Class Struggle 144

Autumn 2023
Editorial:

Aotearoa: let’s decolonize our Rip, Shit

and Bust crisis of semi-colonial capitalism!
The 200-year ‘weather event’ of Cyclone Gabrielle everything according to need. When tribes went to
was a momentary deluge compared with NZs 200 war and captured enemies, they did so as ‘utu’, a
years of colonisation. Let’s get things in perspective. form of reciprocity to restore a balance between
There is nothing natural about either, but tribes and nature, not to please any local or foreign
colonisation frames the conditions for the cyclone. king.
This was nature warning us that if we don’t act to The colonists fought wars to privatise the land,
undo our past we are doomed to extinction. destroying the forests and wetlands ripping out raw
When Marx talked of the modern theory of commodities for the imperialist motherland, shitting
colonisation revealing the hidden secret of on the environment, and busting the natural order
capitalism, he was right on the mark. Capitalism in the process. This was overseen by kings and
was not possible without separating the indigenous queens who claimed divine rights over the suffering
people from their lands to create private property masses.
as the basis of their exploitation. Today these regimes of naked emperors are now
Killing two birds with one stone, labour was locked into a war dance of death and destruction in
separated from the land and starved of its means of which the immiserated masses are ground down as
subsistence to create a class of landless labourers cannon fodder. It follows that to escape the
ripe for exploitation. Colonisation was all about inevitable destruction of a rip, shit and bust
‘Aotearoa- the land of the wrong white rent- economy we must decolonise our capitalist past.
seekers’. When un-natural events threaten to overwhelm us,
But this was not an isolated event in Aotearoa. we fall back on what seems to be our social instincts
When capitalism alienated humanity from nature of solidarity and sharing. What we do not see at first,
it created the capitalocene – the obscenity of a is that solidarity and sharing was part of our human
colonised world where ‘progress’ was measured by story, beginning over 200,000 years ago.
the destruction of nature. Wealth was the For many millennia humans lived in large family
accumulated dead labour of humans and the communes in which adaptation to nature led to
appropriation of nature’s bounty.
social selection of genes which favoured cooperation
Privatising nature set in motion the forces of and sharing.
destruction of the planet that now shows its rage in
Many such societies still survive on the margins of the
the rain-dark clouds, floods and whipping winds. capitalocene, and remain as part of our human
The warming ocean disrupts the jet-stream which phenotype. The disruption of these societies in the
oscillates wildly across the latitudes bringing with it
last two millennia by colonisation and kings reached
the promise of climate catastrophe.
its peak with the arrival of capitalism in the 1700s.
So, when we suffer growing disruptions to our lives Capitalist globalisation was the rip, shit and bust
from pandemics, climate catastrophes and colonisation of the commune writ large. But today
economic crashes, remember that these are not we can see more clearly that this was a relatively
natural events. Colonisation destroyed the harmony short deviation in human history, that can be set
of indigenous societies organised as families, tribes or right by decolonising the capitalocene and
clans, adapted to nature, cooperating in returning to the human commune.
reproducing the material world, and sharing
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

Women and the Birth of Humanity

A recent twitter thread welcomes an important rather than philanderers? The authors of the new
new article whose findings support the 'Blood article may not recognise this was the first social act
Relations' theory of the origin of human society first of primates as humans, but that is the substance of
proposed by Chris Knight in 1991. The article the sex strike theory their findings support.
documents the widespread use of red ochre One can see how it vindicates Marx’, Engels’ and
(mainly) on cave paintings of women as illustrative Luxemburg’s concept of ‘primitive communism’ by
of the monthly menstruation rituals in Africa from showing how women’s collective action gave birth
approx. 160,000 peaking to a social relation of
to around 40,000 years production which
ago. The study concludes survived for over 100,000
that the only theory that
years.
explains this distribution
and use of red ochre over Of course, the story does
such a period and in not end there as the rapid
across a number of sites in decline in the use of red
Africa, is that of Knight’s ochre in Africa after
‘sex strike’ theory. 40,000 years ago
suggests that the
Chris Knights Blood transition into the
Relations theory argues domestication of plants
that women in Mesolithic and animals added more
times organised sex strikes nutrients for children’s
to get men to hunt and brain growth to that of
provide enough food for hunting and gathering.
the growing energy This allowed men over
demands of big brains of around 70,000 years to
their children, signifying gradually exert their
the existence of the first control over the means of
organised human society. production and
Distribution of ritual red ochre use in the Middle Stone Age.
The Female Cosmetic eventually form a new
Coalition hypothesis argues that the ritual use of red mode of production – a Domestic or Slave mode as
ochre to symbolise menstrual blood played a critical women became the first slaves to constitute an
role in this revolution. This was the first collective oppressed slave class. It is likely that the overthrow
social act that created a social relation of continued until around 10,000 years ago, the
production in which women selected men as commonly agreed timing of the dominance of the
partners to cooperate in the reproduction of domestic/slave mode.
children. Ritual use of ochre in the cave drawings is
This timeline fits with the evidence that the
more evidence that women made collective
transition to private property and slavery met
decisions to deny men sex in order to get food in resistance from women fighting to defend the
exchange. Anthropology in the 20th century has communal social relations. As a class struggle in
provided plenty of evidence of how widespread this which women defending nature resisted a male
practice was based on synchronizing menstruation ruling class, conflict between dominant and
with the moons monthly cycle. subordinated modes began a process of uneven and
Is this not more proof of the first social revolution combined development similar to that described by
when humans transcended primate natural Trotsky in the History of the Russian Revolution
selection through the conscious social selection by from the standpoint of 1930 when Russia was a
women of men who were ‘responsible’ child carers
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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

fusion of pre-capitalist, capitalist and emerging on multidisciplinary teams and is reviving the view
socialist modes of production. of the ancient commune widely held before its
suppression by a Western anthropology hostile to
This ‘articulation of modes of production’ theory
Marxism.
developed in recent Marxist anthropology confirms
the position that the overthrow of ‘mother right’ by One notable recent competing theory is that of
the patriarchal family continued to generate David Graeber and David Wengrow, who in their
resistance in the tributary modes of production and recent book, The Dawn of Everything argue against
the capitalist mode of production. The articulation any original commune. Their method is a radical
of modes is ‘uneven’ since the earlier modes are bourgeois empiricist rejection of a pre-determined
weaker, and as ‘combined’ modes they testify to evolutionary dogma that fails to cope with the
their continued resistance over the dominant diversity and complexity of human society. The
modes. absence of Marxism in their work is pointedly
obvious. Yet the material
For Marx, Engels and
presented in their book
Luxemburg, the ‘world
fits neatly with a non-
historic defeat of women’
dogmatic Marxist theory
led to the original class
of evolution. Rather than
society in which men
face this challenge to
ruled over women. Yet
meet Marxism head on,
this defeat has never the authors end up
suppressed women’s
replacing the grand old
resistance to class society
narratives of pre-
ever since. We can see determined stages of
women in contemporary
development with the
lineage modes today still
grand new narrative of a
body painting in
21st century anarchist
menstrual rituals to version of the radical
influence males to
bourgeois individual.
cooperate in their sex
roles. This strengthens the Girl's menarcheal ritual -- here among the Kua (G/wi or The postulated
//Gana), photo Valiente-Noailles
evidence that women over ubiquitous blossoming of
10,000 years refused to be slaves and in some parts an anarchic ‘free will’ is substituted for the historical
of the world still maintain a degree of autonomy contradiction of kinship with kingship, of competing
from men. modes of production, where the original commune
rules for millennia, is overturned and women
To date, no other historical and contemporary enslaved, struggles to resist kingship, is suppressed,
evidence explain how body painting rituals to
rebels again, and is never fully subordinated.
collectively socially select the cooperation of men
enabled more than 100,000 years of egalitarian Far from being a schematic social
social relations, and the rise of the big brain! The evolution through the rear-view mirror
argument in support of the ‘sex strike theory’ is of bourgeois ‘civilisation’, this resistance
taken a lot further in the Radical Anthropology
Group publications online. is the ongoing class struggle of the
residual commune that survived the
When there are those who argue that none of this is
proved by the evidence so far, the onus is on them overthrow of women, their historic
to provide an equally powerful theory. exploitation as slaves, serfs and wage
Explanations are only ever as good as the most labour, as class struggle, and represents
elegant theory at any given moment which today the potential for the return of the
eliminates the influence of ideology in distorting commune in modern form.
theory and practice. Recent work in this field draws

