This article <https://oaklandsocialist.com/2024/03/18/putin-draws-the-left-into-the-far-right/> should be corrected where it says the statement <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1z8M5w52DSTvVOIO5568NgeVsM15DdRo1YYEtYMsn_jo/edit> of the Ukraine Solidarity Network (USN) on the 2nd anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine "doesn’t mention … that USN supports Ukraine’s right to get arms from any available source." In fact, the statement says, “... the Ukrainian people have the right to defend themselves against Russian imperialist invaders and to get the weapons they need anywhere they can."
The paragraph criticizing my approach in debates on Ukraine with Margaret Kimberley and Jill Stein focuses on the fact that I did not criticize Margaret Kimberley’s participation in a 2016 conference in Russia sponsored by the Kremlin-funded Anti-Globalisation Movement of Russia that included fascists as well as campist “leftists” or Jill Stein’s participation in the RT 10th anniversary conference in Moscow in 2015. John Reimann says "In a subsequent discussion with this writer, Hawkins explained his failure as being due to not wanting to burn his bridges with these people." The people I said I did not want to burn bridges with were the audiences of these debates, many of whom did not have well-developed positions on Ukraine. I said I did not believe criticizing Kimberley and Stein ad hominem would be persuasive with those audiences. I said I wanted to persuade people by focusing on the genocidal nature of Russia’s attempt to recolonize Ukraine and on why we should support Ukraine’s war of self-defense against Russian aggression. John did bring up Kimberley’s and Stein’s participation in these conferences in the debates' online chats. The responses, as I anticipated, were mostly condemnation of the personal attacks, not of the excuses for Russian imperialism of Kimberley and Stein. I think our differences here are about the tactics of how to debate the campists, not over whether their positions undermine the politics and credibility of the socialist left. — Howie Hawkins -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29672): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29672 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105149560/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
