The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with other progressive and workers’ organizations around the world to to call for a peaceful, negotiated solution to the internal conflicts in Ukraine. We strongly call for a return to democracy by the Ukrainian government in Kiev. And we deplore the civilian casualties that are mounting as the Kiev regime calls up reserves and new military draftees to crush the opposition in Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. We also call for an unbiased investigation of the horrendous shooting down of the Malaysian airliner.
The CPUSA strongly condemns the murderous May 2, 2014 burning of the Trade Union Building in Odessa that resulted in many deaths and demands appropriate punishment for those responsible. We also condemn the violent physical attacks on CPU (Communist Party of Ukraine) Members of Parliament. These attacks were launched right on the floor of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian National Parliament. The Secretary General of the CPU, Petro Symonenko, was forced to withdraw his candidacy for President of Ukraine in the May 25 election because his Party could not campaign freely in this atmosphere of violence.
On Tuesday, July 22, the right wing faction in the Rada pushed through a law to dissolve any party’s delegation whose votes fell below a number chosen precisely to exclude the Communist Party. So the CPU, a party that received 2 ½ million votes in the parliamentary elections of 2012, with 32 of its members elected to the Rada, was expelled from the national parliament. Two days later, the Rada voted to dissolve the CPU. The speaker of the Rada, Oleksander Turkhynov, went on to call for the complete suppression of the CPU and the prohibition of the “communist ideology” by law. Others who do not agree with the extreme right wing are facing the threat of expulsion from Parliament.
Any claim of democracy by the right wing regime that seized power in February 2014 now stands exposed as total lies. Yet the United States and European Union powers have failed to denounce the destruction of Ukrainian democratic rights. Instead they are giving material support to the Kiev regime, in the hope of exploiting the valuable industries of Eastern Ukraine and the rich farmlands of Western Ukraine.
To advance the cause of peace and democracy, the CPUSA calls for the U.S. government to cease and desist from politically and materially abetting the repressive and violent activities of the Kiev regime. We ask, further, that all friends of peace contact the US government, their congressional representatives and the U.S. press and media to promote these demands.
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