Monbiot calls out the pro-Putin left
George Monbiot writes:
Among the worst disseminators of Kremlin propaganda in the UK are people with whom I have, in the past, shared platforms and made alliances. The grim truth is that, for years, a segment of the “anti-imperialist” left has been recycling and amplifying Putin’s falsehoods. This segment is by no means representative: many other leftists have staunchly and consistently denounced Russian imperialism, just as they rightly denounce the imperialism of the US and UK. But it is, I think, an important one.
At the end of last year, the writer and film-maker John Pilger claimed “it was the US that overthrew the elected govt in Ukraine in 2014, allowing Nato to march right up to Russia’s western border”. This is a standard Kremlin talking point, dismissing the revolution as a US coup. Ukraine, of course, is not a Nato member.
So Pilger is effectively a Putin propogandist.
I see the Stop the War coalition’s letter of 18 February, signed by many fine and eminent people, as strangely unbalanced. It stated that it “opposes any war over Ukraine”, but said nothing about Russian aggression. It appeared to blame only Nato and the British government, and urged “the entire anti-war movement to unite on the basis of challenging the British government’s aggressive posturing and direct its campaigning to that end above all”.
The coalition has recently produced a map showing Crimea, following its illegal annexation, as part of Russia. Its deputy president, Andrew Murray, has claimed it’s a myth that Ukraine wants peace. He has also reproduced a classic Kremlin falsehood: that in Ukraine, “Russian has been banned from the public sphere”. Fiona Edwards, a member of the coalition’s steering committee, has insisted that “Nato is the aggressor, not Russia”.
Sadly many leftish peace groups (not all) are really just anti-western groups. They always take the side of the autocracies over the democracries.
There is a strong argument that Nato should have been disbanded at the end of the cold war. But while Putin’s sense of threat seems to have been heightened by Nato expansion and mission creep, Nato expansion has also been driven in part by Putin’s belligerence. Are we really to believe that Estonia and Latvia joined because they wanted to attack Russia? On the contrary, it’s because they fear attack. While Nato’s growth is likely to have contributed to the crisis, it’s ridiculous to suggest that Russia is not the aggressor.
Putin is the best recruiting tool NATO has.
The former Labour MP Chris Williamson goes even further. As Putin’s tanks rolled across the border last Thursday, he characterised the government of Ukraine as a “post-coup, neo-Nazi backed, corrupt regime”, a classic Kremlin smear. The Morning Star, to give one of many similar examples, falsely describes Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s administration as a “fascist government”.
Zelenskiy is Jewish, and had family members killed by the Nazis. His Prime Minister is an economist who is not affiliated to a political party. Most of his Cabinet are technocrats.
True anti-imperialism means opposing not only the west’s imperialism, essential as this is. It’s about opposing all imperialism, whether western, Russian, Chinese or other. It’s about opposing all aggressive wars, regardless of who wages them. It’s about resisting the temptation to believe that your enemy’s enemy must be your friend.
This got me interested. How many of the NZ Peace Movements have even put out a press release condemning Russia?
Peace Movement Aotearoa has said nothing at all on its website.
Peace Action Wellington has said nothing at all on its website.
Auckland Peace Action has said nothing at all on its website.
Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know.