The Odessa Solidarity Campaign initiated the below statement on the war in Ukraine. Class Conscious has joined anti-imperialist from around the world by endorsing it. We welcome all such efforts that seek to bring together genuine anti-imperialists against NATO’s proxy war on Russia. It can be endorsed by organizations and individuals by sending an email to following: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com. The Odessa Solidarity Campaign can also be found on Facebook here.
An anti-Imperialist position on the crisis in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine is raging on with no end in sight. People are suffering, and fears are rising that the conflict could widen and even involve nuclear weapons. Many well-meaning people are calling for a ceasefire and negotiations.
We all want peace, but it does no good to promote solutions that don’t take into account what led up to the war in the first place:
- Back in 1991, as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the U.S. government promised that NATO would not expand “one inch” eastward. But since then, all 14 new NATO members have been former Soviet states or allies. Sweden and Finland are expected to join soon. Both Georgia and Ukraine, which border Russia, have asked to join. That would complete the encirclement of Russia’s western flank. It would be as if Russia were building an anti-U.S. military alliance of all South and Central American countries and was about to admit Mexico. Obviously, the U.S. would see that as an existential threat.
- When Ukraine first became an independent state in 1991, Ukraine and Russia were at peace. But in 2014, the U.S. backed a violent, right-wing coup that brought to power an anti-Russian government that openly embraced neo-Nazi, paramilitary militias hostile to Ukraine’s Russian minority.
- This new situation, which included the massacre on May 2, 2014, of at least 42 anti-coup protesters in Odessa by a fascist-led mob, was seen as gravely threatening by the heavily ethnic-Russian areas of eastern and southern Ukraine. The result was Crimea voting to rejoin Russia, which it had been part of until 1954, and Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbass region declaring themselves independent.
- Then Ukraine, Russia, Donetsk and Luhansk agreed to allow those two entities to become autonomous areas within a united Ukraine. But Ukraine never implemented the terms of those Minsk Agreements, and instead carried out a military campaign to retake the separatitst region, with the loss of some 15,000 lives.
- Meanwhile, since at least 2014, the U.S. and other NATO countries have carried out regular, massive joint military exercises with Ukraine – land, sea and air – right up to Russia’s borders.
- In late 2021 and early 2022, President Putin of the Russian Federation offered to hold negotiations with the U.S. and NATO to discuss Russia’s security concerns, but the offer was ignored. This was before Russia recognized the independent republics in the Donbass. Subsequent Russian offers to negotiate also were rejected.
- By February 2022, Ukraine was intensifying its war in the Donbass, leading Russia to intervene, with the stated purpose of defending the people of the Donbass and “demilitarizing” and “de-Nazifying” Ukraine. Whether people agree with that action or not, it was anything but “unprovoked.”
Since then, as of Sept. 18, the U.S. Department of Defense admits to providing $16.1 billion in military aid to Ukraine. Other estimates have it as high as $40 billion – not counting aid the U.S. says is coming from 50 other allied countries – ensuring that the war will continue indefinitely. What began as a conflict between Russia and Ukraine has become a proxy war by the U.S. and NATO against Russia, with Ukrainians as cannon fodder.
It isn’t necessary to endorse the Russian intervention in order to see that the real provocations for the war were the relentless eastward expansion of NATO; the U.S. support for the right-wing, anti-Russian coup of 2014; and the continuing and expanding war by Ukraine to retake the Donbass.
This being the case, we call on all peace and antiwar activists around the world to demand:
- No to all U.S./NATO support for Ukraine!
- No to all U.S./NATO military actions in Ukraine!
- No to all U.S./NATO sanctions against Russia!
- No to NATO and all U.S. wars and occupations everywhere in the world!