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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

The Queering of the Census

The 2023 Census is an attempt to cover up and women to legitimize them as sex slaves. So there arises a
legitimize the queering of sex. By queering we mean new form of patriarchy in the 21st century to complete
making something appear as its opposite, that is the the job of oppressing women, erasing their existence as a
inversion of reality, essence as appearance. Marx biological sex. They are re-named, re-stereotyped, and
re-counted as a gender ‘identity’ open to men as acts of
used it to denote the essence of labour exploitation
free choice all recorded and validated in the Census!
appearing as a fair exchange in the market. In the
present context, the reality of the homophobic The Census enables gender ideology and the re-
patriarchal family appears as performative forms of enslavement of women. Gender becomes an
its opposite, the liberation of transwomen and independent variable (not dependent on any external
social factor) along with age and ethnicity to be used in
transmen from sex oppression. Here, performative
describing the NZ population. Sex is coded as an
means the postmodern idea that if we act out our
‘identity’ completing the fiction that it is ‘assigned’ at
fantasies, they become part of a self-chosen real- birth as a gender. All the information collected by the
life. Census will therefore be shaped to reflect the delusion
For example, AGP (Autogynephilia - the male fetish of that gender, rather than sex, is a determinant of the ‘life
being a woman) is now the license to build back chances’ of individuals.
patriarchy better. By this we mean that sex must be By abolishing biological sex, a structural determinant of
abolished and transed away as the sexist homophobic social life, the fact that capitalist social relations defines
answer to same sex attraction. Lesbian girls are pressured ones position in society is replaced by the belief that an
into becoming transmen. Men terrorise them to mutilate act of ‘free will’ can over-ride social determinants as a
their own bodies. Men who cannot get women’s consent simple matter of personal choice. Gender oppression is
for sex (Incels – involuntary celibates who cannot thus rendered as gender freedom.
penetrate the ‘cotton ceiling’) are now state licensed to
become ‘transwomen’ and lesbians who demand the The ideological denial of biological and sexual social
right to rape real lesbians in state institutions. relations in the Census will have a major impact in
masking of the reality of 21st century capitalism. The
The reality of girls transing to escape men, and grown power of women as a biological sex class in playing a key
men transing to oppress women has a common cause. role in leading the working class in the overthrow
Both are the result of a new attack on women, patriarchal capitalism is critically compromised. In its
particularly lesbians. Trans ideology in the 21st century is place are egocentric fantasists whose postmodern denial
a reactionary throwback to the historic overthrow of of reality celebrates a dying capitalism taking humanity
women’s control of their reproduction in order to exploit to its grave.
them as sex slaves and break their resistance to the
overthrow of patriarchal capitalism. Karl Marx and Fred Engels made a path-breaking
critique of post-modernism at its very inception in The
The modern form of patriarchy is the queering of sex as German Ideology around 1847. Their targets were the
gender. Gender, men’s oppression of women, is German bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, in particular
celebrated as a cultural/legal tool to erase women Max Stirner, whose bourgeois radicalism amounted to
completely. It does not need to repeat the horror of the belief that individuals are determined, not by
original patriarchal overthrow of women to gain control biology or society “as it is” but by their own creative
over their bodies as a force of production. It is worse. It imaginations. What matters as real is not the events that
subjects girls and women to self-mutilation and rape to shape us behind our backs, that is ‘nothing’, but our ‘self-
overcome their resistance as a potentially revolutionary discoveries’ of our ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ reflected in the mirror.
force capable of taking back the forces of production
and our restore harmony with nature. The call by Speak Up for Women to
#boycottcensus23 is the only response possible
So today when capitalism is facing its terminal crisis,
women, the sex that has represented the fightback of for women and men who support them to resist
nature against the patriarchy and parasitic capitalism, the coding of their oppression as a human right
must be neutralised and enslaved. To do this the for men in the database of the patriarchal
patriarchy re-enacts its historic ritual domination of capitalist state.

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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

