Gilbert Achcar betrays the Ukrainian revolution
Ukrainian partisan after the battle of kyiv
By Daniel Campos- La Marx International 4/1/22
The Ukrainian Revolution is one of the most exciting events in the class struggle, and the epicenter of all world politics. Like every crucial event of the 21st century, it has caused a watershed, and a huge debate on the global left.
99% of the campist, Stalinist world left has refused to support the Ukrainian revolution. This "evasionst" left, a term created by Conor Kostick for currents that refuse to support Ukraine, is a left that has placed itself in Putin's military camp. In a war, and even more so in an invasion, and fascist aggression, political issues are simplified: Whoever refuses to support Ukraine, objectively places himself in the military camp of the aggressor, in this case, in the military camp of fascist aggression. that Putin is carrying out.
Putin's fascist aggression against the Ukrainian people has an analogy with the massacres of Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler against the peoples, with massacres, genocides, attacks on the civilian population, ethnic cleansing, a characteristic that has caused global commotion, and the logical reaction of sections of the masses around the world in solidarity with Ukraine.
By siding with the oppressors, the campist left dealt a political blow to the aspirations of the Ukrainian people. But while 99% of the world left betrays the Ukrainian Revolution, a front of activists and organizations of the global left emerged that took the opposite attitude, and placed itself in a principled way on the military ground of the Ukrainian people. This front began to carry out political campaigns in support of Ukraine, and acted demanding weapons to face the invasion, even demanding NATO to provide them, in order to defend the Ukrainian people from criminal aggression, killings, torture, destruction families, children, and the most vulnerable sectors.
This front made it a priority to stop the fascist aggression and the crimes that Putin perpetrates in full view of the whole world. Thus, a highly progressive phenomenon was produced: the emergence of a front that defends the basic principles of proletarian internationalism, and support for the most oppressed. Sectors such as the European Network in Solidarity with Ukraine, the Belgian Committee of the network, or the Socialist Solidarity Campaign of Ukraine of the USA are very progressive organizations that collect the traditions of the Spanish revolution, the fight against the Nazis, or the fascists. from Italy.
The emergence of this principled sector opened up a real expectation of recovering and building a global revolutionary left. Gilbert Achcar was positioned as part of this front from the beginning, but on November 30, 2022, Achcar published a Memorandum called "For a democratic position against the war on the invasion of Ukraine" in which he dealt a blow to the principled front. In his Memorandum of 12/30/22 Gilbert Achcar proposes that this principled front should fight for a "Peace Agreement" based on the following points:
"1. Ceasefire with the withdrawal of Russian troops to their positions on February 23, 2022.
2. Reaffirmation of the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force.
3. Negotiations under the auspices of the UN for a lasting peaceful solution based on the right of peoples to self-determination: deployment of blue helmets in all disputed territories, both in Donbas and Crimea, and organization by the UN of free and democratic meetings referendums including the vote of refugees and displaced persons from these territories."
All this proposal is a true betrayal of the workers and the people of Ukraine, in which Achcar does a political somersault and joins the front of the campista left. In this work we evaluate this position, and around it, we develop the debates that arose with the campers, and within the principled front.
A " Peace" in the hands of the UN, and China?
In point 1 of the Achcar Memorandum, he states that for negotiations to begin, Russia must return " to the positions of February 23, 2022." In other words, that Crimea and the Dombas remain in the hands of the Russian oligarchy, which is unacceptable for the Ukrainian people, and all of us who defend their struggle. Those territories were usurped and illegally occupied by Putin, and starting a negotiation on those terms puts Ukraine at a clearly disadvantageous position from the start.
The proposal worsens when Achcar suggests that they begin "negotiations under the auspices of the UN", an imperialist entity, a den of bandits, and genocides that perpetrated all kinds of invasions and massacres in Iraq, controlled by the US imperialist governments. , France, England, and Germany. Ukraine does not need to negotiate under any auspices, in fact at the beginning of the invasion there were meetings of officials from both countries without any UN presence.
But Achcar's proposal is even worse when he proposes the "deployment of blue helmets in all disputed territories." The blue helmets are an army under the control of the UN Security Council. Just when the product of the EuroMaidan Revolution, Ukraine is one of the few countries in the world that has achieved relative independence, and does not belong to the bloc of countries of the Russian Federation, nor to the bloc of NATO countries, Achcar raises the proposal that Ukraine regresses in its political status, and becomes a protectorate of the imperialist countries.
In turn, Achcar proposes "that referendums be held" on the Dombas and Crimea. It is a proposal that goes against the interests of the Ukrainian people because it questions Ukraine's sovereignty over those territories. It is as if Israel invaded the Palestinian territories, and we we ask for "referendums" to determine if those territories belong to Palestine, or not.
Why are these Achcar proposals a betrayal? Because in addition to going against the interests of the people of Ukraine, Achcar calls on the peoples, leaders, activists, social and political organizations of the world to trust the UN, and its Security Council, controlled by the imperialist countries. He calls to trust and put your destiny in the hands of these criminals, bandits defending the big global corporations, genocides who protect the Wall Street scammers with their criminal armies. And he not only calls to trust those bandits.
Achcar proposes in his Memorandum that "The anti-war movement should put pressure on China to do so, while blaming belligerent attitudes toward Beijing, especially those in Washington and London, which serve this purpose, as well as serve the cause of world peace." Achcar proposes that we "put pressure " on the regime of the Communist Party of China (CCP) and Xi Jinping to "serve the purpose of World Peace."
There is not much difference between the gang of criminals that make up Putin's oligarchy and the gang of criminals that is the Chinese oligarchy. This is a semi-fascist regime, a genocidal capitalist dictatorship that systematically represses its people with methods of civil war, has concentration camps with 2 million people from the original Iugur people in Xinjiang, has violently repressed thousands of activists, has placed political persecution laws in Hong Kong, and crush the rights of millions of workers, while repressing, imprisoning, and murdering opponents.