INITIATED BY:
Odessa Solidarity Campaign – https://odessasolidaritycampaign.org – Oct. 14, 2022
ENDORSED BY as of Jan. 25, 2022:
Eduardo Artés – First Secretary & former presidential candidate, Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action), Santiago de Chile, Chile
Bahman Azad – President, U.S. Peace Council, USA
Ajamu Baraka – National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace, USA
Sinia Benigassan – Bureau d’information Alba Granada North Africa, Tunis, Tunisia
Matyas Benyik – President, ATTAC Hungary Association, Budapest, Hungary
Prof. Dr. Horst Bischoff – Deputy Chairman, ISOR e.V., Berlin, Germany
Carl Boggs – Los Angeles, California, USA
Joachim Bonatz – Deputy Chairman, ISOR e.V.; Vice President, OKV e.V., Berlin, Germany
Heinrich Buecker – Coop Anti-War Cafe; Member, German Peace Council & World Beyond War, Berlin, Germany
Melinda Butterfield – Co-Editor, Struggle-La Lucha newspaper, USA
Jose Capitan – Opcion Obrera (Workers Option), Venezuela
Class Conscious, Melbourne Australia
Dr. Dieter Dehm – Ex-Member, German Parliament; Former Member, German Bundestag; DIE LINKE, Germany
Rudolf Denner – Spokesman, Presidium, OKV e.V., Berlin, Germany
Communist Party of Australia
Georg Ehmke – Lt. Colonel aD, Werder, Germany
Rep. Jeffrey Evangelos – Maine House of Representatives, Friendship, Maine, USA
Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice, Canada
Sara Flounders – Co-Director, International Action Center, USA
Frente Unido América Latina – Berlin, Germany
Leo Gabriel – Anthropologist, Journalist & Filmmaker, Austria
Bruce Gagnon – Anti-imperialist Activist, Maine, USA
Leonid Ilderkin – Coordinating Council, Union of Political Emigrants & Political Prisoners of Ukraine, Russia
International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity – UK
Major General Manfred Jonischkies, Retired – Member, Board of ISOR e.V., Berlin, Germany
Dr. Sabine Kebir – Publicist, Lecturer, Berlin, Germany
Ulla Klötzer & Lea Launokari – Coordinators, Women for Peace, Finland
Gregory Laxer – Author, “Take This War and Shove It! A most unwilling soldier 1967-1971,” Connecticut, USA
League of Young Communists USA
Ed Lehman – President, Regina Peace Council, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Jeff Mackler – National Secretary, Socialist Action, USA
Stephen Martin – Author at Counterpunch, Edinburgh, Scotland
Savvas Matsas – Ergatiko Epanastatiko Komma (EEK – Workers Revolutionary Party), Greece
Dimitris Mizaras – Chairman, Marxist Workers’ League of Finland
Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO), Canada
New Communist Party of Britain
Agneta Norberg – Former Chair, Swedish Peace Council; Women for Peace, Sweden
Helmut Ortgies – Member, Association of Those Persecuted by the Nazi Regime, VVN/BDA, Groß Zimmern, Germany
Manuel Pardo – Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista (Internationalist Anti-Imperialist Front), Madrid, Spain
Party of Communists USA
Stephen Phiri – Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, Zimbabwe/South Africa
Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza – Editor, Orinoco Tribune, Caracas, Venezuela
Sungur Savran – Devrimci İşçi Partisi (DIP – Revolutionist Workers’ Party), Turkey
Jochen Scholz – Lt. Col, Ret., GEAF, Berlin, Germany
SOS Ukraine Resistent, Italy
SOS Donbass, Italy
Prof. Nako Stefanov – Chairman, Bulgarian National Peace Council, Bulgaria
John Steinbach – Coordinator, Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area, USA
United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) – USA
U.S. Friends of the Soviet People
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, USA
Phil Wilayto – Editor, The Virginia Defender
Laura v. Wimmersperg – Berlin, Germany
Workers Voice Socialist Movement – Louisiana, USA
Muzaffer Ege Alper – Member, Revolutionary Workers Party (Turkey) & Marxist Workers League (Finland)
Aufstehen Ortsgruppe (Stand Up Local Group) – Schwerin, Germany
Thomas Bauer – Initiative “No More Military!”; Westphalian Peace Initiative, Hanover, Germany
Tobias Baumann – Translator & Historian; Member, VVN-BdA (League of Anti-Fascists), Berlin, Germany
Iris Berndt – Historian, Potsdam, Germany
Alison Bodine – Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO), Vancouver, Canada.
