tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post1254297224757569147..comments2024-03-28T11:04:16.315+00:00Comments on Boffy's Blog: CrimeaBoffyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-6907278952339699282014-03-21T12:40:26.957+00:002014-03-21T12:40:26.957+00:00First steps first, Boffy. Workers' struggles ...First steps first, Boffy. Workers' struggles and solidarity in the EU are one issue. Workers' struggles and solidarity in Russia and the FSU are, for now, another.<br /><br />I'll make an anti-chauvinist addition to my RSFSR revival statement above: "with open arms and affirmative action" (going by a critical read of Terry Martin's description of the early Soviet Union as an "affirmative action empire").<br /><br />Heck, now that Putin's nationalist brain trust has revived the "Novorossiya" concept for southern Ukraine (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/17/us-ukraine-crisis-east-putin-idUSBREA2G1HE20140317), even replacing "Russia" itself with a "New Russian" SFSR / Sovetskaya Novorossiya would be thinking outside the box!<br /><br />On your second point, I'm no fan of Constituent Assemblies. Forget the history of Russia's failed Constituent Assembly, I'm talking about the worm-creeping pace in Nepal!Jacob Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13595821621256547971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-49251840923551683992014-03-21T11:40:49.982+00:002014-03-21T11:40:49.982+00:00Actually, the Russian Left should be looking to wo...Actually, the Russian Left should be looking to working with the rest of the European Left towards the establishment of a United States of Europe, in which the kind of border issues arising in Ukraine could be resolved, and which would provide a basis for greater working class unity across the whole of Europe including Russia.<br /><br />It would need to raise demands for the convening of Constitutional Assemblies to developed a democratic constitution for that United States of Europe rather than the one proposed by the current elites.<br /><br />A look at Ireland is instructive. A large part of the reason a settlement could be reached was the fact of both parts of Ireland being subsumed within the EU.<br /><br />Economic processes will be likely to undermine continued differences further. For example, the house price crash in Ireland sent prices down around 60%. That affected North and South equally, whereas UK house prices in general are still in a huge bubble yet to burst. The reason obviously is that if you live on the Northern side of the border, you are not going to pay £200,000 for a house, that you can buy for just £80,000 a few miles away on the other side of the border. Increasingly, these kinds of relations bring the economies of North and South closer together than the North to the UK.<br /><br />Going back to Russia, its a bit like a discussion I was having recently in relation to Africa. There are AU proposals to establish an African economic union by 2030, but there are already existing economic blocs in East Africa, West Africa and so on. The question being is it better to pursue these more limited blocs as a stepping stone to the wider union, or might they end up as a roadblock to such a wider union? Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6263577133333272085.post-34123809775548737702014-03-21T03:50:09.666+00:002014-03-21T03:50:09.666+00:00Given the mess in the Ukraine, the mass Crimean mo...Given the mess in the Ukraine, the mass Crimean move to join the Russian Federation, and Putin's dubious blaming of both Western powers and "the Bolsheviks, for a number of reasons -- may God judge them -- [who] added large sections of the historical South of Russia to the Republic of Ukraine [...] with no consideration for the ethnic makeup of the population, and today these areas form the southeast of Ukraine," isn't it about time that the Russian Left respond to this speech and background history thinking outside the geopolitical box?<br /><br />Much of the Russian Left's (from the Left Front to well-meaning leftist activists within the RCWP-RPC and within the CPRF cesspool) nostalgia for the Soviet Union is misplaced. Shouldn't it start thinking outside the geopolitical box by rehabilitating the "greater" RSFSR idea put forward in 1922 by the People's Commissar of Nationalities as the alternative to the Soviet Union?<br /><br />http://www.revleft.com/vb/nationalities-soviet-union-t61251/index.html<br />http://www.cpgb.org.uk/home/weekly-worker/895/letters<br /><br />The near abroad should be welcomed with open arms into a stronger geopolitical entity, but that entity for the Russian Left should be a new Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic.Jacob Richterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13595821621256547971noreply@blogger.com