[…] The most active of these Western stooges were a small group of individuals who portray themselves as „anarchists or leftist revolutionaries” but who only attempted to draw western leftists of all kinds, in particular anarchists, into supporting NATO’s aggression against another of their victims in Eastern Europe.
They constantly whitewashed the fascist coup – which was even admitted by the US administration publicly – and misrepresented the next and premeditated step of the maidan – the civil war – as „Russian aggression”, though even western media and western „human rights” organizations admitted it was nothing but the slaughtering of the civilian population of Donbass by the Ukrainian government. What no western media and no western supporter in Ukraine says to the western public – but they do say it quite openly and loudly in Ukraine – is that this civil war carries an ideological weight, in that the Kyiv nazis – who are pushing for this war against the constant sabotage by other Ukrainains, trapped and kidnapped by the government to go kill women and children in Donbass – see this civil war as a cleansing of the nation of the „occupants”. The occupants being mostly the Russian speaking population in the east, but the „occupants” also include anyone who resists Ukrainian fascism of building an Ukrainian empire through „a pure white nation” in „a pure white Europe of nations”.
Here are just a few examples of who the propagandists of western aggression against the entire population of Ukraine are.
AWU aka the “Autonomous Workers Union” in Ukraine is a small group of people, maybe 10-12, although only four seem active. Alexander Volodarsky (Shiitman, Hihilist blogs), Volodymyr Zadiraka, Serhii Kutnii, and Denis Gorbach ( aka on FB Gryts Varenyk who initially gave anti-Maidan interviews to lib com and revolution news, but ended up writing for George Soros (https://www.opendemocracy.net/author/denys-gorbach). The AWU pose as anarchists, and may even believe themselves to be so, but they are effectively supporting the Ukrainian government and nationalists agenda using psuedo-anarchist rhetoric. Their main focus seems to be lashing out against any leftist or anarchist movement who dares to criticize the government and its war and repression. This tiny group became so well known by initially being a (seemingly) lone voice among Ukrainian anarchists, and appealing to various leftist organizations.
Here is one interview with RKAS (revolutionary confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, which is also a small group):
“Autonomous Workers Union” (AWU) contacted the Swedish SAC and other reformist syndicalists abroad. After the beginning of the actual crisis, the more important figures in the AWU supported the Maidan, declaring it a “bourgeois revolution”. They defend the Ukrainian “national liberation” and the actual regime in Kiev against Russia, rejecting the internationalist position against all states, governments and nations and welcoming the NATO. Some members of the AWU consider such position “too nationalist”. They consider themselves “internationalist” and created a group “Black Rainbow”, but they miss until now to reject Maidan and to break definitely with the nationalist leadership of AWU. Finally, the AWU/AST condemns expansionist actions of the Russian state, but not one word mentioned inflammatory actions of its equally imperialist rivals from NATO. There is no mention of the need to cease hostilities and stop the death of workers under the bullets and shells of punitive forces of “anti-terrorist operation”. The statement completely ignores the catastrophic humanitarian situation in eastern Ukraine, and blames for this tragedy exclusively the separatists and “agents” of Russia.” https://libcom.org/library/what-happening-ukraine-interview-international-secretary-kras-iwa
Since it was obvious that the maidan was actually organized and controlled by nazis – especially from UNA UNSO and their most visible political arm, Svoboda party – AWU presented themselves to western public as being critical of the Maidan. But at the same time they always supported it, and some of AWU even joined the openly hard-core nazi battalion of Azov. This is how the position of this AWU member, Sergii Kutnii, should be read, as he posted it publicly on his Facebook page:
“I will not go to meeting against the ATO (“anti-terror-operation” of Ukrainian forces in the East. – transl.). Because I think that the conflict in Donbass is one of illnesses which become worse if they are not cured. If the Ukrainian troops will withdraw, these fucking idiots from “people`s republics” will a) take control of territory; b) mobilize it own army; c) decide that they win over Ukrainians and conquer all now. Therefore if we listen to some naïve citizens who think that it is possible to enclosure ourselves from Donbass with a frontier line, we would obtain as a result a frontline and not a frontier. They will attack Kharkov, it`s sure. We all were shocked that the separatists in Zaporozhye were made run the gantlet in “corridor of shame”. But after events in Odessa, I think that these fucking idiots there would be alive if such a “corridor of shame” would be just in time organized in Odessa. And I think, we will look at Odessa after ATO and understand that if such a little fire would be organized just in time in the administration house of Donetsk, it could be called small losses. And I don`t want that we will in the end feel regret that the ATO was not organized in proper time” (https://www.facebook.com/sergii.kutnii/posts/839609146068808)
