06-02-2023: NATO’s proxy war on Russia through Ukraine is once again being ramped up. The latest announcements from the West are shipments of tanks which will supposedly beat back the “meatgrinder” they are being put through by Russia’s methodical military operation to secure the Donbass in the east of Ukraine. After weeks of relentless pressure from European Union (EU) and US “allies”, the German government finally relented and announced that it would send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The United Kingdom (UK) government announced it is sending 14 Challenger 2 tanks[1], while the US government stated it would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks. The French government was not to be left out, and affirmed it would send its AMX-10 light combat tanks to Ukraine.[2]

A bluff ?

The Spanish government, not to be outdone, soon confirmed it would be sending 40 mothballed Leopard A4 tanks which had been “hibernating” since being bought from Germany in 1995.[3] The Australian and French governments, patching up relations since the Australian government reneged on the deal to purchase submarines from French companies, jointly announced they would produce several thousand rounds of 155 mm artillery shells to send to Ukraine.[4] However, defence commentators are already saying that this amounts to a drop in the ocean. The Ukrainian government, not satisfied with tank shipments, is already demanding the West send F-16 fighter jets. Currently, the US and NATO heads are saying no,[5] but they said they would never supply tanks either.

However, the 31 M1 Abrams tanks the US are supposedly sending have yet to be manufactured, and will not be delivered until at least the end of this year.[6] This is assuming they are delivered at all. How long it will take the Spanish government to dust off and clean up some long unused tanks is anyone’s guess. So what is happening here? The New Atlas makes the entirely plausible claim that the sending of tanks to Ukraine is more like a giant bluff.[7] That is, the West is making announcements that are intended to send a message to Russia that it will never stop sending heavy weapons and other armaments to Ukraine, so it had better give up and withdraw now.

However, the West is well aware that the tanks, if they eventually arrive, will not turn the tide of the military situation on the ground in Ukraine. One does not need to be a military expert to realise that these days, anti-tank missiles can simply take out tanks that are out in the open without any air cover. Russia’s superior military and air power means that the tanks will likely be destroyed almost as soon as they enter the battlefield. Indeed, the majority of the Australian manufactured Bushmaster armoured vehicles “donated” to Ukraine have already been destroyed by the Russian military. 26 of the vehicles were reportedly burnt to the ground after they were offloaded at the port of Odessa.[8] So much of the military equipment the West is sending to its Nazi infested Ukrainian allies is soon demolished, or is not even making it on to the battlefield. Moreover, even if the tanks do make it that far, Ukrainian troops cannot simply jump into the tanks and take them into the field in the manner of an expert. It takes at least 12 months or more to train up a tank crew, and even then they will not be experienced enough to function in a combat detachment. Tanks also need fuel, spare parts, mechanics and more just to keep them operating.

Major anti-war action on February 19

NATO and their Nazi proxy forces in Ukraine are clearly not winning, despite the desperate spin of the West’s corporate media. If they were, they would not be constantly calling for more and more weapons, more ammunition, more tanks and even jet fighter planes. The economic sanctions war waged on Russia has clearly backfired, and the cost of living is skyrocketing in the West as one result. With no political justification remaining whatsoever, Washington and London appear to be set on dragging out the war further and further, pushing the world ever closer to World War III. It is crucial that working people intervene to stop this madness, to pull back the imperialists from potentially plunging the world into a catastrophic nuclear confrontation.

To this end, in Washington on February 19, a major anti-war demonstration is being organised as a “Rage Against the War Machine”.[9] Organised primarily by the People’s Party and the Libertarian Party, the political demands being put forward are significant, and are ones which can only be opposed by establishment itself. The demands are:

1. Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine

2. Negotiate Peace

3. Stop the War Inflation

4. Disband NATO

5. Global Nuclear De-escalation

6. Slash the Pentagon Budget

7. Abolish the CIA and the Military-Industrial Deep State

8. Abolish War and Empire

9. Restore Civil Liberties

10. Free Julian Assange

The Workers League urges all those in the USA to attend the Washington rally and march to the White House, if the travel there is possible. For those unable to make it to the capital, solidarity actions appear to be occurring at the same time in San Francisco, Sacramento, Austin and Los Angeles.[10] Speakers at the Washington rally include: Jimmy Dore, Max Blumenthal, Jackson Hinkle, Garland Nixon and Scott Ritter.[11] Supporting organisations include World Beyond War, Action 4 Assange, Punk Rock Libertarians and the Centre for Political Innovation.[12]

Where is the left?