But Achcar suggests that China's regime should be "pressured" to act "for peace in Ukraine." So, according to Achcar, if we pressure the gang of criminals that rules China to "serve the purpose of World Peace", and we pressure the gang of criminals that is led by the UN to "serve the purpose of World Peace", we will advance on the path of "Peace". And also if we allow all these criminal gangs to put their soldiers on Ukrainian territory dressed in blue helmets, we could achieve "less deaths".These are the reasons why Achcar's statements are a complete betrayal of the people of Ukraine, and of the struggle of all the peoples of the world.
Gilbert Achcar joins the "World Front for Peace" in Ukraine
Gilbert Achcar's positions provoked rejection, and an indignant response from comrades such as Jean Vogel, a militant of the Belgian Committee of the European Solidarity Network with Ukraine. Where does the "Peace Agreement" policy that Achcar is proposing come from?
There is currently a true "World Front for "Peace" in Ukraine that began to act during the months of May 2022 when, from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Macron stated that an agreement must be reached through diplomatic channels, and that "Russia must not be humiliated." The Vatican added the slogan "We are all guilty" with the aim of clearing Putin's dictatorship of its war crimes.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested on December 1, 2022 that Europe should return to the pre-war "peace order" with Russia. Anthony Blinken the US Secretary stated "At some point this will end, and it will almost certainly end with diplomacy, with negotiation." In the June 2022 run-up to the NATO Summit, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared: "Most likely, this war will end at the negotiating table."
El País of Spain announced the signing of a Manifesto by the general secretary of Podemos of Spain Ione Belarra, together with the former vice president of the Spanish Government and leader of Podemos Pablo Iglesias with the title "Ukraine: Peace now!" together with the American philosopher Noam Chomsky, the former president of Ecuador Rafael Correa, the former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, and the president of the Culture of Peace Foundation, and former director general of UNESCO Federico Mayor Zaragoza.
On September 27, Jeremy Corbyn, in his capacity as PI leader, published the article "Now Let's Talk about Peace" on the website of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. Democratic senator Bernie Sanders, and leader of IP, urged the United States to "work hard for a mutually agreed and realistic solution, one that is acceptable to all" in the July 29 Jacobin Magazine publication headlined: "We should have listened to Bernie Sanders on Ukraine".
Medea Benjamin and Code Pink, who have launched the "Peace in Ukraine" campaign, together with the leaders of the DSA (Democratic Socialist of America) have spoken in the same vein. Alexis Tsipras of Syriza of Greece, leader of the IP reaffirmed: "Sending arms to Ukraine was a big mistake" .
In other words, there is a "World Front for "Peace" in Ukraine made up of the imperialist governments of the US, Macron in France, Sholtz of Germany, NATO, the UN, the Pope, UNESCO, and together with all of them , the leaders of the IP, the campers, Stalinists, and escapers of the world like the imperialist social democrats of the DSA, Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn, Syriza , Medea Benjamin, Podemos, who push the slogan of "Peace for Ukraine".
This chorus was joined by Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, spokesman for world imperialism, the "deep state", and the Pentagon. Kissinger published in The Spectator on 12/17/22 the article "How to avoid another world war" and there he states: "...last May, I recommended establishing a ceasefire line along the existing borders where the war began. war on February 24. Russia would throw its conquests there, but not the territory it occupied almost a decade ago, including Crimea. That territory could be the subject of a negotiation after a ceasefire ... the resource could be explored ...
The "World Front for "Peace" in Ukraine" is counterrevolutionary
The similarity in the proposals in the "Front for Peace in Ukraine" is striking. They all propose the same thing: Return to the borders of February 24, that is, that Crimea and Dombas remain in the hands of Putin. Kissinger states that he recommended this scheme of Peace negotiations "...last May ..." in 2022, coincidentally the same date as Macron, Scholtz, the Pope, etc. began their call for "Peace". To which Kissinger adds that " the resource...of referendums could be explored."
To this same proposal Achcar adds the UN and the blue helmets. Mykhailo Podolyak adviser to the capitalist government of Zelensky responded to Kissinger by rejecting his proposal: " The recipe that the former secretary of state asks for...is simple: appease the aggressor by sacrificing parts of Ukraine...a bad peace at the expense of the Ukrainian territories , it will be a victory for Putin and a recipe for success for autocrats around the world."
Podolyak's complaint shows that this "Front for Peace in Ukraine" under the banner of "Peace" actually hides the intention of stealing territories from Ukraine to give Putin a victory, and a solution, seeking that the people Ukrainian deliver at the negotiating table what he has worked so hard to win on the battlefield.
Why is this "Chorus for Peace" counterrevolutionary? Because despite its "humanist" appearance, it is hypocritical to talk about "Peace" while Putin carries out a fascist aggression that massacres thousands of families, children, the elderly, and hits the most vulnerable Ukrainian citizens, destroys the country's critical infrastructure , leaves millions without water or electricity in the middle of winter, practices ethnic cleansing, kidnapping children in occupied territories, represses, tortures, murders, even his own people in Russia.
When a fascist aggression develops, the only thing to talk about is how to defeat that aggression to put an end to it. It is the only thing that can really provide "Peace", and even a fair negotiation. And when the attacked people, such as the Palestinian, Irish, Catalan, or in this case the Ukrainian, develop a revolution to defend themselves from the fascist attack, talking about "Peace" goes against mobilization, armed self-defense, and the revolutionary war that this people is waging in their defense.
A legitimate, true demand for "Peace" begins by promoting the defeat of fascist aggression. And this is what Gilbert Achcar was doing at the beginning of the invasion that made him part of the principled front. But with his Memorandum of 11/30/22 Gilbert Achcar did a 180 degree "flip" , and has joined the world counterrevolutionary "chorus" for "Peace".
In short, the "Front for Peace in Ukraine" is a front of all those who defend world imperialist capitalism, and seek by all means to prevent a defeat for Putin. This is best explained by Kissinger when he states: "The preferred outcome of some is a Russia impotent by war. I disagree. For all its propensity for violence, Russia has made decisive contributions to the global balance and balance of power." for more than half a millennium. Its historical role must not be downgraded..."
