DSA: Peace In Ukraine

The war in Ukraine is a disaster for working class people in Ukraine, the region, and a terrible threat to us all, including increasing the danger of nuclear war and exacerbating global economic crises. We oppose the Russian invasion and call for the withdrawal of Russian troops through a settled ceasefire agreement. We recognize that the expansion of NATO and the aggressive approach of Western nations have helped cause the crisis and we demand an end to NATO expansion. We also oppose US and NATO military interventionism and the tens of billions in military aid and weapons shipments which only further exacerbates the war and undermine a negotiated settlement, as well as sanctions that will harm ordinary Russians. We call on the US and other countries to welcome refugees fleeing the war and provide needed humanitarian aid.

Join us as we build a mass unified global anti-war response to say No to War in Ukraine; Yes to Diplomacy and Peace.

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DSA Webinar (8/28)
Contact Congress
NO to NATO (5/24)
Chomsky Video (5/11)
DSA Statement (2/26)
IC Statement (1/31)
Protests & Rallies
Resources & Actions

The War in Ukraine, Impacts and Perspectives: Women, Workers, and Global South

August 28, 2022

Join us for an anti-war DSA webinar on the war in Ukraine and its impacts on women, workers, and the global south. The event features left perspectives from Ukraine, the region, and others who will talk on opposition to militarism, regional anti-war organizing, and what a resolution to end the war and avoid a larger conflict could look like.

Panelists:

Demand Diplomacy, Not Military Escalations

The U.S. government has so far approved $115 billion in response to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, nearly $70 billion of which has been for weapons and military aid. Congress recently approved an Omnibus Bill with a record high $860 billion military budget, and a new $47 billion aid package to Ukraine, $29 billion of it for military spending. This foreign military assistance has made Ukraine the largest recipient of U.S. military assistance in the past century, more than Russia’s entire yearly military budget.

We recognize the urgent need for humanitarian aid, but we are deeply concerned that continued massive military spending and weapons shipments create a protracted war drive and undermine a negotiated settlement. Nearly half of Ukrainians in the war torn areas of the country agree with the need for negotiations to reach a ceasefire. In order to attain peace through a ceasefire and a withdrawal of Russian troops the U.S. has to engage in serious diplomacy. We oppose escalations from the U.S., including further weapons shipments, for the following reasons:

  1. It will prolong and expand the war, resulting in more civilian deaths and exacerbating the impacts across the whole world for working people. U.S. military involvement risks dangerously escalating the conflict and increasing the dangers of nuclear catastrophe.
  2. It is funneling billions of taxpayer dollars to the Pentagon and the military industrial complex at a time when ordinary Americans are struggling to pay for their basic needs. This is a payout to weapons manufacturers and war profiteers, which will increase their lobbying power and further entrench militarism in American politics.
  3. Endless wars and militarism have diverted trillions of dollars into military spending. Billions of dollars are desperately needed to address vital American needs at home, such as an overburdened health care system, our affordable housing crisis, a failing education system, decaying public transit, and the existential threat of climate change.

Let us be as clear as possible: investing billions in yet another war is a slap in the face for working people everywhere. Congress has failed to pass legislation that addresses the rising costs of healthcare, housing, childcare, transportation, and food. This is an embarrassment and a failure.

Please write your representative and tell them to stand against rising militarism, to advocate for diplomacy and de-escalation, and to fight for an economy of peace that puts the needs of working-class people first.

Contact Congress

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Madrid Peace Summit 2022: NO to NATO

June 24-26

DSA International Committee is proud to be a co-sponsor and attendee of the 2022 Madrid Peace Summit, which was organized to counter the NATO summit in Madrid and highlight anti-war, left voices across Europe to call for an end to NATO expansionism and for peace in Europe.

Thousands take to streets against upcoming NATO summit in Madrid, Spain

Madrid Peace Summit

Solidarity Message to Russian Left Against the War in Ukraine

Speaker: Noam Chomsky
May 11, 2022

Noam Chomsky gives a solidarity message to people in Russia who are opposing the war in Ukraine even against their own government’s repression, and stresses the need to build a global anti-war movement that can oppose militarism and reject wars and instead put working-class interests first.

Peace In Ukraine Coalition

DSA International Committee is a proud coalition member of Peace in Ukraine, a large anti-war coalition that has been organizing to build a global anti-war response to the war in Ukraine by opposing further military escalations and provocations and demanding a diplomatic solution to end the war.

