Communist Workers Group (CWG-USA)

LCC endorses and reposts the following statement of the RCIT

Joint Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and the Movement to Socialism (MAS, Russia), 25.2.2014,www.thecommunists.net and www.nuevomas.blogspot.com

1.            A coalition of pro-EU right-wing and fascist parties has overthrown the government of President Viktor Yanukovych. This represents a clear victory for EU imperialism and a setback for Russian imperialism which traditionally has massive influence in the Ukraine. In addition, this right-wing victory goes hand-in-hand with a substantial strengthening of fascist forces like the Svoboda party of Oleg Tyagnibok, the “Pravy Sektor,” (Right Sector) and others.

2.            The right-wing forces and fascists have already started by banning the Communist Party (KPU) in a number of regions. (See MAS: No to the Terror of the Bandera-Fascists! Stop the Repression against the Communists of Ukraine!, 22.2.2014,http://www.nuevomas.blogspot.co.at/2014/02/no-to-terror-of-bandera-fascists-stop.html) On February 23, the parliament abolished the “Law on Regional Languages” which entitled any local language spoken by at least 10% of the population of that region to be declared an official language within that region. Thus the right-wing nationalists have once again made Ukrainian the sole state language at all levels. This is an attack on the rights of the Russian-speaking population in the East and Southeast regions of the Ukraine.

3.            Western media, as well as numerous left-liberal, reformist, and centrist forces, have depicted the “Maidan” opposition as a democratic and progressive force. From the beginning of this protest movement, this has been completely untrue. The protests were initiated by the pro-EU right-wing parties (the Fatherland Party of Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Yulia Tymoshenko and the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform led by Vitali Klitschko) and the fascists. Their immediate goal was to force President Yanukovych’s to sign an Association Agreement with the European Union, which meant nothing but intensified colonialization of the Ukraine by EU imperialism. There has always been a strong presence of openly fascist forces in the Ukraine, and the Maidan protests have always been under the control of these fascist forces and other right-wing parties (while, of course, being rivals of one other).

4.            At the same time, revolutionaries clearly could not support the reactionary government of President Yanukovych. The latter was a government of super-rich capitalists (the so-called oligarchs) and collaborated closely with Russian imperialism.

5.            For these reasons the RCIT stated in its resolution from December 18 2013: “The RCIT maintains that class conscious workers and socialists must support neither the pro-EU nor the pro-Russian faction of the capitalist class. The present mobilizations don’t represent an independent organization of workers and youth to advance their interests, but rather the attempt of the right-wing and fascist faction of the bourgeoisie to bring down the equally reactionary Yanukovych government.” (See RCIT: Ukraine: Neither Brussels nor Moscow! For an independent Workers’ Republic! 18.12.2013, http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/ukraine-neither-brussels-nor-moscow/)

6.            We note that various socialist and anarcho-syndicalist organizations – like Borotba or the Autonomous Workers’ Union – in the Ukraine correctly refused to support either of the two reactionary camps. At the same time, others did support the right-wing-led Maidan protests (like the “Vpered” group of the Mandelite “Fourth International” headed by Ilya Budraitskis, and the so-called “Left Opposition Collective”). On the other hand, the Stalinist KPU and others supported the reactionary Yanukovych government. Various international centrist forces have also supported the Maidan protests as a “progressive” and “democratic” movement (e.g., the CWI, IMT, the Morenoite LIT-CI, various Cliffite groups like the ISO [USA] or the British RS21). Such support once more emphasizes how, without correct revolutionary communist theory and a program derived from such, left-wing groups are doomed to vacillate in the class struggle and to accommodate themselves to bourgeois forces.

7.            The central task now is to mobilize the workers’ movement against the new right-wing government and their pro-EU agenda, without making any accommodations to Russian imperialism or the old pro-Yanukovych regime. It is urgent to call for mass assemblies in workplaces and neighborhoods so the working class can discuss its next steps and elect delegates. These delegates should meet for an emergency congress to agree upon a plan to fight against the coming attacks of the new right-wing government. Socialists must explain that accession to the EU will bring about rapid increases in prices (+40% for gas) and massive attacks on social security. They must call for the workers’ movement to form defense squads to fight against the fascists. They have to argue for a Ukraine in which no national and ethnic group is discriminated against in its national rights (for example, using its language in public administration and in schools). They must call for a Ukraine in which the economy is no longer controlled by oligarchs and in which the large banks and enterprises are nationalized and placed under control of the workers. In short, socialists should fight for aworkers’ government based on working class councils and militias. The task of such a government is to transform the Ukraine into an independent workers’ republic which is neither a colony of Brussels or Moscow.

8.            This task can be only be achieved by an organized struggle of the working class, led by a revolutionary party in the tradition of Lenin and Trotsky. The RCIT and MAS call for revolutionaries in the Ukraine to unite in a Bolshevik organization based on an internationalist and communist program.

International Secretariat of the RCIT and Editors of the Bulletin “Movement to Socialism” (MAS)

For a more detailed analysis of the situation in the Ukraine we refer readers to the RCIT resolution “Ukraine: Neither Brussels nor Moscow! For an independent Workers’ Republic!” 18.12.2013 which has been published in several languages:

English: http://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/ukraine-neither-brussels-nor-moscow/

Russian: http://www.thecommunists.net/home/%D1%80%D1%83%D1%81%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9/ukraine-statement/

German: http://www.thecommunists.net/home/deutsch/ukraine-weder-bruessel-noch-moskau/

See also the MAS-Statement: No to the Terror of the Bandera-Fascists! Stop the Repression against the Communists of Ukraine!, 22.2.2014

English: http://www.nuevomas.blogspot.co.at/2014/02/no-to-terror-of-bandera-fascists-stop.html

Russian: http://www.nuevomas.blogspot.co.at/2014/02/mas-www.html

Spanish: http://www.nuevomas.blogspot.co.at/2014/02/no-terror-fascista-bandera-detener.html