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Ukraine must be Putin's Vietnam 

Statement of La Marx International 21/3/22 

The people of Ukraine are waging a revolutionary war for National Liberation. It is facing the aggression of the Putin dictatorship, which acts in defense of the interests of a group of millionaire capitalist oligarchs. His regime defends the capitalism of Russia and the region, based on the exploitation of workers, and the plundering of peoples. We are with the workers and the people of Ukraine! Putin must be defeated militarily, and the Ukraine must be his Vietnam!

To break the Ukrainian people, the government of Vladimir Putin attacks with methods of extreme cruelty typical of fascism. It hits, destroys cities, bombards the elderly, children, vulnerable families, destroys hospitals, schools, maternity hospitals, and essential infrastructure. But far from subduing the people and despite the immense Russian military superiority, the invader faces an extraordinary, heroic resistance that is receiving the support of enormous mobilizations throughout the world. The masses of the world sympathize with Ukraine. Arms and brigade members for Ukraine to triumph!

Demonstrations in favor of Ukraine in Georgia, Estonia, Germany, France


1) Putin's troops represent a capitalist oligarchy

When the Ukrainian people fight against Putin's invasion, they do so in defense of their living conditions, work, family, for their rights to independence and national self-determination. Putin's troops represent the oligarchy, and capitalist ruling classes of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and other small countries in the region that have built fortunes by privatizing, looting, and handing over the wealth of the nations of the former Soviet Union to the imperialist companies.

It is true nonsense to claim that the struggle of the Ukrainian people strengthens the United States, NATO, or the EU. The struggle of the Ukrainian people, going against the capitalist oligarchs of Russia, goes against all world capitalism. Hence the criminal and cynical attitude of the United States and the EU that limit themselves to observing the massacre organized by Putin, and do not lift a finger to stop it.

The world is experiencing an increase in inflation, a spike in food prices worldwide that increases poverty, and misery in the five continents. Spokesmen and capitalist analysts say that this price escalation is a product of the war in Ukraine. The truth is that food prices around the world began last year as a result of the injection of huge masses of money in bailouts from Global Corporations, which triggered inflation in the US and around the world. The war has exacerbated this, but the prices of materials in the world do not rise because of the Ukrainian resistance, but because of the responsibility of the imperialist governments, the Global Corporations, and Putin's attack on Ukraine.  

The barricades in kyiv are a world example of the struggle of the Ukrainian people


2) The struggle of the Ukrainian people is a world example

The explanation for the attitude of the imperialist countries is that these states are also prisons for the people, exploiting and oppressing millions. The corrupt imperialist governments of those countries fear that Ukraine's "example" will end up spreading throughout Europe and the world. The scenario of thousands of workers and sectors of the people armed against an oppressive country is not pleasant for the ruling classes.

That is why it is more necessary than ever for Ukraine to succeed. His example spreads and strengthens the struggle of all the original and oppressed peoples of the world. The images of kyiv, or Kharkov, full of barricades organized by the people, with soldiers, workers, women, youth taking up arms in defense of their rights, make it clear that we are witnessing a struggle between the revolution and the counterrevolution. The formation of international brigades of fighters around the world who travel to fight for Ukraine strengthens the revolutionary war.

3) Putin faces the wall of Ukrainian guerrilla warfare

Putin planned a quick invasion, to take the cities of the Ukraine, and set up a puppet government. But his plans crashed against the wall of resistance of the Ukrainian people . After 3 weeks of invasion, Putin's troops are stalled on all fronts, failing to take any major cities. The casualties of killed, wounded, and imprisoned soldiers of Putin's troops are enormous, and unsustainable over time.

The Ukrainian resistance with thousands of soldiers and civilian brigade members adopted the guerrilla warfare strategy. They let Putin's troops advance, to then attack his supply columns, fuel supplies, and destroy all his material. The Ukrainian resistance is strong, well coordinated, and controls the vast majority of the territory, including the main cities.

4) The military disaster is answered with Putin with fascist methods

Putin's war is bogging down, and as we have seen, it is turning into a disaster for the dictatorship of the oligarchs. In his desperation over failure Putin becomes even more dangerous. It carries out bombardments with remote missiles to break the morale of the people that have caused, according to the UN, a total of 1,335 civilian casualties: 474 people killed and 861 wounded, and soldiers killed on the Ukrainian side to about 2,000, for the 8 of March.

The UN Agency for Refugees reports the departure of 3 million Ukrainians. However, the other 41 million inhabitants have decided to remain and resist, which is proof that Putin's fascist methods have not been useful in breaking the will of the people, but rather reaffirms the will of the Ukrainian people to fight, and to resist.

5) With the people Ukraine moves forward, with Zelensky's policy, it goes backwards

Ukraine's capitalist government, headed by Zelensky and the Servant of the People party, grew in popularity in Ukraine and around the world for its willingness to resist, and not capitulate militarily to Putin. However, while Zelensky has not capitulated militarily, he has capitulated politically. Zelensky proposes that Ukraine join the EU, and NATO. That means that Ukraine loses its independence.