Bärbel Brede – Artist, Teltow, Germany
Frank Braun – Member of the ‘Peace with Russia’ Initiative, Hanover, Germany
Christel Buchinger – Member, Freethunker, Gersheim, Germany
Walter Busch-Hübenbecker – Member, Verdi/ DGB District Board; member Linke/Verdi /DGB /VVN, Pfungstadt, Germany
Jens Carstensen – Member, Die Linke, Oberhausen, Germany
Harry T. Cason – Adjunct Professor, City University of New York, USA
Roswitha Clüver – Peace Alliance Neubrandenburg, Wulkenzin, Germany
Osvaldo Coggiola – Professor, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
Maren Cronsnest – Anti-Nato Gruppe Berlin, Germany
Sebald Daum – Member, Association for Maintaining the Traditions of the National People’s Army, Mansfeld, Germany
Renate Döhr – Ireland Group Omega, Berlin, Germany
Frank Dorrel – Publisher, Addicted to War, Culver City, California, USA
Hartmut Drewes – Retired Pastor; Spokesman, Bremen Peace Forum, Germany
Bruno Drwęski – Professor of Political Science, the Sorbonne, Paris, France.
Karl-Heinz Eichenberg – i.R. Traditional Association, Mühlhausen, Germany
Wolfram Elsner – Professor, Bremen, Germany
Dr. Peter Fellenberg – Historian, Leipzig, Germany
Dr. Helmut Flügel – Cardiologist, Kirchentellinsfurt, Germany
Reinhard Frohberg – Member, ISOR e.V., Geithain, Germany
Dieter Galm – Member, u.a. BUND, SDW, DGB, DAGA, Freidenker/innen-Verband, Alzenau, Germany
Harald Gampig – Member, Society of Legal & Humanitarian Support (GRH e.V.), Berlin, Germany
Albrecht Geißler – Member, Revolutionary Friendship Association e. V.; graduate social scientist, Chemnitz, Germany
Eleanor Goldfield – Journalist/filmmaker, Stockholm, Sweden / Washington, D.C., USA
Dr. Edgar Göll – Future Researcher. Berlin. Germany
Ewa Groszewska – Social Justice Activist, Wroclaw, Poland
Klaus Helms, Retired – Member, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Schwerin/Meckl, Germany
Martha Hennessy – Kings Bay Plowshares; NY Catholic Worker, New York, New York, USA
Guy Hesser – Revolutionary Proletarian Renaissance – ROR, France
Reinhold Hinzmann – Member, Freethinker, communist platform of the LINKE, Niederselters, Germany
Thomas Hohnerlein – Linguist, Gersheim-Medelsheim, Germany
Jan-Florian Holst – Educational Scientist, Berlin, Germany
Gerd Hommel – Editor, RFB-Information, The Red Structure; Revolutionary Friendship Association e. V., Dresden, Germany
Klaus-Dieter Höppner – Member, Peace Alliance Neubrandenburg, Germany
Rodney Hunter – Pastor, Richmond, Virginia, USA
Dietmar Hut – Member, Rotfuchs, Thüringen, Germany
Jutta Jesko – RotFuchs, Südliches Anhalt, Germany
Reinhard John – Member, German Freethinkers Association, Schwetzingen, Germany
Manfred Jonischkies – Peace Alliance, Schwerin, Germany
Claudia Karas – AG Palestine; Member, German Freethinkers Association, Frankfurt, Germany
Cornelia Keita – Nurse, Hackenheim, Germany
Heinz Klein, Dipl. Ing. – Member, Attac and Freethinker, Waldalgesheim, Germany
Dr. Michael Koellisch – Member, IPPNW and Peace Alliance & Peace Center, Braunschweig, Germany
Sabine Knödler – Participation in the Darmstadt Peace Council, Germany
Ingrid Koschmieder – Freidenkermitglied (Freethinker), Berlin, Germany
Monika Krotter-Hartmann – Social worker; German Freethinkers Association, Offenbach (Main), Germany
Wolfgang Kunze – Member, Schwerin Peace Alliance, Schwerin, Germany
Michael Lang – NachDenkSeiten-Gesprächskreis (discussion group), Berlin, Germany
Prof. Dr. Anton Latzo – Political Scientist & Historian, Michendorf, Germany
