Ukraine

Youngsu Won discusses how rising tensions between the United States and China impact South Korean politics.

Simon Pirani — Israel’s murderous onslaught on civilians is something that Israel’s war on the Palestinians and Russia’s war on Ukraine have in common. This is what empires do in the 21st century: the western empire that supports Israel and the weaker Russian empire.

We, Ukrainian researchers, artists, political and labour activists, members of civil society stand in solidarity with people of Palestine who for 75 years have been subjected and resisted Israeli military occupation, separation, settler colonial violence, ethnic cleansing, land dispossession and apartheid.

Szymon Martys — Poland held elections on October 15 that ended the eight-year, two-term rule of the incumbent Law and Justice party and the United Right political alliance centred on it.

Fourth International — The wars we are facing are linked to the global crisis of capitalism and the resulting headlong rush into conflict between rival imperialist powers.

Claudio Katz talks about the need to avoid looking at imperialism in purely economic terms, the rise of what he terms an “imperial system” and the complexities of anti-imperialism in the 21st century.

The idea of creating an English-language issue of Commons journal has been discussed for a long time, and it became especially acute in connection with the Russian full-scale invasion and the emerging significant interest in Ukraine among foreign audiences.

Chris Slee — Dave Holmes argues “Russia is most decidedly defending itself from an existential threat from the US-NATO bloc” while approvingly quoting Scott Ritter’s assertions that “NATO is a paper tiger”. So which is it?

Karen Yamanaka — Putin has recently taken hostile military actions against neighbouring countries in the Far East and has strengthened military ties with North Korea. China, on the other hand, has watched the recent Russian-North Korean rapprochement with mixed feelings.

Renfrey Clarke — Few questions of international politics have seen the Western left as sharply divided as the war in Ukraine. But there is no good reason why Marxists, with the writings of Vladimir Lenin at their disposal, should lack clarity on how to analyse the war.

Murray Smith — Throughout history, solidarity has helped achieve the only possible acceptable peace — one guaranteeing defeat of the aggressor and the victim to live free of the threat of renewed assault. That must be the goal of the European Left in relation to Ukraine.