Robinson’s criticism of the anti-imperialist left applies as much to those who defend the abstract right of an abstract Ukraine (apparently without classes, exploitation or internal oppression) to self-determination. Of course, criticism of such abstract positions does not mean that the Russian government’s decision to invade the Ukraine should be exempt from critcism. However, the frequent presenation of the Ukraine as a single unit independently of class considerations reflects a bourgeois point of view–not a Marxist one.
William Robinson posted a recent article in The Philosophical Salon:
The German socialist August Bebel once commented that antisemitism is the “socialism of fools” because the antisemites recognized capitalist exploitation only if the exploiter happened to be Jewish but who would otherwise turn a blind eye to exploitation emanating from other quarters. Over a century later, such socialism of fools has been resurrected by a self-declared “anti-imperialist” left that condemns capitalist exploitation and repression around the world when it is practiced by the U.S. and other Western powers or the governments they support, yet turns a blind eye to, or even defends repressive, authoritarian, and dictatorial states simply because these states face hostility from Washington. …
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-unbearable-manicheanism-of-the-anti-imperialist-left/
The Abolitionary 