Kissinger makes clear the role that the Putin regime has fulfilled in the last 20 years as a fundamental pillar of the world capitalist-imperialist system, when he says that: "...it has made decisive contributions to the global equilibrium and to the balance of power... ". Of course Putin's massacres in Chechnya, Georgia, Africa, and Syria are for Kissinger less of a problem: " Despite all his propensity for violence," Putin's role " must not be downgraded..." because the regime of Putin has fulfilled: "... His historical role". Kissinger's statements provide us with the key to understanding why the "Front for Peace in Ukraine" arose.
The "Front for Peace" seeks to stop and divert the Ukrainian revolution
Why did the "Front for Peace in Ukraine" arose? The imperialist and counterrevolutionary policy of "Front for Peace and Democracy" for the whole world is not new . Every time the peoples or the masses rise up against capitalism, the representatives of the ruling classes fill their mouths talking about "Peace". It is a policy that is decades old, but it gained strength after the electoral triumph of Biden and the Democrats in the United States.
What motivated the emergence of the "Front for Peace in Ukraine " was the abrupt and dramatic turn of the class struggle that occurred in the months of March and April 2022. Until then, what dominated the political situation in Ukraine , and the world was the advance of a huge section of troops, tanks, and Putin soldiers towards the main Ukrainian cities. A gigantic caravan of tanks of the 2nd world army headed towards kyiv, Putin threatened to take control of the country, the capital kyiv, and the government of Ukraine.
But from there, events took a surprising turn for all the counterrevolutionaries in the world. The imperialist governments, their media, and the campers observed how between March, April and May 2022 Putin suffered a resounding defeat in the battle of Kiev, which was actually a series of battles in Hostómel, Bucha, Irpin, Brovary , Chernobyl, Ivankiv, Slavútych, Vasylkiv, which culminated in the triumph of the Ukrainian troops.
After suffering enormous casualties, destruction, and extensive loss of materiel, Sergei Rudskoi on behalf of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff, announced at a press conference the withdrawal of troops from kyiv on March 25, 2022. Thousands of soldiers Ukrainians, along with thousands of citizens, workers, peasants, women, and young people with arms in hand, defended the capital of Ukraine, kyiv, and advanced, liberating Summy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv, forcing Putin's troops to retreat.
The news surprised the counterrevolutionaries, but it did not surprise us Marxists who knew that Ukraine has been going through a revolution since 2014 in the fight for its independence. The tenacity, determination, and combative resistance of the Ukrainian people, capable of pushing back a military force a thousand times greater, is the main confirmation that Ukraine is undergoing a revolutionary process.
From there, the course of events in the Ukraine changed drastically. Ukrainian forces went on the offensive, and Putin's forces went on the defensive. Once the Zelensky government authorized the delivery of arms to all the people to resist, partisan and guerrilla activity was legalized. The partisans are armed citizens, young people, peasants, workers, students who carry out the armed struggle against the invader.
A wave of attacks shook all of Ukraine, Putin's troops, the Dombas mercenaries, and collaborators from the occupied territories began to suffer a real nightmare. A phenomenon that at first was only from the Dombas region like the Partisans, spread to the entire country, and began a wave of attacks in which the occupiers' barracks, bridges, railway junctions, airports, houses, and cars of collaborators, every day. A wave of attacks began that recalls the best guerrilla traditions such as those of the Palestinian Intifada, the Spanish Revolution, or the Irish Revolution.
The Ukrainian Revolution began to fit perfectly into the definition of revolution that Leon Trotsky left reflected in his monumental "History of the Russian Revolution" : "The History of Revolutions is for us the history of the violent irruption of the masses in the government of their own destinies"
The partisan phenomenon spread beyond Ukraine, and the process of popular arming began to unfold in Belarus, Georgia, and Finland, where thousands of people began military training and formed local partisan brigades in defense of a possible Putin attack. But in addition, the struggles for independence began to be reactivated in Kosovo, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, etc. But in addition, the struggles for independence began to be reactivated in Kosovo, Georgia, Armenia, Buryatia, Kalmykia, Dagestan, etc. The Belarusian dictator Lukashenko could not intervene with his army in support of Putin for fear of the masses, who have been confronting his dictatorship since the mobilizations of 2020. The dictatorship persecutes the leaders of the independent union BKDP, Alexandr Yarashuk and his comrades, who carried out the strike against the dictatorship, and resisted the war against Ukraine.
In turn, Putin's invasion triggered a global mobilization of millions on all the world's continents in support of Ukraine, and after the victory in the battle of kyiv, a global revolutionary wave against capitalism began that implied a wave of struggles. workers in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Italy, etc., headed by thousands of activists, which was combined with a powerful wave of struggles in poor countries like Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Sri Lanka, Haiti, etc.
This 3rd revolutionary wave did not come out of nowhere, but as a continuation of the 2nd wave that occurred between 2019-2021, and interrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic , and the 1st revolutionary wave that occurred between 2011, and 2016. Imperialism perfectly understood the meaning of the events that were unleashed after Putin's defeat in the battle of Kiev, and everything that happened in just... 9 months!
The revolutionary wave hits capitalist governments, in the midst of a crisis of the historical, epochal, and civilizational capitalist mode of production. The 4th round of bailouts called Quantitative Easing (QE) carried out by the imperialist central banks to rescue the 1% oligarchy that owns Global Corporations and Wall Street in 2019 unleashed global inflation.
But the end of the Quantitative Tightening (QT) bailouts in March 2022 unleashed a wave of massive bankruptcies ranging from Britain's pension fund to large Global Corporations such as Credit Suisse. In other words, the revolutionary process triggered by the revolution threatens to wipe out the Putin regime, and some of the pillars on which world imperialist capitalism is sustained.
