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<H2 class=entry-title><FONT size=3>Another perspective on the Ukraine, from a
friend of mine in Oakland Ca.</FONT></H2>
<DIV class=entry-title>David J.</DIV>
<DIV class=entry-title> </DIV>
<H2 class=entry-title> </H2>
<H2 class=entry-title><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/"
rel=bookmark>Ukraine: “The sins of the fathers…” and beyond</A></H2>
<DIV class=entry-meta><SPAN class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted on</SPAN>
<A title="5:16 am"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/"
rel=bookmark><SPAN class=entry-date>March 7, 2014</SPAN></A> <SPAN
class=by-author><SPAN class=sep>by</SPAN> <SPAN class="author vcard"><A
class="url fn n" title="View all posts by oaklandsocialist"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/author/oaklandsocialist/"
rel=author>oaklandsocialist</A></SPAN> </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=entry-content>
<P> </P>
<P align=center><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/protests.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1005" alt=protests
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/protests.jpeg?w=640"></A></P>
<P align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><B>by John
Reimann</B></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align=center> <SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>“The sins of the fathers shall
be visited upon the sons.”</I></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">You don’t have
to believe in the Christian Bible to see this at work in the current crisis in
Ukraine. It’s not all that is at work, but it certainly is part of it. In
addition, we see the economic crisis of capitalism, the general lack of a truly
independent workers’ movement on a global scale, and the weakening of US
capitalism as the dominant force in the world, leaving an increasingly chaotic
situation. (Not that US capitalism’s dominance served the interests of workers
anywhere, either.)</SPAN></P>
<P align=left> <B
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 1.5; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">National
Struggles</B></P>
<P align=left><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><B></B>“Ukraine” means border land
in the Ukrainian language, and that is exactly what it is. As such a land, and
lacking major barriers such as high mountains surrounding it, Ukraine was a
target for invasion after invasion. This includes both the invasion of the
“Golden Horde” of the Mongols, invasion by the Ottoman Empire, of the German
Nazis, and on and on. One particular part of the present day Ukraine – Crimea –
was especially the object of such invasions. Until they were forcibly uprooted
and driven to Uzbekistan by Stalin (a move in which some 40% died), Crimea was
settled predominantly by the Tatars. But just a review of the ethnic origins of
this group reveals a lot. The Tatars are divided into various sub-ethnic groups.
They speak Crimean Tatar, Russian or Turkish, depending on their locale. The
Crimean Tatars are composed of Greeks, Armenians, Italians and Ottoman Turks
<SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">on the southern coast, Goths on the central
mountains, and Kipchaks and Cumans of the steppe and forming of the Crimean
Tatar ethnic group. Wars arising from all the regional rivalries, such as that
between Tsarist Russia and the Ottoman Empire, were fought on Crimean soil.
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">(In turn, the Tatars themselves carried out
raids on Russia and Ukraine in an earlier period in which they captured
thousands to sell as slaves to the Ottomans.)</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">In “normal” times – that is, times
of relative stability – this history of war, invasion, forced resettlement could
be somewhat pushed into the background. But let a new crisis arise, and all the
old ethnic tensions will be used by nationalist and right wing forces. Or to put
it another way: These tensions will be exacerbated if there is no mass and
independent working class movement to resolve them.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">This is exactly what is happening
now.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><B>Hitler and Stalin</B></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">Another aspect of this history stems from the
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">roles</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"> of
both the Nazis as well as the crimes of Stalin and his regime.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">The Russian Revolution swept into Eastern Europe,
including into Ukraine, but then it was totally corrupted by the bureaucracy
that seized power in the Soviet Union with Stalin at its head. </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">The unstable position of this bureaucracy, with Stalin at
its head, was shown by the purges and also by the attacks on different national
minorities. In order to</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"> ensure that no
opposition movement could develop anywhere he brutally oppressed almost all
ethnic groups within the Soviet Union. Part of this oppression was the forced
relocation of such ethnic groups as the Tatars, as mentioned above. Then there
was the brutal crack down on the peasantry, including the forced
collectivization. This hit the Ukrainian peasantry extremely hard, and thousands
literally starved to death as a result. The consequence was that when the Nazis
invaded Ukraine, some Ukrainians actually welcomed them. That most soon found
out that the Nazis were just the opposite of their saviors is another story.
