Because solidarity loses its content if it is restricted by race
The Ukrainian people need Britain's support, not just because 'they look like us'
Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
Reuters
Syrian refugees risked their lives to reach European countries.
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Ursula von transferred responsibility for immigration to a new administration.
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Tim Stanley: "Ukraine has influenced us more than Syria, because it is a European country."
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Kenan Malik*
In 1857, the British poet and leader of the "Chartist" movement in support of the British working class, Ernest Jones, wrote a series of articles in the newspaper "People" about what was known as the "Indian Rebellion" that year.
The poet said that what happened was not a "rebellion", but a "national revolution" that the British should support just as they supported the struggle in Europe.
The British "supported Poland" when it was "fighting for freedom against Russia".
Poet Jones asserts that if Poland is "right," then "Indians are also right."
brutal invasion
I remembered this discussion when I was reading and listening to some contemporaries about what they had to say about the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.
Of course, the invasion is brutal and unacceptable, and an assault on democracy and sovereignty.
We must oppose it.
We have to support the people of Ukraine, just as we have to support the Syrian people.
But it is not so for Mr Tim Stanley of the Telegraph, who insisted on BBC Radio 4's Channel 4 that Ukraine has influenced us more than Syria because it is a "European country" and "because young people who volunteer or are recruited can help us." Be our sons or our fathers.”
They look like us and watch Netflix.
As for British Member of Parliament Daniel Hannan, the Ukrainian conflict shocked us “because they look like us,” and they live in a “European country,” where people watch “Netflix” for movies and dramas, in addition to having accounts on “Instagram.” He concluded his words by saying: Civilization itself is under attack in Ukraine,” unlike the destruction in Syria and Afghanistan.
Similar views
Many on both sides of the Atlantic expressed similar views.
Here, what is being expressed is not simply the shock of witnessing a brutal conflict, on a prosperous and peaceful continent like Europe (albeit the brutal and destructive Balkan War did not end nearly 30 years ago), but rather the belief that our ability to assert that the hopes of people Her fears and suffering are determined by criteria, such as whether they are 'like us', the view that limits solidarity with others to identity.
One of the paradoxes in the right-wing's deep-rooted criticism of identity politics is the forgetfulness of its own stumbling in the quagmire of identity.
The place of Easterners in the Western imagination
Another paradox, too, is that the place of Eastern Europeans and Russians in the Western imagination has always been a blur.
These days Europeans may accept Ukrainians as “us,” but this was not always the case. There is a long history of intolerance toward Slavic peoples, who are viewed as primitive and “Asian.”
The influential German historian, Heinrich von Trachke, who lived in the nineteenth century, believes that “hatred of the Slavic peoples is deep in our blood,” because the Slavs “were born slaves,” and the American sociologist, Edward Ross, who lived at the beginning of the twentieth century, called for the prevention of immigrants The Slavs were not allowed to enter America, because “they were living in leather huts at the end of the Great Ice Age,” and he wrote, “The Slavs live in filthy environments that would kill the white man.”
racist words
The Russian Revolution of 1917 was portrayed by many in racist terms.
The prominent white supremacist Luther Stoddard saw the Russian people as "consisting chiefly of primitive races, which have always shown an innate hostility to civilization." Another American writer, Clinton Stoddard Beer, saw Bolshevism "as an essentially Asian concept, which is repulsive of the Western mind.
As for Hitler, he saw that the “real frontier” was not between Europe and Asia, but rather “the one that separates the Germanic and Slavic worlds.” He saw the Ukrainians as the red-skinned people in Europe, and said with contempt: “We will provide the Ukrainians with scarves, glass beads and everything you like.” Colonial peoples.
And such feelings still find expression.
In 2018, the Wall Street Journal published an article on Russian President Vladimir Putin's diplomacy, titled "Russia Returns to Its Asian Past."
Treating refugees according to identity
However, the boundaries of who we consider "like us" and who are European, and even who we consider "white", are not fixed, but rather change according to political and social need.
These limits are always changing, and are determined by those we consider not to be like us, as well as by those we recognize as us.
This can be seen in discussions about refugees. Within a week, about a million refugees fled Ukraine, half of them to Poland.
This number could rise in the coming weeks to four million.
There was a lot of chaos and desperation during the rush to flee from Ukraine.
But the countries hosting these refugees received them with hugs and generosity, and with open borders.
(The exception that can be noted was Britain, where public opinion supported the policy of openness with them, but the government was very reluctant to take any action.)
2015 refugee crisis
This can be compared to the controversy related to the “refugee crisis” in 2015, when Europe faced a torrent of what was considered an “invasion.”
That year, Europe received 1.3 million asylum applications, a huge jump in numbers due to the Syrian civil war.
The numbers before that were much lower.
Nevertheless, this number of asylum seekers was slightly larger than what came from Ukraine within a week, but it became a source of terror for a continent burdened with its troubles, and a reason to strengthen Europe's security and create what was called at the time "Fortified Europe", and hundreds of thousands of them were arrested in horrific conditions on both sides The Mediterranean Sea.
Our European way of living
The issue is not about numbers, but rather about the political will, and the social and imaginary boundaries that we draw.
EU President Ursula von der Leyen stressed last week that Ukraine "belongs to the European family", and her first move when she became EU president in 2019 was to transfer responsibility for migration to a new administration set up "to promote our European way of living." The administration is to protect Europe from “illegal refugees.” As for the refugees from Ukraine, they are part of the “European way of living.” As for those coming from countries outside Europe, they are not from this way.
That is why these boundaries are defined to draw empathy and solidarity.
Solidarity does not change according to identity
In 1857, an editorial in the People's newspaper admitted that we had revealed ourselves openly to the Indian side "because support for democracy must always be firm", "Anyone who says I support Hungary, but I am against India, is lying to himself, acting against principle, against truth." And against honor.
Ernest Jones and the People's Daily understood that solidarity loses its substance if it is constrained by race or identity, and that there are many, these days, who still need to learn this lesson.
• The boundaries of those we consider "like us" and who are European, and even those we consider "white", are not fixed, but rather change according to political and social needs.
• The place of Eastern Europeans and Russians in the Western imagination has always been ambiguous. These days Europeans may accept Ukrainians as “us,” but this was not always the case. There is a long history of intolerance toward Slavic peoples, who are viewed as primitive and “Asian.”
Kenan Malik is a columnist for the Guardian.
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