This is best explained by Kissinger: "...Russia's dissolution or destruction of its capacity for strategic politics could turn its territory spanning 11 time zones into a contested vacuum. Its competing societies could decide to settle their disputes through violence. Other countries may seek to expand their claims by force..."
Kissinger calls Putin's sinister regime "Russia" , which imposes itself with blood and fire on the Russian people. All the defenders of the world capitalist-imperialist system realized with horror that the Ukrainian revolution, if successful, could lead to the end of the Putin regime. And with it, millions of the world's oppressed in the "11 time zones" that the Putin regime oppresses, may rise up in an Intifada of the oppressed, or a second Arab Spring a thousand times deeper than the one we are witnessing now.
Stopping the global revolutionary wave became the priority of the imperialist governments of the world, NATO, the UN, the Vatican, and the campers, the entire world counterrevolutionary front. And for this, it is necessary to stop, divert, or stop the Ukrainian revolution, which is the epicenter, and the axis from which the entire revolutionary wave develops. This is how the "Global Choir for Peace" was born in May 2022 headed by Macron, Scholz, Biden, the UN, NATO, the Vatican, and the campers who advocate by all means to sit Putin at a negotiating table , and the Ukrainian government, to stop the war.
The "Global Front for Peace" fails. And come back stronger
The imperialist governments and NATO pressured the capitalist government of Zelensky to sit down to negotiate, stopped supplying Ukraine with weapons between the months of May, June, and partially July 2022, while refusing to place a missile shield to protect Ukrainian citizens from Putin's bombardment.
In those months Putin was able to launch the offensive on Severodonetsk, and systematically bomb critical Ukrainian infrastructure. However, NATO's pressure on Zelensky failed because the bourgeois government of Zelensky has no room to negotiate. The vast majority of the Ukrainian people want nothing to do with negotiations with Putin, they want justice for the war crimes committed like those of Bucha, and they don't want to have anything to do with handing over territories, because the citizens of the occupied territories, even those who speak Russian, Ukrainians claim.
The failure of the recently born "Global Choir for Peace" caused the revolutionary wave to deepen even more. Ukrainian partisans equipped themselves with new weapons stolen from the occupiers' troops, liberated thousands of kilometers of territory in Kharkiv, in the north of the country, advanced in the south, liberating Kherson, and entered the Donbas.
By the end of the year 2022, the balance of the war for Putin is a real disaster: he lost 3,000 tanks, 6,000 armored vehicles, 2,400 artillery systems, 281 planes, 266 helicopters, 212 anti-aircraft systems, sunk the flagship Black Sea missile cruiser, Moscow and 15 other ships of different categories, and suffered attacks at the base of the Black Sea Fleet. Ukraine managed to liberate 65,000 square km of occupied territory, while in addition to partisan activity, and the attacks began to unfold inside the territory of the Russian Federation, where military targets, logistics, oil and gas refineries, etc., are attacked daily. and warehouses, such as the Engels military airfield, which has already been attacked 3 times.
Putin's dictatorship reacted by calling for a new conscription of soldiers, but the Russian people rejected the conscription en masse, which opened a political crisis in the Putin regime. Now all the world's political analysts are openly debating the possibility of Putin's fall. In the country that is the main supplier of arms to Putin, Iran, the revolution against the dictatorship of the Ayatollahs led by Iranian women broke out.
In turn, mobilizations broke out inside China, the "White Papers Revolution" led by the Foxconn workers, and continued by students. The wave of worker strikes in the imperialist countries continued but now the threat of a general strike of the railway workers in the United States is added, as the agreements between the unions and the Biden Administration enter into crisis.
It is in the midst of this worldwide revolutionary wave that Gilbert Achcar joined the "Global Choir for Peace" . Achcar is one of the leaders of the world current known as Mandelism, which basically consists of the NPA of France and the groups that revolve around this project. That Gilbert Achcar has joined the "Global Choir for Peace" undoubtedly surprised more than one Ukrainian activist, or one who supports the Ukrainian people around the world. But it doesn't surprise us Marxists that we know the role of revisionism throughout history.
Three revisionist waves in the history of Marxism
In order to understand why Gilbert Achcar made the "somersault" of going from a principled position to a counterrevolutionary one, it is necessary to understand the role that the 3 revisionist waves have played throughout the history of Marxism.
The revisionists are current, and sectors that hit Marxism from "inside" , act by "revising" its fundamental postulates dismantling the Marxist theory. They repeat the same thing as those who attack Marxism from "outside" , but they do so in the name of Marxism. Since it was born, Marxism has been permanently and systematically attacked by the capitalists, imperialism, their governments, officials, the media that they control, the Universities, the Church, etc. because it is the only scientific discipline that questions the interests of the ruling classes.
The other scientific disciplines such as mathematics, physics, biology, archaeology, psychology, or medicine, etc., imply great advances for Humanity, but in general they do not question the profits or the assets of the capitalist classes. The bourgeoisie does not see its control of power endangered by advances in physics, but it does become alarmed if Marxism advances. Product of this permanent attack that Marxism receives, is that it needs to be permanently defended, without that defense, Marxism would disappear.
The attack that causes the most damage and the greatest confusion in Marxism are those carried out by the revisionists. This is so because "in the name of Marxism" they propose 3 things that go completely against Marxism: 1) That capitalism can continue to develop the productive forces of Humanity 2) That there are sectors of the bourgeoisie and the ruling classes that can fulfill a progressive role, and therefore we must support and defend 3) That therefore it is not necessary to build a revolutionary organization, with a reformist organization it is enough to " pressure" the capitalist governments to follow a progressive course, against reactionary tendencies.
These 3 revisionist postulates have been launched throughout history through 3 great "revisionist waves" . The 1st was the one headed by Bernstein, Bebel, and Kautsky after the death of Marx and Engels. This first wave was "social democracy " the theory that socialism could be reached gradually, through reforms, and electoral, winning parliament and seats, with the impulse to cooperativism, and a program in which the fight was only for reforms , which gave rise to "reformism".This statement is very strong today in the campista, Stalinist, and evasionist world left organized in IP. Those who led the fight and defense of Marxism against this 1st revisionist wave were Lenin, and Trotsky, together with many important Marxist leaders.