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">Also factored into this was the historic
anti-Semitism that was so common especially in Eastern Europe at that
time.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/peasant-starvation.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1004" alt="peasant starvation"
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/peasant-starvation.jpeg?w=640"></A></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><EM>Russian peasants starved to death
under Stalin</EM></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><B>Crimean Tatars</B></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">The upshot was the development of pro Nazi forces in
Ukraine </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">as well as in Crimea, where a Tatar
legion of the Nazi forces was built</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">.
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">After the defeat of the Nazis, Stalin used
the latter as an excuse for the forced resettlement of the Crimean Tatars.
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">In the 1950s, then Soviet Premier Khruschev
carried out a program of “deStalinization”. While maintaining bureaucratic
control over every aspect of li</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">f</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">e, he made a pretense of eliminating the worst aspects of
Stalin’s rule. As part of this, he made Crimea part of “the” Ukraine at that
time. (Perhaps this was done also to make it more difficult for the Tatars to
return there.) However, it was not until 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet
Union, that the Tatars returned to their ancestral homeland from Uzbekistan.
</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">I</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">magine the meaning
of this: Generation after generation of Tatars had grown up and lived outside of
Crimea. They had no direct personal experience, yet the history, the call for a
return to their homeland lived on and as soon as the opportunity arose they took
advantage of it. (In some ways, this calls to mind the present situation of the
Palestinian diaspora.)</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/crimean-tatars.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1002" alt="Crimean Tatars"
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/crimean-tatars.jpeg?w=640"></A></P>
<P align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><EM>Crimean Tatars: For generations
they maintained their traditions</EM></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">What did they find upon their return?</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">Their former homes and land was occupied by ethnic
Russians, who now were the overwhelming majority (some 75%). Despite new laws,
they found it near impossible to get land on which to build new homes or mosques
to carry out their traditional religion. They were a discriminated-against
minority in their own home. In the absence of a real workers’ struggle to unite
all workers and peasants, this also created distrust among the ethnic
Russians.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><B>Collapse of Stalinism: Aftermath</B></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">With the collapse of Stalinism, US capitalism became
dominant </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">globally </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">and with it the rise of the neo liberals and the
propaganda of the “free” market. This meant wave after wave of attacks on any
government intervention into the economy such as price supports for basic
necessities, government social welfare programs, and privatization. All of this
was accompanied by massive corruption, which included the rise of the
“oligarchs” not only in Russia but also in Ukraine.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">So it was that the early years of the 21</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><SUP>st</SUP></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"> century
saw the rise of massive wealth of the few amidst the increasing poverty of the
many in Ukraine. (A story that might sound familiar to workers in the United
States, for that matter!) </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">According to </SPAN><A
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0305/A-look-at-Ukraine-s-economic-hole">one
report</A><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">, </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><I>“</I></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><I>The
Ukrainian hryvnia has lost 25 percent of its value against the dollar since
mid-January (the currency is worth about 1/5th of what it was when it was issued
in 1996).”</I></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"> According to </SPAN><A
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/destitute-country-can-ukraine-s-201435155043404522.html">al
Jazeera</A><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">, </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><I>“As of December 2013 the external debt of Ukraine
skyrocketed to $149 bn.,</I></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><I> which
makes more than 77 percent of country’s GDP. About </I></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #f88b0b"><I><B>$65bn short-term debt</B></I></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><I> can’t be paid at the moment, while the country’s gold
and foreign currency reserves are estimated to have shrunk to $15
bn.”</I></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><I> </I></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">This has meant severe inflation in
Ukraine.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><B>Western Ukraine</B></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">Predominantly ethnic Ukrainian (as opposed to ethnic
Russian) western Ukraine is also more rural than is Eastern Ukraine, which also
has closer economic ties to Russia. Partly due to this, there was an opening for
demagic propaganda in western Ukraine to look towards the European Union (EU)
for salvation. The gaze to the EU was directed at Germany, </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">instead of </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">to the
crisis ridden Greece or Spain. Given all these factors, when the then regime of
Yanukovich changed courses and moved towards Russia instead of the EU, all the
tensions broke out in the open in the form of protests against this tilt and in
favor of tilting towards the EU.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">Thus </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">arose
</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">the now famous </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">Euro </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">Maidan
occupation. Prominent among the occupiers has been the neo Nazi forces of
Svoboda as well as other fascists and semi fascists. To its eternal disgrace,
representatives of US capitalism have either ignored this or openly encouraged
