Response by Freedom Socialist Party National Secretary Doug Barnes to a query raised by a U.S. leftist via socialism.com.
Dear Reader,
I’m writing in response to your questions regarding FSP’s position on the war against Ukraine.
You seem to think there is a different main issue for leftists in the U.S. than there is for the international Left. But we think for revolutionaries anywhere the main question is the same: do we support Ukrainian self-determination and its right to resist attack by an aggressor with imperialist aims? If the answer is yes, then this is an obligation of international solidarity, and the answer to other questions flows from that.
This is why FSP believes it’s entirely possible and right to support Ukraine getting arms from wherever it can, including NATO and the U.S, while at the same time calling for the disbanding of NATO and opposing U.S. militarism and imperialism. We don’t support politicians, with DSA or otherwise, who vote for the U.S. military budget, and we call for dismantling the Pentagon and all its beachheads across the globe. Ideally, the international Left would be in a stronger and more united position and could offer arms and brigades to help in the fight, but that’s not the situation right now.
It is helpful to consider what we would do as socialists if we were there in Ukraine. We would join the fight against Russian invasion as Ukrainian leftists are doing today. They don’t have the luxury to endlessly debate about the contradiction between condemning NATO and using its weapons as Putin’s bombs rain down on them. The contradiction does exist — one of many which have to be looked at concretely and not just abstractly, but the starting principle for socialists is revolutionary internationalism.
In struggle,
Doug Barnes
