[News] A Brief Guide on the Situation in Ukraine
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Sun Feb 27 13:36:31 EST 2022
blackallianceforpeace.com
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/resourcesonukraine>
Ukraine — The Black Alliance for Peace
February 26, 2021
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*A Brief Guide on the Situation in Ukraine*
Within large sectors of the U.S. left, including many elements of the
Black left, there is widespread confusion related to the Ukraine
“crisis.” Years of anti-Russia propaganda from the U.S. and its NATO
allies, and the tendency to abstract the current Ukrainian situation
from its historical and geo-strategic context, have created a climate of
confusion. This climate has played into the hands of state propagandists
and Democratic Party activists eager to use the Ukraine situation to
deflect attention from Biden’s disastrous domestic agenda.
The situation with Ukraine did not just fall out of the sky in 2021. It
has a long history.
Here are some points to frame how we should engage this issue:
1.
*Ukraine is a manufactured crisis*. That is, the stand-off between
the U.S./ NATO forces and the Russian Federation with the
Ukrainians, including the Ukrainians in the Eastern portion of
Ukraine (that the media refers to as “pro-Russia separatists”), did
not evolve organically but was the result of conscious decisions on
the part of the Biden Administration. Less than two months after
taking office there were indications that the Biden Administration
was signaling to the Ukrainian government that it would support
efforts to reincorporate the eastern region (Donbas) by force. This
is why we reject any obscurantist references to the “both sides are
to blame” position that we see in various statements from peace and
anti-war groups. To be clear: this is not a “pro-Russia” position,
but an objective assessment of the dynamics of the situation.
2.
*The U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination*. We see NATO as a criminal
military structure whose only purpose is providing the
military/material basis for the maintenance and extension of the
U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination (white power). As a structure of
white colonial power, NATO was essential in supporting colonial
powers in Africa, including the Portuguese in their military
struggles to maintain their colonial holdings in Africa during the
initial wave of anti-colonial struggles on the continent. The
Obama/Biden administration also used NATO for their attack on Libya
in 2011, resulting in the destruction of the most prosperous and
revolutionary state on the continent. All peace loving people should
call for the dismantling of NATO.
3.
*Ukraine and U.S. Doctrine of “Full Spectrum Dominance.” While the
focus on Ukraine is of utmost importance, we must also recognize the
bipartisan commitment to the U.S. national security strategy of
“Full Spectrum Dominance” and its utilization of a “military-first”
strategy to achieve continued U.S. global dominance.* For example,
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/africomwatchbulletin/2022/2/1/africom-watch-bulletin-37>
troops trained by the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) have been
involved in nine coups d’etat in the thirteen years that AFRICOM has
operated on the continent. Therefore, unlike a number of peace and
anti-war groups that abstract Ukraine from that context, we argue
that the coup in Ukraine and the attempt to create the conditions
for the expansion of NATO into Ukraine must be seen as just one
aspect of U.S. imperialist strategy. It is the concrete, material
interests of imperialism that drives U.S. policies and is,
therefore, why it must be defined as such and vigorously opposed by
all anti-imperialists.
For African peoples, the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination represents the
greatest threat to peace, human rights, and social justice on the planet
today. It is absurd for any African to embrace the agenda of empire by
giving credence or legitimacy to the crude mobilization of public
opinion for conflict on behalf of NATO and the white supremacist,
colonial/capitalist project.
1.
*Ukraine reflects the continuous right-wing nature of European and
European American politics. *In a 2018 article in /The Nation/,
Stephen Cohendetailed
<https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/americas-collusion-with-neo-nazis/>
the social and political impacts of the 2014 right-wing coup in
Ukraine:
…storm troop-like assaults on gays, Jews, elderly ethnic Russians, and
other “impure” citizens are widespread throughout Kiev-ruled Ukraine,
along with torchlight marches reminiscent of those that eventually
inflamed Germany in the late 1920s and 1930s. And that the police and
official legal authorities do virtually nothing to prevent these
neofascist acts or to prosecute them. On the contrary, Kiev has
officially encouraged them by systematically rehabilitating and even
memorializing Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi German extermination
pogroms and their leaders during World War II, renaming streets in their
honor, building monuments to them, rewriting history to glorify them,
and more.
