Why Socialists Should Not Support Imperialist Sanctions or the United Nations

 

A comradely critique of a joint statement of Russian and Ukrainian socialists

 

By Michael Pröbsting, International Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 17 April 2022, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

A few days ago, two socialist organizations issued a joint statement about the Ukraine War. This statement is highly remarkable – mainly for two reasons. It takes a unambiguous stance against Russian imperialism and in favor of the resistance struggle of the Ukrainian people. Such a position, valuable in itself, is even more worthy of praise as it has been jointly issued by a Russian and a Ukrainian organization – the Российское Социалистическое Движение (Russian Socialist Movement) & Соціальний Рух (Social Movement, Ukraine). [1]

 

Furthermore, the comrades’ support for the Ukraine’s just war of defense includes even the explicit call for “increased military support to Ukraine, in particular the provision of air defense systems”. All this is worth praising not only because such a stance is correct in itself but also – and in particular – since it has been co-signed by a Russian organization. Everyone who is aware of the repressive conditions under the Putin regime – even more so since the beginning of the war – will surely respect such courage! [2]

 

While the RCIT’s comrades in Russia and Ukraine would certainly not formulate every sentence in the same way as the РСД&СР statement does, we repeat our appreciation of it for the unambiguous stance for the Ukrainian resistance and against Russian imperialism. [3]

 

However, there are two demands in this statement which we consider as wrong and which we ask the comrades to reconsider. The first demand is the call for “the sanctioning of Russian oil and gas” (plus “new targeted, personal sanctions on Putin and his multimillionaires”). And the second demand is the “the introduction of UN peacekeepers from non-NATO countries to protect civilians, including the protection of green corridors and the protection of nuclear power plants (Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council can be overcome at the General Assembly)”.

 

Both demands have in common that they represent calls to (Western) imperialist Great Powers to take actions against its Russian rival respectively to intervene directly in the Ukraine.

 

 

 

Yes to sanctions by workers but not by Great Powers!

 

 

 

We have already explained at various occasions that it is essential for socialists to strongly differentiate between sanctions imposed by the working class, o one hand, and sanctions imposed by imperialist states, on the other hand. [4]

 

Workers sanctions – like those of dockers in various countries against Russian ships or of Belarus railway workers against Russian military supply – strengthen the power and the self-confidence of the working class. They demonstrate to workers in Russia that their class brothers and sisters stand with the victims of imperialist aggression.

 

In contrast, sanctions imposed by imperialist states strengthen not the working class but these very imperialist states. They strengthen the power and the self-confidence not of the working class but of the imperialist rulers.

 

It should be not difficult to understand the difference. Take the analogy of violence. We support violence of the oppressed against the oppressor. But we don’t call one mafia don to beat up his rival! The first case strengthens the oppressed. The second case strengthens the mob boss.

 

Psychologically we can understand the comrades. They desperately want to see the Ukraine win and imperialist Russia to be defeated. But such understandable motive must not lead one to end up supporting imperialist institutions and actions!

 

The problem is, so it sems to us, that the comrades do not fully understand the specific, dual character of the current conflict. As we have elaborated in various RCIT’s documents, it is crucial to recognize the two lines of struggle which are taking place. First, there is the Ukraine War which has been provoked by the invasion by Russia – an imperialist power – against a semi-colonial country. [5] Hence, the RCIT fully supports the resistance of the Ukrainian people against Russia as it represents a just war of defense. [6] For this reason, the RCIT has initiated the International Workers Aid campaign which brings material aid to the Ukrainian people – the “Sunflower Convoy” – in collaboration with socialists in the Ukraine as well as the organization of the Crimean Tatar people. [7]

 

However, there is also a second conflict taking place – the acceleration of the inter-rivalry between the Great Powers – first and foremost the U.S. and Western Europe against Russia. Socialists must not take side in this rivalry under any circumstances. This is a conflict between two robbers – both are enemies of the workers and oppressed. Hence, the RCIT advocates a revolutionary defeatist position, opposing both camps – Russia as well as NATO.

 

We have summarized our position in the following slogans:

 

* Defend the Ukraine! Defeat Russian imperialism! International popular solidarity with the Ukrainian national resistance – independent of any imperialist influence!

