I have recently uncovered yet more evidence that Alan Woods, the leader of the International Marxist Tendency, happily associates with Russian fascists. Aside from the testimony provided by Peter Taaffe about an episode that happened in the 1990s, and his regurgitation of far-right propaganda about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more recently, I have discovered that one of his main sources for what is happening over there, Boris Kagarlitsky, has been revealed for some years now to have far-right links, under the guise of being a socialist. In 2014, Woods and his fellow Trots shared a platform with this crank at an anti-Ukraine propaganda meeting that attracted a minuscule audience. The Henry Jackson Society did a report back in 2016 exposing the truth about Kagarlitsky. (pp.10-12)
Kagarlitsky may like to associate himself with the left in Britain, but in Russia he keeps rather different company. Russian investigative journalists have established that Kagarlitsky has been cooperating with the Kremlin since at least 2005. His task has been to help control the Russian left-wing movement outside the sphere of influence of the Communist Party (which is itself controlled by the Kremlin). As the academic Anton Shekhovtsov has documented, Kagarlitsky is also closely involved with a number of far-right movements. He has spoken at events hosted by the Florian Geyer Club, a right-wing Russian movement founded by three notorious extremists, of whom two were once members of the neo-Nazi “Black Order of the SS”. The Club is headed by Russian right-wing Islamist Geydar Dzhemal, who is a close friend of Aleksandr Dugin (with whom Kagarlitsky has also shared a platform). Kagarlitsky frequently organises and participates in conferences that are almost exclusively attended by the far-right.
In July 2014, Kagarlitsky’s Institute for Globalisation and Social Movements, which is partly funded by the Kremlin, organised one such conference in recently annexed Crimea, entitled ‘The world crisis and the conflict in Ukraine’. The conference was co-organised with the ultranationalist Novaya Rus (New Russia) group, headed by the fascist Aleksey Anpilogov. The conference saw Russian fascists and ultranationalists fete, among others, Richard Brenner and Alan Freeman. Freeman is a member of Socialist Action and a supporter of Brenner’s Solidarity with Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine campaign. After working for the Greater London Authority for more than a decade during Ken Livingstone’s time as London mayor, he set up an initiative called the Geopolitical Economy Research Group. Based in Canada, the Group invited Kagarlitsky to give a keynote lecture at its inaugural annual conference in September 2015.
So, ladies and gentlemen of the IMT, this is the guy you are sharing platforms with. This is the guy your leader, who claims to be a socialist, is sharing platforms with and praising as a great source on what is happening in Ukraine – one of Putin’s controlled opposition, who regularly attends far-right gatherings. How lower can your cult get?