I helped set up SurrIV with Philip Kane and Rob Marsden as a virtual meeting place for people interested in the twin traditions of Surrealism and Trotskyism, specifically the Trotskyism of the Fourth International.
It has been a modest success. Since its establishment we have published a number of articles. At the same time our little website has generated considerable debate – not always conducted in a comradely way – within the broader Surrealist community.
While I have not been a member of Socialist Resistance (the British section of the Fourth International) for some time, I have continued to sympathise with the politics and perspectives of the organisation.
However, the position that SR has taken on the current crisis in Ukraine is one that I can neither condone nor ignore. It seems to me that SR, and the FI more broadly, have joined other misguided groups in providing “left cover” for NATO and its neo-fascist proxies in Kiev.
While the war in Ukraine remained “cold”, the question was somewhat academic. Today however things have changed. Today, the trade union centre in Odessa is burning, with many dead – victims of a far right, pro-Kiev mob. Also today, Western-backed troops have attacked Slavyansk with heavy weapons and helicopters – prelude to a wider attack on anti-Kiev strongholds in Eastern Ukraine.
Today, the killing has begun. SR argues that the fault lies with Russia. In this, it echoes Fox News and the governments in Washington and London. This is not a position I can endorse or excuse.
I hope that as events unfold SR and the FI will see sense, and reconsider their political line on this pivotal issue.
As things stand however, I feel that I have no option but to sever my links with the SurrIV project.
Jay Blackwood
2nd May 2014
SurrIV 