China vs US in the Asia Pacific

Jane Kelsey’s latest piece in TDB, The US-Driven IPEF – The US has failed to re-colonise Russia and China to win
“what is this thing?” is about the Indo-Pacific Economic control of Eurasia. The victory of capitalism of
Framework (IPEF) recent meeting in Brisbane. ‘communism’ to End History tastes sour when Russia and
China have become transformed into powerful
“IPEF is the centrepiece of the US’s strategy to counter
imperialist rivals. The US led West knows that the
the influence of China in the Asia Pacific, alongside the
oncoming global economic collapse is about the survival
explicitly security-focused Quad with Japan, Australia
of the fittest, that it is running out of time, and must now
and India.”
gamble on an all or nothing, zero-sum, fight to the finish.
It is obvious “what this thing is.” From Obama’s pivot, to
NZ in joining the US led bloc is choosing the losing side in
Trump’s trade war to Biden’s call to stop China taking
this historic endgame, and risking taking us to our doom
over the world, NZ is being sucked towards AUKUS and
in a nuclear WW3. NZ is already part of the wider NATO
QUAD (which tries to break India from Russia under
group of nations being prepared to provoke China into
pressure from the US, Japan and Australia), and into a
war over Taiwan. Propaganda pressure to ‘love the US’
wider NATO East where NZ is in danger of signing up to
and ‘hate China’ is building. Workers need to wake up
obligations to join the US coming war on China over
and stop NZ supporting US/NATOs war against Russia in
Taiwan. The recent meeting of the IPEF updated the
Ukraine and condemn both US/NATO and Russia for
Asia Pacific partners in the methods of economic warfare
using Ukraine as a proxy in a new world war. They must
where the US uses its hegemonic power extend further
campaign to reject support for both imperialist blocs in
sanctions on Russia and win support for sanctions on
the coming showdown with China.
China, isolating them from Western finance, trade and
security controls. And just as we should fight to defeat the US/NATO and
Russia in Ukraine we need to be for the defeat of both
It is a desperate move because so far this strategy has
the US and China in a war in Taiwan. We must be
backfired in Ukraine and Russia and China are forging
against the US attempt to provoke war with China, and
ahead with building an alternative economic bloc,
against China responding with the occupation of
trading in their own currencies and aiming at a new
Taiwan. Despite the US and China agreeing that Taiwan
reserve currency as alternative to the US$. This bloc,
is a province of China, Ukraine can only realise its right
(BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)
to self-determination without the US or China dictating
now includes Iran and probably Saudi Arabia, Argentina
the outcome.
and Venezuela. Now we have news of a peace pact
between Iran and Saudi Arabia. This proves that China New Zealand as a semi-colony of big powers in both
is building a new bloc capable of replacing the US as the imperialist blocs, has its own right to self-determination
dominant imperialism on the planet. which can only be realised as a socialist republic in a
socialist federation of the Asia Pacific.
We are now facing a bipolar world in which the US in
decline is forced to act unilaterally to draw all its allies Moreover, this right cannot be won without recognising
and proxies into a bloc against the rise of the the right of Maaori to self-determination up to and
Russia/China led BRICS. Yet this is already having including secession from Aotearoa. To achieve these ends
problems. workers and working farmers must fight to carve out our
own neutral, independent and sustainable path to
At the recent G20, India as host, refused to allow a joint
survival in solidarity with workers everywhere.
statement condemning Russia in Ukraine, angering the
US bloc. As more rounds of trade sanctions are applied Against those who seek to push us into the arms on
to Russia, only to rebound on the US and EU, the US is one or other imperialist bloc we must be for self-
now shifting its focus on pressuring its allies to apply determination based on an independent, socialist
economic sanctions on China. It is now clear that the real republic in which Maaori can choose their own
object of the Great Game, 21st century style, is being future. In the process we set an example to the big
revived by the US in sheer desperation to stop China and majority of nations who do not want to be part of a
Russia controlling Eurasia and therefore the world. nuclear holocaust, and make use of the time we
This is not the result of some aberration, of a US gone have left to fight for the survival of humanity in a
rogue under the neo-cons or the deep state, but the free, equal, sustainable and just world. Of course, for
inevitable outcome of capitalism in terminal decline, that to happen we need to end capitalism and
incapable of developing any further. Rather it is forced create a Workers’ Government to build the socialist
to destroy the ecological conditions for its own survival as future.
well as that of human civilisation.

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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

Revising Lenin on the War in Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is a test for revolutionaries, and those who take it seriously go back to
Lenin (and Trotsky who adopted Lenin’s position on imperialist war) for guidance. Lenin
had a fully developed position on the first Imperialist War (WW1) in which national self-
determination is subordinated by inter-imperialist war. In other words, national self-
determination of colonies and semi-colonies is not possible short of the defeat of the
imperialist powers that oppress them. This is the essence of permanent revolution which
holds that national self-determination in the epoch of imperialism is not possible short of a
successful socialist revolution. In a recent article, Matthijs Krul makes an attempt to review
Lenin’s arguments on imperialist war as it applies to the war in Ukraine today. We critique
his revision of Lenin on imperialist war that falls short of a program of dual-defeatism in inter-
imperialist war necessary for the self-determination of nations as socialist republics.
Krul agrees with Lenin’s criteria on Imperialism. powers). The neutralist interpretation of Lenin’s
Russia is was imperialist for Lenin and is today. Nor argument is that this is essentially a proxy
can Russia be defended as a ‘lesser imperialist’ in any conflict between NATO and Russia, and both
war with US/NATO since all imperialist powers are sides are imperialist powers, this constitutes an
predatory inter-imperialist
‘enslavers’. He war within which
rejects a position we should take
of ‘neutrality’ in an no stance for
inter-imperialist either side and
war which would lend no political
be breaking with or material
a basic principle of support. Usually
class war. He this is joined with
agrees with Lenin’s the argument
position of turning that since Ukraine
imperialist war has a rightwing
into civil war. But bourgeois
he doesn’t think government, it
Karl Liebknecht speaks at Tiergarten Berlin December 1918
this is likely ‘at the does not deserve our support against the Russian
moment’. invasion in any case, since that would be
“There is clearly not much prospect at the tantamount to supporting rightwingers from the
moment for converting the war into class war, so left.”
we see instead the return of neutrality, but As Krul points out this is a ‘popular’ misreading of
under the banner of Lenin ... Next we must Lenin who held that neutrality in a war between the
address the ‘neutrality’ argument. This probably has US/NATO and Russia means abstention in the
a much greater purchase on the left as a whole, not civil/class war under any conditions. As Krul points
least because of the (very justified) general out civil war during and after WW1 in Russia and
tendency to oppose war and militarism, as well as Germany led to revolutionary situations - in Russia
more specifically the influence of Lenin, who is a victorious revolution. Neutrality then, is the
popularly known for his calls to oppose all sides in opposite of civil war. But Krul doesn’t draw the
WWI and to convert the inter-imperialist war into a conclusion that by taking a neutral position on
class war (something which eventually did happen imperialist war abstentionists betray workers in
in Russia and Germany, two major belligerent
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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

