The position of the revolutionary socialists of the JRCL-RMF of Japan on the Ukrainian question

JRCL Letter - April 10, 2015

This letter is in response to the FLTI statement published in International Workers Organizer #8:
“Obama, Merkel, the Kiev government and the butcher Putin in a true counterrevolutionary pact, with massacres, hunger, isolation and unheard of suffering, impose a siege to defeat the heroic workers' and mass resistance of Donbass in the Ukranian east”

Dear Comrades,

 From your document, I get the impression that you feel pain and indignation about the miseries of the Ukrainian masses.  Many have been killed, homes set on fire, water and fuel are in short supply.  I also felt your enthusiasm for a proletarian solution to the question.  However, it also seems to me that enthusiasm alone cannot find the fundamental solution.
First of all, you try to analyze the current Ukrainian situation (which we could call "a civil war") under the scheme: the imperialist bourgeoisie (including the US, the Europeans, Poroshenko and Putin) vs the proletariat (workers of Donbass).  It seems too simple to me.
(1)As Comrade Kihara wrote last June, I think we have to analyze the Ukrainian situation in relation to the world situation today, two decades after the collapse of the USSR (the framework of which is seen, for example, in the drawing of Kaihoh New Year's Edition).
US imperialism is historically declining and, on the other hand, the emerging China is challenging the US.  Putin is strengthening his ties with China.  Content with an ambition to restore "great Russia", he attempted to build a Russian sphere of influence, which he calls the "Eurasian Alliance", against the US and European imperialists and in alliance with China.  On the other hand, the American and European imperialist powers (between which there were gaps and oppositions of practical interests) conspired to amputate the republics that constituted the former USSR, separating them from Russia and incorporating them into the EU and NATO.  Civil war broke out in the midst of such a tense international confrontation.
(2) In Ukraine, backed by US and European imperialist powers, groups of Ukrainian nationalists, including the Freedom Party and the so-called Right Sector, incited anti-Russian nationalist hatred among the working masses who are suffering under the pro-Russian government of Yanukovych and therefore were furious with the regime.  Nationalist groups also intensified various pressures (including the military one) on Russian residents of the eastern region.
In the face of these events, Putin felt a sense of crisis, believing that if his neighboring country joined NATO, it would increase the military threat against Russia and could destroy his ambition.  Therefore, he not only forcibly annexed Crimea, but also supported Russian nationalists in organizing the easterners under Russian patriotism and dispatched a large number of military personnel, both active and retired, under the pretext of "protection of the Russians".
Therefore, the civil war in Ukraine intensified in the form of ethnically dividing the Ukrainian people.

 (3) The working masses of Ukraine and Russia are being drawn into nationalist hatreds incited by the oligarchy government supported by the imperialist powers of the US and Europe and by the Russian government of Putin.
Therefore, I believe that, as revolutionary communists, we should not support the Russian armed forces as "workers fighting for the revolution."
I think that the weakest point of your document is that there is no reference to the crimes of Stalinism.
In Comrade Munzer's document from last April, it is correctly stated that Stalinism allowed the Ukrainian working masses to be organized by reactionary forces.
I think that more than ever we should remember what Trotsky wrote on "the Ukrainian question".  We must think about what we must do for his revolutionary spirit to truly triumph.
Stalin and the bureaucrats of the USSR adopted a Russia-centric policy, based on their "socialism in one country" and victimizing the working masses of the Ukraine and other "satellite" countries.  Exactly this led many people to anti-Russian sentiments, including hatred of communism;  and that wrong sentiment was not resolved and burned under his bureaucratic rule.  With the collapse of the USSR and the supposed independence of Ukraine, these burning sentiments burst out and have been causing antagonisms between nations and ethnic groups.  On the other hand, many people in Russia and Ukraine, at home, are forced to believe that everyone in Ukraine who supports the Kiev government is a fascist or fascist-thinking person.  This is a tragedy that we cannot ignore as revolutionaries.
The root cause of today's Ukrainian question lies in the historical crime of Stalinism.  I think what we need to do is reveal it and call people to get over it.  And we must promote international struggles against the rulers who impose suffering on the working masses.  Let's denounce the annexation of Crimea by Putin's Russia!  Let's crush the European and American imperialist intervention!  Let's fight against the competitive strengthening of the military capabilities of the US imperialists and the Russian and Chinese rulers!
Comrades of the FLTI-CI!  Let us strengthen our international struggle in solidarity, through honest and revolutionary mutual discussions!

