How Ukrainian civilians are resisting military force

Even as Putin’s swift invasion of Ukraine has left a lot of shock, Ukrainians are showing what unarmed people can do to resist, too.

By

 Daniel Hunter

 -

March 2, 2022

SOURCEYES! Magazine

Image Credit: Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko

This article was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Predictably, much of the Western press has focused on Ukrainian diplomatic or military resistance to Russia’s invasion, such as the arming of regular citizens to patrol and protect. 

These forces have already proven stronger than Russian President Vladimir Putin has expected and are disrupting his plans with great courage. Take Yaryna Arieva and Sviatoslav Fursin, who got married amid air raid sirens. Right after their marriage vows, they proceeded to sign up with the local Territorial Defense Center to defend their country. 

History shows that successful resistance against a militarily stronger opponent often requires a wide variety of resistance, including from those who are unarmed—a role that is often given less attention, both by the mainstream media and by maniacal power-obsessed opponents.

Yet, even as Putin’s swift invasion of Ukraine has left a lot of shock, Ukrainians are showing what unarmed people can do to resist, too.

Make it hard for the invaders

At this moment, the Russian military playbook appears to be focusing primarily on destroying the military and political infrastructure in Ukraine. The country’s military and newly armed civilians, as heroic as they are, are known factors for Russia. Just as the Western press ignores unarmed civilian resistance, the Russian military appears unprepared and clueless to this, too.

As people move past the shock of the past few days, it’s this unarmed part of the resistance that’s gaining momentum. Ukraine’s streets agency, Ukravtodor, called for “all road organizations, territorial communities, local governments to immediately begin dismantling nearby road signs.” They emphasized this with a photoshopped highway sign renamed: “Fuck you,” “Again fuck you,” and “To Russia fuck you.” Sources tell me versions of these are happening in real life. (The New York Times has reported on the sign changes as well.)

That same agency encouraged people to “block the enemy by all available methods.” People are using cranes to move cement blocks in the way, and regular citizens are setting up sandbags to block roadways.

Ukrainian news outlet HB showed a young man using his body to physically get in the way of a military convoy as they steamrolled through the streets. Reminiscent of Tiananmen Square’s “Tank Man,” the man stepped in front of speeding trucks, forcing them to veer around him and off the road. Unarmed and unprotected, his act is a symbol of bravery and risk.

This was echoed again by an individual in Bakhmach who, similarly, put his body in front of moving tanks and repeatedly pushed against them. However, it appeared many supporters were videotaping but not participating. This is worth noting, because—when consciously executed—these types of actions can be rapidly built upon. Coordinated resistance can spread and move from inspirational isolated acts to decisive acts capable of rebuffing an advancing army. 

Very recent social media reports are showing this collective noncooperation. In shared videos, unarmed communities are facing down Russian tanks with apparent success. In this dramatic recorded confrontation, for example, community members walk slowly toward the tanks, openhanded and mostly without any words. The tank driver either does not have authorization or interest in opening fire. They choose retreat. This is being repeated in small towns across Ukraine.

These communal actions are often carried out by affinity groups—tiny cells of like-minded friends. Given the likelihood of repression, affinity groups can develop methods of communication (assuming the internet and cell phone service will be shut down) and keep a level of tight planning. In long-term occupations, these cells may also emerge from existing networks—schools, churches and mosques, and other institutions.

George Lakey makes the case for Ukrainian total noncooperation with an invading force, citing Czechoslovakia, where in 1968 people also renamed signs. In one instance, hundreds of people with linked arms blocked a major bridge for hours until Soviet tanks turned around in retreat. 

The theme was total noncooperation wherever possible. Need oil? No. Need water? No. Need directions? Here’s the wrong ones. 

Militaries assume that because they have guns they can get their way with unarmed civilians. Each act of noncooperation proves them wrong. Each resistance makes every tiny goal of the invaders a hard battle. Death by a thousand cuts.

No stranger to non-cooperation

Just ahead of the invasion, researcher Maciej Mathias Bartkowski published an article with insightful data on Ukrainians’ commitment to noncooperation. He noted a poll “just after the Euromaidan revolution and the capture of Crimea and the Donbas region by Russian troops, when it could be expected that Ukrainian public opinion would be strongly in favor of defending the motherland with arms.” People were asked what they would do if a foreign armed occupation took place in their town.

The plurality said they would engage in civil resistance (26%), just ahead of the percentage ready to take arms (25%). The others were a mix of people who just didn’t know (19%) or said they would leave or move to another region.

Ukrainians have made clear their readiness to resist. And that should be no surprise to people familiar with Ukraine’s proud history and tradition. Most have contemporary examples in recent memory—as recounted in Netflix’s documentary Winter on Fire about the 2013–2014 Maidan revolution or the 17-day nonviolent resistance to overthrow their corrupt government in 2004, as recounted by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict’s film Orange Revolution.

One of Bartkowski’s key conclusions: “Putin’s belief that Ukrainians would rather go home and do nothing in the face of military aggression may be his biggest and politically most costly miscalculation.”

Weaken the resolve of the Russian military

Casually, people talk about the “Russian military” as if it’s a single-minded hive. But, in fact, all militaries are made up of individuals with their own stories, concerns, dreams, and hopes. U.S. government intelligence, which has been surprisingly accurate in this moment, has asserted that Putin has not achieved his goals during this first phase of attack. 

