Progressive International Splits Over Russian Imperialist Onslaught.
Razem leaves Progressive International and DiEM25.
The Polish left party Razem has quit the Progressive International and DIEM25 over those organisations’ failure to support Ukraine’s right to self-determination and oppose Russian imperialism.
The “Progressive” “International” (it’s neither) was set up on Varoufakis’s initiative and has been increasingly influenced by the likes of Vijay Prashad, refusing solidarity to Hongkongers and Uyghurs and going along with the second campist, pro-CCP “no cold war” campaign.
(Jim D).
Razem leaves Progressive International and DiEM25
Pursuant to Article 26, par. 1, pt.17, Razem National Council decides to withdraw Razem’s membership in the Progressive International and the Democracy in Europe 2025 Movement.
Justification:
In the absence of an unequivocal declaration recognising Ukraine’s sovereignty and an absolute condemnation of Russian imperialism by the Progressive International and the Democracy in Europe 2025 Movement, Lewica Razem ends its cooperation with these organizations.
(33 for, 0 against, 0 abstained).
Progressive International.
It was launched after the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and The Sanders Institute announced an open call for progressive forces to form a unified front. The call was announced at a Sanders Institute event in Burlington, Vermont attended by progressive politicians, economists and activists including Naomi Klein, Cornel West, Fernando Haddad, Niki Ashton and Ada Colau.[2][3]
Formally founded and launched on 11 May 2020 during the global COVID-19 pandemic, the International claims to counter what it calls the resurgence of authoritarian nationalism worldwide as well as the rise of disaster capitalism.[4]
Progressive International held its inaugural summit titled „Internationalism or Extinction” in September 2020, bringing together Council members, trade unions, social movements, and political parties across continents with Noam Chomsky delivering the keynote speech
Enough with the struggle of superpowers. Voices from Central and Eastern Europe.
Razem is a Polish party founded in 2015 that aims to strengthen the Central and Eastern European perspective among the European left. We have noticed such perspective is very rarely taken by Western European leftist politicians, also in the context of Europe’s defence on its eastern flank. Bringing in our perspective – out of the centre of a region in a difficult neighbourhood with Russia – we want to bring more nuances to the Western perspective on, for example, the Ukrainian-Russian crisis. Engaging our partners and friends in the West with this view could help avoid fatal simplifications that may lead to naïve support for the Russian side.
We cannot afford such simplifications. Not at a time when Russia is relentlessly trying to undermine Ukraine’s statehood and sovereignty and the Ukrainians’ right to self-determination. The annexation of Crimea in 2014, the fuelling of the separatist conflict in the Donbas, and the deployment of more than 100,000 troops to Ukraine’s borders – all this is a continuation of Russia’s strategy of political and military subjugation of the former Soviet republics. We are against an order in which the stronger tries to impose its will on the weaker by force – because that is how Moscow’s latest steps need to be understood.
Tendance Coatesy 
Should be noted as well that the Prog Intl has yet to make any statement on the war.
Paul Canning 🇺🇦 (@pauloCanning)
March 1, 2022 at 4:35 pm
Indeed, most they have done is they retweeted this and poor old Corbyn’s platitudes,
Progressive International Retweeted
Srećko Horvat
@HorvatSrecko
·
2h
“These horrors [of war] I know very well — I grew up in the 1990s in a country that went through a bloody war… Today, here in NYC, we stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and all those in Russia & everywhere who protest the war and fight for peace.”
Andrew Coates
March 1, 2022 at 4:59 pm
Interesting recent thread by Hope Not Hate organizer Nick Lowles here. This is part :
IainF
March 1, 2022 at 8:49 pm
Interesting that they have gone for the Rossites (their leader John Ross was the leading figure in the IMG when I was a member). Wonder what one of his rivals, poor old Tariq Ali is doing now (he blocks me).
Andrew Coates
March 1, 2022 at 9:07 pm
What is ironic is that the opponents of the SWP and other “idiot anti-imperialism” were first led by it into “idiot pro-imperialism”, and now into “idiot anti-imperialism” themselves, as they oppose now Russian imperialism!
The SWP and others were “idiot antiimperialists” as in opposing western imperialism, they allied themselves with the ruling class in one less developed country after another, or with petty-bourgeois nationalists of all reactionary stripes such as Hamas and Hezbollah. But, now, we have many of those who rightly criticised the SWP for that “idiot anti-imperialism” doing exactly the same thing, as in opposing Russian imperialism they have lined up the Ukrainian ruling class, a reactionary Ukrainian government, and made themselves allies with the openly Nazi Azov Battalion, which the government has even given the latest weapons to!
Oh the wonderful workings of history, and the way those hapless souls have been tossed like flotsam and jetsom on its tides.
Boffy
March 2, 2022 at 4:21 pm
RE Razem’s statement of resignation from Diem25 The following is an open letter by Denis Sultangaliev:
Diem25 and groundhog day of Left’s mistakes – Нігіліст (nihilist.li)
I cannot express my disappointment with the international political organization diem25, of which I was a member until recently. The organization, which positioned itself as a rethinking of leftist ideas, was unable to develop an adequate position with regard to the Russian-Ukrainian war.
After the horrific attack by imperialist Russia on democratic Ukraine, they are still continuing the rhetoric of blaming NATO and the EU. I have never been a big fan of NATO as a defense structure, but what diem25 are doing is pathetic political opportunism, an attempt to push their own narrative when it is extremely inappropriate. Can we imagine that the left of Europe during WWII would accuse Britain of having a close relationship with Poland and thereby provoking the escalation perpetrated by Nazi Germany? Such an absurdity is absolutely unthinkable.
