Reply To: Russian Tensions
“What is one to do when “workers” go rampaging about slaughtering the innocent.”
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The thing is this is EXACTLY what BOTH sides in this sordid capitalist war are doing and yet you are asking us to support the imperialist Russian side against Ukraine and its imperialist backers. Socialists don’t support capitalist warlords like Putin or Zelensky. War itself brutalises people and turns them into fascists. In the name of a putrid nationalism, deluded workers give their lives to the cause of their respective capitalist ruling classes
What is one to do? The only thing any decent human being would want to do. Stop the war and urge the combatants on both sides – fellow members of the working class – to lay down their arms. There are indications that significant numbers of Russian soldiers are questioning the very purpose of their mission in Ukraine. Good. The same needs to be happening on the Ukraine side. The utter stupidity of fighting for the right to plant a particular flag on a particular patch of land needs to be made crystal clear.
Socialists can’t do much against the overwhelming forces of national chauvinism and reactionary capitalism but at least what we are doing makes sense. Your recipe, on the other hand, will ensure that a legacy of hatred towards fellow workers who happen to live under another capitalist regime to yours will endure for generations. Wars don’t solve problems. They create them