This suggests that the Russian military morale may be a little bit shaken by the resistance they’ve already seen. It’s not the expected quick win. In explaining the ability of Ukraine to hold its airspace, for example, The New York Times suggested a range of factors: a more seasoned army, more mobile air defense systems, and likely poor Russian intelligence, which appeared to hit old, unused targets. 

But if the Ukrainian armed forces begin to falter, then what?

Morale could swing back toward Russian invaders. Or they could instead find themselves met with even more resistance. 

The field of nonviolent resistance is heavy with examples of how the morale of soldiers gets reduced in the face of prolonged resistance, especially when civilians view the military as made up of human beings who can be interacted with.

Take inspiration from this old woman who stands down the Russian military in Henichesk, Kherson, region. With arms outstretched, she approaches soldiers, telling them they are not wanted here. She reaches into her pocket and takes out sunflower seeds and tries to put them in the soldier’s pocket, saying the flowers would grow when the soldiers die on this land.

She’s involved in a human moral confrontation. The soldier is uncomfortable, edgy, and reluctant to engage with her. But she stays pushy, confrontational, and no-nonsense. 

While we don’t know the outcome of this situation, scholars have noted how these types of repeated interactions shape the behavior of the opposing forces. The individuals in the military themselves are movable creatures and can have their resolve weakened. 

In other countries, this strategic insight has proven capable of causing mass mutinies. The young Serbians in Otpor regularly said to their military opponents, “You’ll have a chance to join us.” They would use a mix of humor, berating, and shame to target. In the Philippines, civilians surrounded the army and showered them with prayers, pleas, and iconic flowers in their guns. In each case, the commitment paid off, as large chunks of the armed forces refused to shoot.

In his highly relevant text Civilian-Based Defense, Gene Sharp explained the power of mutinies—and civilians’ ability to cause them. “Mutinies and the unreliability of troops in repressing the predominantly nonviolent Russian revolutions of 1905 and February 1917 were highly significant factors in the weakening and final downfall of the tsar’s regime.” 

Mutinies increase as the resistance targets them, attempting to undermine their sense of legitimacy, appealing to their humanity, digging in with prolonged, committed resistance, and creating a compelling narrative that the invading force simply does not belong here.

Tiny cracks are already showing. On Saturday, in Perevalne, Crimea, Euromaidan Press reported that “half of Russian conscripts ran away and did not want to fight.” The lack of complete cohesion is an exploitable weakness—one increased when civilians refuse to dehumanize them and make attempts to doggedly win them over.

Internal resistance is just a part

Of course, the civilian resistance is one piece of a very large geopolitical unfolding. 

What happens in Russia matters a great deal. Perhaps as many as 1,800 anti-war protesters were arrested while protesting across Russia. Their courage and risk may tip a balance that reduces Putin’s hand. At the very least, it creates more space for humanizing their Ukrainian neighbors.

Protests around the world have added pressure on governments for further sanctions. These have likely contributed to the recent decision by the EU, U.K., and U.S. to remove Russian access—including its central bank—from SWIFT, the worldwide network of 11,000 banking institutions to exchange money. 

A dizzying number of corporate boycotts on Russian products have been called by a variety of sources, and some of these may yet gain speed. Already, some of the corporate pressure is paying off with Facebook and YouTube blocking Russian propaganda machines like RT.

However this unfolds, the mainstream press cannot be relied upon to lift up stories of civilian resistance. Those tactics and strategies may have to be shared across social media and other channels.

We will honor the bravery of the people in Ukraine, as we honor those resisting imperialism in its many forms across the globe today. Because for now, while Putin appears to be counting them out—to his own peril—Ukraine’s secret weapon of unarmed civilian resistance is only just starting to prove its bravery and strategic 

Daniel Hunter

Daniel Hunter is a trainer and organizer with Training for Change, and has trained thousands of activists including ethnic minorities in Burma, pastors in Sierra Leone, independence activists in northeast India, environmentalists in Australia, and Indonesian religious leaders.

My Letter From Kyiv to the 'Anti-Imperialist Idiots' in the West

Before taking up my post to defend this city from looming invasion, I would like to communicate to the Western Left what I think about its reaction to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

A soldier stands guarding the entrance to the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (Photo: Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)


TARAS BILOUS

March 2, 2022 

by OpenDemocracy.net


The following letter, written from Kyiv, Ukraine, was published on February 25, 2022:

I am writing these lines in Kyiv while it is under artillery attack.

Until the last minute, I had hoped that Russian troops wouldn't launch a full-scale invasion. Now, I can only thank those who leaked the information to the US intelligence services.

Yesterday, I spent half the day considering whether I ought to join a territorial defense unit. During the night that followed, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi signed a full mobilization order and Russian troops moved in and prepared to encircle Kyiv, which made the decision for me.

But before taking up my post, I would like to communicate to the Western Left what I think about its reaction to Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

First of all, I am thankful to those Leftists who are now picketing Russian embassies—even those who took their time to realize Russia was the aggressor in this conflict.

I am thankful to politicians who support putting pressure on Russia to stop the invasion and withdraw its troops.

And I am thankful to the delegation of British and Welsh MPs, unionists, and activists who came to support us and hear us in the days before the Russian invasion.

I am also thankful to the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign in the UK for its help over many years.

This article is about the other part of the Western Left. Those who imagined 'NATO aggression in Ukraine', and who could not see Russian aggression—like the New Orleans chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Or the DSA International Committee, which published a shameful statement failing to say a single critical word against Russia (I am very thankful to US professor and activist Dan la Botz and the others for their critique of this statement).

Or those who criticized Ukraine for not implementing the Minsk Agreements and kept silent about their violations by Russia and the so-called 'People's Republics'.

