March 31, 2014

'Let America Be America Again', by Langston Hughes 03 31 14

Let America be America again. 

Let it be the dream it used to be.

Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free?  Not me?
Surely not me?  The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME—
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

March 26, 2014

Venezuela: Defeating Fascism Before It’s Too Late, by James Petras, 24 03 14



Author James Petras argues that the violent groups within the hard-line opposition represent the germ of a fascist movement in Venezuela, which is being organized and supported from abroad.

source: http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10529

Introduction

Captain Jose Guillen Araque, of the Venezuelan National Guard, recently gave President Maduro a book on the rise of Nazism, warning that “fascism has to be defeated before it’s too late”!  In retaliation for his prophetic warning, the patriotic young captain was shot by a US-backed assassin on the streets of Marcay in the state of Aragua on March 16, 2014.  This raised the number of Venezuelan soldiers and police killed since the fascist uprising to 5 in 29 overall fatalities [note: VA.com edited the numbers of officer deaths from the original in line with the current information].  The killing of a prominent, patriotic officer on a major street in a provincial capital is one more indication that the Venezuelan fascists are on the move, confident of their support from Washington and from a broad swath of the Venezuelan upper and middle class.  They constitute a minority of the electorate and they have no illusions about taking power via constitutional and democratic means.

Captain Guillen Araque had stepped forward to remind President Maduro that the road to power for Nazi and fascist totalitarian groups has been littered with the corpses of well-meaning democrats and social democrats throughout contemporary history because of their failure to use their constitutional powers to crush the enemies of democracy.

The History of the rise of Fascism under Democracies

The term “fascist” in Venezuela is appropriately applied to the organized violent political groups currently engaged in mass terror in a campaign to destabilize and overthrow the democratically-elected Bolivarian government.  Academic purist might argue that the Venezuelan fascists lack the racist and nationalist ideology of their German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese predecessors.   While true, it is also irrelevant.  The Venezuelan brand of fascism is highly dependent on, and acts as a proxy for, US imperialism and their Colombian warlord allies.  In one sense however, Venezuelan fascism’s racism is directed against its multiracial African-Amerindian Venezuelan working and peasant classes – as demonstrated by their vitriolic racism against the deceased President Hugo Chavez.  The essential connection with earlier fascist movements is found in its (1) profound class hostility to the popular majority; (2) its visceral hatred of the Chavista Socialist Party, winner of 18 of the last 19 elections; (3) its resort to the armed seizure of power by a minority acting on behalf of the domestic and US imperial ruling classes; (4) its intention to destroy the very democratic institutions and procedures which it exploits in order to gain political space; (5) its targeting of working class institutions – communal councils, neighborhood associations, public health and dental clinics, public schools, transport, subsidized food stores, political meeting places, public credit unions, trade union organizations and peasant co-operatives; (6)  and its support of capitalist banks, huge commercial landed  estates and manufacturing firms.

In Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Chile, fascist movements also began as small terrorist groups, who gained the financial backing of the capitalist elite because of their violence against working class organizations and democratic institutions and recruited primarily among middle class university students, elite professionals (especially doctors) and active and retired higher military officers – united in their hostility to the democratic order.

Tragically and all too often, democratic leaders, operating within a constitutional government, tended to regard fascists as “just another party”, refusing or unwilling to crush the armed thugs, who combined terror in the streets with elections to gain state power.  Constitutionalist democrats have failed or were unwilling to see the political, civilian arm of the Nazis as part and parcel of one organic totalitarian enemy; so they negotiated and debated endlessly with elite fascists who meanwhile destroyed the economy while terrorists pounded away at the political and social foundations of the democratic state.  The democrats refused to send out their multi-million mass supporters to face the fascist hordes.  Worse, they even prided themselves on jailing their own supporters, police and soldiers, who had been accused of using ‘excessive force’ in their confrontation with fascist street thugs.  Thus the fascists easily moved from the streets to state power.  The elected democrats were so concerned about criticism from the international and capitalist media, elite critics and self-appointed ‘human rights’ organizations, that they facilitated the takeover by fascists.  The people’s right to the armed defense of their democracy had been subordinated to the pretext of upholding ‘democratic norms’ - norms that any bourgeois state under assault would have rejected!  Constitutional democrats failed to recognize how drastically politics had changed.  They were no longer dealing with a parliamentary opposition preparing for the next election; they were confronted with armed terrorists and saboteurs committed to armed struggle and the seizure of political power by any means – including violent coups-d’états.