Heinz Leipold – Member, Freethinkers Association, Erlensee, Germany
Ulrich Lenz – Member, District Council Rhein-Lahn (Die Linke); NachDenkseiten discussion group, Katzenelnbogen, Germany
Uta Mader – Freidenkermitglied, Bernau b. Berlin, Germany
Al Markowitz – Partisan Press, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Anja Mewes – Member, Peace Bell Society Berlin e.V., Germany
Mothers Against War Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany
Dr. Nancy Larenas Ojeda – Frente Unido América Latina, Berlin, Germany
Rosalie Paul – Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks, Brunswick, Maine, USA
Daniela Penkova – Documentarian, Bulgaria
Gina Pietsch – Singer, Berlin, Germany
Cornelia Praetorius – Member, Mothers Against the War Berlin, Brandenburg, Germany
Harald Puff – KPD; RotFuchs, Traditional Assoc. z. Care d. Traditions d. NVA and Border Troops, Southern Anhalt, Germany
Doris & George Pumphrey – Peace Activists, Berlin, Germany
Prof. Dr. Gregor Putensen – Greifswald, Germany
Brigitte Queck – Dipl. Retired General Manager; Mothers Against the War, Biederitz, Germany
Andrei Dr. Reder – Former Counselor, VVN-BdA, Berlin, Germany
Karl Rehbaum – Member, Board of GRH eV, Bernau (Berlin), Germany
Arno Reinhold – Schwerin Peace Alliance, Schwerin, Germany
Horst Remest – Peace Alliance, Neubrandenburg, Germany
Coleen Rowley – Member, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM), Minnesota, USA
Lisa Savage – Maine Natural Guard, Solon, Maine, USA
Irina Schiel – Physical Education Teacher; Immortal Regiment Saarland, Homburg, Germany
Aribert Schilling – Member, Paratroopers Traditional Association East eV, Berlin, Germany
Rita Schilling – Member, Peace Bell Society, Berlin eV, Germany
Gue Schmidt – Director, Projectroom, Antifascist, Vienna, Austria
Helmut Schmidt – Teacher; member, Freethinker, RLP/S, Bolanden, Germany
Heinz Schmidt – Schwerin Peace Alliance, Schwerin, Germany
Renate Schönfeld – Retired Pastor; member, German Communist Party (DKP), Berlin, Germany
Ziona Schulthess – Teacher; member, Women for Peace Switzerland, Basel, Switzerland
Maureen Schwalke – Member of the District Assembly Hamburg-Mitte, Die Linke, Germany
Iliyan Stanchev – Documentarian, Bulgaria
Herbert Steffes – Member, Freethinker, Eschborn, Germany
Jürgen Suttner – Action Alliance Peace Movement South Westphalia-ABFS, Siegen, Germany
Mary Beth Sullivan – Social Worker, Brunswick, Maine, USA
Sally-Alice Thompson – Member Veterans For Peace, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
Jörg Tiedjen – Journalist, Berlin, Germany
Torsten Trentzsch – Software Engineer, Revolutionary Friendship Association e. V., RFB, Meissen, Germany
Kaspar Trümpy – Member, Freethinker, Solothurn, Switzerland
Alexander Tschö – Employee; Member, Freethinker, Friedrichsdorf, Germany
Mauro Valderrama – PC Peru, Frente Unido America Latina, Berlin, Germany
Enrico Vigna – Speaker, Belgrade Forum for a World of Equal; Initiatives Center for Truth & Justice; Initiative for a Multipolar World, Italy
Ana Barbara von Keitz – Berlin Working Group on Uranium Ammunition, Germany
Dave Webb – Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Wolfgang Weigelt – Member, Fallschirmjäger-Traditionsverband Ost eV, Berlin, Germany
Andrea Wendisch – Member, Darmstadt Peace Council, Darmstadt, Germany
Rich Whitney – Member, Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois, Carbondale, Illinois, USA.