it, such as when </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000">Republican </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">US Senator John McCain </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">and Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"> publicly posed with Svoboda’s leader </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">Tyahnybok in December of 2013.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/mccain-tahnybok.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1003" alt="McCain Tahnybok"
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/mccain-tahnybok.jpeg?w=640"></A></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><EM>John McCain with Tahnybok</EM></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">An extremely interesting interview<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote1sym"
name=sdfootnote1anc><SUP>1</SUP></A> with a Ukrainian syndicalist goes into some
detail about the occupation. One aspect has been a split among the ruling elite,
the oligarchs. </SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><I>“Since 2010, Viktor
Yanukovych, who had initially been just a puppet of powerful oligarchs, has
become an ambitious businessman himself. His elder son has accumulated vast
powers; “The Family” occupied important positions in the government, monopolized
control over capital flows, and started fighting with Rinat Akhmetov, Dmitry
Firtash and other oligarchs who had been their sponsors previously. Naturally,
the traditional oligarchic clans didn’t like this, so the current protest has
also an elite dimension.”</I></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">On the composition of the
protests, he says: </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>“</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>Initially… the protesters were
mainly students and urban ‘</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>middle
classes</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>‘</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>:
petite bourgeoisie, bohemian circles, office workers. Right now, the class
composition of the protests has definitely shifted to the more universal one.
I’m not sure about the exact proportions but it’s doubtless that the protest has
become more “proletarian” – although the share of workers is still low, and when
they are present, they are there as “Ukrainians” or “citizens” but not as
“workers”. Also, in Kyiv per se life goes on as usual, nobody is on
strike etc. Generally, the protest has a cross-class nature: it includes
unemployed people as well as the CEO of Microsoft
Ukraine.</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>”</I></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/svoboda.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1007" alt=Svoboda
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/svoboda.jpeg?w=640"></A></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><EM>Far right neo fascists in
Kiev</EM></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000">As numerous reports including this one make clear, there
is massive confusion at best within this movement. The role of the neo-fascists
adds to this confusion. There are numerous reports of trade unionists and
leftists being beaten up by these far right forces. Since the fall of
Yevtushenko, there have been fire bombings of Synagogues. And one of the first
steps taken by the new government was to attempt to revoke the law which gave
rights to speakers of all languages. (This attempt was later
abandoned.)</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Pervasive in the new government
are neo fascists. This includes not only members of parliament but also
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">the </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">secretary of the Ukrainian
National Security and Defen</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">s</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">e
Council is Andriy Parubiy. He is a leader of the “National Social Party”, and if
that name sounds suspiciously like the Nazi “National Socialist Party” it is no
accident. He is a neo fascist. “</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>Overseeing the armed forces
alongside Parubiy as the Deputy Secretary of National Security is
</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #094674"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>Dmytro
Yarosh</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>, the leader of the Right
Sector – a group of hardline nationalist streetfighters, who
</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #094674"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>previously
boasted</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I> they were ready for armed
struggle to free Ukraine.”<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote2sym"
name=sdfootnote2anc><SUP>2</SUP></A></I></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">The appointment of Deputy Prime
Minister, </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Oleksandr Sych, will not be a
great step forward for women. ‘</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>Sych, 49, is a member of the
far-right nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party. He is an anti-abortion activist
and once publicly suggested that women should “lead the kind of lifestyle to
avoid the risk of rape, including refraining from drinking alcohol and being in
controversial company”. </I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">‘<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote3sym"
name=sdfootnote3anc><SUP>3</SUP></A></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #1d1d1d"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">At the top of this cast of
criminals stands newly appointed Prime Minister </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Yatsenyuk is a
former central banker and has close ties with Western finance capital. Given US
President Obama’s call on Ukraine to observe its “foreign commitments”, meaning
paying off its foreign debts on time, as well as his call for economic “reform”,
meaning attacking the Ukrainian working class, we know what to expect from
him.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><B>Russian Forces Invade</B></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/russian-troops-ukraine.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-1006" alt="Russian troops Ukraine"
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/russian-troops-ukraine.jpeg?w=300&h=150"
width=300 height=150></A></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><EM>Russian troops in Crimea</EM></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">In chaotic situation in which all
the old ethnic tensions </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">were brought to</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #000000"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"> the
fore, it is inevitable that the ethnic Russians would feel threatened. Given
their majority status in Crimea, and given the fact that Crimea has historically
been passed back and forth between greater nations like a gift at a birthday
party, it was also inevitable that the ethnic Russians in Crimea would tend to
rise up against the new, right-wing nationalist regime dominated not only by
Ukranian nationalism, but by representatives of world capitalism.
