U.S. Friends of the Soviet People
P. O. Box 140434
Staten Island, NY 10314-0434 us.soviet.people@gmail.com , http://usfriendsofthesovietpeople.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 17, 2014
Contact: Dr. Angelo D’Angelo
(718) 979-6563

RECENT EVENTS IN UKRAINE

Events in Ukraine recall the spread of fascism in Europe before and during World War II. The same Nazi collaborators known as the Svoboda Party and the Right Sector in the Ukraine, the followers of Stephen Bandera, leader of the Ukrainian fascists in WW II, have now removed a democratically elected government through the use of “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital” which is the classic definition of fascism. The players in this crime are the usual suspects, the United States and the European Union.

Since the fascist coup d’état in Kiev, wholesale violence against working people has increased. The U.S. appointed Prime Minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Yatseniuk, has said that mass protests against his regime are crimes against the state, and many anti-fascist activists are in Kiev jails. Despite his continued bellicose rhetoric, the masses of the Ukraine’s largest cities continue to protest against the fascist Kiev government. The people remember all too well attempts by Bandera and his followers to “ethnically cleanse” the Ukraine for the Nazis in WW II of Russians, Jews, Poles, and other groups. All of the Ukraine was liberated from Nazism by the Soviet Red Army at a cost of millions of lives. Now the USA and EU find themselves on the same side, helping to accomplish what the Nazis and Ukrainian fascists failed to do the first time.

We in the USFSP unwaveringly stand in solidarity with the struggling anti-fascist working class of Ukraine, who are calling for referenda on determining their regions’ future status, establishing People’s Republics, organizing armed self-defense people’s militia, and passionately requesting material assistance, by any means necessary, from all progressive forces. Many people are raising red flags reminiscent of their Socialist Soviet republics. We call on the United States and its economic partners to withdraw their support from the followers of Svoboda, Right Sector, and other fascist organizations. We support the right of the Ukrainian people to self-determination, for democratic rights including respect for cultural and national differences, and to live free from the terror of fascist tyranny.

On the creation of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic

Statement of Union Borotba (Struggle)

In a referendum with a high turnout on May 11, the vast majority of voters supported the creation of an independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic. Both from the media and from our friends living in the DNR and LC, we know of the great enthusiasm and active participation of the population in the referendum.

There is no doubt that the desire for separation is not due to the influence of some mythical “separatists,” but to the anti-people policies of the Kiev junta, the terrorist attacks on Slavyansk, Mariupol and Kramatorsk, the punitive expedition of neo-Nazi gangs in Odessa, and right-wing terror in Kiev. It is clear that people do not want to live in such a “Ukraine.”

We understand that the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics will not be socialist. It is likely that part of the large and medium-sized businesses will retain their positions. Russian capitalist corporations will try to extend their influence. But at the “bottom,” the creation of the people’s republics, the experience of the anti-fascist, anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchic mass struggle, has undoubtedly moved not only South-East Ukraine, but also the entire post-Soviet space, to the left.

We support the decision of Vyacheslav Ponomarev, the People’s Mayor of Slavyansk, to nationalize all industry in the city, and we urge that this be extended to the whole territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic.

Union Borotba, together with others on the left, will fight for the development of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic toward people’s democracy and socialism.

http://borotba.org/o_sozdanii_doneczkoj_i_luganskoj_narodnyix_respublik.html

Donetsk People’s Republic opposes the persecution of Borotba

On May 14, the press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Donetsk issued an official statement which says in part:

“Having presided over a complete political and economic debacle, unleashing a bloody war against its own people, the Kiev junta is frantically trying to establish a terrorist dictatorship in the country and remove from the political field any forces resisting its political course. The organization Borotba has faced harassment and brutal repression by the Kiev authorities for consistently upholding its leftist anti-fascist ideals.

We thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Donetsk for its support during this difficult time.

http://borotba.org/mid_doneczkoj_narodnoj_respubliki_vyistupil_protiv_presledovanij_borotbyi.html

Against a conservative turn by the People’s Republic of Donetsk

Statement of Union Borotba (Struggle)

According to the Draft Constitution of the People’s Republic of Donetsk published in the press, the fundamental law of the new state is to include a state religion — Orthodox Moscow Patriarchate.

Union Borotba strongly protests against the institution of a state religion in the Republic created by the people. We insist on the inclusion in the Constitution of DNR rules on freedom of conscience and religion, the separation of church and state, and separation of the school from the church. This democratic norm was the outcome of struggle by many generations of our ancestors against the reactionary clerical regime and was enshrined in the laws of the Republic of Donetsk-Krivoy Rog, of which the DNR considers itself the successor, and the Constitutions of the RSFSR and the USSR.

We believe that the state created by the people should not bow to clerical elements and impose a mandatory public religion.

Also troubling in the draft Constitution is the provision on equality of all forms of ownership, where private ownership comes first in the list. Does it not follow from the experience of our struggle that large private property (oligarchy) led the country to disaster and decay? Is it not the largest private owners who have paid and organized the neo-Nazi gangs and other groups which are terrorizing the South-East?

In our view, the priority in the new state should be nationalized state ownership and workers’ control. Only popular rule over the national wealth and economy will prevent a parasitic oligarchy.

The Donetsk People’s Republic should really become a socialist state. Otherwise it will only be a second edition of Ukraine as we have known it since 1991; only the replacement of Ukrainian nationalism by Russian. Union Borotba urges the DNR not to follow the conservative-clerical forces supported by a minority. This is the path to a dead end, the path to defeat.

http://borotba.org/protiv_konservativnogo_povorota_v_doneczkoj_narodnoj_respublike.html

An investigation into the details of the massacre on more than 40 protesters in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, who rejected to recognize the legality of the US / EU – backed post-coup government in Kiev. This photo and video documentation was compiled by the editor of Strategic Culture Foundation and reveals that the massacre was a premeditated act of mass murder – a mass casualty event, consistent with NATO Unconventional Warfare Doctrine. Text edited by nsnbc. Viewer discretion is advised – Christof Lehmann, editor-in-chief, nsnbc international.