both the oppressor and oppressed countries. For applicable to WW2. Krul concludes that Lenin’s
Lenin the national liberation of Ukraine was historically specific political program cannot be
dependent upon the defeat of imperialism and a carried over to an epoch at an abstract level but
victorious socialist revolution. Therefore, workers must be worked out according the historically
and peasants would realise national self- specific conditions that exist at the time.
determination only on condition of the defeat the
On the Ukraine war Krul states that Lenin’s position
imperialist powers, and their bourgeois nationalist
would be against ‘neutrality’ in opposition to the
proxies, in a class war for permanent revolution.
Russian invasion. But he says nothing about
On Lenin’s method whether Lenin would see the US using Ukraine as a
proxy in the war. Perhaps he doesn’t recognise the
“Invoking Lenin” as Krul puts it, is a necessary step proxy war because the time to fight it is not right.
in testing positions on imperialist war against the That default position is the ‘popular’ view which
‘popular legacy” of invoking Lenin’s name by all rejects ‘dual defeatism’ for ‘neutrality’. Perhaps he
and sundry. We have mentioned that Krul agrees disagrees that the war is a proxy war because the
that by Lenin’s criteria Russia is imperialist today, US does not have ‘boots’ on the ground. Yet Lenin’s
and as a weaker imperialist power cannot be theory of imperialism makes it clear that every
defended. He also agrees that Lenin’s position is that aspect of imperialist rivalry short of war, from
Ukraine independence must be defended propaganda to sanctions, are means of defeating a
regardless of its bourgeois regime. However, he fails rival to destroy its economic power.
to extract from Lenin the position that dual-
defeatism in a proxy war between US/NATO and Because he rejects Lenin’s IHSC as epochal, Krul also
Ukrainian self-determination are inseparable. fails to show that the national question is subsumed
in the class question. Self-determination requires
Two questions arise for us here: how does Krul independent armed struggle against both
arrive at the view that “there is not much imperialism and the national bourgeois. That is why
prospect at the moment for converting Lenin and Trotsky called for an independent soviet
imperialist war into civil war”, and second, how Ukraine in WW1 and Trotsky repeated this demand
does he make use of Lenin against ‘political in WW2.
neutrality’ in the Ukraine war. Here we think
some clues are to be found in his analysis of We conclude that Krull’s interpretation of Lenin’s
Lenin’s method in Imperialism: The Highest method in IHSC is fundamentally wrong. It was not
Stage of Capitalism (IHSC). ‘abstraction’ back-filled concretely by ‘empiricism’.
IHSC was a huge theoretical leap in which Lenin
The answer to the both question hinge on Krul’s applied Marx’s method, incorporating the
critique of Lenin’s method. First, he claims that IHSC unfinished volumes of Capital on International
is an abstract text on economics that does not Relations, World market and the State, to develop
provide a political program – which is found in an analysis that showed how the barriers to the
other writings. Lenin’s method is ‘theoretical- accumulation of capital necessitated the export of
empiricist’ linking the emergence of finance capital capital created the imperialist epoch leading to
to the formation of monopolies to accumulate crises, wars and revolutions.
capital and backed by states competing to
Lenin’s was not an ‘empiricism’ that starts with the
(re)partition the world.
contingent events and generalises conclusions, but
Krul argues that Lenin’s empirical findings do not of dialectics that applies the act method of
justify a theory of an imperialist epoch. Lenin’s abstraction in Capital to reconstitute the many
economic definition of imperialism was contingent concrete determinations at the surface as Marx
on specific conditions of WW1. That is why Lenin did would have done had he finished his project. This
not attack Kautsky for his political position on the process is not a false juxtaposition where no aspect
war, but attacked him because his “economic of class struggle is captured in the process of
analysis of the capitalism of the time was faulty .” reconstituting a ‘succulent’ reality.
Nor was Lenin’s position on the war necessarily
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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

IHSC was a heroic attempt to take theoretical stock our lesson from Lenin, Liebknecht and Luxemburg,
of a world historic defeat sparked by the betrayal and turn our guns on our own ruling class. This is the
of the Social Democracy in 1914. The economic crisis best demonstration of our solidarity with workers
was driven by great power rivalry which led to and peasants in their struggles for national self-
inevitable war, yet when workers were armed to kill determination. We turn imperialist war into class
one another, this activated a class struggle leading war uniting workers and peasants of the oppressor
to mutinies and insurrections. countries with workers and peasants of the
oppressed countries.
The intervention of Marxist revolutionaries
(especially Lenin and the Zimmerwald Left) took Similarly, workers and peasants in the colonies and
Marx and Engels, and explained how ‘super profits’ the semi-colonies must organise as armed
shared with the independent
labour aristocracy militias to take the
had turned ‘social lead in the
democracy’ into a national struggle
reformist current from their own
in the labour national
movement and bourgeoisie who
dragged workers are incapable of
into war. Their breaking from
objective was to imperialism.
explain the Workers and
betrayal of the 2nd peasants in the
International and oppressed states
build a new may take
revolutionary President Zelensky addresses Congress in December 21, 2022, while advantage of aid
international on a Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi hold the Ukrainian flag. from rival
program against imperialist war. imperialist powers provided they make no
concessions to their own bourgeoises who connive to
Therefore, the whole purpose of Lenin’s powerful
share in the booty of the re-division of the colonial
theoretical leap, is to explain the epochal change
world.
from competitive capitalism to monopoly
capitalism. Far from being contingent on The war in Ukraine
distributional struggle open to class compromise
and betrayal, this leap re-arms theory and practice Applying these lessons to the war in Ukraine means
for class war and the socialist revolution. recognising that the national question is an aspect
Imperialism is the epoch of finance capital of the class question. First, the character of the war
driven to expand its territories to extract super- is inter-imperialist. Both Russia and the US and its
profits by means of economic warfare, NATO allies are fighting the war in Ukraine over
diplomacy, propaganda and military war. their respective global interests. Lenin’s theory of
imperialism posits the necessity for rival imperialist
Marxist theory and practice against super- powers going to war, redividing the world to
exploitation and national oppression is the opposite monopolise its resources as a counter-tendency to
of petty bourgeois ‘neutrality’ which negotiates with the tendency of profit to fall.
different imperialist powers for shares in the colonial
booty. It is the global proletarian struggle led by a Lenin and Trotsky agreed historically when Ukraine
revolutionary communist international, to defeat was being fought over by rival imperialist powers,
imperialist oppression at home and in the oppressed that support for the right to self-determination was
countries! necessary, but subject to the defeat of the
imperialist rivals in the partition of Ukraine.
We insist that workers in the imperialist countries Revolutionaries gave no support to the national
must be active revolutionary defeatists. We take bourgeoisie which sought to divide Ukraine in the
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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

interests of serving either the Western powers or the oppressed nation stands for its own bourgeois
Russia. Trotsky, in 1939 just before the outbreak of nationalism, we stand against. We fight against the
the Second Imperialist War, writes: privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and do
not in any way condone strivings for privileges on the
“At the beginning of the last imperialist war the part of the oppressed nation.
Ukrainians, Melenevski (“Basok”) and Skoropis- ….The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed nation has
Yeltukhovski, attempted to place the Ukrainian a general democratic content that is directed against
liberation movement under the wing of the oppression, and it is this content that we unconditionally
Hohenzollern general, Ludendorff. They covered support, at the same time we strictly distinguish it from
themselves in so doing with left phrases. With one kick the tendency towards national exclusiveness; we fight
the revolutionary Marxists booted these people out. That against the tendency of the Polish bourgeois to oppress
is how revolutionists must continue to behave in the the Jews, etc., etc…we firmly uphold something that is
future. The impending war will create a favorable beyond doubt: the right of the Ukraine to form such a
atmosphere for all sorts of adventurers, miracle-hunters state. We respect this right; we do not uphold the
and seekers of the golden fleece. These gentlemen, who privileges of Great Russians with regard to Ukrainians;
especially love to warm their hands in the vicinity of the we educate the masses in the spirit of recognition of that
right, in the spirit of rejecting state privileges for any
national question, must not be allowed within artillery
nation.
range of the labor movement. Not the slightest
compromise with imperialism, either fascist or …In this situation, the proletariat, of Russia is faced with
democratic! Not the slightest concession to the Ukrainian a twofold or, rather, a two-sided task: to combat
nationalists, either clerical-reactionary or liberal-pacifist! nationalism of every kind, above all, Great-Russian
No “People’s Fronts!” The complete independence of the nationalism; to recognise, not only fully equal rights, for
proletarian party as the vanguard of the toilers!’ all nations in general, but also equality of rights as
regards polity, i.e., the right of nations to self-
Second, since imperialism is the primary cause of determination, to secession. And at the same time, it is
national oppression, national self-determination their task, in the interests of a successful struggle against
all and every kind, of nationalism among all nations, to
and the defeat of imperialism are both aspects of
preserve the unity of the proletarian struggle and the
class war combined in the permanent revolution. proletarian organisations, amalgamating these
Therefore, the abstract positions of the author, of organisations into a close-knit international association,
‘neutrality’ between imperialist protagonists, despite bourgeois strivings for national exclusiveness.
amounts to abstention in the class war against …Complete equality of rights for all nations; the right of
imperialism. nations to self-determination; the unity of the workers of
all nations—such is the national programme that
Further, abstention in the class war, opens the door Marxism, the experience of the whole world, and the
to support for Ukraine’s national bourgeoisie experience of Russia, teach the workers.”
attempt to suppress self-determination in the name
of a proxy war on behalf of US/NATO in the inter- Neutrality means inter-imperialist war becomes
imperialist war with Russia. This is a default to a negotiable rather than won by civil wars for
Stalinist/Menshevik stageist conception of the socialist revolution. This leaves workers prey to
national democratic revolution, against permanent the opportunism of national chauvinism. Krul’s
revolution. Support for self-determination which ‘invoking’ of Lenin is a revision of his method,
rejects dual defeatism adapts opportunistically to the epoch and imperialist war, not to mention
the national ambitions of the Ukraine national Lenin’s solidarity with Trotsky on permanent
bourgeoisie to share in the oppression and suppress revolution. The revision is based on a
self-determination in the interests of US imperialism. misrepresentation of Lenin’s method. The epoch
As Lenin wrote at the outset of the First Imperialist
of imperialism clearly demands a program of
War:
dual defeatism of the US/NATO and Russia, and
“To the workers the important thing is to distinguish the armed independence of Ukrainian workers and
principles of the two trends. Insofar as the bourgeoisie of peasants against both imperialism and the
the oppressed nation fights the oppressor, we are always,
in every case, and more strongly than anyone else, in national bourgeoisie.
favour, for we are the staunchest and the most consistent
enemies of oppression. But insofar as the bourgeoisie of