Peace In Ukraine

Peace In Ukraine Actions: DSA Chapters

San Francisco DSA
New Orleans DSA
Metro Cincinnati DSA
Akron DSA
East Bay & San Francisco DSA
Illinois DSA
San Marcos DSA

DSA Statement: On Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

February 26, 2022

The Democratic Socialists of America condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demands immediate diplomacy and de-escalation to resolve this crisis. We stand in solidarity with the working classes of Ukraine and Russia who will undoubtedly bear the brunt of this war, and with antiwar protestors in both countries and around the world who are calling for a diplomatic resolution.

This extreme and asymmetrical escalation is an illegal act under the United Nations Charter and severely threatens the livelihoods and well-being of working-class peoples in Ukraine, Russia, and across the region. We urge an immediate ceasefire and the total withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine.

There is no solution through war or further intervention. This crisis requires an immediate international antiwar response demanding de-escalation, international cooperation, and opposition to unilateral coercive measures, militarization, and other forms of economic and military brinkmanship that will only exacerbate the human toll of this conflict.

DSA reaffirms our call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict. We call on antiwar activists in the US and across the world to oppose violent escalations, demand a lasting diplomatic solution, and stress the crucial need to accept any and all refugees resulting from this crisis. Much of the next ten years are coming into view through this attack. While the failures of neoliberal order are clear to everyone, the ruling class is trying to build a new world, through a dystopic transition grounded in militarism, imperialism, and war. Socialists have a duty to build an alternative.

No war but class war.

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DSA IC opposes US militarization and interventionism in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and calls for an end to NATO expansionism

January 31, 2022

Ukrainian translation/ Переклад українською
Russian translation/ Русский перевод

Following months of increased tensions and a sensationalist Western media blitz drumming up conflict in the Donbas, the US government is responding to the situation in Ukraine through the familiar guise of threats of sweeping sanctions, provision of military aid, and increased military deployment to the region. The Democratic Socialists of America International Committee (DSA IC) opposes this ongoing US brinkmanship, which only further escalates the crisis, and reaffirms our previous statement saying no to NATO and its imperialist expansionism and disastrous interventions across the world.

The US has more than 70,000 active-duty troops deployed in Europe, over 6,000 of which are in Eastern Europe, with thousands more set for mobilization. These deployments, coupled with ongoing large scale US-led NATO military exercises, have escalated an already dangerously tense situation. Two recent shipments of hundreds of tons of weapons and ammunition were sent to Ukraine as part of a new $200M military aid package passed by the US government in December. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act similarly allocates another $300M in military aid to Ukraine and additional legislation for allocating another $500M is currently being rushed through Congress. The US has sent over $650M in military aid to Ukraine during the past year, and over $2.7B in total since the 2014 US-backed Maidan coup, which destabilized the country and resulted in the ongoing internal conflict between Kiev and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

NATO is a mechanism for US-led Western imperialist domination, fueling expansionism, militarization, and devastating interventions. From its original 12 founding members, the trans-Atlantic military alliance has grown to 30 countries today, with Ukraine and Georgia being among the latest proposed additions. This violates previous commitments against NATO’s eastward expansion and is a major source of increased tensions and military escalations across the region. While public sentiment in Ukraine remains contested, the interventionist moves by the US and its Western allies in the country, including stationing US troops in Ukraine and training far-right extremist groups with neo-Nazi sympathies such as the Azov Battallion, have worked to further degrade efforts to resolve the conflict. Similarly, NATO’s militarization in Ukraine and Eastern Europe has worsened the standoff between an emboldened NATO-backed Kiev and the Russian-supported separatist forces in Donbas.

The 2015 Minsk II agreement signed by France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine, and endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council, laid the mutually agreed upon groundwork to facilitate an end to the fighting in Donbas and implement the region’s autonomy within Ukraine. Various countering interpretations of the agreement as well as undermining of the general processes by the US, including supported influence of extremists Ukrainian nationalists, has resulted in a lack of implementation by the Ukrainian government, putting the conflict at an impasse. This has fueled fighting between the two sides with widespread destruction and countless civilian deaths in the contested region, 70% of which occurred on the non-government controlled side. With heightened military tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the situation calls for finding immediate mutually agreeable security measures to avoid any military breakout.

In order to de-escalate the crisis and avoid further conflict and death in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, DSA International Committee calls on the US to reverse its ongoing militarization in the region, avoid implementing sanctions against Russia, and uphold internationally agreed upon commitments to end NATO’s expansionist drive to provide guarantees that Ukraine will remain a neutral state. These measures are crucial for diplomacy to bring about a resolution to this conflict without it spiraling into a larger regional war between nuclear powers. We call on anti-war activists to be resolute in opposing military escalations and to demand a lasting diplomatic solution.

Read full DSA IC statement/ Ukrainian & Russian Translations

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