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">On the other hand, given their
brutal treatment at the hands of Stalin, and their rivalry with the ethnic
Russians in Crimea at present, and in the background of an independent movement
of the working class itself, it was inevitable that the ethnic Tatars in Crimea
would tend to side with the new Ukrainian regime in Western
Ukraine.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Then there is the role of the
Putin regime in Russia. Putin bases himself in part on Russian nationalism.
Also, he sees the drive to spread the influence of Western – especially Western
European capitalism – as a threat to Russian capitalism. </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Finally there was the potential
threat to the Russian naval bases in Crimea.</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">
Therefore, for both domestic as well as international reasons, he could not
stand idly by;</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"> h</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">e was
forced to send his troops into Crimea. </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">The invasion of Russian troops has
been accompanied by the entry of the “Night Wolves” thug Russian motorcycle gang
into Crimea as well as of the nationalist bigot Vladimir Zhironovsky.
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">This will not work out to defend
the rights of ethnic Russians and especially not to defend the rights of the
working class, neither in Crimea nor in Ukraine as a whole</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">. It
will also boost these right wing nationalist forces within Russia. In fact, just
days after the invasion a group of anti-war protesters in Moscow were all
arrested by the police there.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><B>US
Capitalism</B></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">The representatives of US
capitalism wailed and gnashed their teeth. Even before the invasion, Niall
Ferguson wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal in which he complained:
</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>‘</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>The president said: “There will
be consequences if people step over the line.” </I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>No
one took that warning seriously—Ukrainian government snipers kept on killing
people in Independence Square regardless. The world remembers the red line that
Mr. Obama once drew over the use of chemical weapons in Syria . . . and then
ignored once the line had been crossed.’<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote4sym"
name=sdfootnote4anc><SUP>4</SUP></A> </I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Peggy
Noonan, regular columnist for the WSJ wrote that Obama’s stance regarding
Ukraine “</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>doesn’t look peaceable, it
looks weak”<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote5sym"
name=sdfootnote5anc><SUP>5</SUP></A></I></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Their problem is not that Obama’s
policy “looks” like it stems from weakness, it </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>does</I></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"> stem
from weakness! After all, even the normally rabid editors of the WSJ explain
that there is little that Obama can do other than call for some sort of
sanctions. But even they admit that the close ties between Western European and
the Russian economies are a limiting factor. First and foremost is the
dependence of Germany for its supply of natural gas on the Russian gas
pipelines. So any serious economic sanctions would be a non-starter out of the
gate. </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">Jim DeMint, president of the
neo-conservative Heritage Foundation summed it up. He wrote: </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #434343"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I>“Weak statements, history has
proven, only invite aggression. What our friends, and also our foes, need to
hear is a clarion call in support of liberty and self-determination, and the
threat of punitive sanctions against those who transgress those principles. The
Ukrainians who rose to demand freedom need to be comforted by our words and
intentions, and the thugs in the Kremlin need to fear
them.</I></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #434343"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><I><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626">“Going forward, President Obama must understand that his
‘reset’ with Russia has been a disastrous failure and that his promises to Putin
of post-election ‘flexibility’ have backfired. He must also rethink his entire
policy of deserting our friends and cozying up to our enemies, as well as plans
to neuter our military might. But now, what we need is clarity and global
leadership.”<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote6sym"
name=sdfootnote6anc><SUP>6</SUP></A> </SPAN></I><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626">Words and more words. Even the neo-conservatives are at a