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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

Zimbabwe - For a Total Shutdown of Classes to

End Slave Wages! Victory to the Teachers!

Figure 1Pay us well we are tired of wearing second hand clothes

“Pay us well we are tired of wearing second hand clothes”

On Wednesday, 1 March 2023, teachers in was equal to the more stable US dollar. Teachers
Zimbabwe will go on a collective job action witnessed their income reduced drastically from
demanding a living wage which they have put at US$540 to around US$40 instantly yet prices of
US$1260. On the same day the useless and pro goods and services continued to gallop upwards.
employer National Joint Negotiation Council
(NJNC), comprising government representatives The attack on teachers and civil servants in general
and the perennial betrayers of workers, will sit to is also prevalent in the private sector which work in
discuss the welfare of public sector workers. cohorts with government to lower incomes and
maximise profits.
The Revolutionary Workers Group (RWG)supports
the proposed action and stands in solidarity with All previous attempts at fighting back have not
teachers as they embark on a journey to improve progressed to their logical conclusion of closing
their income and working conditions. We salute the classes and all public services thanks to the sell-out
ordinary teachers for taking this initiative and call unions in the APEX, body of “representatives” of
on all teachers to join. workers, who are more often the traditional ones.

Teachers, and most civil servants, are currently These are the same people who will claim to be
earning a slave wage that cannot even provide representing workers at the NJNC meeting
for the most basic of needs yet are forced to tomorrow yet they will be representing themselves
work in difficult conditions which include over and the government against the workers. Last year
bloated classes and an incoherent curriculum. in February the collective job action was aborted by
these unions making it possible for the employer to
The second regime made a deliberate decision to victimise, harass, suspend and expel workers.
make workers pay for the economic crisis through
monetary measures which devalued the incomes of Yet the opportunity was there for a “killer punch”
workers in real terms in 2018 using Statutory that would have won the US$540 salary and more.
Instruments to declare that the local currency, ZWL, It is worth noting that this time around the initiative

11
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

is being done, by and large, by ordinary teachers To win we must unite our class to lead the fight to
across the unions. cancel foreign debt that strangles us and steals the
riches of our land and all of Africa! A revolutionary
We propose the following to assist teachers. It is workers party is needed to unite organised and
absolutely necessary to ensure that as many non-union workers, parents, and students to turn
teachers as possible are mobilised for the action to this strike into a class wide battle against the
avoid victimisation and divisions. The action should ravages of the terminal crisis of capitalism.
not be a one day and passive event but a rolling • For a living Wage! Workers fight for a
one based as much as possible on work stations. living wage and better working
Teachers alone cannot sufficiently force the conditions through mass action
government to budge so they is need to call on controlled by ordinary workers!
other civil servants to come out in support. • For free, comprehensive and secular
To avoid betrayals of the past the action should be education for all!
controlled by and accountable to ordinary teachers • Workers take back your unions!
on the ground through Strike Committees elected • Militant workers form class struggle
by the rank-and-file workers linking across all caucuses in the unions to fight for this
unions in struggle and representing all workers at program!
the negotiations instead of the compromised union • Workers form strike committees to lead
leaders. Ultimately it is important that all workers the resistance to the growing attacks on
spread across the public and private sectors join the wages and working conditions of the
hands to end exploitation and defeat capitalism poor and the livelihood of the majority
and imperialism. poor!
• Workers form workers defence guards
Teachers struggle to prepare the next generation. for defence against state violence!
Not for a life of wage slavery and oppression by
imperialism and national capitalists but for a life of • A national strike committee to organise
solidarity and prosperity. and plan for a general strike!
• For a workers’ government on the basis
To win we must turn our strike into a school of of the armed people to implement
revolution, a school through which class solidarity is decisions that benefit the workers and
built in the streets and picket lines fighting for goals the poor!
that unite all the workers, farmers, street vendors • Nationalisation of all companies without
and unemployed.
indemnification to the big shareholders
under workers’ control!
• We demand Jobs For All and a shorter work
week of 30 hours work for 40 hours pay. • Land to be distributed to all poor
• We demand a living wage for all peasants together with a state bank to
determined and adjusted by workers’ price provide inputs to all small farmers!
and wage committees. We must defend and • A workers’ state that defends workers,
organise street vendors and fight for land for peasants and the poor masses against the
the landless! Students cannot learn when local and foreign capitalists!
families live in abject poverty! • An African socialist revolution as part of
• We demand all students be ensured open the international revolution that alone
admission and free tuition, a breakfast and can guarantee a better life for all!
lunch program and school uniforms paid by • A new WORLD PARTY of socialist
the state! revolution based on the TRANSITIONAL
• We demand open the books on all secret PROGRAM of 1938 to lead the revolution
deals with big capital and public to end capitalism and open the road to
educational discussions to unwind the socialism!
mystery behind national debt and
enslavement to both the US/UK led 28 February 2023
imperialist bloc and the China/Russia Harare
imperialist bloc.

12
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

ILTT Statement on Brazil

Unite the working class in a united front against the Coup!
Only the working class is capable of defeating the fascists!

Since the end of the elections, the fascist hordes have organized themselves in camps
in front of the Armed Forces barracks in several cities across the country. Lula and the
popular front said that Lula’s inauguration would end fascism. After taking office,
the government chose the governors, most of them “bolsonaristas” to fight the coup
plotters. Predictably, and we predicted it, the popular front cleared the path for the
fascist insurrection.

