Convoy II: why we participate in the International Solidarity Convoy to Ukraine?
The International Socialist League (LIS) will participate in the solidarity convoy that will depart from different points of the European Union to kyiv in the second half of November. Although we have not signed the initial declaration, due to differences with the lack of some important definitions, we share the need to build concrete solidarity in unity. It is 24 of August, Ukrainian Independence Day, We reaffirm our commitment to its working people in the perspective of a strategic exit.
ByRuben Tzanoff
A need raised by reality
World public attention is focused on Zionist imperialist aggression in the Middle East. Putin takes the opportunity to launch waves of ballistic missiles at defenseless civilian populations, without causing a political and media impact proportional to the crimes.
Added to this is another ghost that terrifies Ukrainians and appears on a fixed date.: winter. The systematic destruction of energy infrastructure, hydraulics and transportation could be fatal.
Y, Besides, the resistance sustained by working people, both on the front lines and in the rear, It's been more than four years, With everything it implies. These events exacerbate the need for humanitarian and political aid for the Ukrainian resistance to triumph..
A deeply asymmetric war
Beyond what the media and propaganda say, the war continues to be unequal. The Ukrainian resistance managed to stop the Russian advance and, with enormous efforts, attack military targets in enemy territory, especially through the use of drones. But that does not qualitatively modify the relationship of force.
Russia is a military and imperialist power. Ukraine is a dependent country under invasion. There is no war between two equivalent forces, nor direct intervention by troops of different imperialisms that implies adopting the position of revolutionary defeatism. There is a power that invades and a people that resists as best it can. There is an occupying army and one that, together with the population, fights for its territory..
Ukraine fights for its existence, In view of which it is appropriate to cite some historical opinions on the matter.. In “The right of nations to self-determination” (1914), Lenin wrote: “Without trying to make vain idle conjectures, we firmly hold something that is beyond doubt: the right of Ukraine to establish itself as such a state [Independent].”
And in “The Ukraine” (1917), Lenin stated: “No Democrat, much less a socialist, will dare to deny the complete legitimacy of Ukraine's claims. And no democrat can deny Ukraine the right to freely secede from Russia.”
Our location is clear. We are with the Ukrainian resistance, for the expulsion of Russian troops and for the right of the Ukrainian people to recover their territories and freely decide their destiny.
You may also interest you: “Lenin on the national question”.
Because we participate in the Convoy
In this frame, We especially value the internationalist and grassroots character of the Solidarity Convoy. This is not a government initiative, but of a construction that began from unions, social movements, community organizations and solidarity groups. The Convoy summons union sectors, feminists, environmentalists, LGBTIQ+ and anti-fascists; not only from a humanitarian perspective but also a political one, impulse to self-determination, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
We did not sign the appeal
The LIS participates in the Convoy, broad and heterogeneous coalition, without having signed your declaration of appeal. We share the defense of Ukraine, but we consider that it is a partial proposal, because this war cannot be analyzed solely as Russian aggression, although this is the essential starting point.
The conflict has a dual character: In addition to the Russian imperialist invasion, an inter-imperialist dispute over Eastern Europe and the world reordering. The United States intervenes in it, the European powers, NATO and Russia, each defending their own economic interests, strategic and geopolitical. Not mentioning this dimension leaves out a fundamental part of reality., that not only affects Ukraine today, but it will also condition it in the future.
You may also interest you: “A contribution on war and debates on the left”
Trump and the United States provide weapons to resist, but not to defeat Putin. At the same time, Trump seeks to obtain economic and strategic advantages from the war and the reconstruction of Ukraine. The dispute over its natural resources, including the so-called rare earths, It's an expression of it..
The European powers do not act out of solidarity with the people either., but based on their own economic and geopolitical interests. They use NATO as a military instrument of their policy, when it is not a neutral organization but a military alliance at the service of Western imperialist powers .
For us, it is impossible to propose tasks and policies in stages“first defeat Putin and then the rest”, because reality places both processes together and acting reciprocally today, not in the future. As they did with the Belarusian people and others, They will not hesitate to leave aside the Ukrainian people if Trump agrees with Putin.
So, We participate in a common mission without pretending that all the organizations and colleagues that comprise it share the same political vision, but without giving up our points of view.
With political independence from Zelensky
Being on the side of Ukraine does not mean being behind Zelensky, as the open-faced campers and others falsely want us to believe.
Zelensky's government has deepened neoliberal policies and measures against workers' rights. In the name of the needs of war, restrictions on labor rights have occurred, attacks on union organizations, restrictions on democratic freedoms and measures that favor economic concentration and the interests of business sectors.
Resistance to invasion does not eliminate class differences. In Ukraine there is also a social and political struggle that little by little can be resumed. There are workers, unions, popular movements and leftist sectors that have their own interests and demands. Their rights cannot be suspended indefinitely in the name of war while the oligarchs, Government officials and those close to power have privileges. We defend an independent position, both from the government and from oligarchic expressions, reactionary and far-right nationalists.
With a principled program
The Ukrainian resistance is heroic, sustained by the enormous effort of the workers and the people, both on the front lines and in the rear, That is why we must support and strengthen it from below.. With democratic unions, strong popular organizations and participation of workers in the defense of their rights and in decisions about the future of the country. We are for peace, but for a just peace, not negotiated behind the backs of the Ukrainian working people, without impositions or territorial deliveries.
Our solidarity is simultaneously anti-imperialist, internationalist and class. We do not choose between Putin and Zelensky. We do not choose between Ukrainian oligarchies and Western imperialisms. We elect the Ukrainian working people, calling on Russian workers to confront Putin, boycott the war and join with the Ukrainian workers to together defeat the capitalists in both countries and make way for workers' governments.
The expulsion of the invaders must open the way to a democratic process of self-determination of all the peoples living in Ukraine; in the perspective of a socialist exit, totally removed from the annihilating bureaucratism of Stalinism.
We are for the defeat of the Russian invasion and the expulsion of Putin's troops. But we do not want the departure from Russian domination to lead to a new subordination of Ukraine to Washington., Brussels or any other power. We want a Ukraine free of all imperialist domination.
Participate and support the Convoy
We have immediate tasks that unite us with the colleagues of the Convoy: strengthen ties with trade unions and popular organizations in Ukraine and around the world, know directly their needs and collaborate in the organization of the Convoy to respond to them.
Solidarity must translate into concrete help: generators and energy equipment, materials, medicines and resources for communities. Everything that union and social organizations identify as a priority and to which the Convoy can access.
And in diffusion, with cultural events, festivals and other initiatives. This is what the Ukrainian Socialist League did (LSU) and the Social Movement (MS) with a unity event in kyiv, Our German-speaking comrades also expressed themselves in the Revolution camp held in Brandenburg and there were unitary actions in Barcelona on 24 of August.
Once the vehicles put into first gear, It will be ahead to specify the activities that are already being planned in each city. Help us organize, build and strengthen the Convoy with financial contributions, disclosure, support activities and other solidarity initiatives.
Before the Independence Day of Ukraine
Today, 24 August marks the anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine. Our greeting to the working people who resist the invasion reiterates a fragment of the words written by our comrades of the Ukrainian Socialist League (LSU) in 2024 on the occasion of the commemoration: "For us, Ukrainian socialists, the true and genuine independence of our country is still ahead and we must fight for it. True independence is the result of the successful completion of national liberation struggles. and she, at the same time, can only become truly victorious on the condition of overcoming the world capitalist system of exploitation and oppression, in which Ukraine has no place under the sun and is condemned to remain a peripheral appendage of raw materials and supplier of cheap labor to the countries of Europe”.
