ALB
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Here are some politicians admitting that their sanctions against Russia will make things worse for ordinary people in this country. It is all very well them saying that this is a price worth paying to bring Ukraine into the NATO sphere of influence, but it won’t be paid by them and they didn’t ask us any more than Putin did before launching Russia’s invasion. And they say what they are doing is to defend democracy.
Since it has also just been announced that Russia and Ukraine are to have talks on the Belorussian border it looks as if Putin is practising the “big stick” theory of diplomacy of pre-WWI US President Theodore Roosevelt of carry a big stick but speak softly. Rather a big stick to wave about, I would have thought.
That Starmer character has turned out to be completely unprincipled, a nasty piece of work motivated by personal ambition and prejudice. In other words, he has all the qualities needed to be a future Labour prime minister, an appropriate leader of the “party of NATO”.
We know Labour governments have always defended and promoted the imperialist interests of British capitalism. So his attitude is really just par for the course.
The first part of this passage is good, very good in fact, but the last part is a bit surprising since it is not one that the ACG normally accepts. In fact it’s wrong:
“The imperialist war is being waged for the sharing of spheres of influence, energy routes and the rearrangement of geopolitical power. We have no interest in fighting for the interests of the powerful, for the interests of capital. Moreover, the outbreak of war is expected to bring further price increases and inflation in both energy and basic commodities, putting even more strain on the pockets of those who are already unable to meet their basic needs. We must not forget that war is a solution of capital to overcome the structural crises of over-accumulation from which capitalism is periodically afflicted. The destruction of fixed (means of production) and variable capital (labour power) paves the way for capitalist reconstruction and development.”
Calling for “the sabotage of the war machine” is not a sensible idea either. I know it’s probably just rhetorics or revolutionary romanticism but we can’t urge workers to risk their life or long terms of imprisonment trying to do that.
Kazakhstan is denying a request for its troops to join the offensive in Ukraine
That strikes me as a rather obvious untruth, either made up by the journalist or disinformation planted by one of the US intelligence agencies.
Think about it. Why would Russia ask for troops from a country whose armed forces must be an even less efficient killing machine than the Ukrainian one?
Maybe there are some sensible elements in the Ukraine government after all. Don’t know if it’s true, though. Hope so as it’s the only way to stop the killing and destruction. That’s the immediate priority from a working class point of view.
The Ukrainian government is stupidly encouraging people to resist Russian tanks with rifles and Molotov cocktails. That will only get them killed and endanger other people. Most people seem to be ignoring that stupid advice and are sensibly trying to escape from the combat zones or lying low till it’s all over.
Just been to fill up. The politicians only think of the economic or strategic interests of the capitalist class and ignore the effect on ordinary people. It’s not just petrol prices that are going to go up but, later, gas.
I was surprised to find this on the BBC, debunking pro-Ukrainian propaganda photos and videos. I wonder when they will be given a D notice or whatever telling them to stop.
Well, this would be a turn up for the books — Ukraine ready to renounce wanting to join NATO?
Maybe some members of the Ukraine ruling elite are beginning to realise that they have been used as pawns by the US and its allies who have left them to face the consequences of NATO intransigence on this issue (while urging from their armchairs Ukraine to fight to the last Ukrainian).
As you say, the same spouted by NATO when they bomb cities. The politicians and the media are saying that this is the first war in Europe since the end of the last world war. But of course isn’t. In 1999 NATO bombed Serbia. Buildings were destroyed and civilians terrified and killed as “collateral damage”, as is happening in Kiev and Kharkov at the moment. TV reporters there are interviewing civilians and sympathising with their plight but they weren’t in Belgrade in 1999 to report the plight of civilians there. It’s all a bit one-sided and hypocrisy.
I see there have been some anti-war demonstrators in Russia.
Here’s a curiosity. An interview with the conman, Oleg Vernyk, who scammed us and quite a few other organisations in Europe and North America into believing that there were people in the Ukraine who accepted our principles. He even addressed one of our conferences. We even sent a couple of comrades to Kiev to meet him and his fellow conmen.
He is (and probably was then) an orthodox Trotskyist as can be seen from the interview. From which it can be seen that the Ukrainian trots are opposed to both “Western imperialism” and “Russian imperialism” — or were, because the interview dates from before the invasion.
Abenezer, here is a less simplistic and, as it has turned out, more realistic explanation of what’s going on, even though it was written before the events of this morning. Also interesting as it’s from a group based in Germany and deals with the ambitions of the German State.
My mistake was to assume that, as the bloc trying to change the status quo, NATO would back down in the end. Some NATO states (and in fact the president of Ukraine) seemed to want to do this but were overruled by the US with the support of its poodle the UK.
It’s an invasion but hardly an “unprovoked” one. As a spokesman for the Chinese ministry or foreign affairs is reported as saying:
“When the US drove five waves of Nato expansion eastward all the way to Russia’s doorstep and deployed advanced offensive strategic weapons in breach of its assurances to Russia, did it ever think about the consequences of pushing a big country to the wall?”
Both sides are to blame and ultimately the capitalist system.