Response to JRCL letter – April 11, 2015

Dear Comrade,
We received your letter dated April 10.  We consider it a real contribution and, of course, an honest and revolutionary discussion against positions on our part, which you consider wrong, unilateral or voluntarist.  We consider this letter from you as an enormous contribution to an international debate on one of the crucial points of the class struggle in Europe and internationally, such as the Ukrainian question.
How could it be otherwise, in this debate nuances that we have around the international situation and the groupings of the imperialist powers and their relationship with the masses intersect.
We consider your letter an enormous and valuable contribution to the debate, because is we think that without collaboration and criticism of the elaborations it would be impossible to conquer and maintain a revolutionary program.  We know that we are on the same barricade in the fight against imperialism, Stalinism and all the oppressors of the world working class.  We are facing a debate between revolutionary Marxists that enriches us -and we believe that you too- and will enrich us enormously, while we continue a common international struggle.
We will carefully study your position.  From now on, we clarify that we will publish it in all the FLTI materials, on its website, and on that of all the groups.  Towards the middle of the year we will be marching to an international congress of the FLTI.  Your contribution on the Ukrainian question will be debated by all the comrades towards this Congress. Your criticism is very important to us.  We will study it and give you our point of view.
We are working on a final declaration on Ukraine that accounts for the Minsk agreements.  Look carefully, comrades, that the result of this agreement between Merkel, Obama, NATO and Putin is to call for disarming the masses of Donbass.  On this, all of them have agreed.  The pro-Russian bourgeoisie in eastern Ukraine is the frontrunner in this, and has called on all militias to disarm.
The Minsk agreement also seeks to apply an IMF plan to plunder Ukraine.  Do not forget that it was Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president, who applied the IMF plan in Ukraine, repaying the foreign debt.  And it was even Russia, the "bloc opposed to the US" that proposed to pay 15 billion dollars to the IMF.
We want to advance some concerns.  We are very far from seeing a Donbass struggle against "fascist Kiev".  What we see is an uprising of the Donbass working class, which is manipulated by the pro-Russian bourgeoisie, and an uprising of the Kiev workers who no longer agree to repay the IMF plans, live on a measly 200 euros a month, much less the forced conscription to go to confront his class brothers from the Ukrainian east.
The program to unite the Ukrainian working class is crucial, since the struggle of the Donbass workers is the same as that of their brothers in Kiev against imperialism, the IMF, the EU and against the butcher Putin, who yesterday with Yanukovych was who repaid the foreign debt to the IMF and crushed the Ukrainian masses.
Actually, either Ukraine is to be an independent Soviet republic, or it will be a NATO colony and the remains of it will be kept as a prize for Putin for the "services rendered" when attacking any revolution.
We are very satisfied with this reflection that we are doing.  Here we only anticipate some concerns.  We insist, we will be urgently publishing your position on the Ukrainian question to all the militants of the FLTI.  We all have much to learn from your contributions.
We know that you have relationships with many groups in Russia and Ukraine.  We would like to know what you think of these groups and what is your position on the current situation in Ukraine.
Let's keep fighting together!
Receive our internationalist greetings

