Is Lula a pro-Russian “tankie”? Should the Canadian left echo or marginalize his outlook on Ukraine?
Last week Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called on the US and other countries to “stop supplying weapons and encouraging war” in Ukraine. He said, “the United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace; the European Union needs to start talking about peace so that we can convince Putin and Zelensky that peace is in the interest of everyone and that war is only interesting, for now, to the two of them.”
The Brazilian president wants to establish a group of like-minded leaders, including India, China and Indonesia, “who want peace, a word that has so far been used very little.” As part of this effort, a top adviser recently traveled to Moscow and Lula spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to test the waters for negotiations. Afterwards Brasilia suggested that ending the war required a commitment that Ukraine would not join NATO and that Crimea would remain under Russian control.
It’s rare for leaders of Canada’s left to suggest that arms donations – Ottawa announced $100 million more in guns and other military support over the past 10 days – are fueling the fighting. Even fewer prominent leftists have blamed Canada’s push for NATO expansion as contributing to provoking the conflict while raising the specter of territorial concessions is heresy. (more...)
If Lula can call for peace in Ukraine, why not Canada’s left?
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