Ukraine’s Two Floods

As the brutal horror of capitalism’s war in Ukraine again floods our screens. The destruction of the Kakhovka dam sees the waters of the Dnipro reservoir pour south while thousands of Ukrainian deserters flow east.

The desperate struggle to survive this catastrophe and ecocide is obscured from being seen as the inevitable consequence of the crime of capitalist war, behind the hypocritical mutual allegations of war crimes by the respective warring states, echoed internationally in the heartlands of rival imperialist blocs

It has happened literally weeks after the British state commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Dam-busters Raid which destroyed the Eder and Möhne dams flooding the Ruhr valley, drowning 1,600 people (most of them POW’s and slave labourers), not as a great allied war crime but as a heroic victory!

Despite the near certainty that this atrocity was the work of Putin’s forces, this may have been more dictated by circumstance and timing rather than the competing moral positions of either side.  Dams are targets and the ensuing deluge, weapons of war – either side would have done if it suited their aims.  It was even mooted at the beginning of the war as a way of stopping the Russian advance on Kherson.

While millions continue to be affected by catastrophic flooding due to climate change, out of sight, out of mind, in Pakistan and Haiti, the manufactured Dnipro disaster is as much a part of war as genocide and concentration camps.

The Belgians did it to stop the Germans in WW1, the Dutch in WW2.  The Chinese nationalists drowned 1 million of their own people to slow down the Japanese.  Even Ukraine, when it was part of the Soviet Union, suffered the same event initiated by their own side.

But this is not Ukraine’s only flood.  War weariness and compulsory militarisation backed by lengthy prison sentences are leading to a second outpouring of refugees. 

It has been well reported that up to 1,000,000 Russians have crossed their borders to avoid the war since the invasion. Much less focus is given to what’s happening for those Ukrainians who don’t want to heed national patriotism or fight.

The BBC reports that Ukrainian military service has been hard to enforce due to reluctance and corruption. Many are paying a monthly sum to avoid being called up.  Ukrainian frontline commanders are reportedly complaining that the increasing number of conscripts too scared or unwilling to fight is proving a burden on the battlefield.

Many are risking their lives to cross the Tisa river in the west to seek refuge from combat in Romania.  According to the Romanian government, at least 20,000 military aged men eligible for military service have entered the country since the beginning of the war, ostensibly to visit and then simply not return to the Ukraine.

Another 7,000 deserters have crossed the Tisa river despite armed patrols and road blocks, as the only way to save their lives.  Ukraine’s police force claim they are detaining at least 20 men a day on the international border – each facing up to 10 years in prison in ‘free’ Ukraine.

Numbers appear to be growing despite the cost of ‘people smugglers’ and the dangers of the journey itself.  Ukrainian sources say that at least 90 people have died from exposure, frostbite and drowning.  One deserting combat veteran describes how even after reaching the Romanian side of the river, he was spotted by a Ukrainian patrol on the other bank: “I heard shots first, then a string of insults”. 

Capitalism’s lust for profit and its consequential wars with rivals, targets our class.  They shoot us, starve us, drown us and displace us.  Ukraine’s two floods, the Dnipro south and the dissident’s west are mirrored on the Russian side of the front-lines.  It is not about freedom or justice, it is about slaughter and greed. These are not war crimes, this is the crime of war.

Desertion is only one form of resistance. Perhaps at the height of the battle, it is the easiest one to take.  However, to end the war, this war and the next, all of capitalism’s wars, resistance has to be globalised and militant.

The working class is in the firing line for capitalist greed whatever side of the frontier we are on. That is why we say that the fight to end it begins at home.

Uncompromisingly pursuing our class agenda here against their social peace to undermine their war, there.  No war but the class war means exactly that.

Article by Dreyfus