No to War, No to NATO in Ukraine

Reports from the Ukraine suggest Ukrainians are resisting the Russian military intervention with a determination and solidarity that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin may have seriously underestimated. Hundreds of thousands have fled to neighbouring countries with equal numbers displaced internally. The Russian intervention overlays an internal civil war that has been festering in the eastern Ukraine for eight years and is now intertwined with a war of national defense and for national sovereignty. And the entire region, from the Baltics to the Black Sea, has been subjected for two decades to NATO and US geo-military strategies to enlarge NATO and put in place forward military positions that encircle Russia. In Russia, spirited anti-war protests have sprung up across the country and been met with the state repression that has characterized the Putin presidency. We condemn the military intervention, reiterate our support for self-determination and opposition to NATO, and give our fullest solidarity to the anti-war movements in Russia, across Europe, and in North America.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, many looked forward to the ‘peace dividend’ that would result from the reduction of defense spending and relaxation of the constant state of wartime readiness that had characterized the tense years of the Cold War. It soon became clear, however, that this was not to be, as a new American bipartisan consensus emerged around the perpetuation of global military dominance, both in the Third World as well as in relation to Russia.

This posture was cemented during the Bill Clinton administration, which reoriented NATO policy from the ‘containment’ of the Cold War period to ‘enlargement’ by expanding the alliance to incorporate most of Eastern Europe – and eventually right up to Russia’s doorstep – despite prior assurances to Russia. Though some foreign policy ‘realists’, hardly opposed to the expansion of American power, recognized the dangers of such a confrontational posture, especially in light of Russia’s nuclear capabilities, US policy remained oriented around securing its global dominance regardless of the potential consequences for human life.

This policy resulted in a doubling of the number of NATO countries after the Cold War, widely recognized by American planners as a direct threat to Russian security interests. Now, three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, the US continues to push aggressively for Ukraine to be brought into NATO. The US has used both its diplomatic and military capacities to support and install forces in that country that are friendly to this objective – including mobilizing and collaborating with neo-Nazi and other hard-right elements. This continuous provocation has now precipitated Russia to draw the line, and to undertake a criminal and bloody war of aggression.

This war, and the suffering that the geo-political strategies of imperial rivals has wrought on the Ukrainian people, must end. But a durable international peace demands more than merely a Russian withdrawal from the current conflict. Rather, this also requires disbanding NATO, a military alliance whose express purpose is building a hostile alliance against Russia. A first step toward this is halting its eastward expansion, foremost through an agreement on the neutrality of Ukraine. This also requires immediate steps toward nuclear disarmament, which is the only way to finally bring an end to the grotesque logic of ‘mutually assured destruction’ and the current upgrading of a nuclear and ballistic missile systems.

If the Canadian government is truly concerned with peace, it would speak up for a sovereign and neutral Ukraine that stands outside an unnecessary military alliance. It would also play a leading international role in building support for immediate reductions in the nuclear arsenals of all states. The current Liberal government in Ottawa is doing the exact opposite.

No to War. No to NATO. No to Nukes.

The following statement on Russia’s assault in Ukraine was issued February 26 by Pugwash, an assembly of eminent scientists that defines its mission as bringing “scientific insight and reason to bear on … the catastrophic threat posed to humanity by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.” It is named after the Nova Scotia fishing village where its assembled scientists first met in 1957 in response to a Manifesto issued in 1955 by Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein.

The statement sets out the necessary steps to a resolution, starting with an immediate ceasefire, and withdrawal of all foreign forces and a negotiated neutral status for Ukraine.

Any enduring settlement must address the internal divisions within Ukraine, where since the 2014 Maiden revolt successive regimes have deprived the substantial Russian-speaking minority in the eastern regions of their language in education and the media. The Pugwash statement refers to this in its point 3. Restoration of Russian language rights is a precondition to the creation of any meaningful unity of the working class in a sovereign Ukraine. — Socialist Project Steering Committee