Check out this video of two CPB members Andrew Murray and Nick Wright being interviewed by George Galloway on Russia Today. http://rt.com/shows/sputnik/labour-party-trade-union-173/

Trade unionists march in the UK at the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ rally

By James Thompson

HOUSTON – A very diverse group of Houston activists assembled in front of Texas U.S. Sentor Ted Cruz’ high-rise condo hacienda on March 8, 2014 to express their opposition to his right wing agenda. About 30 activists stood on the sidewalk in front of the Royalton at River Oaks at 3333 Allen Parkway and chanted and held signs which proclaimed “Ted Cruz is part of the problem,” “Ted Cruz is anti-union,” and many other slogans. Young and old, black and white and brown, men and women all participated in a lively demonstration to exercise their rights to Free Speech.

A heckler rode by on a bicycle and stopped to shout at the demonstrators. Some of the demonstrators went out courageously in the middle of a very busy street to confront this man. The men confronting the heckler included Juan of the Latin American Organization for Immigrant Rights and a member of the Houston Peace and Justice Coalition. The confrontation was peaceful and no one was hurt.

Dr. David Smith of the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee said while organizing the demonstration “Cruz has been leading the opposition to comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, so all of us should be proud to lead the opposition to Cruz.” James Harrington of the Houston Communist Party said that “Cruz is a disgrace to Texas. All working people in Texas should reject his anti-worker and pro-wealthy stance.”

The demonstration was called by and organized by the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee, and Latin American Organization for Immigrant Rights. It was endorsed by the Houston Communist Party, Houston Peace Council, Communist Party USA – Houston and People before Profits. Participants included working people, retirees, students and union members.

Cruz’ luxurious condo is located in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston. River Oaks is the neighborhood of the wealthiest plutocrats in Houston. A quick check on the internet revealed that condos in Cruz’ residence range from one million dollars, that’s right $1,000,000 on up. It dramatizes Cruz’ arrogance and disdain for working people who could hardly afford such luxurious digs. It gives one pause to consider what Cruz must have done to amass the kind of money to propel him into this high rise condo so that he can look down on the working people of Houston.

You can watch a YouTube video of the demonstration at http://youtu.be/UyfP8sVKbXQ .

Rally against Ted Cruz 12/7/2013

PHill1917@comcast.net

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, March 02, 2014

Via: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-u-s-has-installed-a-neo-nazi-government-in-ukraine/5371554

According to the New York Times, “The United States and the European Union have embraced the revolution here as anotherflowering of democracy, a blow to authoritarianism and kleptocracy in the former Soviet space.” ( After Initial Triumph, Ukraine’s Leaders Face Battle for Credibility, NYTimes.com, March 1, 2014, emphasis added)

“Flowering Democracy, Revolution”? The grim realities are otherwise. What is a stake is a US-EU-NATO sponsored coup d’Etat in blatant violation of international law.

The forbidden truth is that the West has engineered –through a carefully staged covert operation– the formation of a proxy regime integrated by Neo-Nazis.

Confirmed by Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, key organizations in the Ukraine including the Neo-Nazi party Svoboda were generously supported by Washington: “We have invested more than 5 billion dollars to help Ukraine to achieve these and other goals. … We will continue to promote Ukraine to the future it deserves.”

The Western media has casually avoided to analyze the composition and ideological underpinnings of the government coalition. The word “Neo-Nazi” is a taboo. It has been excluded from the dictionary of mainstream media commentary. It will not appear in the pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post or The Independent. Journalists have been instructed not to use the term “Neo-Nazi” to designate Svoboda and the Right Sector.
Composition of the Coalition Government

We are not dealing with a transitional government in which Neo-Nazi elements integrate the fringe of the coalition, formally led by the Fatherland party.

The Cabinet is not only integrated by the Svoboda and Right Sector (not to mention former members of defunct fascist UNA-UNSO), the two main Neo-Nazi entities have been entrusted with key positions which grant them de facto control over the Armed Forces, Police, Justice and National Security.

While Yatsenuyk’s Fatherland Party controls the majority of portfolios and Svoboda Neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok was not granted a major cabinet post (apparently at the request of assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland), members of Svoboda and the Right Sector occupy key positions in the areas of Defense, Law Enforcement, Education and Economic Affairs.

Andriy Parubiy [right] co-founder of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (subsequently renamed Svoboda) was appointed Secretary of the National Security and National Defense Committee (RNBOU). (Рада національної безпеки і оборони України), a key position which overseas the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement, National Security and Intelligence. The RNBOU is central decision-making body. While it is formally headed by the president, it is run by the Secretariat with a staff of 180 people including defense, intelligence and national security experts.