This is the nature of the government in Ukraine that the Biden
Administration along with the corporate press, deranged Black people,
and a confused left are supporting.
Below is an alternative set of facts and analyses related to the Ukraine
crisis, a “crisis” deliberately generated to divert attention away from
the Biden’s administration inability to provide capitalist stability.
*The unfolding of events in Ukraine that are relevant for Africans*
1.
*The full responsibility for the dangerous crisis unfolding in
Ukraine has its genesis in the illegal policies of the U.S./EU/NATO
“Axis of Domination*” beginning in 2014. As the Black Alliance for
Peacereported
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/2022/1/12/bapcondemsukrainedomination>,
it was clear even from statements attributed to Obama officials
that, “During the latter part of 2013 until February 2014, the
Obama/Biden administration gave material support and encouragement
to anti-democratic right-wing elements in Ukraine to execute ‘regime
change.’” Therefore, the U.S. was deeply implicated in thecoup of
February 2014
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/ukraine-and-us-war-propaganda>
that overthrew the democratically elected president of Ukraine,
Viktor Yanukovych.
2.
The coup government was infected with Ukrainian ultra-nationalists
and with political ties to literal fascists such as the “Right
Sector” and theAzov battalions
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis>.
The coup plunged Ukraine into crisis because substantial sectors of
Ukrainian society did not support it, especially sections of
predominantly Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens in the Eastern
portions of the nation. Those Ukrainian citizens rejected the
legitimacy of the coup government and began to voice support for
independence from the neo-Nazi government that took power. The
response from the illegal coup regime was to label its own citizens
“terrorists” and attack the Eastern portions of the country
militarily. In other words, they attacked their own citizens – a
crime that the Obama administration pretended was the excuse for
U.S. subversion in Syria.
3.
The Azov Battalion played a major combat role in the attacks by the
coup government against Ukrainian citizens who opposed the coup. The
Azov Battalion is avowedly “partially” pro-Nazi, as evidenced by its
regalia, slogans, and programmatic statements, and aswell-documented
<http://thehill.com/opinion/international/359609-the-reality-of-neo-nazis-in-the-ukraine-is-far-from-kremlin-propaganda>
as such by several international monitoring organizations. The Azov
Battalion was incorporated into the National Guards of Ukraine, the
armed forces of the Ukrainian state, and today is reported to be
being trained by U.S. Special Forces.
4.
After suffering military defeats at the hands of the peoples in
Eastern Ukraine that had subsequently declared themselves
independent of the coup government, an agreement between Donbas and
the coup government was arrived at that became known as the Minsk II
agreement. Terms of the agreement included a commitment to a
ceasefire along with relative autonomy for Donbas (Eastern Ukraine).
The agreement avoided all-out war and provided a degree of
“stability” until the Biden administration came back to power.
Back in power, Biden and the Democrats who have now reclaimed the mantle
of the party of war, began to encourage Ukraine authorities to ignore
the Minsk II agreement and to forcefully retake control of Donbas. Even
more dangerously, the U.S. and some European powers began to indicate
that Ukraine might be invited to become a member of NATO. If Ukraine
becomes a member of NATO, this could allow a nuclear armed NATO to be
positioned right on the borders of Russia. Russia is rightly concerned
about this security risk at its border.
*The Black Radical Position on the Situation in Ukraine *
*NATO is an illegitimate aggressive structure in the service of Western
imperialism and does not deserve any support from African/Black and
colonized people.* Moreover, all social forces committed to peace should
demand that NATO be dismantled. The Ukrainian crisis is yet another
example of the delusional policies being pursued by U.S. rulers unable
to accept the changed circumstances in the world today that limit their
ability to impose their interests on peoples and nations without
consequences.
As an African people involved in an existential battle in the U.S.
against rightist forces, from the Trump/Republican supporters to the
warmongering neoliberal Democrats, with both committed to global “Full
Spectrum Dominance” (white power), it would be an affront to our history
and people to enter this struggle on the side of empire and NATO.