Or those who exaggerated the influence of the far-Right in Ukraine, but did not notice the far-Right in the 'People's Republics' and avoided criticizing Putin's conservative, nationalist and authoritarian policy. Part of the responsibility for what is happening rests with you.

This is part of the wider phenomenon in the Western 'anti-war' movement, usually called 'campism' by critics on the Left. British-Syrian author and activist Leila Al-Shami gave it a stronger name: the "anti-imperialism of idiots". Read her wonderful 2018 essay if you haven't done so yet. I will repeat only the main thesis here: the activity of a large part of the Western 'anti-war' Left over the war in Syria had nothing to do with stopping the war. It only opposed Western interference, while ignoring, or even supporting, the engagement of Russia and Iran, to say nothing of their attitude to the 'legitimately elected' Assad regime in Syria.

"A number of anti-war organizations have justified their silence on Russian and Iranian interventions by arguing that 'the main enemy is at home,'" Al-Shami wrote. "This excuses them from undertaking any serious power analysis to determine who the main actors driving the war actually are."

Unfortunately, we have seen the same ideological cliché repeated over Ukraine. Even after Russia recognized the independence of the 'People's Republics' earlier this week, Branko Marcetic, a writer for American Left magazine Jacobin, penned an article almost fully devoted to criticizing the US. When it came to Putin's actions, he went only as far as remarking that the Russian leader had "signal[led] less-than-benign ambitions."

 Seriously?

I am not a fan of NATO. I know that after the end of the Cold War, the bloc lost its defensive function and led aggressive policies. I know that NATO's eastward expansion undermined efforts directed at nuclear disarmament and forming a system of joint security. NATO tried to marginalize the role of the UN and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and to discredit them as 'inefficient organizations'. But we cannot bring back the past, and we have to orient ourselves on the current circumstances when seeking a way out of this situation.

How many times did the Western Left bring up the US's informal promises to the former Russian president, Mikhail Gorbachev, about NATO ("not one inch eastward"), and how many times did it mention the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that guarantees Ukraine's sovereignty? How often did the Western Left support the "legitimate security concerns" of Russia, a state that owns the world's second-largest nuclear arsenal? And how often did it recall the security concerns of Ukraine, a state that had to trade its nuclear weapons, under the pressure of the US and Russia, for a piece of paper (the Budapest Memorandum) that Putin trampled conclusively in 2014? Did it ever occur to Leftist critics of NATO that Ukraine is the main victim of the changes brought about by the NATO expansion?

Time and again, the Western Left responded to the critique of Russia by mentioning US aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and other states. Of course, these states need to be brought into the discussion—but how, exactly?

The argument of the Left should be, that in 2003, other governments did not put enough pressure on the United States over Iraq. Not that it is necessary to exert less pressure on Russia over Ukraine now.

An obvious mistake

Imagine for a moment that, in 2003, when the US was preparing for the invasion of Iraq, Russia had behaved like the US has in recent weeks: with threats of escalation.

Now imagine what the Russian Left might have done in that situation, according to the dogma of 'our main enemy is at home'. Would it have criticized the Russian government for this 'escalation', saying that it 'should not jeopardize inter-imperialist contradictions'? It is obvious to everyone that such behavior would have been a mistake in that case. Why was this not obvious in the case of the aggression against Ukraine?

In another Jacobin article from earlier this month, Marcetic went as far as saying that Fox News's Tucker Carlson was "completely right" about the "Ukrainian crisis." What Carlson had done was question "Ukraine's strategic value to the United States." Even Tariq Ali in the New Left Review approvingly quoted the calculation of German admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, who said that giving Putin "respect" over Ukraine was "low cost, even no cost" given that Russia could be a useful ally against China. Are you serious? If the US and Russia could reach an agreement and start a new Cold War against China as allies, would that really be what we wanted?

Reforming the UN

I am not a fan of liberal internationalism. Socialists should criticize it. But this does not mean that we have to support the division of 'spheres of interest' between imperialist states. Instead of looking for a new balance between the two imperialisms, the Left has to struggle for a democratization of the international security order. We need a global policy and a global system of international security. We have the latter: it is the UN. Yes, it has plenty of flaws, and it is often the object of fair criticisms. But one can criticize either to refute something or to improve it. In the case of the UN, we need the latter. We need a Leftist vision of reform and democratization of the UN.

Of course, this does not mean that the Left should support all of the UN's decisions. But an overall reinforcement of the UN's role in the resolution of armed conflicts would allow the Left to minimize the importance of military-political alliances and reduce the number of victims. (In a previous article, I wrote how UN peacekeepers could have helped to resolve the Donbas conflict. Unfortunately, this has now lost its relevance.) After all, we also need the UN to solve the climate crisis and other global problems. The reluctance of many international Leftists to appeal to it is a terrible mistake.

After Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Jacobin's Europe editor David Broder wrote that the Left "should make no apologies for opposing a US military response." This was not Biden's intention anyway, as he said multiple times. But a large part of the Western Left should honestly admit that it completely fucked up in formulating its response to the "Ukrainian crisis."

My perspective

I will finish by briefly writing about myself and my perspective.

Over the past eight years, the Donbas war has been the main issue that has divided the Ukrainian Left. Each of us formed our position under the influence of personal experience and other factors. Thus, another Ukrainian Leftist would have written this article differently.

