Denis Sultangaliev

Solutions from the left

Ideas for the post-war reconstruction

11 March 2022

This war that is affecting everyone has also united Ukrainians of completely different views. At the frontline and in the volunteer rear, in hospitals and in the diaspora – Ukrainian liberals, socialists, nationalists, anarchists, fascists, and above all people without ideological affiliation – are fighting imperialism. This is happening not because national identity is more important than a worldview, but because the ontological danger hangs over everyone equally. We all understand that if Ukraine is defeated, Putinism will destroy the very possibility of ideological distinctions, obliging us to follow its necrophilic truths.

However, we leftists should continue to look a step ahead and, in addition to our anti-imperialist struggle today, think about structural steps that could ensure the security of the Ukrainian economy. Martial law and left-wing economic initiatives coexist harmoniously because these ideas can be effective in the short-term, and war in return legitimizes them even in the eyes of people who do not share them in peacetime. The ideas that will be voiced here are not radical for wartime. Most of them have already been mentioned in the Ukrainian discourse: some at the level of parliament, some at the level of petitions.

The ideas presented here are quite obvious steps for the post-war period but are barely discussed seriously in ordinary peacetime. The Ukrainian war of liberation against the imperialist regime, in addition to terrible destruction, also carries a temporary fervor of solidarity. One of the main tasks of the Left must be to create a transit to peacetime that will allow us to preserve and cultivate the values that have made themselves known in times of crisis. We failed to do so in 2014, so we must not waste this chance in 2022.


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