I am writing to notify you of a significant lecture scheduled for April 25, sponsored by the App State International Youth and Students for Social Equality.

Entitled, “The War in Ukraine and How to Stop It,” the event is part of a global meeting series by the IYSSE.

The war is now just over a year old and has already claimed the lives of an estimated 200,000 Ukrainian soldiers, making it the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War II. The United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization are parties to the conflict. They have invested tens of billions of dollars in arming the Ukrainian military. The war pits two nuclear armed powers against each other, threatening a third World War.

How do students at App State make sense of this?

The IYSSE condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Putin, but we oppose the war from the socialist left, not the imperialist right. The narrative that the war was “unprovoked” or that the U.S. is fighting to “defend Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy” is false.

Andre Damon, who will be speaking at App State, has covered the war extensively for the World Socialist Website. He will explain the historical background to this war and its connection to 30 years of unending U.S. wars abroad. Our meeting will also be addressed by Trotskyists from Russia and Ukraine who oppose the war from an internationalist standpoint.

I invite all students interested in learning more about the war in Ukraine and the socialist opposition to it to attend.