No illusions in the popular front! Presidential Palace, Congress and the Supreme
Federal Court (STF), without any intervention by
In times of global crisis like the one we are the security forces. Hours later, Lula used the
experiencing today, fascism and the coup is a Executive’s emergency action powers to gently
weapon of the bourgeoisie against the workers. The remove the coup plotters with a reported 100
bourgeoisie knows that the economic situation will arrests.
not improve. Lula and the Workers Party (PT) are
allied with the bourgeoisie and deceive the workers Bolsonaro’s former justice minister is now the
that everything can improve with the Popular security secretary in the government of Ibanes,
Front government. Nurturing this illusion, they responsible for commanding the police to which
demobilize the working class, paving the way for Lula delegated the task of fighting coup plotters!
the fascists. The Brazilian fascist police fraternize with the coup
leaders while their boss is in the USA!
Today we could see the police, commanded by PT
allies, escorting the coup leaders to the square of the The use of federal intervention to do what the local
three powers, watching the invasions of the Bolsonarist-allied police refused to do, does not

13
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

guarantee democracy. The federal intervention national conference of trade

guaranteed the social peace deal Lula built with his unions and a workers’ struggle
coalition center-right partners. This is how Lula
proves to the employers the Popular Front can party that rejects blocs with
control the situation without bringing the military capitalist partners.
into power, bringing in the tanks.
• Workers desperately need a United
Only revolutionary workers can guarantee Front now to turn street
democracy. This government will not take any mobilizations into sit-down strikes,
action to organize and mobilize the workers.
Meanwhile they prevent the working class from factory occupations, regional and
taking to the streets. nation-wide general strikes! The
unity of the whole working class
What should the workers’ response to the
and the oppressed is crucial to
treachery of the Popular Front be?
defeat fascism and capitalist
The centrist left told us deals can be made taking a reaction.
step to a parliamentary path to socialism by
electing Lula. If the fascist coup makers were • Workers Break with the Popular
allowed to stay much longer, chances are that Front government!
Lula’s ‘peaceful compromise’ with the right and
especially the labor leaders who sold this fiction • No illusions in bourgeois justice and
would BE EXPOSED! Exposed in the minds of the the reactionary Minister Moraes!
union memberships and the broader wage earner
masses. Workers having been disabused of any • There is no parliamentary road to
illusions would express their rage on the street to socialism!
confront the coup makers. This feather duster
response by Lula is only a temporary measure to • We call for the workers, unions,
prevent any immediate working-class responses centrals, parties and organizations
taking the struggle to the streets. of the left to build a United Front
The coup is the work of the big profiteers stripping against the coup movement.
the rainforest who financed the buses to the
insurrectionary rehearsal. Lula used his personal • We call on soldiers not to comply
charisma to keep the workers subordinated to the with any coup orders from their
state power, to the employers’ coalition officers!
government. Cameras focused on him, the
temporary escape of the Popular Front from its • Organize workers’ committees and
crisis passes unnoticed. self-defense committees against
However, Lula’s deal was not unnoticed by the the coup!
most advanced workers. The bureaucracy and
center right will want to turn Lula into a
• For a workers’ and peasants’
Bonapartist figure to express the balance of class government based on workers’’
forces by the authority of his personality. Workers and peasants’ councils!
beware! A Bonapartist Lula will be the last
desperate act of the Popular Front before it must • To win, workers need a
give way to fascism. Revolutionary Workers Party and
a new Workers International to
• The workers movements must take
fight for the World Socialist
to the streets and organize councils
Revolution.
and self defense guards.
International Leninist Trotskyist
• We need mass worker-led anti- Tendency (ILTT), January 8, 2023
fascist assemblies, an anti-fascist

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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

Ukraine: Turn Imperialist War into Revolutionary Class War!

The war in Ukraine is a test for revolutionaries, and those who take it seriously go
back to Lenin (and Trotsky who adopted Lenin’s position on imperialist war) for
guidance. Lenin had a fully developed position on the first Imperialist War (WW1) in
which national self-determination was subordinated by inter-imperialist war. In
other words, national self-determination of colonies and semi-colonies is not possible
short of the defeat of the imperialist powers that oppress them.

War in the Imperialist Epoch

Peace can only be achieved by a victorious working
Today the overwhelming majority of self-identified class state, as different from the warring bourgeois
socialists who should be leading the international states as can be. We are supporters of peace and
working class in Class War Against Imperialist War Ukrainian identity and self-determination, which
have instead lined up with competing imperialists in neither western banksters nor their Russian
the name of national self-determination to betray opposites will abide in the real world. A fake left
themselves as social imperialists. Literally in the that indulges or supports these “only sides” or a
name of peace they have joined the conflict pacifist ‘neutrality” collapse into liberal anti-worker
cheering workers on into the meat grinder! positions. We say class war against war is the only
anti-war position.
Who is fighting for class war against the war and
who is lining up with one imperialist power or the On May Day 2022 we said:
other and its prox(ies)? There are forces marching “Today the world faces war between imperialist
here today (March 18th) supporting Putin’s war for powers that could easily escalate into a Third world
the re-establishment of the Czar’s empire. There are war. The causes of this war are well known to
forces elsewhere who tell you peace only requires a Marxists – imperialism is capitalism in decline,
Kiev regime victory or a Russian withdrawal, almost parasitic on workers and nature. When the parasite
saying ‘take your pick”! We reject all these social- exhausts its host, nature, there is no way out but to
imperialist slogans and logics. These are pro-war destroy everything it has created including its
politics, and the calls for negotiations in both flavors support system, the biosphere. So the ruling classes
are either Washington or Moscow poses. of rising great powers challenge the declining
15
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

