The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine took many – including most Ukrainian leftists – by surprise. The long, unprecedented and ruthless aggression has led to chaotic reactions within the left political field. However, six months into the war, it is time to recognize that open and hidden opposition to Ukrainian resistance from many on the left is not a result of the fog of war anymore, but rather a result of long-lasting problems on the left. These problems are rooted in a general decades-long demobilization in the face of the global system’s reactionary turns.
We urgently need to reconstruct alternatives so that the political left can propose viable options which can mobilize people. If no such alternatives are provided, we will continue to face campism with this or that imperial power to oppose another. This will never lead us to a just and peaceful future. In the face of many failures of the global security system, where Russian invasion is just the most recent one, we must look for alternatives beyond unipolar or multipolar worlds; the former will always be about domination, and the latter will always be on the brink of global nuclear disaster.
We should remember that construction of leftist alternatives cannot be based on disregard of popular struggles, which smaller and weaker societies are waging for their self-determination against imperial domination. Leftist alternatives can never be about order rooted in the right of the powerful. Neither can they ever be about maintaining the reactionary status quo.
With the Russian imperial aggression we also see again how capitalist dependency on fossil fuel facilitates autocratic regimes and how it corrupts economic and political elites in “democratic” countries. We should have no illusions that those elites are ready to give up their capitalist short-term interest – neither for global progressive political order, nor for the collective survival of humanity challenged with environmental disaster.
In the face of Russian imperial aggression against Ukrainian society, we call for support of Ukrainian popular resistance and struggle for self-determination. We call for mobilization around viable alternatives, built on solidarity and internationalism. Down with all imperialisms – for social justice, environmental sustainability and peace!
