Steve Myers, Jan 21- article in Green Left Weekly, on behalf of ISWoR
and it's Australian supporters, underlines all that is wrong with
building a campaign of supposed international solidarity with Chechnya
from the imperialist countries.

I find 2 things of note; several weeks ago if remembered correctly, DSP
supporters (on marxism-list) were denying organizational ties between
ISWoR and DSP-Australia.   Plus, Steve Meyers was using the word
imperialist to describe the Putin government on the same list.

Now, there is a careful play with words regarding imperialism.
Steve states that Russia is not imperialist, but then calls Russia "a
capitalist state with expansionist aims".      This is reminiscent of
the old "state capitalism" theory's- play with words.

Marxists that wanted to downplay any perceived difference between China/
Soviet Bloc and The Western Imperialist Countries/ Japan, just by
sleight of hand invented the term "state capitalism".      The 2
opposing camps THEN could be said to be different, yet still basically
the same.

By doing this sleight of hand once again, ISWoR/ DSA hope to be able to
justify their campaign of centering their international political
campaign against the Russian government, while doing virtually nothing
to campaign against NATO.      After all, this campaign launched out of
London,  is to stop unjustified "expansionism" on the part of Russian
"capitalists".      It would not be internationalism to oppose this, now
would it?

Well, YES, it is internationalism to oppose Leftists that want to label
Russia as expansionist.     Capitalist or not, today's Russia is
fighting a battle to not be disintegrated by imperialism based in the
countries where Steve and the DSP want to center their fund raising and
"solidarity" efforts from.

Something warns us, that the " worker's solidarity campaign" will not be
springing forth from Brazil, Mexico, India, etc. (all countries with a
much greater history of worker's solidarity than those workers of
Britain and The US).     Is there really so much worker's solidarity
internally in the USA, Britain, and Australia, that now there is an
oversupply that must be exported to Moscow?      I won't answer that
question, it is just too obvious.

Another interesting deception about Steve's article.     Steve describes
Putin as "Yeltsin's political son".    This is not the case at all.
Yeltsin's policy of total capitulation to the US,  was broken with by
Putin and the Russian military and government forces backing him.
Putin represents a fundamental break with Yelsin, not a continuation of
the same.

This "solidarity with Chechnya"  isn't anything more than solidarity
with the goals of the US/ NATO war machine.     And it should be
rejected internationally by all socalists, of whatever stripe.     The
best solidarity with the peoples of the Caucasus and elsewhere, is to
just build an international movement to oppose the US war machine.
Why don't ISWoR and DSP do that,  instead?

Tony Abdo