powers for hegemony over the ruins of civilization. do not in any way condone strivings for privileges on
Humans, the vast majority of which are workers the part of the oppressed nation….
and farmers, are part of nature and they too are …The bourgeois nationalism of any oppressed
expendable. This terminal crisis of capitalism is what nation has a general democratic content that is
has brought us to the war in Ukraine.” directed against oppression, and it is this content
Dual defeatism and Self Determination that we unconditionally support, at the same time
we strictly distinguish it from the tendency towards
The bourgeois doctrine of self-determination of national exclusiveness; we fight against the
nations means the democratic right to elect tendency of the Polish bourgeois to oppress the Jews,
governments to create a national market for etc., etc…
national capital. As we know, the limits set by
national borders to capital accumulation was the …we firmly uphold something that is beyond doubt:
cause of capital export and the rise of imperialism the right of the Ukraine to form such a state. We
more than a century ago. As capitalism overflowed respect this right; we do not uphold the privileges of
the limits of national markets (inevitable as capital Great Russians with regard to Ukrainians; we
must expand or die), the stronger nations colonized educate the masses in the spirit of recognition of
the weaker nations until the world was divided that right, in the spirit of rejecting state privileges for
between the big powers and their ‘spheres of any nation…
influence’. This has led, several world depressions …In this situation, the proletariat, of Russia is faced
and wars later, to the current situation in which the with a twofold or, rather, a two-sided task: to
US bloc and their client states (NATO, ANZUS etc) combat nationalism of every kind, above all, Great-
are in a zero-sum fight to the death with the Russian nationalism; to recognise, not only fully
Russia/China bloc and their client states (BRICs, SCO equal rights, for all nations in general, but also
etc). equality of rights as regards polity, i.e., the right of
The fate of semi-colonies (politically nations to self-determination, to secession. And at
independent but economically oppressed) and the same time, it is their task, in the interests of a
colonies (still ruled by imperialist powers), is to successful struggle against all and every kind, of
be occupied, partitioned, and turned into client nationalism among all nations, to preserve the unity
states of whichever great power wins the of the proletarian struggle and the proletarian
political, economic and military wars. Which organisations, amalgamating these organisations
means when imperialists are competing to into a close-knit international association, despite
dominate semi-colonies to expand their sphere of bourgeois strivings for national exclusiveness…
influence, no one imperialism is more or less evil …Complete equality of rights for all nations; the
than the other. They are equally oppressive in right of nations to self-determination; the unity of
search of their privileges. And so is the opportunist the workers of all nations—such is the national
social imperialist left desperate to hold onto its programme that Marxism, the experience of the
privileges. In Ukraine, the right to self- whole world, and the experience of Russia, teach the
determination, as with all bourgeois rights, workers.’
emphatically facing the terminal crisis of
National self-determination today, meaning
capitalism, can be realised only by permanent
independence, and economic equality, like all
revolution. Lenin, writing in 1914 a few months
bourgeois rights, cannot be won by a militarised
before the outbreak of war states:
‘peoples’ front’ as the proxy for US imperialism.
‘To the workers the important thing is to distinguish It is possible only as the result of the armed
the principles of the two trends. Insofar as the workers and small farmers, led by a
bourgeoisie of the oppressed nation fights the revolutionary party, overthrowing the
oppressor, we are always, in every case, and more capitalist Bonapartist regime, imposing their
strongly than anyone else, in favour, for we are the own program, forming a workers and small
staunchest and the most consistent enemies of farmers government, imposing their ‘workers
oppression. But insofar as the bourgeoisie of the democracy’, overthrowing the ruling classes,
oppressed nation stands for its own bourgeois ending the imperialist war, and allowing the
nationalism, we stand against. We fight against the right of self-determination of all peoples to be
privileges and violence of the oppressor nation, and

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Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

realised through political and economic unions of capital. Marxist practice in response to super
or federations of socialist states. exploitation and national oppression is not petty
bourgeois ‘neutrality’ which negotiates with
Since imperialism is the primary cause of national
different imperialist powers for shares in the colonial
oppression, national self-determination and the
booty, but the global proletarian struggle led by a
defeat of imperialism are aspects of class war
revolutionary communist party, to defeat
transformed by permanent revolution. Therefore,
imperialist oppression at home, and in the
we take the abstract positions of neutrality
oppressed countries! The task of the revolutionary
between imperialist protagonists, combined with
vanguard taken up by the ILTT is to build such
support for Ukraine’s or Russia’s self-determination
parties internationally and form a new
and concretise them in a program of dual defeatism
revolutionary workers’ International.” Class
in the imperialists’ countries and armed
Struggle (NZ/Ao) Autumn 2023
independence of Ukrainian workers and peasants
against both imperialisms and the national Two, Three, Many ‘Peace’ Movements
bourgeoisie.
Major anti-war coalitions have planned a March on
The “anti-war movement” one year out! Washington and San Francisco on March 18th. It will
unite many of the activists and voices of ‘the
As of yet the “anti-war” and the workers movement
movement’ who backed away from taking the
has not developed a revolutionary dual defeatist
stage at the Libertarian-led Rage Against the War
attitude toward the war. Rather competing
Machine (RAWM) rally on February 19th.
coalitions and groups stake
out positions in support of The RAWM action represented
either the imperialist Russian a layer of the isolationist
invasion or the Ukrainian capitalist class, many of whom
‘Resistance’ under the control like Tucker Carlson favor
of the reactionary Ukraine Russia. Carlson’s twisted quip
bourgeois state. that “Putin never called him a
racist” buries the fact that
The various counterposed
white supremacy has
peace movements couch their
contaminated the Kremlin
respective social-imperialist
(contrary to the fake anti-
positions in defensist
imperialism of RT/Peoples
language. The “peace”
Forum ‘socialists’). The
advocates like Scott Ritter
Libertarian organizers of
favor a Russian victory and
RAWM allotted fascist
call for negotiations between
LaRouche (Schiller Institute)
the belligerents; for them
speakers three slots!
NATO encroachment and ‘de-
Nazification’ legitimize Benjamin at RAWM February 19 Chris Hedges and Max
Russia's incursion as consistent Blumenthal were the only
with the UN article 51 right to self-defense. His ilk notable voices of the ‘left’ who lowered themselves
are faking the history of the 21st century in a curious to speak on stage with capitalists and fascists – with
parallel to the white power world of ‘alternative a fascist Larouche poster as their backdrop. Hedges'
facts.’ religio-biblical peace sermon ranged from the forces
of Moloch, sanctimonious deification,
Still others abstain, chiefly in Europe, advocating
misappropriation and misrepresentation of MLK
‘neutrality,’ an absurd position that neither
and “our Red Rosa.” What-abouter, radio
recognizes Ukrainian identity nor interrupts the slide
personality and conspiracy promoter Jimmy Dore,
toward WW3, an inter-imperialist war properly so-
blind to inter-imperialism conflict and hyped as a
called, total and without any asterisks!
beacon of reason by many confused leftists, neither
#Our comrades at Class Struggle explain how explained the class nature of the conflict nor was he
workers view petty bourgeois neutrality: capable of motivating his vast radio audience to
“Imperialism is the epoch of finance capital driven take to the streets.
to expand its territories to extract super-profits by Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin, fake peace advocate
means of occupation and war, as well as the export Scott Ritter, who attended, and neo-Ricardian
17
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