The 2nd "revisionist wave" of Marxism was Stalinism. It was the one headed by Stalin, Radek, and Bukharin, and the bureaucracy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who argued that in most of the world the conditions to build Socialism were not "ripe", therefore capitalism could develop there. the productive forces, and the revolution had to be "in two stages", the first in support of the bourgeoisie.
They also raised the " Theory of Socialism in a single country" , establishing a "Peaceful Coexistence" with imperialism, and that it is necessary to govern together with the bourgeoisie in the governments of the "Popular Front". Those who led the fight and defense of Marxism against this 2nd wave revisionist were Leon Trotsky and the leadership team that undertook the fight against Stalinism, until Trotsky was assassinated by Stalin's agents in Mexico.
The 3rd "revisionist wave" of Marxism was Mandelism. It was headed by Michael Pablo, and Ernest Mandel in the Trotskyist movement. After the expulsion of Pablo, the current headed by Mandel in the Unified Secretariat of the IV International raised the same thing as the previous waves: That capitalism could develop the productive forces, that an "imminent Third World War " was going to break out, that the "fashionable" reformist or counterrevolutionary currents , be it foquismo, Guevarismo, or Sandinismo could play a "progressive role."
The English-speaking Trotskyist groups that remained outside the United Secretariat derived from currents headed by Gerry Healy, Ted Grant, Alan Woods, David North, Tony Cliff, or Peter Taafe, who refuse to support the people of Ukraine, they actually support Putin and are part of the campers, Stalinists, and evasionists front.
The one who led the fight and defense of Marxism against this revisionist 3rd wave was Nahuel Moreno. The fight between "Mandelismo" and "Morenismo" was the classic, the "Derby" that crossed the main debates of Marxism, and Trotskyism in the postwar period. However, after the death of Nahuel Moreno and Ernest Mandel, Mandelism had a new phase after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
At that time, the bourgeoisie launched a renewed attack on Marxism through the worldwide campaign that " Socialism failed" . This campaign was spearheaded by members of the Neoconservative think thanks in the United States such as Francis Fukuyama, authors of the "End of History" theory. But this campaign was joined by all kinds of university professors, "opinologists", and "professors" who developed new anti-Marxist theories, whose positions were condensed into the current of "21st century anarcho-autonomism".
Headed by Tony Negri, Michael Hardt, and Subcomandante Marcos, this current formulated the theory that there was no longer any need to fight for power. "Taking power generates bureaucracy ." According to them, Stalinism comes from Leninism and this is how they exposed it in texts such as John Holloway's "Changing the world without taking power" . Holloway became the main guide for Sub Comandante Marcos, and the Zapatistas of Mexico . The program of this entire autonomist-anarchist movement is reduced to a movement of networks and nodes, actually to cooperativism and reformism, identical to that of the 1st wave of social democratic revisionism, only with new clothes.
All this current of thought was promoted, financed, and supported by European and North American universities with " professors" such as Slavoj Zizek, Heinz Dieterich Steffan, and Noam Chomsky with his book "The Global Village" , David Graeber who proposed the return of barter , or Murray Bookchin author of the theory of "Communalism". Despite the fact that Mandelism had argued with this current, now without Mandel, he adapted to this new "fashion".
Leaders like Daniel Bensaid, Gilbert Achcar, or Francis Sabado decided to found the NPA in France, dissolving in it the new organization that they had built for more than 40 years. And they made a transcendental decision: they removed from the Trotskyist program the slogan of the struggle for a workers' and popular government. The NPA emerged in France as a party that previously refused to fight for power.
The model launched by Mandelism is that of the construction of "broad tendencies" organizations where reformists and revolutionaries coexist, which coincided with the launch of "anti- capitalist" currents throughout Europe that linked up with experiences such as Syriza and Podemos in Europe. In this way, Mandelism introduced the " anarcho-autonomist fashion " of "Changing the World without taking Power" within Marxism and Trotskyism.
In fact, the 3 waves of revisionism have a common denominator: reformism, the fight for a "better capitalism", the construction of a reformist organization, without fighting for power, or questioning the power of the ruling classes. Gilbert Achcar 's "somersault" is then a well-known movement: It is the typical movement made by revisionists who go from principled positions to counterrevolutionaries, but in the name of Marxism.
This is how they sow confusion, and seek to demoralize activists. For this reason, as soon as they announce their betrayals, it is up to them to give them the deserved response in defense of Marxism, as Lenin, Trotsky, and Nahuel Moreno have done throughout history.
The left and activism in Europe: The return of Marxism
There is a new breed of activists in the Ukraine, and Eastern Europe who are attracted to the left and Marxism. This "awakening" of a new Ukrainian activism, and of Europe connects with comrades with a long history of militancy in the midst of the crisis of the "anarcho-autonomist" current that reached its peak at the end of the 20th century, and the first decade of the 21st century. . The "anarcho-autonomist" current was mortally hit by reality after the outbreak of the sharp peak of the world crisis of capitalism between the years 2007-09.
From then on, all the charlatanry of the "Failure of Marxism", "End of History", "End of the working class ", "End of Ideologies" was violently liquidated by reality. The same happened with the currents that joined the "fashion" wagon such as Murray Bookchin's "Communalist" project in the PKK of Rojava among the Kurds whose most of its leadership is increasingly integrated into IP politics. , the Democratic Party, and the dictates of the UN.
The Zapatismo of the EZLN, today in complete crisis, has supported referendums of the capitalist government of López Obrador, and raises the slogan of "Peace" for Ukraine, while becoming more and more a group of small businesses and cooperatives in Mexico. David Graeber led to the defeat of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in the United States. And Mandelism paid dearly for having joined the "fashion" : The NPA of France has just imploded in its last Congress held in December 2022.