“The left detectors of ATO train at neglect of an elephant. This elephant is the Russian factor which is necessary to considerate. Why Russia didn`t make a military intervention until now? Because it afraid new sanctions… But it is clear now that when Russia can`t wage war with Ukraine openly, the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics can it… So it is clear that in a hypothetical situation of permission to republics to separate, Putin will push them to war with Ukraine… Putin will explicitly try to put into practice the same pattern as Milosevic with Republic Srpska (in Bosnia, – transl.). So there are no peaceful alternative to ATO. What is proposed by some left who fall into ill pacifism – is a way to Munchen, to a combination of shame and war”https://www.facebook.com/sergii.kutnii/posts/840916939271362
After the support of bourgeois pro-EU and pro-NATO Maidan coup, many AWU members support now the war of Kiev bourgeois regime against the bourgeois regimes in Eastern Ukraine. It is the support of one nationalists against the others. Infamy like for some “anarchists” in 1914“
It’s also important to note this post by Anarcho-Communism highlighting some of those who AWU have collaborated with, and what those people have done: https://www.facebook.com/anarchocommie/posts/818661544891260
Also it’s important to listen to AWU’s main rival organization, marxist union Borotba (yes their main target is a leftist union) as well. After all, Borotba attempted to join into Maidan as well, but unlike AWU they were beaten and physically removed by nationalists and neo nazis. It’s also important to note that one Borotba member was murdered in the Odessa massacre. Here is a quote from a Borotba member about AWU:
“The dilemma faced by the lefts was something like the following: when you see a hundred middle-class nationalists rallying and demanding privileges for themselves, what tactics do you choose? Do you create an opposing group to challenge them and their ideas, or do you intervene and try to influence and hijack the middle-class nationalists concerns? The liberal left in Ukraine chose the latter. But as a result, they were the ones to be influenced, not the other way around. Because regardless of whatever a middle-class nationalist may read or be told, the basis of his/her ‘visceral’ politics is their own class interest; in particular, the desire to secure a privileged status. This perspective began to slide towards the ideology of Nazism” (read the rest here: http://newcoldwar.org/how-the-liberal-and-anarchist-left-became-swept-up-in-the-surge-of-right-wing-nationalism-in-ukraine/)
Mostly trotskyists supported the Maidan, but even the Trotskyist site “Internationalist” had substantial criticism of the AWU:
“There was even a group of supposed anarchists with reactionary, anti-woman, xenophobic positions who tried to unite with the Nazis and threw firebombs at the police together:
“A week ago they, together with some actual leftists who wanted to ‘act,’ decided to form an ‘anarchist sotnia’ [hundred, or centuria] in the Maidan self-defence. In order to do that they were prepared to give an oath to Andriy Parubiy [the fascist-nationalist commander of the storm troops]. But when they formed their ranks to do this, they were met by approximately 150 Svoboda fighters with baseball bats and axes. The fascists accused them of being racially impure and politically irrelevant and forced them out of Maidan…”
“So unlike many Maidan enthusiasts, the AWU is not blind to the dangers staring it in the face. They also resist the “patriotic” fervor against Russian intervention in Crimea, while calling for respecting the Tatar minority. Yet they sign joint statements with pro-Maidan groups, and do not present a revolutionary program to bring down the new rulers (or even refer to the seizure of power as a coup) nor for working-class struggle against all the oligarchs.” (http://www.internationalist.org/ukrainefascistcoup1403.html)
Another member of AWU, Volodymyr Zadiraka, ends his interview (in German) by saying that if he were to be conscripted by Ukraine to military service, he wouldn’t evade military draft and joins the army, though he is not a good soldier. (https://dasgrossethier.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/bekenntnisse-eines-kiewer-anarchisten/)
It’s also interesting that AWU openly reveal their connections to USAID, a “labor initiatives” NGO which announced the summer camp in Odessa, Ukraine in late July. (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=464839853682910&set=gm.1593540747590225&type=1&theater&__mref=message) & (https://www.facebook.com/avtonomia.net/posts/981337938564732?pnref=story&__mref=message)
As many nationalists do, they effectively masterminded anarchist and liberal rhetoric, and applied it to justify the actions of its own nationalists and government. They never support Ukrainian anti government prisoners – just Russian ones such as Ukrainian anarchist Kolchenko. It’s a typical nationalist position to ignore domestic repressions. Imagine a Greek “anarchist” who decried Turkish nationalists or Muslim clericalism, but completely turned a blind eye to the Golden Dawn. It’s truly that bizarre.
