Anti-war socialist Boris Kagarlitsky is currently serving a in Torzhok, Russia, on trumped-up charges of “justifying terrorism.” His real “crime” was .
Kagarlitsky delivered the following recorded message to the Socialism 2025 conference, which was held over July 3-6 in Chicago, United States, via his daughter Ksenia, as part of the session, “”.
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Dear friends and colleagues.
There is good news. The good news is that I can communicate with you. Even though I am in prison, I can talk to you, which I am very happy about.
However, there is bad news. The bad news, of course, is that there are plenty of political prisoners around the world, including no less than 10,000 political prisoners in Russia alone.
We also estimate that there are about 5000 political prisoners in Ukraine. That tells us it is very hard to find any good guys on either side in the current global crisis.
The world as we see it today does not look like a very nice place.
What we see is a tremendous reaction developing throughout the world and it is becoming a real threat — not only to the progress we have achieved in the past 100 years, but to the very existence of humanity.
We are seeing reactionary forces around the world, from Russia to the United States, trying to eliminate the progress achieved since the Great French Revolution or perhaps even earlier.
This is a real threat and we have to resist it. We have to stand firm and present an alternative.
This is the tremendous responsibility that the left has to face up to. We face the responsibility of not only inventing alternatives, but making these alternatives real and politically effective.
In that sense, we have a tremendous job ahead of us.
There is much work to be done because the left has failed in recent years. We have to accept that fact — not to surrender but, on the contrary, to be able to start fighting much stronger and much more effectively and successfully.
Finally, I should say that here in Torzhok, where I am now imprisoned, we have quite a few political prisoners and we are all standing firm. We are in very good spirits and share the conviction that things are going to change for the better.
I should say most of the people here are not political prisoners, but they are left-wing people. They share the same ideas as us. They share the same understanding of the need for social change that goes beyond the current system of neoliberal capitalism.
This is also very encouraging. We see quite a few people have become politicised. They are becoming politicised right now because of what is happening around us.
Their political evolution is very clear: they are getting radicalised, they are becoming more left wing, they are getting more interested in socialist ideas. This is an encouraging and important sign.
You should understand: we are not victims, we are fighters. We are on the side that is going to continue fighting and will ultimately win.
That is something we should all share. It is not about suffering and the problems we are facing [as political prisoners]. It is about what we are going to do to change the world.
The world should be changed now.
борьба продолжается! The struggle continues!
[Transcript edited for clarity by Federico Fuentes. Fuentes is a member of the Boris Kagarlitsky International Solidarity Campaign. For more information visit freeboris.info.]