Ending the Imperialist War in Ukraine
A peace that perpetuates empire is no peace at all.
We unite with people around the world in their deep desire for peace.
The anti-war movement we need must be organized around three minimum principles:
Dissolve NATO
Demilitarize Europe
Destroy all nuclear weapons
We see the global ravages of imperialism, and we are prepared to fight for the common humanity of all people.
In just the last twenty years, the world has known an unyielding tide of brutal wars – from Libya, Afghanistan, and Syria, to Iraq, Palestine, Ethiopia, Yemen, and more. In the last eighteen months there were five coups across Africa. U.S.-imposed sanctions have created a humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, an act of war that has destabilized the entire continent.
The U.S. continues to militarize Europe, building new military installations ever closer to Russia, recently authorizing a new base with nuclear capabilities a mere 100 miles from the Polish-Russian border. Ukraine has been forced into a death chamber, suspended between U.S. and Russian spheres of influence as tensions mount due to the aggressive expansion of NATO.
Collectively, the world’s nuclear powers continue to hold humanity hostage with threats of total annihilation.
Peace is not enough, we must fight for life after empire.
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The Russian invasion inspired what Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has called “the big anti-war coalition that unites many countries.”
This multinational anti-war coalition not only seized the assets of Russian billionaires but also imposed broad sanctions on the Russian economy.
This anti-war coalition has supplied Ukraine with billions of dollars in arms, spurring an arms race in Europe. Germany is now doubling its military spending to form its largest force since the Nazi period, and what is expected to be the largest military in Europe.
This anti-war coalition is now agitating for the U.S. and NATO to enforce a no-fly-zone in Ukraine, a massive escalation of the war that would require shooting down Russian planes and bombing Russian air installations. NATO members Estonia, Lithuania, and Slovenia have already passed parliamentary resolutions to that effect.
In his remarks to the U.S. Congress, President Zelenskyy acknowledged the antiwar coalition, but concluded, “We need to move on and do more.” He then invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech shortly before demanding the formation of a new U.S.-led global police force which could militarily intervene anywhere in the world to “keep the peace.”
The present anti-war coalition is not the anti-war movement we need.
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It should not be a surprise that calls for peace can obscure escalations of war.
The week before invading Iraq, U.S. President George Bush declared that the “cause of peace” required preemptive war.
The relevant question is peace for whom and to what end?
The U.S. is the primary steward and chief enforcer of the imperial system. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, U.S. policy has been defined by the belligerent expansion of its global sphere of influence.
Russia seeks to preserve its own marginal sphere of influence and revise its place as a junior partner within the imperial world order. Despite clashing with U.S. interests, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an expression of the imperialist order and not a break with the system.
Opposition to imperialism, by default, requires confrontation with U.S. hegemony. But not every conflict with the U.S. is an attack on imperialism.
It doesn’t matter which hegemon predominates in the imperial system. Whether it’s Russia, China, the U.S., or some other imperial accommodation, the wars wouldn’t stop.
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The anti-war movement we need cannot triangulate between imperial rivals, but must instead uphold the struggle for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.
The anti-war movement we need must reject all imperial accommodations and privileges.
We will not join our nation’s rulers in antagonizing their imperial rivals.
We will fight the real enemy.
What is peace without liberation?
A peace that perpetuates empire is no peace at all.
We call on the people of all nations to transform the demand for international peace into a fight for a world beyond empire.
Peace to the streets, war on the palaces.
After Empire is a partisan think tank and cultural institute dedicated to resolving the big contradictions of our shared world and advancing social life beyond the exploitation, degradation, and exclusion fostered by imperialism. After Empire seeks to unite with all people who desire a liberated society.