Last year, a spontaneous mass movement by the Ukrainian people forced the Zelensky government to cancel its plan to place independent anti-corruption bodies under government control.
Nearly twelve months later, it’s happening again. An equally spontaneous and even larger movement is forcing Zelensky to dismiss his Chief of the General Staff, General Syrsky. {that has since happened -Tr] According to the latest reports, protests are continuing to demand that Mikhailo Fedorov be reinstated to his position at the Ministry of Defense… from which Zelensky had dismissed him a few days earlier.
Reports on what’s happening at the top are, of course, to be taken with a grain of salt. But one thing seems indisputable. At the grassroots level, despite the war and Russian bombings of civilian targets—or perhaps precisely because of them—the Ukrainian people are constantly intensifying their demands for transparency, democracy, and oversight of the country’s leadership. What kind of Ukraine are we fighting for? This question is the common thread linking all popular mobilizations.
Consequently, the contrast is truly striking between Ukrainian society, which is increasingly moving in this direction, on the one hand, and Russian society, which seems increasingly fragmented, depoliticized, and resigned in the face of the neo-fascist despotism of Putin’s oligarchs..
Much of radical left gets Ukraine wrong
Most of the global left—particularly in the West—does not even see this contrast. It understands nothing of what is unfolding before its eyes. Instead of assessing the situation in concrete terms of social relations, colonial domination, and the right to self-determination, it judges it in abstract terms of war and peace. Or worse, in terms of blocs, as if the Ukrainian people (“Ukronazis,” say the most narrow-minded) were merely the instrument of imperialist (and therefore Western) aggression, and as if Russia were part of an “anti-imperialist camp” whose victory we should hope for!
Recent events show once again—but with even greater clarity—that this framework is completely inadequate. In what other country in the world do ordinary citizens freely take to the streets—without being repressed by the police—to oust a chief of staff? The latter is considered a butcher, suspected of covering up corruption in defense arms deliveries. At the same time this people is aiming to influence the appointment of a minister. One need only imagine a similar movement in Russia, against Gerasimov, or in the U.S., against Hegseth—two sinister war criminals—to understand that what is happening in Ukraine is extraordinary.
A struggle for national self-determination
What is happening, in fact, goes far beyond the clash between the Soviet-trained “Old” Syrsky and the young “geek” Fedorov, the architect of the successful drone offensive and a friend of Musk’s. What is happening is a struggle—both democratic and social—for national self-determination.
Yet, amid unprecedented difficulties and suffering, this process has been steadily deepening since the dissolution of the USSR.
For anyone who has read the Marxist classics on the struggles of oppressed peoples, the deepening of this process of self-determination carries within it the hope of social revolution. It is that hope. A fragile hope, to be sure—a hope still in its infancy, riddled with contradictions, and constantly threatened with co-optation—just like any profound popular movement. This hope will have to overcome enormous obstacles to triumph. But it is infinitely precious, so rare is it in today’s world. The suffering of the Palestinian people, crushed with impunity by the genocidal Netanyahu and his accomplices, sadly reminds us of this every day.
SOLIDARITY WITH THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE
SOLIDARITY WITH ALL OPPRESSED PEOPLES
edited from Daniel’s facebook page