우크라이나에서 미제국주의전쟁에 맞서 통일전선을 건설하자
데렉 포드 Derek Ford | 미국PSL교육담당
1. 나토가 전쟁을 도발했다
미정부는 수년간 의도적으로 러시아와 우크라이나사이에 긴장을 고조시켜 왔다.
… 미국은 우크라이나를 서방의 세력권으로 끌어들이기로 결심했고, 따라서 나토확장과 자국국경에 배치된 첨단미사일에 대한 러시아의 정당한 안보우려를 인정하지않았다. 러시아의 <레드라인>은 수십년간 잘 알려져 왔고, 나토는 개입으로 이어질 가능성이 있음을 알면서도 모든 레드라인을 넘겼다.
2. 위기의 해결책은 나토의 해체다
나토가 유럽을 반러시아군사위협의 주요무대로 만드는것은 우크라이나뿐만 아니라 유럽전체의 무장화를 의미한다. 현재 평화로운 유럽을 구축하는데 있어 주요장애물은 사실상 반러시아동맹인 나토를 중심으로 형성된 유럽의 양극화(대립구조)다. 나토는 냉전의 잔재이며 해체돼야한다. 나토의 유일한 목적은 미국의 군사패권을 유지하는것이다.
… 미정부가 분쟁의 평화적해결을 어떻게 막아나서고있는지를 보여주는 또다른 사례는 러시아주변의 더 많은 나라를 나토군사동맹에 가입시키려는 시도를 가속화하고있다는것이다. 수십년간 중립을 지켜온 스웨덴과 핀란드가 지금 심각하게 나토가입을 고려하고있다. …
3. 반공주의와 파시즘에 맞서 싸우자
수십년간 정치인들과 거대언론, 자유주의자와 보수주의자를 막론하고 파시스트와 공동주의자사이에 <거짓등가성>을 강요해왔다. 결국 중요한것은 이러한 반공동주의모략 또한 파시스트에게 뒷문을 열어주는 술책이라는것이다. … 우크라이나는 명백한 나치와 나치에 가까운 세력을 군대와 경찰에 통합시켰다. 불과 몇년전만해도 우크라이나내 신나치의 존재를 주목하던 미국언론들이 현재는 그들을 <애국자>로 포장하는것을 돕고있다.
공동주의자와 파시스트를 동일시하는 주류적견해는 미국에서도 만연하다. 이런 생각에 정면으로 맞서며 가열히 싸워야한다.
4. 사회주의가 유일한 해답이다
이갈등의 근본적인 원인은 나토를 넘어서 우리가 여전히 자신의 부와 권력을 무엇보다 우선시하는 자본주의엘리트들의 국가들로 분할된 세계에서 살고있다는것이다.
… 두달도 채 안돼 미국이 우크라이나에 제공한 총원조액은 30억달러를 넘어섰고 이는 2020 우크라이나 전체국방예산의 절반이상에 해당한다.
… 전쟁을 고조시키고 연장하기 위해 우크라이나에 제공되는 수십억달러는 이른바 지구에서 가장 부유한 나라에서 매일 고통받고 힘들어하는 수백만명의 노동자들을 구제하는데 사용될수 있고 사용돼야한다.
우리는 세계자본주의의 심장부에서 미제국주의를 끝장내고 전세계 노동자와 피억압민중을 해방하기 위해 우리가 할수 있는 모든것을 다하고있으며 앞으로도 계속할것이다.
“Socialism is the only answer”
Derek Ford | Party for Socialism and Liberation
발췌 extracted
We send our heartfelt greetings to the representatives of the workers’ struggle here and sincerely thank our comrades in the People’s Democracy Party for organizing such an important conference at this crucial time in the global class struggle, because it is crucial we share our analyses and strengthen our international solidarity against U.S. imperialism.
In the view of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which is ultimately a proxy war between U.S. imperialism and the Russian Federation, signals a new era of global politics. I’ll first sketch out what defines the current era of geopolitics before discussing four points of unity for the anti-war struggle today.
