tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post3473304589326574898..comments2024-01-19T04:00:42.885-05:00Comments on Permanent Revolution: Comment on Whither UkraineAlex Steinerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09128453587484101609noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-69876042667782107782014-05-16T23:06:44.221-04:002014-05-16T23:06:44.221-04:00Ramón Rodriguez’ allegation that wsws.org does not...Ramón Rodriguez’ allegation that wsws.org does not come out “as clearly and unequivocally for the struggle of Ukrainian workers for democracy, freedom and national independence on the basis of workers’ control as does Marilyn Vogt-Downey’s article”, implies that aim to be the ultimate perspective for the Ukrainian working class. Both, Rodriguez and Vogt-Downey, believe that the propagation of these aims will finally lead to the working class taking the power in the Ukraine. Both submit to the spontaneous uprising of the working class and ignore the most urgent task: The building of a revolutionary party as section of the Fourth International, as Trotsky stated already in the Transitional Program. The wsws.org as the news and information center of the International Committee of the Fourth International is very clear about this:<br /><br />“The answer to the imperialist plans to carve up Russia and gain direct control over vast territories and resources cannot be found in the promotion of Russian nationalism, no more than the grievances of the long-suffering Ukrainian masses can be resolved by the promotion of Ukrainian nationalism. The crisis that has erupted in Ukraine poses with the greatest urgency the need for the working class to assert its own interests on the basis of its own independent program. It is the absence of a revolutionary leadership fighting to mobilize the working class on the basis of such a program that has enabled fascistic forces, financed and backed by US and German imperialism, to gain the upper hand.<br /><br />“The answer to this crisis is the unification of the Ukrainian and Russian working class on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program. Ukraine has a powerful revolutionary history. In the 19th century, Ukrainian-born Marxists rejected the program of nationalism and instead championed the program of working class internationalism. The greatest of these was Leon Trotsky.<br /><br />“It is to these great traditions that workers and youth must return today, in Ukraine, Russia and internationally, through the building of the world party of socialist revolution, the International Committee of the Fourth International.”<br />(http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/03/03/pers-m03.html)<br /><br />The rejection and hostility against building the International Committee of the Fourth International as the revolutionary leadership of the international working class is the essence of your whole web page.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-78339683507278080962014-05-02T15:34:44.348-04:002014-05-02T15:34:44.348-04:00Anonymous seeks to refute my statement that wsws.o...Anonymous seeks to refute my statement that wsws.org’s coverage of the Ukrainian crisis is like the coverage of some of the mainstream and alternative press which seeks only to defend Russia against the imperialist aggression of the U.S., EU, IMF and NATO. For this purpose anonymous cites several statements in which wsws.org is highly critical of Putin’s regime of corrupt oligarchs. These excerpts in and of themselves, however, prove nothing. <br /><br />The point is that nowhere does wsws.org come out as clearly and unequivocally for the struggle of Ukrainian workers for democracy, freedom and national independence on the basis of workers’ control as does Marilyn Vogt-Downey’s article. The general sense and implicit assumption of wsws.org’s coverage of the Ukrainian crisis is that the Ukraine has no real option but to align itself with Western imperialism on the one hand or with Putin and the corrupt Russian oligarchs on the other. This is the same analysis that the media, mainstream and alternative alike, is offering up- that the Ukraine has only these two options. <br /><br />A struggle for national independence on the basis of workers control, on the other hand, as Vogt-Downey proposes, would allow Ukrainian workers to unify across cultural, ethnic and linguistic lines and to call on the solidarity of workers outside the Ukraine. It is only from this class perspective that the Russian annexation of the Crimea, the partition of the Ukraine and the threat of both Imperialist and Russian military intervention can be condemned and effectively opposed. The WSWS coverage of the Ukraine on the other hand has been very selective, omitting any condemnation either of the annexation of Crimea or the partition of Ukraine.<br /> <br />A struggle for an independent socialist Ukraine, “means”, as Vogt-Downey says, “workers organizing their own revolutionary organizations to mobilize the masses of people around their own needs–Ukrainian, Russian, or any other nationality that resides there–[t]o take over and run their own economy. This is the only way to stand up victoriously against the oligarchs of Ukraine and of the planet.”<br /><br />Ramón Rodriguez<br />México, D.F.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-63095723040627058202014-04-20T17:51:56.201-04:002014-04-20T17:51:56.201-04:00Thanks, Alex, for posting my article. I am most he...Thanks, Alex, for posting my article. I am most heartened by Ramon Rodriguez' comments. It is so encouraging and heartening to learn that there are others out there in the world who remember who Trotsky was and understand why the ideas he fought for are so vital today. Unfortunately, I may be wrong, but I know of no so-called Trotskyist organization that--during this current crisis--is advancing Trotsky's analysis and solutions to the Ukrainian problem today.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16131938156192428850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2062509833711600070.post-7273940358631389452014-04-01T03:18:00.201-04:002014-04-01T03:18:00.201-04:00"the coverage of the Ukrainian crisis on the ..."the coverage of the Ukrainian crisis on the wsws.org website, which seems to be only taking up a pro-Russian and anti-fascist position."<br /><br />Anyone capable of searching the WSWS coverage of the Ukraine crisis can see that this is a baseless slander. For instance:<br /><br />"Putin represents oligarchs who enriched themselves by plundering state industry following the dissolution of the USSR. His regime is incapable of making any appeal to the Ukrainian working class or to progressive sentiment within the country. Instead, he seeks to whip up chauvinism both in Russia and eastern Ukraine, adding to the dangers of civil and sectarian warfare stoked up by the Ukrainian fascists and their American and German backers."<br /><br />And:<br /><br />"This does not alter the fact that Russia’s intervention into Crimea is politically bankrupt. The Putin regime is an organ of capitalist restoration and the product of the degeneration and overthrow at the hands of Stalinism of the economic and social foundations of the workers’ state established by the 1917 October Revolution. It is a comprador regime with no real independence from imperialism.<br /><br />"It cannot make an appeal to the working class in Ukraine under conditions where it is imposing brutal austerity measures on Russian workers, repressing political dissent, and whipping up Russian chauvinism in an attempt to divert social opposition at home."<br />https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/03/03/pers-m03.html<br /><br />And:<br /><br />"The Russian government represents criminal oligarchs who enriched themselves from the dissolution of the Soviet Union by stealing former state property. It is deeply hostile to the working class. In advancing its interests, it relies on the promotion of Russian chauvinism both in Ukraine and Russia. It is incapable of making an appeal to the broad and deep antiwar sentiment in the working class of Russia, Ukraine, Europe, the US and the rest of the world."<br />http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/03/17/pers-m17.html<br /><br />Numerous other examples can be found.<br /><br />It's worth asking, what value is an analysis that begins by falsifying the positions of a political tendency that are on the public record, and free for anyone to peruse...<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com