Parubiy was one of the main leaders behind the Orange Revolution in 2004. His organization was funded by the West. He is referred to by the Western media as the “kommandant” of the EuroMaidan movement. Andriy Parubiy together with party leader Oleh Tyahnybok is a follower of Ukrainian Nazi Stepan Bandera, who collaborated in the mass murderer of Jews and Poles during World War II.

In turn, Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the Right Sector delegation in the parliament, has been appointed Parubiy’s deputy Secretary of the RNBOU.

Yarosh was the leader of the Brown Shirt Neo-Nazi paramilitary during the EuroMaidan “protest” movement. He has called for disbanding the Party of the regions and the Communist Party.

The Neo Nazi party also controls the judicial process with the appointment of Oleh Makhnitsky of the Svoboda party to the position of prosecutor-general of Ukraine. What kind of justice will prevail with a reknown Neo-Nazi in charge of the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine?

Cabinet positions were also allocated to former members of the Neo-Nazi fringe organizationUkrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian National Self Defense (UNA-UNSO):

“Tetyana Chernovol, portrayed in the Western press as a crusading investigative journalist without reference to her past involvement in the anti-Semitic UNA-UNSO, was named chair of the government’s anti-corruption committee. Dmytro Bulatov,known for his alleged kidnapping by police, but also with UNA-UNSO connections, was appointed minister of youth and sports.

Yegor Sobolev, leader of a civic group in Independence Maidan and politically close to Yatsenyuk, was appointed chair of the Lustration Committee, charged with purging followers of President Yanukovych from government and public life. (See Ukraine Transition Government: Neo-Nazis in Control of Armed Forces, National Security, Economy, Justice and Education, Global Research, March 02, 2014

The Lustration Committee is to organize the Neo-Nazi witch-hunt against all opponents of the new Neo-Nazi regime. The targets of the lustration campaign are people in positions of authority within the civil service, regional and municipal governments, education, research, etc. The term lustration refers to the “mass disqualification” of people associated with the former government. It also has racial overtones. It will in all likelihood be directed against Communists, Russians and members of the Jewish community.

It is important to reflect on the fact that the West, formally committed to democratic values, has not only spearheaded the demise of an elected president, it has instated a political regime integrated by Neo-Nazis.

This is a proxy government which enables the US, NATO and the EU to interfere in Ukraine’s internal affairs and dismantle its bilateral relations with the Russian Federation. It should be understood, however, that the Neo-Nazis do not ultimately call the shots. The composition of the Cabinet broadly coincides with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland ” recommendations” contained in the leaked telephone call to the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

Washington has chosen to spearhead Neo-Nazis into positions of authority. Under a “regime of indirect rule”, however, they take their orders on crucial military and foreign policy issues –including the deployment of troops directed against the Russian federation– from the the US State Department, the Pentagon and NATO.

The World is at a dangerous crossroads: The structures and composition of this proxy government installed by the West do not favor dialogue with the Russian government and military.

A scenario of military escalation leading to confrontation of Russia and NATO is a distinct possibility. The Ukraine’s National Security and National Defense Committee (RNBOU) which is controlled by Neo-Nazis plays a central role in military affairs. In the confrontation with Moscow, decisions taken by the RNBOU headed by Neo-Nazi Parubiy and his brown Shirt deputy Dmytro Yarosh –in consultation with Washington and Brussels– could potentially have devastating consequences.

However, it goes without saying that “support” to the formation of a Neo-Nazi government does not in any way imply the development of “fascist tendencies” within the White House, the State Department and the US Congress.
“The flowering of democracy” in Ukraine –to use the words of the New York Times– is endorsed by Republicans and Democrats. It’s a bipartisan project. Lest we forget, Senator John McCain is a firm supporter and friend of Neo Nazi Svoboda leader Oleh Tyahnybok.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation is following with alarm the tragedy unfolding in fraternal Ukraine. What happened there is a government coup. Violence has been used to smash the power system. The country is plunging into chaos.

The flame of the conflict in the home of our neighbors has been ignited by the heirs to the fascist underling Bandera at the instigation of the American special services and European politicians. The brown and orange plague has again approached Russia’s borders. The Supreme Rada has canceled the law that provided minimum guarantees for the use of the Russian language in the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine.

Violence is being used against the Communist Party and the Party of Regions deputies of the Supreme Rada, and the policemen who are loyal to their oath. The premises of the CPU are being ransacked and the Communist Party has been banned in several regions.