In the lexicon of fascism, democratic conciliation is a weakness, a vulnerability and an open invitation to escalate violence; ‘peace and love’ and ‘human rights’ slogans are to be exploited;  calls for ‘negotiations’ are preambles for surrender; and ‘agreements’ preludes to capitulation.

To the terrorists, the democratic politicians who warn about a “threat of fascism” while acting as if they were engaged in ‘parliamentary skirmishes’, become an open target for violent attack.

This is how the fascists came to power, in Germany, Italy and Chile, while the constitutionalist democrats, to the last, refused to arm the millions of organized workers who could have throttled the fascists and saved democracy and preserved their own lives.

Fascism in Venezuela: A Mortal Threat Today

The martyred hero, Captain Guillen Araque’s warning of an imminent fascist danger in Venezuela has a powerful substantive basis.  While the overt terrorist violence ebbs and flows, the underlying structural basis of fascism in the economy and society remains intact.  The subterranean organizations, financing and organizing the flow of arms to fascists-in-waiting remain in place.

The political leaders of the opposition are playing a duplicitous game, constantly moving from legal forms of protest to sub-rosa complicity with the armed terrorists.  There is no doubt that in any fascist putsch, the political oligarchs will emerge as the real rulers – and will share power with the leaders of the fascist organizations.  In the meantime, their ‘respectability’ provides political cover; their ‘human rights’ campaigns to free incarcerated street thugs and arsonists earn ‘international media support’ while serving as ‘intermediaries’ between the open US funding agencies,  and the clandestine terrorist underground.

In measuring the scope and depth of the fascist danger, it is a mistake to simply count the number of bombers, arsonists and snipers, without including the logistical, back-up and peripheral support groups and institutional backers who sustain the overt actors,

To ‘defeat fascism before it is too late’, the government must realistically assess the resources, organization and operational code of the fascist command and reject the overly sanguine and ‘upbeat’ pronouncements emanating from some ministers, advisers and legislators.

First, the fascists are not simply a small band confined to pounding on pots and attacking municipal workers in the upper-middle class neighborhoods of Caracas for the benefit of the international and corporate media.  The fascists are organized on a national basis; their members are active throughout the country.

They target vital institutions and infrastructure in numerous strategic locations.

Their strategy is centrally-controlled,  their operations are decentralized.

The fascists are an organized force; their financing, arming and actions are planned.  Their demonstrations are not ‘spontaneous’, locally-organized actions, responding to government ‘repression’ as depicted in the bourgeois and imperial media.

The fascists bring together different cross currents of violent groups, frequently combining ideologically-driven right-wing professionals, large-scale smuggling gangs and drug traffickers (especially in border regions), paramilitary groups, mercenaries and known felons.  These are the ‘frontline fascists’, financed by major currency speculators, protected by elected local officials, offered ‘sanctuary’ by real estate investors and high-level university bureaucrats.

The fascists are both ‘nationals’ and internationals:  They include locally paid thugs and students from upper-middle class families;  paramilitary Colombian soldiers, professional mercenaries of all sorts, ‘contract killers’ from US ‘security’ outfits and clandestine US Special Forces Operatives; and fascist ‘internationalists’ recruited from Miami, Central America, Latin America and Europe.

The organized terrorists have two strategic sanctuaries for launching their violent operations - Bogota and Miami, where prominent political leaders, like ex-President Alvaro Uribe and US Congressional leaders provide political support.

The convergence of highly lucrative criminal economic activity  and political terrorism presents a formidable double threat to the stability of the Venezuelan economy and the security of the state . . .  Criminals and terrorists find a common home under the US political tent, designed to overthrow Venezuela’s democratic government and crush the Bolivarian revolution of the Venezuelan people.