 

* Down with all imperialist powers – NATO and EU as well as Russia! In all conflicts between these powers, revolutionaries oppose both camps!

 

Supporting or justifying any kind of sanctions of Western imperialism against its Russian rival is completely wrong and unprincipled for socialists! It mixes proletarian policy with imperialist policy. It confuses the methods of class struggle with the methods of capitalist power rivalry. It blurs the lines between working-class internationalism and imperialist Great Power aggression.

 

In the history of modern capitalism, the policy of imperialist sanctions has often resulted in major imperialist wars. The sanctions of the U.S. against Japan in the years before Pearl Harbor in 1941, or various sanctions during World War I or in the inter-war period are well known. Since 2018, we have seen imperialist punitive tariffs or sanctions of the U.S. against China and vice versa. [8] Here too, it is evident that both powers are heading towards military confrontation in the next years. [9]

 

Therefore, objectively, socialists become accomplice with imperialist power politics if they lend support to such sanctions. [10] Furthermore, such support for Western sanctions can only discredit socialists in the eyes of the numerous oppressed peoples around the globe which have become victims of U.S. and European imperialism and which despise these power strongly.

 

 

 

The Marxist tradition about imperialist sanctions

 

 

 

For these reasons, it was always clear for Marxists that they must not lend any kind of (not even “critically”) support to imperialist sanctions! Lenin pointed out already in his writings in the early stage of World War I that the policy of economic aggression on one Great Power against the other inevitable provokes the danger of inter-imperialist war.

 

Hence the keener and “closer” economic competition becomes, i.e., the economic driving of a competitor towards bankruptcy, the more the capitalists strive to add military pressure in order to drive the competitor in that direction.[11]

 

It therefore became a hallmark of the Communist International in the times of Lenin and Trotsky and, later, of Trotsky’s Fourth International, to oppose all forms of imperialist sanctions. When the so-called “League of Nations” – the predecessor of the United Nations – imposed sanctions against fascist Italy (because of the latter’s attack against Ethiopia in 1935), Trotsky and the Fourth International sharply denounced such measures. They argued that such sanctions would basically serve as instruments of British, French and U.S. imperialism against their rivals. This assessment was proven right only four years later when World War II began.

 

Trotsky explained that “economic sanctions, if real, lead to military sanctions, to war.[12] He therefore insisted that Marxists must break with all those who lend support to this or that imperialist power by supporting such sanctions. “The struggle against war, properly understood and executed, presupposes the uncompromising hostility of the proletariat and its organizations, always and everywhere, toward its own and every other imperialist bourgeoisie. Yet among the announced adherents of the London Bureau congress are to be found such notorious supporters of the League of Nations (i.e., imperialist) "sanctions" as the Italian Socialist Party, which is presumably to organize a common struggle against war with opponents of these "sanctions," such as the British ILP claims to be. A prerequisite for the proletarian struggle against war is not unity between pro-"sanctionists" and anti-"sanctionists" but the ruthless separation of them.” [13]

 

 

 

The United Nations – an institution dominated by imperialist Great Powers

 

 

 

We refute the second demand in the РСД&СР statement for similar reasons. The call for the “the introduction of UN peacekeepers” in the Ukraine effectively means to invite military forces of an institution which is controlled by the imperialist Great powers. [14]

 

Such a demand is absolutely wrong. Socialists must not create any illusions in imperialist institutions like the UN. This is an institution created and dominated by Great Powers – mainly the veto-wielding states within the Security Council (U.S., China, Russia, France and Britain). UN institutions either implement the joint interests of these robbers respectively a compromise between them (e.g. sanctions against North Korea) or they adopt impotent resolutions which nobody cares to implement.

 

Socialists must not advocate replacing one form of imperialist order with another version of the same kind of order. They must fight for the abolition of all Great Powers and its institutions (like the UN) and the creation of global socialist federation of workers and peasant republics.

 

True, the comrades try to circumvent this problem by calling for UN troops ”from non-NATO countries to protect civilians, including the protection of green corridors and the protection of nuclear power plants (Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council can be overcome at the General Assembly)”.

 

But, in our opinion, these arguments don’t make sense. First, it is not true that “Russia’s veto in the UN Security Council can be overcome at the General Assembly“. Votes of the UN General Assembly, in contrast to decisions of the UN Security Council, are not binding by international law. As it is well-known, the UN General Assembly adopted dozens of resolutions against Israel because of its oppression of the Palestinian people. However, these resolutions had no effect because of the impotence of the body of the UN General Assembly.

