The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 12th May 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Week commencing 12th May 2023
The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain
Russians celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany this week with traditional parades and commemorations across the country. On the front-line it was business as usual, however, with Russian air-raids and missile attacks on strategic targets in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and many other towns and cities throughout the country. Constant artillery exchanges rock the entire 800-mile front-line as the Wagner forces, Russia’s ‘foreign legion’, push on to drive the Ukrainians out of their last remaining foot-hold in the Donbas city of Bakhmut.
Russia celebrated Victory Day with an annual military parade in Moscow’s Red Square on Tuesday. The leaders of some of the former Soviet republics, including the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, along with the prime minister of Armenia, were there together with Putin to see this Russian show of strength and lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin.
In a 10-minute address Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia wanted a peaceful future. He compared the Soviet victory in 1945 to the Russian forces battling against the "cult of Nazism" that exists today in Ukraine. "Civilisation again finds itself at a decisive, critical moment. A real war has again been launched against our motherland."
The Russian leader said all this is being done by the USA and allies in order to “further dictate their will, their rights and their rules”, and to implement what is basically “a system of robbery, violence and suppression” on the international stage. “It seems that they have forgotten what the insane ambitions of the Nazis led to. They have forgotten who defeated this monstrous, total evil,” he stressed. Now “a real war has been unleashed against out Motherland. But we resisted international terrorism. We’ll also defend the residents of Donbas and assure our security”.
At a wreath-laying ceremony on the eve of Victory Day, Russian communist leader Gennady Zyuganov said: “We are the heirs of victorious fathers and grandfathers. We, the Communists, have always been in the forefront of the struggle against fascism…
“Today, the main terrorists on the planet are the Americans. The main financial terrorist is the dollar. The main rapists are Nazis, fascists and Banderaists. And we must understand perfectly well that we are continuing the great work of our victorious fathers and grandfathers.
“Today, people expect a new victory from us, from all the people's patriotic forces. I want to thank the guys who are now sitting in the trenches, all those who defend our Motherland, working at the enterprises of the military-industrial complex. Solidarity, cohesion and victory are the three main slogans that will help us win. And this victory is awaited by all honest people on the planet.”
People’s China, meanwhile, is leading diplomatic moves to end the fighting with a 12-point peace plan that reflects the mediation efforts of Brazil and Turkey and been viewed favourably in Moscow. Needless to say, the Chinese proposal was rejected outright by Anglo-American imperialism.
This road-map to end the conflict was top of the agenda when Chinese leader Xi Jinping met French president Emmanuel Macron in Beijing last month. Even Vladimir Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, welcomed a handful of its points when he spoke to Xi Jinping on the phone last month. But Zelensky is a US pawn and the Americans won’t consider anything short of the total defeat of the Russian Federation at the moment.
The Biden administration still believes it can force Russia to its knees. Biden says he will continue supplying Ukraine with weapons “for as long as it takes” to achieve its war aims. But Biden may have to think again if the much-touted new Ukrainian offensive fails.
Henry Kissinger, the veteran US foreign minister during the Nixon era, certainly thinks so. He says that Chinese-brokered peace talks could begin by the end of 2023. "Now that China has entered the negotiation, it will come to a head, I think by the end of the year," Kissinger said. By that time, "we will be talking about negotiating processes and even actual negotiations".