TeoCubanos / Avantgarde (translation of greek edition)
The “UN Charter” and the neo-Nazi raids
The whole propaganda machine of western imperialism is frantically working during the last few weeks to support the raid of the Kiev regime against the southeastern Ukraine, to discredit and isolate the resistance struggle of the people there, and to facilitate the neoliberal right and neo-Nazi puppet government of the Ukrainian oligarchy and imperialism in order to consolidate their dominance throughout Ukraine.
The UN, this shameful imperialist organ -in “the rules” of which the pro-EU Left swears faith- with a report of it’s office on “human rights” (OHCHR) informs us that ” Although there were some attacks against the ethnic Russian community, these were neither systematic nor widespread.“ And furthermore that “Photographs of the Maidan protests, greatly exaggerated stories of harassment of ethnic Russians by Ukrainian nationalist extremists, and misinformed reports of them coming armed to persecute ethnic Russians in Crimea, were systematically used to create a climate of fear and insecurity …”
So, what we saw at Maidan was an optical illusion! Or perhaps lies of the powerful propaganda machinery of Putin? Fortunately for our mental health, the UN tries not-yet-at least to convince us that the Right Sector is also non-existent! But the wise organization of imperialist invasion coolly and objectively concluded that “according to all accounts heard by the OHCHR delegation, the fear against the “Right Sector” is disproportionate…”
“Disproportionate fear”! Indeed the imperialist diplomacy does not lack imagination inverbal contrivances! After the “humanitarian intervention”, the “collateral damages” and so much more, now it’s time for us to learn about the “disproportionate fear”!
Finally, the UN did not miss the chance to inform us that its officials received “many descriptions of electoral fraud” in connection with the referendum on Crimea. Regarding however the presidential elections of May 25 the UN report was limited to a vague reference that it is important “to ensure free communication of information and ideas about public and political issues between citizens, candidates and elected representatives.”
How exactly does the UN mean “free communication of information and ideas“? The militants, however, of the Ukrainian organization “Against the Current” that came to Greece invited by EEK complained that the Kiev government exercises tight control not only to the media but also to printers and it is difficult if not impossible for someone to print in Kiev newspapers or flyers with anti-government content! Or does the UN mean “free communication of information and ideas” in the same way that it’s perceived by the neo-fascists of Svoboda who attacked with punches the Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party (KPU) and presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, while he was speaking in the Ukrainian Parliament? From such a kind of “free communication of information and ideas” were not spared two other presidential candidates, from the “pro – Russian” minority of the bourgeios business and political personnel, Mikhail Dobkin and Oleg Tsarev. The latter was recently suspended from the Party of Regions, the previously Yanukovych ‘s party, which now supports the Kiev regime.
On 8 April the Ukrainian Parliament voted laws that double the penalties for acts directed against the “territorial integrity of the state”. We assume that the UN considers this legislation as a goodwill gesture to smooth the political life of the country. A gesture of goodwill must also have been the killing of two anti-government protesters on March 8 in Kharkov by the Nazis of Right Sector with the coverage of the Ministry of Interior. And we have no doubt that the presence in Kiev on the weekend of April 12-13of the Director of CIA, John Brennan, was to prepare a smooth transition of Ukraine to Western standards of bourgeois democracy .
As for the fascist raids against the offices of leftist organizations, they are continuing unabated. Only in Tuesday, April 15, the Nazis Right Sector attacked the offices of the KPU in Rovno and Sumo – in the latter case the secretary of the regional committee of the KPU, Valery Siryachenko, was wounded. On the same day, in Kharkov, a mob of uniformed policemen and other unidentified men, invaded the offices of Borotba, without a warrant , without explanation, confiscated materials and machinery and tried to stage a provocation to frame Borotba for “offenses”.
Within such a climate of “freedom” the Kiev government announced a special “anti-terrorist” operation against the population of Southeast Ukraine who resist against the reactionary Kiev mob, protesting and occupying public buildings. Andriy Parubiy, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine announced that the first battalion of the newly formed National Guard, assembled by volunteers of the “self-defense groups” of Maidan, already left Kiev heading southeast!
Let us remind the UN and its left and right friends, who Andriy Parubiy -the nowadays responsible man for the “defense and security” of Ukraine- is: he is the co-founder of the National Socialist Party of Ukraine (later Svoboda) who “flourished” as Commandant and Coordinator of “voluntary security forces”, ie the Right Sector, at Maidan. And the newly created “National Gurad” is the armed force established under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior and the National Security and Defense Council, constiting of military veterans and fighters of the Right Sector. To this Guard is being imposed on all the warlords of the Right Rector to intergrate themshelves if they do not want to have the same fortune with the – murdered by the government of Kiev – fascist warlord Oleksander Muzychko.
