Whither the Left? Ukraine and Palestine Activism
The world has seen a resurgence of the antiwar movement due to the increasing violence in Gaza and related conflicts. Many people who were once divided on issues such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine now find themselves in agreement on the excessive use of force by Israel. They're against it. Universally. However, there still remain sharp differences among peace activists on just how to respond to authoritarian regimes in countries like Russia, Syria, Iran, and China. Most large demonstrations in the United States and Europe are organized by factions that have opposed armed resistance against Putin's invasion of Ukraine. These factions typically blame NATO as the proximate cause of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and are often referred to as "tankies" or "campists". They are rightfully seen as beholden to pro-authoritarian dictators — as long as the dictators mouth the appropriate rhetoric against Western imperialism, the US, and NATO.This split of the left dates back to the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and resurfaced with disagreement over conflicts such as the Khmer Rouge violence and then NATO intervention in the Balkans war. The schism became more pronounced when Russia supported Bashar Assad's chemical attacks on Syrian dissidents, leading to a propaganda campaign against the White Helmets (Syrian Civil Defense). (It should be noted that the attack, while perhaps intended to disrupt rebel militants, resulted in countless mortality and morbidity among otherwise uninvolved men, women and children—civilians.) There was an orchestrated circus to upstage the investigation by duly constituted United Nations investigators. Replication of propaganda supporting the revisionist contention that it was not the regime but rather the rebels that attacked themselves was amplified through donations and "prizes" for so-called journalists who wrote in line with the Kremlin's agenda.Social media was awash with what I call "Kremlinsplaining." The situation became a true theater of the absurd when pictures of of movie sets about conflict zones were posted online as supposed proof that legitimate human rights photographic evidence was putatively "staged.In recent years, the Western antiwar movement has become increasingly influenced by such Russian propaganda, leading to a lack of support for democratic movements like the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine. Even after Israel's brutal actions in Gaza, there has been no let up in the entente between the warring factions of the antiwar left.There are still deep divisions when it comes to supporting authoritarian regimes and movements, there is a lot of confusion. For instance, there is no consistent analysis of the Yemen-based Islamist political and military organization Ansar Allah, commonly referred to as the Houthi movement. Some pro-Palestinian protesters feel encouraged by Ansar's attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, which have in some cases been executed with surprisingly minimal casualties while disrupting Israeli commercial activity.At some protests, the chant can be observed on video of "Yemen, Yemen make us proud, turn another ship around."Much of the left is taking a "wait-and-see" attitude on the ultimate moral authority of Ansar Allah, while pointing out that they have a good deal of support worldwide and are likely to be quite resilient to attack. Jacobin, a prominent left-wing journal, has published an article that dcorrectly observes that AA "is authoritarian and retrograde, manifesting no respect for fundamental human rights of any kind. Any expression of dissent is liable to lead to arrest and ill-treatment."Yet another of its articles points out that regardless of this "the Houthis are establishing legitimacy through their active resistance on behalf of the Palestinian people…" This sentiment is echoed in Common Dreams, noting that " The people in these regions have been subjected to years of acute and structural violence by the Houthis."It doesn't take a crystal ball to predict that, between the ruthlessness of Netanyahu and the Saudis, whom Ansar Allah opposes, and the predilection of tankies to downplay human rights abuses, the Houthis will be given a pass by the campists— just like Putin, Xi and Assad. This is reprehensible, given the ignominious record of Ansar Allah— including the death sentence placed on human rights defender Fatima Saleh Al-Arwaliand the arrest of Judge Abdulwahab Qatran for criticizing the Red Sea actions.The left will likely follow the pattern of splitting into warring camps on what degree of qualified support, if any, the Houthis deserve. Alternatively, some kind of relative consensus could emerge. But the split on the proximate cause of the Ukraine war remains like an ulcer on the left-wing body politic which may get only worse as Western backers of Ukraine grow weary and right-wing forces gain electoral power. Indeed, agitation for a cutoff of aid to Ukraine is a key talking point in the programme of many fascist and fascist-adjacent political formations.This book follows Stand with Ukraine: Debunking the Propaganda with a focus on fascism as it relates to the Russo-Ukrainian war. It hopes to go beyond the necessary but divisive debunking of propaganda and seek some common ground (on the left) to allow for the possibility of actually defeating the forces of war and authoritarianism despite the fragmentation of progressive forces. This may be possible through the perspective of the field of "far-right studies." Despite disagreement on other topics, the left and center-left should at least be able to agree on the simple axiom "fascism is bad." Proceeding from there, we encounter a jungle of overgrown hypotheses and conjectures with often vitriolic disagreement on the nature of the Azov Battalion, Duginism, Russian neo-fascism, and the nature of the Maidan Revolution of Dignity. This book can only demarcate the beginning of a dialogue on a set of issues that promise to be an enduring source of debate.***One might expect that the massive renewal of the antiwar movement throughout the world due to the mounting carnage in and around Gaza would lead to a detente in the dispute on the left between those who blame "NATO NATO NATO" and those who hold Vladimir Putin to be the primary instigator of the February 2022 invasion. Such hopes were dashed in the days immediately after the October 7, 2023 attacks. Signage and speeches throughout Europe and the Anglophone world were in some cases interpreted as supportive of the horrible violent behavior of the Hamas operatives. Left-wing voices took various positions on how much emphasis to place on the context – 75 years of settler-colonialist expansionism and oppression of the Palestinian people. There was considerable, if not extreme, variance on how to characterize Hamas; some (including myself) condemned it, or its conduct on October 7th, outright as nothing short of criminal, notwithstanding political or revolutionary objectives.Others, such as Eugene Puryear of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, praised it as "the Resistance."Still others took something of a middle ground, such as Norman Finkelstein, who compared it to the Nat Turner slave rebellion: a hideous spectacle of gore which, in his view, was predictable given the brutal nature of enslavement or de facto incarceration in what is widely regarded as the world's largest open-air concentration camp.Nevertheless, people who were in total disagreement about how to react to the Russian invasion of Ukraine now find themselves in agreement on many if not most issues raised by Israel's grossly overwrought response. Everyone with a shred of human decency and common sense wants an immediate, unconditional, and permanent end to the bombing and ground war in Gaza and the West Bank. Everyone wants a cutoff of military assistance to Israel. Everyone wants a halt to West Bank settler aggression, prosecution of criminal activities and a new era of human relations in the region.Despite agreement on the urgent need to stop the ethnic cleansing and the looming prospect of an Israeli genocide against the indigenous Palestinian people, there is little agreement on strategy and tactics. Chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Multi-Cultural activity centers are being shut down as campus administrations cave to right-wing Republicans and well-heeled donors. Yet some activists who should know better escalate the perceived threat of left-wing anti-Semitism while ignoring the larger threat of government surveillance and censorship—not to mention explicitly anti-Semitic far-right forces.Sharp differences continue over the question of an appropriate response of the progressive peace movement to the dictatorships in Russia, Syria, Iran, China, and other places. Hard feelings due to those differences further complicate any prospect of a united or popular front against the forces of fascism and war.Most of the large pro-Palestine demonstrations in the United States are organized by— if not populated with large contingents from —the aforesaid tankie factions that have opposed arming Ukraine against Putin's invasion. There appears to be little prospect of widespread reconciliation between the anti-Putin and the tankie sectors of the Western left. This division helps the right, much as has earlier divergence between anarchist, Trotskyist, Stalinist, generic socialist, and social-democratic tendencies.
