For the Liberation of Ukraine, Not the Remilitarization of Europe
Breaking with False Neutrality in the Face of Imperialist Aggression
Revolutionary socialists reject the false choice between pacifist abstention and imperialist militarism that has paralyzed sections of the international left since Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Following the classical Marxist approach outlined in "Why Marxists Don't Oppose All Wars," we understand that not all conflicts are equivalent, and that our response must be guided by concrete class analysis rather than abstract moral positions.
The Russian invasion represents a clear case of imperialist aggression against an oppressed nation, rooted in what Trotsky identified in 1939 as centuries of "colonial subjugation" and the "destruction of national hopes" through murderous purges. Putin's strategic objective—explicitly stated—is the destruction of Ukrainian national sovereignty and the reassembly of the Russian empire. This colonial project extends beyond Ukraine to threaten all of Russia's former imperial territories, from the Baltic states to Moldova to Kazakhstan.
The Ecosocialist Dimension: This war cannot be separated from the broader ecological crisis. Putin's regime represents the convergence of fossil fuel extractivism, authoritarian capitalism, and imperial expansion. Russia's war machine runs on oil and gas exports that are driving climate catastrophe, while the war itself accelerates ecological destruction through bombardment of nuclear facilities, destruction of agricultural systems, and massive carbon emissions from military operations. Supporting Ukraine's liberation means supporting the transition away from fossil fuel dependence that enables Russian imperialism.
The Materialist Compass: Workers' Interests, Not State Interests
The tasks for socialists must be guided by a clear materialist compass: the interests of workers and oppressed peoples internationally. This means supporting Ukraine's liberation struggle while simultaneously opposing the militarist and class collaborationist responses of Western capitalist states.
As illustrated by an exchange of comments between Alan Thornett and Duncan Chapel, this is not about providing "blank endorsement of increased military budgets" or strengthening the military-industrial complex. Rather, it requires what Søren Søndergaard of Denmark's Red-Green Alliance correctly identifies as specific, controlled, and socially just forms of self-defence against the Kremlin.
Transitional Demands for Anti-Imperialist Defense: Following the Fourth International's method of transitional demands that "unite in struggle the broadest possible popular masses, around concrete demands that are in objective contradiction with the rules of the capitalist system," we advance:
Sliding scale of military production: Defense production must expand and contract based on actual security needs, not private profit, with mandatory conversion to socially useful production as threats diminish
Workers' control of defense facilities: All defense-related production must be under democratic control of workers and communities, with full transparency of accounts and production goals
Expropriation of war profiteers: Immediate nationalization without compensation of all defense contractors that have exploited the crisis for excessive profits
International workers' sanctions: Cross-border solidarity between workers to refuse production and transport of goods supporting Russian war efforts
Synchronized global nuclear disarmament: Campaign for the "total elimination and ban on manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction" to prevent nuclear world war, recognizing that nuclear weapons have "no role to play in the region" of Ukraine
Immediate and full cancellation of Ukrainian debt: Oppose providing aid "primarily as loans" that have "drastically increased Ukraine's external debt," demanding unconditional support instead of debt-creating assistance
The question posed by Søndergaard cuts to the heart of the matter: why are 500 million Europeans "begging 350 million Americans to stop 150 million Russians who are unable to win a war against 40 million Ukrainians?" The answer lies not in European weakness, but in the "lack of political will to support Ukraine" driven by the arms industry's preference for selling "to Israel, Saudi Arabia and other authoritarian regimes" rather than meeting Ukraine's defense needs.
A Socialist Alternative to NATO Militarism
In Western Europe, supporting Ukraine's liberation requires a fundamental break with NATO's militarist logic. We support Ukraine's requests for military and financial aid—not because we endorse the geopolitical strategies of Western imperialism, but because we recognize the Ukrainian people's right to self-determination and resistance against colonial subjugation.
However, this support must be conditional and transformative. Following the Fourth International's approach, we demand:
Democratic Control of Arms Production: Rather than enriching private defense contractors, Søndergaard calls for "taking control of the financial and industrial resources used to produce weapons, developing state arms production and confiscating the above-normal profits of the private arms industry." Crucially, this workers' control must be structured to prevent the militarization of society itself. Production facilities should be designed for rapid conversion to civilian use post-conflict, with workers retaining democratic oversight over what is produced, for whom, and under what conditions. Trade unions must have veto power over contracts that extend beyond legitimate defensive needs.