 

An actual example are the resolutions of the UN General Assembly against Russia’s invasion in the Ukraine. Since they are not adopted by the UN Security Council, these decisions are not binding.

 

In addition, the decisive issue is not the nationality of UN soldiers. It has been often the case that UN troops come from African or Asian countries. The decisive issue is who is commanding such troops, under which leadership do they operate and whose interest do they serve. Since the UN is a body dominated by imperialist Great Powers, such troops can not but serve imperialist interests.

 

Finally, it might sound nice that UN troops would only serve “to protect civilians”. But, in reality, troops are troops and once they are deployed in the Ukraine, they will serve their master and their master only.

 

Look where UN troops have been deployed – from Bosnia to Lebanon they do not serve the interests of the liberation struggle but rather those Great Powers which have an interest to pacify a status quo in a given conflict.

 

The call for UN troops does not empower the working class and the oppressed people but rather an imperialist institution resp. the Great Powers which dominate the UN.

 

 

 

The Communist International about the predecessor organization of the UN

 

 

 

Intransigent hostility against the “League of Nations” – the predecessor organization of the UN in the inter-war period – was a key element of the program of the Communist International (Comintern) in its early period when it was led by Lenin and Trotsky. In its first Manifesto, drafted by Trotsky and unanimously adopted at the founding congress in March 1919, the Comintern posed the following alternative to the international working class.

 

In other words: Shall all toiling mankind become the bond slaves of a victorious world clique who, under the name of the League of Nations and aided by an 'international' army and 'international' navy, will plunder and strangle in one place and cast crumbs elsewhere, while everywhere shackling the proletariat, with the sole object of maintaining their own rule; or shall the working class of Europe and of the advanced countries in other parts of the world themselves take in hand the disrupted and ruined economy in order to assure its reconstruction on socialist foundations?[15]

 

In its conditions for membership, adopted at its Second Congress in 1920, the Comintern posed as one of these conditions the following thesis: Every party which wishes to join the Communist International is obliged to expose not only avowed social-patriotism, but also the insincerity and hypocrisy of social-pacifism; to bring home to the workers systematically that without the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism no international court of arbitration, no agreement to limit armaments, no 'democratic' reorganization of the League of Nations, will be able to prevent new imperialist wars.“ [16]

 

The UN today is no better than the League of Nations was hundred years ago. Socialists must not have any illusions in such imperialist institutions!

 

In the past decade, the RCIT has discussed many times various forms of pro-Eastern social-imperialism by reformist and centrist parties in Western Europe and North America. These forces – in one way or another – sympathized with the imperialist rivals of “their” own rulers. They justified such a position by explaining that the main enemy are the U.S. and European imperialism and not Russia or China. We always sharply refuted such positions as tantamount to pro-Eastern social-imperialism.

 

Unfortunately, the comrades of РСД and СР are guilty to a certain degree of the same mistake – just under the opposite sign. Here we have a Russian (and Ukrainian) socialist organization which calls for actions by the Western Great Powers against their “own” imperialist rulers. The geographical characteristic of this policy is different – but the political characteristic is the same!

 

We conclude this article by repeating that we strongly appreciate the unambiguous opposition of the Russian resp. Ukrainian comrades of РСД and СР in their opposition against Russian imperialism and their support for the Ukrainian war of defense. But their highly praiseworthy position is tinted by its support for Western sanctions as well as the intervention of the United Nations. Such mistaken support objectively represents a deviation towards pro-Western social-imperialism. We therefore urge the comrades to reconsider this position!

 



[1] Russian Socialist Movement & Sotsialnyi Rukh: Against Russian Imperialism, 7 April 2022, https://lefteast.org/against-russian-imperialism/. In this article we will refer to this joint statement as the “РСД&СР statement”.