The Banderovites have set about raping historical memory. Monuments to Soviet soldiers who died to liberate Ukraine from the fascist occupation are being destroyed everywhere. By bringing down the monuments to Lenin, the thugs are not only destroying the historical heritage, but are encroaching on the symbols of Ukrainian statehood because it was Lenin who had signed the Decree on the creation of the Ukrainian Republic.

Meanwhile one of the main causes of the grave crisis is the profound discontent of the people with the policy of Yanukovich who protected the interests of a handful of oligarchs, failed to rule the country properly and wimpishly surrendered power at a moment of peril. The ruling group was thinking only about its accounts in Western banks and offshore zones. This made the Ukrainian leadership particularly vulnerable to Western blackmail. The result of the spineless policy of the head of state was the paralysis of the law enforcement bodies and the betrayal of the political elite which failed to fulfill its obligations under the constitution.

Because the grassroots protest sentiments did not acquire a class character they were used in the clash between two clans of Big Business. The group that united pro-Western nationalist and extreme right-wing forces came out on top and used popular discontent in order to carry out a government coup. Ultra-nationalists are increasingly setting the country’s agenda. But in future they will inevitably pursue a still more anti-people policy paying for Western support by further cuts of public spending.

The coup has been carried out according to the American technology of pseudo-popular revolutions that has been tested in Yugoslavia, Georgia, Libya and in 2004 in Ukraine. The US does not hide the fact that in the ten years since Maidan-1 it invested billions of dollars in the support of anti-Russian forces. Well-trained units of fighters were used on Maidan-2.

The aim of political and social terror against the majority of the people is to prevent the revival of the centuries-long union of Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and other countries that used to be part of a single state. There are plans to install a pro-Western president amid the chaos reigning in the country. There is no doubt that in the context of growing moral and physical terror any early elections will be rigged.

The dragging of Ukraine into the European Union means that it would cease to be a neutral state. The Russian navy would be squeezed out of the Crimea. American missiles would be stationed on the borders of our country. The main task of the foreign string-pullers is not to make Ukraine prosperous and democratic, but to grab its markets and harness it to the NATO chariot, like Georgia and the Baltic countries. Such a policy will inevitably bring about a collapse of Ukraine’s economy and a flow of refugees to Russia.

In the face of blatant Western interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine Russia cannot dispassionately watch a neo-Nazi, Russophobic and anti-Semitic regime being formed on its borders. The Russian leadership has everything that is necessary to stop Ukraine sliding into a civil war and anti-people dictatorship. Unless these opportunities are used the responsibility for the tragedy in Ukraine will rest with the Russian authorities.

The CPRF believes that Russia cannot recognize as legitimate the group which has usurped power in Ukraine as a result of a bloody coup. The Russian Federation must not recognize the legitimacy of any future decisions of the forces that have seized power, including the laws passed under duress by the Supreme Rada. Russia has firmly supported the legitimate power in Syria. It should be equally firm with regard to the events in Ukraine.

We call for an urgent enlarged meeting of the Russian Security Council to be attended by the leaders of parliamentary parties to work out a package of political, economic and other measures to protect the interests of our state. In particular, we should ensure guarantees of the rights of Russian citizens and the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine and prevent discrimination against the Russian language in that country.

We urge the Russian President to make an official statement on the situation in Ukraine and to issue a warning that the Russian side reserves the right to freedom of action in defense of its interests. There are ample grounds for condemning the international mediators who have provided a political cover for the government coup.

What is needed is a balanced and realistic approach to the issue of granting financial aid to Ukraine. It is necessary to envisage trade-economic and other sanctions against the groups of oligarchs who contributed to the violent change of power in Kiev.

Russia must support popular resistance and self-organization of the masses in protecting their personal and social security in some south-eastern regions, especially in the Crimea and Sebastopol. If the popular movement there is allowed to be crushed, that would inflict irreparable damage on Russia’s interests and reputation.

Because the key media in Ukraine have fallen into the hands of the pro-Western forces the Russian media should do more to bring to the people of the fraternal state an objective picture of events, the true intentions of the forces that have seized power and the long-term consequences of their actions. It is extremely important to highlight the facts of direct involvement of the Western politicians and special services in organizing the coup in Ukraine.
The situation calls for vigorous support of the political forces, non-governmental groups that come out in defense of the historical friendship between our peoples. A green light should be given to all the initiatives aimed at supporting our fellow countrymen in Ukraine, initiatives of the Russian regions aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation.