This important action has been organised almost entirely without the political forces of what might be termed the traditional left in the US. With some exceptions, for the last 30 years this left has not fully opposed a major war the US Empire has waged while a Democrat has occupied the highest office in the White House. There was almost universal opposition to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, but then the Republican George W Bush was in administration. Today, we have the appalling situation where the forces of liberalism are either silent, or even advocate, a war of assistance to Ukrainian Nazi led forces against the Russian Federation. This is one unfortunate consequence of the Covid war, when liberals and virtually the entire “socialist” left capitulated to the capitalist state to endorse some of the worst political repression and anti-working class attacks seen in history. Thus, the February 19 demonstration has had to be organised by political forces largely not associated with what passes for the political left.

In fact, the organising of the February 19 anti-war rally meant that the “Covid Left” were outflanked on the left by political parties they wrongly regard as “far-right”. This appears to be why the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) organised anti-war in Ukraine rallies on January 14, the weekend of the public holiday marking Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday.[13] These rallies seemed to be both an attempt to dissuade people from attending what look likes being a major anti-war rally on February 19, and an effort to prove to their own supporters that they – the “left” – are the real ones opposing the war, rather than the “right” libertarians and others. At worst, it may also be an attempt to split the anti-war in Ukraine movement. The main party behind ANSWER is the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), but it is also backed by the Socialist Unity Party (SUP).

Even though these rallies took place in 90 cities across the US,[14] the PSL led anti-war actions did not draw in the thousands likely to attend on February 19. Why? One reason is that the PSL and almost all left parties and Unions joined with US imperialism to subjugate the working class under the guise of a false “pandemic” from 2020 to 2022. Indeed, some of those attending the January 14 anti-war actions were clad in next to useless or even harmful facemasks. Unfortunately, the PSL were not at all on their own in capitulating wholesale to intense Covid propaganda.[15] They were joined in an almost universal genuflection before imperialism by the Workers World Party (WWP)[16], Socialist Alternative[17], Socialist Action[18], and the Socialist Equality Party[19] (SEP). They were joined on bended knees by other left parties which usually (correctly) critique the PSL et al for being reformist, but displayed their own version of reformism par excellence when it came to capitalist imposed “healthcare”. Here we refer to the Spartacist League[20] (SL), the Internationalist Group[21] (IG), the International Bolshevik Tendency[22] (IBT) and the Bolshevik Tendency[23] (BT). The list could go on.

For real anti-imperialism

Imperialism is on the warpath. Despite the latest (Pentagon funded) RAND Corporation report which bluntly states that a long war in Ukraine[24] is not in US interests, this could be just a recognition that the real target is not just Russia, but the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As if to reaffirm this view, US Air Force General Mike Minihan recently wrote in an internal memo to his staff that his sense is that “we” will be fighting China by 2025, and to be prepared.[25] The year 2025 seems to be the year that the US ruling class has identified as the point at which the PRC will reach such a point of technological, scientific and military advance over the West that it will not be able to be defeated. For some time, analysts have agreed that the more time the PRC is allowed to build and consolidate its gigantic and still expanding manufacturing base, the less chance imperialism has to prevent it from surpassing the West on multiple fronts. In the insane logic of capital, the only option therefore is catastrophic war.

This is why it is vital that working people stridently oppose all facets of imperialist war – against Russia, against China, against regime change operations, against colour revolutions – and against fraudulent “pandemics” or whatever the corporate media’s next claimed justification for political repression may be. Political leadership of the working class is crucial, and the coalescing of internationally linked Marxist vanguard parties is a task of the utmost urgency. Yet it is impossible for any such vanguard to be formed with “leaders” who claim to oppose imperialism when it goes to war against Russia or China – but then willingly marches in lockstep with the very same imperialists and their agents in their government, Union and “health” bureaucracies when they threaten workers with vaccine mandates, issue vaccine passports, throw dissenters into concentration camps, prevent family members from seeing ill or dying relatives, prevent human movement and the right to assembly. Before before such a vanguard can be formed, a resolute split with these charlatans is imperative.

