The widening of the conflict in Ukraine
… and left cheerleaders for the slaughter
12 October 2022
Ukrainians pose in front of artwork depicting
the Kerch bridge on fire.
In October 1990 the Derry IRA used a technique called the proxy bomb or human bomb to kill British soldiers. A local cook for the British, Patrick Gillespie, was forced to drive to the Coshquin permanent border checkpoints with a 1000 lb bomb. He was strapped to the seat of the vehicle and when he tried to escape the bomb exploded, killing the driver and five soldiers.
Local militarists were delighted by the success of the scheme. The majority of their supporters were horrified and support for the Republican movement fell. A similar process happened earlier, in 1981, when the IRA assassinated Unionist MP Robert Bradford, although he was a political representative not directly connected to the military struggle.
The moral question should be clear enough. Engagement in military activities does not remove all questions of ethics nor should it prevent political consideration of the outcome of military actions. Many republican supporters felt no necessity to support these actions.
So why is it that, today, amongst a number of long-standing Internet commentators who identity as socialist, we are hearing unselfconscious cheering for Ukrainian undercover actions?
Even the US accept that Ukrainian agents were behind the car bomb assassination of Darya Dugina, a Russian reporter. Apparently, the target was her father. Recently there has been applause at the bombing of the Crimea Bridge. At first glance this appears to be a proxy bomb, with the lorry driver and inhabitants of a passing car innocent victims. There is also the issue of the consequences of extending attacks to civilian infrastructure, demonstrated by the immediate Russian response - although we in no way justify that response.
Why do none of the cheerleaders take a moment to consider the casualties? If the analogy with the Irish Troubles holds, the atrocities were linked to the decline in the struggle. IRA leaders became obsessed with grabbing the headlines and reassuring their supporters of the efficacy of armed struggle at a time when a strategic goal for that action was becoming increasingly obscure.
A similar psychology seems to apply to the Ukrainian leadership. Where the military situation would seem to require conserving resources and waging a war of attrition, they seem to concentrate on recklessly expending lives and materiel and on "spectaculars" that don't guarantee a military advantage but that may persuade the US and NATO to step up the flow of money and resources.
The effusive support from the Leftists in support of the Ukrainian state can also be explained by analogy with the Troubles. As the struggle declined the political consciousness of the Irish militarists declined also. They became demoralised and, like football supporters, gloated over every score for their side and lost interest in discussing either morality, human costs or long-term consequences.
What can we call the current situation but one of demoralisation, when it’s admitted that a freezing winter and civilian deaths will be a direct result of the continuation of the war and when there is daily chat about the imminence of nuclear war, yet in many areas no mobilisation against it?
The fact is that there are such mobilisations. In France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Hungary and many other Eastern European countries there are mass demonstrations against war and strikes against the movement of war materiel. Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic states are pro-war. In Ireland and Britain anti-war voices are smothered by a compliant press, pro war voices within the left and by the solidarity movement that is little more than a cheerleader movement.
Socialists have one basic task. That is to explain the class repression underlying conflicts. Yet much analysis ignores class completely. Socialists should not argue for a moment that Putin can meet the needs of workers’ in either Russia or Ukraine, but the NATO war machine is even less likely to do so.
A socialist programme would unite Ukrainian and Russian workers, and workers across the region, in defence of their own interests and against the oligarchs and imperialist powers.