[2] We have dealt with this political shift within the Russian regime in chapter “Continuity and transformation of the bonapartist Putin regime” in the RCIT’s new pamphlet by Michael Pröbsting: World Situation: In the Midst of a Global Political Tornado. Notes on global developments characterized by the Ukraine War, inter-imperialist rivalry, global energy and food crisis as well as spontaneous mass protests, 13 April 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/world-situation-april-2022/

[3] Readers can find a number of articles from our comrades in Russia and the Ukraine on the RCIT’s website. See e.g. the Russian-language and the Ukrainian-language sub-page: https://www.thecommunists.net/home/русский and https://www.thecommunists.net/home/український

[4] See e.g. Michael Pröbsting: Can Socialists Support Imperialist Sanctions? The “Fourth International” in the tradition of Pablo and Mandel supports Western sanctions against Russia, 4 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/can-socialists-support-imperialist-sanctions/; by the same author: Ukraine War: Dockworkers Boycott Imperialist Russia. Workers at ports along the US west coast refuse to handle any Russian cargo in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 9 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/ukraine-war-dockworkers-boycott-imperialist-russia/; No to Workers Boycott against Russia but Yes to Boycotting the Ukraine? On the support of the PTS/FT for boycott actions against arms shipments for the Ukraine, 26 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/pts-ft-workers-sanctions-against-ukraine/

[5] The RCIT has published numerous documents about capitalism in Russia and its rise to an imperialist power. See on this e.g. several pamphlets by Michael Pröbsting: The Peculiar Features of Russian Imperialism. A Study of Russia’s Monopolies, Capital Export and Super-Exploitation in the Light of Marxist Theory, 10 August 2021, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/the-peculiar-features-of-russian-imperialism/; by the same author: Lenin’s Theory of Imperialism and the Rise of Russia as a Great Power. On the Understanding and Misunderstanding of Today’s Inter-Imperialist Rivalry in the Light of Lenin’s Theory of Imperialism. Another Reply to Our Critics Who Deny Russia’s Imperialist Character, August 2014, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/imperialism-theory-and-russia/; Russia as a Great Imperialist Power. The formation of Russian Monopoly Capital and its Empire – A Reply to our Critics, 18 March 2014, in: Revolutionary Communism No. 21, http://www.thecommunists.net/theory/imperialist-russia/; Russian Imperialism and Its Monopolies, in: New Politics Vol. XVIII No. 4, Whole Number 72, Winter 2022, https://newpol.org/issue_post/russian-imperialism-and-its-monopolies/; Once Again on Russian Imperialism (Reply to Critics). A rebuttal of a theory which claims that Russia is not an imperialist state but would be rather “comparable to Brazil and Iran”, 30 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/once-again-on-russian-imperialism-reply-to-critics/. See various other RCIT documents on this issue at a special sub-page on the RCIT’s website: https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/china-russia-as-imperialist-powers/.

[6] We refer readers to a special page on our website where currently about 60 RCIT documents on the current NATO-Russia conflict and the Ukraine War are compiled: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/compilation-of-documents-on-nato-russia-conflict/. The most important documents are: RCIT Manifesto: Ukraine War: A Turning Point of World Historic Significance. Socialists must combine the revolutionary defense of the Ukraine against Putin’s invasion with the internationalist struggle against Russian as well as NATO and EU imperialism, 1 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/manifesto-ukraine-war-a-turning-point-of-world-historic-significance/; RCIT: Ukraine War: An Action Program for Authentic Socialists, 1 March 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/ukraine-war-an-action-program-for-authentic-socialists/; Medina Gunić: A new turning point in Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, 25 February 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/a-new-turning-point-in-russia-s-invasion-of-the-ukraine/; RCIT: Down with Putin’s Imperialist War against the Ukraine! Neither Russia nor NATO - against all imperialist powers! For an independent popular struggle to defend the Ukraine! For a workers government to defeat the Russian invaders! No to imperialist sanctions! For an independent socialist Ukraine! 24 February 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/down-with-putin-s-imperialist-war-against-the-ukraine/.

[7] See on this the website of the International Workers Aid campaign (www.workers-aid.net) and the report about the first trip of the Sunflower Convoy in this Ukraine (www.workers-aid.net/convoy/updates).

[8] See on this the RCIT’s documents on the Global Trade War which have been compiled at a special sub-page on our website: https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/collection-of-articles-on-the-global-trade-war/.

