From the May-June 2015 issue of News & Letters

At this year’s World Social Forum in Tunis, Tunisia, Leftists from both eastern and western Ukraine came together to reject the further escalation of armed conflict—and the Russian “Left” ideologue who has been promoting it, Boris Kagarlitsky. This was a significant poke at Kagarlitsky’s real boss, Russian President Putin.

The genuine Ukrainian Left has been demanding a ceasefire for months. They know Putin’s appetite for destruction. They can see how far out on a limb he’s climbed with his imperialist propaganda blaring non-stop over Russian state media. His continuing attacks on Ukraine serve to marginalize the working class in the industrial east, and to promote the interests of nationalists and oligarchs over the many progressive elements of the Maidan, the mass movement that overthrew the corrupt oligarch Yanukovych.

The Tunis joint statement said, “The further escalation of the war (including the open introduction of Russian forces into Donbas) could have catastrophic consequences, and makes the struggle for social rights and the activities of trade unions, workers’ organisations and the Left far harder.”

—Gerry Emmett