Guest Post by Shilyn Shekhar

The opinion that is shared here will certainly get hate from people who side with the rational side of politics but it must be addressed.

There are many mixed opinions about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict with people having many different opinions, it is this war that reveals to us the true reality of some who claim to be leftists.

The term for them is ‘Tankies’. This word originates from the 2nd half of the 20th century when the Soviet Union would crack down any uprisings in their eastern block. There was a large divide in the left at the time when the Soviet Union rolled tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia because they tried to break away from the oppressive Soviet Sphere of influence. Most leftists opposed this but there was still a group that was in favor of it, these are the original tankies.

The Soviet Union wasn’t socialist or communist at the time, it was an authoritarian fascist regime whether people agree or not and the ones that supported them were not real leftists because the ideology is based on rational thinking.

The modern day tankies are a very major reason leftism is seen as evil and irrational in the west because they give a wrong image to the people which makes them see leftism as authoritarianism.

The modern day tankie ideology can be summed up as this: “It’s because of America/CIA”. They see the west as monsters whose only intention is to cause suffering and hurt “their ideology”.

I will not try to defend the US because it remains a fact that they’ve done terrible things in the middle east, africa, latin america and many more examples. But blaming them for everything isn’t right and does not solve any problems.

To them, the US is such an exaggerated evil that even the most terrible actions by their opposition is justified.

If China bans forming independent workers’ unions then a tankie would say that they have to, those unions are surely controlled by the CIA.

Cuba throws political dissidents in jail? They’d reply that Cuba has to do it because those people are puppets of the US.

Guest Post By Tushar Dhara

Tushar Dhara: Is it fair to say that Ukraine’s economic performance, especially GDP per capita, is less today than it was in 1991? I also noticed that some of the country’s macro-economic indicators like public and foreign debt, forex reserves and cost of borrowing were not very good in 2020, a period when lockdowns and the pandemic created global economic disruption. Could this have made the country more vulnerable?
Denys Pilash: It’s true that Ukraine’s economy was doing badly, and it was contending with Moldova for being the poorest country in Europe, in terms of income and GDP per capita. It was a continuation of a malign economic policy, the frame work of which was neo-liberalism, more privatization and marketization. Russia and Belarus were ever more neo-liberal than Ukraine in the case of labour legislation. Still, the intention of the Ukrainian ruling class was pretty clear. This led to a bad economic situation and meant that their logic led to a vicious circle of foreign loans and IMF loans, and the rollover of foreign debt. It was done by all Ukrainian governments, whether pro-Russia or pro-West. It was leading to a debt trap. It was one of the pretexts to the second Maidan protest. When Yanukovich was thinking about whether to borrow more from the West or from Russia – signing an agreement with the EU then backtracked and went back to Russia – it was all about finding the funds to fill the hole in the budget. They had no strategic vision about long term economic growth.

Guest Post by Tushar Dhara

Part 1: “The Russian invasion is a unilateral decision of the leadership which reflects the internal dynamics of Russian imperialism”: A Ukrainian political scientist explains the War, Ukrainian nationhood, Maidan, NATO and neo-Nazis.

In February Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in a televised address that Ukraine is an illegitimate country that exists on a land that’s “historically” and “rightfully” Russian. Putin further claimed that a “genocide” was being perpetrated on “millions” of Russian supporters in the Donbas by Ukrainian far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis. Putin used this as an excuse to launch what he called “special military operations” in Ukraine, thus triggering the war.

One month into the Russian invasion, what is the situation in Ukraine? How does one understand the historicity of Ukraine’s nationhood, including its culture, language, status within the Soviet Union and its evolution since independence in 1991. How does one situate events like the maidan protests that rocked Ukrainian society, the role of far right formations like Azov and the aspirations of Ukrainians?

To understand these issues I spoke to Denys Pilash, a political scientist teaching at Kyiv National University. Pilash is on the editorial board of Commons magazine, a left of centre intellectual magazine. Pilash is currently in Transcarpathia in Western Ukraine, where he is helping deliver humanitarian aid. The interview is in two parts.      

Guest Post by Salik Ahmad.

Originally published by The India Forum as The Shattering of The Muslim Hope in India(https://rb.gy/jfnxtz)

कुछ रोज पहले, एक शाम अपने दोस्त के साथ दिल्ली की भागदौड़ भरी जिंदगी से वक्त निकालकर, काई से काली पड़ चुकी अपनी छत पर बैठा, पीले आसमान के नीचे खड़े ठूँठे  रूख को देख रहा था। मेरा दोस्त, जो एक बड़ी मल्टीनेशनल कंपनी में काम करता है, अपने अनुभवों के बारे में बताते हुए कह रहा था कि कैसे उसका ऑफिस उसके लिए एक अजनबी जगह है।

 मेरे दोस्त कहता है, “वहाँ हर कोई मुसलमानों पर हो रहे अत्याचारों से कितना बेखबर है। मैं रोज लिंचिंग का नया वीडियो, नफरत उगलनेवाला भाषण, जनसंहार (Genocide)को उकसाने वाला कार्टून देखता हूँ लेकिन जब मैं ऑफिस जाता हूं तो वहां लोगों में चर्चा होती है, सबसे अच्छी सुशीज (Sushis) कहां मिलती है, और केक सबसे बेहतर कौन बनाता है। गुप्ता सांता का खेल चलता है और लोग अपनी तरक्की की योजनाएँ बनाने में मशगूल हैं। मैं ऑफिस को अचंभे के साथ देखता हूं और सोचता हूँ कि यह कैसी जगह है, या फिर मैं किसी दूसरे जमाने में आ गया हूँ।”