The backward and forward inter-linkages between criminals and terrorists inside and outside the country, between  Washington senior policymakers, street drug pushers and contraband ‘camels’, provides the international elite mouthpieces and the  muscle for street fighters and snipers.

Terrorist targets are not chosen at ‘random’; they are not products of an enraged citizenry protesting social and economic inequities.  The carefully chosen targets of terrorism are the strategic programs which sustain the democratic administration; first and foremost the mass social institutions forming the base of the government.  This explains why terrorists bomb health clinics for the poor, public schools and centers for adult education in the barrios, the state subsidized food stores and the public transport system.  These are part of the vast, popular welfare system set up by the Bolivarian government. They are key building blocks in securing massive voter support in 18 out of the last 19 elections and popular power in the streets and communities.  By destroying the social welfare infrastructure, the terrorists hope to break the social bonds between people and government.

Terrorists target the legitimate national security system: Namely, the police, National Guard, judges, public prosecutors and other authorities in charge of safeguarding citizens.  The assassinations, violent attacks and threats against public officials, the  fire-bombing of public buildings and public transport are designed to create a climate of fear and to demonstrate that the state is weak and incapable of protecting the everyday life of its citizens.  The terrorists want to project an image of ‘dual power’ by seizing public spaces and blocking normal commerce… and by ‘governing the streets through the gun’.  Above all the terrorists want to demobilize and curtail popular counter-demonstrations by blocking streets and sniping at activists engaged in political activity in contested neighborhoods.  The terrorists know they can count on their ‘legal’ political opposition allies to provide them with a mass base via public demonstrations, which can serve as a shield for violent assaults and a pretext for greater sabotage.

Conclusion

Fascism, namely armed terrorism directed at violently overthrowing a democratic government, is a real and immediate threat in Venezuela.  The day-to-day, ups and downs of street fighting and arson are not an adequate measure of the threat.  As we have noted, the in-depth structural and organizational supports underlying the rise and growth of fascism are far more important.  The challenge in Venezuela is to cut-off the economic and political basis of fascism.  Unfortunately, up until recently the government has been overly sensitive to hostile criticism from overseas and domestic elites who rush to defend fascists – in the name of “democratic freedom”.  The government of Venezuela has enormous resources at its disposal to root out the fascist threat.  Even if firm action causes an outcry from overseas liberal friends, most pro-democracy advocates believe it is incumbent upon the government to act against those opposition officials who continue to incite armed rebellion.

Most recently, there have been clear signs that the Venezuelan government, with its powerful democratic and constitutional mandate, is moving with awareness of the fascist danger and will act with determination to stamp it out in the streets and in the suites.

The National Assembly has voted to strip Congresswoman Corina Machado of her immunity as a deputy in the National Assembly so she can be prosecuted for inciting violence.  The President of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello has presented detailed documentary evidence of her role in organizing and promoting armed rebellion.  Several opposition mayors, actively involved in promoting and protecting snipers, street thugs and arsonists, have been charged and arrested.

The majority of Venezuelans confronted by the rising tide of fascist violence  support the punishment of these high officials engaged in or supporting sabotage.  Without firm action, Venezuelan intelligence agencies as well as the average citizen agree that these ‘opposition’ politicos will continue to promote violence and provide sanctuary for paramilitary assassins.

The government has realized that they are engaged in a real war, planned by a centralized leadership and executed by decentralized operatives.  Legislative leaders are coming to grips with the political psychology of fascism, which interprets Presidential offers of political conciliation and judicial leniency as weakness to be exploited by further violence.

The most significant advance toward stopping the fascist threat lies in the government’s recognition of the links between the parliamentary and business elite and the fascist terrorists:  financial speculators, smugglers and big-time hoarders of food and other essential commodities are all part and parcel of the same fascist drive for power together with the terrorists who bomb public food markets and attack the trucks transporting food to the poor neighborhoods.  One revolutionary worker said to me after a street skirmish: “Por la razon y la fuerza no pasaran!” (Through reason and force they will be defeated)…

Night of the Long Knives in Kiev, [ European press releases] 26 03 14

 
 (photo: Right Sector Oleksander Muzychko shot dead by 'Falcon Unit' Ukrainian Special Police forces)

Rising public anger [in Ukraine]

source: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/ukraine-s-crisis-opens-rifts-among-its-revolutionaries-1.1737912#comments

"...squabbling among politicians who strove together to oust Yanukovich reflects rising public anger on key issues, from the suitability of several ministers and regional governors, to the lack of any obvious progress in finding those responsible for the deaths of more than 100 protesters.