From Inter-Imperialist Rivalry to the Global Class War
Marx dedicated the very last chapter of the first volume of Capital to theories of colonialism. One potential reason he did this was to signal that the contradictions of capitalism he articulated throughout the book were not only already international, but that the crises they produce could be delayed-and heightened-through the further globalization of capital.
In fact, in 1884, the year after Marx’s death, the major colonial powers of the world, which were primarily in Europe but also included the U.S., met in Berlin to divide the world amongst themselves. The next few decades witnessed the acceleration of capitalist colonization such that, when Lenin would write his pamphlet advancing his conception of imperialism in 1916, the world’s colonization was essentially complete and the only possible way for further capitalist expansion would be the redivision of the world’s colonies.
The First and Second World Wars were inter-imperialist rivalries in which the imperialist powers fought each other for control over the colonized world. The significant difference was that, by the time World War II ended, the Soviet Union had-incredibly and against tremendous odds-emerged as a serious world power thanks to its socialist principles.
The age of inter-imperialist rivalry gave way to the age of the Global Class War, in which the world was generally divided between two camps. On the one side was the imperialist camp, led by the U.S., the only imperialist country that emerged relatively unscathed from the war. The U.S. rebuilt its former imperialist rivals and subordinated them to their hegemony as they fought their common enemy: socialism. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is part of the infrastructure built by the U.S. during this period. Thus, on the other side was the socialist camp, led by the Soviet Union and later the People’s Republic of China, that included not only the socialist governments in Corea and Vietnam but also the newly liberated colonized or semi-colonized world whose freedom was attained thanks to the support of socialist states.
After the overthrow of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc socialist states, the era of unipolar U.S. imperialism began. Without any alternative social system or state to <check> its power, the U.S. proceeded on a wave of invasions and wars, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Libya and Syria, as well as covert wars and low-intensity wars from Venezuela and Bolivia to Sudan and Somalia.
The new post-Soviet geopolitical environment was highly challenging to the United States because of the movement by France and the newly reunified Germany for further European integration. To the United States, this presented the possible end of the U.S. role as a <European Power> – something the European Strategy Security Group stated as a <principal challenge> to U.S. <interests>. …
While Russia was scrambling to regain its sovereignty in the 1990s, the People’s Republic of China, having successfully defeated the counterrevolutionary attempt at Tiananmen Square, continued its <Peaceful Rise>. Even after Russia reasserted itself as a substantial power, neither Russia nor China challenged U.S. hegemony in any serious way. For example, neither power vetoed UN Resolution 1973 that authorized the U.S.-NATO military intervention to overthrow the social-democratic government of Gaddafi. Yet in 2015, things began to change as Russia blocked the U.S.’s attempts at the Security Council to intervene against the democratically elected and widely popular Assad government. In fact, Russia intervened to defend its principal ally in a manner that decisively prevented the U.S. from overthrowing that government. This was the first time Russia or China blocked a U.S.-attempted regime change operation.
The war in Ukraine is ushering in a new period of heightened danger in world politics and the threat of a global conflict that would devastate humanity. Socialists and people who want peace need to recognize that the entire U.S. foreign policy and military establishment is now organized around <great power conflict> against Russia and China as the defining strategy for decades to come. It is essential to recognize that Russia, China and other countries are not being targeted fundamentally because of human rights, or this or that military action, but because they no longer accept the U.S.-dominated world order.
We must stand in opposition to this new Cold War-style period of confrontation. This major power conflict is not in the interests of the great mass of people in the United States or worldwide. The working class has no interest in being dragged into such a conflict in the name of preserving the dominance of Wall Street and the Pentagon.
In the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ever since, the corporate media in the United States has been working overtime to spread misinformation and confusion. They hope that inundating people with non-stop anti-Russian content will manufacture the consent necessary not just for a short-term military escalation in Eastern Europe, but to sign people up for a whole new Cold War. Against this, the PSL advances four basic points that can serve to unite those who oppose U.S. imperialism and support peace in the U.S., because our primary responsibilities as revolutionaries in the U.S. are to restrain the U.S. government internationally and to create a new revolutionary society domestically.
