War I that in a war between slave masters, the interests of the enslaved lie not in fighting for one master or another but in using the conflict to overthrow slavery. And that definitely applies in this case.
So what does that mean for those who do want a better world? It means:
- Working to expose the real interests at work here and joining in wherever people are protesting, debating or discussing this war to bring these out;
- Welcoming the defeats and setbacks of “our own” imperialists, and winning others to do so, so as to take advantage of such defeats to overthrow this system of oppression, exploitation and war;
- Getting organized now for an actual revolution by joining with the Revolution Club. The Revolution Club says in its Points of Attention for the Revolution: “We fight for a world without borders, and for equality among different peoples, cultures and languages. We do not tolerate insults, 'jokes' or derogatory names about a person’s race, nationality, or language.” This world is possible, and for humanity as a whole it is the ONLY viable world; but you need a revolution to get there. The Revolution Club is where you can get active in this revolution while you’re learning more about it.
- Stay informed on what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what needs to be done about it by going to the website revcom.us and watching The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show on YouTube every week, with new episodes on Thursday at 8 pm EST, 5 pm PST.
There Is a World To Win—IF We Dare!
This war takes place at a time that Bob Avakian has analyzed how humanity stands at a crossroads at which the possibilities exist both for something terrible… OR something truly emancipating. He has shown how this is one of those rare times in which a revolution in the U.S. could actually be possible… if we do everything we can to ripen and prepare for such a situation. That means boldly setting forth a vision of a whole better and different world, daring to raise the hell we need to raise to wake people up about all this, and organizing people to get into this and learn how to become leaders of this revolution as they do.
What to do? Check out the work and leadership of Bob Avakian. Get into this revolution—go to its website and YouTube show, and check out the Revolution Club.
Dare to struggle… and dare to WIN.