What do they think about the current conflict between Russia and NATO in Ukraine, Bolivians, Cubans, Brazilians, Algerians, South Africans, Burkinans, Syrians, Yemenis, Hindus, Kazakhs, Chinese, Iranians, Malians, Ethiopians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Turks, Serbs, Palestinians, and even Germans or Spaniards? This is the key question that needs to be raised at this phase of globalisation. And which Poles and Ukrainians must besides think about, not just Russians.
This question must be raised "globally" at a time erstwhile – whether it pleases or not – the vast majority of the world's nations like a fresh emerging possible power arrangement, in which Russia exists as a counterweight to the US and their "protempted" Russia and respective others returning to power or rising fresh powers. It is only the sum of all these calculations, games of interest, opinions, views, insights that form a formation of planet forces, which opt for 1 or the another side. It must be taken into account that the trend of these countries and public opinion prevailing in the world, which they believe their country has an interest to have the side of the states undermining the hegemony inactive strongest power in the planet in terms of military and financial terms, or the US, either prevailed or emerged strong adequate from the current conflict in Ukraine, as well as conflicts in Palestine, Syria, Korea, Taiwan Strait and Africa, so that it could coexist with the US as a permanent counterweight. And in this context, all nation in the planet must reflect on the place it will take in tomorrow's planet deal.
The Patriot of all country, including Poland in particular, must so take into account the sum of all the forces going in this direction or in that direction, due to the fact that – as he utilized to say – Władysław Gomulka “Do you know that Poland is not in Australia?” In Poland and in the West, it spreads its slogan about the threat of Russian invasion, but it can be seen that the present Russia, first of all since 2022, has mostly diverted its attention from a full of little crucial issues in the planet of Western countries; and second, if Ukraine, Russia meant this – anything critical could be thought of as the Kremlin's decision of February 2022 – to dispel from its main centres a circumstantial threat and to respond to the discontent of Russian citizens in the absence of Kremlin's consequence since 2014 to the systematic persecution and attacks of Kiev against the Donbass population. Russia is not seeking to conquer any another country, not only due to the fact that it is not in its current doctrine, but due to the fact that this state is incapable to wage a classical, non-nuclear war in specified a distant area from its centres for economic, political, ideological, military and, above all, demographic reasons, as the Demograph has proved Emmanuel Todd in his book The defeats of the West.
Władysław Gomulka along with Adam Rapackand before that Roman Dmowski and Rose Luxembourg were among the most aware visionaries of the Polish geopolitical and geo-economic situation. For Polish bourgeoisie and, consequently, for Dmowski, the biggest danger for Poles lay in German, so western, capitalism, due to the fact that the German bourgeoisie had economical means to kill Polish bourgeoisie and turn Polish lands into a reserve of cheaper labour and production of agricultural components or crops for industrialized Germany. This required representatives of the improvement of Polish lands to make a deal with their east Slavic neighbour. which was besides threatened by German imperialism. The Polish working class, in turn, besides had an interest in the improvement of the manufacture on Polish soil, which could be done and analysed with peculiar attention by Rosa Luxemburg, only thanks to the east markets. Luxembourg, erstwhile she found herself in Germany and was notified by the then social democrats as a candidate in the Polish-Silesian constituency, survived her election run as a return to her roots, to her people, as she described in a moving letter to her favorite, which allows to deny the thesis that due to her Marxist internationalism and her judaic origin it was anti-Polish and thus pro-Russian or pro-German.
Like Dmowski, she simply analyzed the interests of the nation surviving on the Vistula River. This is the logic which the interwar period confirmed, erstwhile until 1938 Poland was incapable to regain the level of production of Polish lands from 1913; and as confirmed besides by the period of the Polish People's Republic, in which, thanks to, among others, the east markets, Poland was able to carry out a work of industrialization and a leap of civilization from the undeveloped country to the developed country. As for the period after 1989, even if the Polish economy was able to recover the macroeconomic losses of the period of collapse of the east block reasonably quickly, it should be noted that Polish lands have since lost the lion's share of their overall industrial production in favour of the production of components for the German economy and the precarization of the Polish workforce as part of a fresh global division of labour.
Today, it is impossible for Poland or Ukraine (or even the USA!) to fight the full world. It is impossible to ignore the fact that the vast majority of the world's nations want that the Russian Empire existed as a strong counterweight to the U.S./NATO powers, alongside another global or regional powers specified as China, Iran, India, Turkey, South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, etc. So all nation of our planet must accept the fact that we are surviving in a period of gradual transition from the colonial monopolarity of the Western, which has lasted for respective centuries, to political multipolarity as well as civilization. This is something that no UN voter can ignore, as the United Nations General Assembly has systematically since 2022 refused to accept a resolution condemning Russia and most frequently blocks all steps taken by the US, Israel or another Western bloc powers. This was confirmed by the fresh "peace conference" in Switzerland on Ukraine, where the U.S. brought together with many efforts and pressures delegations of very different levels of little than half of the world's countries, as a consequence of which the number of countries signing the "pro-Ukrainian" position yet somewhat exceeded 70 countries, while the UN has more than 190 associate States. Here we have proof that a fresh strategy of power is being created in the world, which forces us to deal with verifiable facts; that we should not succumb to emotions. The facts should not be offended!
The planet next day will be the consequence of the sum of all the aspirations of countries, nations and peoples of the world, depending on their strength of conviction, on their strength in particular. This forces all members of the "international society" to accept without exception a compromise which will be realistic and warrant the minimum interests of individual players, including Poland, which "does not lie in Australia" and which must take its appropriate geographical place on the Eurasian continent, where it truly lies within the framework of the fresh developing planet power arrangement.
Prof. Bruno Drwęski
Think Poland, No. 27-28 (30.06-7.07.2024)
