A-Infos (en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL n° special - Ukraine: Between a rock and a hard place (fr, it, pt) [machine translation]

In recent years Ukraine is often represented in the media in France and internationally as 
a counterpoint to Russia. The radiant face of his winning Eurovision representative could 
reinforce this image. The reality of the political and social situation of this country is 
yet a little more complex. ---- Russia is a dictatorship. And deteriorating economic 
situation (declining oil and gas revenues, economic sanctions Western powers recession two 
years of economic activity) plays an important role in strengthening this tyrannical 
regime. It is also an imperialist power seeking to rise again as a great power. We have 
seen both in Syria and in Ukraine. However, this aggressive policy, which is linked to the 
defense of its interests as a major economic player in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, 
does not exempt analyze the policy choices of the Ukrainian regime born of the protest 
movement that emerged in late 2013 square Maidan in Kiev.

The ruling coalition relies on two parties: the Poroshenko bloc and the Popular Front for 
Yatsenyuk, two libertarian right-wing parties that are working to destroy what remains of 
the welfare state in Ukraine. It is the majority in parliament, provided the current 
political balances are closely linked to the struggle for power between the capitalists at 
the head of the largest fortunes in the country. Alliances are made ​​and broken. But what 
is constant is to see that the internal political recomposition of the ruling class are 
based on fractions of ultraliberal pro-Western parties and ultranationalists and fascist 
parties. When the crisis was fatal to the previous government, dominated until early 2014 
by Yanukovych and the Party of Regions (pro-Russian) is an alliance between the 
libertarian and fascist parties Svoboda (Freedom, to 4.7% parliamentary elections in 2014) 
and Pravy Sektor (right Sector, 3%) which helped overthrow him. Similarly, since 2014, 
some oligarchs partly finance the battalions of fighters who wage war in the East against 
the pro-Russian separatists and many are linked to the extreme right, like battalions Azov 
and Aidar [ 1 ].

Power belongs to the same ruling classes mafia those who made their fortune in the 1990s 
under the presidency of Leonid Kuchma, former hierarch of the CPSU (Communist Party of the 
Soviet Union) recycled in capitalism after the fall of the USSR . It is this mafia power 
that the European Union political and financial support. EU Manna is actually essential 
for the survival of Ukraine. This is the rest with the renunciation of the agreement of 
"Eastern Partnership" with the EU that the political crisis was packed late 2013. The 
agreement involves EU financial assistance in exchange for a privatization program public 
services, falling wages and pensions. And it is the same agreement that the Netherlands 
have just rejected in a referendum in April.

The EU thrives on Ukrainian debt

EU and Russia have therefore shared responsibility in the current crisis in Ukraine, which 
is characterized by a state of virtual bankruptcy and put on a drip by the EU. For the 
latter, the stakes are not only geopolitical (assert its political influence and contain 
the Russian sphere of influence), they are also economical. The EU thrives on Ukrainian 
debt, but also its assets. Last year the government pushed Yatsenyuk sale of ports, power 
plants but also food and distribution companies to European investors. This split sales of 
the country continues for years. It is particularly sensitive in the field of land, since 
the phenomenon of land grabbing is important. It is the fact of large Ukrainian and 
European companies (German, British, Swedish and especially French). Charles Beigbeder, a 
former candidate for president of Medef face Gattaz and elected UMP before approaching the 
FN, is one of the French capitalists have invested in recent years in Ukraine. After the 
collapse of the USSR, the peasants were able to recover lands that were returned to them, 
but many of them did not have the financial resources to invest and develop. As they and 
they began to gradually sell them, sometimes to a ridiculous price, to large groups keen 
to invest to provide large retailers, including organic food.

To this must be added the repeated violation of human rights and the increase in political 
violence. Note that they come both from the far right and pro-Russian organizations and 
government. The results of the war of Donbass amounts to about 10 000 are killed, the vast 
majority civilians. Sporadic fighting continued on the front line despite the Minsk 
agreements that resulted in particular to a ceasefire. The pro-Russian propaganda is 
intense and blames those fighting the government of Kiev. However, the Western media do 
not take this into account and are silent about the far-right activism as they are silent 
corruption and oppressive power of the conservative-liberal government and mafia Kiev.

What has been won both Russian and Ukrainian authorities, this is the installation of an 
irreducible hatred between the two peoples. The pro-Russian have an overwhelming 
responsibility for the secession of the Crimea and the Donbass, but refusing a federalist 
organization and taking actions adverse to the large Russian minority (including 
language), the Kiev government has helped to push the pro-Russian Putin in the arm. And in 
this context, progressive voices struggle to be heard. If the left is laminated, there 
remains a strong union resistance. This is particularly the case of UPF, with nearly 7 
million member-es and holds increasingly critical discourse doubling from one side toward 
Russia for its annexation of the Crimea, and the the other to the Ukrainian anti-social 
policies. Note also that the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Ukraine (KVTU), 
which defended the nationalist positions before the crisis of November 2013, has been 
gradually adopted more favorable positions in social struggles and opposing austerity 
policies and the destruction of public services.

Russia is probably the country that has most used the strong state, but Ukraine and the EU 
are far from being perfect democratic antithesis that wants to sell us. The policy of 
these moves increasingly into a gray area, more draconian qu'émancipatrice.

Laurent Esquerre (AL Paris-Nord-Est) and Nestor Koutz (friend of AL)

[ 1 ] Savchenko, Ukrainian pilot held prisoner in Russia and sentenced to 22 years in 
prison for the murder of two Russian journalists (murder she accepts responsibility), was 
released in late May as part of prisoner exchanges in Russia and Ukraine. She was part of 
the battalion Aidar and it is celebrated as the Joan of Arc Ukrainian as by the extreme 
right as by the government.

To read this article in full: www.alternativelibertaire.org


http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Ukraine-Entre-le-marteau-et-l
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://lists.ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en