Why we oppose NATO sanctions on Russia│Why we oppose NATO sanctions on Russia

[US] Jairo Monterojo

Translated by Moses, proofread by Yi Tianfang

NATO and Western imperialism responded by imposing a series of sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. NATO defines the sanctions as punishments for Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and claims it is merely defensive. Moreover, NATO has portrayed the sanctions as a peaceful coercion against Russia in solidarity with Ukraine's resistance to Russia.

We seek to expose the imperialist ambitions behind NATO's role in the Ukrainian war and express our unconditional solidarity with Ukraine's struggle for independence. As revolutionary socialists, we oppose imperialist sanctions and propose alternative policies of class struggle and class independence in support of the national liberation struggle in Ukraine.

The U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia underscore the tendency of global imperialism to conflict within itself, not to assist Ukraine. So far, NATO sanctions on Russia have had little impact on Russia's war on Ukraine; the Russian government has offset the sanctions losses through a substantial increase in oil revenues. Sanctions do, however, intensify economic and political competition among imperialist powers, particularly in terms of control over energy production and distribution, and geopolitical positioning in preparation for future conflicts and world wars. The sanctions policy of the United States and NATO is a form of warfare against the struggle for sovereignty, independence and lasting peace.

For years, Russia's bourgeoisie has been preparing for sanctions by Western countries. Because they know that when Russia decides to invade Ukraine or elsewhere, the West will respond. The Russian state has amassed huge reserves and established financial ties with China to offset its loss of Western financial ties. These sanctions have neither significantly affected Russia's overall economy nor weakened Russia's military. Rather than pose a major threat to Russian capitalism, these sanctions increase the cost of living for workers around the world through inflation. As Russia is the world's largest exporter of grain and fertilizer, the ongoing war has reduced supplies, raised prices and pushed millions of people in the semi-colonial world to the brink of starvation.

These sanctions primarily target Russia's financial and energy sectors to weaken Russia's emerging imperialist economy. The imperialist economy is centered on these two industries. The US and Europe aim to undermine Russia's position in the global energy market by cutting imports of Russian oil and severing its ties to the global financial system. The United States and Canada have banned imports of Russian oil and gas. European sanctions on Rosneft are limited to oil shipped by sea, which accounts for the vast majority of Russian oil exports, and Europe plans to fully implement them by the end of 2022, with the exception of Hungary. Most recently, the U.S. and Europe expanded sanctions against Russia at the G7 summit to include sanctions on the Russian military.

In the U.S., the fossil fuel industry has called for increased domestic oil production — a move that could take two to three years to meaningfully implement. At the same time, Biden visited Saudi Arabia and asked the kingdom to increase production while easing sanctions on Venezuela, hoping they would increase production of fossil fuels to offset inflation-fueled dissatisfaction with the Biden regime. Biden has released more than 1 million barrels a day from U.S. oil reserves since the record was set in November 2021. Neither event has lowered natural gas prices, but is exacerbating the catastrophic climate change already caused by the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels.

The long-term goal of the United States is to increase domestic development of its natural energy resources, particularly liquid natural gas (LNG), in order to wean Europe from Russian gas. The struggle for control of the energy market is at the heart of US imperialism's treatment of Russia and China, and in the short term, their view of the war in Ukraine. The economic and military expansion plans of U.S. imperialism are diametrically opposed to Ukraine's struggle for national independence and the general struggle against oppression and ecological disaster. Efforts to increase fossil fuel production will exacerbate ongoing droughts, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters that disrupt the lives of millions of working people around the world.

The sanctions come against the backdrop of a massive arms race between the United States and its allies with China and Russia. NATO sanctions are aimed at weakening Russian imperialism until direct military conflict is inevitable, and plans are ready to build an improved military arsenal, which will also bring huge benefits to the military-industrial complex. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a fitting excuse for the Western imperialist alliance to increase its military production and presence, and Europe now includes Finland and Sweden as member states on the Russian border.

The recent G7 summit in Madrid announced an exponential increase in NATO's rapid response force against the backdrop of NATO's pledge to impose further sanctions on Russia. Thus, the imperialist powers set the stage for further military conflicts that could increase their political power over their opponents, discipline the working class with harsh economic conditions and political repression, and increase the profits of global arms manufacturers.

