The Only Way Forward is Consistency
Victims of Violent Aggression and Occupation Must be Supported
Palestinians have been outgunned, occupied and violently oppressed. They have had aggressive Israeli forces build apartheid settlements deep into their land for decades. This conflict has costs billions of US tax pay dollars and has also cost tens of thousands of lives, most of them occupied Palestinian civilians. For decades a near consensus of the US and Israeli political establishment have been battling the UN and human rights organizations who consistently demand an end to the occupation and settlements. The main goal of the Israeli state is to keep the occupation and settlements expanding, regardless of the obvious violence it breeds. The Israeli occupation has become a staple of mainstream right wing politic, including among many antisemitic Christian groups who tie Israeli settlements to the “second coming”.
The Palestinian plight has become one of cause celebre among left wing circles in the US. A growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement now even has a small handful of supporters in Congress and is a powerful force within the nation’s largest socialist organization, The Democratic Socialists of America. The DSA actually had a minor internal meltdown over one of its members in congress voting in favor of funding an Israeli military project.
That same congressperson, Jamal Bowman of NY, has also been quietly cozying up to another occupying power, the Turkish state. The Turkish regime is currently occupying large swatches of Kurdish areas in Northern Syria. This occupation came after Trump (and Putin) green lit two brutal Turkish military invasions. Bowman was also flirting with policy positions that would further escalate war and occupation in Northern Syria.
Despite his positions on Turkey being worse than his positions on Israel, the Turkish invasion and occupation did not even register a blip on the DSA’s radar. To add insult to injury, the Kurdish autonomous zone in Northern Syria is explicitly democratic and socialist in nature and Turkey has the second largest army in NATO. One of DSA’s own members even died in a Turkish airstrike against Kurdish anti ISIS positions in Syria in 2016. The number of Kurds expelled or who fled their homes is close to what occurred during the Nakba.
The organization could not even put out a unified statement against Trump’s green light for the 2019 invasion and occupation. “It became clear that a unified statement on the issue was not workable” wrote the DSA international committee. What is driving this lack of consistency?
This brings us to the current Russian invasion and ongoing attempted occupation of Ukraine. The “leftists” who support the war aside, disturbing positions also come from the so called rational, democratic socialists. Those who do in fact condemn the invasion but also jettison all solidarity with the actual Ukrainian people under the guise of “anti imperialism”.
Absent our support, both moral and tactical, the occupation is sure to succeed. Branko Marcetic, writing in two separate articles for Jacobin, has spearheaded the opposition regarding support for the Ukrainian resistance. This is done (by him and others) primarily with three points of propaganda.
The first is overestimating the influence and power of the far right in Ukraine while simultaneously downplaying the actual threat of the far right in Russia. The second is making ahistorical comparisons, including tying support for Ukraine to the US support for the Mujaheddin and Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. Lastly, they push a position that “if we simply get the two sides to talk, diplomacy and reason, not violence, will prevail.”
First, the far right in Ukraine (which is no doubt vocal), running as a slate, garnered around 2% of the vote in the last election. Ukraine's widely popular president is a Jewish liberal. Aside from starting the war, the Russian regime is itself about two steps away from outright fascism. It is deeply influenced by the likes of Steve Bannon and fascist Alexander Dugin. The Donbas breakaway territories are run by gangs who destroyed the region’s labor movement and along with it any semblance of civil or human rights. While far from perfect, Ukraine does not even come close to Russia on the fascism meter. Even putting the notorious Russian mercenary Wager Group(founded by a Nazi) aside, off course conflict draws out the far right. No one on the left is denying their existence in Ukraine but they are, however, downplaying or denying their existence in Russia and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The democratic left should not shy away from legitimate use of force. The more it does, the more the right will fill the vacuum. This should be a consistent principle, whether fighting terrorists that historically have been backed by the West, like in Latin America or East Timor, or terror backed by Russia or non state actors like Islamic State. It simply should not matter. Turning a blind eye to the latter only undermines our credibility and gives the right able space to organize in our stead.
The Kurds did not miss such an opportunity when forming the YPG, underground, in Northern Syria after dozens of Kurds were massacred by the Assad regime in 2004. By the time the civil war broke out, they were already well organized and in a position to militarily take control. Their declaration a free autonomous zone would have been impossible without that level of tactical organizing. Their arms, including those also supplied later by the US, were instrumental in protecting themselves and other minority groups from the Islamic State who they later went on to deafest militarily in terms of liberated territory.
The best way to fight far right groups in the Ukraine is to out organize them. In this moment, “aggressive transitioning to green energy” in lieu supporting people in struggle in Ukraine is not going to do it. Even Sweden and Finland, who are not a part of NATO and who have left of center governments, are sending support.
