In an actual colony, or semi-colony, engaged in an anti-imperialist struggle, the Marxists, on the basis of permanent revolution, seek to unite the masses under the leadership of the working class. They subsume the tasks of the bourgeois revolution under the proletarian revolution, so that, as the former tasks are accomplished, by revolutionary proletarian means, so the social weight of the workers rises, and they draw behind them the poor peasants and urban petty-bourgeois, enabling the dialectical dynamic to do its work, making the revolution permanent, and flowing over into proletarian revolution, and social transformation. But, Stalin/Bukharin, instead, gifted the leading role to the Chinese bourgeoisie, represented by the KMT, and subordinated the workers and peasants to it. The idiot anti-imperialists have done the same in every such struggle, and with similar catastrophic consequences for workers, and the cause of international socialism.
In Ukraine, however, it is not even a question of an anti-imperialist struggle, or war of national independence, but a war conducted by a fully fledged capitalist, indeed imperialist state, and its army, backed by NATO imperialism, against another fully fledged capitalist, indeed imperialist state, and its army, backed by Chinese imperialism! The Popular Frontism of the petty-bourgeois, nationalist “Left”, of subordinating the class struggle to the interests of various national bourgeois forces, amounted to idiot anti-imperialism, and a betrayal of Marxism, and the global working-class struggle, but that same stance, taken in support of Zelensky and the Ukrainian capitalist state is idiot anti-imperialism raised by several powers of lunacy, or more correctly, outright betrayal of the working-class on a scale that makes the role of Stalinism in the Chinese revolution look rational by comparison.
“The concentration of power in the hands of the bourgeoisie, the abandonment of the revolution by the workers, the schism between the Party and the masses, were appraised as secondary phenomena in comparison with the peasant revolts. Instead of a genuine hegemony of the proletariat, in the anti-imperialist as well as in the agrarian struggle, that is, in the democratic revolution as a whole, there took place a wretched capitulation before the primitive peasant forces, with “secondary” adventures in the cities.” (p 218)
In Ukraine, there is no bourgeois-democratic revolution to pursue, because that is past. However, as with all bourgeois-democracy, it is a sham. In the UK, its necessary to expose it by raising demands for consistent democracy, in respect to the Monarchy, House of Lords, election of judges, officials, military top brass and so on. But, compared to Ukraine, Britain is a model of democracy, liberty and probity. As Sraid Marx has described, in fact, even according to western liberal organisations, there is little difference between Ukraine and Russia, when it comes to corruption, illiberal laws, and lack of democracy. If the Left were proposing a national war for liberty and democracy, in Ukraine, it would start by raising demands for consistent democracy inside the country, to be championed by the workers, as it would also do, in relation to Russia, rather than simply acting as cheerleaders for western, liberal stooges in both places.
But, where is that socialist programme, subsuming these bourgeois-democratic demands, in relation to Ukraine? It is not to be seen anywhere, because the pro-NATO “Left” has simply capitulated, and lined up behind Zelensky, and the Ukrainian oligarchs. It cannot raise, even such minimal, bourgeois-democratic demands, and seek to seriously mobilise the workers in a class struggle for them, because it has subordinated itself to Zelensky, and his corrupt capitalist regime, ridiculously claiming that imperialism and the capitalist state are defenders of workers' interests!!!
“Unfortunately, the triumph from the theoretical point of view of our Marxian analysis, in the case before us, has as its political foundation mortal defeats for the revolution.” (p 219)
That applies in spades to the historic betrayal, by the social-imperialists, in relation to Ukraine, and that debt will have to be paid. In relation to the mistakes and betrayal of Stalin, and the Stalintern, it was enabled by the degenerate regime that had developed within it, in which honest debate was impossible. The same is true of today's “Left” sects that have become ossified cults of Leader worship, riddled with petty-bourgeois egoism, petty intrigues and cliquism, with all of the features of studentism. In place of open debate, we have bureaucratic censorship, and “safe spaces”, so as to avoid having to defend ideas and practice. Its one reason why, when any such clique inside these sects reaches a relatively significant mass, the consequence is a split, and creation of a new microsect.
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