War and Terror

Kavita Krishnan on "peace" and Ukrainian liberation

Prominent Indian socialist feminist Kavita Krishnan has taken a strong stand in support of Ukraine. Here she explains why slogans about "peace" and "negotiations" miss the real issues in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Kavita Krishnan is speaking at All the Rage on Saturday 26 November. More details here. Why we should oppose the call for negotiations to end the war “No war, negotiated end to the war” is also the position of the Modi Government as well as all Left parties in India. Sounds reasonable, right? Two sides are at war, both should negotiate instead of continuing the war, right? Wrong...

Russia’s anarcho-communist rail saboteurs

Ruleta Proom reports their activities and views. “Izium was liberated today.” These victorious words from the city’s mayor, Valeriy Marchenko, made headlines around the world on Saturday, Sept. 10. Almost 200 days into Russia’s war on Ukraine, this news was significant — it wasn’t just of Russian fumbling or failure, but of Ukrainian advancement and success. Over the weekend more news broke: Ukraine’s military reported Russian withdrawal in regions in Kharkiv and Luhansk — two major areas of contention. But far from the frontlines in Ukraine, a different form of combat continues to take place...

"The right to resist": global feminist manifesto in support of Ukraine

Hundreds of left-wing feminist activists and over fifty organisations in fifty five countries around the world (so far) have signed this appeal launched by organisations in Ukraine. You can read the original, with information on who has signed, here . You can add your or your organisation's name at that link or here . This article on the LeftEast website explains the problems with the other manifesto this one criticises at the start. And this one by UK organisation Feminist Fightback gives some useful background and links to Ukrainian feminist organisations. We, feminists from Ukraine, call on...

"Not exactly surprising, but awe-inspiring" - Yuliya Yurchenko on Ukraine's resistance

Yuliya Yurchenko, a normally UK-based Ukrainian activist involved in the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign and in Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement), spoke to Sacha Ismail and Michael Baker from Ukraine. Yuliya teaches at the University of Greenwich in London; her work includes the book Ukraine and the Empire of Capital: from Marketisation to Armed Conflict . We also recommend the interview Yuliya did recently for US socialist magazine Spectre . I’m originally from Vinnytsia [a medium-sized city somewhat west of the middle of Ukraine], which is where I am now. I came...

The Ukrainian Pacifist Movement

In late April Yuri Sheliazhenko, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement (UPM), was listed as a speaker at an online meeting organised by the Socialist Labour Network (SLN). The title of the meeting was: “Ukraine: Truth and Lies. Was the massacre of over 700 civilians at Bucha perpetrated by the Ukrainian National Police and the Safari Unit and Azov Battalion?” The three other speakers at the meeting were: Tony Greenstein: A man whose mission in life has been to promote left antisemitism at every opportunity and in no matter how crude a form, including fully-baked conspiracy...

McInally's "inter-imperialist" rhetoric covers for Russian imperialism

Retired PCS activist John McInally’s Morning Star article on Ukraine repeatedly declares that the war there is fundamentally a conflict between imperialists, between the Western powers and Russia, and not a war of national self-defence against Russian imperialism. Moreover, it is clear that he sees the West’s role as the main problem. McInally suggests the war is similar, or poised to become similar, to the First World War, with its “industrialised slaughter of tens of millions of working people”. Those who champion Ukraine are like the socialists and trade unionists “suborned” into supporting...

Understanding the war in Yemen

Since 2014 Yemen's civil war, in which a brutal imperialist intervention by Saudi Arabia is increasingly central, has produced an appalling humanitarian catastrophe. As a contribution to rousing the British labour movement to protest against the war, including the UK government's support for the Saudi intervention, we republish this interview from American socialist magazine New Politics . For more about Yemen and Saudi Arabia on our website, see here . The conflict in Yemen has been going on for a long time with horrendous human consequences. Non specialists find the situation extremely...

"Ukrainians are resisting the Russian invasion with weapons. What are Palestinians allowed to do?"

Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green are organisers for Israel's Arab and Jewish peace and social justice movement Standing Together . We republish their comments on the recent killing of Palestinians by the Israeli army, both taken from Twitter and very minorly edited for formatting, etc. Sally Abed : My heart goes our to our people in Jenin, who are being collectively punished, brutalized and killed. Palestinians in Israel are expected to mourn our people in silence, especially when the Israeli public is mourning. We are conditioned to value Jewish lives more than our own. The fact that...

Two speeches on Ukraine at UK school workers' conference

The 2022 National Education Union (NEU) conference saw heated debate about Ukraine. In the end the conference voted down the only motion available, a Stop the War Coalition-type one (more on what happened here ). Below are excerpts of two speeches given by Ukraine Solidarity Campaign supporters in the debate. Delegate from Lewisham NEU: Much of what’s been said has been characterised by false equivalence and oversimplification. Even Alex [Kenny] when he moved the main motion spoke more about NATO and Western leaders than about the Putin regime and Russian leaders. The problem I have with this...

Why does the SWP keep lying about support for NATO?

The Socialist Workers’ Party is running a campaign to paint left-wing labour movement supporters of Ukraine as pro-NATO. This campaign, run mainly on social media and no doubt by word of mouth, is exemplified by Nick Clark’s 12 April article on the Socialist Worker website attacking the 9 April trade union protest for Ukraine. (This is presumably the same Nick Clark who in February wrote that the Serb nationalist forces that committed genocidal ethnic cleansing against the Bosnian Muslims and Kosovar Albanians in the 1990s were not “any worse” than those they attacked.) The headline of Clark’s...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.