By JOHN LESLIE

The Peace Conference to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16 will host at least 90 countries to hear proposals for peace in Ukraine. A peace plan put forward by the Zelensky government includes complete Russian withdrawal and the guarantee of Ukrainian territorial integrity.

Russia, China, Turkey, South Africa, and Brazil are not attending. China has stated that a peace conference without both Ukraine and Russia is untenable. Zelensky has rejected a joint Chinese and Brazilian offer to initiate a conference with both parties involved. He stated, “Ukraine is the victim of the war. It is us who have to initiate everything. … Nobody else is fully aware of what Russia has brought with this war to our state … No one else has the right to dictate how this war should end.”

There has been pressure for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia by some in the West. David L. Carden, a former U.S. ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, suggested that “Ukraine and its supporters need to decide whether they should consider opening the door to the possibility of a trade of some land for lasting peace.” Additionally, the late former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former President Donald Trump, and high-ranking NATO official Stian Jenssen all suggested that Ukraine trade land for peace. Jenssen stated that part of this concession could include NATO membership. Others on the GOP right, including Ohio Senator Vance, have made similar statements regarding the exchange of territory for peace.

President Biden will not attend the Peace Conference, opting instead to attend a campaign fundraiser. Even though Biden has pledged publicly to support Ukraine to the end, his administration has attempted to convince Zelensky’s government of the need to prepare for negotiations. According to the Washington Post, as early as the fall of 2022, the U.S. was privately urging Ukraine to “signal an openness to negotiate with Russia and drop their public refusal to engage in peace talks unless President Vladimir Putin is removed from power.” The Washington Post reported that “U.S. officials publicly vow to support Kyiv with massive sums of aid ‘for as long as it takes’ while hoping for a resolution to the conflict that over the past eight months has taken a punishing toll on the world economy and triggered fears of nuclear war.”

In February 2023, Newsweek cited “a report that CIA Director, William Burns, offered Russian President Vladimir Putin a fifth of Ukraine’s territory to end the ongoing war as part of a peace plan drawn up on behalf of President Joe Biden.” Of course, the CIA publicly denied that there was a secret peace initiative.

Nevertheless, proposals for Ukraine to pursue negotiations with Russia continue to be raised in the imperialist West. Any peace deal mediated by Western imperialism is unlikely to guarantee real national sovereignty to Ukraine. Ukraine is caught between imperialisms. Russian imperialism wants to dismantle Ukraine and assimilate large parts of the country into the territory of Russia. Western powers are providing Ukraine with just enough economic and military aid to damage Russia’s military capabilities but fall short of the levels of aid that would guarantee victory for Ukraine. While revolutionaries support Ukraine’s right to seek aid wherever they can, we warn the workers and farmers of Ukraine that these arms come with a thousand strings attached that carry with them the danger of imperial domination and exploitation.

For a Europe without militarism and war

An alternative peace plan, “Ukraine: A people’s peace, not an imperial peace,” has been put forward by a number of European left forces ranging from socialists to anarchists. The statement, which was initiated by emanzipation, a German-language “ecosocialist” journal; Bewegung für den Sozialismus / Mouvement pour le Socialisme and solidaritéS in Switzerland; Sotsialnyi Rukh (Social Movement) in Ukraine, and Posle Media Collective in Russia has been endorsed by the U.S.-based Ukraine Solidarity Network.

The left alternative being put forward includes strong language in support of Ukraine’s right to self-determination and the right to self-defense against Russian imperialist invasion. The European left forces are calling for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops, reparations for Ukraine, and support and asylum for Russians seeking to avoid military service. They are also demanding the cancellation of Ukraine’s foreign debt as “a crucial condition for the sovereign reconstruction of the country. The rich states of Europe and North America must set up comprehensive and broad-based support programs for the Ukrainian people and the reconstruction of the country. This reconstruction must take place under the democratic control of the population, trade unions, environmental initiatives, feminist organizations and organized neighbourhoods in the cities and villages.”

This statement is a step forward and was put together through long-overdue dialogue among left and anti-capitalist forces in Europe. However, while Workers’ Voice supports the Ukraine Solidarity Network in endorsing the document, we do so critically, noting that it contains several deficiencies.

One problem of the statement is its use of unclear language that could lead to a reinforcement of illusions that the European Union is a democratic institution that serves to counter Russian authoritarianism. The document states: “Within this [“ecosocialist”] framework, we support the will of the Ukrainian people to join the EU, even though we reject the EU’s neoliberal foundations that impoverish millions of people and promote unequal development in Europe. We take the perspective of an accession of several countries in Eastern Europe and South-East Europe as an opportunity to reflect together on how such a radical socio-ecological change can be initiated throughout Europe, including a common energy strategy, ecological industrial conversion, pay-as-you-go unfunded pension systems, social labour regulation, solidarity-based migration policy, interregional transfer payments, and military security along with the conversion of the armaments industry.”

