Jim Denham
Above: ‘Led By Donkeys’ lower a banner
In general the Morning Star and its political masters at the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), don’t much like Nigel Farage. They frequently point to his racism and a smorgasbord of other reactionary views and positions. Even when they actually agree with him (over the EU) they tend to avoid pointing this out, presumably because it’s a tad embarrassing.
But on one question, the Morning Star has no such compunction: Ukraine.
Following Farage’s remarks blaming Nato and the European Union for provoking the Russian invasion, the paper leapt to his defence. The front-page headline on 24th June was “PM AND STARMER UNITED FOR WAR” below which “political correspondent” Andrew Murray condemned Sunak and Starmer for (allegedly) supporting a “drive to a wider war in Europe” and backed up Farage’s line (which is, indeed identical to that of the MS and CPB, including the backside-covering disavowal of the invasion and of Putin). It’s worth quoting at some length:
Reform Party owner Mr Farage has been the first to break through the wall of silence surrounding British policy towards Russia and Ukraine during the election.Mr Farage said: “The West’s errors in Ukraine have been catastrophic. I won’t apologise for telling the truth.”He had told the BBC that “the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to say to Russian people, ‘they’re coming for us again’ and to go to war,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Making it clear that he did not support Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he added: “I am not, and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin”As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine.”What I have been saying for the past 10 years is that the West has played into Putin’s hands, giving him the excuse to do what he wanted anyway.”
Murray then went on to quote some other leftists who essentially agree with Frage when it comes to Ukraine: Stop the War’s Lindsey German (“he was pointing out a fact: one reason for Putin’s invasion … was because of relentless EU and Nato expansion eastwards”), CND general secretary Kate Hudson (“unrestrained NATO expansion up to Russia’s borders has played a significant part in triggering the war on Ukraine”), and last but not least Murray’s old chum George Galloway: “The absolute hysteria over Nigel Farage telling the truth about the Ukraine war is the shape of things to come”.
A few days later Murray visited Clacton to report on Farage’s campaign and reported that: “Incumbent Tory Giles Watling is making the most of the Reform leader’s remarks on the Ukraine conflict, actually among his more sensible, to claw back those conservattive voters who dislike foreigners generally but are particularly afraid of Russian ones” (MS 1st July): so backing Ukraine’s right to defend itself and holding Putin responsible for the invasion makes you an anti-Russian racist, does it?
Farage, the Morning Star/CPB, Stop the War and CND all claim that Nato’s “relentless expansion” was the cause of the invasion, but it’s worth noting that the two decisive waves of Nato expansion were in 1999 and 2004: it is simply not plausible that events that had taken place 17 or 22 years earlier could suddenly become the cause something that happened in February 2022 (it is true that another four Eastern European countries joined between 2004 and 2020 but that relatively small expansion over eleven years was equally unlikely as an explanation for Putin’s preparations for an invasion).
But never mind: the important message from all these characters is that Ukraine’s military resistance should not be supported and that “peace” on terms acceptable to Putin (ie Ukraine giving up territory) must be forced onto Ukraine.
This was not the first time that the MS has reported with obvious approval, an extreme right-winger opposing support for Ukraine. Back in February the paper reported, with evident approval, a “Republican opponent of US aid to Ukraine” calling for “negotiated peace with Russia”: it was a (then) little-known senator called JD Vance.
The Morning Star frequently accuses those on the left and in the labour movement who support Ukraine’s right to defend itself, of “lining up” with “the most reactionary forces” in Britain and internationally: presumably, that description does not apply to Nigel Farage, JD Vance … or, indeed, Donald Trump.