By New Worker
correspondent
Ukrainian
anti-fascists sent a message of support to London demonstrators in Whitehall
last week protesting at continuing British support for the fascist regime in
Kiev. The early evening protest, opposite the prime minister’s resistance in
Downing Street, was organised by the New Communist Party of Britain (NCP),
Socialist Fight, Posadists in Britain and members of Solidarity with the
Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine. NCP leader Andy Brooks and Gerry Downing
from the Socialist Fight movement joined other picketers in a protest that
attracted considerable interest on the busy street.
A message from Alexey Albu on behalf of
Borotba (Struggle), the underground Marxist resistance in Ukraine, was read out
and copies given out on the street. Albu, who now lives in exile in Russia,
said:
Dear
comrades and friends!
For more than four years war has raged in
our country and has claimed thousands of lives.
Ultimately, neo-liberals came to power in
Ukraine as a result of a coup d’état at the hands of extreme right-wing
paramilitary groups.
The first laws of the new government were
aimed at discriminating against the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine,
imposing a cult of the Nazi collaborators of the Second World War, and selling
off the remains of state property.
Ukraine was plunged into the abyss of
chaos, poverty and devastation. The new government’s economic course caused the
national currency to fall in value by more than 300 per cent, a fall in trade
turnover, the closure of enterprises and, as a result, a financial crisis for
state institutions.
There has been a steep rise in the number
of weapons in Ukraine at the hands of the far-right nationalist groups. As a
result, crime has increased 8–10 times in recent years.
The far-right nationalists are allowed to
rob and murder people with impunity. Today they get away with anything as they
are the backbone of the ruling regime.
Violations of human rights such as the
right to freedom of expression, the right to work, the right to freedom of
thought, the right to religion and many others have been brutally violated in
Ukraine.
After the coup in February 2014 many
Ukrainians began to resist the illegitimate liberal-nationalist government with
weapons in their hands, forming militia units.
After the terror inflicted by the new Kiev
authorities in Odessa on 2nd May, 2014, when neo-Nazi militants
killed dozens of civilians, it became clear to Ukrainian society that there was
no possibility of reaching any agreement with the new government peacefully.
Mass resistance began in the southern and
eastern regions. A civil war began. In this war, the new Ukrainian government
used the army against civilians of its own country. It used heavy artillery to
destroy whole villages.
Comrades! All this would not be possible
if the new Ukrainian government did not receive financial assistance from
members of the European Union and other international institutions, in which
the UK plays a key role.
From our TV screens we are told that the
help is being given to peaceful projects but this is not true. The Ukrainian
military machine cannot live without foreign financial support.
When your government sends the next
tranche of aid to Ukraine – you know that this money is taken from you, taken
from your pockets, and given to those who kill our brothers and sisters who do
not agree with the new national-liberal course of the Ukrainian government.
Comrades! We remember well from history
that during the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, when the Entente
troops landed in Soviet Russia, the workers of England and other countries did
everything to disrupt military supplies, and made an invaluable contribution to
the liberation of Russia and the establishment of the young workers’ state.
We remember how our great-grandfathers,
together with yours, fought together in the allied coalition against fascism –
and won!
Today, solidarity is our main weapon. We
are glad that in Britain there are our like-minded people, our comrades, and
just and good people who do not want war. We are grateful to you for your
solidarity and your principled position. We are grateful to you that the voice
of Borotba is being heard in London, in the heart of Whitehall. We will only
win together! No Pasaran!
