This emergency statement was unanimously adopted by the Steering Committee of the Global Ecosocialist Network on February 27. It will be submitted to our next general membership meeting, on March 13, for discussion and ratification.
Emergency Statement on the War in Ukraine:
- We condemn unequivocally the Russian invasion of Ukraine and express our solidarity with the suffering people of Ukraine and antiwar protests in Russia.
- We oppose NATO escalation as disastrous for both the people of Ukraine and the people of Europe.
- Modern war and modern war machines run overwhelmingly on fossil fuels. They are major carbon emitters and catastrophic in terms of their impact on the environment as a whole including biodiversity and this war also reinforces the danger of continued dependence on oil and gas fossil-fuels.
Excellent concise statement!
We can and should vigorously oppose NATO expansion and continued war threats to Russia (and China) but also recognize the Great Russian chauvinism that Lenin warned about with respect to the issue of Ukraine’s right of self- determination. In his recent speech Putin referred to this Bolshevik implementation by condemning this right, claiming the Ukraine was never really a nation, that the Bolsheviks were making concessions to nationalists. Well, I take Putin’s remarks as evidence of continued Russian nationalist ambitions trumping the Leninist policy of self-determination. The Russian invasion speaks to Putin’s denial that the Ukraine is a nation, hence Putin’s justification for intervention, allegedly for denazification. Does any country have the right to invade the U.S. because of ongoing police murders of Black people? Aren’t there legal ways to hold governments accountable for human rights violations?
The Putin regime is oligarchic capitalist, not “hammer and sickle” as the Democratic pundits like to label it as. We can recognize that fact as well as the welcome role of Russia and China in opposing the U.S./NATO imperialist regime change agenda with respect to Cuba and Venezuela in particular.
Russia’s security concerns were beginning to be taken seriously by France and Germany, which would have likely blocked Ukraine’s membership in NATO. Now, Putin’s actions have seriously undermined this support for a negotiated settlement. Nato was divided before this Russian invasion of the Ukraine, with Germany and France opposing Ukraine joining Nato, now U.S./Nato will likely stand together. Great Russian nationalism trumped a negotiated security arrangement, with big negative consequences to all.
The U.S. and Nato are complicit in Putin’s criminal, illegal and counterproductive invasion of the Ukraine. Instead Nato expansion to the Ukraine could have been blocked in a negotiated settlement. Now militarism, the enemy of climate security, is reinforced. And kudos to China for not endorsing this invasion and standing up for the respect of state sovereignty, at least according to the latest reports.