[9] See on this e.g. Michael Pröbsting: “Maritime Freedom” – A Keyword of the U.S./NATO Warmongers. A leading representative of the U.S. Navy outlines a militaristic strategy against Russia and China, 5 July 2021, https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/global/maritime-freedom-a-keyword-of-the-u-s-nato-warmongers/

[10] On the RCIT’s analysis of the Great Power rivalry see e.g. the book by Michael Pröbsting: Anti-Imperialism in the Age of Great Power Rivalry. The Factors behind the Accelerating Rivalry between the U.S., China, Russia, EU and Japan. A Critique of the Left’s Analysis and an Outline of the Marxist Perspective, RCIT Books, Vienna 2019, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/anti-imperialism-in-the-age-of-great-power-rivalry/

[11]   V. I: Lenin: The Collapse of the Second International (1915); in: LCW Vol. 21, p. 230

[12] Leon Trotsky: Once Again: The ILP (1936), in: Trotsky in: Writings 1935-36, p. 198

[13] Leon Trotsky: Resolution on the Antiwar Congress of the London Bureau (1936), in: Documents of the Fourth International, New York 1973, p. 99

[14] We refer in this context to an interesting article by an Ukrainian comrade of the RCIT in which he critically discusses the support of “Social Movement” for a military UN intervention: Ингмар Вштырский: Заметка про ООН и позиции левых о миротворцах в Украине, 24 Января 2022, https://www.thecommunists.net/home/%D1%83%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D1%81%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9/un-and-positions-of-the-left-about-peacekeepers-in-ukraine/

[15] Communist International: Conditions of Admission to the Communist International. Approved by the Second Comintern Congress (1920), in: The Communist International 1919-1943. Documents Selected and Edited by Jane Degras, Vol.  I 1919-1922, p. 41

[16] Communist International: Conditions of Admission to the Communist International. Approved by the Second Comintern Congress (1920), in: The Communist International 1919-1943. Documents Selected and Edited by Jane Degras, Vol.  I 1919-1922, p. 170

 

절박하다고 제국주의 제재나 유엔 개입을 요구하는 것에 대해

사회주의자들은 이에 대해 반대하는가?

 

러시아와 우크라이나 사회주의자의 공동성명에 대한 동지적 비판

 

미하엘 프뢰브스팅, 혁명적 공산주의인터내셔널 동맹 (RCIT) 국제서기, 2022 4 17, www.thecommunists.net

 

 

 

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며칠 , 사회주의 단체가 우크라이나 전쟁에 대한 공동성명을 발표했다. 성명은 크게 가지 이유로 특히 주목할 만하다. 성명은 러시아 제국주의에 반대하고 우크라이나 인민의 저항투쟁에 찬성하는 분명한 입장을 취한다. 자체로 가치 있는 이러한 입장이 더더욱 칭송 받을 만한 이유는 그것이 러시아 조직과 우크라이나 조직에 의해 공동으로 나왔기 때문이다. 조직은 российское социалистическое движение (러시아사회주의운동) соціальний рух (사회운동 우크라이나).[1]

 

더욱이 우크라이나의 정의의 방어전에 대한 단체 РСД & СР 동지들의 지지에는 명시적으로 "우크라이나에 대한 군사적 지원, 특히 방공시스템의 제공" 요구까지 포함되어 있다. 모든 것은 칭찬 받을 만한데, 왜냐하면 이러한 입장은 자체로도 옳지만, 무엇보다도 러시아 조직이 거기에 공동서명을 했다는 점에서 특히 그렇다. 푸틴 정권 하에서의 억압적인 전쟁 시작 이래로 더더욱 억압적인 조건을 알고 있는 사람이라면 누구나 같은 용기를 틀림없이 존경할 것이다![2]

 

확실히 RCIT 러시아 · 우크라이나 동지들은 문장 모두를 성명서와 같은 식으로 정식화하지는 않겠지만, 우크라이나 인민의 저항에 찬성하고 러시아 제국주의에 반대하는 분명한 입장을 취한 대해 РСД & СР 동지들에게 재차 우리의 감사 인사를 전한다.[3]

 

그러나 성명에는 우리가 잘못되었다고 보아 동지들에게 재고해 것을 요청하는 지점이 있다. 번째는 "러시아 석유와 가스에 대한 제재" ( 푸틴과 그의 억만장자들에 대한 제재”) 요구다. 그리고 번째는 "녹색회랑 보호 핵발전소 보호를 포함하여 민간인을 보호하기 위해 ()나토 국가들로부터 유엔 평화유지군의 도입 (러시아의 유엔 안보리 거부권은 총회에서 극복할 있다)" 요구다.