Meanwhile, Hitler’s rhetoric regarding the attack on Poland was extremely reminiscent of Putin’s rhetoric regarding Ukraine. Let’s compare:
“I decided to free the German borders from the elements of uncertainty, the constant threat of civil war. I will ensure that peace reigns on the eastern border, just like on our other border. To this end, I will take the necessary measures, so as not to contradict the proposals I made in the Reichstag for the whole world, that is, I will not fight against women and children. I have ordered my air force to be limited to attacks on military targets.”-Adolf Hitler
“At the same time, technologies, including defense technologies, are changing rapidly. Leadership in this field will continue to change hands, but the military development of the territories adjacent to our borders, if we allow it, will remain for decades to come, and maybe forever, and will create an ever-growing, absolutely unacceptable threat for Russia. ”-Vladimir Putin
While NATO’s non-interference policy is truly revolting, it is nothing more than a willingness to sacrifice a “weaker” friend to appease the aggressor. Diem25 is pushing for NATO to become even more inactive, to resolutely turn away from the bloody horror that Russia is openly perpetrating on a neighboring state. Can it be called leftist politics if the proposal is to sacrifice the more vulnerable one for the “general well being” of a club of the strong and wealthy ones? Such politics has nothing to do with the ideals of solidarity and mutual aid. It is the animalistic fear that pervades the European “left” and makes them humbly play along with the fascist expansion. Their declared concerns for minorities somehow goes hand in hand with ignoring agency and the right to self-determination of the Ukrainian people. After all, even if Ukraine is the initiating party in the development of relations between NATO and Ukraine, the European left will talk about the expansion of NATO to the east, as if the agency of a democratic Third World-like country is something completely fictitious. In the worldview of such “leftists”, all decisions belong to the few strongest players at the table, and all the rest are vassals and representatives of someone’s interests.
There is a joke that comes to mind about centrists that is popular in leftists spaces: that if one side is for genocides and the other is against, then the centrists will still prefer to find a position between them. In a way the same thing is happening with the “leftists” in a situation where Russia brutally invades, but the agenda requires them to stand exclusively between the parties, because we don’t like NATO either. In a situation like that, in addition to jokes about centrists, Dante’s poems come to mind:
“Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
Of Angels,
who have not rebellious been,
Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.
The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;
Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
For glory none the damned would have from them.”
We should also say that the main expert on the war in Ukraine for diem25 is Vladimir Ischchenko. Vladimir, like diem25, tends to take odious decisions from the point of view of ethics in the name of the neutrality of his position. One need only recall his formally neutral position in the earlier stage of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, that position was accompanied by a clear rhetorical leaning toward the direction of the pro-Russian left. As we have seen from the poetry above, in the world of Dante, perhaps, Vladimir and diem25 would have found each other in the same way as in reality.
It is worth noting that not all diem25 member parties uphold this position. Thus, our comrades from the Polish “Razem” showed solidarity with the Ukrainian people even before the start of a full-scale war and did not start relativistic demagoguery. Now, among all the leftist parties in European countries, they are one of the most active speakers regarding assistance to Ukraine and for that, we are very grateful to them. Today, however, the Razem have demonstrated truly impressive solidarity and left both the Diem25 and the Progressive International, which had an even more disgusting position about the Russian invasion. In the Polish left, Ukraine finds a close friend, while the Western left continues to shock with their ignorance and disregard.
The crisis situation, which sheds light on the ethical foundations of various positions, has shown who is who. I’m glad that my membership in that group has come to an end and nothing more ties me with them.
Jim Denham
March 3, 2022 at 7:48 am
Dmitry Mrachnik:
Why Western leftists are so fucked up? – Нігіліст (nihilist.li)
It’s quite fucked up how Western leftist discussion on Ukraine quickly devolves into mentions of far-right groups like Right Sector or Azov. Come on, people. The US, whose leftists often bug Ukrainians with whataboutisms on the fascists, has just had a fascist president.
Western leftists and anarchists don’t ask us whether we need medical supplies, food, military equipment. They ask us about fascists patrolling the streets in Ukraine. Sweet Jesus, our president is Jewish, and the only right-populist party in the parliament is fucking pro-Russian.
Right Sector is already a dead movement nobody cares about. Azov regiment is just about a thousand people who at worst might beat some rando up while off-service. Remember when a year ago a crowd of armed white nationalists attempted a coup and Trump was totally ok with that?
Meanwhile France, Germany, Spain, UK have far-right MPs. Ukraine had only one neo-Nazi MP and he neither submitted any bill nor worked in committees.
But the very mention of Ukraine as the victim of Russian aggression makes people lose their minds: “They have Right Sector! Azov!! Bandera!!!” And if one can explain the first two, Bandera problem is much harder.
Even Ukrainians mostly have no idea what he really did due to it being so shrouded in history. Nobody gives a fuck about Bandera besides a bunch of boomers.
Check replies on Bernie Sanders’ tweet. He says that Russia is a threat to peace. His comment on current escalation is very moderate and calls on diplomacy, but strictly points out who’s the bad guy.
It is beyond belief that in 2022, as we face challenges like covid & climate change, any national leader would start a war that could kill thousands & create millions of refugees. There is a diplomatic solution to this crisis. It is tragic that Putin seems intent to reject it.
The benign discussion of what should be an uncontroversial issue within the leftist crowd made them lose their mind instead, blaming Ukraine for mere existence of the far-right movements within.
And how about the fact that Russia doesn’t even try to cover up its imperialist plan on Ukraine, one that cannot be justified by any leftist ideals? Nyeeh, it’s all NATO’s fault. NATO should pull out of Ukraine!
Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Fuck us.
Jim Denham
March 3, 2022 at 8:40 am
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