Oh you know the usual… “Russia bad, illegal invasion, Ukraine has the right to defend its sovereignty, blah, blah, blah, and yeah maybe NATO shouldn’t have expanded but Russia still shouldn’t have done what it did…” that kind of stuff. They’re trying to have their cake and eat it too, trying to pretend to still be anti-imperialist by criticizing how the West is using Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia while still fundamentally taking Ukraine’s side and parroting pro-Ukrainian talking points.
Not a single word about the eight year long genocide in Donbass or the imminent threat that the fascist Kiev regime armed to the teeth by NATO and delusional enough to think they can retake Crimea by force posed to Russia.
This article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/15/the-left-and-ukraine/ is the worst i’ve read so far from them, full of the kind of two faced bullshit fake anti-imperialism i just mentioned. I had hoped this was a one off and they made a mistake letting some liberal hack write an article for them but this is a trend apparently:
in yet another article they claim Putin is an autocrat and a dictator who is obsessed with controlling information and somehow that’s why Russia is not doing well militarily
In this one:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/02/267301/ they jerk off over the recapture of Kherson and repeat the propaganda narrative about “uncovered Russian atrocities” in every location the Russians pull out of, without even a mention of the “cleansing operations” that the Ukronazis embark on when they get into a location formerly held by Russia
In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/20/a-blueprint-for-peace-in-ukraine/ they propose completely absurd terms for peace like another Minsk-like ceasefire agreement, new referendums in Donbass and Crimea (no mention of the other regions that have also already held referenda and joined Russia!), and proposing that the Ukrainians investigate and prosecute themselves for their own crimes…just laughable, childish stuff
All in all it looks like they are trying very hard to “both sides” the conflict, in the Trotskyist cold war tradition of “neither Moscow nor Washington” but ending up actually just parroting and legitimizing with a leftist, pseudo-anti-imperialist veneer all sorts of western propaganda talking points in the process.
Probably. That’s very common in western countries. Most communist/socialist groups in Europe and North America have at least some Trot tendencies. But hey, it’s probably still better than not being in an org at all. Trots can do good work sometimes in terms of labor struggles and anti-capitalist agitation, they’re just very unreliable when it comes to taking a principled anti-imperialist position.
Like what?
Oh you know the usual… “Russia bad, illegal invasion, Ukraine has the right to defend its sovereignty, blah, blah, blah, and yeah maybe NATO shouldn’t have expanded but Russia still shouldn’t have done what it did…” that kind of stuff. They’re trying to have their cake and eat it too, trying to pretend to still be anti-imperialist by criticizing how the West is using Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia while still fundamentally taking Ukraine’s side and parroting pro-Ukrainian talking points.
Not a single word about the eight year long genocide in Donbass or the imminent threat that the fascist Kiev regime armed to the teeth by NATO and delusional enough to think they can retake Crimea by force posed to Russia.
This article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/15/the-left-and-ukraine/ is the worst i’ve read so far from them, full of the kind of two faced bullshit fake anti-imperialism i just mentioned. I had hoped this was a one off and they made a mistake letting some liberal hack write an article for them but this is a trend apparently:
In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/11/21/war-in-the-ukraine-is-not-a-fight-between-good-and-evil-just-bad-vs-bad/ they claim the invasion was “motivated by a desire for empire and is imperialist in nature”
In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/21/ukraine-a-classic-proxy-war/ they parrot the usual nonsense about Putin allegedly making nuclear threats and Ukraine having to “fend off a complete Russian conquest of the country”;
in yet another article they claim Putin is an autocrat and a dictator who is obsessed with controlling information and somehow that’s why Russia is not doing well militarily
In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/02/267301/ they jerk off over the recapture of Kherson and repeat the propaganda narrative about “uncovered Russian atrocities” in every location the Russians pull out of, without even a mention of the “cleansing operations” that the Ukronazis embark on when they get into a location formerly held by Russia
In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/10/31/the-long-indecisive-war-in-ukraine-is-reshaping-the-political-world-map/ they repeat Ukrainian propaganda about Russia being routed on the battlefield and try to claim that somehow these “defeats” and a fear of sanctions has supposedly made China want to distance itself from Russia (the opposite is the case!)
In this one: https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/12/20/a-blueprint-for-peace-in-ukraine/ they propose completely absurd terms for peace like another Minsk-like ceasefire agreement, new referendums in Donbass and Crimea (no mention of the other regions that have also already held referenda and joined Russia!), and proposing that the Ukrainians investigate and prosecute themselves for their own crimes…just laughable, childish stuff
All in all it looks like they are trying very hard to “both sides” the conflict, in the Trotskyist cold war tradition of “neither Moscow nor Washington” but ending up actually just parroting and legitimizing with a leftist, pseudo-anti-imperialist veneer all sorts of western propaganda talking points in the process.
Reading these makes me wonder if the group I’m in is trot. Or at least has trot tendencies
Probably. That’s very common in western countries. Most communist/socialist groups in Europe and North America have at least some Trot tendencies. But hey, it’s probably still better than not being in an org at all. Trots can do good work sometimes in terms of labor struggles and anti-capitalist agitation, they’re just very unreliable when it comes to taking a principled anti-imperialist position.