Redirecting Military Spending: European military spending must pivot away from NATO's offensive capabilities, nuclear weapons, interventions in other continents, and tolerance for price-gouging defense contractors. The focus should shift to defensive capabilities for Ukraine and Russia's other threatened neighbors, alongside robust civil defense systems that prioritize community resilience, emergency services, and disaster preparedness—infrastructure that serves working-class communities in peacetime as well as crisis.
Ending Arms Exports to Repressive Regimes: Europe's defense industry must immediately cease all exports to authoritarian governments while refocusing production on supporting Ukraine's defense and the protection of other vulnerable nations in Russia's sphere of influence.
Funding Through Expropriation, Not Austerity: Support for Ukraine cannot be tied to "implementing and deepening neoliberal measures" or cuts to social spending. We demand that defense needs be funded through immediate expropriation of the estimated €190 billion in frozen Russian assets held in Belgium and other European countries, progressive wealth taxes on the super-rich who have profited from the crisis, and windfall taxes on energy companies and defense contractors. The costs of supporting Ukraine and building civil defense must not fall on workers through austerity measures or reduced public services.
Ecosocialist Defense Infrastructure: All civil defense infrastructure must serve dual ecological and social purposes—renewable energy systems that provide resilience during attacks, urban agriculture that supports both food security and ecological restoration, public transportation networks that reduce emissions while enabling emergency evacuation, and water management systems that address both climate adaptation and wartime needs. Defense spending must accelerate, not impede, the ecological transition.
Preventing the Militarization of Civil Defense
The distinction between legitimate defense and militarization of society is crucial for revolutionary socialists. Workers' control of military production and civil defense must include explicit safeguards against militarist culture and the permanent war economy.
Community-Controlled Civil Defense: Civil defense must be organized through popular assemblies and community councils rather than top-down military hierarchies. Training should focus on disaster response, emergency medical care, evacuation procedures, and community resilience rather than combat operations. Equipment and infrastructure should serve dual civilian purposes—emergency shelters that function as community centers, communication networks that support local organizing, medical supplies that strengthen public health capacity.
Accessibility and Inclusion: All civil defense planning must center the needs of disabled people, who face disproportionate risks during conflicts and emergencies. As the Fourth International recognizes, disabled people are "most likely to have limited access to knowledge, resources, and services to effectively respond to environmental change" and "more vulnerable to extreme climate events." Defense infrastructure must be fully accessible, evacuation plans must include support for people with mobility, sensory, and cognitive disabilities, and disabled people must have leadership roles in defense planning.
Temporal Limits and Conversion Planning: All military production under workers' control must include mandatory conversion plans for returning to civilian production. Worker-controlled facilities should be designed for flexible production, with clear timelines for transitioning back to socially useful goods once defensive needs are met. This prevents the development of vested interests in permanent military production.
Democratic Oversight Against Militarism: Trade unions and community organizations must maintain constant vigilance against the creep of militarist values and structures. This includes regular assemblies to evaluate defense needs, civilian oversight of all military-related activities, and the right to halt any production or training that exceeds legitimate defensive purposes.
Confronting Russia's Hybrid War Methods
The threat from Putin's regime extends far beyond Ukraine's borders. Russia's hybrid warfare methods—combining military aggression, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, and political interference—pose a material threat particularly to the Baltic states and Moldova. Former imperial territories have legitimate security concerns that cannot be dismissed as NATO paranoia.
For socialists in these countries, the challenge is developing defense strategies that avoid contributing to generalized imperialist rearmament. This means, as Søndergaard says, prioritizing "local, democratic, and socially controlled means of defence" while ensuring that businesses rather than workers bear the financial burden.
Fighting Austerity Through Progressive Funding
The greatest threat to socialist organizing around Ukraine may come not from direct militarization, but from the use of increased military spending to justify attacks on social programs and workers' living standards. European governments are already using the crisis to advance austerity measures while enriching defense contractors and maintaining tax breaks for the wealthy.
