Is Russia Now Suddenly an Imperialist Power? [Photo: 2008, South Ossetians Celebrating Russias Recognition of Their Nation] In 2008, in the war between Georgia and the people of South Ossetia, Russia intervened on the side of the people of South Ossetia. Russia actually didnt invade Georgia. Their intervention was on behalf of the South Ossetians whose independence was threatened by a U.S. and Israeli backed invasion by Georgia. Georgias claim to South Ossetia comes from the days of Stalin when Stalin abolished the Ossetian Republic that had been set up under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky. The Republic has had real independence from Georgia (through struggle) since the break-up of the USSR, but this has not received its deserved recognition from the international community, with the U.S. backing Georgias claim. Russias military intervention helped the ethnic Ossetians maintain their independence. The capitalist government of Russia has many problems, and needs to be overthrown in a proletarian revolution that brings back the socialist planned economy and brings workers democracy. Yet, Russias support for the sovereignty of South Ossetia, Ukraine, and Syria from the religious fanatics, genocidal maniacs, and extreme nationalists sponsored by the imperialist governments of the U.S. and E.U. are relatively minor actions by a weak capitalist country. Russias relatively minor role in the world in opposition to the hegemony of U.S. imperialism doesnt make Russia an imperialist power. Instead, Russia is a relatively small capitalist counterweight to U.S. imperialist hegemony in the world, somewhat similar to Venezuela. Likewise, Obamas 2008 coup in Honduras overthrew a government that raised the minimum wage and was friendly to Venezuela. The coup brought back U.S. sponsored death squads to Honduras. Like Russias opposition to the U.S. coup in Ukraine, capitalist Venezuela opposed that coup. This, however, did not make Venezuela imperialist. In Ukraine, what was carried out was a coup detate. It was a coup d’etate in part because the elected president was overthrown by the force of small imperialist backed armed bands of rioters who had the threat of crippling economic sanctions from the United States and European Union backing them. This forced President Yanukovych to use less force than he needed to. This also pushed various representatives within the capitalist state to back the coup. Those who did not, not only faced the threat of economic sanctions, which their capitalist backers would hate, they also faced direct violence and threats of violence from the Euromaiden movement itself. Far from being a revolution that sprang from the masses of Ukraine, this was an imperialist engineered coup detate. Fake Trotskyists who pretend there is an equal sign between the U.S. / E.U. led coup, carried out largely by neo-Nazis, and the friendly relations Russia has had with the elected government of Ukraine is absolutely absurd. Yes, Russia has stood up for their national capitalist interests in Ukraine. Yet, defending their national interests in Ukraine has consisted of offering a better trade deal than the United States. The U.S., on the other hand, has overthrown the elected government with a far right movement that is opposed to the rights of national minorities and is opposed to even bourgeois democracy. The U.S. carried out this coup as part of forcing Ukraine to accept a worse economic deal. Only a socialist revolution can secure the national sovereignty of Ukraine against U.S. and E. U. imperialism. A fundamental problem in Ukraine is the inability of bourgeois representatives to stand up to the threats of U.S. and E.U. imperialism. Under capitalism, it is the wealthy capitalists who have the power. Ukrainian capitalists can more easily be bullied by these big imperialist powers than the working class because the working class have so much more to lose from EU demands of IMF austerity, dissolving of Ukraines more protective Soviet era labor laws, increases in heating fuel prices in the midst of a cold winter (a measure demanded by the IMF that will kill poor people), an anti-democratic coup government with strong fascist tendencies, and the elimination of rights for national minorities. In addition, capitalism has brought drastic decreases in wages and 41% unemployment. Under a socialist planned economy everyone in Ukraine had a job. Socialism with workers democracy (i.e. minus repressive Stalinist rule) is the road forward for Ukraine. To achieve this will take reforging a Leninist-Trotskyist Party within the heartland of the Russian Revolution. Likewise, for many of us in the imperialist centers, the kind of imperialist intervention being carried out by Obama everywhere, including Ukraine, Syria, Venezuela, Libya, Honduras, and Cuba is unacceptable. Yet, this imperialist system of exploitation and violence never changes, no matter who is president and no matter how much we protest. That is because we are up against an entire system, not just a set of bad policies. The United States is imperialist because it is the wealthy who own the capitalist state and the capitalist economy. To gain maximum return on investment, they always fight for the subjugation and maximum exploitation of the world on their behalf. The only way to end U.S. imperialism is by liquidating the capitalist class and organizing a planned socialist economy in the United States, changes that we will only be able to achieve through proletarian revolution. To be prepared for the revolutionary opportunities of the future, the revolutionary party must be built today. -Steven Argue of the Revolutionary Tendency.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Feb 2014 15:28:55 +0000
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