As of June 2024, nine countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine) have begun the formal accession process to join the EU.

In our view, the document should be more forthright in portraying the EU as a bloc designed to protect the interests of European imperialism. Part of the criteria that new member countries must meet is “a functioning market economy and the ability to cope with the competitive pressure of the EU market.” A Europe organized in the interests of working-class people can only be built on the ashes of the EU, not within its confines.

The statement criticizes imperialist sanctions as inadequate. Revolutionary socialists have been very clear about our opposition to imperialist sanctions—even ineffective ones. As Workers’ Voice explained in an earlier article, “The U.S. and EU sanctions on Russia accentuate the tendency towards global inter-imperialist conflict and are not designed to assist Ukraine. Thus far, NATO sanctions on Russia have had little effect on Russia’s war against Ukraine; the Russian state has offset losses from sanctions with its significantly increased oil revenues. The sanctions do, however, intensify the economic and political competition between rival imperialist powers, in particular for control of energy production and distribution, and geopolitical positioning in preparation for future conflicts and world war. Sanctions policy by the U.S. and NATO is a form of warfare that stands opposed to the struggle for sovereignty, independence, and lasting peace.”

We have also been clear about arms. We don’t “call for” imperialist arms but support the Ukrainians’ right to seek arms where they can while warning about the many strings attached. After all, the imperialist powers will always act in their own interests. Unfortunately, the “Ukraine: A peoples’ peace, not an imperial peace” document is weak in acknowledging this principle. It states, “We are in favour of massive humanitarian, economic and military support for Ukraine from the rich states in Europe. The Ukrainian population urgently needs protection from Russian bombs and rockets.”

However, more promisingly, the statement goes on to say, “An effective military support of Ukraine does not require a new wave of armaments. We oppose NATO’s rearmament programmes and weapon exports to third countries. Instead, the countries of Europe and North America must provide the weapons from their existing, huge arsenals that will help Ukraine to defend itself effectively. In this sense, we demand that the arms industry should not serve the profit interests of capital—to the contrary, we want to work towards the social appropriation of the arms industry. This industry should serve the immediate interests of Ukraine. At the same time, for social and urgent ecological reasons, we underline the imperative of democratically converting the arms industry into socially useful production on a global scale.”

Build a movement for working-class power in Europe!  

Ukraine will emerge from this costly war deep in debt to Western banking interests. It will likely be dominated by European and U.S. imperialism and be forced to enact more neoliberal counter-reforms as the price for admission into the Western club. With the war in Ukraine seemingly at a stalemate, the pressure from Western imperialist powers for Ukraine to make a deal increases. Of course, the Western imperialists may force Ukraine to cede land for peace because they can then pose as “peacemakers” and save themselves from hemorrhaging military resources as their inter-imperial conflict with China continues to sharpen.

Support for Ukraine by Western powers is increasingly unpopular and costly and takes place in the context of an alarming European rearmament. On an international scale, the new arms race makes the world a more dangerous place, with world military expenditures reaching an all-time high of $2443 billion in 2023.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli war on the Palestinian people are taking place in a period of heightened inter-imperialist rivalry. After Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is weakened but is still the most powerful imperialist country militarily. Increased competition for natural resources, markets, and geo-political position from rising new imperialisms—Russia and China—further weaken U.S. standing in the semi-colonies. In Africa and Latin America, China and Russia pose as more benign powers and use the memory of socialist revolutions in those countries to project an “anti-imperial” image.

Meanwhile, far-right parties have made gains in Europe, including in the EU election. Gains of the fascist Rassemblement National or National Rally (formerly the National Front) in France and other far-right populist parties—rooted in historically fascist parties in Italy, Germany, Hungary, and Poland, for example—pose a real danger to the interests of the working class. These parties have exploited anti-immigrant sentiment and Islamophobia to their political benefit.

Reformist and neo-reformist parties gave the right the breathing room it needs to grow by refusing to wage a real fight for worker’s power and a socialist transition. Instead, they opted to manage capitalism and made concessions to neoliberalism.

Ukraine’s freedom and its right to self-determination depend on the socialist reconstruction of Europe—and not on a strengthened “democratic” imperialist bloc. Building a political alternative for the oppressed and exploited in Europe will require rebuilding a class-struggle movement based on solidarity, internationalism, and class independence. The “Ukraine: A people’s peace, not an imperial peace” statement is a good first step toward creating the effective protest movement that Europe needs.

For peace without annexations!

Support the right of Ukraine to self-determination and self-defense!

Support Russian antiwar protesters!

Disband NATO and all imperial military alliances!

The EU is the Europe of capital!

For a Europe of the working class and peoples!

For a Socialist United States of Europe!

Top photo: Ukrainian women train for battle. (STR/NurPhoto via Getty Images)