Ukraine and the Donbass: The Anti-Imperialist Cause Betrayed by Western Communist Parties
A betrayal that makes little sense and mimics Lev Trotsky.
The degree of the success of western propaganda of capitalist governments worldwide can be measured by the fact that communist movements and parties throughout the western world have claimed that Russia is an imperialist power and that they do not support it in the war against Ukraine.
The popular republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, supported and recognized by Russia, were actively pro-Soviet, and believed in restoring the USSR. However, they did not receive support from the communist parties in the west. As the people of Donbass were bombarded by the Ukrainian army, the communist parties did not bother to visit the self-declared republics. However, communist volunteers did come and assist. These communists are lone wolves, some of them helped in the fighting, others helped in logistics. I met such communists when I visited Donbass for the second time. The volunteers I met, who helped in fighting and in the media, were not members of any communist party but they were communists.
Cuba, long suffering from the western embargo and blockade, abstained in the vote condemning Russia in the United Nations. Cuba’s media, however, is strongly in favor of Russia. Russia and Cuba are allies. Cuba has survived to a large degree thanks to support from Russia rather than to the support from the communist parties in the west. The communist parties did not forgive Cuba’s debt, Russia did. The communist parties do not assist Cuba in its various needs, Russia did. The same applies to Venezuela, a socialist government that is anti-imperialist and facing a severe economic crisis, which has received active Russian support.
One could only wonder what kind of world the western communist parties envision. It is a world where Russia will not exist, because it will be destroyed by NATO or would be too weak to defend itself. If Russia is weak, Cuba and Venezuela suffer too, and will be wiped off the map eventually. Without Russia, the west would be free to focus its energies on an attack against the People’s Republic of China. Of course, the KKE of Greece for instance is against NATO and has protested against NATO on numerous occasions. However, the KKE as other communist political parties such as the TKP (Turkish Communist Party), has argued that Russia is an imperialist party and that the war in Ukraine is an inter-imperialist conflict.
Let us see: the west supported Nazis in Ukraine, the Ukrainian regime has been bombing civilians in Donbass for eight years, communist movements have been outlawed, statues of Lenin have been destroyed, the Russian and Hungarian languages (and in fact any language that is not Ukrainian) have been made illegal, neo-Nazis from Right Sector (Dymtro Yarosh for instance) and Svoboda occupy, or rather were given, key positions in the Ukrainian state apparatus including military and intelligence. All these are facts. What do western communist parties do? They attack Russia and claim it is an imperialist party for defending itself by seeking to de-nazify Ukraine. Their position is no different from the position adopted by Lev Trotsky who did not want to support the west nor Moscow. Those who adopt such a position inevitably support the stronger party. Besides the fact that Russia is a very poor country and that therefore claiming it is an empire is a laughable proposition as Roger Annis has convincingly argued while providing a plethora of cold data, the communist parties have proven themselves to be ideological descendants of Trotsky and upholders of Trotskyism. The communist parties have also failed to understand what imperialism means. They rely on outdated interpretations of Lenin, that imperialism is caused when a local market is saturated so that new markets must be grabbed, and have focused obsessively on the plight of the working class while not looking beyond their respective states to notice that western countries exploit colonies and that the repression is double: the capitalists exploit the populations in their respective countries, and the historical centers of imperialism if to borrow Samir Amin’s phrase- sanction the countries that have the potential to form a multipolar world – China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and exploit the global south via economic means through neo-colonialism, debt, the IMF and the World Bank. Jay Tharappel has written extensively on how Lenin misunderstood the nature of imperialism at the time by ignoring the clear case of India, where capital was exported en masse to the UK, robbing India of its potential to develop independently. In other words, Tharappel argued that to understand imperialism and exploitation, one must view it as taking place between the imperial powers and the rivals who resist western hegemony, rather than limiting one’s gaze to the exploitation suffered by the working class in capitalist states. In other words, western communist parties’ pundits did not take international relations courses. They do not understand global affairs.
Needless to say, war is a nasty business and many innocent people are getting killed, inevitably. But, Russia did not ask for this war. 27 million Russians have lost their lives thanks to Nazi Germany, a western and capitalist construct. Russia, on whose land the Nazi invasion occurred, has the right to ensure that NATO- the alliance responsible for countless wars and massacres in the last 50 years – will be stopped from taking over Ukraine. Ideally a peaceful solution will be reached. However, the Ukrainian government, corrupt and bereft of conscience as it is, is unlikely to recognize the independence or autonomy of the self-declared republics. Indeed, it has violated the Minsk accords which ask it to do just that. Instead, it is likely to continue the war as long as possible, since the continuation of the war means an endless supply of weapons and money.
Thankfully, the People’s Republic of China is around and investments in Africa are being made. Millions are being lifted out of poverty. If it were up to the western communist parties such as the KKE, judging by the direct consequences of their positions rather than their words, China would be poor, Russia would be surrounded by NATO, and Ukraine would join the European Union and NATO.