I was born in the Donbas, but in a Ukrainian-speaking and nationalist family. My father became involved in the far-Right in the 1990s, observing Ukraine's economic decay and the enrichment of the former Communist Party leadership, which he had been fighting since the mid-1980s. Of course, he has very anti-Russian, but also anti-American views. I still remember his words on 11 September 2001. As he watched the Twin Towers falling on TV, he said that those responsible were 'heroes' (he does not think so anymore—now he believes that the Americans blew them up on purpose).

When the war began in Donbas in 2014, my father joined the far-Right Aidar battalion as a volunteer, my mother fled Luhansk, and my grandfather and grandmother stayed in their village which fell under the control of the 'Luhansk People's Republic'. My grandfather condemned Ukraine's Euromaidan revolution. He supports Putin, who, he says, has "restored order in Russia." Nevertheless, we all try to keep talking to each other (though not about politics) and to help each other. I try to be sympathetic towards them. After all, my grandfather and grandmother spent their whole life working on a collective farm. My father was a construction worker. Life has not been kind to them.

The events of 2014 – revolution followed by war – pushed me in the opposite direction of most people in Ukraine. The war killed nationalism in me and pushed me to the Left. I want to fight for a better future for humanity, and not for the nation. My parents, with their post-Soviet trauma, do not understand my socialist views. My father is condescending about my 'pacifism', and we had a nasty conversation after I showed up at an anti-fascist protest with a picket sign calling for the disbanding of the far-Right Azov regiment.

When Volodymyr Zelenskyi became president of Ukraine in the spring of 2019, I hoped this could prevent the catastrophe that is unfolding now. After all, it is difficult to demonize a Russian-speaking president who won with a program of peace for Donbas and whose jokes were popular among Ukrainians as well as Russians. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. While Zelenskyi's victory changed the attitude of many Russians towards Ukraine, this did not prevent the war.

In recent years, I have written about the peace process and about civilian victims on both sides of the Donbas war. I tried to promote dialogue. But this has all gone up in smoke now. There will be no compromise. Putin can plan whatever he wants, but even if Russia seizes Kyiv and instals its occupational government, we will resist it. The struggle will last until Russia gets out of Ukraine and pays for all the victims and all the destruction.

Hence, my last words are addressed to the Russian people: hurry up and overthrow the Putin regime. It is in your interests as well as ours.

This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 licence.

TARAS BILOUS is a Ukrainian historian and an activist of the Social Movement organisation. As an editor for Commons: Journal of social critique, he covers the topics of war and nationalism.

Progressives Urge Biden to Use Executive Power to 'Deliver for the People'

"President Biden has significant power to effect immediate, meaningful change for people across America, and we urge him to use it aggressively," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.

From left to right: Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) speak to supporters of then-Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) at a campaign event in Clive, Iowa, on January 31, 2020. 

(Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)


KENNY STANCIL

March 2, 2022

Following President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, a chorus of progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups—frustrated that Biden's legislative agenda has ground to a halt thanks to opposition from the GOP and a handful of corporate Democrats—urged the White House to use its executive authority to the fullest possible extent to improve the lives of working people and secure a livable planet.

"While we continue building support in Congress, President Biden can use his executive power to take action right now to deliver for the people."

"In the midst of a global pandemic, economic recession, and the immense task of rebuilding from the Trump years, the progress the president and our Democratic majority have made in the past year is nothing short of extraordinary," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said in a statement.

Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), pointed out that "wages are up, unemployment is at the lowest rate since 1969, and the United States is the only major advanced economy with its GDP back at pre-pandemic levels."

The expanded Child Tax Credit led to a 32% reduction in hunger and cut child poverty in half nationwide, Jayapal noted, but the popular benefit lapsed in January after right-wing Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) joined all 50 Senate Republicans in refusing to renew it.

"The challenges that families faced before the pandemic are still with us. That's why in addition to continuing to fight the pandemic and rebuild the economy, Congress must make real strides in the promises we made to the American people," said Jayapal, who endorsed Biden's Tuesday night directive for lawmakers to pass legislation to hike taxes on corporations and the wealthy; lower the costs of child care, healthcare, and housing; combat the climate emergency; and provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Meanwhile, Jayapal continued, "President Biden has significant power to effect immediate, meaningful change for people across America, and we urge him to use it aggressively."

She added: "The president can use his executive authority to bring down the costs of prescription drugs and stop Big Pharma's price-gouging; decrease carbon emissions to fight the climate crisis; cancel student debt and bolster our economy; protect workers' rights and raise their wages; and provide immigration relief and rebuild our refugee system."

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Progressives to Biden: If You Want to Be Popular, Take On Corporate Greed

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a CPC member who delivered a response to Biden's speech on behalf of the Working Families Party, concurred with Jayapal, saying that the president and congressional Democrats "stopped what could have been an economic freefall" by enacting the American Rescue Plan last March.

"Not a single Republican voted for that relief package—not one," said Tlaib. "We created six million new jobs—and I am inspired to see empowered workers demanding fair wages, stronger benefits, and human dignity."

"After that emergency response, we had a chance to do so much more," Tlaib continued. "President Biden laid out the visionary Build Back Better agenda to create an America where we all have the opportunity to thrive."

"These are tough times for the multiracial working class, and we are looking to elected officials we fought for in 2020 to fight for us."

Democratic lawmakers' first iteration of their stalled reconciliation package provided a "chance to begin to address decades of rising inequality and injustice," said Tlaib, who drew attention to the Build Back Better Act's popular proposals to bolster the nation's lackluster welfare state, facilitate a clean energy transition, and make the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share to help fund it.

