ukraine: thoughts, solidarity, & generational memory

02.27.2022

i hope all diasporic, colonized people, & survivors of war are moving with slowness, intention, and compassion to our own hearts, and finding ways to protect our peace. extending special love to my ashki jewish fam with generational trauma and ptsd as we navigate the world & our many communities reacting to ukraine, & to my queer and trans jewish fam as we witness homophobic, violent, and anti-trans legislation everywhere.

while i'll be talking about impact as a ukrainian jew, i also am called to voice & remind others that ukraine is the *only* place i even have the privilege of knowing in my family's story. i only know the stories of two people. i am mourning the stories, places, lives, and ancestors i will never know because of genocide. i am mourning that my people have been colonized & ethnically cleansed for millennia.

@yairwallach says “there's something so unsettling about a displacement so complete that you don't even know what you lost.” i'm holding space for all i will never know but feel.

this thread has some of my thoughts but mainly i'll be uplifting statements from people i align with.

before getting into it-- the ways i see people uplifting ukrainian armed resistance while demonizing and dehumanizing similar armed resistance by communities in the global south does not miss me.

i support armed resistance from palestine and syria to yemen and somalia to hawai’i and all of turtle island. i support resistance movements of all colonized people.

it also doesn't miss me that refugees from the global south are being refused by the same places opening their doors to yt ukrainians, non-jews, and non-roma. similarly, students & visitors from a long list of african countries are the LAST to be evacuated. let this be a reminder of the pervasiveness & consistency of antiBlackness worldwide & of the historical role that every single country in NATO has played in destabilizing leadership, initiating violence, and then withholding access to safety.

jewish people are all too familiar with this, as are roma, Black people, indigenous people worldwide.

—

everything feels triggering when generational trauma becomes involved, but what's been truly terrifying as a jewish person living in the belly of the beast-- the US empire-- has been the sheer SPEED with which people have been spreading misinformed infographics, as always, filled with the US & NATO's imperial narratives, not understanding the long term goals of war and empire.

i'm terrified beyond belief at the willingness with which people have been spreading donation links to the ukrainian military that has formally incorporated & recognized nazis as part of their battalions, & glorifying them as heroes.

i'm also terrified at the ease with which so many people are proving how absolutely willing you are to work with, fight alongside, collaborate with, march with, and send money directly to NAZIS. it's shaken me to my core.

to witness this is every jew's worst nightmare.

here's a photo people in my MF CITY of philly yesterday rallying ”for ukraine” with nazis. not even knowing or caring who they're marching with or what they represent::

the black and red flag pictured here belongs to the ukrainian ins*rgent army, a far right group.

they belong to a parent organization of ukranian nat*onalists; another fascist group founded on principles of antisemitism, antiziganism, anticommunism.

you’ll also notice yellow and blue ”ukrainian” flags that include a yellow sword emblem in this photo- these belong to the parent organization and do not represent the ukrainian flag, which is simply yellow & blue.

if you find yourself at a rally with nazi flags, and the nazis aren’t being kicked out— you are at a nazi rally.

“the Azov battalion, a militant neo-nazi group, was formally incorporated into the Ukrainian military following the 2014 US-backed coup. Rooting for Ukraine just because the president is jewish is so cynical, as if he isn't a US/NATO puppet, and as if nazism isn't rising in Ukraine directly because of the US-backed coup in 2014.

[…]

'standing in solidarity with Ukraine' within amerikkka primarily serves to manufacture consent for imperialist intervention and hybrid warfare against Russia, which will draw our this conflict, enact murderous sanctions against ordinary people in Russia, and advance the interests of western capitalists.”

-@garfisms

“lack of understanding and acknowledgment of NATO's role in Ukraine is only helping them get away with decades of aggression. Innocent Ukrainians are dying and some would rather spend time advancing the agenda of those who made their lives bargaining chips in the first place.”

-@makeitrayn

the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS) says:

“Russian intervention comes after 8 years of US & NATO intervention. the ILPS-US stands with all peoples fighting for independence & sovereignty from the forces of US-led imperialism and their fascist puppet regimes. NO to NATO expansion / Abolish NATO and demand an end to US, EU, & NATO intervention & interference, overt & covert, military or financial, in Ukraine, Russia, & ALL former Soviet republics.”

'NATO isn't the aggressor'

”NATO has been the aggressor since the moment of its inception in 1949. It is a military alliance of Western imperialist powers with the explicit goal of advancing the collective geopolitical interests of it's members under the guise of self defense. To ignore this fundamental truth is not only to disregard the history of imperialist endeavors undertaken by NATO across the Global South, but also act as a convenient tool for U.S. empire”

-@makeitrayn

“[the ILPS statement] is the only acceptable political line. anything else and you're prioritizing your individual 'right' to the perfect opinion over the lives of people in the former USSR. the only thing your #stopputin posts do, as AMERICANS, is help America & NATO do it. you WILL NOT stop the Russian invasion by tweeting but you WILL bring NATO to the Russian Federation's door.

really reflect: is that what your anti-imperialism looks like? is it that easy to crack and become pro-intervention? don't fall for the wave of war propaganda rushing over us.

NO NATO NO WAR.”

-@redpomgranat

"too many people are confusing imperialism with militarism. when communists use the term 'imperialism', we are not talking about the simple fact of soldiers on the ground & use of military force outside ones own borders. [...] we are talking about a global economic system characterized by the marriage of finance & bank capital, in which virtually all financial flows are dominated by a handful of western elites. imperialism is not the use of military force, but a stage of capitalism marked by monopoly & decay. [...] Russia cannot be imperialist. they sure can conduct a military operation, but they do not dominate the world economy. in fact, they are an enemy of those who doninate the world economy because Russia does not play by their 'rules based order.'”

-j. sharma

it's impossible to know the intricacies & nuance of every struggle worldwide; this is why deep diving into our own decolonization processes as individuals within our colonized cultures-- & then learning from & building solidarity with other colonized peoples-- is so immensely important and necessary.

i urge anyone who is living in the US or a country within the EU or NATO to understand that the narratives we are being fed are INTENTIONAL & have much deeper, long-term, sadistic goals in upholding the world order with US empire & western hegemony. our utmost goal must be to confront & oppose ALL initiatives, views, & goals of Amerikkka. our utmost goal is to oppose all war.