6 August 2014

Dear Editor,

In your analysis of Gaza have you considered the extent to which the events there have become the new normal? We see the use of blockade and the bombardment of civilian populations, the rise of fascist elements demanding genocide, the background support of the imperialist powers and their client regimes and finally the iron grip on press and media that reduces reporting to propagandist sewage.

We see all this in Gaza. What do we see in Ukraine? Imperialist powers that have had difficulty in seeing any fault in the Zionist blitzkrieg are willing to convict both Russia and the Ukrainian opposition of downing a passenger plane in advance of any real investigation. Sanctions, the entry level of warfare are introduced with little discussion,  The beneficiaries of a US sponsored coup label the opposition as terrorists. When sections of the army prove unreliable a national guard of right-wingers and fascists are dressed in uniform and sent to wreak havoc. Billions are donated by the US to support indiscriminate shelling of major cities.

Fascism has been unleashed in Ukraine to carry out the requirements of imperialist austerity leading to many deaths of oppositionists and the general civilian population in the east of the country. The Kiev regime have been given the all-clear to use artillery and air strikes

This includes an attack by fascists and far right gangs on the trade union hall in Odessa where almost 50 people were murdered by fascists who then set the building set alight to conceal their crimes. 

Imperialism blocks all attempts to investigate the Kiev government’s criminal complicity in this crime and the western media studiously ignore this horrific atrocity. 

When the fascists are finished spreading their death and destruction in the east if they are successful, they will turn their attentions on the western Ukrainian workers to impose the full extent of the cuts demanded by the EU. 

This process has already begun with attacks on left organisations that has seen the socialist organisation Borotba attacked and driven underground. The Ukrainian Communist Party’s offices destroyed and the party is being outlawed. 

Opposition parliamentarians in the Rada are being attacked in the street, Liberal newspaper offices have been attacked and vandalised and TV companies taken over, with leading personnel publicly humiliated and forced to resign by fascist thugs. 

Journalists that attempt to show what is happening are attacked, two journalists have been killed and many have been forced to leave the country. 

With the successful implementation of the EU and IMF austerity plan the already impoverished working people will be left destitute by a rabid nationalist state that utilises fascist gangs to crush any resistance to state repression, to the introduction of large scale privatisations, to the looting of Ukrainian natural resources, price increases, pension cuts and pay-offs from state employment. 

Imperialism has demonstrated that it will use whatever tools come to hand in order to impose the diktats of the crisis ridden global capitalist system on the working class. 

In Ukraine fascism has been mobilised, in Greece the Golden Dawn fascists are threatening the workers’ organisations and are attacking the poorest and most vulnerable workers, the immigrants. 

Across Europe the Right is on the rise because the working class is on its knees.
 

In the words of James Larkin;

“The great only appear great because we are on our knees,  let us rise!”

Solidarity,

Eddie McLaughlin