No War with Russia!

Speech given by Susan Banaszewski, a member of the Anti-War Committee, on 2/5/2022 at the MN Peace Action Coalition’s No War with Russia protest in Minneapolis.

I want to take a moment to discuss the impact of US interventionism and war mongering on the people of Ukraine, whose freedom and sovereignty the US and corporate media would have us think we are trying to protect from Russia right now.

When in 2014 Ukranians were profoundly divided on whether to align closer to the EU and NATO or Russia, the US decided to forgo democracy and make that decision for them. We blatantly facilitated a coup of Ukraine’s elected government, along with right wing nationalist forces. Victoria Nuland, not the Ukranian people, hand picked the replacement coalition, specifically naming a neo-Nazi leader to be intimately involved. and Joe Biden sealed that deal.

After the coup, as the new government opened the door to the IMF, utility and gas prices were raised across Ukraine for ordinary people, while salaries stagnated and funds for health and education sectors received cuts. What mattered was making Ukraine a more comfortable home for US capital, not its people.

Just two months after the coup, Hunter Biden, at that time the son of the vice-president, was being paid at least $50,000 a month to sit on the board of an energy company, serendipitously a sector that would profit most from the neoliberalization. Our elites treat other people’s lives and homelands like some piggybank they smash against the table to make a quick buck. 

So US meddling has made everyday life worse for Ukranians by making sure they have less money in their pockets and fewer social supports, armed the fascist elements  in their country, created panic and destabilized the economy with this warmongering. The US has escalated conflict with their neighbors and essentially caused a civil war, in which arms from the US are used against fellow Ukrainians. All this fuels our war machine profits. and the US wants the world’s thanks for making the world safer!?

To everyone but the US and our closest allies, the source of this supposed conflict is obvious. The Russian UN Ambassador accused the US, “You are almost pulling for this. You want it to happen. You’re waiting for it to happen.” Ukraine’s defense minister told the BBC, “This is [Russia’s] territory, they have the right to move left and right there. […] if this is news to someone in the West, I apologize.”

It must be news to nearly all mainstream news sources in this country who are united in banging the drums of war. In a study released by Mint Press News yesterday, 90% of articles on Ukraine published in major US papers pushed the view that Russia is the aggressor. Only 1 single article out of 91 even mentioned the presence of actual Neo-Nazis in Ukraine, while the fact that the CIA has been training Nazi groups in Ukraine, and the arms we send end up in their hands, is completely absent. 

The few mainstream news sources that countered the idea that the US should be “tough on Russia,” made sure to make it clear that this is only because we should be tough on China instead. 

While the government and media tells us minor troop movements in Eastern Europe are a threat, the rest of us have enough dangers to deal with at home. When will the next bridge collapse because we haven’t bothered upgrading infrastructure in the last few decades? How many months will it take the Navy to stop poisoning people in Hawaii with a fuel leak? Will my friends and neighbors get murdered by our militarized police? 

This dangerous state media propaganda is why we need to keep coming out and showing our numbers and passion in the streets. They do not speak for us. Russia is not our enemy! China is not our enemy either! And we won’t have another cold war, not on our watch!

PROUD TO SHOUT: US OUT!