"Gegen die Strömung (Against the Current) - Organ for building the Revolutionary Communist Party of Germany"
First statement from early March 2022:
The war of Russian imperialism against Ukraine and the attitude of German imperialism
(translated from German by the International Marxist-Leninist Archive)
Intensification of the contradictions between the imperialist great powers
There is no question that the world situation has changed. Due to the advance of the western imperialist great powers in the last decades, also with the help of military operations up to imperialist wars like in Yugoslavia in 1999 or in Afghanistan from 2001, they succeeded in expanding their spheres of influence at the expense of imperialist Russia.
The attempt by the Russian imperialists to overthrow the government there with their war against Ukraine and to install a pro-Russian regime, possibly to conquer Kyiv, to occupy and separate parts of the country, is part of this worldwide struggle of the imperialist great powers for areas of influence.
The danger of direct war between imperialist great powers is rapidly increasing.
The problem is that in the 21st century, as in the 20th century, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to keep another country occupied by ground forces for any length of time. Neither the Russian imperialists nor the US imperialists and their allies, including German imperialism, were able to do this in Afghanistan. Where regimes have been eliminated, such as in Iraq and Libya, a confusing situation has arisen, with rival mercenary troops from different states fighting for local resources. This is not a stable solution for imperialism either. However, this will not prevent the imperialist great powers from continuing to invade and occupy other countries in order to secure areas of military influence for themselves in the global competitive struggle.
Even if the Western imperialist great powers are currently demonstratively united in their opposition to Russian imperialism, the rivalries in the struggle for the largest spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and elsewhere are also coming to a head among the Western imperialists, especially between the US imperialists and the imperialist great powers in Europe , and here in particular the German imperialists.
Solidarity with the truly democratic-revolutionary forces in Ukraine and Russia
In both Russia and Ukraine, the democratic and revolutionary forces are not only confronted with harsh state repression.
In Russia under Putin's government there has been a nazi-fascist movement for over 30 years, which is largely tolerated and even used in part as mercenary troops in military battles such as in the Ukraine, forcing democratic and revolutionary forces into violent and armed conflicts. This applies above all to the big cities, but also to rural areas. In the fight against these Nazi-fascist murderer gangs, a by no means small group has emerged, especially young people, who see the cooperation between the state apparatus of Putin's government and these Nazi-fascist organizations. Here is a potential for a democratic-revolutionary alliance with anti-Nazi forces in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, it is by no means news that Nazi-fascist groups are also involved in the armed struggle in eastern Ukraine. Yes, they have become part of the reactionary Ukrainian state apparatus, like the so-called Azov regiment. Nazi forces have helped to beat apart democratic protests and are a real threat to all democratic revolutionary forces. In addition, Stepan Bandera, who, as an anti-Jewish Ukrainian nationalist and leader of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators, was involved in the mass murders of Nazi fascism in Ukraine, is now honored across the Ukraine with hundreds of street names and several monuments, even in large cities, without these monuments are torn down.
For German imperialism, the Ukraine was already a favorite target of exploitation during and after the First World War. The crimes of German imperialism during the attack on the socialist Soviet Union in Ukraine are by no means forgotten. These crimes show that despite a strong cooperation of parts of the Ukrainian population with the Nazis, especially in the mass murders of the Jewish population in Ukraine, a far larger part of the Ukrainian population, over 200,000 of them as partisans, together with the Red Army fought against the Nazi-fascist mass murderers. The liberation of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945 was led by a Ukrainian detachment of the Red Army.
It is clear: Even today there is not the slightest reason to condemn the Ukrainian population as a whole as reactionary and nationalist.
On the basis of this historical development, it is important to combat any influence exerted by German imperialism on Ukraine. We must fight for this, that is our task - without illusions in Russian imperialism or the reactionary Ukrainian state and its government.
The expansion of the Bundeswehr - German militarism
In the situation of the military conflict between the Ukrainian army and the Russian army within Ukraine, the hour of German militarism has come. The current government of German imperialism, with the support of the so-called CDU/CSU opposition, has agreed to arms deliveries to the Ukrainian state in an open war zone and plans to station more soldiers and fighter bombers on the border with Russia. Above all, a plan has now been conjured out of a hat, involving €100 billion and a huge increase in the annual military budget. The aim is to massively strengthen the German armaments industry and to build up a Bundeswehr that is as effective as possible, which is also geared in particular to large-scale foreign operations. This is a new stage on the path of militarization of Germany, a great danger for the population of Europe and the whole world.