"No one fought harder for President Biden's agenda than progressives," Tlaib stressed. "But two forces stood in the way: A Republican Party that serves only the rich and powerful, and just enough corporate-backed Democratic obstructionists to help them succeed."

Although legislation moving through the budget reconciliation process is immune to a 60-vote filibuster by the GOP minority, its passage through the evenly split upper chamber requires the support of every member of the Senate Democratic Caucus—including Manchin and fellow conservative Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), another leading saboteur of the Build Back Better Act.

"Some important parts of the president's agenda became law with the infrastructure bill, but we campaigned on doing even more," said Tlaib. "Roads and bridges are critical, but so are childcare and prescription drugs—and we shouldn't have to choose."

Tlaib warned that "Republicans are trying to destroy the political power of working-class families and they're willing to tear down our democracy to do it. They say the violent insurrection on January 6th is 'legitimate political expression' and that corporate Super PAC spending dominating our elections is just free speech."

"While we continue building support in Congress," said Tlaib, "President Biden can use his executive power to take action right now to deliver for the people."

According to Tlaib—who emphasized that Democrats must demonstrate a strong commitment to working people to better the party's odds in the rapidly approaching midterm elections and beyond—Biden can:

Cancel federal student debt, which would be a lifeline for millions of Americans and a transformative economic stimulus;

Ban federal fossil fuel leasing and drilling, direct federal agencies to reject permits for new fossil fuel projects, and regulate carbon emissions;

Fix our labor rules to allow more workers to access overtime pay;

Change how we calculate the poverty line, so that more Americans become eligible for lifesaving federal benefits; and

Take action to break up pharmaceutical monopolies and make lifesaving medicines affordable.

Along similar lines, Sondra Youdelman, campaigns director at People's Action, said in a statement that "these are tough times for the multiracial working class, and we are looking to elected officials we fought for in 2020 to fight for us."

"President Biden's call to cap insulin costs and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices is spot-on," said Youdelman. "But right now, corrupt politicians in Congress are blocking progress. President Biden must stand up to Big Pharma and use his executive power to break pharma monopolies and get communities the prescription drugs they need."

"It's time for President Biden to stop equivocating and fully embrace every tool at his disposal to end the fossil fuel era."

Youdelman also urged Biden to "cancel student debt through executive action and provide urgent relief for millions of borrowers." Noting that Biden promised on the campaign trail "to forgive at least a portion of education-related debt," she said that "it's time to deliver."

Biden's address came on the heels of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) dire new report, which warns that there is "a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all." It also came amid Russia's war on Ukraine, which is connected to the political economy of energy in Europe.

In addition to the IPCC's latest evaluation of the devastating consequences that can be expected if policymakers fail to adequately confront the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis, "the horrors the world is witnessing in Ukraine should be a clarion call to end our global dependence on fossil fuels and the petrostates they prop up," said Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity.

"Fossil fuels have driven conflict, human rights abuses, and ecological catastrophes around the world for decades. It's time for President Biden to stop equivocating and fully embrace every tool at his disposal to end the fossil fuel era," added Suckling, whose organization is part of a coalition that has given the White House a roadmap for how to fully utilize the executive branch to address the climate emergency.

Youdelman, for her part, said that "we need our elected officials to reclaim some of the ambition and urgency we had in the aftermath of our coalition defeating Trump together."

"President Biden must seize the moment with strong executive actions that he can take immediately on these issues," said Youdelman. "And the politicians who are stalling in Congress need to get out of the way."

Tlaib Says Democrats Must Elect 'Next Generation of Working Class Champions'

"I want us to imagine a government where corporate donors don't drive healthcare, climate, education and poverty policies," said the Michigan congresswoman. "Where the working families of our nation really call the shots."


Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) speaks at a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on February 27, 2019. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

JULIA CONLEY

March 2, 2022

Responding to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday night, Rep. Rashida Tlaib echoed the president's own call for new investments in working families, emphasizing that the past year has shown Biden's "visionary" economic agenda will only be realized if Democrats elect more lawmakers who will prioritize people over corporate profits.

In his address to Congress, Biden did not mention the stalled Build Back Better Act by name but spoke about the need to cut child care costs for families and extend the expanded Child Tax Credit, pass paid family leave, allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices, and pass other provisions contained in the bill.

"The midterm elections are coming up fast—and this year we can elect the Working Families majority we need."

While Republicans and right-wing Democrats including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) refused to back the broadly popular proposals, Tlaib said, "no one fought harder for President Biden’s agenda than progressives."

"But two forces stood in the way: A Republican Party that serves only the rich and powerful, and just enough corporate-backed Democratic obstructionists to help them succeed," the Michigan Democrat added.

To ensure Congress works on behalf of working people instead of corporations and the richest political donors, she said, Democrats must look beyond "blocking the far right" in 2022 and future elections.

"We also need to elect the next generation of working families champions," the congresswoman said.

The State of the Union and Tlaib's response, given on behalf of the Working Families Party, came as voters in Texas went to the polls to vote in the 2022 midterm primary elections.

Former Austin council member Greg Casar, a Medicare for All advocate, easily won the Democratic primary in the newly-formed 35th congressional district, while immigration and human rights attorney Jessica Cisneros came within two points of beating anti-choice Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who has represented the 28th district since 2005. Cisneros and Cuellar will face each other in a runoff in May.

Other progressive advocates for working families running this year include Summer Lee in Pennsylvania, Odessa Kelly in Tennessee, Kina Collins in Illinois, and Rana Abdelhamid in New York.