We must alleviate the lot of the political refugees from Ukraine, its politicians and public figures and members of the law enforcement bodies who would seek refuge in Russia from persecution by extremists.

Russia must resolutely condemn the sweeping removal of the monuments to the liberator warriors who vanquished the fascist plague, the magnificent monuments to our common history.

If the Russian leadership fails to react to the events in Ukraine or shows a lack of will it will become the next victim. The West is already preparing forces and means for that and a “fifth column” has already been formed inside Russia.

We call on all the responsible patriotic forces of Russia to unite and show solidarity with the fraternal people of Ukraine.

Chairman of the CC CPRF
Gennady Zyuganov
February 26, 2014

http://cprf.ru/2014/02/stop-the-ukrainian-tragedy-statement-by-the-presidium-of-the-cc-cprf/#more-976

4 March 2014

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) informs the International Working Class that the recent developments in Ukraine are not “a victory of democracy”, as the NATO, the European Union, the US and their allies hypocritically claim.

The recent events in Ukraine are a dangerous development first and foremost for the working class of Ukraine, the peoples in the region and the world peace.

Ukraine is a rich country with large wealth producing resources. It’s a country with crucial energy pipelines, a country with an important position on the geostrategic map.

The new Ukrainian government, which is formed by reactionary and antilabor political forces, assumed power with the support of the US Imperialists and their allies. The new government is a puppet of the Imperialists, who put it there, in order to promote certain geopolitical and geostrategic plans.

At the same time, the developments in Ukraine confirm that nazi and neo-nazi organizations are instruments of the capitalist system and enemies of the working class and the popular strata. The international class oriented trade union movement expresses its internationalist solidarity with the workers living in Ukraine. It supports the right of the workers living in Ukraine to fight against capitalist barbarism and against the hazards generated by the rivalries between USA-European Union and Russia.

THE SECRETARIAT

by Zoltan Zigedy
via: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

As I wrote elsewhere (http://mltoday.com/tragedy-in-ukraine ), Ukraine is a great tragedy for the people. Caught in the web of imperial powers, many Ukrainians were seduced by the European Union and the US into collaborating in the overthrow of the elected government. While the US and European media depicted events as reflecting a yearning for Western values and culture, they conveniently sidestepped the questions of constitutionality and electoral legitimation. The fact that the former leaders of Ukraine came to power through mechanisms worshiped in the West as the foundations of civility and the rule of law counts for nothing in the carving up of spheres of influence.

Even at the last moment, when the Ukraine government struck a deal with the opposition favorable to the anti-government insurgents and guaranteed by the EU, the Western media ignored the blatant betrayal of that agreement and the complicity of the guarantors. Shamefully, the media masked the critical role of the hyper-nationalist, Jew-baiting fascists in the front lines of the opposition’s street fighters.

In the US, the intellectual courtiers– the obsequious academics– dutifully filled the airwaves and newsprint with tributes to the heroic, democracy-loving opposition. They assured us that the opposition represented exactly what the US State Department said they were. How convenient!

Before the coup against Yanukovych, the Washington Post’s Anne Applebaum wrote a column (Ukrainian smears and stereotypes, 2-20-14) promising to explain the Ukrainian “crisis” to those who might foolishly believe an illegal coup was brewing (“the Ukrainian crisis can seem murky”). She mocks the language of those questioning the legitimacy of the opposition in Ukraine and paints the Russians with vulgar Cold War invective and Russo-phobia: “At the same time, those who throw these terms [“fascist” or “Nazi”] around should remember that the strongest anti-Semitic, homophobic and xenophobic rhetoric in this region is not coming from the Ukrainian far right but from the Russian press, and ultimately the Russian regime.” So if the Ukrainian right are fascists, we should overlook it because the Russians are worse. Tu quoque!

It is a measure of our times that the Washington Post, on whose editorial board she serves, fails to reveal that Applebaum is married to the Polish foreign minister and is herself a Polish national, relationships that link her with the regime most ardently supportive of the opposition.

Others will know her as the Pulitzer prize-winning author of numerous “histories” of the Soviet era, all marked by an unconcealed hostility towards socialism. Her zeal for damning every aspect of the Soviet experience has earned her a place in the hearts of old Cold Warriors and on the pages of such rabid anti-Communist publications as The New York Review of Books. Her newly found status as a major media gas bag of the Bill O’Reilly school of historiography has apparently not tarnished her intellectual reputation among liberals.