The current mood in Germany with gigantic support for the current imperialist government and European-chauvinist slogans such as "For European values" must be recognized as a huge danger and combated. Let's not forget that anti-Russian hostility, which has a long tradition in Germany, is being massively activated and intensified again. Also, let's not forget that Ukrainian border guards prevent people who look "non-European" from boarding trains to escape across the border.
It may be that every analogy has its problems. But it is simply necessary to recall the din with which German social democracy warned of the danger of Russian tsarism in 1914: Compared to Russian imperialism, German imperialism would supposedly cut a more progressive figure after all. Therefore it would be necessary to support the struggle of the German imperialists against the dangerous Russian tsarism. It was a man like Karl Liebknecht and a woman like Rosa Luxemburg who opposed this social-democratic-imperialist and German-nationalist enthusiasm for the war as a very small group. They made a major contribution to the fundamental change in mood, especially among the proletariat in Germany, over the next few years and to mass struggles developing on the streets and in the workplaces against the imperialist First World War. Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg recalled the old sentence by August Bebel: No man and no dime to this system! Applied to today this means:
This system of German imperialism not a single euro and no support for the Bundeswehr!
This is an indispensable democratic demand in the fight against the danger of war and systematic German nationalist and militaristic incitement of the population in Germany.
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The lies of the Putin government and their anti-communism
In several speeches, all of which can be found on the internet, both in 2014 on the annexation of Crimea and now on the eve of Russian troops invading Ukraine, this anti-communist and counter-revolutionary Putin has found the root of the whole problem: who is to blame everything? Lenin! How come?
Yes, Putin explained, because Lenin recognized the right to state independence of the Ukrainian nation as well as the Finnish nation and all nations in the Tsarist Empire. And regardless of whether in such a state left or right had a majority, the socialist state in Russia under Lenin's leadership guaranteed this state independence, as for example in Finland, which was then a hotbed of reaction.
Why did Lenin do this? Because otherwise he would have continued the policy of the tsar, the policy of tsarism, to oppress other countries militarily and to discriminate against the people and prevent them from developing their economic and cultural development according to their decisions. Putin rightly fears Lenin today!
By naming Lenin as the main culprit and adding that he would push through “decommunization”, i.e. an even stronger anti-communist basic position in Ukraine, Putin has proved that the real model for him is the tsarist Greater Russian Empire, in which for small Nationalities have no room for development, and nations have no right to state separation. It's hard to believe but true: the old tsarist ideology reigns supreme over pubs and the government in the new imperialist Russia. It is a weapon used by the Putin government to cater and foment Great-Russian nationalism in order to carry out imperialist plans.
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On the fascist or Nazi movement in Russia
There has been a fascist or Nazi movement in Russia since the early 1990s. This consists of different levels. There are legal or semi-legal organizations or parties that also take part in elections, fascist and Nazi thug gangs that attack democratic and progressive forces, as well as paramilitary Nazi gangs and military mercenary organizations that commit Nazi murders and attacks, Nazis from all over the world Educate the world and murder and pillage for Russian imperialism in war zones. Here are just a few highlights:
Founded in 1989, the Russian Liberal Democratic Party (LDPD) is one of the oldest fascist parties in Russia. Its founder and still the leader today is Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The LDPD has as its ideological basis extreme Russian nationalism with the slogan of “Russia's rebirth” and racist hostility to anything “non-Russian”. According to its own statements, it had almost 300,000 members in 2019 and also took part in the Duma elections. For example, it reached over 13 percent in 2016 and almost 8 percent in 2021.(1)
The fascist organization "National Liberation Movement (Russia)" (NOD) was founded in 2011 and claims to have 170,000 members in Russia. Anti-Semitism, extreme Russian nationalism and anti-Americanism are their "trademarks". In addition to fascist propaganda, the task of the NOD is to attack progressive and democratic forces on the street and to disrupt their events. The NOD is not only active in Russia, but also in eastern Ukraine as a thug in the service of Russian imperialism and is well connected internationally, e.g. with the Le Pen fascists in France and with the Nazis from the "Reichsbürger" in Germany. J.A. Fyodorov, a member of the Putin government, is the leader of NOD.(2)
