What does it mean when Marxists who are as far apart in their stance towards Russia as Boris Kagarlitsky’s English translator Renfrey Clarke  and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek both sign our petition calling for the release of Boris Kagarlitsky and all Russian anti-war political prisoners?

Renfrey Clarke commented on signing the petition: “I am a close, long-time friend of Boris Kagarlitsky, and the translator of many of his books. I know for a fact that as a Marxist, he emphatically rejects terrorist methods, and the specific allegations against him are in any case absurd. Boris is a genuine Russian patriot who has always desired the best for his country, including guaranteed rights for its people and respect for its institutions from the international community.”

Don’t talk to philosopher Slavoj Žižek, a petition lead signatory, about respect for Russian institutions. In early 2023 he told the Russian website Meduza that: “Russia is offering the rest of the world a new model: a Neo-Fascist model of false mutual tolerance among authoritarian regimes.”

What does this mean? Simply that anyone can agree or disagree with Clarke or Žižek (or Boris Kagarlitsky himself, for that matter) about today’s Russia, but no democrat can believe that Kagarlitsky or any other Russian anti-war activist should be languishing in jail, or that repression of the right to protest and to free expression is justified.

Distribute the petition through your networks, and, if anyone raises objections to signing, remind them of the maxim ascribed to Voltaire (pictured): “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”