*BAP Demands*:
1. All parties to the conflict adhere to the provisions reflected in the
Minsk agreement
2. Instead of the arbitrary and illegal activities of the United States
and NATO, the Ukrainian situation should be moved to the United Nations
Security Council, the only body by international law tasked with the
responsibility to address international threats to peace.
3. That NATO, a structure for advancing the interests of white supremacy
and the U.S. empire be dismantled.
4. The U.S. government renounce its commitment to the doctrine of global
“Full Spectrum Dominance.”
*Select Resources from BAP and BAP members:*
*BAP Press Release*: Black Alliance For Peace took a strong stance on
the escalating situation in Ukraine
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/2022/1/12/bapcondemsukrainedomination>.
“Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Policies of the U.S./EU/NATO Axis
of Domination in Ukraine”
*Ajamu Baraka*, Ukraine: What Does it Have to Do with Black Folks?
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/ukraine-what-does-it-have-do-black-folks>
*BAP Press Release: *Ukraine: Biden Administration’s “Wag the Dog”
Diversionary War?:**
<https://blackallianceforpeace.com/bapstatements/ukrainebidenswar>
*Interview Ajamu Baraka on Ukraine: *Unmasking Imperialism
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YciCv7JECCk> Hosted by Ramiro Sebastián
Fúnez.
*Margaret Kimberley: *Ukraine and War Propaganda
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/ukraine-and-us-war-propaganda>
*Ajamu Baraka*, National Organizer of the Black Alliance for Peace
joined “By Any Means Necessary” to discuss the ongoing issues in Ukraine
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iySotDUHzdFmyq6Q3Qscz0_ps4tPuhEI/view?usp=sharing>
and its meaning for Black people in the US.
*Salifu Mack, Erica Caines, *Biden-Harris and the Never-Ending
Commitment to War and Terror:**
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/biden-harris-and-never-ending-commitment-war-and-terror>
*Charisse Burden-Stelly, “*Against the Triple Evils: The Biden’s
Administrations Affront to Dr. King’s Legacy
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/against-triple-evils-biden-administrations-affront-dr-kings-legacy>
*Pre-2021:*
*Margaret Kimberley*: Russia Wins
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/freedom-rider-russia-wins>
*Glen Ford*: Hillary and Other Assorted Barbarians at Russia’s Gate
<https://www.blackagendareport.com/content/hillary-and-other-assorted-barbarians-russia%E2%80%99s-gate%C2%A0>
*Ajamu Baraka*: The Story of Charlottesville Was Written in Blood in The
Ukraine
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/17/the-story-of-charlottesville-was-written-in-blood-in-the-ukraine/>
*Interview:* *Ajamu and Phil Wilatyo *- A Voice From The Margins - US
Foreign Policy in Ukraine and Eastern Europe
<https://www.facebook.com/drjillstein/videos/ajamu-baraka-and-phil-wilayto-a-voice-from-the-margins-gre/1626283007411883/>
*Additional Information:*
Estonia and Latvia are NATO member states
<https://www.visualcapitalist.com/this-is-how-much-nato-countries-spend-on-defense/>;
they are both on Russia’s border. Estonia would be the closest to Saint
Petersburg. See the map here
<https://www.google.com/maps/place/St+Petersburg,+Russia/@60.5749206,28.3356389,5.94z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4696378cc74a65ed:0x6dc7673fab848eff!8m2!3d59.9310584!4d30.3609096>
and look at number 24, that is Estonia and the little inlet just north >
that is where Saint Petersburg is.
*NATO and Africa: *
In his 1966 book Challenge of the Congo/, /Kwame Nkrumah writes:
/“/Foreign powers already have military bases in various, strategically
important parts of our continent. There are in Africa at present,
seventeen air bases owned and operated by individual members of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). There are nine naval bases
encircling the continent from the north coast of Africa right round the
south coast to the east. There are foreign military missions, for
example in Kenya, Morocco, Liberia, Libya, South Africa, Senegal and
Ivory Coast. Furthermore, they possess three rocket sites, and an atomic
testing range in North Africa. There are mines being exploited for the
production of raw materials for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Some
of these mines are situated in the Congo, Angola, South Africa,
Mozambique and Rhodesia. In the context of of the imperialist plan to
prevent Africa from achieving complete political and economic
independence and an All-African Union Government, these foreign military
bases present a serious threat to the African revolutionary struggle.”
