For the Independence of Soviet Ukraine

by Zbigniew Marcin Kowalewski

Abstract: Written in 1989, this article tells the true but unknown and dramatic story of Bolsheviks faced during the civil war with an unexpected national revolution of the oppressed Ukrainian people, the conflict-ridden relationships between Russian and Ukrainian communists and the great dilemma of what should be Ukraine: a part of the Soviet but, as in the imperial past, “one and indivisible” Russia or an independent Soviet state?1

Despite the giant step forward taken by the October Revolution in the domain of national relations, the isolated proletarian revolution in a backward country proved incapable of solving the national question, especially the Ukrainian question which is, in its very essence, international in character. The Thermidorian reaction, crowned by Bonapartist bureaucracy, has thrown the toiling masses far back in the national sphere as well. The great masses of the Ukrainian people are dissatisfied with their national fate and wish to change it drastically. It is this fact that the revolutionary politician must, in contrast to the bureaucrat and the sectarian, take as his point of departure. If our critic were capable of thinking politically, he would have surmised without much difficulty the arguments of the Stalinists against the slogan of an independent Ukraine: “It negates the position of the defence of the Soviet Union”; “disrupts the unity of the revolutionary masses”; “serves not the interests of revolution but those of imperialism”. In other words, the Stalinists would repeat all the three arguments of our author. They will unfailingly, do so on the morrow. (...) The sectarian as so often happens, finds himself siding with the police, covering up the status quo, that is, police violence, by sterile speculation on the superiority of the socialist unification of nations as against their remaining divided. Assuredly, the separation of Ukraine is a liability as compared with a voluntary and equalitarian socialist federation: but it will be an unquestionable asset as compared with the bureaucratic strangulation of the Ukrainian people. in order to draw together more closely and honestly, it is sometimes necessary first to separate.2

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In this hour of great danger, in solidarity with the Ukrainian resistance
Let’s rebuild the international anti-war movement

by JOHNSON Mark, ROUSSET Pierre

We present below our understanding of the tasks facing the left, particularly in the West. We hope to contribute to the debate and the construction of the peace movement, solidarity with the Ukrainian left and social movements, refugee support and anti-racism, and the strengthening of alternatives to imperialism in the west and the east of the European subcontinent.

We live in a world of permanent war. We have experienced several nuclear alerts since the end of the Second World War. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine represents a turning point: it is the first time since 1945 that a nuclear alert has occurred in the context of a hot war in the heart of Europe.

Plusieurs générations de militants célèbrent la mémoire d’Alain Krivine

Son parti, plusieurs figures de gauche ainsi que des anonymes ont rendu hommage au dirigeant historique de la Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), décédé le 12 mars à 80 ans, lors d’une cérémonie au Père-Lachaise à Paris.

Que sont des obsèques militantes si ce n’est un pied de nez à la mort ? Dans le cas d’Alain Krivine, figure historique de la Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR), décédé le 12 mars 2022, la poursuite acharnée de l’idéal politique s’affiche sur la grande banderole rouge à l’avant du cortège qui accompagne l’homme au cimetière parisien du Père-Lachaise : « Ce n’est qu’un début, continuons le combat ».

Anastasie, retraitée anonyme, non encartée, est venue marcher avec plusieurs centaines de personnes entre la place de la Nation et le Père-Lachaise lundi 21 mars 2022, pour célébrer « ce symbole » et « cette mémoire, surtout par les temps qui courent, si sombres ». Pour elle, Krivine, ce sont les « gueux qui en remontrent », Mai-68, le combat contre la guerre du Vietnam et celle d’Algérie.