Observation on Ukraine from a comrade of the JRCL-RMF November 09, 2016

You asked us to comment on your Ukraine statement dated April 6.  But we haven't had time to do it.  We are really sorry that we didn't write to you sooner.
In your statement, you mention the Stalinists and criticize them for the criminal role they are playing.  You also refer to the pro-Russian bourgeoisie in the Donbass.  I acknowledge your analysis on this point.  In analyzing the dynamics of class struggle, it is important to pay attention to these specific groups and individuals that constitute the dynamics.  (But I have one thing to add. Even though you mention their behavior, you seem to refuse to analyze them in relation to their ideologies.
In order to expose the criminal nature of the Stalinists, it is not enough simply to mention the criminal roles they are playing.  It is essential to (1) understand the tactics on the basis on which they are playing those roles and the strategy behind their tactics, and (2) bring to light how wrong these tactics and strategies are.  This is also applicable to the analysis of Putin's behavior.  It is necessary to analyze the kind of state interest that he is pursuing and what policies he has to achieve them.  These points seem to require further discussion, but I won't go into more detail here)
In this letter I would like to discuss only one question: about the slogan “We want the USSR back!”  that the people of Donbass are raising.  You quote this slogan without making any critical comment.  I found that same slogan quoted in a letter that you sent us in September, although I did not find it in the last letter.
As you well know, what this slogan means is a demand that the former Soviet Union be restored as it was - that former Soviet Union that was subjected to bureaucratic distortion by Stalin and his successors.  Of course, I understand that this slogan can be an irresistible expression of the resentment of the people against the miserable reality of capitalist transformation.  But, even so, I must say that this slogan demonstrates the lack of awareness about Stalinism and its serious errors.  This is a slogan that almost all so-called "left" organizations in Russia are raising.  I think that since you are determined to inherit the spirit of Trotsky, who fought against Stalin, it is not characteristic of you to support that slogan.
 What we, revolutionary communists, must do is revolutionize those people who are fighting for this slogan.  We must show them why the USSR had to go through such a miserable collapse, and encourage them to open their eyes to the errors of Stalinism, in which they believe.  We must call them to create a true workers' state, defeating Stalinism.  This is what we should do, I believe.  As revealed by Trotsky in his Revolution Betrayed, and made clear by Kuroda in his Stalinist Socialism, we must bring to light the terrible distortion that the Stalinists caused in the politico-economic structure of the workers' state as the basis for the world revolution, that is, society in the period of transition to socialist society.  We must expose how criminally they distorted Marxism-Leninism - its theories of revolution, political economy and philosophy.  This is why we must call on the people of the former Soviet Union, and all the people of the world, to defeat Stalinism and move forward on the truly proletarian road to revolution.  This is precisely our duty, that of the communist revolutionaries, I believe.
60 years have passed since the Hungarian revolution, 25 years since the collapse of the USSR.  And next year it will be the centenary of the Russian Revolution.  Comrades, let's fight together to radicalize criticism and defeat Stalinism that betrayed the revolution, Marxism and the world proletariat, and let's make the 21st century a "second century of revolution!"

