By the European Secretariat of the IWL
Donald Trump’s abrupt turn in foreign policy has been exemplified by his stance toward Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, where he has closed ranks with Putin to force the capitulation of the Ukrainian government through the vilest blackmail. The aim is to force Ukraine to seal a colonial agreement in which Putin keeps Crimea and the Donbass, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, as he has had written in the Russian Constitution, and divide up the country’s wealth.
In addition to the plundering of Ukraine, Trump’s actions are part of his strategy to try to distance Russia from China and to weaken the European Union (EU) — the bloc of European imperialisms — by subjugating and humiliating it, promoting the far right within it, and pitting member countries against each other. At the same time, he is trying to legitimize its own aspirations for the annexation of the Panama canal, Canada, and Greenland.
Trump’s blackmail is also part of his plans to concentrate his forces against China in the Indo-Pacific. His policy in Ukraine is linked to demands on European NATO countries to substantially increase their military spending so that the U.S. can gradually withdraw its direct military presence in Europe over time.
The Trump-Putin colonial agreement exposes a large part of the European left
This agreement clearly demonstrates the fallacies of the post-Stalinist left, such as the Spanish Izquierda Unida, Rete dei comunisti (RdC) in Italy, or the PRCF in France, which supported the invasion of Ukraine by Putin’s dictatorial and bloodthirsty regime, reproducing its vile argument that Russia was seeking to denazify Ukraine and that it was an “anti-imperialist” movement against the USA and NATO. In doing so, they whitewashed Putin, friend and protector of the far right, and aligned themselves with Russian regional imperialism and its oligarchs, who are continuing the annexationism of tsarism and Stalin. They have also denied Ukraine its legitimate right to defend itself against imperialist aggression.
Their “theory of camps,” introduced by Stalin, according to which one had to be in one’s camp, which was always the “progressive” one (disregarding conflicting class interests), has been continued by the (post) Stalinists for many decades. They have relied on this theory again, arguing that Putin’s camp was the “anti-imperialist” and “progressive” camp. Now, with their announced support for the Trump-Putin plan, they have sided with U.S. imperialism and have been left without the “anti-imperialist” argument, exposing their moral and political poverty.
This agreement also exposes forces of the neo-reformist left, such as Podemos, Rifondazione Comunista (Italy) or FI (France) who, in the name of an empty pacifism, eliminated the heroic Ukrainian national liberation struggle from the scene. They turned the war into a mere conflict between powers, filling their mouths with abstract declarations of peace and cooperation between peoples and opposing the delivery of arms to Ukraine, thus favoring Putin. Now they buy into Trump’s cynical and disgusting discourse, which aims to make him appear as the great peacemaker. Once again, they have betrayed Ukraine’s right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In this hidden support for Putin we must also mention part of the so-called far left. Lutte Ouvrière sees Ukraine as the armed wing of the EU and has gone so far as to write that it would have been better if Putin had taken Kyiv at the beginning so that the war would have cost fewer lives. The current of Alan Woods (ex-IMT, now RCI) characterizes the war as imperialist and defends Russia’s aggression as a lesser evil. While the Trotskyist Fraction erases the Ukrainian people, denying their right to defend themselves, and while it does not defend Putin’s invasion, it considers it a proxy conflict with NATO.
In contrast to the campism and all of Putin’s avowed and unavowed friends, our support and solidarity with Ukraine in the context of this war of national liberation against the Russian invasion and plundering has always been carried out by denouncing the self-serving cynicism of the U.S. and Europe and without placing the slightest trust in Zelensky. Our internationalist solidarity with Ukraine is based on principled opposition to all imperialist blocs and on active support for national liberation struggles. And in that context we seek to build an independent working-class camp that fights for a revolutionary socialist program.
The EU’s rearmament plan
The EU, after Trump has scorned and humiliated it, is now justifying its greatest rearmament in decades, in the name of “defending Europe against Russia,” “becoming independent from the U.S.” and continuing “support for Ukraine.” They also talk about “defending freedom and peace.” All of these are lies, as we will try demonstrate below. Furthermore, this plan reflects an attempt to reposition the European imperialist bloc, which has been marginalized by the dispute between the U.S. and China.