The "anti- capitalist" experiences of Syriza and Podemos ended in disaster. The whole "anarcho-autonomist illusion" of the "anti-capitalist" experience ended in disappointment for millions of European activists, and the world that supported them. The failures of these experiences are the sample button of the sinister role played by the revisionists. The class struggle has dealt a tremendous blow to the entire anti-Marxist current of "anarcho-autonomism" .
But, despite the deep crisis in which the revisionist currents have plunged, it should not be underestimated in its dangerous actions, because the 3 waves of revisionism caused real tragedies in the working class and peoples of the world. The Social Democrats voting for war credits betrayed the working class and opened the door wide to the carnage of World War 1.
The Stalinists betrayed the working class and the people by giving capitalism 70 more years of life after withdrawing from power in Germany, Italy, and France, where communist soldiers and militants had seized power, and handed it back to the imperialist bourgeoisie. by order of Stalin. Thus, the signing of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements with imperialism allowed the capitalist reconstruction of Europe.
The Mandelists betrayed the working class by removing the slogan of the "workers and popular government" from the Trotskyist program. When the revolutionary waves erupted from 2011, millions of activists made mass mobilizations such as the Indignados movement in Greece, Occupy in the United States, or the general strikes in Greece, but all these movements crashed against the limits imposed by the current "anarcho-autonomist" and the Mandelists who had defined "not fighting for power".
This left electoral participation as the only way for millions of activists from the United States and Europe, leaving the working class and the peoples without a revolutionary strategy. Because of the disastrous role they play, all these currents-the "anarcho-autonomist," revisionists, reformists, campists, and Stalinists-are in complete crisis. It is a progressive phenomenon, the crisis of 99% of the world official, and the process of destruction they suffer, has a positive side, it is opening a hugebreath of fresh air that begins to strengthen revolutionary tendencies.
To the further slight of the revisionist theoretical charlatans, what has been taking place in the last ten years is the "return" of Marxism in full force. Every time he is left for dead, Marx comes back stronger. This is expressed in the interest of millions, especially the youngest, who turn massively to Marxism, and find Socialism attractive, in the United States and throughout the world, Marx's works are out of print, thousands of young people find attractive the Marxist ideas.
These new generations are faced with the problem that 99% of the global left that calls itself Marxist abandoned the original statement that Marx and Engels made clear in the Communist Manifesto: " Communists do not have to keep their ideas and intentions hidden ." "They openly declare that their goals can only be achieved by violently overthrowing the entire existing social order. Let the ruling classes tremble, if they will, at the prospect of a communist revolution."
The new generations come across all sorts of campists, evasionist, and Stalinist groups who talk about how "this is not the time to fight for power" because "the conditions are not ripe." That is why it is so important that a principled front has emerged that supports the Ukrainian revolution, which Gilbert Achcar now intends to hit with his Memorandum. That front is the basis for the revival of a principled and revolutionary Marxist force.
The situation of the left in Ukraine, and Europe
It is in this framework of debates and political experiences that a new crop of activists in Ukraine and Europe emerges. After the fall of the Yanukovych dictatorship, there has been a renaissance of political organizing and the search for political answers, a slow awakening of the left that is taking place in the terrible conditions of Putin's brutal attack, and the confusion existing in the majority of the Ukrainian people.
Many of them rightly reject everything Russian, due to the brutal fascist aggression they suffer on behalf of what the "Peace Front" calls "Russia", which is actually the ruling cabal of oligarchs. capitalists headed by Putin. Millions believe that Tsarism, Leninism, Stalinism, and Putinism are more or less the same, the same dictatorship, the same "imperial design", provided with all "Russian ideologies". The centuries-old oppression of the Ukrainian people who have resisted the oppression of Russia for centuries is inevitably expressed in the Ukrainian revolution as the fundamental fuel of resistance.
But as the revolution develops, the most modern expressions of the class struggle and the political processes that shake the world also develop with it, which will quickly allow things to be cleared up. Learning in the harsh conditions of the revolution will make the comrades learn faster, and they will be able to skip stages that we, militant Marxists who do not live in the Ukraine or in Eastern Europe, could not avoid.
Among the theoretical-political challenges that our Ukrainian and European comrades will necessarily have to address when defining what type of organization to build, one advantage they have is that surely the majority will not be attracted to Stalinism. The existence of the "Front for Peace in Ukraine" made up of campers and Stalinists will help the new comrades who are coming closer to Marxism and the left not feel attracted to Stalinism or the campers.
The leaders of the Russian Communist Party, like that of China, are today practically fascist groups of leaders. The Russian CP has proposed that Putin formally declare war on Ukraine, and stop calling it a "Special Operation" . They advocate support for the most aberrational regimes, such as Iran, Nicaragua, Venezuela, North Vietnam, or Cuba. Where the Stalinists rule as in Cuba, or China, they persecute, imprison, torture, and brutally repress activists in the name of "Socialism." Hardly a Ukrainian activist feels attracted to a movement like this, especially remembering the brutal crimes of Stalinism in Ukraine.
The Stalinists are part of the capitalist government of Boric in Chile, they have co-ruled states in India, part of the coalition of the capitalist government of Petro in Colombia, part of the coalition of the capitalist government of Lula in Brazil. Do not be misled by the "anti-imperialist" talk of the Stalinists, there are exceptions, but in general the Stalinists work for imperialism everywhere.
Many honest comrades who intervene in favor of the Ukrainian revolution are amazed at the development of fascist policies among the currents that call themselves left. The explanation for this phenomenon is concrete, material, and scientific: These organizations are led by Stalinists, or former Stalinists, such as Putin, Yanukovych, Lukashenko, or Xi Jinping, who in barely a decade went from being middle managers of the Russian CP, or from the Chinese CP, or from the KGB, to become millionaire oligarchs.
They were the ones who privatized the economies of Russia, or China, and the small republics under their orbit, and handed over those wealth to Global Corporations that became extremely rich by taking over assets built by generations of workers in the Soviet Union, or the People's Republic of China. , which these oligarchs gave away for 4 shillings.
