Solidarity with the Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine 7:30 pm Monday 2 June SOAS (Vernon Square campus) Map Please join us for a launch meeting for a new campaign in the UK against Western backing for the far right regime in Kiev and in solidarity with those resisting fascist repression in Ukraine. […]
By Dave Stockton One of the most striking features of the events in Ukraine, both before and after the February coup, was the disgraceful response of some groups on the British and international left, including Socialist Resistance (British section of the Fourth International). First they denied the fundamentally reactionary nature of the Maidan movement. Then, […]
By KD Tait On 2 May the government in organised a pogrom against anti-government protesters, in which official figures admit that at least 46 people were killed, more than 200 were injured and 78 people hospitalised. Forces within the government orchestrated the massacre, bringing in a thousand Right Sector fascists from Kyiv and Kharkov to […]
This is a statement drafted by Workers Power which we invite organisations and individuals to sign. Please circulate it to your members and supporters. To add your name to the statement please reply to this or email [email protected] May 3 2014 We unequivocally condemn the fascist pogrom in Odessa, carried out by Right Sector gangs […]
By Richard Brenner 1 May 2014 In the course of the argument over Ukraine, Workers Power has been accused of being soft on Russia or even supporting Russian imperialism. This is absolutely not the case. We opposed Russia’s war in Chechnya; we oppose Russian imperialism’s backing for the Assad regime in Syria. We supported the […]
Published by the International Secretariat, League for the Fifth International The crisis in Eastern Ukraine has a very different character from the myth presented in the “western” media. Here, there are relentless reports that it is the Russian army and Russian tanks that are about to “invade” Ukraine and violate its right to self-determination. In […]
By Franz Ickstatt, Gruppe Arbeitermacht, German section of the League for a Fifth International In the German media, the protest movement in the south and east of Ukraine is presented only as disturbances manipulated by Moscow as an excuse for the Russian aggressor to put more pressure on the struggle for an independent Ukraine and […]
By KD Tait The crisis in Ukraine has divided the international left and produced the deepest international crisis in Europe in 15 years. We argue that the conflict and our response must be situated in the context of a new period of inter-imperialist rivalry. The capitalist crisis, which began in 2007-08, has developed into a […]
By KD Tait An austerity package, for the “prevention of financial catastrophe”, passed by the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on March 29, threatens to deliver the people of Ukraine firmly into the grip of western imperialism. The bill, passed by a parliament purged of former President Yanukovych’s supporters, confirms that the decisive question characterising […]
By Kady Tait On 16 March, the population of Crimea voted overwhelmingly for federation with Russia. The results of the referendum were immediately rejected by all the major western imperialist powers, which have now barred Russia from G8 meetings and applied sanctions to figures in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s entourage. In response to manoeuvres by […]
The League has received this survey of Russian opinion from a correspondent in Russia. According to the WCIOM (The Russian Public Opinion Service) 73% of Russian citizens are against of any intervention of Russia into the conflict between opposition and state authorities because this is internal problem of the country, that was announced on the […]
For the first time since the Second World War, fascists have come to power through an insurrectionary movement. Kady Tait reviews the situation
The Ukrainian working class has no reason to regret the downfall of the corrupt Viktor Yanukovich or his ministers and police chiefs. His brutal repression on the 30 November of a peaceful occupation of Independence Square, using Berkut special forces, launched a movement which would eventually bring him down. Then, on February 20-21, police snipers […]
By Peter Main The overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych by the Euromaidan movement marks a major strategic advance for the imperialists of the EU, led by Germany. Although their preferred option was a “controlled” transfer of power via early elections and a compromise with opposition leaders, it is a mark of their determination to […]
By Martin Suchanek, Gruppe Arbeitermacht The power struggle in Ukraine appears to be entering a decisive phase. The situation of the Yanukovich government is becoming precarious. After the first mass protests against the decision not to sign the Association Agreement with the EU for the time being, they hoped they could just “sit out” the […]
Over the last month, thousands of people have occupied Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Their protests were initially provoked by President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to suspend negotiations for Ukraine’s eventual entry into the European Union. It had transpired during these negotiations that the EU was demanding neoliberal “reforms” similar to the austerity it […]
Dave Stockton looks back at the aborted coup in the USSR and the counter-coup by Boris Yeltsin