Response of Eliza Funes of the FLTI to the JRCL-RMF
November 17, 2016

Dear JRCL Comrades, We have received with great pleasure your letter sent yesterday, and particularly, we have very pleasantly received and read your comradely criticism of the Ukrainian question. I would like to tell you that I am Eliza Funes, one of the colleagues who are committed to fully following this very important acid test, for which we are preparing a brochure that will contain our main elaborations on this subject. We are working on it, re-studying our materials and following the issue up to date to be able to elaborate, what we hope, will be a work that responds to the enormous revolutionary process opened in Ukraine. I would like to thank you in advance for your comments and discussions, which have always made us advance in a deeper understanding and have led us to review our elaborations with a critical eye. This has happened previously around the issue of Crimea, which in a declaration that we issued in the summer of 2015 (whose elaboration I was in charge of) we had left completely relegated, and your contribution was crucial for us to be able to see this issue and correct it in the subsequent declarations, for which we also returned to our first work, produced by comrade Carlos Munzer, in which the issue was correctly addressed. We think, comrades, that a discussion of this type and at the international level is the healthiest and most accurate way to reach the truth and the correct program that the masses need to lead their struggles to victory. That is why I would like to greet this fraternal debate that we have established, and tell you that, in view of the fact that we are heading for a new congress of our international current, the leadership of the FLTI-Collective for the IV International let us know that it would like to publish your criticism and contributions about the Ukrainian issue on our website. We would like to take a few days of study to be able to respond with more detail and precision to your last comment. However, we would like to advance here some first impressions and the doubts that were raised as a result of it. First of all, in my opinion, the slogan raised by the Donbass masses of "Return the USSR" expresses, as you point out, the rejection of the conditions of misery and exploitation of capitalist society. We believe, however, that this sense that the masses give it has a profound meaning. For the masses, a return to the USSR essentially means having bread and work, health and education. They know very well that their economy is closely tied to Russia, and they identify the solution to their hardships, the solution to their lives of misery, with the establishment of the Soviet Union. The Donbass bourgeoisie pursues a very different objective in wanting to integrate the regions of the Ukrainian Donbass into Russia, which is none other than to preserve and deepen their businesses, and also the enslavement and plunder of the nation. This is how we expressed it, for example, in our declaration of May 2015 where we say: “In the demand for "the return of the USSR", the masses of Donbass express the opposite of what Putin and the cynical Great Russian bourgeoisie, who are those who in '89 handed over the October revolution to Citibank and imperialism, do, becoming new native oligarchies, as did Stalinism both in great Russia and in all the peoples it oppresses. The pro-imperialist butcher Putin has nothing to do with the conquests of the October revolution in the former USSR, as he is only trying to maintain business with Merkel and Obama by keeping Crimea and the gas business that supplies Europe. That cowardly Great Russian bourgeoisie has nothing to do with the former USSR and the conquests of 1917. It is the genocidist of the masses of the Caucasus and Chechnya, which handed over all the technology of the Russian military industrial apparatus to German, French and North American imperialism, and the key sectors of the economy to Citibank and the Krupp Group and BASF from Germany; and whose funds are in the accounts of the imperialist banks. No matter how much effort the remnants of Stalinism in Europe make, they will not be able to deceive the world working class again. It is that, how to defend and call to fight together with the Donbass miners who once again raise the red flags of "return the USSR" when they support the pro-imperialist clique of the Castro brothers, the last Stalinist stronghold, which has handed over the Cuban revolution a la Cargill and Coca Cola? The remnants of European Stalinism are the "left voice" of Putin, who tells the "democratic" Obama not to "lean on the fascist gangs of Kiev", because they, like yesterday with Yanukovych, are the ones who are willing to make the Ukrainian masses pay up to the last dollar of foreign debt to the IMF. And that their pulse will not tremble in crushing and massacring the Donbass masses from within so that they disarm.” We believe that the slogan "Return the USSR" is a milestone and a conquest of the masses. The Ukrainian Communist Party and the Russian Communist Party are enemies of this slogan. It is that none of them wants the revolution or the restoration of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are the ones who gave up the workers' states and became a new bourgeoisie. In the same way, the European Communist Parties are staunch enemies of the return of the USSR, and for this reason they find themselves supporting the imperialist Maastricht and all the capitalist states. The Communist Parties and Stalinism, and as you put it, are the betrayers and gravediggers of the USSR. They are responsible for the restoration of capitalism in '89, as they are today too, for planting the Yankee flag again in Cuba. We precisely believe that this slogan felt by the masses is a formidable tool for the working class to break historically and definitively with the Stalinist scourge. The differentiation and demarcation with Stalinism that you point out to us as necessary when raising this slogan, we believe is reflected in the following expressions, which is the way in which we have raised this issue programmatically: "Let the USSR of the councils of workers, peasants and soldiers return, without the traitors of Stalinism, betrayers of the October 1917 revolution and of the international socialist revolution!” (raised in different statements such as in May 2015 and also in April 2016). The task of making "the USSR Return", which is none other than the task of restoring the dictatorship of the proletariat under revolutionary forms, is a task of the Ukrainian, Russian and European proletariat, the only way to solve the hardships that this capitalist system imposes them at every step. I repeat, comrades, that these are just some assessments that arise from a first reading of your letter. We insist that this debate is extremely enriching for us and we are sure that on this path we will advance with much greater clarity, and seeking the truth, in this beneficial exchange. In the next few days we will bring you a deeper and more complete answer. Let's keep fighting together across borders!

EF