Putin, Xi Jinping, Lukashenko, the oligarchs of Eastern Europe were always beloved sons of Wall Street, the imperialist governments of the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, the Queen of England, and they established close relations with imperialist officials such as Larry Summers. , Robert Rubin, and Alan Greenspan who in the 90's led and directed the privatization process of these economies.
The gang of fascist criminals that today leads the destinies of Russia and China was born closely linked to imperialist capital, and deeply dependent on it. The children of the Russian and Chinese oligarchs study at the best universities in the imperialist countries, and are officials of large corporations such as Goldman Sachs, or JP Morgan Chase. They are a very rich aristocracy, the fruit of looting, murder, robbery, and all kinds of dirty business.
The hypocritical imperialist governments of NATO, the US, England, Germany, or France that now pretend to be horrified by Putin's crimes. Did they just find out that Putin is a criminal? You scoundrels! As if they had nothing to do with the birth of Putin and his gang of criminals! They use Putin Lukashenko, Yanukovych, Xi Jinping, or Nazarbayev as their thugs to do business, and rob the people of Russia, Ukraine, China, and Eastern Europe of every last coin, driving them into poverty, and death! misery!
There are many honest comrades who are militants in Stalinist organizations, it is always worth clarifying that when we talk about these organizations, we are defining their leaders, we are not talking about their honest base militants. To the latter we urgently recommend leaving these organizations if they want to fight for socialism. The new breeds of activists, by driving the Ukrainian revolution with full force, are destroying these corrupt Stalinist thugs, and their regimes, and with it, the pillars of the Stalinist organizations, and the fascist ideology that they have been developing as part of their final decomposition.
Leninism and Stalinism: Two opposing regimes
All the theories of the imperialists, or campists to explain why Putin invaded Ukraine have a common denominator: They seek to hide the fact that there is a revolution in Ukraine. Imperialist propaganda abounds, seeking to explain Putin's fascist aggression by portraying him as a man with "imperial" dreams , seeking to rebuild the "Empire of the USSR." And to add more confusion to the matter, the campers, evaders and Stalinists bring the "Decoupling Theory" which affirms that Russia and China are "imperialist countries that dispute the hegemony of the world to the US".
We perfectly understand when a Ukrainian or Eastern European comrade describes Russia as an "imperialist" country. Hatred of secular oppression leads to this type of definition, but one thing is the legitimate feelings of an honest Ukrainian or Eastern European comrade, quite another the deceptions and charlatanism of the imperialists or campers that our honest European and Ukrainian comrades they will know how to overcome
Russia is a backward country, with a GDP similar to that of Mexico, a producer of raw materials, it is by no means an imperialist country. The Marxist definition of imperialism, carried out by Lenin, is the monopolies that dominate the world economy. Neither Russian nor Chinese companies dominate the world economy, on the contrary, they are dependent on imperialist capital. The expression of how much the campists and Stalinists have broken with Marxism and Leninism is precisely when they define Russia as an "imperialist" country.
Why the campists, and Stalinists parrot the "Decoupling Theory"? This theory created by Wall Street and the Pentagon says that China and Russia are going to challenge the US for " world hegemony " . It is a theory that seeks to hide the brutal tendency to completely dominate world capitalism by the US-led imperialist Global Corporations. There is no factual data that corroborates that Xi Jinping and Putin go around the world, rather it is. On the contrary, they are an essential part of the capitalist world, and they govern capitalist countries deeply dependent on imperialist capital , which are suffering a serious crisis and a collapse.
The "Decoupling Theory" is the repetition of the theories created by the Pentagon, and the CIA in the postwar period of the 20th century of the "cuckoo" of "the communists come around the world" . Now in the 21st century it is "Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin come around the world" which demonstrates that as long as the Pentagon ideologues remain people like Henry Kissinger, it should come as no surprise that they are so uncreative.
Also in the postwar period, imperialism encouraged the arms race, agitating the imminence of "World War III". Mandelism has been announcing "World War III" since 1945. The "Decoupling Theory" affirms that we are heading straight for "World War III". And Henry Kissinger says that Ukraine must give up part of its territory to avoid World War III in his work "How to avoid World War". But while the atomic shelters were filled with mold and cobwebs, since 1945 the class struggle has shown another type of war: Revolutionary wars.
Far from the III War anticipated by the Pentagon, the CIA, the Stalinists, campers, and Mandelists, what has been happening for more than 80 years are the wars between the revolution and the counterrevolution in Korea, China, Vietnam, Algeria, Angola , Indochina, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Congo, Chechnya, Iraq, Afghanistan, to name a few. And now, Ukraine.
Imperialism, Kissinger, the campists, and Stalinists, wave the scarecrow of "World War III " to hide that what is happening in the Ukraine is a Revolutionary War. The "Decoupling Theory" suits them like a glove because in this way Putin and Xi Jinping would be like two "heroes" willing to dethrone the US global monarchy, and that is why they must be supported. The war in Ukraine is then, for the campers, an attack "by NATO against Russia" to try to give Xi Jinping or Putin a "progressive" character that they do not possess.
But the "Decoupling Theory" ends when the Davos World Economic Forum begins in Switzerland. There we can observe how in the placid Swiss mountains Xi Jinping, the Russian oligarchs, and the officials of the imperialist Global Corporations meet with King Charles of England to talk about "The Great Reset" of capitalism. There it becomes clear that there is "no disengagement" because the oligarchies of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin are a group of criminal thugs working for imperialism.
There are many nations like Serbia, Israel, India, South Africa, etc. which, like Russia and China, oppress lesser nations. They are oppressive nations, but in no way can they be confused with imperialist countries. The oligarchies headed by Putin and Xi Jinping base their fortunes on the looting and oppression of small nations. That is why Putin needs to defeat the Ukrainian revolution, if he cannot subdue and oppress Ukraine, he risks other small nations following the Ukrainian path of national liberation, whereupon his power as capitalist oligarchs disappears.