Comparing support to the Ukrainian people to the US support for the Afghanistan Mujaheddin including Osama Bin Laden, is just ahistorical propaganda. As most know, by the time the US was deep into Afghanistan the resistance was ubiquitously right wing and Islamist. Aside from Osama Bin Laden, other figures were keen not just on expelling Russians, but also wanted to wage global jihad. A comparison here to Zelensky, who is firmly in control of his country (and the armed forces) is ludicrous. And, while possibly dreaming about setting up an evil nationalist fiefdom just like the Russians, no Azov national guardsman is about to now, or ever, fly a passenger jet into the New York skyline.
Lastly, to the cries of “will someone please just sit down and let diplomacy do its job?” Brenko writes: “No one has ever said a negotiated solution would be easy. But at no point through this entire conflict has it even been tried.” Aside from that statement being false, it takes two sides to negotiate. As someone who has negotiated labor contracts with some pretty intransigent bosses, “negotiations” are not what gets the goods; it’s power. Of course not all employers are ideologically evil and at times you can get a good deal through negotiation, but I assure you Vladimir Putin is not one of those people (and there is no Unfair Labor Practice charge to file against him for “negotiating in bad faith”).
The only thing that is going to move him at the table is power. In this very moment that equates to the treat of military stalemate, defeat, or ongoing massive Russian losses. Absent an actual threat to his power (in the labor parallel think a strike)he is not going to change his position or strategy. Despite Brenko’s skepticism about military support being useful, all of the anti armor weaponry and air defenses have proved absolutely vital in stalling and even pushing back Russian military advances. Absent these vital tools the Ukrainian military situation would be much worse. The Ukrainians are not clamoring for these weapons for no reason. Russian armor has objectively taken a pounding and combined with airstrikes, armor has been the main cudgel that the Russian state has been using to occupy and invade Ukraine. Negotiations without military support, given the lopsided playing field, is basically akin to asking workers to “negotiate” with the worse boss on earth while simultaneously undermining their right to strike.
Given Putin’s recent back peddling, and the first Ukrainian offenses, tactical support to Ukraine seems to be working. Any peace deal and Russian withdraws will be due to military support for Ukraine, not in spite of it.
Many people with the opposing viewpoints, particularly Jacobin/DSA types, are likely coming from a good place, unfortunately their “USA bad uber alles” thought process is pushing them further and further away from the reality on the ground. This is dangerous not only for Ukrainians but also is counter productive when it comes to organizing in their own spaces.
Consistency is Key to Organizing
A few days after the invasion, I was walking with a nurse union leader around a major urban hospital. We ran into a Ukrainian physician. She struck up a conversation with him about the awfulness of the invasion and it came out in this conversation that he had people close to him back home who decided to stay and fight. We all recognized their bravery and wished them the best. Another union leader in the same hospital, a pharmacist, organized a bake sale that raised thousands of dollars from the rank and file. I share these anecdote because I believe that the sentiment driving these actions are far from unique.
Was it was wise for DSA to put out a statement, in this moment, that the US was to blame for the war and that we should “pull out of NATO” ? Of course it was not. We must always be thinking like organizers, recruiting more people to your point of view and putting those people into action. Taking a squarely cold and dogmatic ideological position, in a statement meant for mass consumption, runs counter to that goal, especially a statement that is arguably incorrect on its face.
That being said, there are several issues that democratic socialists should and can be organizing around instead simply blaming “the West”. Supporting the Ukrainian resistance and organizing around core progressive issues are not mutually exclusive, in fact, in makes it easier when we have some ideological consistency. It is easier to organize for Palestinian solidarity if you are also for Ukrainian solidarity. If you simply respond to Ukraine's call for aid with “well look at all the bad stuff the US did” the chances of you organizing a mass movement of workers, or anyone, to “turn against NATO” are zero.
Here are some conversations that are much easier to have, especially if you keep that moral consistency and don’t get drunk on your own kool aid:
- Treating all refugees the same and how their current disparate treatment is unjust. Support all Ukrainian refugees, help with fundraisers, build solidarity. But when that Syrian child without a life vest has his boat rammed by the Greek Coast Guard and we then engage in a solidarity action, do not for get to go back to the bridges you build helping those Ukrainians. Are we going to win them all over? no. But I promise you we will win infinitely more than if we act like we are allergic to supporting Ukrainians in need.
- Without sounding insane, drop comparisons on how other occupations/attacks are bad; Palestine, Kurdistan , Yemen etc without making them a focal point of the conversation or sounding like a know it all contrarian. When something like Iraq war 3 happens, we will have a lot more cards to play and more ears to listen.
- Pull working class Trump supporters, who are overwhelming against the invasion, further away from Trump . Tie him and Bannon directly to Putin and Alexander Dugin; here there is not even a dotted line, it’s direct.
- Most of the military budget is still pork, and has little bearing on anything useful, like what is needed in Ukraine. We do not need to increase overall military spending, in fact it should be decreased and just focused on what is actually useful. We could both help Ukraine and put resources into needed social spending, like healthcare.
