Submitted by Greg Rose, Oregon District CPUSA

Solidarity with the people of Ukraine should be a top priority of our party.  What is going on today in Ukraine is not the triumph of peaceful demonstrators.  It is a fight amongst oligarchs in which fascist forces are pitted against the popular interests of the Ukrainian people and in which those popular interests can only be plundered by the I.M.F, the E.U., and N.AT.O.  A front of fascists from the Svoboda Party and the Praviy Sektor — literal neo-Nazis in the tradition of Stepan Bandera — have joined with rightists from the Fatherland Party and the CDU-oriented UDAR Party to impose an interim regime on Ukraine and begin implementing austerity policies sought by the European Union and N.A.T.O.

The refusal of Crimea was but a first signal that the regime in Kiev, which drove a democratically elected government from power, would not be accepted by the Russophone population of southern and eastern Ukraine.  The Crimean referendum, which was accepted without demurral by international observers, including those from the E.U., as free and democratic bound Crimea to the Russian Federation.  We must be clear that Vladimir Putin is not Lenin, and the Russian federation is not the U.S.S.R.  But the Russian Federation is today in the forefront of international opposition to American and European imperialism, and it must be supported so long as it plays this vital role. This underlies the unanimous support of the B.R.I.C.S. nations for Crimean adherence to the Russian Federation.

The call by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Petro Symonenko, for binding referenda on regional autonomy and closer relations with the Russian Federation rather than N.A.T.O. and the E.U. has been heard by the southern and eastern Ukraine. Public buildings, police facilities, and military bases have been seized by the common people of eastern Ukraine.  They hold sites in Luhansk, in Donetsk, in Slovyansk, and elsewhere to demand autonomy referenda and protection by Russian forces.  This cannot be resolved in Geneva by negotiations between the Kiev interim government, the E.U., the Russian Federation, and N.A.TO.  It is not Russian aggression; it is the resistance of the eastern and southern Ukraine to domination by fascists and the looting of their country by the forces of austerity: the I.M.F and the E.U.  At a minimum their demand for autonomy referenda must be met.

This is not the first time American aggression has been targeted against a sovereign people.  We saw this in Cuba in the 1960s, in Chile in 1973, in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.  If Kosovo could be “freed” to follow N.A.T.O.’s lead, why cannot Crimea join the Russian Federation? Why cannot Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Odessa be autonomous?  These are the children and grandchildren of the men and women who liberated Europe from fascism in 1945.  Why must they now wait?

N.A.T.O’s surge eastward must be turned back and returned to its old borders.  It remains the world’s principal threat to peace and must not be allowed to join the E.U. in predating on Ukraine.  The E.U., which has become finance capital’s refuge of choice for brutal austerity, must be blocked from this outrage.

Autonomy from fascists and people before banks must become bywords of our solidarity with Ukraine.

The views and opinions expressed in the Convention Discussion are those of the author alone. The Communist Party is publishing these views as a service to encourage discussion and debate. Those views do not necessarily reflect the views of the Communist Party, its leading bodies or staff members. The CPUSA Constitution, Program, and all its existing policies remain in effect during the Convention discussion period and during the Convention.

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CONVENTION DISCUSSION 
30th National Convention, Communist Party USA
Chicago | June 13-15, 2014

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