Ukraine is today an independent country of NATO, the European Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). With Zelensky 's proposal, a step back would be taken in what the Ukrainian people had achieved with their struggle. Furthermore, Zelensky speaks before the parliaments of Europe and the United States, sowing expectations in those reactionary imperialist institutions.

Putin's horror allows Zelensky to pretend and deceive millions of Ukrainians that NATO and the UN can be "humane and progressive" institutions. This is false, just 15 years ago, NATO and the UN carried out the same horrific methods of Putin on the people of Iraq, and the Middle East. While we are facing Putin's invasion, we are also facing politically the line of the Zelensky government, Ukraine must remain independent!

6) Ukraine must remain independent

The Ukrainian capitalists and bourgeoisie are incapable of guaranteeing Ukraine's independence. Their interests are to do business and profit together with imperialist capital. But the war of national liberation in Ukraine has an anti-capitalist dynamic, because it confronts the capitalist oligarchs of the region. The hunger, the poverty, the misery that the Ukrainian people are going through cannot be solved by capitalism, they can only be solved with a workers' and popular government, imposed by the workers, peasants, and soldiers of Ukraine.

This is the reason why authentic national independence is only possible with the armed self-organization of the workers and the people, without trusting any leader or capitalist sector. Ukraine must win the war to strengthen its independence, its self-determination, and promote the same claim for all those nations and original peoples of the world that are in the same struggle, such as the Palestinian, Syrian, Kurdish, Mapuche, Catalan, Irish, Basque peoples. , etc.

That is why it is necessary that, while confronting Putin's troops, we confront Zelensky's policy. We never confuse the struggle of the people with its leadership. In Palestine, we do not confuse the just struggle of his people with the reactionary leadership of the PLO, Hamas, or Hezbollah. We never confuse the struggle of the Catalan people with the reactionary leadership of Carles Puidgemont, or the struggle of the Nicaraguan people with Sandinismo. We participate and are part of the revolutionary process, fighting for an alternative revolutionary politics to the Zelensky leadership that is occasionally at the forefront of this struggle.

7) The struggle for independence has been going on for 8 years

The Ukrainian people achieved their national independence 8 years ago, when in February 2014, fed up with hunger, poverty, and inequality, they kicked out the dictator Viktor Yanukovych, the representative of oligarchs like Putin, Lukashenko, or Nazarbayev. The revolution known as the "EuroMaidan", ended the 20-year oligarchic dictatorship of Yanukovych, and allowed a relative national independence, which is not total, because no country can be absolutely independent under world imperialist capitalism.

As of 2014, Ukraine began to suffer a war of aggression by Putin, who attacked the Donbass territories with mercenaries, and Crimea, took them from Ukraine, and declared in those areas a series of "republiquetas" addicted to Putin. There began the revolutionary war between the Ukrainian people and the Putin dictatorship, with millions of displaced people and permanent military confrontations. But after 8 years of constant aggression, and despite the thousands of displaced people, and inferior conditions, Ukraine managed to stop Putin's advances.

The example of the Ukrainian people spread to other republics that were under the boot of the oligarchs. In 2020, the "Sneaker Revolution" broke out in Belarus against the government of Aleksandr Lukashenko, another representative of the oligarchy seeking his sixth term. In 2021, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic, mobilizations began in Russia against Putin. And just 2 months ago, in 2022, the uprising of the people of Kazakhstan began against the puppet government of Kassym Jomart Tokayev, representative of the Putin oligarchy, and Nazarbayev. Putin had to send troops to quell the protests, which began in the main factories, working-class neighborhoods, and cities of Kazakhstan.

8) The oligarchy that dominates Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in a dead end

The economic measures imposed by the United States and the EU are measures that have not stopped Putin's aggression. But they have exposed the deadlocked crisis of the Russian oligarchs, and the region, which pushed them to make the decision to carry out the military adventure in Ukraine. The ruble collapsed, losing more than 80% of its value, and its companies, its stock market, and its loans have collapsed. During the first 4 days of war, the 21 richest individuals in Russia collectively lost 75 billion euros. Despite the fact that the Moscow stock exchange remained closed, the value of shares of Russian companies listed globally fell by up to 90%.

To cite two examples, Vagit Alekperov, president of the oil company Lukoil, lost 12.5 billion euros in just 4 days; that is, 60% of his fortune. For his part, Vladimir Potanin, has lost 5.5 billion euros, the value of the company he presides over, Norilsk Nickel, fell 56% on the London Stock Exchange. With the economic blockade, the dependence of the Russian oligarchy and its republics on imperialist capital is clear. Russia is not an imperialist country, it does not have the ability to control capital flows that are under the control of global imperialist corporations.

