For a free and sovereign Ukraine

Statement of the International Labor Network of Solidarity and Struggles

Stop Russian aggression in Ukraine! No NATO! For a free and sovereign Ukraine for working men and women!
from the International Labor Network

[This statement published on 2/28/2022 is translated from the German on the Internet, SoZ – Sozialistische Zeitung » Erklärung des International Labor Network of Solidarity and Struggles]

On Thursday, Feb. 24, Russia began military operations in Ukraine after Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Russian troops have entered the Donbass area and attacked suspected military facilities. There are reports and records of shelling and ground attacks throughout Ukraine, including in the capital, Kiev.

The Putin government's offensive is aimed at weakening military resistance in order to overthrow the Zelensky government, which is subordinate to U.S., NATO, and EU imperialist interests.

We cannot accept the intervention and military repression of the population set in motion by Russia; it is equally unacceptable to open any space to the representatives of imperialism who are trying to expand their rule by means of wars that ensure profits and more power for the capitalists.

The Russian military invasion has dramatic consequences for the displacement of the population, the deterioration of the living conditions of workers, the restriction of trade union and other democratic freedoms.

The war benefits only the powerful, the arms dealers and the capitalists. The workers, the people suffer death, deprivation of liberty, rape, plunder, destruction. The military and economic consequences extend beyond the territory of Ukraine.

But contrary to what the European governments, the bosses and the bourgeoisie want us to believe, there are already many other wars in the world! They are fueled by the arms sales of those who pretend to deplore this war in Ukraine. To be against war means to reject militarism, arms race and arms sales.....

We condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine and express our full solidarity with the people under attack. For the self-determination of the peoples of Ukraine and for a Ukraine free from the claws of Russia, NATO and the American and European imperialists !

Russian troops out of Ukraine !

Dissolve NATO. U.S. troops and bases out of Western and Eastern European countries !

We call on the organizations of the International Labor Network of Solidarity and Struggles to join the anti-war mobilizations in the coming days.

We support those in Russia who reject Putin's policies because they are fighting for peace, solidarity between peoples, against nationalism and against the extreme right. We support those in Ukraine who reject xenophobic, exclusionary and fascist policies.

Solidarity with the independent trade unionists of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland ... their demands and statements are reproduced on the website of the International Labor Network of Solidarity and Struggles.

http://www.laboursolidarity.org/Stop-Russian-aggression-in-Ukraine

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Down with the imperialist wars!

Solidarity with the Ukrainian people against Putin's military aggression!
by Philippe Poutou (New Anti-Capitalist Party, NPA)
[This declaration published on 2/24/2022 is translated from the German on the Internet, https://www.sozonline.de/2022/02/nieder-mit-den-imperialistischen-kriegen/.]

On Wednesday night, Putin announced the start of a "military operation" in Ukraine. This started from the land or naval forces stationed in the three border areas of Ukraine. The goal of this war, since it must be called that, according to Putin, is to "demilitarize" and "denazify" Ukraine - not without first carving up and annexing territories that, to this day, it is not known how far they will extend.

In reality, this military adventure is that of an imperial power trying to fulfill two objectives: against the self-determination of the entire Ukrainian population and against the expansionist will of the US-led NATO.

For several days, the situation had been tense and escalating, provocations followed escalations, until finally it came to the war that we have been witnessing for several hours. First, a pseudo "peacekeeping force" was sent into the territories of the puppet republics of Luhansk and Donetsk (one-third of the Donbass), previously recognized as independent, which meant the de facto end of any policy to update the Minsk Agreement and, moreover, of any possibility for the people of Ukraine to decide their own fate.

The bombing of several cities in Ukraine - including the capital Kiev, Odessa, Kharkiv, or even in the west of the country not far from the border with Poland marks a qualitative leap in a war dynamic that no one can say how far it can go. The Ukrainian Border Guard also announced that Russian ground forces had indeed entered the country. And as always, it is the peoples who pay the price for the wars. Thus, in addition to the 40 deaths in the Ukrainian army reported by Kiev, the deaths of a dozen civilian:inside is a harbinger of the coming catastrophe.

The policies of the major Western powers show how ineffective and dangerous the expansion of NATO and the sanctions against Russia are. There must be no military solution to the Ukraine conflict, as this risks the use of nuclear weapons and a conflagration in the region unprecedented since World War II. The merciless war for energy threatens all peoples.

We condemn the military aggression that Putin's Russia has just launched against Ukraine, for which there can be no justification. We also condemn the policy of maintaining and expanding NATO since 1991 (that is, after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact), which, like Russian great power logic, manifests the imperial ambitions of the U.S. and its allies in disregard of the rights of peoples. We support the social and political forces in Ukraine who are fighting both Putin's disregard for the right of self-determination and the privatization of their country by oligarchs and against their anti-democratic regime.

We call for building an internationalist mobilization in solidarity with the different sections of the Ukrainian people, against all kinds of policies that attack them, and for the demilitarization of international relations.

For the withdrawal of all Russian forces from Ukraine.
For the immediate halt to the expansion of NATO and, beyond that, for its dissolution
For the cancellation of the debts that burden Ukraine
For the right of the peoples to self-determination

On this basis, the NPA calls for the various solidarity rallies that will take place in the coming days, starting with the rally that will take place today at 6 pm in the Place de la République [in Paris].

Montreuil, February 24, 2022