A hallmark of the Nazi movement in Russia is that for years it has not only been armed with baseball bats, clubs and gas pistols, like the Nazi hooligans, who still have thousands of members in Russia today. Rather, it also has a massive number of firearms (pistols, rifles) and explosives. These Nazi armed terrorist groups have been active in Russia for many years, such as the “Russian Reich Movement” which was formed in 2002. It has long been part of a larger coalition of fascist groups in Russia that has formed under the name "Russians". These included the "National Socialist Initiative".(3) The "Russian Reich Movement" is well networked internationally, including with Nazis from Sweden, the USA and Germany, such as the Nazis of "III. Away". It trains its members in military training camps specially set up for this purpose. Other Russian and foreign Nazis also receive military training there, including members of the NPD youth organization and Nazis from the “III. Away". Since 2014, members of the “Russian Imperial Movement” have also taken part in the military operations in eastern Ukraine on the side of Russian imperialism. All in all, thousands of Nazis and fascists are organized in such or similar Nazi organizations.(4)
According to the bourgeois-democratic information center “Sova”, between 2004 and 2020 alone, at least 625 people were murdered by these Nazi murderer gangs and more than 4,300 were injured, some of them seriously. According to “Sova”, the number of unreported cases of Nazi terror is enormous. This Nazi murder terror is directed against people from Central Asia, against people with "non-white" skin color, against the LGBT scene as well as against Jewish people and Muslims as well as against anti-fascist and democratic forces.(5)
* The number of military mercenary troops in the service of Russian imperialism has grown massively, especially with the start of the Syrian war in 2011 and after the start of the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014. Many of these organizations are Nazi mercenary troops who openly profess Nazi fascism with Nazi symbols such as the Hitler salute, swastika and SS runes. There was the "Russian National Unity", a Nazi organization that had a swastika in its coat of arms, was founded in 1990 and is said to have had up to 200,000 members in the 1990s. In 2014 they sent militarily trained Nazi cadres to eastern Ukraine, who spread, murdered and tortured hostility towards Jews and all “non-Russians”.(6) The currently most well-known Nazi mercenary gang in the service of Russian imperialism is the so-called “Group Wagner ', which was created in 2014. Dmitry Utkin, the founder of the mercenary gang, professes Nazi fascism with tattooed SS runes. The group uses swastika and Nazi salute as well as SS runes on combat vehicles and uniforms. Altogether up to 6,000 fascist "Wagner" mercenaries murder and burn for Russian imperialism, whether in eastern Ukraine, in Crimea, in Syria or in Libya.(7) In the current war of Russian imperialism, several hundred "Wagner" Nazis are said to have take part.
Sources
(1) Steffen Kailitz, Andreas Umland: Why fascists took over the Reichstag but have not captured the Kremlin: a comparison of Weimar Germany and post-Soviet Russia, December 2016, Nationalities Papers , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , March 2017, p. 206-221.
(2) Mares, Miroslav; Laryš, Martin; Holzer, Jan. Militant Right-Wing Extremism in Putin's Russia, New York 2019, 164f
(3) Ibid. pp. 58f., Marlene Laruelle: Russian Nationalism: Imaginaries, Doctrine, and Political Battlefields. Routledge 2019, pp. 167, 202f.
(4) https://www.zeit.de, 5.6.2020
(5) https://www.sova-center.ru/en
(6) See: Kuzio, Taras: Putin's War Against Ukraine: Revolution, Nationalism, and Crime, footnote 151
(7) See: https://www.belltower.news and „Kämpfen, foltern, töten - Russische Söldner im Ausland“ [“Fighting, torturing, killing - Russian Mercenaries abroad”], WDR documentary, February 2nd, 2021
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On the fascist or Nazi movement in Ukraine
Irrespective of the question of what influence these groups have in Ukrainian society as a whole, the following can be said:
From 2014, the fascist and Nazi movement in Ukraine experienced a massive upswing. The most important actors at that time were the party "Svoboda", which had also achieved temporary successes in elections and from 2014 was involved in the Ukrainian interim government with four ministers, including the vice president, the paramilitary organization
"Right Sector" and the Azov movement. All of these organizations follow in the footsteps of the Nazi collaborator and Ukrainian fascist Stepan Bandera and the Ukrainian Nazi collaborators from the OUN and UPA armies, respectively. After the Nazi attack on the USSR in 1941, they fought on the side of Nazi fascism against the Red Army and the Soviet partisans and were involved in mass murder campaigns against the Jewish and Polish population in Ukraine. Today's Nazis in Ukraine also place themselves in the tradition of the SS murder gang "Galicia", in which thousands of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators fought.