economics professor Richard Wolff (who poses as a Firing at UNAC from across the barricades are
Marxist retailing a redux of FDR’s New Deal and ‘comrades’ of the Ukraine Socialist Solidarity
Mondragon corporate socialism) tip-toed out of Committee (USSC). Oakland Socialist playing a
their earlier endorsements although Benjamin and leading role in the committee stakes out their State
Ritter left a social media record building the action. Department ‘socialism.’
Benjamin found ample opportunity to be
“Any thinking worker – no less any real socialist –
photographed with other social patriots advocating
will say, “of course the people of Ukraine have the
inter-imperialist negotiations. Needless to say, this
right to defend themselves, arms in hand, against
alleged socialist described no role for the working
the Russian invaders.” That is what the Ukrainian
class; not in the U.S.A., nor in Russia, nor in Ukraine.
people are doing, and they should be supported
For Code Pink only the imperialist butchers get to
steer the war events or the supposed peace after it.
not just politically but militarily.” {our emphasis}
Political support so enunciated is nothing short of
UNAC and March 18 the uncritical support of the US proxy capitalist
But for the presence of the capitalist Libertarian Zelensky regime. They do not even attempt to
Party and the LaRouchite fascists there was not as cover their social patriotism speaking on stage in
much as a dime's worth of difference between San Francisco under the flags of the USA and
RAWM and UNAC, (United National Antiwar Ukraine. Neither USSC speaker John Reimann nor
Coalition). Both want to abolish NATO, Free Cheryl Zuur (admin of the USSC FB page) breached
Assange and raise other democratic demands, but the concept of social revolution, or suggested the
both find common cause with imperialist Russia, working class has a word to say or role to play!
favoring its victory. Thus, an essential identity Rather they did their utmost to distance themselves
politically. from the crimes of the USSR and abdicate their duty
as socialists to turn their rhetoric and guns against
Two days after the RAWM show, February 21 at a US imperialism. Yet they do their best to absolve the
UNAC webinar, one of those who backed away US of any responsibility for this conflict. Zuur posted
from the RAWM stage, arms control and Dissent’s Michael Kazin article without reservations
disarmament expert/advocate, Scott Ritter, or explanation. Kazin quotes his cousin historian
explained that indeed the Russian Special Military David A Bell to absolve the west of any nefarious
Operation phase was a soft process, not a full on role in the conflict, Bell writes:
Shock and Awe invasion and that it was designed
to get Ukraine to negotiate. But NATO scuttled the “...judge every international situation on its own
April 1st negotiations, he says, and armed Ukraine terms, considering the actions of all parties, and not
to do its bidding to weaken Russia. This is fake just the most powerful on…the horrors Putin has
history and what he would be doing on the same already inflicted on Ukraine, and his long-term
platform with any actual socialists would reflect goals, are strong reasons…for continuing current U.S.
badly but impermissibly on the latter! policy, despite the attendant costs and risks.”
In a parody of righteous sincerity, Joe Lombardo Kazin further likens the $46.6 billion of lethal aid to
executive director of the UNAC on February 21, Ukraine to a “rounding error” in the bloated US
2023 at a webinar building for the March 18th military budget. He identifies those who oppose
marches, echoes (at time mark 32:26) Scott Ritter's defending the Kyiv regime as in league with Trump,
support for a Russian victory as the only viable Tucker Carlson and the Putin regime. While
road to peace. Lombardo proposes Russian considering that a negotiated settlement might be
victory is preferred because it will weaken the the “only way the war ends”, he admonishes the left
hegemonic US/NATO imperialist bloc, de-Nazify that: “without a strong and consistent policy of
Ukraine, and prevent nuclear weapons being support to the government in Kyiv, the
placed on Russia’s borders. agreement would be on Putin’s terms.” (our
emphasis, ed.)
One wonders if this fake Trotskyist ever
understood that the only viable road to peace is Their method of prying every international situation
victory of the working class spreading socialist out of the actual unfolding inter-imperialist conflict
revolution against imperialism’s wars. and redivision of the world is exactly the
pragmatism State Department socialists have
‘Socialist’ Solidarity with Zelensky preferred in a direct and tediously long trajectory,
running as fast as possible from Lenin and Trotsky’s
18
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

dialectics, though Burnham and Shachtman to regime in Kiev! This regardless of the extent of
Biden’s coattails. territorial gains against the Russian forces. As Lenin
told us, and in total contradistinction to USSC and
Reimann and Zuur in their speeches and posts
its guru Oakland Socialist, national self-
clearly advocate cross-class People's Fronts uniting
determination is not possible short of the defeat of
politically with Zelensky, dropping all reference to
the imperialist powers.
the workers or workers’ independent political action
and replacing our class’s role with the class neutral For a New Zimmerwald and a new world
“people.” Zuur refrains from closing her ‘socialist party of socialist revolution!
intervention’ with any calls for workers power,
instead opportunistically playing to the sea of blue
and yellow flags with the anti-soviet Banderite war
cry “Slava Ukraine!”
But don’t take our word for it, listen to theirs. You
will not hear advocacy of class struggle, rather they
‘seize the day’ by solidarizing themselves with the
right of Ukrainians to “receive the best arms’ they
can.
The pro-Kyiv regime “socialist peace” bunch
advocates orienting workers toward that layer of Lenin, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were leaders at
trade union bureaucrats who historically bind the the Zimmerwald anti-war Conference in 1915
working class to the US imperialist overlords via the
Democratic party. Objectively they protect the The ILTT rejects the pragmatism of the
military industrial complex, the Wall Street War contending fake anti-war movements who
profiteers and their forces of destruction from class write the working class out of the equation. We
struggle by explicitly calling for the renewal and call for a New Zimmerwald, a meeting of all
upgrading of the western imperialist NATO nations’ those who struggle for uncompromising class
armaments industries in order to continue supplying war against all imperialist contenders and their
the proxy Zelensky regime the weapons it requires proxies as the only viable method to stop
for years.
imperialism’s extinction drive toward World
Most of the funding these ‘peace advocates’ support War. The workers' anti-war united front must
and the US has promised, will not reach Ukraine build revolutionary dual defeatism to sweep
until 2025 or even 2030 given that the arsenals are away the warring imperialist and allied
depleting and the funding will be used to replenish, capitalist regimes and profiteers. The terminal
upgrade and renew them. For this, the crisis of capital is evident in the rapid rate of
manufacturing base necessary no longer exists, decomposition of capital as the declining US
resulting in the greatest war production imperialist bloc races to a head on collision with
mobilization since Korea, and this right at the the rising China imperialist bloc. No force can
moment that banks are imploding! Aborting avert a third world war spinning into nuclear
socialist revolution against war like their mirror war other than a new revolutionary communist
opposite, UNAC, they promise workers the peace of international that turns civil war into class war
the graveyard for the rest of the decade. That’s one ending the rule of capital and imposing the rule
promise they can keep, too. of the international working class.
Oakland Socialist editor Reimann, USSC organizer,
a self-avowed ‘socialist’ Biden voter is the ESSENCE For a New Zimmerwald and a New
of social-imperialism and is exactly the political International based on the method and
mirror image of UNAC and Lombardo! No one program of the 4th International!
should be fooled by the camouflage covering up the For a United, Free and Independent Workers’
impossibility of peace OR national self- and Peasants’ Soviet Ukraine!”
determination being delivered by any bourgeois

19
Class Struggle # 144 Autumn March-May 2023

International Leninist Trotskyist Tendency

Class Warrior: Theoretical Journal of ILTT http://www.cwgusa.org/?page_id=594

Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-ZIM)

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.rwgzimbabwe.wordpress.com
Revolutionary Worker (Paper of RWG-Zimbabwe)

Revolutionary Workers Group of Brazil (RWG-BR)

Email: [email protected]
Website: https://grupodetrabalhadoresrevolucionrios.wordpress.com

Communist Workers Group – USA (CWG-US):

Email: [email protected]
Website Class War http://www.cwgusa.org/?page_id=16

Communist Workers Group – New Zealand/Aotearoa (CWG- A/NZ)

Email [email protected]
Websites: Red Rave https://redrave.blogspot.com/
Living Marxism https://livingmarxism.blog/\
Archives before 2006 https://trotskyistinspain.wordpress.com/

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