The Alliance of Russian and American Imperialists Against Ukraine

Indeed, in January 2025, barely re-elected, Donald Trump immediately appeared with neo-Nazis, antisemites and white supremacists. On the very day of his inauguration, Elon Musk gave two Nazi salutes before a delirious crowd. From mid-January 2025, Donald Trump claimed his “lebensraum”, Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal (for now), pardoned fascist paramilitary militias, developed his own “Madagascar Plan” by decree to expel “millions of foreign criminals”, called for the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip, and banned the use of words such as “LGBT”, “non-binary”, “transsexual”, “transgender”, etc. In mid-February 2025, during the German election campaign, US Vice President J.D. Vance expressed his support for the far-right AfD party, which acknowledges its Nazi affiliation. The new Secretary of Defence, Peter Hedseth, proudly displays his “Jerusalem Cross”, a white supremacist emblem, tattooed on his chest.

Also in mid-February, representatives of the Trump administration agreed in Saudi Arabia on a “peace in Ukraine” project without Ukraine, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the very same person who constantly repeats that Ukraine does not exist, the very same person who believes that Netanyahu’s objectives in Gaza “seem similar to the ’demilitarisation’ and ’denazification’ that Moscow has been pursuing in Ukraine since launching its offensive in February 2022”. In short, Russian leaders are jubilant. According to them, the first serious negotiations are finally in sight, “a step towards peace”.

We are indeed witnessing a real turning point. Russian and American imperialists now officially agree on who provoked the war and who must take full responsibility for it: it is Ukraine that “started the war” and Zelensky is a “dictator without elections” who “has done a terrible job (...) and millions of people have died needlessly”, claimed Donald Trump in mid-February, repeating almost word for word the phrases used by Russian authorities.

And in early March, to make Trump’s complicity with Putin factually indisputable, the US administration decided to cut off all aid to Ukraine after attempting to impose a veritable racket on the country’s mineral resources and after vainly trying to humiliate Zelensky at the White House on 26 February 2025.

The New Democratic Party (NDP): The Only Left-Wing Party Supporting Ukraine?

At the Canadian level, the only left-wing party in the federal Parliament, the New Democratic Party (NDP), has so far displayed unwavering support for Ukraine. In November 2024, for example, the party passed a motion, unanimously adopted in the Parliament of Canada, which recognises that “the Russian Federation is committing acts of genocide against the Ukrainian people”, “asks the federal government to continue to provide substantial military and humanitarian support to Ukraine to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace” and calls for support for Ukraine’s future membership in NATO".

At the end of January, the NDP’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Heather McPherson, clearly confirmed the party’s support for the Ukrainian people, as did party leader Jagmeet Singh more recently, in early March 2025.

The Betrayal of Québec Solidaire and the Deafening Silence of Trade Union Centrals

This unambiguous solidarity of the NDP with Ukraine contrasts with the positions taken by the Quebec left. Indeed, in Quebec, the only left-wing party in the National Assembly, Québec Solidaire, demonstrates a distressing lack of solidarity.

Worse, since the beginning of the conflict, Québec Solidaire has even opposed any form of military solidarity with Ukraine. On 28 May, 2022, the National Council of Québec Solidaire denounced the Canadian Government for its arms deliveries to Ukraine. Moreover, Québec Solidaire is a member of the Collectif échec à la guerre (War Failure Collective) which continuously calls for an end to arms deliveries to Ukraine. And to our knowledge, QS has never spoken out against these repeated, shameful positions.

Certainly, the QS leadership could point out that it has passed and voted for resolutions in the National Assembly – all adopted unanimously – which condemn Russian aggression and affirm the solidarity of the National Assembly with the Ukrainian people. The leadership could also mention that some QS MPs have denounced the non-renewal of visas for some of the 300,000 Ukrainians who have found refuge in Canada since the beginning of the war. But that’s about all, and these resolutions commit to nothing.

In short, for the moment, Québec Solidaire’s refusal to advocate for the only aid that really matters, the aid that is constantly demanded by the Ukrainian left and Ukrainian trade unions – that is, military aid – is a real betrayal by the leftmost party on the political spectrum, which paradoxically claims to be pro-independence; it is a renunciation of the basic principles of international solidarity, internationalism and the right of peoples to self-determination. In any case, this is the position defended by both Ukrainian and Russian socialists.

For as these Russian and Ukrainian comrades explain, by refusing to support Ukraine, by refusing to help it resist militarily, this effectively amounts to disarming it and favouring its colonisation, whether by Russian imperialism, American imperialism or both, and strengthening these same imperialisms. And it must be noted that Québec Solidaire finds itself here on the same political line as the sectarian leftist splinter groups of the Quebec left, such as Alternative Socialiste or La Riposte, which have also opposed any armed solidarity from the beginning.

Finally, on the trade union side, there is complete silence, a silence bordering on indifference. It is impossible to find a single statement from the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in solidarity with the Ukrainian people since the condemnation of Russian aggression in February 2022. It is the same for the largest Canadian union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). The same is true for the major Quebec trade union centrals, FTQ, CSN, CSQ. The idea of a joint union statement after three years of war does not even seem to have been considered, unlike what is happening in Europe.

The Impotence of Pacifism

Yet it is urgent to question this silence from the leaders of the Quebec left and the trade union centrals. Because as Ukrainian historian Hanna Perekhoda explains, “a society that tolerates, or even encourages, cynicism and domination on the world stage will inevitably normalise these same dynamics in its internal social relations – and vice versa”.

For the moment, one gets the impression that by burying their heads in the sand, the Quebec left and the trade union movement hope that Trump will indeed “resolve” the conflict and that they will not have to take a position on issues that cause friction, such as this pacifism complicit with Russian and American imperialisms, such as armed support for Ukraine and more generally on the question of weapons, armament, the military industry and collective security. Yet it is very unlikely that Donald Trump will “resolve” the conflict in Ukraine, that he will forget his project to annex the 51^st state of the United States, that the far right, fascists and neo-Nazis will remain confined to the other side of the border, that American and Russian oligarchs will be satisfied with a plundered Ukraine, and that these imperialists will suddenly begin to respect the right of peoples to self-determination.

If this hypothesis is not completely far-fetched, at some point, the Canadian and Quebec left and trade unions will have to tackle “dirty questions”, such as collective security and therefore the question of weapons, control and nationalisation of the arms industry in particular. Convinced pacifists will have to realise that in matters of peace and disarmament, the question is always: who will be disarmed and by whom?

Camille Popinot

Paco

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