De jeunes militantes et militants, en haut de la rue des Pyrénées, reprennent avec ferveur la filiation, entonnant un air connu des manifestations françaises : « Première, deuxième, troisième génération, nous sommes toutes et tous des camarades d’Alain ! »

Obsèques d'Alain Krivine, à Paris, le 21 mars 2022. © Alain JOCARD / AFP

Alain Krivine : un intègre en révolution

par PLENEL Edwy

Avec le décès d’Alain Krivine, le 12 mars, à 80 ans, s’en va la dernière figure militante de Mai 68 restée fidèle à ses révoltes de jeunesse, mêlant anti-impérialisme, anti-stalinisme et anticapitalisme. Sa personnalité ajoutait à cette fidélité une évidente intégrité, à rebours des ambitions de pouvoir et des sectarismes de parti.

« Ça te passera avec l’âge. » Quand, en 2006, Alain Krivine accepta de raconter non pas sa vie mais une « aventure collective » à l’emblème du « possible d’une révolution démocratique », il choisit cette phrase pour titre de son récit.

ALAIN KRIVINE EST MORT

Notre camarade Alain Krivine nous a quittés aujourd’hui, à l’âge de 80 ans. Nous, camarades du NPA, nous associons à la douleur de sa famille, de ses proches, et de toutes celles et tous ceux qui se sont reconnus dans les combats qu’il a menés.

Durant plus de 65 ans, Alain a été un infatigable militant, présent dans toutes les luttes contre les ravages du système capitaliste, contre les injustices, pour l’émancipation.

Militant exclu du PCF, fondateur et dirigeant de la JCR, de la LCR puis du NPA, dirigeant de la IVe Internationale, Alain n’a jamais renié ses engagements de jeunesse. Il a été, pour des générations entières de militant·e·s, un modèle de constance, une intarissable ressource, un camarade exemplaire.

Nous nous souviendrons de son abnégation, de sa chaleur, de son humour. Jusqu’à la fin de sa vie, Alain n’aura rien lâché et n’aura pas cédé à la pression du « Ça te passera avec l’âge ».

Ένα τρομερά επίκαιρο κείμενο για τον πόλεμο του Πούτιν και την στάση των αριστερών

Trotskyists and the Resistance in World War Two

By ERNEST MANDEL

(1976)

I want to go into the question of the resistance movement in Europe between 1940 and 1944 in detail. I want to do so especially because some comrades for whom I have respect, and whom I hope to see back in the Fourth International, the comrades of the Lutte Ouvrière group in France, have made it their special point of honour to raise this question against the Fourth International.

From the foundation of the Communist International, communists were educated in a principled rejection of the idea of “national defence” or “defence of the fatherland” in the imperialist countries. This meant a total refusal to have anything to do with imperialist wars. The Trotskyist movement was educated in the same spirit. This was all the more necessary with the right-wing turn of the Comintern and the Stalin-Laval pact in 1935, which turned the Stalinists in the West European countries, and in some colonial countries, into the worst advocates of pro-imperialist chauvinism.

Liberté et démocratie pour les peuples d’Ukraine

Για να διαβάσετε τα κείμενα, κλικάρετε το link
(τα μπλε γράμματα):

Liberté et démocratie pour les peuples d'Ukraine.pdf

Pour réagir à l’agression de la Russie poutinienne contre l’Ukraine, les éditions Syllepse (Paris), Page 2 (Lausanne) et M Éditeur (Montréal), les revues New Politics (New York), Les Utopiques (Paris) et ContreTemps (Paris), les sites À l’encontre (Lausanne) et Europe solidaire sans frontières, le blog Entre les lignes entre les mots (Paris) et le Réseau syndical international de solidarité et de luttes se sont associés pour coéditer Liberté et démocratie pour les peuples d’Ukraine.

Αντι-ιμπεριαλιστική αλληλεγγύη με τον ουκρανικό λαό

Συνέντευξη με τον Ζιλμπέρ Ασκάρ

Julia Steinberger
(Lead Author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report):
Universal well-being within planetary boundaries

Professor Julia Steinberger researches and teaches in the interdisciplinary areas of Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology. Her research examines the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic activity and human wellbeing). She is interested in quantifying the current and historical linkages between resource use and socioeconomic parameters, and identifying alternative development pathways to guide the necessary transition to a low carbon society. She is the recipient of a Leverhulme Research Leadership Award for her research project ‘Living Well Within Limits’ investigating how universal human well-being might be achieved within planetary boundaries.

