Ukrainian anarchists give their take on developments in Ukraine as the uprising continues and the death toll rockets.
Civil war began in Ukraine yesterday. A less than peaceful demonstration clashed with state defense forces and divisions formed by the adherents of the current government near the Vekhovna Rada (Parliament). On February 18, police, together with the paramilitaries, arranged a bloodbath in the governmental quarters during which numerous demonstrators were killed. Butchers from the special divisions finished off arrestees. Deputies of the ruling Party of Regions and their bourgeois lackeys from the “Communist” Party of Ukraine fled from the Parliament through an underground tunnel. The vote for constitutional amendments, intended to limit presidential power, did not take place after all.
After their defeat in the governmental quarters, demonstrators retreated to the Maidan. At 6 P.M., the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Internal Security Bureau (SBU) declared an ultimatum to the protesters, demanding their dispersal. At 8:00 P.M., special police forces and paramilitaries, equipped with water cannons and armored vehicles, began their raid on the barricades. Police, the special divisions of SBU, as well as pro-governmental troopers made use of their firearms. However, the protesters managed to burn down one of the armored police vehicles, and it turned out that governmental forces were not the only ones in possession of guns.
According to the data released by the police (on February, 19, 4 p.m.), 24 people were killed: 14 protesters and 10 policemen. Thirty-one policemen received gunshot wounds. Even if their estimate of losses on the side of the police is accurate, the number of victims among the protesters was definitely diminished. Maidan’s medics cite at least 30 killed.
One gets an impression that President Yanukovich was certain that by morning the resistance would be crushed, and so arranged for the Opposition leaders to meet with him at 11 A.M. on February, 19. As the negotiations did not take place, we can conclude that the government’s plan had failed. During the unsuccessful operation to clear off the Maidan, the citizens of several western regions occupied administrative buildings and chased away the police. At the moment the police, as an institution, do not exist in L’viv. According to the SBU, protesters have captured 1500 firearms. In less than 24 hours, the central government lost control over a section of the country. Right now, the only solution may be the stepping down of the President, however, that would mean that he, his family, and their multiple acolytes and dependents, which form a rather large group in the ruling government, would lose their source of profit. It is likely that they will not accept this.
In the event of Yanukovich’s victory, he will become a ruler for life, and the rest will be doomed to a life in which they face poverty, corruption, and the abolition of their rights and freedoms. Rebellious regions are now experiencing massive restorations of “the constitutional order.” It is not improbable that the suppression of such “terroristic groups” in Galicia will have the character of ethnic cleansing. Mad Orthodox radicals from the Party of Regions have, for a long time, seen the conservative Greco-Catholics as the aids of “Eurosodom.” Such an “antiterrorist” operation would be carried out with the assistance of the army, as the Minister of Defense, Lebedev, has already announced.
Today, Ukraine experiences a tragedy, but the real horror will start when the government breaks down the opposition and “stabilizes” the situation. Signs of the preparation of a mass-cleansing operation became noticeable as far back as early February, when criminal cases were opened against the Maidan self-defense divisions as illegal military formations. According to Article 260 of the Criminal Codex, members of such divisions may face imprisonment for 2 to 15 years. This means that the government was planning to put more than 10 thousand citizens behind bars. In the regions, as well as in the capital, special “death divisions” are acting as a supplement to the usual police forces. For example, responsibility for burning alive a Maidan activist from Zaporozhye was claimed by such a “death division,” calling itself “Sebastopol Ghosts.” They announced that they are ready to subject Maidan participants in the East to similar treatment.
In the event of the Opposition’s victory life would be far from perfect as well. Although fascists form the minority of the protesters, they are quite active and are not the sharpest tools in the shed. A few days of truce in mid-February lead to conflicts between the rightist groups, resulting in several pointless and violent confrontations, as well as attacks on ideological ‘heretics.’ Besides the fascists, old and experienced Oppositionists will also attempt to seize power. Many of them already have some experience with working in government and they are no strangers to corruption, favoritism, and the use of budget funds for personal purposes.
The “concessions” that the Opposition is demanding in Parliament right now are pitiful. Even the Constitution of 2004, that they are trying to restore, gives too much power to the President (control over the riot police and special forces is one example), and the proportional electoral system, with closed listings, hands parliament over to the control of a group of dictator-like leaders, who can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Together with the President they will rule without obstructions.
Their second demand – the appointment of a Cabinet of Ministers composed of Opposition leaders – is altogether shameful. Are people risking their health, freedom, and life for the sake of someone becoming a prime-minister, and someone-else getting an opportunity to control the flow of corrupt-money? This is the logical outcome of preferring pathos-ridden conversations on “the nation,” and focusing on vertical structures tied to the same hated politicians, instead of developing ground-up organizations around financial and material interests. This is the main lesson that Maidan is yet to learn.
However, we will be able to apply this lesson in practice only if the current government loses the battle.
The Opposition inside and outside of the Parliament is broken into multiple hostile and competing factions. If it wins, the ensuing regime will be unstable and lacking in coherency. It will be as bourgeois and repressive as was the Party of Regions before their first show of force against the protesters in November.
The guilt for the spilled blood is partially on the EU which gladly receives money from the corrupt scumbags in Ukraine, Russia, and several African countries, while diligently neglecting to check the source of such “investments.” It is only after seeing the dead bodies of the victims of such “investors,” that it gets so very sentimental and full of humanitarian pathos.
This is not our war, but the victory of the government will mean the defeat of the workers. The victory of the Opposition also does not promise anything good. We cannot call the proletariat to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the Opposition and its interests. We think that the extent of participation in this conflict is a matter of personal choice. However, we encourage all to avoid being drafted to serve in the internal military forces controlled by Yanukovich, and to sabotage by all means available the actions of the government.
