London communists, along with many other
anti-fascists, called for solidarity with the people of the Lugansk and Donetsk
people’s republics in the heart of the capital on Saturday.
Twenty or more demonstrators
including NCP leader Andy Brooks joined the picket opposite Downing Street
called by the New Communist Party (NCP), Socialist Fight and the British
Posadist movement, and supported by the Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance
in Ukraine (SARU) campaign.
Protestors gathered opposite Downing Street in
Whitehall to call for the British government to end all support for the Kiev
regime and to back a peaceful negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. A Russian
journalist from TASS covered the picket and interviewed Theo Russell, the NCP
London Organiser. Further support came from Greek communists, progressive
Italian students and members of many trade unions, who joined the protest and
gave out leaflets on this busy thoroughfare between Trafalgar Square and
Westminster. Many agreed with the sentiments and some even joined us to stand
in solidarity with our demands.
The demonstrators pointed out
that since the February 2014 coup there has been no democracy in Ukraine,
pointing to the armed Nazi thugs on Ukraine’s streets, in the army, the police
and the security service, the joint far-right militia patrols with the police,
the banning of political parties, the attacks on courts, threats and
intimidation of judges, and the closing down of opposition newspapers, TV and
radio stations.
In July the remains of 28
soldiers of the 14th Waffen SS Division, made up of Ukrainians who fought
alongside the Nazi German forces in the Second World War and assisted in the
murder and deportation of millions of Jews, communists and others, were
reburied near Lviv with full military honours.
Dozens of openly fascist militias
have been incorporated into Ukraine’s American-trained and equipped National
Guard, notably the powerful Azov Battalion, whose symbol is based on that of
the Ukrainian SS Nachtigal Battalion, the ‘Wolfsangel’, that committed many
atrocities during the Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
In February 2014 a fascist-backed
coup took place in Ukraine. Two months later neo-Nazi thugs besieged
pro-democracy protesters inside the Trade Union House in Odessa before torching
it, blocking the exits to trap the victims in the blaze. The Kiev regime says
50 were killed but eyewitnesses believe the true number is well over 100. Not
one of the thugs responsible for the murders has been charged because they are
followers of the neo-Nazi militias that prop up the corrupt regime that does
the bidding of Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism.
Soon afterwards the people in
eastern Ukraine took up the gun to defend themselves from the fascist onslaught
and set up their own people’s republics in the Donbas. Thousands of Donbas
civilians have been killed by the fascists and the Ukrainian army in the
struggle to defend their new-born freedom.
Since the beginning of 9th July, defenders and 10 civilians have died in
the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, and many more have been injured, in attacks
by Ukraine’s army and the US-trained National Guard made up of fascist
battalions. This year 116 civilians have died in the Donetsk People’s Republic
in attacks by Kiev’s forces.
The protesters do not believe
that the removal of Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 was legitimate. Foreign
secretary William Hague told parliament that his removal was “made by the Rada,
the Ukrainian Parliament, by the very large majorities required under the
constitution”.
In fact the vote in the Rada did
not meet the two-thirds majority required under Ukraine’s constitution, and the
requirements for a special commission of the Rada and a review by the
Constitutional Court were not met. In effect, the change of power was a coup
backed by violent protests.
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