"I want us to imagine a government where corporate donors don't drive healthcare, climate, education and poverty policies. Where the working families of our nation really call the shots," said Tlaib. "It's time we had a majority in Congress to fight for us—a working families majority."

Tlaib faced criticism from right-wing Democrats and "sensational coverage" in the corporate media ahead of her address—despite the fact that progressives have responded to the State of the Union on behalf of the Working Families Party in the past.

Contrary to right-wing Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer's claim that her speech was akin to "keying your own car," Tlaib praised the president for passing coronavirus relief and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act urged the passage of more relief for Americans, saying progressives are "ready to jumpstart our work again."

"Roads and bridges are critical, but so are child care and prescription drugs—and we shouldn't have to choose," the congresswoman said. "With the majority of the Build Back Better agenda stalled, Mr. President, the work is unfinished... We still have time to lower costs for working families and preserve a livable planet for our grandchildren—but we have to act now."

Tlaib concluded her address with a call for grassroots organizers to work on the ground to elect candidates like Casar, Cisneros, and other progressives in November.

"The midterm elections are coming up fast—and this year we can elect the Working Families majority we need," Tlaib said. "It starts with staying engaged and voting—in every election, in every primary—for candidates who will put working people first."
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Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Social media users in China are obsessing over Russian cats being banned from international competitions following the invasion of Ukraine

Cheryl Teh

Wed, March 2, 2022

A male Russian Blue cat seen at the GCCF 100 Year Celebration Show in Kenilworth, England, on August 14, 2021.Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images

• Amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, users of China's Twitter-like Weibo platform have been fixated on Russian cats.

• On Wednesday, the hashtag "Russian cats are banned" went viral on Weibo.

• The trending topic concerns the banning of Russian cats from international cat shows.

As the world bears witness to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, social media users in China have been fixated on an unlikely topic — Russian cats.

The search term "Russian cats are banned" went viral on China's Twitter-like Weibo on Wednesday, receiving more than 118 million views in 24 hours. The trending topic also spawned close to 170,000 topic threads overnight.

At the heart of all the furor is the Fédération Internationale Féline's (FiFe) decision to ban Russian cats from participating in international cat shows.

In a statement on Tuesday, the FiFe board said it was "shocked and horrified" by the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine and highlighted the "destruction and chaos caused by this unprecedented act of aggression."

Fife — a federation of cat fancier organizations and member of the World Cat Congress — also banned any cat bred in Russia from being registered in any FiFe pedigree book outside of the country. The group also banned all cats belonging to Russian exhibitors from being entered in any cat fancier competitions.

"The Board of FIFe feels it cannot just witness these atrocities and do nothing," wrote the organization in its statement.

In response, Chinese web users on Weibo expressed their disapproval of the ban.

"Even cats, dogs, chickens, pigs, and geese, have nationalities? Even cockroaches and bugs have national allegiances? This is thought of by the West!" wrote another Weibo commenter.

"This organization is using a ban on cats as a demonstration of its integrity when it's doing evil!" read another comment in the topic thread.

According to reporting from Newsweek, some Russian cat breeds rank among the world's most expensive. Siberian cats, for instance, can cost around $1,000 to $2,000, while Russian Blues and Peterbald cats can fetch up to $3,000.

China has walked a fine line after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, refusing to condemn Russia for its military assault. However, Chinese tech companies have been divided in their response to the invasion.

Insider's live blog of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is covering developments as they happen.

There’s Not Enough Extra Canadian Wheat to Fill Global Shortfall



Jen Skerritt
Wed, March 2, 2022, 2:09 PM·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- One of the world’s top wheat exporters won’t be able to fill supply shortfalls caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after drought withered its own grain inventories.

Dry conditions zapped as much as 40% of Western Canada’s grain output, and finding additional supplies to export would be a “struggle,” said Phil Speiss, commodity futures broker for RBC Dominion Securities in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Stockpiles of wheat in Canada dwindled to 15.6 million tons at the end of December, down 38% from a year earlier, government data show.

“Most of the grain we have in Canada is spoken for already,” Dean Dias, head of Winnipeg-based Cereals Canada, said Wednesday by phone. “We are already in short supply.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is expected to stifle shipments from some of the world’s biggest suppliers and has sent prices soaring. Wheat futures in Chicago rose by the exchange limit for the third straight day Wednesday to $10.59 a bushel, the highest price since March 2008. The current price and supply squeeze may send a signal to Canadian farmers to seed more wheat in 2022, Dias said.

India relies on Ukraine for sunflower oil imports, buyers may have to look elsewhere

REUTERS/VALENTYN OGIRENKO

Sunflowers in the Kiev region of Ukraine.

By Clarisa Diaz
QUATZ
Things Reporter

Ukraine supplies over half of the world’s crude sunflower and safflower oils. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising cooking oil prices, countries that use those oils may start to look for alternatives. The two oils—referred to as sun oils—are vegetable oils derived from the seeds of sunflower and safflower plants. The Black Sea region including Russia exports 80% of the world’s crude sun oil. With such a high concentration of the supply at risk, the war in Ukraine may increase demand for alternatives, like palm and soybean oils.

India’s demand for sunflower oil

India imports 76% of its sun oils from Ukraine, accounting for about a third of Ukraine’s exported supply.

Sunflower oil imports in India

The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, a vegetable oil industry group, said its members are considering sourcing cooking oil and oil seeds from other countries, particularly for southern India where sunflower oil is used the most. According to the group, alternatives include palm oil from Indonesia, canola oil from UAE, and sunflower oil from Russia. Russia is currently India’s second biggest sun oil supplier. Russia may set an oil seed production record this year, after preliminary data show a huge crop of sunflower, soybean, rapeseed, and linseed.

