Wednesday, March 2, 2022

The Invasion of Ukraine: How Workers Should Approach It.

The Invasion of Ukraine: Socialists Oppose War!

 

Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

GED/HEO

3-2-22

A good presentation of an article on their website from the UK socialist site Left Horizons. It is clearly oriented to workers rather than as is so often the case as a polemic directed at competing socialist currents or groups or to the educated middle classes and academia. The points are as relevant here in the US or the rest of the world; as the speaker says, socialists are internationalists.

At the end, the speaker quotes the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky with regard to WW2.  I have a lot of respect for the views of Trotsky, who was a Jewish Ukrainian, as I would never have been drawn to socialism or even read any of Marx and Engel’s writings being put off by the system in the old Soviet Union. Like many workers, if that was socialism I wanted no part of it. Reading the Communist Manifesto helped clear that up for me, Marx would have been sent to Siberia as Trotsky was.


I do not identify as a Trotskyist and I think it is not healthy to place any human being on a pedestal giving them god-like qualities. Trotsky was simply a. man with a certain view of the world and, like anyone else, made mistakes. He was a leader in an historic revolutionary process though and we can learn from his and others experiences. He was not the only person that contributed to the revolutionary process.


Another unfortunate reason I cringe a bit when these revolutionary figures names are raised is the existence of socialist groupings, more often than not grouplets, that bear their names and claim to be the sole owners of the correct path to emancipation and a just society; I have some experience in this regard and was expelled from one of these groups; it was a good thing, though I do believe a revolutionary current and leadership is crucial in the class war we are forced to engage in. I just do not believe this will arise in the way I was taught.


Being immersed in the union struggles and in the day to day battles with the bosses on the job, with my own class, where the “rubber meets the road”, shielded me from the worst effects I believe.


Apart from having little or no significant influence in the working class, some of them are so totally disconnected from working people, so isolated that their approach and methods completely turn workers off. Most of them, certainly here in the US anyway have poisonous internal lives, are very undemocratic and have historically been extremely sexist, led, in some cases, by male figures who have been in place for decades.  Any organization that has the same person at the top for a half century is not a healthy one. This does not mean there aren’t dedicated and genuine people in these groups with the best of intentions, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions as the saying goes,


It’s not Trotsky’s fault that some bearing his name harm the positive aspects of his legacy we should not let that prevent us from learning from his failures and as well as his successes. It’s best to stay away from hero worship. Trump’s a Christian don’t forget.


I think the explanation of how workers should react to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and
all the nationalism and flag waving that surrounds it as if Washington or London gives a
damn about the Ukrainian people, is explained in the Left Horizons video included and
encouraged my class brothers and sisters to watch it.


Finally, I am not in any organization and am speaking here as an individual.

 


No comments: