by Oleg Vernyk (from Kiev)
[abridged version]
The Russian aggression against Ukraine that started on February 24, 2022 has raised a number of problematic issues in Marxist theory, as well as problems putting into practice basic principles that initially seemed clear to all Marxists. There are organizations that vindicate Leon Trotsky and the Fourth International and have produced many documents on the nature of the Russian-Ukrainian war which sometimes differ diametrically from each other. At the same time, there are organizations that do not come from this tradition but have adopted political positions quite close to those of revolutionary Marxism.
At a certain level of the discussions to obtain a positive result it is necessary to return to the basic categories of 20th century Marxism. And to be clearly defined in regards to our attitude towards such concepts, often speculative, which are used by supporters of imperialist aggression to disguise their transition to the camp of the imperialist bourgeoisie and to justify the new colonial aggressions of the 21st century.
Sometimes it is very difficult to cut through the thorns of the “anti-imperialist” rhetoric and discover behind them the support for the recent aggressive imperialisms. It is no less difficult to reveal the interests of one or another imperialism under the apparently attractive rhetoric of pacifism. And it is even more complex to reveal between the deafening growls of revolutionary defeatism the real work of the imperialist agents within the labor movement. We will have to do it, because only the truth is revolutionary as it can point us to the mistakes of the past and guide us correctly towards the future.
Imperialist wars
One of the key elements of current discussions is the category of imperialist wars and the problem of shaping the attitude of Marxist organizations towards them.
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Some are trying, based on Ukraine’s economic and military dependence on the NATO imperialist bloc countries, to deny the Ukrainian people their right to self-determination and free development. This is accompanied by false statements that Ukraine does not have its own rights, interests, and its own subjectivity. They try to point out that it is not the Ukrainian people who are face to face with a terrible aggressor on the battlefield, but rather the NATO imperialist bloc that is fighting against Russian imperialism. But it is quite obvious that the NATO bloc has no intention of directly entering this war. It prefers to limit participation to the supply of arms to Ukraine, which is not enough to liberate the Ukrainian territories occupied by the aggressor.
In this sense, the approach of the Leninist wing of the Zimmerwald Left of 1915 in relation to Serbia and its national liberation struggle against the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be very indicative for our analysis. In his work «The collapse of the Second International Lenin» noted in particular: “In the present war the national element is represented only by Serbia’s war against Austria (...) It is only in Serbia and among the Serbs that we can find a national-liberation movement of long standing, embracing millions, “the masses of the people”, a movement of which the present war of Serbia against Austria is a “continuation”. If this war were an isolated one, i.e., if it were not connected with the general European war, with the selfish and predatory aims of Britain, Russia, etc., it would have been the duty of all socialists to desire the success of the Serbian bourgeoisie; this is the only correct and absolutely inevitable conclusion to be drawn from the national element in the present war.”
As we can see, Lenin does not support the national liberation struggle of the Serbs only (!) because the inter-imperialist war of the main imperialists powers is already raging and in it Serbia is an integral part of the Entente imperialist bloc (England, France, Italy, Russia, Usa). It is not about the supply of weapons from the Entente countries to Serbia: it is about the fact that all the Entente countries are fighting directly in the European theater of operations, and the Serbian front against Austria-Hungary is only one of the fronts of the inter-imperialist war.
“I consider it theoretically mistaken and practically harmful not to distinguish between types of wars. We cannot stand against the wars of national liberation. You take an example: Serbia. But if the Serbs fought alone against Austria, would we not stand with the Serbs?” Lenin wrote in 1915. As we see, the key aspect of the formation of his political position is once again the fact of Serbia’s involvement in the united front on the side of the Entente imperialist bloc.
The club of supporters of Russian imperialism will fail in their attempt to pass off the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people and their army against Russian imperialist aggression for a NATO war against Russia. As I have already pointed out, the fact that there is an imperialist war in no way defines its imperialist character for all its participants. Even in the vile and greedy world massacre of 1914 there were peoples for whom participation in the war was associated with self-determination and national liberation.
Can the current Russian-Ukrainian war change its character and be transformed from a national liberation war of the Ukrainian people in one part to a global inter-imperialist war and under what conditions? Alejandro Bodart gives clear answer to this question: “If any of the imperialist countries in NATO were to declare war on Russia, for whatever reason, the character of the entire conflict would change (...) We would effectively enter an inter-imperialist armed conflict and would have to adapt our policy and orientation to the new situation”.
Do we see the premises for the development of the situation in this direction? Not yet. Should we always be prepared for such a possible transformation of the situation? Obviously yes.