Reaching for the same stature, her colleague, Timothy Snyder, is equally notorious with his histrionic and unfortunately celebrated book, Bloodlands, another victim-counting effort meant to equate Hitler and Stalin. Like Applebaum, Snyder is among a newer generation of offspring of Robert Conquest, the Cold War hack who gathered anecdotes and inflated them into millions of deaths at the hands of “blood-thirsty Bolsheviks.” We now know from Soviet archives that Conquest’s numbers were vastly exaggerated. We now know from further revelations that Conquest enjoyed sponsorship from US security agents in his efforts to rally gullible minds in the West. Unfortunately, no one with sufficient credentials and major media access will today counter the similarly inflated horror stories of Applebaum and Snyder.

But we can wonder why Amy Goodman would invite Snyder on her radio/TV show, Democracy Now! (2-24-14) for his opinion of events in Ukraine. From a promising beginning as a Left media voice, Goodman has too often given credence to those fawning after US imperial posture in her coverage of Eastern Europe, Libya, Syria and other imperialist ventures.

Predictably, Snyder mounts a vigorous defense of the opposition:

It [the opposition] included people from—included Muslims. It included Jews. It included professionals. It included working-class people. And the main demand of the movement the entire time was something like normality, the rule of law.

Strange that Snyder could paint such a diverse, liberal picture of the opposition from his perch at Yale University, particularly when Goodman’s other guest, Professor Petro, reporting from his vantage point in Ukraine, depicted an opposition welded together by fervent Ukrainian nationalism. Interestingly, the opposition-in-power’s first acts, as reported by Professor Petro, were to restrict local use of the Russian language and a resolution to outlaw the Communist Party– hardly an endorsement of diversity or liberalism. Snyder did not dispute this claim.

And Snyder demonizes Yanukovych:

And the reason why this demand [for the rule of law] could bring together such people of different political orientations, such different regional backgrounds, is that they were faced up against someone, the previous president, Yanukovych, whose game was to monopolize both financial and political as well as violent power in one place. The constitution, the legitimacy of which is now contested, was violated by him multiple times, and most of the protesters agree to that.

What a tangled argument! Snyder charges the former Ukrainian president with seriously violating his constitution which is immediately dismissed as “contested”! Which is it? Inviolable or not?

Nor does his concern for constitutionality and the rule of law lead him to condemn the opposition for ignoring the constitutionally sanctioned mechanisms for removing a president. Yanukovych’s alleged “monopoly” on violence fails to account for the street violence conceded by Western media through lurid pictures of masked “protesters” throwing fire bombs and attacking police. Snyder treats Goodman’s listeners to a dose of propaganda rather than a truthful commentary.

Professor Petro gently challenged Snyder’s account, returning again and again to the fanatical Ukrainian nationalism of the opposition. Snyder responded patronizingly:

Yeah, I mean, as Professor Petro probably knows, that’s the subject of my specialization. And, of course, I share his concern. Svoboda takes its example from the history of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, an interwar, extreme-right party which I would not hesitate to call fascist. The Pravi sector also refers to the same historical symbolism. Both of them speak of the necessity for a national revolution, especially Pravi sector. They are significant.

An honest “specialist” would note that the OUN was not merely extreme-right or even fascist, but made up of Nazi collaborators responsible for the deaths of thousands upon thousands of innocent Soviet civilians including much of the Jewish population. The OUN’s equation of Judaism and Bolshevism invited its identification with the Nazi occupiers. One would think that Snyder’s “specialization” in Eastern European history would demand that he call out the opposition on this point. At the very least, he should issue a demand to purge the coup-installed government of such elements. One would think, as well, that Amy Goodman would call out Snyder on this failing.

As Ukraine moves towards becoming the flash point of a regional or even broader war, my colleagues remind my of the similarities with Europe in 1914, with imperial powers elevating threats and demands, with a reckless empowering of forces beyond anyone’s control, and with nativist sentiments rabidly unleashed.

Unfortunately, we lack a significant anti-imperialist front in most European countries and the US. Even Samuel Gompers, the reactionary leader of the AFL at the turn of the last century joined US writer Mark Twain and numerous other luminaries in founding a US Anti-Imperialist League. Today, our labor movement leaders are complicit in or silent on US meddling in Ukraine and numerous other countries. And US liberals, in all too great numbers, endorse US imperialism as a crusade for democracy and the vaunted “rule of law.” With peace so desperately needed, we lack a vibrant peace movement to counter the threat of war.
We must aggressively act to change this confusion and complacency before it is too late.

Zoltan Zigedy

zoltanzigedy@gmail.com