Where is the European Left when we need it so much? Everybod | NIHILIST.LI
Where is the European Left when we need it so much? Everybody was apt to condemn the American invasion of Iraq on the grounds of ‘it’s all about the oil money.’ But when a horde of pillagers invades an entire country to make a good haul of Nike sneakers and mid-range booze, when Russian officers evacuate washing machines, not wounded comrades, when Russian soldiers throw away their armor plates and insert MacBooks into their ballistic vests, where is the universal condemnation of this bourgeoise greed? Where is the condemnation of Russia as the pinnacle of cut-throat capitalism it is? Indeed, Russia has far outstripped the West in terms of public mercantilism. Unlike the latter, Russia has no grassroots solidarity and no respect for work as a virtue — a moral wasteland, inhabited by ghosts of selfishness, greed, and conspicuous consumption. Is there a better example of capitalism’s ever-corrupting nature for leftist thinkers to invoke?
Well, the European Left speaks up. A couple of days ago, Berlin’s progressive community rallied under the slogans of STOP NATO AND RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM and NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR. Speaking of the first slogan, I’ve already familiarized myself with the notion that 40m Ukrainians have zero agency in the anti-colonial war they are waging. But the second one, well, it gives me chills. Let me explain why.
Russians generally hate Ukrainians for several reasons, mostly historical (imperial). But a recent one is that Ukraine has somewhat better living standards than Russia. The median salary in Ukraine has been higher, and the Gini index much lower. Most Russian soldiers come from Russia's poorest regions: if your village has no asphalt roads, no hospital, and no prospects for any employment, the easiest way to get any stable income is to enlist. When the war begins, these Russians find themselves in the suburbs of Ukraine’s capital (Bucha, Irpin, etc.), which are mostly inhabited by the middle class —managers, lawyers, developers, small business owners — the "bourgeoisie”. Now Bucha and Irpin are in ruins, and all destroyed towns look the same. However, before destroying them, Russian soldiers glimpsed a level of public wealth and comfort which must have seemed criminal and obscene. So, their hatred for Ukrainians was emboldened by an obvious class aspect.
A Russian proletarian soldier sees a middle-class Ukrainian woman and wants to rape, kill, burn, and plunder with renewed vigor. One may think of the class war as a sanguine emancipatory activity, set in some vague future, but a class war is currently happening in Ukraine, and one may even see some photos. I repeat: by advocating class war in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war, European leftists support the genocide of Ukrainians in Bucha, support severed arms, pierced eyes, burned bodies, burned books, stolen TVs and Airpods, and applaud shit-smeared walls. Advocating class warfare right now, European leftists endorse war crimes that have obvious class grounds.
Is it blindness? А mindless reuse of generally benign slogans? Or is it consistent support for genocide, informed by an understanding of the class dynamics between Ukrainian civilians and the Russian military? I no longer care. After all, there’s an entire country where the general population saw no contradiction between "we don’t have troops in Donbas" and "Ukrainians are Nazis and deserve to die" for eight years. Blindness is a political choice, and the aestheticization of politics, be it black flag badges or Hugo Boss boots, inevitably leads to countless crimes that seemingly happen by themselves. Under the slogans of class war, the Russians have already killed millions of Ukrainians in the 20th century. Now in pacifist Berlin, these slogans are formulated a little differently, but their true meaning remains the same: "It’s nice you’re going to die!"
/Mykhailo Bogachov
