Please note that this is an old entry, drafted in early 2024 but left unpublished until now. It is being added to UKR-TAZ in order to be readable as an archived piece. That said, very little has changed in the global situation since the interview was conducted — which says something in itself.
The Belgian analytical review Politique has published an excellent and wide-ranging interview with Ukrainian historian and left-wing activist Hanna Perekhoda. The interview covers many of the angles on the Russo-Ukrainian war that UKR-TAZ has covered over the last few years. It’s in French. Here are some excerpts, in translation. (The translation is mostly Google’s, with occasional corrections of my own.)
On the shared interests of the anti-authoritarian left in Ukraine and Russia:
The demand we share, both the Ukrainian left and the anti-authoritarian left in Russia, is the defeat of the Putin regime. On the one hand, this regime is massacring Ukrainians, and on the other, it is sending hundreds of thousands of Russians, like cannon fodder, into a war they have no reason to wage. If we stand in solidarity with our class and not with the revanchist great powers that present themselves as “humiliated,” we have every interest in supporting the Ukrainians who are defending themselves against imperialist aggression, as well as the Russians who refuse to go to a foreign country to kill. There are several organizations in Russia that understand this, but what surprises us is that many organizations in Europe seem not to understand this… Sotsialnyi Rukh and the Russian Socialist Movement even published a joint manifesto at the very beginning of the invasion, but apparently the opinions of Ukrainian and Russian socialists count less than those of geopolitical experts who have never set foot in Ukraine or Russia.
On the western left’s “westsplaining” misinterpretations of the war, and the ideal of a multipolar world:
It is easier [fro some on the left] to believe that the West, and especially the United States, is behind all the wars on the planet than to assume that non-Western countries can act on their own. According to this logic, even the Russian state lacks its own capacity for action and can only act in response to the actions of the omnipotent West. It is the only real actor in history, whether evil or good. […]
Some left-wing activists in Europe, too busy challenging American hegemony, visibly feel closer to Putin, Xi, or [Iran’s] Raisi than to the workers who resist these dictators and fight for freedom and dignity, often at the cost of their lives. If we think in terms of class solidarity and not in terms of state interests, how then can we not stand in solidarity with those who fight for their freedom, whether against the imperialism of the United States or that of China or Russia?
To welcome the rise of non-Western imperialisms because they present a so-called “multipolar” alternative to Western hegemony would be, above all, irresponsible towards those who will actually experience the consequences of this “multipolar” world, whose emergence involves wars and the strengthening of dictatorships. I mean that these people who live peacefully in rich countries protected by the NATO dome do not suffer the consequences of what they defend as the “multipolar world.” But it is the Ukrainians, the Syrians, the Kurds, the Uighurs who are already paying the price of this “multipolarity.”
On the ostensible power of right-wing nationalism in Ukraine:
It is worth recalling that Zelensky is a Russian-speaking Jew, who didn’t even speak Ukrainian before being democratically elected president. Unlike previous presidents, Zelensky emphasized unity between Ukraine’s different regions, between Russian-speakers and Ukrainian-speakers, going against the ethnonationalist narrative. And yet, more than 70% of the Ukrainian population voted for him. Strange for a country that is presented as right-wing nationalist, isn’t it? The far right, despite having an electoral coalition, was unable to obtain more than 2% in the last parliamentary elections. Do I need to remind you of the score of far-right candidates in many European countries? […]
The violent and vengeful far right, as you say, is indeed in power, but not in Ukraine, it is in power in Russia, where things have gone from a neoliberal form of authoritarianism to a form of fascist dictatorship.
On what’s at stake in this war:
if Putin gets his way, regimes resembling Putin’s will become the norm. This would send a signal to all aggressors around the world that it is now legitimate and acceptable to resolve issues of internal political legitimacy through wars of aggression. If we do not act, we will wake up to a world where all the countries that consider themselves great powers will try to redistribute spheres of influence—in other words, we will wake up to a world of generalized and total wars.
The interview also includes insightful comments on pacifism, Palestinian-Ukrainian solidarity, and the specifics of Switzerland, where Perekhoda has been living.
The entire interview can be read here.
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