(p. xi)
Walter Rodney was even more explicit on how NATO moved into Africa as
part of the efforts to shift colonial power from the traditional
European powers to the new colonial hegemon - the United States of America.
Rodney accurately describes the early foundation of colonial Africa’s
relationship with NATO which continues today when he said in /How Europe
Underdeveloped Africa//: /“Adding to the regular bases in long
established colonies, the imperialist powers were able to set up
military installations in African territories which fell into their
hands during the war. In this context, the USA was particularly
important, because it was already the principal buttress of the
capitalist defense system in the form of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO). Thus, after helping to recapture North Africa from
the fascist, the United States was able to build major air-force bases
in Morocco, and Libya. In Italian Eritrea, the Americans stepped in with
modern radar stations; and Ethiopia conceded military bases.” (p. 198)
*NATO & AFRICOM*
AFRICOM is actually a direct product of NATO via EUCOM (US European
command) because EUCOM is a component part of NATO and EUCOM originally
included responsibility for 42 African states. In 2003 NATO started
expanding; four years later the EUCOM commander proposed the creation of
AFRICOM in 2007.James L. Jones Jr. explains
<https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-the-us-can-build-on-its-success-with-africom/>
how he came to make the proposal for AFRICOM from his position as
commander of EUCOM
<https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-the-us-can-build-on-its-success-with-africom/>
as well as commander of operational forces of NATO here.
As previously mentioned regarding NATO’s relationship with OAU states,
the policy of NATO <https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/159844/fp_22.pdf>
“partnering” with African states to achieve its goals has continued with
the establishment of the AU. The AU has partnered with NATO/AFRICOM
missions regarding “anti-piracy,”
<https://www.africom.mil/pressrelease/33002/africom-commander-talks-security-partnerships>
military training, operational support, etc. in Somalia, and spearheaded
missions in Sudan & Gulf of Guinea.
The US/NATO role in the destruction of Libya in 2011 is important to
highlight because it offers some important lessons. First, US
imperialism and its western lackies do not accept any country that
decides to be an independent force outside of its sphere of influence.
Secondly, it also demonstrates how NATO can work hand in hand with other
US/western dominated world structures like the UN.In 2011 the UN
(resolution 1973)
<https://www.un.org/press/en/2011/sc10200.doc.htm#Resolution> gave
political authorization for a “no Fly zone” and blockade of Libya to
reportedly “protect” the citizens which ultimately resulted the
destruction of the country. It shows that although US-led NATO
<https://www.un.org/press/en/2011/sc10200.doc.htm#Resolution>often uses
the UN for political cover, it has no problemillegally
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/43302692> overstepping its UN mandate to
commit its crimes against humanity and achieve its regime change goals.
Even a few countries that abstained from the UN vote like China said
they did so not to offend the reactionary Arab league AND the African
Union which approved of the resolution. This shows cooperation between
NATO, UN the AU, and the Arab League.
The book The Illegal War on Libya edited by Cynthia McKinney, includes
the chapter titled “NATO’s Libya War, A Nuremberg Level Crime” in which
Stephen Ledman writes: “The US-led NATO war on Libya will be remembered
as one of history’s greatest crimes, violating the letter and spirit of
international law and America’s Constitution. The Nuremberg Tribunal’s
Chief Justice Robert Jackson (a supreme court justice) called Nazi war
crimes ‘the supreme international crime against peace.’ Here are his
November 21, 1945 opening remarks:
The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated,
so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate
their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated.”
Jackson called aggressive war “the greatest menace of our times.”
International law defines crimes against peace as “planning,
preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in
violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or
participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of
any of the foregoing.