A potentially dangerous rift widened yesterday between the interior ministry and Right Sector, which is suspicious of the government and has rejected calls to give up its weapons. It is not clear how well armed the group is, or how many members it has, but it is growing.

Officials said police had shot dead Right Sector activist Oleksandr Muzychko yesterday when he fired at them while resisting arrest. But Right Sector accused police of murder and interior minister Arsen Avakov of “counter-revolutionary activity” and doing the bidding of Russia’s security services.

Roman Koval, who called himself a co-ordinator for Right Sector in the region where Muzychko was killed, threatened Avakov with revenge.

The minister, in turn, vowed to disarm all illegal armed groups, including Right Sector, which helped guard Maidan and fought with riot police during three months of protests.

“Some ministers no longer take our calls, and the government is not listening to the people,” warned singer and activist Ruslana Lyzhychko. “It’s dangerous, and we need to build a bridge between officials and the public. The authorities must work with Maidan.”

____________

source: http://www.euronews.com/2014/03/26/killing-of-far-right-activist-in-ukraine-leads-to-call-for-acting-interior-/

The shooting of Oleksander Muzychko also known as Sashko Bily in Ukraine has led to calls for the acting interior minister to stand down.

The activist, part of the Right Sector movement that played a leading role in the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych was killed, say the Interior Ministry by officers of the ‘Sokol’ special unit.

“We can’t keep silent while the Ministry of the Interior is acting against the revolution. This is why we demand that the acting Minister Arsen Avakov resigns immediately. We also demand that the commander of the Sokol special forces and all those who are guilty of Sashko’s murder should be arrested,” said Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the Right Sector.

The dead man told his supporters he feared for his life and that the police were out to kill him.

“If there were around three dozen special officers I believe they could have taken him alive and then explain to him why he was arrested and what criminal group he was supposed to be a member of. But it looks as if they have wounded him, arrested him and then shot him in the heart,” opined Ihor Mazur one of his colleagues from the Right Sector.

...
 The Interior Minister rejected calls to stand down.

“I call all those who are dressing up and carrying arms bandits whether they are from the hard-line Right Sector or the Fatherland Party or the Samooborona self-defence unit of Maidan.

‘Real patriots are defending Ukraine at the borders not storming some companies or taking over some households especially when they have unregistered rifles,” said Arsen Avakov Ukraine’s acting Interior Minister.

March 25, 2014

Hanns Eisler/Bertolt Brecht - The Song of the United Front(Das Einheitsfrontlied) 25 03 14


Lied der Einheitsfront_


And just because he's human,
he doesn't like a pistol to his head,
he wants no servants under him
and no boss over his head.
So left, two, three.
So left, two, three.
to the work, that we must do.
March on in the workers united front,
for you are a worker too.
*   **   *
Tu es un ouvrier - oui !
viens avec nous, ami, n'ai pas peur !
Nous allons vers la grande union
de tous les vrais travailleurs.
Marchons au pas,
Marchons au pas,
camarades, vers notre front!
Range toi dans le front de tous les ouvriers
avec tous tes frères étrangers.
*  **  *
Und weil der Prolet ein Prolet ist,
drum wird ihn kein anderer befrein,
es kann die Befreiung der Arbeiter nur
das Werk der Arbeiter sein.
||: Drum links, zwei, drei
Drum links, zwei, drei!
Wo dein Platz, Genosse, ist!
Reih' dich ein in die Arbeitereinheitsfront,
Weil du auch ein Arbeiter bist.

