Vermont State Labor Council AFL-CIO issued the following announcement.
VERMONT AFL-CIO PRESIDENT DAVID VAN DEUSEN JOINS PANEL DISCUSSION CONCERNING THE WAR IN THE UKRAINE - ON IMPERIALISM & FASCISM
From Panel Organizers Shelter & Solidarity:
"Join our second show on the unfolding and devastating war in Ukraine. We [Boston, MA, based Shelter & Solidarity] welcome back two insightful guests, Olena Lyubchenko and Jonathan Feldman; they will be joined by outspoken anti-imperialist US labor leader, David Van Deusen, President of the Vermont AFL-CIO. Together, we’ll ask: Is it possible to build solidarity without relying on militarism – and therewith the fueling of further imperialist conflict? As this period of escalated conflict and Russian invasion enters its fourth month, what is the current state of things on the ground, for the people in Ukraine, and in the region? How has this event already altered global and domestic politics, including in Russia and in Europe, as well as in the U.S. and beyond? How are existing social movements and ‘left’ political parties relating to recent developments? What are the dangers and opportunities of this moment for those struggling for a world of peace, justice, equality, and security? What can it mean to struggle for justice and solidarity, with the people in Ukraine and elsewhere, while rejecting the dominant paradigm of militarist response?"
VT AFL-CIO President Van Deusen's View Of the War In The Ukraine:
"Putin's Russia was motivated to invade the Ukraine through a lust for empire and imperialist ambitions. We are therefore right to condemn Russia, and the Ukrainian people are right to fight back and defend themselves. In and of itself it is also not categorically wrong for outside forces, those sympathetic with the Ukraine, to provide resources or even guns to the defenders. But we also need to take a deep look at this conflict and correctly understand that this war is not an instance of good vs evil, black vs white. Rather it is a war between two capitalist countries, one authoritarian and on the right (Russia) against a neighbor which is also on the right and which has demonstrated a dangerous affinity for fascism (Ukraine). And in the three months that has passed since the Russian invasion, while the Ukrainians' defense of their Nation has been widespread and popular, there has not been any signs that the conflict is leading towards any kind of left or progressive social transformation of their politics or economy. Rather, the far right continues to be lionized as noble warriors against the invader.
"The Ukraine in fact has a serious fascist problem within its borders. Since the Western backed 2014 coup, the Nazi Azov Battalion has been incorporated into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, making it the only military in the world to willfully welcome Nazi units into its ranks as standalone formations with their own command structure. And while western mainstream media (both liberal and conservative) were unflinching in heralding the defenders of Mariupol as Spartan-like heroes, let it not be brushed aside that those who held out in the steel plant were largely from the Nazi Azov group (who proudly flies an SS symbol on their official battle flag). And let us also not forget that Azov's founder and leader, Andriy Biletsky, has unapologetically stated that the mission of Ukraine is to 'lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Semite-led [Jewish] Untermenschen.'
"If we are to avoid the unintended consequence of manifesting a post war Ukraine awash with an embolden fascist movement, and if we are to learn the lesson of U.S. support for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan in the face of the 1979 Soviet invasion (which serves as the genesis Al Qaeda and 9-11), U.S. and Western support for the Ukraine cannot be uncritical or without conditions. Rather, demands must be placed on the Ukrainian Government that the Azov Battalion be immediately and forcibly dissolved, that Azov fighters responsible for the torture and rape of Russian speakers in the Donbas region prior to Putin's invasion (see United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 2016 Report on the Azov Battalion) be tried and held accountable for their war crimes, and that no Western arms be placed in the hands of Nazi or fascist groups by the Ukrainian Government. Without these demands being issued by the West (and agreed to by Ukraine), the working class left of the United States would be right to oppose Western military support for the Ukraine.
"But Russia too must be held accountable for its actions. And here we must be clear that those who also engage in war crimes such as the willful targeting and murder of civilians, will be held to account by an international tribunal in the post war era, and that economic sanctions will not be lifted until the armed aggression comes to and end (all steps that, in a more just world, should have also been carried out against responsible U.S. officials in the aftermath of the Iraq War).
"While it is for the Ukrainian and Russian people to decide how this conflict will end, it is hard to see a resolution not involving a withdrawal of Russian forces from the Ukraine, Russian guarantees of non-aggression towards former Warsaw Pact nations & other former Soviet Republics, a UN monitored independence referendum in the Dombas, the Azov Battalion being dissolved, and Western agreement that NATO will not be expanded into additional former Soviet territories. Until then, the war will rage on and the people will continue to pay the price while the war machine grows fat with profit."
You can read President Van Deusen's full op-ed on the war in the Ukraine by clicking on the following link: https://www.counterpunch.org/.../concerning-the-war-in.../
*The views expressed on Russia & the Ukraine by President Van Deusen do not necessarily reflect those of the AFL-CIO.
You can watch the full Shelter & Solidarity panel discussion by clicking on the below link:
https://shelterandsolidarity.org/can-we-have.../.
Original source can be found here.
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