Dmitry Kovalech from Borotba says: “There is now a request from west NGOs to establish a new ‘left-liberal’ movement in Ukraine, but which would be harmless, safe and would be able to effectively divert (or hijack) rising popular social protest into a safe mode. Although, such expectations and reliance on such groups in Ukraine are of no use, since such groups are not interested in expanding their number and influence so that not to create potential competitors for grants and payments. It’s a matter of jobs for them. That’s why all such projects (be they liberal left, feminist, or environmentalist) never spread further and became a matter of a narrow group which may regroup and rebrand but it’s always the same bunch of people.”
“If you want to expose a nationalist, ask him under which condition he/she would accept in theory the right to self-determination of autonomy of a part of own country? Do they recognize in principle any way for the population of certain territories to express their will, if it contradicts nationalists dreams of ‘a greater nation’? Most likely, he/she would avoid the issue. In case of AWU we have a small group which echoes the government’s position; is against federalization of the country and effectively stands for its centralization. AWU actually acts like patriotic ‘socialists’ in WWI – when German ‘socialists’ pointed at violations in France, while French patriotic ‘socialists’ pointed at violations in Germany – thus, both sides echoed own government/nationalist propaganda. Let’s take the example of this interview: ‘UKRAINIAN SYNDICALISTS: THE BIGGEST FASCIST THREAT IS CONCENTRATED IN RUSSIA AND IN THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES” – shouts the headline, identifying Donbass as ‘occupied territory,’ echoing the government’s rhetoric. Meanwhile, they effectively downgrade Ukrainian (own) fascist threat:
“The position of the far right in Ukraine is rather weak and often depends on current political situation; a single mistake can lead to their collapse” http://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2015/03/14/ukrainian-syndicalists-the-biggest-fascist-threat-is-concentrated-in-russia-and-in-the-occupied-territories/
Yet another recent blog post by an AWU member, Alexander Wolodarsky, attempts to take advantage of western ignorance and whitewash the fascists and their symbolism and role in the Maidan:
“Western observers, especially the left, were often resented by Nazi symbolics on “nationwide” protests in Ukraine. Due to this, the myth of the “fascist coup” and a “junta” and was so tenacious.
But this tolerance to extreme right, which manifested itself during the Maidan and held until recently, was not due to love of Ukrainians to fascism.
The external observers (and many domestic) did not take into account one important feature of post-Soviet politics in general, and of Ukrainian one in particular. And this feature is its complete lack of public political organizations had a clear ideology.” (http://www.nihilist.li/2015/07/16/o-vospriyatii-fashizma-uber-die-wahrnehmung-des-faschismus/)
AWU, besides cooperating with Ukrainian fascists, coordinated with a Bosnian group of “anarcho nationalists” (racial separatists – google it if you aren’t familiar), here is some relevant anarchist criticism regarding their alliance with this group. (http://www.sabotagemedia.anarkhia.org/2014/03/on-self-styled-libertarians-and-antiauthoritarians-from-bosnia/)
Anarchists in Ukraine are engaged against the civil war. They do not support IMF, EU, NATO or Russian capitalists. This does not mean that Russia’s help towards Donbass when people were starving under bombs should be mocked since the food and medicine helped working people of Donbass resist the fascist military repression of the Kyiv government.
What AWU and other such ghost-like „anarchists”, and other liars who attempt to compromise leftists in the west by getting them to support fascists and nazis, do not ever speak of are the following, and the listing of these real life facts exposes them once more as nothing more but capitalists and supporters of the US empire:
– Ukrainians were robbed by two thirds of their income while prices skyrocketed. There were people who organized strikes and were arrested by the nazi-controlled secret service of Ukraine, SBU. There were also people protesting in the neighborhoods of Kyiv against lack of electricity and food.
– over 90 % of Ukraine’s population in the territories controlled by Kyiv government are utterly against the civil war, which they sabotage any way they can. This is why the government resorted to kidnap men and boys from workplaces, university campuses and even from the streets.
– there is an active and brutal colonization of Ukraine by the west, which is something not witnessed even in Latin America before: the colonizers are in the government and are named as governors (Odessa’s case).
– Nazis from UNA UNSO (aka Right Sector) are named as propaganda officers of SBU, in the police, in the army and recently they even got themselves their own unit within SBU. These nazis openly organize to attack Russia so they can restore the Kievan Rus which they claim it was „theirs” – a historical abberation –, they also resent the USSR not because of reasons falsely propagated by westerners but because they did not control it. UNA UNSO’s program states publicly that USSR should have been „Ukraine’s”.
– Ukrainian ideology explicitly urges the annihilation of the population in the east.
This is another attempt by supporters of the fascists in Ukraine to rebrand themselves as “leftists” – http://ukrainesolidaritycampaign.org/2015/08/21/interview-with-activists-of-the-new-left-party-social-movement/
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