As CHALLENGE goes to press, the struggle between imperialist factions and their capitalist allies in Ukraine remains in flux. After three months of increasingly militant protests exploded late in February, Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s Russia-leaning President, was ousted from power and driven from the capital city of Kiev. Armed workers seized the president’s opulent palace, a monument to the bosses’ greed. Yanukovych, charged with “mass murder” in connection with the shooting of dozens of protesters, is now camped among his supporter in Eastern Ukraine. The country’s parliament has set a new presidential election for May, and politicians tilting toward the European Union (EU) dominate the field. All of the top candidates are also allied with local fascist forces. (See box.)
The next phase of this conflict is unpredictable. Civil war — and the potential splitting of Ukraine into two or more states — remains conceivable, especially if Yanukovych can marshal support in his eastern stronghold. Another possibility is intervention by Russia, where the capitalists represented by President Vladimir Putin can ill afford to lose Ukraine from their economic and military sphere of influence.
All of these scenarios hinge on the competing interests of imperialist super powers and the local bosses who represent them. In the absence of a revolutionary movement for communism, none of them will serve the interests of workers in Ukraine, the region, or the world. (See editorial, page 2.)
Independence for the Rich
The protests in the Maidan, Kiev’s central square, were sparked when Yanukovych canceled a pending trade agreement with the EU in favor of a closer alliance with his Russian patrons and Putin’s plan for a Eurasian Economic Union. These protests built on deep anger at the dire conditions for workers throughout Ukraine.
Soon after the country voted its independence during the last days of the Soviet Union in 1991, wealth became concentrated among a handful of oligarchs, the group of entrepreneurial businessmen who made immense profits during Ukraine’s transition from state capitalism to a market-based economy. By 2008, according to the Eurasia Daily Monitor, the country’s 50 richest oligarchs controlled 85 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. The social safety net was shredded. Real wages dropped by nearly two-thirds. Today, about one-third of the population lives below the poverty line. The health system is a shambles, with adult death rates among the highest in the world. Government corruption is everywhere.
With life so miserable under the sway of the Russian imperialists, there is much talk in Ukraine of revolution. But many workers mistakenly look to Europe or to the local fascist opposition to solve their problems. The EU offers nothing but more misery for the country’s working class. If the EU and the International Monetary Fund replace Russia in propping up Ukraine’s hyper-inflated economy, the aid will come with strings attached — the same austerity policies that have ravaged workers in Greece and Spain. Changing imperialist rulers is not revolution.
Energy and Opportunism
The conflict in Ukraine has been reported in the U.S. bosses’ press as a battle for democracy, Western values, and freedom from autocracy and Russian domination. Politicians from Republican Senator John McCain to President Barack Obama cheered on the demonstrators as they occupied government buildings, hurled firebombs at the police, killed several cops and captured many more. Obama went so far as to threaten sanctions against the Ukrainian government if it failed to reverse recent legislation restricting demonstrations.
What’s really going on here? Ukraine has long been of vital interest to the Russian bosses, before and after its nominal independence. Its eastern provinces were once the Soviet Union’s breadbasket, and millions of Russians settled there after the famine of 1933. Russian remains the first language for many in that area, which generally supported Yanukovych in previous elections.
In this light, the effort led by German and U.S. rulers to pull Ukraine into the EU is an attempt to weaken Russian imperialism while exploiting the country’s workers and fertile agricultural land. Opportunities for energy profits loom large as well. The U.S. backed Shell Oil’s agreement last year (with Yanukovych) to explore recently discovered shale gas deposits in Ukraine. Successful exploitation of these reserves, estimated at four trillion cubic feet of gas, would allow Ukraine to reduce its energy dependence on Russia. Current plans by Shell and Ukraine include exports to Western Europe by 2020, a direct challenge to Russian imperialist domination of energy in this region.
The opposition Euromaidan movement (see box) is pro-EU and wants to de-emphasize Ukraine’s historic relationship with Russia. Its proponents include former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, released last week from prison and now a likely candidate for president in the May election. Timoshenko is a multi-millionare, a rank opportunist who maintained strong relations with Putin in the past but now backs the U.S. and European capitalists competing for dominance in Ukraine.
Only communist revolution, not fascist-led revolt, can meet workers’ needs. As workers rise in revolt and rebellion throughout the world, we must build an international communist party, the Progressive Labor Party, to organize a revolution and smash capitalism once and for all.
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Nazis Running the ‘Euromaidan’ Opposition
The opposition to the deposed Yanukovych regime is a coalition of three political parties called “Euromaidan,” named after its pro-European Union (EU) stance and the central square in Kiev (the “Maidan”). One is the right-wing, pro-capitalist Fatherland Party headed by multi-millionaire Yulia Timoshenko, modeled after European Christian Democratic parties. Another is the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform, which is aligned with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union Party.
The third party, so closely linked to the other two that they hold joint press conferences, is the outright fascist Svoboda, a neo-Nazi outfit that received over two million votes in the last parliamentary elections. This is the group that toppled the Lenin statue in Kiev, replacing it with the black-and-red Nazi occupation flag from World War II. Svoboda and the paramilitary neo-Nazi Pravy Sector are the political descendants of western Ukraine leaders who sided with the Nazis during World War II.
These fascists spearheaded the recent street demonstrations with Molotov cocktails, paving stones and iron bars. They led five thousand people in storming the regional administration building and took control of arms depots.
Svoboda’s bastion is in Galicia, to the west, where they have organized large celebrations in memory of World War II Nazi collaborators and the Nazi Waffen SS (storm troopers). The party has taken power in small localities there, instigating a reign of terror jointly with other fascist groups, assaulting Jews and working-class fighters.
Svoboda and Pravy Sector attract the most racist and reactionary elements of Ukrainian society. They are being given free rein by the other opposition parties, and this fascist-tainted alliance is unreservedly backed by the EU and U.S. imperialists.