Argentina supplies mostly soy oil to India. India already buys 54% of Argentina’s crude soy oil exports so farmers there have an opportunity. That could mean growing more soy or turning to sunflowers, if farmers are incentivized to grow it.

India’s demand for sunflower oil

India imports 76% of its sun oils from Ukraine, accounting for about a third of Ukraine’s exported supply.

Exxon plans hydrogen and carbon-capture/storage plant near HoustonSabrina Valle

Tue, March 1, 2022, 

By Sabrina Valle

HOUSTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. on Tuesday said it plans a hydrogen production plant and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at its Baytown refinery near Houston, Texas, an effort to reduce its carbon footprint while earning a profit.

The complex would be Exxon's first contribution to a cross-industry effort to create a $100 billion carbon capture and storage zone along the Houston Ship Channel, the so-called Houston Hub.

A final investment decision is expected in two to three years and is pending regulatory permits and engineering studies, according to Ed Graham, vice president of Exxon's Low Carbon Solutions venture. The largest U.S. producer has allocated $15 billion in initiatives to lower carbon emissions over a six-year period.

"This is a significant step for efforts to decarbonize the existing industry," Graham told Reuters. "This is both in the petrochemical and ultimately into cement and steel, which are hard to abate".

The project will help Exxon to meet its target to achieve net zero carbon emissions for its global operations while making money to shareholders at the same time, Graham said. The profitability of the project will be considered for a final investment decision, he said, declining to comment on numbers.

"That's our challenge to the energy transition, to find that right balance," Graham said.

The proposed hydrogen facility would produce up to 1 billion cubic feet per day of the so-called "blue" hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas and supported by carbon capture and storage.

Climate activists are pushing for more companies to produce "green hydrogen" from electrolysis because blue hydrogen still requires the use of fossil fuels.

The carbon capture infrastructure for this project would have the capacity to transport and store up to 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year, Exxon said.

The company is considering onshore and offshore locations along the Gulf of Mexico to store the carbon, Graham said. (Reporting by Sabrina Valle; Editing by David Gregorio)

THE REALITY IS THAT CCS IS NOT GREEN NOR CLEAN IT IS GOING TO BE USED TO FRACK OLD DRY WELLS SUCH AS IN THE BAKAN SHIELD IN SASKATCHEWAN
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-myth-of-carbon-capture-and-storage.html

ALSO SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CCS

Mexico won't impose sanctions on Russia, López Obrador says

Tue, March 1, 2022



Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Tuesday his country won't impose economic sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

"We are not going to take any sort of economic reprisal because we want to have good relations with all the governments in the world," López Obrador said at his daily news conference.

López Obrador was internally criticized for his reluctance to condemn the unprovoked invasion, with initial official Mexican reactions calling for dialogue between the parties.

A day after hostilities broke out, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard issued a statement condemning the Russian attack.

Mexico was among the 11 United Nations Security Council members to vote for a resolution condemning Russia's actions late last week.

Russia vetoed that resolution, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstained.

Still, López Obrador on Tuesday seemed to sympathize with Russia's position, declining the possibility of imposing sanctions and segueing into what he called "censorship" of Russian state media.

López Obrador laid out his stance on sanctions in response to a question on Russian company Lukoil's local investments and Aeroflot's operations in Mexico.

His refusal to impose sanctions is rhetorical, as he lacks the power to impose sanctions akin to those imposed by Washington and some European capitals.

Mexico's sanctions regime is limited to restrictions on individuals and entities from accessing the local financial system in cases of money laundering and terrorist financing, and not geared toward broad financial restrictions with geopolitical reach.

‘Comrade Texas’: Video of American on Russian frontline provokes anger


Gino Spocchia
Wed, March 2, 2022, 

An American man allegedly wanted by the US Marshals Service has been condemned for appearing on the Russian “frontline” in Ukraine.

Russell Bonner Bentley III, who goes by the name “Comrade Texas“ or “Tejas” in Russia, was seen talking-up the Kremlin’s chances of “liberating” Ukraine from “Nazis” in a recent video.

“It’s Tejas on the front line with the deNazifiers and liberators of Ukraine,” Mr Bentley said while standing in front of Russian tanks on Monday. “These guys are tough, these guys are ready, and there’s plenty of them”.

He continued by saying that Russia was “ready to bring the hammer down” on the “bad guys”, and air-kicked an imaginary Ukrainian.

His remarks mirrored those of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who has styled his war on Ukraine as a “military operation” to “deNazify” an “anti-Russian” country run by a Jewish man who speaks Russian as well as Ukrainian.

While “Tejas’s” video from the “frontline” was taken down on YouTube by Wednesday – more than 2 million Twitter users had seen the video after it was shared by user “Bad Weapons Takes”.

The account wrote along with the video of the Texan: “That feeling when the weird uncle you only see at Thanksgiving turns up in Ukraine”.

“This guy thinks he’s killing Nazis, but in reality he’s doing a Tsar’s bidding in doing imperialism,” an enraged Twitter user added.



“Between this and the butchers from Chechnya, Putin’s becoming a low-rent Sauron, summoning evil and stupid people from all over the world to aide his cause,” argued another.

According to o Texas Monthly, Mr Bentley was wanted by the US Marshals Service for drug trafficking, and also ran for a Senate seat on a pro-marijuana platform, before leaving the US for Russia following the Kremlin’s invasion of Crimea, a southern peninsula of Ukraine.