The 27, under the impetus of Germany and France, have unanimously endorsed (not without internal discrepancies) Von der Leyen’s proposal to invest 800 billion euros in defense over the next four years, with the idea of increasing annual military spending to 3% or 3.5% of GDP. The majority (around 650 billion euros) would come from the national budgets of the Member States. To this end, they will activate an “escape clause” that will allow Member States to exclude military spending from the deficit limits allowed by the EU (3% of GDP). This means that, while the deficit must be complied with for education, health or employment, this will not be the case for armaments. Of particular note is Germany, whose parliament has approved a reform of the Constitution to enable it to carry out a massive increase in public debt that will allow it to make investments to reinforce its military forces.
Von der Leyen has also proposed a fund of 150 billion euros in loans to member states to “boost the European military industry.” Some countries, such as Spain, also want direct subsidies and talk of “expanding the concept of defense.”
Their ‘defense of Europe against Putin’ and ‘independence from the U.S.’ is false
Bourgeois propaganda hides the fact that the EU is not some oppressed entity that needs defending, but an imperialist bloc. After the war of aggression against Ukraine, fear of Russia is deeply felt in places like the Baltic States and also in Poland. Georgia and Moldova are directly in Putin’s sights. But neither the EU nor the U.S. have expressed their readiness to defend them from a Russian annexationist attack.
Nor can the Baltic States expect effective help from NATO if Trump agrees with Putin. The same goes for Greenland, which is currently part of the Kingdom of Denmark, if Trump takes it over militarily. NATO Secretary General Rutte has not said a word about it, despite the fact that Denmark belongs to the alliance.
Likewise, the supposed search for military independence from the U.S. mainly serves to justify the rearmament of European imperialism. And while it is true that Germany and France have a real desire to strengthen their military industry (against which we have to take an active stand), the main beneficiary of European rearmament is going to be the U.S. arms industry.
Currently there is a great deal of military fragmentation among the different European states, with no unity of command or prospect of any “European army,” since each imperialism has its own geopolitical interests and a differentiated relationship with U.S. imperialism.
In the words of the head of the ECB, the rearmament plan could give an economic boost to a stagnant Europe, a kind of military Keynesianism, a military version of the Draghi plan. The rearmament is attracting investors and several aerospace and defense companies saw their shares soar. But it is more than doubtful that the EU would openly challenge the U.S. and its American military industry and question its dominance in the international arms market.
A miserable and self-interested EU support of Ukraine
The EU and its member states claim to have supported Ukraine “more than anyone else.” But a study by the Kyiv Institute for World Economy, marking three years since the invasion, shows that Germany, the UK and the U.S. have mobilized less than 0.2 percent of their GDP to support Ukraine, while other countries such as France, Italy and Spain only allocated around 0.1 percent. Germany’s tax subsidies for diesel alone cost three times more than all of Germany’s military aid. The EU paid 21.9 billion euros for Russian fossil fuel imports in the third year of the invasion, considerably more than the 18.7 billion euros in financial aid sent to Ukraine in 2024.
The EU, like the U.S., has been delaying, haggling, and denying key military support to Ukraine during these three years of war, without providing the requested offensive weapons that could neutralize the Russian offensive. Its military aid was always delivered in dribs and drabs, with the purpose aiding Ukraine just enough to weaken Putin so that he could not win. The aim was not to defeat Putin, but to be able to reach an armistice (no doubt with Russian annexations) that would allow them to enter the reconstruction business in good conditions.