At the same time UN’s Ban Ki-moon assures that Kiev may be depend entirely on “peacekeepers” of the UN to assist the “anti-terrorist” campaign of the government.
So, to make it clear: the founder of the National Socialist Party, under his official responsible governmental function, declared that a battalion of armed neo-Nazis is heading southeast to suppress the “separatist terrorists”. For the UN this is “misinformation”. That’s what the verbal acrobatics of the UN about “disproportionate fear” come to cover up!
Who prey Southeast Ukraine?
It has been written again in this site that “in fact Ukraine did not clearly belong to a specific sphere of influence. The financial transactions as well as the different orientations of the eastern and western side was always shared … This neutrality did not benefit its capitalist maturation. A decision had to be made. And pro-wetern forces, this time along with the fascists, attempt the final cleanup. They are the ones wanting the whole Ukraine integrated into the western hegemonic imperialism, putting the final nail in the deal. So there was no bewilderment in the West. Those who were taken aback were the Russians of Ukraine and along with them the “motherland” of Putin”.
It has also been reprinted on this site that “it was the pressure of the imperialists and the movement in Maidan led by the fascists … it was the accelerating developments thanks to a sharp escalation of the imperialist intervention and the “fait accompli” of the fascists that “persuaded” the oligarchs who supported Yanukovych to abandon him and jump into the pro-Western train”.
The recent developments confirm this line of analysis, for anyone who can see beyond the cloud of misinformation and propaganda of imperialism and the confusionism of the “equidistantly” Left.
The main eastern oligarchs pulled the rug from under Yanukovych’s feet and made a deal with Kiev and the West. Ofcourse the new balances that have been formed, rivalries and antagonisms, the rewards and the “misdeals” and generally the shaping of the new status quo and whether it will stabilize or bring a new break – thus placing in game Putin’s Russia again- is an issue that its evolution remains to be seen. However, it is clear that the current “Ukrainian Revolution” proves surprisingly worthy and senior follower of the “orange revolution”, throwing Ukraine in the arms of the West with the consent of the eastern oligarchs, with the extremely low price of the secession of Crimea.
Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in Ukraine and 47th in the world in 2013 according to Forbes, owner of the group SCM Holdings -which group owns three of the ten largest companies in Ukraine- is the absolute ruler in the Southeastern Ukraine’s Donbas and was deputy himself until 2012 (following the Berlusconi standards, and being the owner of football club Shakhtar Donetsk) with the Regions Party of Yanukovych. Donetsk -the largest city in the Donbass coalfield valley ( Donbas = Don-etsk Bas-in)- was the political base of Yanukovych. Probably Akhmetov was one of the main orchestrators of the impressive turn of the Party of Regions which left Yanukovych exposed.
As early as 13 December 2013, the Financial Times wrote that “Ukraine’s richest oligarch Rinat Akhmetov weighs in to crisis” and reported statements by Akhmentov: “Ukraine and the president have been going along the European road for three and a half years and much has been achieved over this time. The agreement was not signed as scheduled at an EU summit held late last month in Vilnius. And everybody asked, what happened? Did Ukraine take a pause? Did Ukraine stop? Or did Ukraine take another road? Everyone wants clarity.”
On January 27, 2014 , the British Guardian wrote: “Viktor Yanukovych’s future may depend on oligarchs as much as protesters. Offer of concessions follows Rinat Akhmetov’s call for dialogue, suggesting oligarchs fear Ukraine becoming pariah state“. And Guardian also reported that at the site of SCM, owned by Rinat Akhmetov, a statement appeared, “carefully phrased, but unambiguous”: “It is only by peaceful action that the political crisis can be resolved. Any use of force and weapons is unacceptable. With this scenario there will be no winners in Ukraine, only victims and losers. But most importantly, the use of force will not help to find a way out“. And Guardian assumed: “whether or not Yanukovych can survive until scheduled elections next year may depend as much on what the oligarchs decide as on the power of the street.”
Soon the die was cast for Yanukovych. The oligarchs had taken their decisions. The fascists had the power on the streets. But also the American imperialists had no desire to negotiate with anyone, not even about who will become prime minister. They had their own special plans. And thus we arrived at the -also reprinted on this site- U.S. imperialism’s Ukraine coup, with the fascists as its battering ram: “Yanukovych’s agreement with EU top officials from Germany, France and Poland, his third reversal regarding who would plunder and subject his country to imperial control, had him appointing top opposition leaders to major government posts. Nuland disagreed with key appointments, indicating that “Yats” was to be the U.S. choice. Indeed, “Yats,” or Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, is today’s Ukrainan Prime Minister. Nuland preferred figures who had shown themselves to be loyal to Western interests and to IMF-type austerity.”
