Clare Lemlich summarizes Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and what is at stake in this conflict, arguing the socialist position that neither Russia nor the US-EU imperial sphere can be trusted to protect ordinary Ukrainian people. Rather, there must be an end to all military aggression in and around Ukraine, and its people must decide their own fate — free from the cynical interests of all imperial warmongers.
Category: Eastern Europe
Statement on Kazakhstan Uprising
Below we re-print a translated statement from the Socialist Tendency (Социалистическая тенденция / Sotsialisticheskaya tendentsiya) group in Russia on the current revolt in Kazakhstan UPRISING IN KAZAKHSTAN In early January, mass protests erupted in Kazakhstan. Initially, the protests were the workers' reaction to more than doubling of car gas price from 50 tenge per liter… Continue reading Statement on Kazakhstan Uprising
Refugee crisis on the Belarusian border: Let them cross, let them stay
There is an enormous humanitarian crisis brewing on the border between Belarus, and European Union member states Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. Belarus’s authoritarian and quarter-century-long regime led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka received a slew of international sanctions following his sham elections in 2020. Over the summer, Lukashenka responded by vowing to no longer facilitate border control on behalf of Europe.
Lessons of the Polish Solidarity movement
Eric Fretz takes a look back at Solidarność, the anti-Stalinist trade union movement in Poland — arguing that 40 years on, this inspiring yet tragic history is ripe with lessons for socialists today.
Belarusians stare down dictatorship for a second week
Clare Lemlich, Marx21 member and summer cultural studies tour guide in Belarus, reports on the pro-democracy movement in the streets, where ordinary Belarusians are rising up to demand the fall of their decades-long dictatorship.
Belarus-Russia integration talks reflect deepening imperial tensions
Outlining the key players and their stakes in the region, Clare Lemlich takes an anti-imperialist look at what's behind Russia's integration push in neighboring Belarus. During the last few months of 2019 Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko met several times to discuss closer integration between the two countries. No agreement… Continue reading Belarus-Russia integration talks reflect deepening imperial tensions