We also oppose U.S. sanctions on Russia because such a policy would align us with U.S. imperialist goals. We do not believe in the ability of Western imperialism to guarantee Ukraine's national independence; its sanctions policy is aimed at hitting Russia while burdening Ukraine with heavy debts, making Ukraine a semi-colonial of the EU and the US, and the imminent accession of US-controlled Ukraine to the EU will include the EU The expectations of the great powers that the Zelensky regime would implement an anti-worker austerity program that would make the Ukrainian economy as subservient as possible to European and American imperialism. To this end, Zelensky will play the role historically played by the state capitalist class of semi-colonial countries; they will seek the support of their imperialist masters to best secure the working class at the expense of their livelihoods and rights survival and privilege.

Our Historical Tradition on Sanctions and Military Aid

The policy of imperialist sanctions, corresponding to our political tradition's term "workers' sanctions", used by the British and American Trotskyites to describe the policy of revolutionary socialism in the United Kingdom and the United States in the Second Italy The Ethiopian War, Mussolini's policy of Italian invasion of Ethiopia called on British workers to oppose British imperialist sanctions to stand in solidarity with the Ethiopian nation in self-defense.

The American Trotskyist Worker's Party said at the time: "The Workers Party calls for the defense of the Ethiopian people against Italian aggression, the defense of the Soviet Union, and the unremitting struggle against the impending imperialist war. However, for this defense and this struggle, the Workers' Party demands at the same time the only means they can make: for the independent and autonomous action of the working class. Internationally the working class, especially the Italian working class, and the oppressed colonial peoples, are the real people of Ethiopia. Allies - not "peace-loving" Britain, no League of Nations, no Stalin-Laval, no Roosevelt, no Christian emperors and semi-feudal lords of their own. Independent sanctions against the working class, their own boycotts, strikes, Defense funds, mass demonstrations, help the fight of the Ethiopian people, not sanctions against financial capital and its puppet states."

Like our predecessors in the Trotskyist movement in Britain and America during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, we support Ukraine's right to self-defense. In any attack by the oppressor against the oppressed, defending the right of the oppressed to self-defence and self-determination is a matter of principle. Therefore, we also defend Ukraine's right to use the weapons it receives to wage its defense war, including those from NATO.

It seems contradictory to oppose NATO imperialism and at the same time affirm the right of the Ukrainian people to use arms. But this contradiction is only superficial; socialists cannot defend a policy of self-determination and self-defense, and then oppose the oppressed having full access to weapons, regardless of their origin. We warn, however, that aid from imperialists is tricky and Ukrainians cannot trust their imperialist "allies".

The fact that NATO supported these weapons in this war — ancient and bulky weapons far below what Ukraine needed — did not change the political character of the struggle as a progressive national liberation war.

Western imperialism is gambling, just like in the late 1930s and early 1940s, the US imperialism supported the Chinese nation with arms to fight against Japanese aggression. These weapons ultimately weakened Japanese imperialism, but also strengthened the Communist Party and defeated the Kuomintang in the 1949 Chinese Revolution. This is not the result the United States hopes for in China.

It is true that there is currently no social revolution in Ukraine; nor is there a significant independent working-class movement within the Ukrainian resistance movement. However, in order to establish this, we must support Ukraine's struggle against imperialist aggression.

For revolutionary socialists, the criterion for supporting one side in a war stems from how we describe war. We see the conflict in Ukraine as a war of national liberation against the backdrop of a rivalry between imperialists. In wars of national liberation, we support the victory of oppressed countries, regardless of their political leadership; the standard of support does not depend on the existence of revolution or revolutionary parties. Socialists must help develop such a party, but it cannot be achieved if we do not unite their struggles - just as we do not unite the struggles of the oppressed.

Our Worker's Voice in America campaigned in solidarity with the independent miners union in central Ukraine, which has ties to a left-wing group called the Social Movement. Our campaign is part of an international effort coordinated by CSP-Conlutas, a radical trade union confederation in Brazil that our international organization, the International Workers League, supports and participates in. In this campaign, we educate people about the struggle in Ukraine, the recent history of struggles by this miners union, and the reasons behind this solidarity effort. By doing so, we try to play a concrete role in the Ukrainian workers' struggle against Russian imperialism and help foster a policy of class independence in their movement.

We know that there is one social force that can truly guarantee the national liberation of Ukraine - the Ukrainian working class and the rest of the international working class. While Zelensky is the political and military leader on the Ukrainian side, we have not given political support to his regime, because we know that its goal is to integrate into the Western imperialist economy, for which Zelensky will continue to implement Anti-worker austerity policies. As American socialists, we support the Ukrainian struggle for national independence with the irreconcilable struggle against U.S. imperialism - linking the direct struggle of the workers here with the struggles of workers around the world, including in Ukraine .

July 26, 2022

Original link: https://workersvoiceus.org/2022/07/26/why-we-oppose-nato-sanctions-on-russia/