Down with the Kiev puppet regime!

By New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends braved the freezing cold to picket the Ukrainian embassy in London on Tuesday 19th January in protest at outlawing of the communist party by the Kiev regime. Communists and anti-fascists rallied to the call from the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) for a demonstration in support of the Ukrainian communist party, which was banned by the puppet regime last month.

            The banning of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which held 32 seats in the Kiev parliament, is the latest in a wave of repression against all left-wing forces that began soon after the fascist-led coup in February 2014. It is now a crime to promote communism or Marxism, or to display any symbols associated with the communist movement. The “decommunisation” legislation passed last year also requires all Ukrainians to show “respect” to the “Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists” (OUN) and other fascists who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation during the Second World War.

 NCP leader Andy Brooks joined CPB general secretary Rob Griffiths at the demonstration to hand in a letter of protest to the embassy endorsed by both parties and the World Peace Council, the British Peace Assembly and the Indian Workers’ Association in Britain. But the ambassador, Natalia Galibarenko, refused to meet the protesters or even allow them in to deliver the letter.

Nevertheless the letter will be sent to the puppet regime envoy and the protests will continue. “This is only the latest in what will be an escalating campaign,” Rob Griffiths told the crowd. “It’s not just the party that’s been banned but left-wing symbols and even the works of Karl Marx. The first sign of a fascist regime is that it bans communists and trade unionists.”