International youth forthe liberation of Ukraine

Working class youth at the forefront 

Young people from dispossessed working-class families are at the forefront of internationalstruggles against political, social and economic oppression; they play a key role in the fightfor democratic freedoms, as well as defending against the attacks of the ruling class on our standards of living — lowering our standards of education, housing and working conditions.The youth of Ukraine are not in an enviable position at all. Their internal fight for democracyand against authoritarianism still rings hollow to this day: feelings of indecision andinsecurities regarding their future have been weighing on their minds for more than 30 years.Their jobs are rarely enjoyable or well-paid, their education happens far away from their campuses, and their aspirations are regularly destroyed by an imperialist Russia.The youth of Ukraine today are seeing their lives and their cities being destroyed, and their people being bombed and massacred by Russian troops. They are forced to neglect or giveup on their studies and life plans. Young Ukrainians are joining territorial defence regimentsalongside the rest of the working class, fighting on the front lines on the same basis as thearmed forces of Ukraine, even though Zelensky’s government has recently approved twolaws (laws 5371 and 5161) that allow worsened working conditions. This is clearly takingadvantage of the war to evade any possible opposition. Ultimately, the Ukrainian governmentis weakening the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion, as the resistance is primarilythat of working-class people.In spite of the betrayals by their own government, workers and dispossessed youth aregoing to war to defend the integrity of their country, their way of life and, ultimately, to defendtheir right to political self-determination against Russian dominance. The dispossessed youthof the rest of the world must ask themselves what their position should be on the Ukrainianwar.

What should be the position of young people internationally regarding the war in Ukraine?

The Ukraine war is a consequence of the invasion perpetrated by the 2nd strongest militarypower in the world — the Russian army, led by Putin’s government — against a muchweaker country, historically oppressed by Russia. The historic oppression of Ukraine wasinitially carried out by the tsarist Russian empire, with figureheads like Ivan the Terrible,Peter I, Catherine I. Later, it was taken up by Joseph Stalin and the bureaucratic,authoritarian regime of the USSR, which acted against the right to nationalself-determination that the Ukrainians won during the Ukrainian revolution in 1917-1921. Andnow it is Vladimir Putin, who has suppressed any number of ethnic minority groups: fromCrimean Tatars to Ukrainians and Chechens, and from Yakuts to Mari.The Russian regime is playing an utterly reactionary role in Eastern Europe and Asia. Itsinternal policy is aimed at atomising and depoliticising the society, purging the opposition(including left-wing forces) and supporting organisations with blatantly ultra-right and evenfascist rhetoric. Not to mention the aggressive anti-LGBT propaganda on state channels andits persecution of LGBT people. At the same time, with its foreign policy the country

 

enthusiastically supports or openly participates in the suppression of popular and workers’protests, which has been seen repeatedly in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Chechnya, etc. The factthat Russia opposes itself to the United States does not make it a progressive, democraticregime.The front line of Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s claws has been, and always will benourished by the student movement. Students were present in the fight for Ukraine’sindependence that culminated in the student Revolution on Granite, the Orange Revolution,and allowed the transition to democracy to properly begin. They were also present in theRevolution of Dignity (also known as the Maidan Revolution), which solidified Ukraine’seconomic and political breakaway from Russia. The Maidan revolution, sadly, came at acost: Russia saw it as the last straw, and decided to annex Crimea and start a war inDonbass. By 2022, Russia wasn’t satisfied with the status-quo, so they began a full-scaleinvasion of Ukraine to impose their political and economic interests over the will andresistance of the Ukrainian people — which remain very strong.Every nation should have the right to defend themselves against oppression, to defend their culture, language, political self-determination and national sovereignty. It is not Ukraine thatis attacking Russia, it is Russia that is destroying a country, as they did in Syria. Because of this, the youth of the world must support the Ukrainian resistance and the defeat of theRussian army. We cannot fall for Putin’s propaganda about the “denazification” of Ukraine:the infamous Azov Battalion consists, at best, of 2500 people (the lowest account says thereare only 900) while today there are more than 700,000 people enlisted in the Ukrainianresistance.Young men and women, students and workers, comprise a considerable part of Ukraine’sarmed forces, particularly the territorial defense. Although the state exempts universitystudents from conscription, many students participate voluntarily in the armed resistance.The historic struggle against Great Russian oppression is, ultimately, a struggle for Ukrainianliberation and independence against any form of imperialist domination. That is why theRussian army must be defeated.

How should we support Ukrainian fighters?

The current Russian strategy is a massive use of heavy artillery. The Ukrainian people wantto fight but they don't have the necessary weapons to destroy Russian artillery and planes,so it is a matter of life and death that the Ukrainian people get the weapons they need.This is why the most important method of supporting the Ukrainian resistance is bydemanding the unconditional supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine. That is the only way theywill be able to win the war. Any other position, such as pacifism, or support only in theabstract, means practically denying the right to self-defense, and contributes to the Russianvictory. The Ukrainian people have already taken on the task of defending themselves, whichhas kept the war going until now. But in order to win this war, it needs material support,specifically heavy weapons.

Defending Ukrainian resistance does not mean supporting NATO or the Zelensky government.

 

 American and European imperialism, despite promising weapons, do not send what isneeded, and take the opportunity to justify their own re-armament. At the same time, EUhands are stained with Ukrainian blood, as they finance Putin's military campaign by buyinggas and oil from Russia, and continue to appropriate Ukrainian wealth through foreign debt.NATO and the EU do not want a total victory for the Ukrainian resistance, they insteadpressure Zelensky to accept dividing the country with Russia, according to an imperialistpartition of the territory.NATO denying necessary armaments for the Ukrainian resistance leaves Ukraine in harm’sway. European governments have only taken the (superficial) position of support theycurrently hold because the Ukrainian masses have resisted from the beginning, and becausethe masses internationally are against Russian aggression. At the same time, Zelensky took advantage of the war to attack workers' rights and the rightsof young people, both in general and particularly those who were on the frontline. They have just passed 2 laws that, on the one hand, create a new form of labor contract deregulatingthe limitation of working hours, and on the other hand allow capitalists to ignore workers’rights in companies with more than 250 employees. Capitalists are also being permitted todismiss any workers who have gone to the front lines to defend their country.The situation for students is no better: the Ukrainian state still forces students to continuepaying for their education, even though in many places it is not taking place, and anywhereelse it lags far behind the pre-war level. It has become more and more frequent for studentsat the front to receive letters from their educational institutions stating that they will no longer be able to continue their studies due to problems with the university administration.Meanwhile, the deputies increase their own salaries, showing that the Ukrainian peoplecannot trust either the Zelensky Government or the parliament.

The need to carry out a major international youth campaign in support of Ukrainianresistance and self-organization.

Young people are the generation that will live in this world for the longest, but we were never given a chance to decide how it works or to attempt to change it. In addition to fighting for our democratic rights, we must also build a world different from the one we were born into.May it be a world of liberation for young people, students, and workers.But to build a new world we have to be clear: ultimately, neither NATO, nor Russia, nor anybourgeois government will guarantee the rights and lives of young people and workers if thatgoes against their economic and political interests; on the contrary, they will attack them, aswe are currently seeing day after day. We can only guarantee our political independence bytaking the struggle into our own hands and advancing our political self-organization, as theUkrainian youth, students and workers are doing.Today, the primary task for young Ukrainians looking for the right to politicalself-determination (and many other rights) is to defeat the invading Russian troops. That iswhy we must carry out an international campaign of solidarity, bringing together young