Ukraine: Oppose the fascist coup
What's going on in the Ukraine? What do the Ukrainian people want? What should the British workers' attitude to all this turmoil be?
Harpal Brar, Chairman of the CPGB-ML, lays outlines how the current crisis in Ukraine is due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rise of capitalism, and the ongoing attempts of the US/EU/Nato imperialists to stifle Russia and ensnare the 48 million workers of industrialised and developed Ukraine into their empire.
The people of Ukraine are resisting, and are exposing the fascist leadership of the so-called ‘Orange revolution’ and ‘Euromaidan uprising’ of 2004-14. British workers must champion the right of the Ukrainian people to determine their own interests without US/EU imperialist interference.
We must not fall for the Trotskyite lie that ‘the Russians are imperialists, and as bad or worse than the US – so do nothing, or [worse] support the imperialist-backed fascist forces’.
It seemed that President Yanukovych would be cajoled and bullied into signing a trade deal with the EU that would tie Ukraine to imperialist interests at the expense of its own people and Russia. But at the last moment, Yanukovych refused to sign, realising he could not impose IMF restructuring plans on the general population. This was his mortal sin, as far as the US and EU were concerned.
Over three months, fascist ‘protesters’ graduated from placard waving to violent provocations, seizures of administrative centres and intimidation against the MPs of the elected Party of the Regions, as well as from the Communist Party, with which it was allied.
Yet ‘our’ western media portrayed the fascists as the latest expression of ‘democratic people power’ against ‘tyranny’, demonised the elected government, and sabotaged all efforts to resolve the crisis through negotiation.
In major cities throughout the industrialised east (where the Russian-speaking proletariat is strong), thousands have come onto the streets to denounce the coup and oppose the illegally-installed fascist ‘government’.
In Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk and other key industrial towns throughout eastern Ukraine, determined mass resistance to the fascist coup has been gathering unstoppable momentum.
Crimea voted by an overwhelming majority of 96.77 percent to join the Russian Federation. The number of Soviet flags and portraits of Stalin that are evident on nearly every demonstration shows that strong sentiment exists among the masses not only for reunification with Russia, but also for the reconstitution of the USSR as a fraternal socialist union of working people of all nationalities.