 

요구 모두 (서방) 제국주의 강대국들에게 라이벌 러시아에 대해 조치를 취하고 우크라이나에 직접 개입하라는 요구에 다름 아니다.

 

 

 

노동자에 의한 제재는 찬성, 그러나 강대국에 의한 제재는 반대!

 

우리는 이미 여러 차례에 걸쳐, 노동자계급이 가하는 제재와 제국주의 국가가 가하는 제재를 강하게 구분하는 것이 사회주의자에게 필수임을 설명해왔다.[4]

 

러시아 선박에 대한 각국 항만노동자들의 제재나 러시아 군수 물자에 대한 벨라루스 철도노동자들의 제재와 같은 노동자의 제재는 노동자계급의 힘과 자신감을 강화한다. 노동자 제재는 러시아의 노동자들에게 그들의 계급 자매형제들이 제국주의 침략의 희생자들과 함께 있다는 것을 보여준다.

 

반대로 제국주의 국가들이 가하는 제재는 노동자계급이 아니라 바로 이들 제국주의 국가들을 강화한다. 제국주의 제재는 노동자계급이 아니라 제국주의 지배자들의 힘과 자신감을 강화한다.

 

차이를 이해하는 것은 어렵지 않을 것이다. 폭력을 예로 들어 유추해보자. 우리는 억압자에 대항하는 피억압자의 폭력을 지지한다. 그러나 우리는 마피아에게 라이벌 마피아를 패달라고 요구하지 않는다! 번째 경우는 피억압자를 강화한다. 번째 경우는 조폭 두목을 강화한다.

 

심리적으로 우리는 동지들을 이해할 있다. 동지들은 우크라이나가 승리하고 제국주의 러시아가 패배하는 것을 보길 절실히 원한다. 그러나 그러한 이해할 있는 동기가 결과적으로 제국주의 기관 조치를 지지하는 것으로 끝나도록 놔둬서는 된다!

 

문제는 우리가 보기에 동지들이 충돌의 특수한, 이중적인 성격 충분히 이해하지 못하고 있다는 것이다. 우리가 여러 RCIT 문서에서 상세히 설명했듯이, 방면의 투쟁 지금 전개되고 있음을 인식하는 것이 중요하다. 첫째, 반식민지 나라에 대한 제국주의 강대국 러시아의 침공으로 촉발된 우크라이나 전쟁이 있다.[5] 여기서 RCIT 러시아에 대항하여 우크라이나 인민의 저항을 전면 지지한다. 저항은 정의의 방어전에 해당하기 때문이다.[6] 이러한 이유로 RCIT 우크라이나 사회주의자들 크림 타타르인 민중단체와 협력하여 우크라이나 인민에게 물질적 원조를 가져다주는 <국제노동자원조> 캠페인 "해바라기 호송대" 발의하여 시작했다.[7]

 

그러나 2 충돌이 또한 전개되고 있는데, 강대국들 무엇보다도 일차적으로 미국·서유럽 러시아 패권경쟁 가속화가 그것이다. 어떤 상황에서도 사회주의자들은 패권쟁투에서 들기를 해서는 된다. 이것은 강도 간의 충돌이다. 노동자·피억압자의 적이다. 따라서 RCIT 혁명적 패배주의 입장을 제창하며, 나토와 러시아 진영 모두에 반대한다.

 

이러한 우리의 입장을 다음과 같은 슬로건으로 정리해 놓았다.

 

* 우크라이나 방어! 러시아 제국주의에 패배를! (일체의 제국주의 영향력과는 독립적인) 우크라이나 민족 저항에 국제 민중연대를!

 

* 러시아뿐만 아니라 미국·EU , 모든 제국주의 열강 타도! 열강들 간의 모든 충돌·분쟁에서 혁명가들은 진영 모두에 맞서 싸운다!

