People are dying due to cold at the Polish-Belarussian border. Many migrants out of the Middle East are stuck on the border between the reactionary Polish government and the dictatorial Belarussian government. Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is using desperate people to attack the European Union, who imposed sanctions on his autocratic regime. Many refugees and migrants from Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and other parts of the Islamic world have fled to Belarus in the understanding they could travel to Germany or Britain. But right-wing Poland does not want them, they are stuck on the border between the EU (Poland) and the regime of Lukashenko, who only uses them as pawns.
Who is to blame? Right-wing Europeans blame the migrants, the refugees, the men, the women, the children. ”They are to blame for coming to Europe” they say. In reality the European Union is to blame. Capitalist governments in Poland and the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) gave full political support to the criminal invasions and interventions into the Islamic world by Western imperialism since 2001. Therefore the governments of these countries shares in the blame for the refugee crisis and the fact that many try to flee countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Right-wing populism is in power in many eastern European countries. Because the established left-wing failed (social-democracy) right-wing populism took power while blaming socialism for their own capitalist politics. They claim to stand for ”the people”, in reality the governments of Poland and Hungary divide workers to keep them under capitalist rule. This is possible because social-democracy ruled no differently then liberal or conservative governments. After the collapse of Stalinism, many Stalinist communists became social-democrats on paper and embraced neoliberalism.
Yet none of them stopped the free market fundamentalism that was introduced after 1990. Neither social-democrats or their liberal allies stopped the inequality that capitalism created. It resulted in the rise of right-wing populist leaders like Viktor Orban, who hides his reactionary conservatism under a cloak of populism and nationalism. Reality is that there is no socialist alternative in Poland and Hungary. Anti-socialist stigmatization of the 1990’s resulted in many workers having been brainwashed with lies about socialism . They wrongfully think that the Stalinist regimes were socialist, this is repeated over and over by the capitalist media each day.
In reality the movement against Stalinism did not call for capitalist restoration. There were no slogans for the privatization of the economy or the return of exploiters, speculators and stock markets. Workers wanted to be free from the single party system that ruled by fear and police brutality. Now the capitalist regimes in Poland and Hungary are also slowly moving back to that era. Viktor Orban is not facing a genuine left-wing challenge. Worse, the opposition against him has now selected a conservative politician to be their candidate. This shows how weak the liberal opposition in Hungary is.
These right-wing regimes also spread hatred of migrants, specially Muslims. They need this fictional enemy in order to divert attention away from the fact that under their leadership, inequality remains very high. Many young workers are leaving eastern Europe. They rejected the racism, antisemitism and growing authoritarianism of leaders like Viktor Orban. Since coming to power, Orban has spread hatred of Muslims and Jews. Liberal billionaire George Soros is called an enemy of the state, due to his humanitarian and political involvement in the European refugee crisis, by the Hungarian state media controlled by Orban.
Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus knows that the right-wing governments of Poland and the Baltic countries reject migrates from the Islamic world. After the EU imposed sanctions on his regime, the Belarussian dictator came up with a devilish plan. He ordered his state owned airliner Belavia, to transport desperate refugees from the middle east into Belarus. Then they were to send to the border with Poland and dumped there. He knows that Poland would close the border trapping thousands. The migrants do not want to live in Poland, their target is western Europe. Yet Polish borderguards tell them that Poland “is full”!
Now there is a humanitarian crisis on the border between Poland and Belarus. Migrants who flee the civil wars caused by imperialist interventions are trapped. Winter is coming and at least ten migrants have already died due to cold. Responsible are both Poland and Belarus. Lukashenko is to blame for sending these people knowing that Poland would not allow them in, but Poland is to blame for closing the border to people who flee wars they supported. Poland shares responsibility since their soldiers fought for Western imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan, which caused this refugee crisis.
Western imperialism started this crisis when they started to pay millions to the Afghan Islamic fighters who fought the Soviets. These Islamists overthrew the Republic of Afghanistan in 1992 and installed a Islamic regime, that became a brutal emirate in 1996. The Taliban were overthrown by Western imperialism, but returned after the puppet of the western world collapsed in August 2021. Now many Afghans will try to flee the totalitarian regime of the Taliban, a product of imperialism. Both Poland and Hungary supported the invasion of 2001 and were part of the ISAF and RS missions of NATO.
Migrants who flee wars caused by Western (American and European) imperialism deserve to be given free access to Europe. Poland is a major hypocrite by closing its borders. Refugees deserve not to be used as pawns in the right-wing conflict between Poland and Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko is a tyrant who plays with human lives. In 2020/2021 he used police and army to crush the demonstrations against his regime, arresting 32.000 people. It is thanks to the Committee for State Security (KGB), Militia (police) and Army that the dictator can remain in power. The KGB tortured over 1.700 arrested demonstrators.
It is unacceptable that men, women and children are left in the cold, while right-wing regimes in Warsaw and Minsk battle over them. The European Union is blaming Russia while Belarus blames the EU. Revolutionary socialists fully oppose the governments of both the European camp as the Belarus/Russia camp. Russian imperialism is in direct competition with European imperialism. It does not care about humans as we have seen at the border. It is estimated that over 4.000 migrants are camping in the freezing climate of eastern Poland. Ten of them have already died, many more are at risk. Lukashenko will let them die, while blaming the EU.
We demand that the border is opened and that all refugees are given protection and a place to stay. Western imperialism created this crisis when they destabilized the middle east and Afghanistan since 1978. We stand in full solidarity with all working class people fleeing war and poverty. What is needed is socialism in all parts of the world. A democratic socialist economy under the control of workers by workers. Belarus is not a socialist society, despite the use of Soviet symbolism. Lukashenko is a state-capitalist dictator who needs to be overthrown in a proletarian revolution. Liberal methods have failed, only democratic self-organization by the working class can put an end to his regime!
Revolutionary Socialist Media 