By Roger Annis, June 8, 2016
On May 20, 2016, I spoke to the annual education conference in Toronto of the Socialist Action group on the subject of ‘Is Russia Imperialist’. My talk is 35 minutes long. You can view the talk by clicking here or by clicking the screen below; it begins at the four-minute mark.
A much expanded print version of this talk will be published soon.
At the Toronto conference, I shared the panel with Jeff Mackler, National Secretary of Socialist Action in the United States. He spoke on the subject of the war in Syria and the character of Russia’s military and diplomatic intervention there. His talk follows mine in the YouTube presentation, beginning at the 40-minute mark. I share much of the views presented by Jeff.
Concerning the situation in Syria, an important dimension to take into account is the political situation in Turkey as well as the historic struggle of the Kurdish people for national self-determination. NATO-member Turkey supports the regime-change intervention by Western imperialism directed against the government of Syria. As well, the authoritarian government of Turkey is waging a civil war against the Kurdish people of eastern Turkey and it is suppressing democratic rights across the board in the country.. These issues are reported extensively on The New Cold War: Ukraine and beyond, a website which I assist in editing.