British soldiers will leave Ukraine, according to James Heappe, UK Minister of the Armed Forces. The United States also confirmed its readiness to evacuate its own citizens and troops in case of a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Is this already a capitulation? Well, it is a bit too early to celebrate. The Western media is still bombing audiences with the next dates of the beginning of the alleged Russian aggression, and the voices of reason are still being drowned out by Goebbels-like screams about “Putin’s agents of influence”.
Against Imperialism and the new McCarthyism
In this situation, it is particularly important for independent political groups to remain calm and at least try to mitigate the political forces pushing for war. Unfortunately, the majority of the mainstream “Left” has no doubts that during a possible US / British-Russian war – only the United States can be absolutely supported. This is not surprising as the modern “Left” is deeply inundated with the state ideology of Liberalism, and hence Imperialism. The abborhent attitude of this part of the left equates the attacking and attacked, considers only the bad sides of the bourgeois, nationalist or clerical states that are under attack… it invents imaginary third options of supporting the “armed neutrality of the workers of the county under attack” etc. As always, they split hairs to avoid taking any clear position.
Someone has apparently forgotten a classic of the revolutionary Left who wrote back in 1938: “Truly, one must have an empty head to reduce world antagonisms and military conflicts to the struggle between fascism and democracy. Under all masks one must know how to distinguish exploiters, slave-owners, and robbers!”. This is not only a functional, pragmatic – but also ideological explanation why exactly from the point of view of the revolutionary Left – we should always be on the side of the victims of Anglo-Saxon Imperialism. Not despite of, but even because of any negative attitude of the leftists towards this or that leader, one or another form of government in the attacked countries. Well, unless someone wants to argue with the above-mentioned classic how to lead a revolution. Because this clear explanation has been written by… Lev Trotsky. And as Trotskyism still inspires many anti-systemic movements of the West, it is significant that at least some of them try to avoid traps of Imperialistic propaganda. Good example of such an attitude is the American “Jacobine” magazine.
Also, the senior of the American Democratic Left, Bernie Sanders, finally took the floor, and despite of many critical and not necessarily fair charges against the authorities of the Russian Federation – he has called for an end to “anti-Russian McCarthyism” in the Western media.
A short victorious war for Wall Street?
The British newspapers, those related to both the ruling Tories and the Labour Party, play a special role in fuelling the war hysteria, doing childish things like depicting Vladimir Putin’s face with grotesque proportions, which observers associate with the weaking position of the Prime Minister Boris Johnson. One can believe that in this situation, following the example of the infamous Margaret Thatcher, some short victorious war could possibly reverse the polls and cover up the scandals of the Conservative Government. The problem is that even a single British soldier’s coffin returning from Ukraine could simultaneously serve as the coffin of the entire Cabinet. The international embarrassment of UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss echoed in the UK as well. Boris Johnson is proving weaker each week, despite already having been designated as the new Iron Lady by the nation’s warhawks. Meanwhile, during talks with Minister Sergey Lavrov, she was not only treated as an under-educated teenager, but also confirmed her own ignorance of the Russian-Ukrainian border. The war provocations and Tory gaffes have been published widely by the growing anti-war movement, cooling down the mood. They are condemned by public figures such as the politician, broadcaster, and writer George Galloway, the leader of the radically anti-imperialist Workers Party of Britain.
Peace efforts are becoming increasingly effective across Europe: NATO’s military intervention in Ukraine is supported by less than half of the population of the UK. Support in Germany and France is similar. Interestingly, the position of the Britons towards a war is so negative that their opposition must be considered by the Tory Government. Europeans do not want to die for the neo-Nazi-oligarchic Kiev junta, nor for London City and Wall Street’s latest bloody business venture.
The Scots don’t want to fight for the Empire anymore
However, the war scarecrow is still being used to mitigate the UK’s centrifugal tendencies. “Scottish independence supporters leave us at Putin’s mercy!” wrote Tory newspapers a couple days ago. MPs of the Scottish National Party (turning more and more towards the Liberal establishment) obediently support the mission to Ukraine, de facto legitimizing the Kiev junta’s politics.
This was met with strong criticism from the pro-independence but opposition ALBA Party, distancing itself from the vision of the future sovereign Scotland’s membership in NATO. “I have been watching with growing concern the apparent and increasing appetite for conflict in Ukraine. In recent days, this has developed into a determined hyping of impending conflict with many weekend newspapers running front-page headlines that lacked any credible evidence to support such alarm in the copy below. What we have repeatedly heard is assertions from UK and US sources of intelligence that such a conflict is imminent, but again there has been a distinct lack of evidence beyond those assertions when the matter has been pressed. Memories may be short in some journalistic and political circles, but I know that many have not forgotten the catastrophic consequences of the dodgy dossier that took us to war in Iraq. We must not repeat such mistakes and we cannot go to war based on assertions” – declared Neale Hanvey, ALBA Party MP while speaking to the House of Commons. “I don’t want to see an independent Scotland turn into an uber-bellicose NATO cheerleader, just to prove our European credentials. Independence allows Scotland to chart its own course. Naturally, we will be internationalists because we want to be good neighbours. But that does not mean we should run blindly into other people’s conflicts”. George Kerevan, a popular publicist and the undisputed authority of the Scottish national left, is of a similar opinion.
“Putin is going to invade Ukraine is the new Saddam can deploy WMD in 45 minutes. And precisely the same mainstream media puppets who sneered at us for not believing the first lie, are still in their jobs to sneer at us for not believing the second”, mocked Craig Murray, a very popular Scottish writer and columnist, former diplomat and recently political prisoner of Johnson’s regime. The Scots are fed up with dying for the glory of the British Empire and the City’s profits. But why are other Western societies so easily terrorized by war psychosis?
A new alternative
As far as the US is concerned, it is worth remembering that that country and society was built by sects waiting for subsequent dates for the End of the World. Did these believers draw any conclusions as the date passed and the World continued? No, they just adopted a new one, and once again were quite certain and final. After the mythical day when Trump’s tanks were to get a Hollywood mock-up of the White House and shoot Biden’s doppelganger – have the QAnonians learned anything? Of course not. They just say “Don’t you dare to rub it in!” and go looking for the latest proof of cryptic reptilian governance.
Reactions to the next “absolutely certain and final dates of the Russian invasion” come straight from the same madhouse. And yet, it is still worth catching propagandists on lies and manipulations on every such occasion, extending the front for peace and common sense. Above the historical divisions into Left and Right, there is a much more important binary today: those who are for the life and survival of mankind, and those who are for war, destruction, exploitation and tyranny.