Belarus: Covid-19 Colour Revolution

Belarus: Covid-19 Colour Revolution

20-08-2020: As sure as night follows day, any government which retains a shred of independence from the Anglo/US/EU Empire will, sooner or later, be targeted for regime change. In order to overthrow the recalcitrant government, the West will orchestrate an invasion, a war, or a colour revolution utilising faux “human rights” and “democracy” rhetoric. The colour revolution now besieging Belarus is no exception. Needless to say, a colour revolution is galaxies away from anything politically progressive, as it reflects the reactionary politics of their imperialist sponsors who fund, support and often organise “opposition” protests against a government they cannot control. In this case it is the Belarussian government headed by the overwhelmingly popular President Alexander Lukashenko. Whatever his faults may be, workers internationally cannot allow dark forces to overturn the government of a country which is practically a buffer state for Russia against imperialism.

Coronavirus the final trigger for destabilisation

Even though the US Empire has longed for the end of independence for Belarus for much of the 26 years of President Lukashenko’s term in office, the final straw for them was the refusal of Belarus to play along with the full-spectrum attack on the working class shrouded under the rubric of “Covid-19”. Under Lukashenko, Belarusians were spared the onerous political and psychological repression of “coronavirus” lockdowns, farcical facemask orders, job cuts and economic shutdowns. Even though the Western elite powers grated at the fact that Belarus never effectively de-Sovietised, and retained a huge proportion of state ownership of the economy after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, they simply could not tolerate the exposure, let alone defiance, of the mountains of “pandemic” lies.[1] While punters continued to bet on the Belarusian football league, as it was one of the only ones not to be shutdown, President Lukashenko correctly referred to Covid-19 hysteria as a “psychosis”. His concern, eminently confirmed by the self-inflicted economic and social devastation besetting Europe and the West, was that panic will do more damage than the virus itself.[2]

Even though Lukashenko was prepared to make some moves towards some privatisation of state assets, he still stressed that Belarus does not need privatisation that causes job losses.[3] Despite these pro-worker moves, he also played a very dangerous game of strategically tilting towards the West and, incredibly, NATO, while warning against a totally imagined Russian threat to Belarusian sovereignty.[4] Andrew Korybko plausibly argues that Lukashenko’s attempt to pivot to the West in order to balance between Russia and the US was a major error, as all it did was encourage the pro-Western colour revolution elements within Belarus.[5] These are the “protestors” currently on the streets.

Foreign liberals flock to protest

The Belarusian government was more than aware of the detailed plans made for foreign backed subversion. President Lukashenko warned that there would be no repeat of a “Maidan” – referring to the NATO backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, which installed a pro-US cabal backed by virulently anti-socialist and anti-Russian barbarians (the “UkroNazis”). He warned that citizens from Poland, the Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and Russia had travelled to Belarus to be a part of the manufactured protests against the August 9 Presidential election.[6] Not only that, reactionary “solidarity” actions with the attempted Western backed coup in Belarus took place in Russia, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Romania, conveniently holding placards written in English.[7] The dead giveaway that these actions serve only US and EU imperialism were some demands to hold an emergency EU summit, and the universal use of the red and white banded flag initially used when the former Soviet Union collapsed. A referendum in 1995 restored the predominantly green and red flag modeled on the flag of the Belarus Soviet Socialist Republic.

On August 16, the Belarusian Armed Forces announced large scale military drills near the Grodno region bordering Poland and Lithuania.[8] While such acts are necessary to defend Belarus against possible military incursions, on their own they may not be enough to overcome the political and propaganda war constantly waged by the West via their “democracy NGOs”. The “human rights industrial complex” is skillfully wielded by imperial agents to besmirch Russia, and Lukashenko as a Russian government adjunct – which is anything but the case. Yet economic and military integration with Russia is the most logical. In 1995, Russia and Belarus agreed to allow their citizens to live and work in either country at their discretion, while retaining their passports and national identity.[9] Added to the fact that 100% of Belarusians speak Russian, the close economic, cultural and linguistic ties are somewhat natural. It is the severing of these ties, and the tilt of Belarus towards the EU and the US that is the aim of the Western organised and funded election “protests”.

Even though the Russian government played along with its own brand of Coronavirus repression, the military encirclement of Russia by the US and EU remains a grave danger, and especially to Belarus. While a military alliance of Belarus and Russia may temporarily stave off the eminent physical danger, the political danger will remain. The self-inflicted Covid-19 depression in the West is but one sign of the political desperation of the elites in the service of finance capital. Workers in Belarus and internationally should remain in a temporary bloc with Lukashenko against the coronavirus plot, and in a tactical alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin against US and EU imperialism. However, neither Lukashenko nor Putin can be political allies in the battles the working class needs to wage to emerge victorious over all manifestations of Corona tyranny – the current facemask of capitalist imperialism. The key task remains the binding of the most class aware elements into a Marxist vanguard, linked through international sections to help raise workers to their rightful position as defenders of a triumphant socialist order.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

PO Box 66 NUNDAH QLD 4012

[1] https://off-guardian.org/2020/08/16/belarus-in-the-firing-line-for-a-colour-revolution/ (18-08-2020)

[2] https://www.baltictimes.com/lukashenko__coronavirus_is_psychosis/ (18-08-2020)

[3] https://eng.belta.by/president/view/lukashenko-there-will-be-changes-but-they-have-to-be-civilized-131325-2020/ (18-08-2020)

[4] https://naviny.belsat.eu/en/news/lukashenka-counts-on-west-nato-support-in-case-of-russian-aggression/ (18-08-2020)

[5] https://foreignpolicynews.org/2020/08/15/lukashenko-has-no-one-to-blame-but-himself-for-belarus-color-revolution-unrest/ (18-08-2020)

[6] https://tass.com/world/1187689 (19-08-2020)

[7] https://www.euronews.com/2020/08/13/in-pictures-across-europe-thousands-are-rallying-in-support-of-the-belarus-protests (19-08-2020)

[8] https://southfront.org/belarus-kicks-off-large-scale-military-drills-near-poland-lithuania-lukashenko-is-losing-propaganda-war-to-western-backed-opposition/ (19-08-2020)