*All* US post-WWII wars fall under this definition. Since then, America
has waged direct and proxy premeditated, aggressive wars worldwide. It
has killed millions in East and Central Asia, North and other parts of
Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, as well as in Central and South
America.” (p. 79)
Some quotations from Horace Campbell’s book Global NATO and the
Catastrophic Failure in Libya: Lessons for Africa in the Forging of
African Unity are instructive for understanding the expansion of NATO,
its aggression toward Russia, and its role in Africa generally, and
Libya particularly:
“The NATO operation [in Libya] exposed the reality that in the current
depression there will be massive use of force by Western corporations to
remain competitive. These corporate entities have decided to go beyond
structural adjustment ‘reforms’ and have taken a military stand in
Africa. There were also commentators who perceived the Libyan
intervention as a proxy war with China. War and revolution in North
Africa have opened a new period in the history of Africa.” (p. 30)
“Russia opposed the expansion of NATO, claiming that this was a military
alliance to encircle Russia by extending its membership to include
former members of the Warsaw Pact… NATO expanded under President Clinton
to protect ‘globalized’ capital, and it was in this period of expansion
that NATO jumped from twelve members to sixteen, then to nineteen, then
to twenty-six by 2004 and to twenty-eight members by 2009. Despite vocal
opposition from Russia, the discussion of expanding NATO now proceeded
to the idea of Global NATO…” (p. 40)
“Africa remained outside the orbit of this globalized NATO because
memories of the anti-apartheid struggles were too fresh in Africa,
especially southern Africa. Soon after the end of apartheid, the
government of the United States proposed an African Crisis Response
initiative. Nelson Mandela was among the first to vigorously oppose this
planned military force in Africa. For the next eight years, U.S.
diplomatic efforts were geared toward ensnaring individual states into a
military network dominated by the United States. Hiding behind the guise
of humanitarian relief, in 2004 the United States announced the
formation of the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance
program. The ostensive purpose of ACOTA was to train military trainers
and equip African national militaries to conduct peace support
operations. Less than four years later, the United States launched a new
initiative, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). This new military force
for Africa was rejected by even the most servile allies of the United
States. There was only one country that, in public, promised basing
privileges for AFRICOM. This was Liberia.” (pp. 40-41)
“Africans could see through the duplicity of the humanitarian
imperialism of NATO in the genocide in Rwanda and the NATO operations in
the Balkans. In 1994, the United States took the lead in opposing the
United Nations intervention to stop the genocide in Rwanda. In 1999,
NATO bombed Kosovo for over seventy-nine days as it gave itself a new
mission to expand U.S. military power right up to Moscow’s doorstep.”
(p. 43)
*NATO continues its training of African forces*
The July 2018 NATO Summit has solidified the geopolitical climate for a
NATO-led training mission to the DRC, aimed at the ‘protection of
civilians’ through the development of the DRC security forces. See
article***“*Crisis In The Congo: A New Role For NATO’s Southern Hub
<https://globalsecurityreview.com/crisis-drc-congo-new-role-nato-southern-hub/>
This is related to the current role of AFRICOM in the DRC
<https://thegrayzone.com/2021/11/30/africom-corporations-dr-congo-climate-china/>
today. See article, ”Backed by AFRICOM, corporations plunder DR Congo
for “climate-friendly” materials and blame China”
*Further reading:*
*
The African Union’s Response to the Libyan Crisis: A Plea for
Objectivity
<https://brill.com/view/journals/ajls/7/1/article-p123_6.xml?language=en>
*
UN Nato War Crimes Libya Sparks Anger and Continuing Resistance
<https://blackagendareport.com/content/un-nato-war-crimes-libya-sparks-anger-and-continuing-resistance>
*
The Illegality of Nato
<https://www.transcend.org/tms/2022/01/the-illegality-of-nato-2/>
*
U.N. Resolution - Libyan Crisis
<https://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_03/20110927_110311-UNSCR-1973.pdf>
*
Hartung, William D., Prophets of War Lockheed Martin and the making
of the Military-Industrial Complex
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