Concrete Funding Alternatives: We must advance specific, immediate demands that demonstrate how Ukraine solidarity and civil defense can be funded without burdening the working class:
Immediate expropriation of all frozen Russian assets (€190 billion in Belgium alone) to fund both Ukrainian reconstruction and European civil defense infrastructure
Progressive wealth taxes starting at 2% on assets over €1 million, escalating to 10% on billionaire fortunes, specifically earmarked for defense and international solidarity
Windfall taxes on war profiteers: 90% tax on excess profits of energy companies, defense contractors, and financial institutions that have benefited from the crisis
Corporate tax on Russian business connections: Retroactive taxes on European companies that facilitated Russian money laundering or sanctions evasion
Conversion of corporate welfare: Redirect the billions in subsidies currently given to corporations toward civil defense and Ukraine support
Linking Defense to Social Justice: Every demand for Ukraine support must be explicitly linked to expanding, not contracting, social programs. Civil defense infrastructure should include universal healthcare expansion, improved public transportation for emergency evacuation, strengthened public housing for refugees and displaced persons, and enhanced education systems capable of absorbing refugee children.
Exposing the False Scarcity: We must relentlessly expose the hypocrisy of governments that claim there's no money for healthcare, education, or housing while finding unlimited funds for nuclear weapons and corporate subsidies. The resources exist—the capitalist class is simply hoarding them while workers are told to sacrifice for "national security."
Building International Working-Class Solidarity
Our opposition to Russian imperialism must be inseparable from solidarity with Russian anti-war activists, trade unionists, and democratic movements facing severe repression. Activists in the Russian Socialist Movement and other comrades have been forced into exile, their organizations banned, their members imprisoned. This reminds us that the enemy is not the Russian people, but Putin's authoritarian capitalist regime and its billionaire oligarchy.
Concrete Solidarity with Russian and Ukrainian Socialists: European trade unions and socialist organizations must provide material support for Russian and Ukrainian activists both within their countries and in exile. This includes: sanctuary for political refugees fleeing repression; financial support for underground networks maintaining anti-war organizing; translation and distribution of socialist literature in Russian and Ukrainian; platform-sharing at conferences and demonstrations; and legal aid for imprisoned comrades. We must build permanent structures—not just emergency responses—that can sustain long-term solidarity work.
Supporting Underground Networks: Following the model of international solidarity during the Spanish Civil War and anti-fascist resistance movements, we must develop secure channels for supporting clandestine socialist and anarchist organizing within Russia and occupied territories. This includes digital security training, encrypted communications, and coordination between exile communities and internal resistance networks.
Feminist Internationalism: Women are at the forefront of both resistance to Russian imperialism and opposition to capitalist militarism. In Ukraine, women workers and feminists are organizing both against Russian occupation and against their government's neoliberal policies. In Russia, women like those in the "Feminist Anti-War Resistance" face severe repression for opposing the war. In Europe, women refugees face specific forms of exploitation and violence. Our solidarity must center feminist organizing and women's autonomous organizing, while connecting anti-war struggle to fights for reproductive rights, against gender-based violence, and for economic equality.
Similarly, we must maintain solidarity with Ukrainian workers, trade unionists, and social movements who wage struggle on two fronts: against Russian invasion and against their own neoliberal government. As the Fourth International resolution notes, Ukrainian people's movements, feminists and trade unions are "an integral part of the resistance" while also fighting the Zelensky government's right-wing policies. Our solidarity must support their independent organizing, not subordinate them to either Russian imperialism or Western geopolitical interests.
Rejecting Campist Logic
We firmly reject the "campist" logic that treats Russia as part of an "anti-imperialist" bloc merely because it opposes the United States. This dangerous reasoning leads to apologizing for authoritarian regimes from Syria to Nicaragua, subordinating the struggles of oppressed peoples to the geopolitical calculations of competing powers. The "enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality has "hobbled the labour movement politically" by leading to "unconditional support for capitalist states" and "authoritarian or totalitarian governments."
As Ernest Mandel emphasized throughout his work, socialist internationalism means supporting the material interests of workers and oppressed peoples everywhere, not aligning with lesser imperial powers against greater ones. The fight for an independent socialist Ukraine "resides only with the workers of Ukraine and Russia and never with their capitalist oppressors, whether in Ukraine, Russia or NATO."