Mr Bentley – or “Comrade Texas” – reportedly served time in prison in the US, although it was unclear what for.

The US Marshals Service was approached for comment by The Independent.

  

 

Nestor Makhno: The Struggle Against the State

Nestor Makhno

Nestor Makhno (1888-1934) is a controversial figure in the history of the anarchist movement. For three years he led a guerrilla army campaign in Ukraine during the civil war that followed the 1917 Russian Revolution. He would sometimes summarily execute counter-revolutionaries, and his army conscripted some of its members. On the other hand, when his forces liberated a village or town from the control of the Czarists (the “Whites”) or from the Bolsheviks (the “Reds”), they would reopen the presses and meeting halls shut down by those forces and free everyone from the local jails. With his comrade, Peter Arshinov, and some other anarchists, he helped craft the “Organizational Platform of the Libertarian Communists,” which called on anarchists to form a federalist revolutionary organization based on collective responsibility, which some anarchists regarded as a vanguard organization that would function more like a revolutionary socialist party than a federalist anarchist organization. Around the same time as the Platform appeared, Makhno published this essay on the struggle against the State, summarizing his views on the tasks ahead based on the lessons of the Russian Revolution. I included excerpts from the Platform and responses from some of its critics, including Malatesta and Voline, in Volume One of Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, as well as some proclamations by the Makhnovist army and excerpts from Arshinov’s history of the Makhnovist movement.

The Struggle Against the State

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE STATE

The fact that the modern State is the organizational form of an authority founded upon arbitrariness and violence in the social life of toilers is independent of whether it may be “bourgeois” or “proletarian.” It relies upon oppressive centralism, arising out of the direct violence of a minority deployed against the majority In order to enforce and impose the legality of its system, the State resorts not only to the gun and money, but also to potent weapons of psychological pressure. With the aid of such weapons, a tiny group of politicians enforces psychological repression of an entire society, and, in particular, of the toiling masses, conditioning them in such a way as to divert their attention from the slavery instituted by the State.

So it must be clear that if we are to combat the organized violence of the modern State, we have to deploy powerful weapons appropriate to the magnitude of the task.

Thus far, the methods of social action employed by the revolutionary working class against the power of the oppressors and exploiters — the State and Capital — in conformity with libertarian ideas, were insufficient to lead the toilers on to complete victory.

It has come to pass in history that the workers have defeated Capital, but the victory then slipped from their grasp because some State power emerged, amalgamating the interests of private capital and those of State capitalism for the sake of success over the toilers.

The experience of the Russian revolution has blatantly exposed our shortcomings in this regard. We must not forget that, but should rather apply ourselves to identifying those shortcomings plainly.

We may acknowledge that our struggle against the State in the Russian revolution was remarkable, despite the disorganization by which our ranks were afflicted: remarkable above all insofar as the destruction of that odious institution is concerned.

But, by contrast, our struggle was insignificant in the realm of construction of the free society of toilers and its social structures, which might have ensured that it prospered beyond reach of the tutelage of the State and its repressive institutions.

The fact that we libertarian communists or anarcho-syndicalists failed to anticipate the sequel to the Russian revolution, and that we failed to make haste to devise new forms of social activity in time, led many of our groups and organizations to dither yet again in their political and socio-strategic policy on the fighting front of the Revolution.

If we are to avert a future relapse into these same errors, when a revolutionary situation comes about, and in order to retain the cohesion and coherence of our organizational line, we must first of all amalgamate all of our forces into one active collective, then without further ado, define our constructive conception of economic, social, local and territorial units, so that they are outlined in detail (free soviets), and in particular describe in broad outline their basic revolutionary mission in the struggle against the State. Contemporary life and the Russian revolution require that.

Those who have blended in with the very ranks of the worker and peasant masses, participating actively in the victories and defeats of their campaign, must without doubt come to our own conclusions, and more specifically to an appreciation that our struggle against the State must be carried on until the State has been utterly eradicated: they will also acknowledge that the toughest role in that struggle is the role of the revolutionary armed force.

It is essential that the action of the Revolution’s armed forces be linked with the social and economic unit, wherein the labouring people will organize itself from the earliest days of the revolution onwards, so that total self-organization of life may be introduced, out of reach of all statist structures.

From this moment forth, anarchists must focus their attention upon that aspect of the Revolution. They have to be convinced that, if the revolution’s armed forces are organized into huge armies or into lots of local armed detachments, they cannot but overcome the State’s incumbents and defenders, and thereby bring about the conditions needed by the toiling populace supporting the revolution, so that it may cut all ties with the past and look to the final detail of the process of constructing a new socio-economic existence.

The State will, though, be able to cling to a few local enclaves and try to place multifarious obstacles in the path of the toilers’ new life, slowing the pace of growth and harmonious development of new relationships founded on the complete emancipation of man.

The final and utter liquidation of the State can only come to pass when the struggle of the toilers is oriented along the most libertarian lines possible, when the toilers will themselves determine the structures of their social action. These structures should assume the form of organs of social and economic self-direction, the form of free “anti-authoritarian” soviets. The revolutionary workers and their vanguard — the anarchists — must analyze the nature and structure of these soviets and specify their revolutionary functions in advance. It is upon that, chiefly, that the positive evolution and development of anarchist ideas, in the ranks of those who will accomplish the liquidation of the State on their own account in order to build a free society, will be dependent.

Dyelo Truda No.17, October 1926

Makhnovist Flag (trans.)

https://robertgraham.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/nestor-makhno-the-struggle-against-the-state/