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| Never forgive, never forget! |
By Theo Russell
On 2nd May, 2014 a barbarous crime took
place in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, committed by a fascist mob who were
emboldened by the violent coup 10 weeks earlier – a coup which was
enthusiastically supported by US and European Union (EU) leaders, and welcomed
by the UK government.
At least 46 anti-fascist protesters died, and over 200
were injured, when the Odessa Trade Unions House was surrounded and fire-bombed
by a mob composed of members and supporters of the many explicitly fascist
Ukrainian organisations.
Many believe the actual number
murdered was far higher but after six years no investigation whatsoever has
been carried out. According to the Stalkerzone
blog as many as 300 people died
on that day.
The February 2014 coup was spearheaded by the openly
fascist Right Sector armed militia and the far-right, openly anti-Semitic
Svoboda Party. Victoria Nuland, US Undersecretary of State for Europe and
Eurasia, famously admitted in a talk to eager American business representatives
that her government had spent five billion dollars to subvert the elected
Victor Yanukovich-led government.
In response to this coup protests and uprisings took
place across the predominantly Russian-speaking cities of southern and eastern
Ukraine, shocked by the rise to power of fascist parties, armed fascist
militias, and the sight of Nazi thugs and football hooligans looting and
burning trade union and communist party offices.
They rightly feared that the fascist bands were
preparing to descend on their cities and towns to crush any resistance, and to
impose their reactionary, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-Roma and
anti-Russian views on them.
This movement was known as
the ‘anti-Maidan’, and
in Odessa an anti-fascist protest camp was set up in Kulikovo Field, one of the
city’s largest squares outside the main railway station.
Unfortunately the fascist and ‘ultra’ football
hooligan mob was swelled by allies coming from Kiev and other
western Ukrainian cities, who attacked
and firebombed the protest camp, forcing the protestors to retreat to the Odessa
Trade Unions House, where they were surrounded.
The mob then petrol bombed the building and held
firefighters back, whilst the police stood idly by. Any protesters trying to
escape were beaten, and many murdered, by the mob. This was deliberate mass
murder in one of Ukraine largest and most beautiful cities.
There is abundant evidence of the massacre and of the
perpetrators involved, and detailed documentaries have been made in France and
Germany, but the puppet government in Ukraine, aided by a silent western mass
media, has swept the event under the carpet, hoping the world will forget it
ever happened.
There have been several international investigations,
including one by the European Council which severely criticised the Ukraine
government’s failure to prosecute anyone for these crimes.
Even the US State Department made a statement in 2015
that supported calls for an investigation and prosecutions, and condemned the
intimidation of relatives campaigning for justice.
But in practice, the EU politicians failed to follow up
their token judicial report with any real pressure and the State Department
statement was merely a token gesture, a handy reply for journalists asking
questions about the massacre.
But the citizens of Odessa have not forgotten. For six
years the Council of Mothers of 2nd May has campaigned for justice,
and citizens still rally and lay flowers in front of the Trade Unions House
every year on 2nd May.
It is virtually impossible to get news on the
treatment of anti-fascists in Ukraine but an American campaigner who visited
Odessa two years ago was told that several members of the Council of Mothers
have been harassed, and some framed and jailed by the Ukraine’s Security
Service, the infamous SBU, which has eagerly carried out the orders of the
fascist-infested Kiev regime.
The president of the Council of Mothers, Victoria
Machulko, has been raided by the SBU several times and was detained whilst
memorials to mark the massacre have taken place.
Alexander Kushnaryov, the 65-year-old father one of
the victims, Gennady Kushnaryov, and retired military officer Anatoly
Slobodyanik, 68, were fitted up in an SBU sting operation and are now in
prison, whereas those who carried out the massacre have not even had charges
laid against them.
Under the present regime in Ukraine, which enjoys the
support of the USA, EU and Britain, there is no democracy and all opposition to
the regime has been silenced.
Trade union offices have been ransacked and burned,
Holocaust memorials have been repeatedly vandalised, the largest opposition
party, the Communist Party of Ukraine, has been banned, communists, socialists,
Jewish and gay people have been attacked by fascist gangs, and members of the
judiciary have been threatened and intimidated.
Even moderate newspapers and TV stations have been
raided or closed down, and journalists have been assassinated, even recently in
the centre of Kiev. Thousands have been prosecuted, jailed or driven into exile
for allegedly supporting ‘separatism’, meaning opposition to the war in the
East.
A quick internet search will produce copious, detailed evidence of all these crimes –
just google ‘attacks on Roma camps in Ukraine’, for example, yet the editors of
western media outlets don’t regard such events as important enough for daily
prime-time news.
The British government actively supported the
‘Euromaidan’ movement, and the then foreign secretary William Hague told parliament
that the 2014 coup, which saw openly fascist, Nazi-admiring parties become part
of the government and the entire state structure, was in fact a legal change of
government.
The UK has sent 75 Army trainers to support the Armed
Forces of Ukraine, and sponsored ‘educational’ activities aimed at sanitising
Second World War Ukrainian fascist leaders who collaborated with Nazi Germany
in the genocide of 5–7 million people, a quarter of Ukraine's population,
including 1.5 million Jews, and the deportation of two million people to
Germany.
The New Communist Party (NCP) calls for justice for
the victims and families of the Odessa Trade Unions House massacre, and for all
those who took part in the murders to face trial.
We also call for the release of Alexander Kushnaryov
and Anatoly Slobodyanik, and an end to the harassment of relatives of the
victims of the massacre.
We believe the day will come when justice will be
done, when the whole world will be aware of the barbaric crime six years ago,
and new new, free and democratic Ukraine will be realised.
We will not forget this fascist crime and we look
forward to the day when 2nd May is commemorated around the world!
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