"I Don't Want Your Millions, Mister" [video recording by The Almanac Singers] 25 03 14

I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again. Now, I don't want your Rolls-Royce, Mister,
I don't want your pleasure yacht.
All I want's just food for my babies,
Give to me my old job back.

We worked to build this country, Mister,
While you enjoyed a life of ease.
You've stolen all that we built, Mister,
Now our children starve and freeze.
So, I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again.
Think me dumb if you wish, Mister,
Call me green, or blue, or red.
This one thing I sure know, Mister,
My hungry babies must be fed.
Take the two old parties, Mister,
No difference in them I can see.
But with a Farmer-Labor Party
We could set the people free.
So, I don't want your millions, Mister,
I don't want your diamond ring.
All I want is the right to live, Mister,
Give me back my job again.

CP of Canada, On the Dangerous Developments in Ukraine, 17 March 2014






On the Dangerous Developments in Ukraine


source: http://www.solidnet.org/canada-communist-party-of-canada/cp-of-canada-on-the-dangerous-developments-in-ukraine-en

The deepening political crisis in Ukraine and the threat of regional conflict, possibly an even wider war erupting over the fate of Crimea, is extremely alarming. The ‘war of words’ emanating from Washington and Brussels is enflaming international tensions and could in turn provoke a global catastrophe. This crisis has been stoked by the ongoing imperialist strategy of the U.S. and NATO to encircle Russia, as seen in the installation of anti-missile systems in Poland, and the integration of Georgia into the NATO alliance. Their goal is to isolate Russia and China, neutralizing potential obstacles to the drive by transnational capital based in the NATO countries to exploit the resources and labour power of the entire planet.

It is appalling that the Harper Conservative government has been playing an active role in this dangerous escalation, and that the mainstream media continue to whip up lies and distortions around recent developments in Ukraine. The claim by right-wing forces that the March 16 referendum on the status of the Crimean Autonomous Republic is equivalent to the 1936 Nazi occupation of Sudetenland is particularly odious. The unchecked expansion of Hitler fascism led to World War Two, which killed some 60 million people, including over 27 million citizens of the USSR. As an autonomous republic, Crimea has the legal right to determine its status, free from all foreign interference.

The current impasse in the region was precipitated by an orchestrated campaign of right-wing opposition and neo-fascist forces inside Ukraine – with the financial backing and strategic guidance of the U.S. and other Western imperialist powers – to overthrow the elected government of President Yanukovich, and replace it with the current illegitimate ‘coalition government’ in Kiev. Far from being a popular, pro-democracy “people’s uprising” in Maidan Square, it is now clear that this coup d’état was a highly organized operation, carried out with military precision, and masterminded by the U.S. and EU powers. The intention was to complete the unfinished business after the break-up of the former Soviet Union, and later the so-called “Orange Revolution” of 2004, and bring Ukraine entirely under the influence and domination of the Western imperialist powers. This longstanding imperialist objective would not only bring Ukraine’s natural and labour resources under its control, but would also further weaken the Russian Federation economically and politically, and give US/NATO another firm foothold along Russia’s sensitive Southern flank, strengthening the military/strategic encirclement of this rival power.

The now-infamous leaked telephone conversation in early February between US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, makes it abundantly clear that Washington – both directly and through its shady network of NGOs and the National Endowment for Democracy – was pulling all the strings and considered itself arrogantly in charge of the future government to be installed after the coup in Kiev. That U.S. and other Western governments can now denounce the ‘foreign interference’ of Russia in Ukraine’s internal affairs, and demand respect for Ukraine’s independence, reeks of hypocrisy of the highest order.

Western corporate press – lapdog of imperialism

 Despite growing evidence to the contrary, the mainstream corporate press in Canada and internationally continues to portray the orchestrated regime change in Kiev as a ‘grassroots’, popular uprising of the majority of the Ukrainian people, striving for “freedom” and “justice”. Any revelation which contradicts this script is conveniently downplayed or blacked out entirely.

