the Ukraine parliament voted to repeal anti-protest laws.]
As clashes between Ukrainian protesters and the corrupt government of Viktor Yanukovych heat up further and Yanukovych begins to offer concessions to the opposition, it becomes crucial to understand the nature of both sides.
Since November 2013, an uprising against President Yanukovych has been escalating in Ukraine. A central catalyst for the protests was the refusal by Ukraine’s government to join the European Union. The retaliation by Yanukovych’s government swiftly increased in violence, drawing Ukrainian working people into the fray under pressure to defend their families. The initial demand from the opposition to join the EU is by no means progressive, but some of the other dominant politics of the opposition are far more troubling and dangerous for the Ukrainian people.
In December, U.S. senator and war criminal John McCain traveled to Ukraine to declare his support for the opposition parties that represent the organized component of the protests. Upon examination of the political character of these groups, this comes as no surprise. One of the leading groups involved, Svoboda, is a far-right organization that started out as an openly neo-Nazi group, with Nazi insignia and anti-Semitic messages. When Svoboda was founded, it proclaimed that Ukraine is controlled by a “Moscow-Jewish mafia,” used a swastika-based symbol and restricted membership to ethnic white Ukrainians.
Under the leadership of this organization and other smaller right-wing groups, Nazi salutes, racist proclamations and violent anti-communist and anti-left activity have been rife in the protests. A Svoboda member of parliament ordered the toppling of a statue of Lenin, and the city hall was occupied under ultra-nationalist banners. Many claim that the nationalist nature of the protests is limited to Ukrainian self-determination and a rejection of the relationship between Yanukovych and Putin’s governments. However, the connection between Svoboda and other fascist organizations, like Hungary’s Jobbik–a leader in violent attacks on Roma immigrants–shows a deep danger that will manifest in ruthless reactionary policies both inside Ukraine and internationally if Svoboda takes power.
By unleashing violent cops with orders to shoot protesters and allowing for the extreme abuse of civilians, Yanukovych’s response has pushed many Ukrainian people who were not previously interested in the politics of the opposition to join with the predominantantly reactionary protest movement. Because progressive and left-wing involvement in the demands to remove the Yanukovych government is met with extreme violence from the fascist groups, it is dangerous for Ukrainian people who want to stand up to Yanukovych to seek out progressive alternatives.
This forcible funneling of Ukrainian people into fighting alongside ultra-right organizers becomes an even more serious threat in the context of negotiations between Yanukovych and the opposition leadership. Yanukovych offered the position of prime minister to opposition leader Arseniy Yatseniuk, an open anti-socialist, anti-Russian nationalist, proponent of the EU and anti-LGBTQ bigot, although Yatseniuk refused the post. While the opposition still has demands that it wants to see met, it has declared that it is fully prepared to take power.
This means that the alternative to Yanukovych’s problematic presidency in Ukraine is leadership by extremely reactionary political organizations. A victory for the opposition leadership will mean the triumph of fascist politics, alienation of eastern Ukrainians who have cultural commonalities with Russia, aggression against immigrants, non-whites and LGBTQ communities and violent persecution of progressive and socialist organizations. It will also mean a severing of political ties with Russia and the possibility of increased compliance by Ukraine with U.S. and NATO interests, which would weaken anti-imperialist positions in Eastern Europe.
Previous protest movements in former Soviet countries have been painted as pro-democracy “color” revolutions by Western media and exploited to guarantee further capitalist redevelopment into the orbit of Western imperialists. The United States’ political support for the right-wing Ukrainian opposition, as evidenced by McCain’s visit, can only be interpreted as a continuation of those same imperialist policies. The goal of those policies is to bring Ukraine firmly into EU and U.S. spheres of influence, not to help bring democracy to the Ukrainian people.
The conflict in Ukraine demonstrates the dire need for revolutionary socialist intervention in conflicts between people and government. The organizational prevalence of fascist and crypto-fascist groups in the struggle against corruption has forced the Ukrainian working people to stand between two dangerous entities, neither of which will serve them and both of which have harmed them. Revolutionaries and progressives in the United States must always use a class-based analysis when assessing any social movement. We must support leftist and anti-fascist resistance and demand that the U.S. not meddle in Ukraine’s internal affairs. The only answer to this crisis is a working-class movement by the Ukrainian people with a strong socialist leadership.