Today, the Azov movement is the most influential politically and militarily.
The Azov regiment, a militarily armed Nazi murderer gang, had been fighting alongside the Ukrainian army in eastern Ukraine for several months in early 2014 and by then already had hundreds of members. The Azov regiment was officially attached to the National Guard of Ukraine in the same year and is still subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From 2019, the Azov regiment was again deployed in eastern Ukraine with around 1,000 soldiers.(1) The Interior Minister of Ukraine appointed Vadim Troyan, the regiment’s deputy commander, in 2015 as chief of police in Kyiv and in 2019 even as deputy chief of the Ukrainian police.(2) This secured funding and equipment for these Nazis. Starting with military
From "basic equipment" to heavy artillery and reconnaissance drones, they have the most modern means of war at their disposal. Military Azov cadres are also trained, for example, at the “Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy” (NAA), the most renowned military school in the Ukrainian state. This is also financed by Western countries such as the USA or Germany. A Nazi group with connections to the Azov Nazis has been active there since 2018.(3)
Estimates assume that the Azov movement as a whole at least 2,500 active military Nazi cadres as well as thousands of "veterans" can fall back on.
In total, there are over 80 “volunteer” paramilitary units in Ukraine. Many of these are pro-Nazi or Nazi.(4)
There is also the "Natsionalnyi korpus" ("National Corps") political party, founded in 2016, and a Nazi vigilante group (Centuria), which is part of the Azov movement. Members of the Azov movement wear Nazi symbols and SS runes. On photos they show the Hitler salute as well as the swastika and NATO flag together.(5) Their organization badge consists of the wolfsangel, which was also used by the SS, such as the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich".
Tens of thousands are organized in these legal organizations, supported by tens of thousands more sympathizers.(6) These Nazis organize their own publishing houses for Nazi writings, Nazi meeting places like the “Cossack” house in Kyiv, summer camps for young people, marches like the “Memorial Marches ' for Stepan Bandera in many cities, sometimes with several thousand, even tens of thousands of participants. They ambush democratic forces, terrorize the LGBT scene in Kyiv, e.g. with brutal raids like late November 2021,(7) and Roma settlements. In 2018 alone, there were five attacks in two months against Roma families in Lviv, resulting in one Nazi murder and many injuries.(8) Internet forums, chat groups, and also the "National Socialist Black Metal" scene serve as recruiting tools for the Azov movement. (9)
The Azov-Nazis also maintain good connections to Nazi groups across Europe, whether "Nordic Resistance", a coalition of Nazis from Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway, or the "III. Weg” and the “Identitarian Movement” from Germany. The Azov regiment also provides military training for Nazis from abroad – including German Nazis, e.g. from the “III. Away". She also accepts these into her own ranks so that they gain "combat experience."(10)
In the current war between Russian imperialism and the reactionary regime of Ukraine, members of the Azov movement train volunteers militarily, try massively to recruit new members and fight militarily alongside the Ukrainian army.(11)
Sources
(1) Colborne, Michael: From the fires of war: Ukraine's Azov Movement and the Global Far Right, Stuttgart 2022, p. 62
(2) Ibid., p. 85
(3) https://www.belltower.news
(4) Ibid
(5) https://de.crimethinc.com
(6) Colborne, Michael: From the fires of war: Ukraine's Azov Movement and the Global Far Right, Stuttgart 2022, pp. 65, 67
(7) https://www.belltower.news
(8) Ibid
(9) Ibid
(10) Colborne, Michael: From the fires of war: Ukraine’s Azov Movement and the Global Far Right, Stuttgart 2022, pp. 121ff., https://antifainfoblatt.de, June 7, 2020
(11) fr.de, 15.2.2022
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original source:
https://gegendiestroemung.net/wp-content/uploads/fb-1-2-2022.pdf