Denver FRSO marks one year of imperialist war in Ukraine with educational teach-in
Denver, CO – On February 25, Freedom Road Socialist Organization in Denver held a teach-in to mark the one year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the Hooked on Colfax coffee shop in downtown Denver.
Organizers talked about imperialism from the perspective of the U.S. as a waning global imperialist power and Russia as an emerging imperialist power. They applied these outlooks to the history of post-Soviet Ukraine, referring to economic shock therapy in the 1990s and subsequent U.S. intervention in the region.
Finally, the panelists offered what people in the United States can do to resist U.S./NATO intervention: demand U.S. hands off Ukraine; protest imperialist wars; oppose national legislation that grants U.S. aid, particularly in the form of arms; protesting warhawk politicians who are personally invested in U.S. intervention; and fighting against sanctions on sovereign countries.
After the lecture portion of the event, panelists Kyle Burroughs and Jonce Palmer took questions from the audience. One difficult question came from an educator who often works with Ukrainian immigrant students. The guest asked the panelists what they would say to a young Ukrainian person who saw the U.S. as a savior for providing the Ukrainian military with weapons, vehicles, technology and more to fight against Russian troops.
Jonce Palmer offered one potential response, “If the U.S. hadn’t gotten involved as it has since 2004 [in the Orange Revolution] and so on, we wouldn't be in this mess. The U.S. has put people in power who made decisions that led to the situation that they’re in now.”
Kyle Burroughs added, “I want to make it very clear that no aid from the United States comes from the kindness of the monopoly capitalists. There’s a narrative and then there’s a motive. U.S. assistance makes up 90% of Ukraine’s foreign military aid, and that statistic is taken from before 2022. The U.S. obviously has interests in that area. That’s why it's so important to examine the history.”