Europe: The rulers of the great powers are playing with fire

by ACHCAR Gilbert

It is not an exaggeration to say that what is currently happening in the heart of the European continent is the most dangerous moment in contemporary history and the closest to a Third World war since the Soviet missile crisis in Cuba in 1962.

True, neither Moscow nor Washington has hinted at the use of nuclear weapons so far, although there can be no doubt that the two countries did put their nuclear arsenals on standby in the face of the current circumstances. It is also true that the level of military alert in America has not yet reached the level it reached in 1962. But Russian military build-up at the borders of Ukraine exceeds the levels of troop concentration at a European border witnessed in the warmest moments of the “Cold War,” while Western verbal escalation against Russia has reached a dangerous level accompanied by military gestures and preparations that create a real possibility of a conflagration.

Chili, Irlande, France : Hommage à Helena - « Nous nous sommes connus, Helena et moi... »

par Norman

Nous nous sommes connus, Helena et moi, fonctionnaires du Service national de la santé au Chili, et nous étions aussi des syndicalistes. L’action syndicale fut sa première expérience, dans la voie d’une prise de conscience aigüe sur les inégalités qui divisent la population des sociétés capitalistes et de la nécessité de se battre pour y mettre fin.

Forty Years Later, Reds Is Still One of the Best Films Ever Made About Revolutionary Politics

By Jim Poe (Jacobin magazine)

In 1981, Warren Beatty directed Reds, a retelling of John Reed’s classic firsthand account of the Russian Revolution. The film still stands up today as one of the greatest and most faithful depictions of revolutionary politics.

Reds is a grand-scale historical drama based around the life and career of John Reed, a North American journalist who traveled to Russia to chronicle the Revolution. Based on his firsthand observations, Reed wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, his 1919 classic account of the events of the Revolution which took place two years prior.

A success for CADTM: the world assembly of the network, held in Dakar from 13-16 November, 2021

The Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) network held its conventional World Assembly from 13-16 November 2021, at Dakar, Senegal. This was the third World Assembly after the first in Morocco (May 2013) and the second in Tunisia (April 2016), all held on the African soil. This major event was held for 4 days, simultaneously in person (with 37 delegates, 19 women and 18 men) and online (34 participants), with a large women’s representation.

A Survey of Comintern Auxiliary Organizations – Part 8: 

The Red Sports International (1921–1937)
Harnessing Recreation to the Revolution

by RIDDELL John

On 23 June 1921, a gathering of about 20 Communists in Moscow founded an international association to unify “revolutionary proletarian sports and gymnastics organizations … into support centers for the proletariat in its class struggle.”[1]

Merging sports and class struggle on a global scale? A tall order, to be sure. But the 1921 Moscow initiative rested on two solid pillars: the traditions of the prewar Second International and the achievements of the young Soviet republic.

The Moscow consultation on sports brought together delegates from eight countries who happened to be attending the Third World Congress of the Communist International then in session. However, the initiative came not from the Comintern but from Nikolai Podvoisky, head of the Soviet Council for Physical Culture, an agency charged with preparing Soviet youth for military conscription.[2]

Socialist strategy and the party

by Gilbert Achcar

Below is the transcript of a talk titled “Marxism, socialist strategy, and the party” by Gilbert Achcar, which was delivered to the South African initiative, Dialogues for an Anti-capitalist Future. Here, Achcar traces conceptions of the party from Marx to the present and its implications for socialist strategy today. This transcript has been revised, edited and completed by Gilbert Achcar. The original video recording of the talk can be found here.

Thank you for inviting me to address this meeting. It’s a great opportunity for me to discuss these issues with comrades from Africa, the continent where I was born and raised as a native of Senegal.