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Russia anti-war

Manifesto of the “Socialists Against War” Coalition

Sunday 20 March 2022, by Socialists Against War

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The Russian state’s power was based on the promises of peace and stability, and eventually led the country to war and economic catastrophe.

Like any other war in history, the current one divides everyone into two parties: pros and cons. Kremlin propaganda is trying to convince us that the whole nation has rallied around power. And miserable ancestors, pro-Western liberals and mercenaries of the external enemy are fighting for peace. It’s a completely untenable lie.

This time the Kremlin elders were in the minority. Most Russians do not want fratricidal war, even among those who still trust the Russian authorities. They close their eyes so as not to see the world drawn by propagandists fell apart. They still hope that what is happening is not a war, especially not aggressive, but a “special operation” designed to “liberate” the Ukrainian people. Terrible footage of brutal bombing and shelling of cities will soon destroy these myths. And then even Putin’s most loyal voters will say: we did not give you consent to carry out this unjust war!

But already now, tens of millions of people across the country are horrified and disgusted by what Putin’s administration is doing. These are people of different beliefs. Most of them are not liberals at all, as propagandists claim. Among them there are a lot of left-wing, socialist or communist people. And of course, these people – the majority of our people – are sincere patriots of our Motherland.

We are told falsely that the opponents of this war are hypocrites. That they are not against war, but only in support of the West. It’s a lie. We have never been supporters of the United States and its imperialist policy. When Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk and Lugansk, we were not silent. Let’s not remain silent even now that Kharkiv, Kiev and Odessa are bombed on the orders of Putin and his camarilla.

There are many reasons to fight against this war. For us, supporters of social justice, equality and freedom, several of them are especially important.

• It’s an unfair, war of conquest. There was no and there is no such threat to the Russian state for which it was necessary to send our soldiers to kill and die. Today they don’t “release anyone.” They don’t help any people’s movement. It’s just that the regular army is smashing peaceful Ukrainian cities by order of a handful of billionaires who dream of maintaining their power over Russia forever.

• This war leads to innumerable disasters for our peoples. Both Ukrainians and Russians pay dearly for it with their blood. But even far away in the rear, poverty, inflation, unemployment will affect everyone. The bills will be paid not by oligarchs and officials, but by poor teachers, workers, pensioners and the unemployed. Many of us will have nothing to feed the children.

• This war will reduce Ukraine to ruins and Russia into one big prison. Opposition media are already closed. People are thrown behind bars for leaflets, harmless pickets, even for posts on social networks. Soon the Russians will have only one choice: between prison and the military registration and enlistment office. The war brings with it a dictatorship that living generations have not yet seen.

• This war significantly increases all risks and threats to our country. Even those Ukrainians who sympathized with Russia a week ago now enroll in the militia to fight our troops. With his aggression, Putin nullified all the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists, all the intrigues of American and NATO hawks. Putin gave them such arguments that new missiles and military bases would almost certainly appear along the perimeter of our borders.

• Finally, the struggle for peace is a patriotic duty of every Russian. Not only because we are the keepers of the memory of the most terrible war in history. But also because this war threatens the integrity and very existence of Russia.

Putin is trying to tightly link his own destiny with the fate of our country. If he succeeds, his inevitable defeat will be the defeat of the whole nation. And then the fate of post-war Germany can really wait for us: occupation, territorial partition, cult of collective guilt.

There is only one way to prevent these disasters. The war must be stopped by ourselves – men and women of Russia. This country belongs to us, not a handful of mad old people with palaces and yachts. It’s time to get it back. Our enemies are not in Kiev and Odessa, but in Moscow. It’s time to kick them out of there. War is not Russia. War is Putin and his regime. Therefore, we, the Russian Socialists and Communists, are against this criminal war. We want to stop her to save Russia.

No intervention!

No dictatorship!

No poverty!

Source New Politics, 18 March 2022

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