Building a United Front against U.S. Imperialist War on Ukraine
1. NATO provoked the war
The U.S. government has been intentionally escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine for years. From continuing NATO’s eastward expansion, despite promises not to, to supporting the pro-Western coup in Ukraine in 2014, to heavily arming the Ukrainian government, NATO’s aggressive actions set the stage for the war. The U.S. was determined to bring Ukraine into a western sphere of influence, and so refused to acknowledge Russia’s legitimate security concerns about NATO expansion and advanced missiles being placed on its borders. Russia’s <red lines> were well known for decades, and NATO did all of this knowing it could potentially lead to intervention. In some respects, it appears NATO set a deliberate trap that Russia fell into.
2. The solution to the crisis is to dissolve NATO
NATO’s drive to turn Europe into a staging ground for its military threats against Russia means that not only is Ukraine militarized, but that all of Europe is. Currently, the principal obstacle to establishing a peaceful Europe is the polarization of the continent around NATO as a de facto anti-Russian alliance. NATO’s sole purpose is to maintain U.S. military hegemony. The only way to have discussions about the many issues causing conflict between European nations (borders, languages, economic relations, etc.) without raising the possibility of war is through the dissolution of NATO, the demilitarization of Europe, and the removal of U.S. troops, missiles, and nuclear weapons. Russia should follow suit with their own demilitarization, step by step.
Knowing the above facts and considering Russia’s status as a nuclear power, if U.S. strategists wanted to avoid war, then that would be taken into account when determining policy. Instead, the U.S. knowingly pursued a policy of NATO expansion and clearly misrepresented their position to Russia. In other words, they pursued a war-like policy knowing full-well that it was exactly that.
Another example of how the U.S. government is working against a peaceful resolution to the conflict is the accelerated drive to bring even more countries surrounding Russia into the NATO military alliance. After decades of neutrality, both Sweden and Finland are now seriously considering joining NATO, with a decision expected in just weeks. Russia has expressed that it would take military measures in retaliation, including deploying nuclear weapons in the Baltic region.
3. Fight anti-communism and fight fascism
For decades politicians and the corporate media, liberal and conservative alike, have pushed a false equivalency between fascists and communists. At the end of the day, this anti-communist slander is also a sleight of hand that lets fascists in through the back door. In Ukraine, where the Communist Party is banned, the rapid and dangerous normalization of Nazi Germany and its collaborators has taken place. Ukraine has integrated outright Nazis and Nazi-adjacent forces into the armed services and police. Now the U.S. media, which just a few years ago noted the neo-Nazi presence in Ukraine, assists in their rebranding as <patriots.>
The mainstream equation of communists to fascists is also pervasive in the United States. This idea must be confronted head-on and vigorously combated. Humanity is calling out for an alternative to capitalism, and we cannot allow the idea of socialism-of working-class power and international unity-to be taken off the table. Doing so just strengthens the appeal of far-right <alternatives> of extreme nationalism, chauvinism, racism, and sexism. …
4. Socialism is the only answer
The underlying cause of this conflict, beyond NATO, is that we still live in a world that is divided into states run by capitalist elites who prioritize their own wealth and power above all else. The only way to build a world that allows for global cooperation and peace between all peoples, the elimination of poverty, the abolition of nuclear weapons, and the implementation of real democracy that puts the power in the hands of the people, is through socialism.
… This latest arms shipment will bring the total amount of U.S. aid provided to Ukraine in less than two months to over $3 billion, equivalent to more than half of Ukraine’s total military budget in 2020.
The billions of dollars that are being provided to Ukraine to continue to escalate and drag out the war could and should be used to provide relief to the millions of workers who are suffering and struggling every day inside the so-called richest country on Earth.
… By encouraging the addition of Sweden and Finland into NATO and pumping weapons into the war zone, the U.S. government is proving that what it really wants is to sabotage peace talks to weaken and damage Russia – regardless of how many people die in the process.
We are-and will continue-doing everything we can in the heartland of global capitalism to bring an end to U.S. imperialism so that working and oppressed peoples across the world can be free.
