By VIKTOR V. BOURENKOV
The long-running conflict in South Ossetia entered a more violent stage last August 8, 2008, when Georgian troops carried out an open aggression and intruded into South Ossetia, shelling the capital city of Tskhinvali with Grad Missiles. The Georgian bourgeois regime of Saakashvili tried to keep the illusion of Georgia’s national unity at all costs, without consideration of how many lives this may cost. The Russian government, which also got involved in this conflict, sent a large number of military resources to the area and started a military action. There were many victims on both sides.
Both the Russian and Georgian governments tried to use this conflict for their own benefit, and this also included the promotion of nationalistic hysteria, drawing the working peoples’ attention from the problems and from the ongoing class struggle. As rightly noted in the declaration of the RCWP-RPC that the slogan by both governments was “Support our country!” We condemn this attempt to set working people of different countries against each other by using nationalism as a tool. Lenin write on this in this way: “People have always been and will always remain dumb victims of deception and self-deception in a capitalist state in politics, until they learn to discern the class interests behind the various moral, religious, political and social phases, declarations and promises.”
It is obvious that the Georgian government and its capitalist class, who are very dependent on Imperialists and the USA, the EU, wanted to solve this problem urgently in order to become part of NATO and turn Georgia into an alternative route for transporting oil and gas into Europe around Russia.
Naturally the Russian ruling capitalist class was not happy with that scenario. The Russian bourgeois class wanted to have a presence in that region and a weak Georgia and the unsettled national issues served that purpose very well. Moscow made many “patriotic” statements about protecting the Russian citizens in South Ossetia, but everyone seems to have forgotten that when for a whole week at the begging of August there was shooting on both sides, the Russian government didn’t interfere in the conflict, allowing the Georgian government and its US backers to think that they can take more radical actions. Moreover, the Russian government did not use its powerful economic leverage that it had and that could have had a significant influence on Georgia.
We believe that the current situation, when the government in South Ossetia is formally Georgian, but actually dependent wholly on Russia, is directly beneficial to the Russian capitalist class. If the Russian government is really interested in solving this problem that was created by dismemberment of the USSR, and Russia is even now engaging in a furtive political game and trying to use this situation for its own gain.
We consider the South Ossetia war an imperialist war, which does not serve the purpose of justice and which was conducted for the benefit and profit of capitalists in different countries. The people of Ossetia became victims of a struggle between two capitalist cliques. Neither Georgia or Russia are really interested in an actual resolution of the issue of South Ossetia for self-determination as South Ossetia enjoyed under Socialism and in the union of the USSR. We do not support either of these countries in that war. We respect the right of the people of South Ossetia to self- determination, which had been expressed in a referendum. National borders should not serve as an interference in the struggles of the working people against capitalists and capitalism!
We condemn the aggressive actions of the Georgian government and its foreign backers which could have led to a lengthy conflict in the Caucasus. The Russia government is also responsible for this war because of its inconsistent actions.
Once more Lenin’s words have been proven true: “In the capitalist order of things the rearrangement of the spheres of influence can only take place by war”. All the responsibility for this war lies with capitalism and more particularly, the government of Georgia, as well as America, European Union and Russian imperialists. “Peace Enforcement” that the present regime of Russia speaks about, is nothing more than “patriotic rhetoric”, which is meant to obscure the real interests that the capitalists are pursuing in an imperialist war from which the working people of all countries cannot benefit.
Our Revolutionary Communist Youth League (Bolshevik) called for an immediate end to the war in South Ossetia, the complete withdrawal of all Georgian and Russian troops from the region and granting South Ossetia inviolability by both countries. The Georgian Government that devastated South Ossetia must restore all villages and utilities. All sides of this conflict must ensure the return of all refugees of all nationalities to their homes.
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