Dr. Hartmut Wihstutz – Pediatrician, Hohen Neuendorf, Germany
Udo Wohlgemuth – Graduate Political Scientist, Berlin, Germany
Jane Zahn – Singer, Rheinsberg, Germany
Prof. Vladimir Zakhmatov – Doctor of Technical Sciences, Russia
Elke Zwinge-Makamizile – Member, Freidenker, Berlin, Germany
Rita Abert – Berlin, Germany
Francesco Andreini – Siena, Italy
Mark Baer – Nieder-Olm, Germany
Tanja Banavas – Bonn, Germany
Dieter Becker – Bernau OT Schönow, Germany
Grete Becker – Berlin, Germany
Werner Becker – Potsdam, Germany
Judy Bello – Rochester, New York, USA
Erika Beltz – Gießen , Germany
Tanja Benckendorf – Köln, Germany
Willi Bischoff – Brensbach, Germany
Klaus Böhme – Halle/Saale, Germany
Max Bünker – Münster, Germany
Dr. Adam Broinowski – Canberra, Australia
Max Bünker – Münster, Germany
Arianna Carciofo – Berlin/Bologna, Germany
Marie-Françoise Cordemans – Brussels, Belgium
Dennis Couzin – Berlin, Germany
Dennis DuVall – Radeberg, Germany
Dr. Gabriele Ebert – Berlin, Germany
Heinz Eckel – Berlin, Germany
Gunter Emmaus – Neubrandenburg, Germany
Tunia Erler – Berlin, Germany
Patrick Flynn – Artist, Belin, Germany
Andreas Franz – Am Mellensee, Germany
Walter Friedmann – Bühl, Germany
Hans-Joachim Fritz – Rangsdorf, Germany
Katja Geggel – Barnim, Germany
Thomas Geggel – Barnim, Germany
Dan Glover – Peace Activist, Westbrook, Maine, USA
Wolf Goehring – Bonn, Germany
Karin Gottlieb – Idar-Oberstein , Germany
Rainer Grathwohl – Neuwied, Germany
Claude Grégoire – Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg
Groß-Zimmern – Germany
Martin Grobe – Landsberg, Germany
Jürgen Günther – Berlin, Germany
Karin Haase – Leipzig, Germany
Andreas Haltinner – Pritzwalk, Germany
Astrid Hohlbein – Ortenberg/Hessen, Germany
Rainer Juhre – Küchenmonteur, Bad Kissingen, Germany
Kerstin Jung – Darmstadt, Germany
Manfred Kamprad – Halle (Saale), Germany
Dagmar Kaufmann – Weilburg, Germany
Ferenc Kleinheincz – Budapest, Hungary.
