As I wrote recently, the social-imperialists have led workers to disaster once more, and no Marxist should have had any problem in anticipating what lay ahead for Ukraine, or Palestine. As Trotsky wrote, in the 1930's, in relation to Ukraine.
“Only hopeless pacifist blockheads are capable of thinking that the emancipation and unification of the Ukraine can be achieved by peaceful diplomatic means, by referendums, by decisions of the League of Nations, etc. In no way superior to them of course are those “nationalists” who propose to solve the Ukrainian question by entering the service of one imperialism against another. Hitler gave an invaluable lesson to those adventurers by tossing (for how long?) Carpatho-Ukraine to the Hungarians who immediately slaughtered not a few trusting Ukrainians. Insofar as the issue depends upon the military strength of the imperialist states, the victory of one grouping or another can signify only a new dismemberment and a still more brutal subjugation of the Ukrainian people, The program of independence for the Ukraine in the epoch of imperialism is directly and indissolubly bound up with the program of the proletarian revolution. It would be criminal to entertain any illusions on this score...
The worker and peasant masses in the Western Ukraine, in Bukovina, in the Carpatho-Ukraine are in a state of confusion: Where to turn? What to demand? This situation naturally shifts the leadership to the most reactionary Ukrainian cliques who express their “nationalism” by seeking to sell the Ukrainian people to one imperialism or another in return for a promise of fictitious independence.”
The reality is, of course, as Trotsky infers, above, that any deal in relation to Ukraine will be done between the US and Russia, and the lines of that deal, which amounts to, basically, carving up Ukraine once again, are already to be seen in outline. Whatever the petty-bourgeois nationalists and idealists might think ought to be the case, according to their morality, and belief in abstract, absolute and eternal rights, US imperialism and Russian imperialism will settle those details between them, and present the result as a fait accompli to both Ukraine and the EU alike.
No such deal will have any place for NATO “peacekeepers”, dressed up as British and EU forces, because there is no reason that Putin would accept such a condition, and as Trump needs to get a deal as quickly as possible, there is, also, no way he will insist on it. The reality is that, if not Trump, then his advisors, know that, despite all of the propaganda to the contrary, there is no reason why Russia would want to expand out of Eastern Ukraine and Crimea, into the rest of Ukraine, militarily, and couldn't even if it wanted to. It would be the kind of overreach that NATO has been trying to draw it into. The same is true about the even more ridiculous claims about Russia preparing to invade the rest of Europe, which are being used simply to ramp up military spending in the EU and UK, even as those countries cut welfare and other spending to finance it. One of the most ludicrous examples of that has been the French government sending out leaflets to households about how to prepare for an invasion!
That is what Trump's regime is already saying, and in the process destroying all of the hot air being put out by Blue Labour, Brexiters and the British Brexit media, about its special relationship, its unique position between the US and EU, and so on. Just as with the Nordstream pipeline, the US has blown up Brexit Britain's Bridge to nowhere, leaving it even more isolated somewhere in mid-Atlantic. Already, Britain's mini-Trump has had to row back on his statements about leading (of course not him or his children) brave young British and European soldiers into danger, by putting their “boots on the ground”, in Ukraine, as Trump made clear what he thought about it. The face-saving idea about, instead, having aerial or naval presence, is equally absurd. For one thing, most of that technology for those forces depends on US support. For another, if Russia shot them down, what, then?
No comments:
Post a Comment