Nowadays, Rinat Akhmetov makes statements condemning “separatism” and urges Putin “to respect Ukraine sovereignty”. On 2 March , the Financial Times wrote that:“Akhmetov joins Ukraine oligarchs in pledging to protect homeland” and he states with “all due responsibility” that ” SCM Group, which today employs 300,000 people and represents Ukraine from west to east and from north to south, will do everything possible to maintain the integrity of our country. ”
Serhiy Taruta, founder of Industrial Union of Donbas, one of the largest Eastern Ukrainian companies, “oligarch” himself – as habitually the Ukrainian magnate capitalists are refered to- was appointed on 2 March by the government of Kiev as governor of the Donetsk region in Southeastern Ukraine. Shortly after his appointment he said: “we are now working so that the radical elements that are calling for divisive actions will be stopped decisively.” He announced that the regional government bans protests near government buildings and appointed a new regional police chief, prosecutor and chief of security services, replacing officials who had avoided direct clashes with protesters.
The British Telegraph wrote about Taruta that he “for decades personnified the close links that tie the Ukrainian and Russian economies“ but a week after his appointment as governor of Donetsk he “bluntly accuses Mr Putin of sending provocateurs to create chaos on the streets to provide a pretext for Russia intervention.”
And the list goes on with the new government of Kiev appointing billionaires as governors in Ukraine…
So in fact it is not only the Americans, NATO, the EU and the giggly pro-Maidan Left that is trying to convince us about the mortal danger of a… Russian intervention. It is also the eastern Ukraine oligarchs themselves, even those who supported for years the Party of Regions and Yanukovych, those who “for decades personnified the close links that tie the Ukrainian and Russian economies”! Woe! The power of this accursed Russian imperialism must be imense for all these good gentlemen to be trying with so much perseverance to convince us about the deadly danger posed by Putin!
Well, in fact things are somewhat different. Putin is definitely a very capable manager of the interests of Russian capitalism. Putin will definitely try to salvage whatever he can from his collapsing footholds in eastern Ukrainian oligarchs and political staff. He will strive to use the network of agents and Russian nationalists which he probably has at his disposal . He will even try to exploit the justified fear that the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine feels and the expectation of protection from “Motherland Russia”.
Putin is also an ideal player for a game of poker. His diplomatic maneuvers are of excellent quality, comparable with those of a top poker player who has to manage a significant part of his bankroll while holding a very modest set of cards. But the game that is actually being played is not poker. It is chess. And Putin is already far behind in “pieces”.
Putin is wise enough to know that neither has he the capability nor is to the benefit of the general capitalist interest to come to a definitive break with the guarantor of the global capitalist system, with imperialism and its regulatory structures and relationships.
Putin is not the “liberator” of the poor and toilers of eastern Ukraine. But the mortal enemy of the working masses of the Ukraine at the moment is not Putin. It is the invasion of US-European imperialism and the neoliberal semi-fascist Kiev government.
Solidarity with the anti-government, anti-fascist struggle!
It has been written before in “avantgarde” that “the ideological expectations we have of Putin are the same we had of Saddam Hussein, and those we have of Hezbollah and Hamas; or even of Maduro who visualizes Virgin Mary weeping and Chavez conversing with Jesus.”
However, it is the Kiev government that sends neo-Nazis to suppress protests in the South. The Kiev government is the one that fosters continuous violent attacks on the Left.
So, we insist on the theses for the fascist uprising in Ukraine: “As long the western Ukraine undergoes -or is rather forced under the fascist terror to undergo- the semi-fasist government of Kiev, we wholeheartedly support any move that will lead or assist the fascists’ crush. That is the immediate and urgent task at this time in the Ukrainian question. Ukraine can claim unity only under a regime that does not raise questions of being to any ethnicity and minority living in the country and under which there will be no place for Nazi gangs that threaten to physically eliminate the Left and the organized labor movement. Any ad hoc alliance on this perspective is legitimate and necessary. Finally, it is for certain that the crush of praetorian fascist agents of western imperialism would please the millions of sansculottes in Venezuela respectively facing a counter-revolutionary coup in their country, under the auspices of the ruler and global guarantor of rotten capitalist system.”
