Portside

1. German Election
2. Brave New World Order?
3. La Via Campesina on IWD 25
4. How South Koreans Stopped a Coup
5. Voices From and About Ukraine
6. Colombian Architects Counter Colonial Practices
7. Students in Serbia
8. Sheinbaum Defends Mexican Sovereignty
9. Turkey: Öcalan’s Peace Plan
10. Sectarianism and Internationalism

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German Election

• Die Linke Endures   Moritz Warnke / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (Berlin)
   
• How the Deed Was Done   Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
   
• Gregor Gysi Speaks   Loren Balhorn / Tribune (London)
   
• The Fate of the SPD   Bartosz M. Rydliński / Project Syndicate (Kings Park NY)
   
• Sahra Wagenknecht’s Washout   David Broder / The New Statesman (London)

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Brave New World Order?

• Epochal Crisis   William I. Robinson / Links (Sydney)
   
• New Far Right Axis   Gilbert Achcar / blog (London)
   
• Hyper-Imperialism…   Vijay Prashad / Peoples Democracy (New Delhi)
   
• …Or Rotting Imperialism?   Alonso Gurmendi / The New Arab (London)
   
• Geopolitics of Capitalism   Nick Buxton, editor / Transnational Institute (Amsterdam)

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La Via Campesina on IWD 25

La Via Campesina (Bagnolet, France)

As we approach the International Day of Working Women’s Struggle (08 March), La Via Campesina calls for a global mobilization to face the advance of fascism, violence and the food crisis. The peasant movement denounces the impact of social and economic crises, evidenced by rising poverty, unemployment, rural debt, and the severe migration crises which affect both rural and urban areas. 

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How South Koreans Stopped a Coup

Jungmin Choi / Waging Nonviolence (Brooklyn)

Something incredible happened in South Korea two months ago, and it could be just the kind of inspiration Americans need to turn the tide on the Trump administration’s dangerous power-grab.

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Voices From and About Ukraine

• No Justice, No Peace   / Zmina (Kyev)
   
• Defense and Social Justice   Yana Bondareva / Europe Solitaire Sans Frontières (Paris)
   
• The Deal   Raul Zelik / Neues Deutschland (Berlin)

[Translated by Portside. Lesen Sie den Originaltext hier]

The left-wing “European Network for Solidarity with Ukraine” compares the looming deal between the USA and Russia with the Munich Agreement of 1938, which gave Nazi Germany a third of Czechoslovakia's territory. In a recent statement, the network explains Ukraine's fatal situation with a lack of international support. Although Western states have repeatedly affirmed that they “stand by Ukraine's side”, in reality this has turned out to be an empty promise. Accordingly, the initiative is calling for an increase in military aid and the cancellation of Ukraine's foreign debt.

Many Eastern European leftists have a similar view of the situation. The feminist philosopher Tereza Hendl, for example, who has accused the Western left of “Westsplaining” since the outbreak of the war, i.e. a know-it-all explanation of Russia's role from a Western perspective, believes that the rapprochement between Trump and Putin must be seen as a far-right pact.

On X she writes: “The fascists are allying themselves - from the USA to Russia ... to Germany. And a large part of the left is preparing the ground for them because they are not taking note of the right-wing extremist Russian imperialism (...). This is the result of the left's inability to engage with the anti-imperialist knowledge of Eastern Europe.” The historical experiences and material realities of Eastern European societies are not understood by the Western left. For Hendl, this arrogance towards Eastern European voices is in the tradition of a German master race mentality.

Dresden-based sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko, who has repeatedly criticized Ukraine's liberation nationalist narrative since the start of the war, has a very different focus. “My parents are in Kiev, my cousin is in Kharkiv, another relative is in the army, two friends are hiding from conscription,” he explains. “The sooner the war is over, the more likely they are to survive.” According to Ishchenko, this perception is much more widespread among the population than is generally assumed.

The sociologist is therefore not really convinced that Ukrainians feel betrayed. “According to a survey, Trump is relatively popular - as he is in most Eastern European countries, by the way.” The US president's demand that Ukraine hand over raw materials worth 500 billion US dollars to his country is, of course, outrageous to Ukrainians. However, parts of the population are following the negotiations with “cautious optimism”.

“A survey a few months ago showed that a majority of Ukrainians would agree to a territorial compromise if there were strong security guarantees or Nato membership in return,” says Ishchenko. Although hardly anyone agrees with the annexation of Crimea and the Donets Basin, there is something of a realistic assessment of the situation. “A whole range of indicators show that people don't want to keep dying. The number of men leaving the country illegally is increasing. And people's behavior is perhaps stronger evidence of the mood than what they say.”

Ishchenko emphasizes that US policy was already highly problematic under Biden. “Although the US warned of the invasion, it made no diplomatic efforts to prevent or stop the war.” Instead, their strategy was to exhaust Russia at the expense of Ukraine. “The Biden administration has not provided enough resources for Ukraine to win, but has also made no attempt to start negotiations.”

In response to the question of whether the expected freezing of the war is dangerous because it does nothing to resolve the conflict, the sociologist replies: “In times of imperialism, no peace agreement is permanent.” If you want to put a lasting end to war, you have to override the economic mechanisms that drive states towards war.In response to the question of whether the expected freezing of the war is dangerous because it does nothing to resolve the conflict, the sociologist replies: “In times of imperialism, no peace agreement is permanent.” If you want to put a lasting end to war, you have to override the economic mechanisms that drive states towards war.

Ishchenko is not very confident in the medium term. Western companies will be the main beneficiaries of the reconstruction. “Similar questions will arise as we know them from colonial or post-colonial states in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Namely, how to ensure that decisions made in the country also have an impact.” Nevertheless, Ishchenko does not believe in a nationalist perspective. “In a changing world, we really need to think about internationalist organization again.”

The only thing the different assessments have in common is the observation that Ukraine is undergoing a kind of colonization process. The outlook for the Eastern European country is therefore bleak - even if most Ukrainians are likely to be relieved about a ceasefire for the time being.

• From Pacifism to Arms   Maksym Butkevych and Sonya Koshkina / Europe Solitaire Sans Frontières

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Colombian Architects Counter Colonial Practices

Oliver Wainwright / The Guardian (London)

A 30-acre construction lab is helping reshape Colombia’s architecture with ancestral knowledge and direct ecological action. “What if we saw ancestral knowledge not as a romantic past, but as a vivid present that could teach us resilience?”

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Students in Serbia

Dušanka Milosavljević / Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung

Serbia is currently in the grips of the largest student rebellion and subsequent civilian mobilization in the country’s history. Self-organized students have now occupied more than 50 university departments, calling for the prosecution of those responsible for physical attacks on students, a 20-percent increase in the higher education budget with a 50-percent reduction in tuition fees.

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Sheinbaum Defends Mexican Sovereignty

Le Monde (Paris)

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Mexico would expand its legal action against US gun manufacturers, which her government accuses of negligence in the sale of weapons that end up in the hands of drug traffickers.

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Turkey: Öcalan’s Peace Plan

ANF (Amsterdam)

The Roadmap to Negotiations was the centerpiece of the secret dialogue process between Abdullah Öcalan and the Turkish state. Going beyond traditional solutions like statehood or territorial autonomy, he envisions a democratic nation and a common homeland for all countries where Kurds live.

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Sectarianism and Internationalism

Francisco Louçã / Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières

Defining politics based on camps of international obedience has always been a trap for the left. Those who classify China as today’s socialist system must remain silent when a Chinese public company buys EDP or REN, in an investment resulting from its capital accumulation on an international scale. Alignment with Moscow in the invasion of Ukraine is another of these contradictions.