While Russia and China must be defended against imperialist attacks, their respective leaderships are not anti-imperialist in a political sense, but only seek to defend themselves against the worst encroachments of Washington, London and their allies. The most apparent example is their willing endorsement of the Covid narrative pushed by imperialism, albeit to differing degrees. The organising parties and many of the speakers at the Rage Against the War Machine rally on February 19 in Washington may not grasp the need for Leninist-Trotskyist leadership of the working class in the East and the West as a way forward. Nevertheless, they are directly opposing imperialist war, and are not about to fall for a re-iteration of “Covid”, or the “Great Reset” or another version of “globalist” terror. The toiling classes cannot sustain another day of reckless imperialist wars, and nor can there be a permanent solution to the dire cost of living crises facing them by simply holding the elite rulers of the West at bay. Public ownership of the major means of production, the formation of workers’ republics, and their international extension must be the aim.

WORKERS   LEAGUE   


www.redfireonline.com   


E: workersleague@protonmail.com

---

[1] www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2023/01/12/britain-to-give-ukraine-heavy-tanks-as-german-leos-are-on-hold/ (01-02-2023)

[2] http://www.indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-global/us-germany-to-send-worlds-deadliest-tanks-to-ukraine-what-does-this-mean-for-russia-and-the-war-8409327/ (01-02-2023)

[3] www.thedefensepost.com/2022/06/10/spain-leopard-tanks-ukraine/ (01-02-2023)

[4] www.sbs.com.au/news/article/australia-and-france-strike-deal-for-ukraine-but-experts-say-its-just-a-drop-in-the-ocean/1npr6e2il (01-02-2023)

[5] www.airandspaceforces.com/ukraine-wants-f-16s-the-u-s-and-nato-arent-budging/ (01-02-2023)

[6] https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2023-01-30-washington-post–the-us-will-not-send-its-tanks-to-ukraine-until-the-end-of-the-year.SkbzHb6V2j.html (01-02-2023)

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMcpFJ9cKFM (01-02-2023)

[8] www.cairnsnews.org/2022/12/24/26-australian-bushmasters-burnt-to-the-ground-at-the-odessa-port-after-being-offloaded/ (01-02-2023)

[9] www.rageagainstwar.com/#Home (01-02-2023)

[10] www.rageagainstwar.com/rallies/ (01-02-2023)

[11] www.rageagainstwar.com/#Speakers (01-02-2023)

[12] www.rageagainstwar.com/#Coalition (01-02-2023)

[13] www.liberationnews.org/anti-war-marchers-honor-mlk-say-no-to-nato-proxy-war-in-ukraine/ (01-02-2023)

[14] www.struggle-la-lucha.org/2023/01/19/stop-the-u-s-war-on-donbass-russia-china/ (01-02-2023)

[15] www.liberationnews.org/u-s-capitalism-surrenders-to-covid/ (04-02-2023)

[16] www.workers.org/2022/12/68207/ (04-02-2023)

[17] www.socialistalternative.org/2020/03/06/socialists-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/ (04-02-2023)

[18] www.socialistaction.org/2021/11/26/critique-of-leftwing-antivax-disinformation-antivaxxers-of-all-stripes-pose-a-serious-threat-to-public-health/ (04-02-2023)

[19] www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/30/pers-m30.html (04-02-2023)

[20] www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/1173/covid.html (04-02-2023)

[21] www.internationalist.org/fascistic-forces-lead-anti-vaccine-protests-2204.html (04-02-2023)

[22] www.bolshevik.org/statements/ibt_20200318_covid19.html (04-02-2023)

[23] www.bolsheviktendency.org/2020/04/11/covid-19-a-geo-political-watershed/ (04-02-2023)

[24] www.antiwar.com/2023/01/30/new-rand-report-says-a-long-war-in-ukraine-is-against-us-interests/ (04-02-2023)

[25] www.taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-general-china-war-memo-minihan/ (04-02-2023)