THE rapidly developing crisis in the Ukraine, has placed the issue of the defence of the Ukraine from this imperialist-backed assault, and the brigands that it has placed in to power, firmly in front of the working class of the world. Workers must give their full support to the Ukrainian working class, in both the east and the west, as they begin to take action against the pro-imperialist dictatorship that is being assembled.
The deposed president Yanukovych learnt to his cost that attempts to compromise with imperialist -organised fascist and nationalist movements are akin to committing suicide, as the ‘revolt’ was always about seizing the power and handing the Ukraine over to the US and the EU.
However while the aggressive imperialist action has shaken the Stalinist bureaucracy and its leader Putin, who is still calling the imperialist gangsters Russia’s ‘partners’ and ‘colleagues’, the working class, particularly in the east and in the Crimea, has sprung into action.
Squads of workers in Kharkov and Donetsk and Odessa have been defending Lenin’s statues when impudent counter-revolutionaries have attempted to demolish them. They have begun to form workers militias to defend ‘soviet Ukraine’ against the western backed counter-revolution.
That the coup was organised and financed by US imperialism and its European allies is in no doubt.
Indeed as far back as December 13 the right-wing US assistant secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, in a speech in Washington at a meeting sponsored by the US Ukrainian Foundation, boasted that the US government had spent $5 billion to finance the neo-nazi thugs, who operate under the umbrella of the Right Sector, who provided the shock troops and leadership of the demonstrations.
These thugs, who openly call for war against Russians and Jews, have been unleashed by the imperialist powers to carry out a brutal war against the Ukrainian working class and open the country up to economic and political domination by the US and EU.
Meanwhile, the illegal interim government has gone begging to the US, EU and IMF for an immediate loan to cover the $35 billion it owes. This follows doubts over the $15 billion loan Russia pledged last December.
Any loan from these bodies will carry with it the imposition of complete privatisation of all resources and state industries and a massive austerity campaign loaded on the backs of the Ukrainian working class.
The intention of the imperialists is to smash up the Ukrainian economy, grab the oil and gas reserves in the Black Sea, oust the Russian navy from its base in Sebastopol while driving the borders of the Nato countries right up against the borders of Russia itself.
The plan always has been to encircle Russia with a ring of steel in preparation for the re-conquest of the vast territory denied to world capitalism as the result of the Russian revolution of 1917.
What stands in the way of this imperialist plot is the Ukrainian working class, notably in the industrial regions of the country to the south and east, and the working class of the world.
This powerful Ukrainian working class has already shown its determination not to suffer coups aimed at restoring capitalist exploitation to the Ukraine.
Already it has seen-off two ‘Orange revolutions’ that tried to hand the country over to western imperialism through rigged elections. Now it will deal with an armed coup and with the fascist brigands that imperialism has unleashed.
The working class in the regions is not in favour of splitting the country in two, this has been made clear in statements by governors from the south and east who met at conference last Saturday.
There was no call for separatism. The conference denounced the new ‘parliament’ in Kiev as ‘working under conditions of terror’ and declared regional autonomy the final statement reading: ‘Until constitutional order and legality are restored in the country all local power is taken upon themselves by local organs of self-government.’
This powerful working class will stand fast and organise, first of all to cleanse the East of the fascists forces, and then to proceed westwards where they will be welcomed by millions of workers.
This revolutionary movement, led by a revolutionary leadership, will restore Soviet Ukraine and will play a major part in the political revolution throughout the USSR to restore Soviet power.
The best support that UK, US and EU workers can give to this struggle is to overthrow the capitalist governments that organised the Ukrainian coup in the first place. This is the way forward for the world socialist revolution.
