Thursday, 19 February 2015

No Support for Fascism in Ukraine



NO SUPPORT FOR FASCISM IN UKRAINE! US/AUST/NATO OUT OF EASTERN EUROPE! NO WAR WITH RUSSIA! DEFEND NOVOROSSIYA! VICTORY TO THE ANTI-FASCIST RESISTANCE!

The hypocrisy could not be more stark. The US government has for at least four years, armed, trained and funded barbaric fundamentalists in an attempt to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic, in the form of ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) and the ultra-reactionary FSA (“Free Syrian Army” – 80% of which is not Syrian). Yet it has the gall to accuse Russia of arming and backing Eastern Ukrainians, who are defending themselves against the murderous onslaught of an ultra-nationalist, fascist infested, neo-Nazi government installed via an illegal coup backed by the US government and NATO powers on February 22 last year. Here in Australia, Liberal PM Tony Abbott and ALP “Opposition” leader Bill Shorten, have been united in threatening war against Russia, while politically backing the fascist-infested Ukrainian government.  As Australia does not have the size to combat the Russian armed forces, these moves seem designed to press the US to go to war against Russia, whereby Australia would quickly join in. This repeats the pattern of the Vietnam War, where the Australian government then was more belligerent than the US with regard to starting hostilities. Abbott and Shorten have claimed, without a shred of evidence, that the anti-fascist resistance in the East of Ukraine shot down Malaysian Airlines flight MH17, using Russian supplied weapons. In fact, all evidence available so far, points to a conclusion that Ukrainian government fighter jets shot down MH17 from behind, trailing behind them in the open sky.

Again and again, the Western corporate media baldly state that Russia “annexed” Crimea.  The implication is clear – “annexation” is most prominently used to describe such acts as the Nazi Adolf Hitler’s real annexation of the Sudetenland prior to the official start of World War II, which is, according to them, comparable to Russia and Crimea today. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is ironic that the West uses allusions to the Nazis when real Nazis are part of the illegal fascist coup government occupying Kiev, which they support. In fact, a referendum was held in Crimea on March 16, soon after the fascist Maidan coup in Kiev. The result was arguably more overwhelming  than any referendum in history. Crimeans were given two choices: 1. Reunification with Russia with rights as federated republic, or 2. The restoration of the 1992 constitution which states that Crimea is a part of Ukraine. The results were that 96.77% of Crimeans voted for reunification with Russia, with an 83.1% turnout.  This almost universal decision reflects the fact that Crimeans are almost entirely ethnically Russian and/or Russian speaking. But this is not the type of democracy that is accepted by US imperialism, and certainly not Australia as a junior partner.

On the contrary, the Abbott government, with the support of the ALP and the Greens, have moved to establish an embassy in Kiev, and has been sending “non-lethal” aid to the Ukrainian coup government. Abbott mentioned that he was pleased that Australia’s flag would be flying alongside that of Ukraine’s, an indicator that a government where Nazis occupy ministerial posts is just the type that the Australian ruling class wishes to be associated with. Abbott further announced that uranium sales to Russia had been suspended.

Left: Alexander Zakharchenko takes an oath as Prime Minister of the Donetsk Peoples Republic.
In response to the war being unleashed by the US/EU/NATO backed coup government against “rebels” in the East of Ukraine, the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk have been established. Often referred to as “separatists”, the resistance in the East of Ukraine is in reality an anti-fascist resistance, which has taken the step to declare independence simply as an act of self-defence. It is false to assert, as the US and AUST governments do endlessly, that Russia is assisting the anti-fascist resistance in the East, or is actually preparing to invade Ukraine. Russia, as the case of Crimea, is simply acting to protect its territory despite extreme provocation from NATO, supported on the ground by domestic fascists. These fascists have a history, going back to the Second World War, where followers of Stepan Bandera were formed into a militia in collaboration with the Nazi Wehrmacht, in order to fight against the then Soviet Union.

Alexander Zakharchenko takes an oath as Prime Minister of the Donetsk Peoples Republic.
In fact, the whole crisis in Ukraine now is a direct result of the counter-revolution which destroyed the Soviet Union in 1991. Ukraine has never been able to restore the standard of living, the jobs or the security achieved since the destruction of socialism. This is not to say that there were no political issues for working class citizens of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, for there certainly were. However those problems pale in comparison with the social devastation wrought by the restoration of capitalism around 23 years ago.