 

어떠한 종류의 제재든, 러시아에 대한 서방 제국주의의 제재를 사회주의자들이 지지하거나 정당화하는 것은 완전히 잘못된 것이며 무원칙한 것이다! 그것은 프롤레타리아 정책과 제국주의 정책을 뒤섞는 것이다. 계급투쟁의 방법 자본주의 권력쟁투 방법을 구분하지 못하고 혼동하는 것이다. 노동자계급 국제주의 제국주의 강대국의 도발침략 간의 구분선을 흐리게 하는 것이다.

 

현대 자본주의 역사에서 제국주의 제재 정책은 본격적인 제국주의 전쟁으로 결과하는 경우가 왕왕 있었다. 1941 진주만 공습 이전 년에 걸친 미국의 대일 제재나 1 세계대전 또는 이후 전간 시기의 각종 제재는 많이 알려져 있는 것들이다. 2018 이래로 우리는 세계무역전쟁에서 중국에 대한 미국의 제국주의적 징벌 관세나 제재를 보아왔다. 그리고 역의 경우도 보았다.[8] 여기에서도 양대 열강이 다음 군사 대결을 향해 가고 있다는 것이 분명하게 나타난다.[9]

 

따라서 사회주의자들이 그러한 제재에 지지를 보내면 객관적으로 제국주의 권력정치와 공범이 된다.[10] 나아가 서방의 제재에 대한 그러한 지지는, ·유럽 제국주의의 희생자가 되어 이들 열강을 강하게 증오하는 세계의 수많은 피억압 인민들의 눈에 사회주의자들의 신망을 떨어뜨리는 것밖에 없다.

 

 

 

제국주의 제재에 관한 맑스주의 전통

 

이러한 이유로 맑스주의자들은 제국주의 제재에 어떤 종류의 지지도 (“비판적 지지조차도) 보내서는 된다는 것을 언제나 분명히 했다. 레닌은 이미 1 세계대전 초기 단계에 글들에서 강대국이 다른 강대국을 겨냥하여 취하는 경제적 침략 정책이 제국주의 전쟁의 위험을 유발한다고 지적했다.

 

그러므로 경제적 경쟁, 경쟁 상대방을 파산으로 내모는 경제적 추동이 첨예해지고 긴박해지면 질수록 자본가들은 경쟁 상대방들을 그러한 방향으로 몰아가기 위해 군사적 압력을 더욱더 강화하려고 애를 쓴다.”[11]

 

따라서 모든 형태의 제국주의 제재에 반대하는 것이 레닌 시절 공산주의 인터내셔널의 그리고 나중에 트로츠키 4인터내셔널의 트레이드마크가 되었다. 유엔의 전신인 소위 "국제연맹" 파시스트 이탈리아에 제재를 가했을 (1935 이탈리아의 에티오피아 침공 때문에), 트로츠키와 4인터내셔널은 그러한 조치를 날카롭게 규탄했다. 4인터내셔널은 그러한 제재가 기본적으로 경쟁 상대방을 겨냥한 ·· 제국주의의 도구로 봉사할 것이라고 주장했다. 평가는 4년도 되어 2 세계대전이 시작되면서 옳다는 것이 입증되었다.

 

트로츠키는 경제 제재는 군사 제재로, 전쟁으로 이어진다 설명했다.[12] 따라서 맑스주의자들은, 그러한 제재를 지지함으로써 또는 제국주의 열강에 지지를 보내는 자들 모두와 결별해야 한다고 트로츠키는 강조했다. “전쟁에 대항하는 투쟁은, 제대로 이해되고 실행될 경우 프롤레타리아트와 조직들의 자국 여타 모든 나라 제국주의 부르주아지에 대한 언제나 어디에서나 비타협적 적대를 전제로 한다. 그러나 런던 사무국 대회의 공표된 신봉자들 중에서는 이탈리아 사회당과 같은 국제연맹 제재’ ( 제국주의 제재) 악명 높은 지지자들이 발견될 것이다. 이탈리아 사회당은 영국 독립노동당과 같은 제재 반대자임을 자처하는 당과 전쟁에 대항하는 공동 투쟁을 조직한다고 하는 당이다. 전쟁에 대항하는 프롤레타리아 투쟁의 전제조건은 제재주의자 제재주의자 사이의 통일단결이 아니라 그들 사이의 무자비한 분리다.”[13]

 

 

 

유엔 제국주의 강대국들이 지배하는