Where do the oppressive regimes of Xi Jinping, or Putin, come from? The imperialists, campers and Stalinists repeat in unison: These regimes are the descendants of Leninism, of Bolshevism, of the "democratic centralist party" created by Lenin, they are the reincarnation of the "Soviet model", the attempt to "return to the old USSR".
And the "anarcho-autonomists" led by Holloway and Sub Commander Marcos will say: "Those dictatorships come from the Leninist strategy of taking power", because "the dictatorship of the proletariat generates dictatorships." The illiterate theoreticians of "anarcho-autonomism" confuse the Leninist regime with the Stalinist regime, which are two regimes opposed by the vertex. And to affirm that the Stalinist regime derives from Leninism, the "anarcho-autonomist" revisionists, campers and Stalinists carry out a simple operation: They erase 30 years of history of the Soviet Union, and of the world.
But as much as they want to hide the story, our brave Ukrainian and Eastern European comrades are already beginning to reconstruct their past, they are going to find the truth, which will lead them to embrace the cause of Marxism stronger than ever. The Leninist regime supported by the soviets, the self-organization organizations of worker and peasant soldiers, was the most democratic regime that the history of humanity has known. It is the only explanation that the USSR was invaded by 23 imperialist armies, and that they could not defeat it. Just like Ukraine today, even without economic means, outnumbered, and technically the USSR was able to defeat all the invading armies.
It relied on the permanent mobilization of workers, peasants, and soldiers, freeing them from the war, and freeing the most oppressed. But this regime was isolated by the defeat of the German and European revolution in 1923. From there, and the death of Lenin, the Stalinist counterrevolution began. In order to establish the regime of terror, Stalin had to carry out a genocide in the USSR. The Stalinist regime did not derive "naturally" from Bolshevism as the illiterate Holloway claims. For it to emerge, Stalin had to murder millions of Trotskyists (yes, millions), create concentration camps, murder millions of peasants, workers, soldiers, the entire vanguard that carried out the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Stalinist regime represents the interests of a privileged layer of functionaries that imposes its power in the conditions of the defeat of the revolution, and the setback. It was in these conditions that Nazism and fascism in Western Europe emerged, and in parallel, Stalinism in the USSR. Stalinism set the conditions for the USSR to return to capitalism beheading the revolutionary vanguard, not only the Stalinist regime did not It "derived" from Bolshevism, but rather had the destruction of Bolshevism as a prerequisite. In order to implant it, Stalin had to assassinate the entire leadership (yes, the entire leadership) of the Bolshevik party.
Stalin assassinated three of the five marshals; 13 of the 15 commanders, 8 of the 9 admirals; 50 out of 57 generals, 154 out of 186 major generals, and all the commissars of the Red Army. The Ukrainian Holodomor, which cost the lives of millions, was part of Stalin's Great Purge that cost the lives of millions of citizens of Russia, and all the republics tortured, murdered, victims of concentration camps. It is a nationalist regime, which enunciates the "Theory of Socialism in One Country", because it is against the world revolution, which would liquidate its privileges. And when the masses rose up against hunger, poverty and the repression that the return of capitalism caused in the USSR and Eastern Europe, those Stalinist regimes collapsed like a house of cards with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Nothing could be further from the truth than the Stalinist regime arose from the Leninist regime, rather the opposite, the Stalinist regime had as a prior condition the criminal and violent suppression of the Leninist regime. Leon Trotsky had to break with the Third International dominated by Stalin, and found the Fourth International, and was assassinated for fighting against the Stalinist regime. And he didn't fight against the Stalinist regime because he was Ukrainian, he did it because he was an internationalist. He fought against the "Theory of Socialism in a single Country", erecting as an alternative the Theory of the Permanent Revolution, proposing the need to carry out a "Political Revolution",to reinstate the Leninist regime, of the soviets in the USSR, which earned him death at the hands of Stalin, and his agents.
For a revolutionary organization for Europe and Ukraine
Holloway's illiterate, the campers, Stalinists, and evasives who recommend "not taking power" hide that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the most democratic regime that the History of Humanity can achieve today because it is the dictatorship of the 99% against the 1% of the capitalist aristocracy. And they hide that the Bolshevik Party is the party that helps the workers to become revolutionary leaders, promotes and educates them so that they can govern, and "take power."
Far from the theories that demonize the proletarian dictatorship, and the Bolshevik Party elaborated by the illiterate "professors", "opinologists" financed by the capitalist universities, our Ukrainian comrades, and the activists of the whole world who support the Ukrainian revolution, will go on defining What kind of organization to build. Because if the workers, the youth, the women, the most oppressed do not have an organization that helps them, and educates them in Marxism, they cannot by themselves rise to the task of questioning bourgeois power.
The entire capitalist society is built for the ruling of the bourgeoisie. The most oppressed of the 99% have no chance to develop alone within the framework of bourgeois society. To fight the power of the ruling classes, the most oppressed need a revolutionary organization. This is the organization that we must build in Ukraine, and the world, to fight for power. We must lean on the independent armed self-organization of millions in the Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, which horrifies Kissinger who fears that if Putin disappears the oppressed "might decide to settle their disputes through violence."
Here lies the importance of the international principled front that we are building. It is the base, together with thousands of activists from all over the world, to rebuild the revolutionary left. Enough of giving up the power struggle so that the Zelenskys continue to govern, we know that the government of the "Servants of the People" has been attacking the social and union rights of the people of Ukraine. Zelensky, who enjoys great prestige today, will surely betray the Ukrainian revolution at some point along the way, at which time thousands of Ukrainians will search for answers.
Let's put aside Gilbert Achcar's proposals for "Peace." Let us continue to support the Ukrainian revolution, the most important political and social event of the present. Let us firmly stand against the policy of the "Front for Peace in Ukraine". The construction of a revolutionary organization requires not only the rejection of the revisionists and traitors, but also the unity and regrouping of those who are consequently revolutionary. This is the path that we propose.
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