ON THE eve of his visit to Ukraine, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband declared that the purpose of talks with ‘international partners’ was to create ‘the widest possible coalition against Russian aggression in Georgia’.
This fighting talk from Labour premier Gordon Brown’s Foreign Secretary was part of a chorus of attacks – emanating from Washington, Berlin and Paris – on the Russian government’s decision to recognise the independence of the nations of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
United States President George Bush said that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s decree recognising the two republics was ‘inconsistent with numerous United Nations Security Council resolutions’ and ‘the ceasefire agreement’. He added: ‘Russia’s action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations.’ The US made clear that it would block any moves at the UN to gain recognition for Abkhazia and Ossetia.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher escalated the propaganda war, to whip up allies amongst Russia neighbours, with claims that Moscow’s next objectives might be the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine and Moldova.
The message that Miliband took to Kiev was that Russia’s recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states was ‘unjustifiable and unacceptable’. ‘We fully support Georgia’s independence and territorial integrity, which cannot be changed by decree from Moscow,’ he said.
Miliband talked to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, one of the leaders of the imperialist-inspired ‘Orange’ counter-revolution in 2004. US Vice President Dick Cheney is expected in Tblisi and Kiev next week.
Like President Mikheil Saakashvili, the leader of the ‘Rose’ counter-revolution in Georgia, Yushchenko got where he is today with the backing of American dollars and election fixers. The US pay-back is that both are advocates of joining the European Union and the imperialist NATO military alliance. Yet in Ukraine the vast majority of the people are opposed to NATO.
What the diplomatic tours by the likes of Cheney and Miliband and their anti-Russian propaganda reveal, is that the US-EU imperialists are proceeding with their NATO military strategy of surrounding the Russian Federation in preparation for a war to destroy the degenerated workers’ state and grab natural resources, particularly oil and gas.
The Georgian attack on the Ossetians on August 7-8, which was prepared months in advance in collaboration with the US, was a provocation to test the resolve of the working class of the territories of the Soviet Union and, in particular, that of the Russian Stalinist leadership of Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The imperialists have their counter-revolutionary strategy and it is clear that this was a battle in an ongoing war.
The international working class must pursue its strategy to defend past gains and win new victories, a strategy pursued by the revolutionary party of Lenin and Leon Trotsky in the October Revolution, and the Fourth International today.
Workers in the US and the EU states, including Britain, must take whatever action is necessary to stop NATO war preparations and defend the Russian Federation. There must be a fight to overthrow capitalism and establish workers’ power in these states, which will lead to the disbanding of NATO.
The working class is international. It possesses no property and no country and must oppose nationalism.
However, the peoples of Abkhazia and Ossetia and the Georgians have the democratic right to self determination, to have their own independent states. No nation has the right to rule over another. Each nation has the right to decide on independence – or not.
The International Committee of the Fourth International and its Soviet section fights today for soviet republics in these territories, with the working class exercising political power to defend social property, expropriate oligarchs, and control and plan the economy.
This is part of the struggle for the revolutionary reconstitution of the USSR and is an integral component of the struggle to achieve the victory of the World Socialist Revolution.