No gods, no masters, no nations, no borders!
Kiev organization AWU (Autonomous Workers Union)
Translated by S2W from http://avtonomia.net/2014/02/19/zayavlenie-ast-kiev-o-situatsii-v-ukraine/
Comments
Here is a new(ish) interview
Here is a new(ish) interview with an AWU member:
http://avtonomia.net/2014/02/20/maidan-contradictions-interview-ukrainian-revolutionary-syndicalist/
Please publicise this meeting
Please publicise this meeting widely:
Just back from Kiev, Gabriel Levy will be speaking about the 'revolution' in Ukraine
- this Saturday, March 1, 2.30pm at No.88, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1DH
(entrance in St. Brides Avenue, nearest tube Blackfriars / Chancery Lane)
For articles by Gabriel Levy see http://peopleandnature.wordpress.com/
This group does not
This group does not reperesent ukranian anarchists it represents only themselfes.
Ukrainian Maidan I know that
Ukrainian Maidan
I know that some left disseminate information about the Ukrainian Maidan as about "far right movemen". This is nothing more than a lie. Yes, on the Maidan you can find influential right-wing organizations (first of all the "Right Sector" and "Freedom"). But the absolute majority of the Maidan participants are not members any of the political group. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians participate in decision-making and (some of them) in the formation of militias.
Here is the interview with the famous Ukrainian journalist Mustafa Naiem. This journalist of Pakistani origin is one of the most popular supporters of the Maidan. He demonstrates how is working a new power system at Ukraine, then the parties and parliament are very dependent from the direct popular democracy, " Veche", Maidan. And Maidan begins to shape the agenda.
Of course, this system is imperfect and does not cover the entire working population. In addition, there remain the property inequality - still no Maydan's at the factories. Real power belongs to the families of local oligarchs in many regions. However, the Maidan is the great experience of direct democracy. Simply, even if it fails, we must remember the important thing:
We have only the proletariat, which is. To come to self-organized classless society the modern proletariat will take many years and tens of new Maydan's. This one is only transition point.
http://rabies-rabbit.livejournal.com/
"Three months of protests of
"Three months of protests of the opposition leaders pretty lost their ratings. Level of trust to them is extremely low. The one who will be elected after Yanukovych, whether Klitschko or Poroshenko [liberals - my note] , will come to power on a wave of some inflated expectations, as it was in 2004 with Yushchenko, but due to the discipline of a voter who wants to continue on the Maidan to the end. The new President will not «the Messiah». His «honeymoon» with the electorate will be very short, and the conditions in which he will have to work, be such that the failure of the new regime will be swift. Maybe a year, maybe a half. I personally expect the «Maidan-3» already under social slogans. Todeys «Maidan-2» is a huge school of protest that has been hundreds of thousands of people in different regions of the country. It changed Ukraine stronger than the first Maidan, which was simply a huge festival under the open sky. The current protest began as a show, but he went beyond the play, when the blood was shed. We saw the real victims, a real confrontation, real self-organisation and mutual aid of the mass of previously unknown to each other people. And experience they still come in handy to defend not only our right to live in a democratic country, but their basic social rights."
http://www.svpressa.ru/society/article/82636/
These words belong to Kyiv leftist political scientist Alexei Bluminov.
And this is from famous journalists of Ukraine, Mustafa Naiem (pakistanian-ucrainian):
"Maidan will stand at least until the elections.... Yulia Tymoshenko [one of the leaders of the liberal opposition. - my note] does not understand the possibilities of that Maidan. As for the other opposition politicians Maydan became the factor of fear. If she came to the Maidan, the day before her release, she would see the opposition leaders, who came to talk about they victory (the conclusion of an agreement with Yanukovych on early elections)... but instead Maidan made them to kneel, and forced them to look at the corpses and pray. On the Maidan now very skeptical attitude to the politicians and their rhetoric, because words can not outweigh the corpses of friends and all the emotions associated with this. Maidan became an independent political force... Requirements of Maidan were a step ahead of the political reality and in fact it was formed by Maidan. When politicians have agreed on the abolition of the laws of January 16, Maidan demanded a return to the Constitution of 2004. When we returned to it, Maidan already demanded the resignation of Yanukovych. Now it seems that the victory occurred, but people are not going anywhere, because they see that something is happening. Now anger, which was directed against Yanukovych, addresses already on the opposition... Have you seen the popular Assembly on Sundays? When politices come and offer some solutions, and Maidan takes the approving rumble or rejects... What Maidan is? Maidan is everyone who comes there. In a sense, each Kiev citizen or Ukrainian is part of the Maidan, because they can come there and Express their opinion, to say that "Yes" or "no". And so-called leaders are only a supporting function".
http://rabies-rabbit.livejournal.com/25177.html
It was such a chaos now.
It was such a chaos now.
meerov21 wrote: Hundreds of
meerov21
This is a crucial question. That assertion is in direct contradition to the AWU interviewee who states:
I see above you quote Mustafa Naiem in saying "have you seen the Sunday assemblies?" but from the sounds of it (e.g. the description of the crowd booing Klitschko's proposal of the "deal" with Yanukovych on Friday and someone snatching the mike and demanding Y's head) the format seems to be that the political representatives make speeches to the crowd and then take feedback from the cheering or booing that results - hardly the form that we would understand by assembly or direct democracy in the Playa del Sol or Gezi Park sense.
Further evidence of the presence or absence of actual participation in decision-making (horizontal or otherwise) would be appreciated, as the question of autonomy or dependence on the pre-existing external political structures, is pretty key, imo.
An update from the AWU: Fifty
An update from the AWU:
Fifty shades of brown
ocelot wrote: Further
ocelot
On a small positive note here's a google translation of a report on students occupying the Ministry of Education yesterday.