While there are some within the leadership of the resistance in the East of Ukraine who have anti-Semitic, pro-Russian nationalist or even pro-Tsarist views, this is not the case for the whole of the anti-fascist resistance, nor the whole of the population. In fact, they would not be able to garner the support they have if they were. It is a contradiction, but the fact is that the anti-fascist resistance is stalling the advance of NATO, and thus hampering the plans of US imperialism, with its overall goal of the overthrow of Russia. It is for this reason that workers here, and internationally, need to stand with the anti-fascist resistance in Donetsk, Lugansk and elsewhere it may exist in Ukraine – and stand against the relentless advance of US imperialism, spearheaded by NATO. Potential world war is lurking in the shadows of this latest conflict, which is ultimately driven by the perilous state of the world capitalist economy.

5400 people have perished so far in the war led by the fascist US backed Kiev “government” against the Donbass region. Many of these have simply been bombed to death in their houses or in the streets of their home towns.  This horrific toll has horrified Ukrainians in the West as well as in the East. The website newcoldwar.org in fact details the extent to which Ukrainians are opposed to the war. The ultra-nationalist Kiev regime has attempted to conscript large numbers of Ukrainian men into the army to wage war on the East. Yet the Kiev junta has little basis of social support, apart from the fascist Nazi thugs who form the terror militias. As a consequence, there has been ongoing acts of draft resistance, demonstrations, and some riots, including some led by women. Some Ukrainians are literally packing up and moving to Russia to avoid the draft. This is the supreme irony, given that the coup junta as well as the United States are claiming, without a shred of evidence, that Russian troops and tanks are moving into Ukraine!

This lack of social or working class support for the NATO backed Kiev junta, together with  the heroic resistance of the Donbass region, has meant that the US led war has largely been defeated. The Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics have been fighting with a volunteer force, and it has proven to be superior in battle to a largely conscript Kiev army which does not really want to be there, let alone in a war. In response, Washington politicians have been openly discussing arming the Nazi Kiev regime with $3 billion dollars worth of heavy weaponry.  It is needless to say that if this occurs, Russia will not simply be able to stand idly by. At its worst, it could lead to nuclear war. There are many who claim that nuclear war between the world’s most powerful states is impossible due to the sheer self-destruction on all sides that would result. Yet this view does not take into account the fact that the world’s capitalist ruling classes have no plan, and are not able to re-start a stalling capitalism, which is wretched and in its most dire predicament in its history. They are more than capable of risking everything to preserve their power, or bring about almost total destruction – which would perversely provide a stimulus for profit based production.

Recently German leader Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande met with Russian President Putin in Moscow, in an attempt to head off full scale war. On February 6 the UK Guardian reported that the Europeans are almost universally opposed to the arming of the Ukrainian government, fearing it would lead to full scale war. Moreover, they feel that if there was to be a war with Russia right now, Russia would win. This does not mean that German and French imperialism are for peace, whereas the US is for war. It merely means that German and French imperialism share the same aims, but want to employ different methods to bring Russia to heel. The meeting was evidence of a minor split between European and US imperial interests.

Here in Australia, to our knowledge, there has been no active opposition to the war on Russia via Ukraine, by leftist parties or others. Unfortunately, most left parties here hold the extremely erroneous view that Russia is an imperialist state, and therefore cannot be defended. Some other left parties do defend Russia from the main imperialists – the US and Europe – but do so only on paper, while doing nothing in action. This must be rectified. The Marxist-Leninist Front is prepared to work alongside all those who want to avoid an aggressive war by the NATO powers against Russia via Ukraine – a war which will almost certainly be a world war. 

The prevention of a shooting war would be an immense relief to the working people of the Ukraine, Russia, Europe and the world. However, the main driving factor of this potential war remains – the dire economic crisis of capitalism. Only the socialist states – China, Vietnam, the DPRK, Cuba and Laos – whose economies have been removed from the capitalist orbit – are more or less safe from this crisis. But that cannot last if the world is once again plunged into World War. The only way to take world war permanently off the table is the overthrow of capitalism via the workers seizing state power and initiating the rule of labour over capital. This task will be especially necessary in the industrialised countries of Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. This task requires the urgent forging of Marxist vanguard parties, with all the national peculiarities these formations may entail.

In the meantime, we suggest that some of the demands that the workers must put forward should be:  NO SUPPORT FOR FASCISM IN UKRAINE! NO AUSTRALIAN “AID” TO KIEV! NO WAR WITH RUSSIA! LIFT THE SANCTIONS! VICTORY TO THE ANTI-FASCIST RESISTANCE! DEFEND NOVOROSSIYA, THE DONBASS, THE DONETSK AND LUGANSK PEOPLES REPUBLICS!

MARXIST-LENINIST FRONT
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0421 408 692

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