Well-known neo-Nazi and fascist groups had a major presence among the street fighters in Maidan Square. Of these, the largest include the Svoboda (“Freedom”) Party, Pravi Sector (Right Sector), and the UNA-UNSO (Ukrainian National Army – Ukrainian National Self Defense). All of these organizations are documented as having pro-fascist, racist and anti-Semitic policies and ideologies. When they seized and occupied the Ukrainian Parliament building, they adorned it with fascist and Nazi symbols and banners.  Even the Huffington Post was forced to concede: “Groups such as the ultra-nationalist Svoboda party, with its ominous talk of a ‘Muscovite-Jewish mafia’, are now playing a key role in the new interim government – Svoboda controls three government ministries and the prosecutor-general’s office.” Several government positions are occupied by Svoboda leaders, including Ihor Tenyukh, Defense Minister; Andriy Parubiy, National Security Council chief; and Serhiy Kvit, Education Minister. Dmytro Yarosh, the co-founder of the Pravi Sector, has been named deputy head of the National Security Council, responsible for Intelligence.

The U.S., Canadian and other NATO governments are whitewashing these disturbing facts, and the mainstream press are largely failing to report this ‘news’ to the international community, because such exposure would undercut the credibility and legitimacy of this motley group of conspirators and reactionaries.

An even more damning revelation has now surfaced concerning the events which took place on the critical night of February 20 in Maidan Square, when some 80-plus street fighters and police were killed by sniper fire. That tragedy was predictably blamed on Yanukovich and his security forces, and helped to sweep him from power. But a private telephone conversation between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and EU Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton tells a very different story. In the conversation (since authenticated by the Estonian government), Paet states: “All evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers – both policemen and people in the streets – that it was the same snipers killing people from both sides. Same handwriting, same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new coalition doesn’t want to investigate what actually happened. So there is now a stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers but was not Yanukovich, but it was somebody from the new coalition.”



Canada’s Deplorable Role in the Current Crisis

Recent statements by PM Stephen Harper and foreign Minister John Baird uphold the (il)legitimacy of the newly installed government in Kiev, offering it economic, technical and political support. By attacking the Russian Federation for “interference” and attempting to violate the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine – even going so far as to threaten Russia’s expulsion from the G-8 – they are piling more kindling on a spreading fire. For Canada and other Western imperialist government to criticize Russia for foreign interference and violations of territorial integrity displays an incredible amount of hubris, given the repeated instances of imperialist interference and outright aggression – often in violation of the UN Charter – in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Haiti, Venezuela, Libya, Pakistan, and many other countries.

Equally deplorable has been the opportunistic posturing of the other ‘opposition’ parties in Parliament around this issue. Both the Liberals and New Democrats have congratulated the coup leaders in Kiev, waxing rhetorical in their condemnation of ‘Russian aggression’. On this, as on other critical questions, they all seem to essentially “sing from the same songbook”, notwithstanding any nuanced differences between them.

The Communist Party of Canada, on the other hand, denounces the criminal imperialist conspiracy to impose “regime change” on Ukraine and its people. As the Joint Declaration which our Party and some 40 other communist and workers’ parties signed recently states: “We denounce the USA and the EU regarding their blatant involvement in the internal affairs of Ukraine, regarding the direct support they provided and are providing to the armed fascist groups, supporting historical revanchism against the outcome of the 2nd World War, transforming anti-communism into their official policy, as well as beautifying the fascist groups, their criminal ideology and activity, promoting the division of the people of Ukraine with planned persecutions at the expense of the Russian-speakers of Ukraine.”

We urge all peace-loving Canadians to reject the barrage of imperialist propaganda justifying this orchestrated coup and the NATO drive to impose sanctions against Russia. Urgent peace actions by the labour and democratic movements are needed to help block the growing threat of military confrontations and war. The Harper government should be told immediately to end its support for the far-right forces which seized power in Ukraine, to restore full diplomatic relations with Russia, and to oppose the calls for sanctions and other threats and brinkmanship targeted against Russia.

Central Executive,

Communist Party of Canada

March 13, 2014



_________________________



Communist Party of Canada-Parti communiste du Canada

290A Danforth Ave.
Toronto, Ontario   M4K 1N6
416-469-2446
info@cpc-pcc.ca

www.communist-party.ca

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