Therefore, the policy of “equidistance” from the Left, even worse from the Left that wants to be called revolutionary, is currently disastrous and complementary to imperialist propaganda.
Therefore, the left tears for the “territorial integrity of Ukraine” are nothing but embarrassing complements to their respective imperialist and neo-Nazi tears.
We don’t seek the independence of Eastern Ukraine as an end in itself. We seek to defeat and overthrow the government of Kiev. To the extent that the struggle for independence of South Ukraine is a means to the defeat Kiev or even to prevent it from an outright victory, we support the claim of independence of South Ukraine. And of course we dont even discuss about the confusing firework thrown by the Prime Minister of Kiev, who is willing to discuss a nationwide referendum on the independence for the south-eastern Ukraine! What a deeply democratic concession! Oppressors and oppressed to vote together on the fate of the second!
The only authentic and to the end rival of the government of Kiev at the moment, the“subject” on which the Ukrainian revolutionaries have to apply their forces and ideas, the subject which should be supported by the internationalists everywhere, is the resistance struggle to the government of Kiev conducted in Southeast -mainly, but not only- Ukraine.
And the fight is going on now. Now is the time for support and solidarity. Tomorrow may be too late.
Anyone who is not blind can see that the struggle of the working people of Southeast Ukraine is a struggle for survival. Both against the disastrous agenda of the EU and the IMF conveyed by the dummies of Kiev, and against the Nazi governmental gangsheading southeast to “restore order”. And moreover it is a struggle carried out alsoagainst the local southeastern oligarchs who went in cahoots with Kiev!
It is a fight that very logically starts from a low ideological and political level of the people participating. It is a fight that must be preserved from the poison of Russian nationalism to which the ruthless government of Kiev makes it vulnerable.
But it’s a fair fight, a fight that deserves support! A struggle in which can be planted an -even weak- seed of the struggle against imperialism, an -even weak- seed of revolution.
A struggle in which the Ukrainian revolutionary Left can strengthen itself! A fight in which, at the very least, even as a minority but fearlessly and freely, women sing the anthem of the International!
Solidarity with the comrades of Borotba!
The Union “Borotba” (“Borotba” means “Struggle”) was founded in May 2011 by the unification of mainly young activists from various political groups. They define themselves ideologically as revolutionary Marxists.
The comrades of Borotba wrote in a recent statement: “Turchinov, the “president” of Kiev junta, proposed the leading oligarchs to be the heads of Regional State Administrations. Oligarch Kolomoyskiyhas already agreed to be the governor of Dnepropetrovsk region. The similar positions were also offered to such oligarhs as Taruta and Yaroslavskiy. The richest oligarch Akhmetov supported the candidature of oligarch Taruta that was promoted to the position of the head of Donetskregion.
Class nature of the new authority is being revealed, therefore. The illusions of Maidan are being dispelled. Apart from the control over economics,the oligarchs are being offered the direct administrative control over the country. “Borotba” union has warned that oligarchs are both customers and sponsors of the whole process of Maidan movement. And they are ready now to “gather in the crops”. Ukraine is not a commodity! The answer of the popular movement to such an attempt to transfer the power – should be the slogan of nationalization of oligarchy’s property!”
Various pro-Maidan leftists and anarchists in Ukraine, like Left Opposition of the swindler Zakhar Popovych, considered it necessary in such a situation, with the government and far-right terrorism prevailing in Ukraine, to denounce and to target Borotba because it spoiled the festive frenzy for their “Maidan revolution”. Borotba replied that “We are not part of the movement that tried to collaborate with far-right and Nazi forces that dominate in Euromaidan protest. We are not part of the movement that – like those small sects – that tried to hide their ‘leftism’ in Euromaidan while actually helping to bring to power open Nazis and just another clan of oligarchs that accepts IMF loans and austerity measures.”
Borotba has become a target rather than friend of the Kiev regime.Borotba’s militants participate in anti-government protests and attempt to organize and coordinate the anti-fascist struggle. Borotba criticizes KPU for choosing to announce that it will participate in the upcoming presidential elections. Borotba considers that the Kiev government does not offer minimum guarantees for free elections. It supports the call for a referendum on independence of eastern Ukraine. It displays the slogan: No elections without referendum!
We would like to discuss many ideological and political issues with the comrades of Borotba. To clarify agreements and disagreements.
But at this time it is important above all to state in every possible way our full solidarity with their struggle!
Against the government of Kiev!
Against the neoliberal hawks, neo-Nazis and imperialist crusade!
Victory to the anti-government, anti- fascist struggle!
Solidarity with Ukrainian fighting Left and comrades of Borotba!
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