Bosses’ propaganda on Ukraine: The three big lies

 Whether in Russia, China or the U.S., the capitalist bosses use the media to oppress, mislead, and manipulate the working class. In wartime, in particular, the media’s job is to sell the bosses’ lies and hide the ugly truth about imperialism. The historic task for Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and the international working class is to turn inter-imperialist war into communist revolution for workers’ power. Workers have the capacity to do just that, but only if we reject the bosses’ fictions and are clear headed about what is really happening in the world.
In vilifying Putin and beating the drum for the victims of Russia’s invasion, the U.S. media isn’t helping the working class in Ukraine or anywhere else. In fact, it is just the opposite. Although the U.S. bosses are saying—for now—they want to prevent World War III, their goal is to build mass support for wider warfare to protect their profits against their imperialist rivals. While they may seem to have less formal control over television or newspapers or social media than in Russia or China, the liberal big fascists who own and run the mass media (with the exception of Fox) share the same class interests as ExxonMobil or JPMorgan Chase. Their phony claim of “objectivity”—an impossibility in class society—makes U.S. media more deceptive and even more dangerous. When push comes to shove—in Kuwait in 1991, in Iraq in 2003, in Ukraine in 2022—they guarantee that their “news” coverage serves the interests of finance capital.
Let’s look at three big lies the U.S. bosses’ media are spreading in their efforts to mobilize our class to die in their next global conflict.
Lie #1: The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a war crime and moral atrocity, far worse than the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or the U.S.-backed devastation of Yemen.
The U.S. ruling class media is

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Uncovering Ukrainian nationalism and fascism

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the formation of a Ukrainian nation, Ukraine has been a battleground in the rivalry between the U.S. and Russian imperialists. And Ukrainian nationalists have tried to win the workers of Ukraine to support one or the other of these imperialist powers. Now workers are killing each other as imperialist powers and Ukrainian capitalists fight over Ukraine’s riches.
Under Viktor Yushchenko, president of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010 and a leader of the pro U.S. so-called Orange Revolution, fascist lies began to be accepted as the official truth, taught in Ukrainian schools and promoted by Ukrainian academics, all meant to promote Ukrainian nationalism and anti-communism.
Historic lies as a means to rationalize war, violence against our class, or as a way to build trust in the “State” are not unique to Ukraine or Russia. It is a practice we see imposed by international ruling classes from the U.S. to China and yes, today in Ukraine (see Editorial, page 2).

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War in Ukraine: Smash imperialists, nationalism, & democracy!

“The first casualty of war is truth.”

With Ukraine on fire and Russia and NATO flexing their military forces within a handful of miles of one another, the capitalist bosses of the world are accelerating their momentum toward global war. None of the top imperialist powers—the United States, Russia, and China—are in total control over what happens next in Ukraine. Their

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