Helmut Kohlmann – Agrarian, Hagenow, Germany
Georg Klemp – Bad Nauheim, Germany
Kurt Landau – Frankfurt, Germany
Ralf Leopold – Schönaich, Germany
Franziska Lindner – Berlin/Moskau, Russia
Emma Lugo – Peace Activist. Oregon City, Oregon, USA
Peer Maßmann – Pattensen, Germany
Ursula Mathern – Merxheim, Germany
Chris McKinnon – Peace Activist, Augusta, Maine, USA
Polly Milner – Salisbury, United Kingdom
Cathy Mink – Peace & Justice Activist, Belfast, Maine, USA
Christian Momberger – Gießen, Germany
Luíz Fernando Moser – Bonn, Germany
Niki Müller – Friedrichstadt, Germany
Diane Nahas – Peace Activist, Village of Sands Point, New York, USA
Gottfried Neis – Ahlbeck, Germany
Immanuel Ness – New York, USA
Jon Olsen – Jefferson, Maine, USA
Gabriele Parakeninks – Berlin, Germany
Dagmar Pfeiffer – Lübeck, Germany
Gabriele Poritz – Dallgow-Döberitz, Germany
Bodo Quart – Railway Engineer, Berlin, Germany
Roswitha Raab – Weilerbach, Germany
Wilko Reichwein – Hamburg, Germany
Kathleen Rodgers-Kirk – Culpeper, Virginia, USA
Harald Roemer – Alsfeld, Germany
Karin Rother – Berlin, Germany
Phil Runkel – Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA
Ortwin Schäfer – Marburg, Germany]
Natalia Schmidt – Sankt Augustin, Germany
Thomas Schmidt – Peace activist, Königs Wusterhausen, Germany
Heinz Schneider – Erkner, Germany
Christa Senberg – Peace Activist, Zossen, Germany
Leila Shams – Cannock, England
Victor Shapinov – Jalta, Russia
Dieter Spobert – Dresden, Germany
Karen Stansbery – Ellensburg, Washington, USA
David Stewart – Berwick-upon-Tweed, United Kingdom
Alfons Szidzek – Obernburg, Germany
Robert Weber – Michelstadt, Germany
Christine Weigelt – Peace activist, Berlin, Germany
Stephania Weigmann – Berlin, Germany
Udo Wohlgemuth – Diplom-Psychologe, Berlin, Germany
Carsten Wölk – Berlin, Germany
Murat Yilmaz – Berlin, Germany
Erika and Klaus Zeun – Cranzahl, Germany
The OSC statement has been translated into German, Hungarian and Italian. It is posted on the websites of the Coop Antiwar Cafe in Berlin, Germany, and the Hungarian website Balmix:
GERMAN
HUNGARIAN
ITALIAN
The statement also has been posted on the website of Environmentalists Against War in Berkeley, California, USA:
ABOUT THE ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
The Odessa Solidarity Campaign was founded in the spring of 2016 to support the work of the Council of Mothers of May 2, an organization of relatives, friends and supporters of the 46 progressives murdered by a fascist-led mob on May 2, 2014, at the House of Trade Unions in Kulikovo Square in Odessa, Ukraine.
At the council’s request, we sent a three-person U.S. delegation to Odessa to attend and monitor the May 2, 2016, memorial, which various fascist organizations were threatening to attack. We also organized a broad international campaign to support the memorial. (See “Solidarity” section.)
Our initial goals were (1) to support the Council of Mothers’ call for an international investigation into the Odessa Massacre; (2) to act as a support committee for the Council of Mothers, which was coming under increasing pressure from the right-wing federal government as well as from fascist organizations; and (3) to educate the public about the developing political and economic crisis in Ukraine and the underlying reasons for it, especially the role of the U.S. government.
Since then, political repression in Ukraine has made it impossible for the Council of Mothers to continue functioning, and we have lost contact with the organization. However, we continue to call for an international investigation into the massacre, while attempting to educate the public about the political, social and economic realities in today’s Ukraine, especially the role of the U.S. and other Western governments.
The Odessa Solidarity Campaign began as a project of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), a U.S. network of justice and peace organizations. As of April 2019, the OSC is an independent body. UNAC leaders Margaret Kimberley and Joe Lombardo remain on the OSC Advisory Board.