The war in Ukraine lays bare the hopeless crisis of the Putin oligarchy. Faced with the uprising of the masses in the republics that question their rule, with no possibility of independent development, and at the same time deeply dependent on the Global Corporations, imperialist capital, Wall Street, and the EU, they find themselves in historical terms in a dead end. His adventurous military foray into Ukraine is the expression of a group of oligarchs who see their end near, and fight desperately to prevent it.

9) Immediate freedom for political prisoners in Russia!

The people of Russia have expressed themselves massively against the war, there are demonstrations in all the cities of the country, and journalists jailed for publicly opposing it. The Putin dictatorship has responded brutally with thousands of arrests, repression and silencing of all those who oppose the war. But the crisis of the dictatorship worsens day by day. Because of a war that they do not want or support, the people of Russia are suffering from rising inflation, shortages, and the general deterioration of all their living conditions.

The people of Russia do not want to sustain the war of the oligarchs! They manifest it daily in the streets even though the dictatorship pushes the people of Ukraine, the people of the nations of the region, and the people of Russia to disaster. But, for every day that the Ukrainians resist, things get worse for Russia on the political, economic and military front. As the war progresses, Russia will be more ruined.

The mothers of the conscripts, and young people at the military front in Ukraine begin to mobilize for the lives of their children, and for the troops to return home. We must fight for the freedom of political prisoners in Russia! For freedom of the press, expression, assembly and mobilization! Enough of the persecution of the LGTBQ community, and minorities! For the unity of the workers and people of Russia, with the workers and people of Ukraine in the struggle to defeat the Putin dictatorship!

10) The revolutionary war of the Ukrainian people must triumph

Only because of the pressure of the masses of their countries that reject the massacre, the imperialist governments and the UN limit themselves to "economic sanctions", or to provide arms to the resistance. NATO was able to stop the bombing and slaughter by imposing a missile shield to defend civilians, but refused to do so. We defend the right of the people to arm themselves, regardless of where the weapons come from. Those who hypocritically raise the slogan of "Peace" are functional to aggression, because the only way to achieve "Peace" is by defeating Putin's fascist attack.

In a war of an oppressed people or nation against an oppressor, we are not "pacifists". We are for the triumph of the oppressed nation. For the arming of brigades to defend the cities of Ukraine, we are for the formation of international brigades, and for maintaining the independent organization in brigades that are not controlled by the generals of European imperialism, or by the Pentagon. The workers and the people of Ukraine must bear arms, and never drop them, even if Putin announces the end of the invasion. The people in arms is the only guarantee to achieve the rights of the most oppressed in Ukraine.

11) The world left missed the historic appointment

The world left adopted a pacifist policy, with the slogan "No to War", a reactionary slogan that puts an equal sign between Putin and Ukraine. In this way, the world left missed the historic appointment with the Ukrainian people, and refused to support their struggle. The Progressive International led by a sector of the United States government convened a "Forum for Peace" headed by Yanis Varoufakis of Syriza of Greece, and Jeremy Corbyn of the Labor Party of England.

The entire world left, the Stalinist groups, the groups from Trotskyism, from guerrillaism, etc., aligned themselves with the policy of the Progressive International. All this majority arc of the world left adopted this position, while raising the imminent "advent of World War III between NATO-Russia". A true theoretical-political nonsense product of the fact that the majority of the world left adheres to the "Decoupling Theory" coming from imperialist circles. 

Top left: The Progressive International calls for a Forum for Peace. Above Right: The Communist Party of Chile, spokesperson for world Stalinism, calls for Peace. Below: France's NPA headlines "For Peace and De-escalation"


The truth is that the world left never supported the struggle of the Ukrainian people. I never supported the "Maidan" of 2014, and in fact subscribed to Putin's policy that it was a "coup." Nor has the world left ever spoken out against the aggression of Donbass and Crimea by Putin. Those who relocate do so opportunistically, with a pacifist stance, refusing to order weapons and soldiers for Ukraine.

12) We Marxists are for a revolutionary party in Ukraine, the East and Europe

We are for the military triumph of Ukraine and for this it is necessary to provide weapons and brigade members to defeat Putin's troops. Following the best anti-fascist traditions of the European partisans in World War II, we promote global mobilizations in favor of Ukraine, and the training of brigade members from all over the world to fight. We salute the 20,000 brigade members who have already joined the fight and we advocate for more brigade members and weapons for Ukraine to triumph.

We Marxists are for the formation of a revolutionary party in the Ukraine, the countries of the East and Europe. The world left's betrayal of the Ukrainian struggle has left thousands of Ukrainian, Eastern, and European fighters orphaned of a revolutionary organization. We need to regroup all the revolutionary fighters, activists and militants who are for the victory of Ukraine, and advocate for a revolutionary Marxist party, this is a fundamental task for there to be an alternative to the bourgeois leadership of Zelensky, or others like the groups of ultra-right and fascists.

We Marxists are for the military triumph of Ukraine. It is principled that we support the right of oppressed countries for their rights to independence and national self-determination. We are facing the military defeat of Putin, as part of the struggle for the world socialist revolution, a task that at this moment is the most important that the workers and peoples of the world face.

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