Communist Liberation on the negotiation between the US, EU and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
The ongoing negotiation over the war in Ukraine is a prime example of the imperialist sharing of the world in modern times.
(For Greek version click here)
At the meetings in Alaska and Washington, not only the future and borders of Ukraine were on the table, but also other issues of no less importance, which will be revealed later. The US, hand in hand with the EU, were the ones which cynically pushed Ukraine into the war with Russia, seeking to make it an advanced outpost in the confrontation with the Russian-Chinese axis and the expansion of NATO to the East. In this way, they achieved Sweden and Finland to join the NATO, canceled the Northern Pipeline of Russian Natural Gas to Europe via Germany (Nordstream), accelerated the rise in military spending throughout Europe, while increasing the Europe-driven demand for liquefied natural gas. On the battlefield, however, Russia was far from defeated – despite the flood of NATO aid to Ukraine – nor was its economy devastated by sanctions.
Today, with these facts in mind, the US is readjusting its goals. The US demands that the war loans to the devastated Ukraine should be returned, that they share and exploit its wealth-producing sources and raw materials, as well as that they control the “reconstruction” of Ukraine. This is, after all, the content of the “solidarity of the democratic world”.
The Alaska meeting also discussed the future of the broader US-Russian economic partnership, especially the exploitation of the North Pole and the opening of the Northern Corridor. The operation to “exploit” the vast natural gas and oil deposits and the creation of a global East-West trade corridor next to the North Pole will entail a cataclysmic ecological disaster for the future of the planet. Trump’s “drill baby drill” policy (of escalating hydrocarbon extraction) becomes commonplace in a real crime against the planet.
In this arena, the EU has lost the initiative against the US, but it is not obscurely observing the developments, as the mainstream media say. The joint statement by the “leaders” of Europe, from the liberal Macron, the conservative Merz, the far-right Meloni, to the social democrat Starmer, with references to “no restrictions should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries, and Russia cannot have a veto on Ukraine’s path towards the EU and NATO”, clearly show that they have chosen the path of escalation and generalization of military involvement. At the Washington meeting, the anxiety of the leaders of the European “Coalition of the Willing” stood out about in a possible stop of the war, a share of wealth does not include them!
Unlike various EU supporters, who expected the EU to take “peace initiatives”, the unprecedented alliance of all the central political forces in Europe shows that “war capitalism” is a strategic choice of the European capital, with which the peoples will have to confront to avoid falling into the abyss of war.
The discussion in Washington and the agreement in principle to provide “strong security guarantees” to Ukraine, with US support but with the main burden placed on Europe, point to an acceleration of steps towards a war economy. It also signals the provision of fertile ground for the next round of war in Europe, despite reports of alleged reversal of the “deeper causes” of the Ukrainian war.
In this context, the Greek government of the New Democracy party, and more generally the bourgeoisie and the political system of Greece, have consciously chosen, for reasons of their own political and economic interests as well as strategic goals, the sad and dangerous role of the US-NATO-EU follower on the path of conflict and war economy and in complete contrast with the needs of the Greek people. They are currently monitoring developments, with the choice not to dissatisfy either the US or the EU, with the Greek government having already stated that “we are at war with Russia”.
Trump’s “red carpet” to Putin highlights as completely wrong the perceptions that seek a “progressive” and “anti-imperialist role” in contemporary Russia. Russian capitalism, seeking to become an equal partner in the “holy family” of global thieves, negotiates its full reintegration into global capitalism, which is nowadays in imbalance. It shares – at this stage – the spoils with the US and defends its interests with arms. Everything else, about the “fight with Nazism” is nothing but ashes in the people’s eyes. The use of the Soviet era by the current regime concerns only its military strength and not the revolution, the internationalist legacy of Lenin, the liberating role of culture and the social achievements of the USSR. These have been completely eliminated and reversed in contemporary capitalist Russia.
In any case – whatever the development of the overall negotiation is – we are not entering a period of ”calm waters”, even if there is a temporary agreement. The general trend is the shift towards the war economy and war itself. The people have nothing to gain by fighting under foreign flags. The left and the labor movement cannot be a complementary force or pressure group to political forces that are unable to approach the issue of war in its entireness. The silence on the issue of the EU and NATO reveals the limits of this tactic in an era that requires a revolutionary strategy.
A great movement against poverty and war, independent and against all imperialist centers, the ruling class and all versions of the bourgeois political system of each country, is the hope for the peoples and humanity! In Greece, this entails first of all, a struggle to exit NATO and the EU, the removal of the US bases, the overthrow of armament programs and the cancellation of Greece’s “axis of death” with the Zionist state, the murderer of Israel.
COMMUNIST LIBERATION
