Paddy Farrington writes on controversies and political responsibility.
Ukraine is increasingly beleaguered in its titanic struggle against Putin’s invasion. Outnumbered and exhausted, outgunned and short of ammunition, Ukraine’s troops are gradually being pushed back. That this is being achieved at huge human cost to his own side as well as to Ukraine’s is of little concern to Putin. Meanwhile Trump, backed by far-right politicians in Europe, threatens to pull the plug on US support for Ukraine and to cut a deal with Putin over the heads of Ukraine’s government and people. More than ever, the people of Ukraine need our support and solidarity.
This issue has divided the left, in Europe and here in Scotland. For example, a resolution recently adopted by the European Parliament in support of military aid to Ukraine (see the recent DLS piece about it here) was backed by a majority of members of the Socialists and Democrats group and of the Greens/EFA group (to which the SNP belonged before Brexit), but was opposed by a majority of the Left group within the Parliament. Within the Left group, MEPs from three parties of the left in Sweden, Finland and Denmark supported the resolution, while both Sinn Féin MEPs abstained.
Here in Scotland, the left is also divided. Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland (USCS), which campaigns for solidarity with Ukraine from a left perspective, and is affiliated to the European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine (ENSU), has the support of several SNP, Scottish Labour, and Scottish Greens MSPs, as well as significant sections of the trade union and environmental movements. In contrast, Scottish CND and the Scottish branches of the Stop the War Coalition have taken a position similar to the majority of the Left group in the European Parliament: while nominally opposing Putin’s invasion, their main focus is to condemn the supply of weapons to Ukraine by the UK and other Western governments, while calling for a negotiated peace.
It is not the purpose of this piece to revisit blow-by-blow the controversy this has engendered within the left in Scotland; some of it can be read here. Rather, its purpose is to focus on the issue of what solidarity actually means, and on the fundamental political choice to be made relating to the agency of the oppressed and their right to self-determination – in this case, the people of Ukraine. In a nutshell, for the left to condemn Putin’s invasion without taking practical steps to support the people of Ukraine’s resistance against the invasion is a dereliction of political responsibility.
In February 2022, Ukraine astonished the world by its spirited, popular resistance against the invasion. Throughout the newly occupied cities of Ukraine, people demonstrated against the invasion, until they were violently suppressed by the occupying forces. Against all odds, Ukraine’s armed forces drove Putin’s troops from the gates of Kyiv, retook Kherson, forced Putin’s navy out of Crimea. Ukraine’s resistance has weakened Putin’s regime to the extent that it can no longer maintain Assad’s murderous grip on Syria.
There is no doubting Ukraine’s popular will for resistance at all levels of Ukrainian civil society. And yet some within the peace movement or on the left in Scotland have sought no contact or involvement with the Ukrainian grassroots, make abstract pronouncements about ceasefires and peace talks with no reference to what the Ukrainian people and their political leaders desire, and frequently adopt the discourse of big power politics in which the Ukrainian people are afforded no agency.
In contrast, Scotland’s community response has been exemplary, with numerous civic initiatives of practical solidarity in support of Ukraine, such as Sunflower Scotland, Dnipro Kids, Scottish Emergency Rescue Association, Spiders for Ukraine, Babyboxes and Beyond, Jeeps for Peace, to name but a few. There have been twinnings between Scottish and Ukrainian cities (for example between Glasgow and Mykolaiv) and between some universities (for example between St Andrews University and Ostroh Academy, and between Edinburgh University and Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv) and enhanced research links between others. Numerous Scottish trade unions have expressed their solidarity with their Ukrainian counterparts, and some have also initiated actions of practical solidarity.
In view of this surge in solidarity within Scotland’s civil society, much of it conducted under the radar, it is disappointing, to say the least, to find some on the political left who – for whatever reason – have opted to stand aside from or disparage solidarity with Ukraine. In truth, the community activism detailed above shows that they are out of touch.
Indeed, there is no shortage of opportunities for political involvement with Ukraine’s active left, socialist, and trade union movement. Ukraine’s appetite for such interaction is exemplified by the leftwing political journal Commons. There you will find a articles, mostly in Ukrainian but many in English, covering an impressively wide range of subjects. Of particular interest to supporters of Democratic Left, for example, is this interview with Henrik Jaakola of Finland’s Left Alliance party (one of the three referred to earlier) in which he describes the Finnish left’s debates over NATO.
Obtaining greater military support for Ukraine is arguably an essential part of effective solidarity against Putin’s imperialist aspirations – such support from the West having often been grudging and piecemeal. On the other hand, this may not sit easily with those on the left with pacifist views. But there are plenty of other avenues for active, practical solidarity.
For a start, Ukraine still does not have adequate air defence systems, in spite of Zelenskyy repeatedly asking for them. And of course, there is much scope for humanitarian aid and other forms of solidarity.
Exemplary in this respect has been the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), which is still a significant force in Japanese politics. Back in the 1960s, it asserted its independence from Soviet and Chinese influence, criticising the actions of both – and of the USA – as ‘Great Power Chauvinism’. This principled position has never stopped it from engaging in meaningful solidarity – in outstanding support of Vietnam’s resistance during the American war, and now in support of Ukraine’s resistance against Putin’s invasion. You can read about it in another excellent Commons piece here. The JCP criticizes NATO expansion, but does not accept that this expansion gave Putin any legitimate reason to invade Ukraine. While it supports Ukraine’s resistance against aggression, it does not support Japan providing any military assistance, in keeping with the party’s commitment to Japan’s anti-militarist constitution. But as a practical demonstration of its support for Ukraine, the party in April 2022 raised $1.5 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine. An example the ‘campist’ left in Scotland would do well to follow.
Current arguments over Ukraine within the left in Scotland are reminiscent of the events leading up to World War 2. Then also, national humiliation of a once great European power by predatory Western imperialist nations (at the Treaty of Versailles) and divisions on the left driven by ideology (communists attacking social democrats as ‘social fascists’) helped the emergence of an authoritarian ethnic nationalist leader with delusions of territorial supremacy. The outcome then was tragedy; second time round, it’s unlikely to be farce.
Ukraine Solidarity Campaign Scotland are organising a ‘Stand by Ukraine‘ lobby of the US Consulate in Edinburgh on 18th January 2025, 1 – 3pm at 3 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5BW.
Published 19 December 2024.