loss to advocate any clear action.</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">The reason is clear: It’s simply
that the tops of US capitalism put a compromiser and advocate of “diplomacy”
into the White House because they have come to recognize that they are in a
weakened position globally. Not that they aren’t dangerous. With a military
possessing numerous weapons of mass destruction and whose total size is almost
as large as the combined militaries of the entire rest of the world, US
capitalism poses a deadly threat.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #434343"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626">But
what can they do in this situation? Send troops to Ukraine? Nobody is advocating
that. For one thing, Russia is a nuclear power. (This, incidentally, is an
incentive for the Iranian regime to develop a nuclear weapon. Not that the
spread of nuclear weapons is not a deadly danger to life on the planet, but the
increased international tensions and increased desperation of US capitalism are
driving different capitalist regimes in that direction.) And even if the risk of
nuclear war weren’t present, US capitalism implicitly accepts the “sphere of
influence” of Russian capitalism, just as it insists on its own similar sphere
on the American continent. (Although even that is
weakening.)</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #434343"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626"><B>Perspectives</B></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #434343"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #262626">Without having a clearer view of the internal forces
within Ukraine, especially within various sectors of the Ukrainian working
class, it is foolhardy to try to be anywhere near definitive about the future in
Ukraine. But one thing is most likely: That the new regime in Ukraine will try
to carry out the demands of Western capitalism and cut social services,
privatize, etc. It seems unlikely that Russian troops will go beyond Crimea, but
if new measures are carried out against ethnic Russians in Western Ukraine Putin
may feel forced to send them. </SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">In addition, there are the
perspectives for the workers’ movement in other parts of Eastern as well as
Western Europe. Whenever an independent movement of the working class develops
in these regions, it is certain to have an effect on Ukrainian workers. But the
question is “when”.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">We do not know to what extent the
Ukrainian working class was involved in the struggle, with their own class
interests in mind, but it seems almost impossible that this did not happen at
all. But the outcome at this point has been a new regime that prominently
includes the most vicious right wing forces. This outcome is not isolated: In
Egypt, millions of workers and youth rose up to oust Mubarak. And what was the
result? First the reactionary Islamic fundamentalists rode into power, and then
they were ousted by the equally reactionary Egyptian military. Then there is the
situation in Syria, which started as a genuine revolution from below. This even
included a tendency to form workers’ councils<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote7sym"
name=sdfootnote7anc><SUP>7</SUP></A> . This revolt from below was then
overwhelmed by the forces of reaction. And Chinese society appears to be
bursting at the seams with struggle, but now we have this horrific terrorist
attack evidently by nationalist Uighur forces. According to one article, this
attack is having an effect on the mood in China similar to what 9/11 had here in
the United States.<A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote8sym"
name=sdfootnote8anc><SUP>8</SUP></A></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/images1.jpeg"><IMG
class="size-full wp-image-1008 aligncenter" alt=images
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/images1.jpeg?w=640"></A><EM>one
of the wounded in the Uighur nationalist terrorist attack in China</EM></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">This is only one side of the coin.
In Egypt, for instance, there is still wave after wave of strikes. And the
powerful Chinese working class still has not fully spoken. But these defeats,
however temporary and partial, give a hint of the serious danger that human
society faces. To this must be added the environmental disaster that
looms.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><A
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/egypt-strike.jpeg"><IMG
class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1009" alt="egypt strike"
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/egypt-strike.jpeg?w=640"></A></P>
<P align=left></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=left><I>Egyptian textile workers on
strike</I></P>
<P align=left><SPAN style="COLOR: #262626"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif">The working class is far from down
for the count. It will rise from Ukraine to Syria to China. But the conditions
do not allow for indefinite time. We must do all we can to draw the lessons and
build a mass, independent and international workers movement. The alternative is
too horrible to contemplate.</SPAN></SPAN></P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>