Building Decolonial Peace: Any lasting resolution to this conflict must be based on "decolonial peace" that respects the self-determination of all peoples and minority rights. This cannot be imposed through "robber's deals" by imperialist powers, but must be subject to "democratic control of the people." We demand the complete withdrawal of Russian troops and reject any peace agreement that legitimizes territorial annexations or leaves Ukraine vulnerable to future imperialist encroachment. True peace is only possible when it respects the right of peoples to self-determination and the aspirations for equality and dignity of all oppressed communities.
The Road Forward: Permanent Revolution in the Age of Ecological Crisis
The current crisis represents both danger and opportunity. Putin's invasion has strengthened far-right forces globally while providing pretexts for increased military spending and authoritarian measures. But it has also exposed the weakness of both Russian imperialism and NATO's dependency on American leadership.
Connecting Ukraine to Global Revolution: The Ukrainian struggle cannot be isolated from the broader revolutionary tasks of our epoch. As the Fourth International's Ecosocialist Manifesto emphasizes, we face "the objective necessity of an ecosocialist, antiracist, antimilitarist, anticolonialist and feminist revolution." The fight against Russian imperialism must be linked to the fight against all forms of imperialism, environmental destruction, and capitalist exploitation.
Building Hegemony Through Struggle: European socialists must seize this moment to advance an alternative vision of security based on popular participation, democratic control, and international solidarity. This means building mass movements that can simultaneously defend Ukraine's right to exist while challenging the militarist responses of their own governments. Each concrete victory—whether in stopping arms sales to repressive regimes, winning democratic control over defense production, or securing progressive funding for Ukraine solidarity—strengthens working-class organization and consciousness.
From Defense to Revolution: The concrete struggles around Ukraine solidarity create opportunities to "enhance, thanks to the struggle, the social and political consciousness of the exploited and the oppressed, their anti-capitalist understanding, and, hopefully, an ecosocialist revolutionary perspective." Every campaign for democratic control of military production, every fight against austerity in the name of defense spending, every act of solidarity with Russian and Ukrainian socialists, builds the organizational capacity and revolutionary consciousness needed for broader social transformation.
The choice is not between supporting NATO or supporting Putin. It is between building an independent working-class alternative that can defend the oppressed while advancing the struggle for socialism, or allowing the initiative to remain with competing imperialist blocs.
As Rupture recently discussed, we face the possibility of a prolonged period of reactionary politics globally if Putin succeeds, the urgency of this task cannot be overstated. The liberation of Ukraine is inseparable from the broader struggle against imperialism, capitalism, ecological catastrophe, and the far-right offensive that threatens workers and oppressed peoples everywhere.
The tasks are clear: support Ukraine's liberation struggle, oppose imperialist militarism, and build the international working-class movement capable of creating an ecosocialist alternative to the barbarism of competing capitalism.
Postscript
Confronting Hybrid Warfare Through Community Defense
Russia's war against Ukraine extends far beyond conventional military operations. Putin's regime employs hybrid warfare tactics including cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, sabotage of civilian infrastructure (communications, energy, travel, and water systems), and political interference across Europe. These attacks particularly threaten the Baltic states, Moldova, and other former imperial territories.
Socialist responses to hybrid warfare must avoid both the militarization of society and the scapegoating of migrant communities that ruling classes often use to justify authoritarian measures. Instead, we need community-controlled civil defense that builds working-class resilience while strengthening international solidarity.
Internationalism from Below: Our strategy must foster "horizontal solidarity and empathy" among oppressed peoples globally, transcending "rigid geopolitical thinking and campism." This means building "better links between unions" and connecting with diverse social movements—anti-racist, feminist, environmentalist, disability rights, LGBT+—learning from historical experiences of "internationalism from below."
The Ukrainian struggle demonstrates that popular resistance "from below," often independent of government directives, proves most effective against imperial aggression. People who "rise to fight in complete independence from the government and the great powers" embody the authentic internationalism that can ultimately defeat both Russian imperialism and Western militarism.
Our task is to build this kind of grassroots, democratic resistance capacity across Europe—not to strengthen NATO or capitalist state power, but to create the foundation for a world free from all forms of imperialism and exploitation.
In a postscript, we have added an analysis of Russian hybrid warfare tactics and community-based responses, introducing the "internationalism from below" framework that connects Ukrainian popular resistance to broader international solidarity-building efforts.