Now they have infamously applauded Zelensky’s ceasefire proposal, which is a direct result of U.S. blackmail, to which they too submit. And they are offering to place troops on the ground to “guarantee” the Trump-Putin agreement, in the hopes of coming to an agreement with Trump to share Ukraine’s wealth and to resume the purchases of Russian gas at previous levels. The AfD has even called for the reconstruction of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
Since the beginning of the large-scale aggression, Ukraine’s accumulated debts to the U.S., the EU, the ECB, the IMF and the World Bank have more than tripled to almost 90% of its GDP. The IMF and the World Bank continue to demand that the Ukrainian government pays its debt and carries out neoliberal reforms such as market deregulation, cuts in social spending, privatization of the transport and energy industries, etc. These are measures that Zelensky’s lackey government and the oligarchs they serve are applying by attacking the living conditions of the working class and the poor.
The EU has plundered Ukraine during this time through its financial institutions, including multinational companies such as Bayer and joint ventures with Ukrainian oligarchs. NATO and the EU only want to secure their imperialist interests by participating in the exploitation of Ukraine.
Those who have been and continue to be at the forefront of the struggle over the last three years are the working class, who have been drafted en masse into the army after the Russian invasion. It is not the aid received from the EU but the heroism of the Ukrainian working class that has managed to stop Putin at the cost of immense sacrifices. As long as the Ukrainian people do not give up, our task is to continue to support even more strongly the armed resistance of the Ukrainian people with its workers at the forefront!
A rearmament that is part of a reactionary package and makes clear the EU’s true colors
In an exercise of repugnant cynicism, they have also justified rearmament in the name of the defense of freedom and peace, at the same time as the EU and its governments have expressly supported the barbarity of the Palestinian genocide by Israel, which they arm and give political backing to, while harshly repressing mobilizations of solidarity with Palestine and branding them as anti-Semitic. Despite crocodile tears and lamentations, such as those of the Spanish government, they have all continued to allow the sale of arms to Israel and have refused to break diplomatic and economic relations with the Zionist state.
The European rearmament plan is not to guarantee peace but to prepare for future war and to intervene in conflicts outside the EU, wherever the interests of European multinationals are threatened. And, as it progresses, it will be accompanied by a reduction in social spending and an increase in taxes on the working class and the petty bourgeoisie, no matter how much some, like the cynical Sánchez, say, with deceptive formulas, that rearmament will not be to the detriment of social spending.
At the same time, they are stepping up xenophobic and racist measures against immigrants with expulsions, thousands drowned at sea, and the establishment—following the Meloni model which has been applauded by Von der Leyen—of deportation camps outside the EU’s borders, while at the same time they plunder the semi-colonial countries. Rearmament also goes hand in hand with a sharp decline in the already very lukewarm existing environmental measures.
There will be no freedom, peace, or prosperity in Europe with the EU. The alternative to this Europe at the service of capitalist oligopolies, which is unsupportive, antisocial and anti-ecological, is to fight for a Europe of the working class and the people, which can only emerge from the ashes of the current EU. We need a socialist federation where the strategic sectors of the economy are socialized, subject to workers’ and popular control, and at the service of a democratic planning of the economy to meet social needs and respond to the ongoing environmental crisis.
We must fight for a Europe in solidarity with the semi-colonial countries it has plundered for more than a century. What is at stake is not only the future of Ukraine, but that of all the peoples of Europe and their freedom.
No to the EU rearmament plan.
No to increased military spending!
Dissolution of NATO!
No to the professional army and its caste of officers! We cannot leave our defense and security in the hands of the EU and NATO. We need an army based on universal military training, sustained by the democratic principle of the armed people and controlled by them.
No to the Trump-Putin agreement to dismember and plunder Ukraine!
Trump, Putin and the EU: Hands off Ukraine!
Cancellation of the Ukrainian debt and transfer to Ukraine of the 200 billion Russian assets frozen in the EU!
All our support for trade unionism and social movements within Ukraine in their struggle against the Trump-Putin agreement and against Zelensky’s anti-worker and neoliberal measures!
Ukraine has every right to request and accept all the material and military aid from whatever source necessary to fight against the Russian occupation!
Against the Europe of the capitalists! Let’s fight to unite the struggles of workers and young people on the continent! For a socialist federation of Europe!