Read and see more http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/10/odessa-massacre-detail-investigation/

http://rt.com/news/158760-ukraine-military-russian-journalists/

Published time: May 13, 2014 21:05
Edited time: May 14, 2014 01:49
Ukrainian armed forces have opened fire on journalists from Russia’s LifeNews working near the city of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, where fighting broke out between self-defense forces and Kiev’s army.

The shooting began around 1 p.m. as three members of a LifeNews crew tried to enter the village of Oktyabrskoe following the fighting. The village is located some 20 kilometers from Kramatorsk.

“We saw that machines were gone and the shooting stopped like half-an-hour ago. We tried to enter the premises of the village to find out what happened to locals, if they needed help, and if there were wounded among them,” reporter Oleg Sidyakin told RT. “But as we got closer to the outskirts of the village, we ran into an armored troop carrier with a Ukrainian flag on it and armed people in black uniforms. We were going in a car with ‘TV’ stickers, indicating that were are press. We stuck hands out of windows, but first there came one shot and then machine gun fire.”

Sidyakin said he did not know where the shots were aimed – in the air or above their heads – but still decided to turn away and move to a safer location, in order to avoid provoking armed people.

“I had to make such decision because I could not put in danger the lives of a driver and a cameraman,” he said.

The LifeNews reporter said that local residents were shocked, stating that some of them hid in basements. Many still cannot return home. Sidyakin said that phone communication was cut off, which “as self-defense forces told us, is a sign of an ‘active phase’ of the military operation” conducted by Kiev forces.

Fighting between Kiev’s army and local self-defense groups broke out in the afternoon near Oktyabrskoe.

“It was around noon. The Ukrainian army was taking ammunitions to the city of Kramatorsk,” local resident Vladimir told RT, citing his friend Aleksandr, who lives nearby. “There is the village of Oktyabrskoe, where there is a bridge [on the way]. Our self-defense blew up a vehicle with ammunition and set Kiev’s APC on fire,” he said.

According to Kiev’s Defense Ministry, a group of around 30 self-defense troops “ambushed a convoy of armored vehicles of one of the military units.”

The ministry said the self-defense group came to the scene beforehand and hid in bushes along the river.

“The first shot from a grenade launcher targeted the engine of an APC, which came up to the bridge. There was an explosion. Another APC tried to pull away the damaged machine that caught fire further away from the village. The soldiers engaged in the fight,” the ministry’s statement read.

Kiev says that six of its army fighters were killed and another eight injured, with one in critical condition.

Hours after the fight, self-defense units confirmed that they “destroyed two of the enemy’s APCs.” They also reported that one of their militiamen died.

“It is true that there was an armed clash,” the Kramatorsk self-defense unit told Interfax. “The enemy retreated.”

The fight near Kramatorsk is the latest in a string of local fights as Kiev continues to conduct its “punitive operation” against anti-government activists in southeastern Ukraine, which began May 2.

http://rt.com/news/158744-ukraine-terrorists-civilians-killed/

Published time: May 13, 2014 20:43
The leader of Ukraine’s Communist Party says the Kiev regime killed peaceful civilians in the country’s southeast, and is spreading lies about the real situation. The Ukrainian parliament is now seeking to expel communists and ban their activity.

“In Maripoul there was a slaughter of civilians, a mass murder. The number of those killed, first of all among peaceful civilians, is being concealed. A peaceful demonstration was shot at on May 9 and it was a show murder carried out by the current regime. There was a shooting of peaceful civilians, there was no one with weapons there. When you, using armored personnel carrier guns, killed a family of three, shot [them] in their kitchen, this is what you must be held accountable for; there is blood on your hands today,” Communist Party leader Pyotr Simonenko said, addressing Ukraine’s coup-appointed acting President Aleksandr Turchinov while speaking at parliament’s conciliatory council on May 12.

Simonenko, who is a presidential candidate, was referring to the armed assault of Kiev’s army on Mariupol’s police headquarters on May 9, when nine people were killed and another 49 were injured, including a freelance video journalist working for RT.

“In Mariupol [you] killed and shot down police department personnel only for refusal to comply with the criminal order to disperse protesters during the May 9 demonstration,” Simonenko said.

Simonenko has called on Kiev to stop its “anti-terrorist operation,” saying it has now turned into a “terrorist operation against its own people.”

“You declared seven million people living in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as ‘terrorists.’ They went out yesterday [to vote in the referendum], stood in lines since 6 a.m. to vote against Kiev rule, against this regime, against your policy,” he said.

Ending the military operation in Ukraine’s southeast is “the first of what the Communist Party demands.” It is also calling on Kiev to accept the results of the federalization referendum.

“Your policy resulted in Ukraine losing Crimea. Now your policy is leading to the point where seven million people of Ukraine, 30 percent of the country’s GDP, reject their future with Ukraine,” he stressed.

According to Simonenko, the recent events in the cities of Odessa and Mariupol show that Kiev is trying to impose a “nationalist-fascist regime.”

“These events show that those who had another point of view were burned in a fire of inquisition at the Odessa Trade Unions House. They were burned alive! They were utterly beaten with metal rods when they tried to leave the building or jump out of windows. They were destroyed because they, Ukrainian citizens, had a different point of view,” he said.

In response to Simonenko’s accusations, coup-appointed acting President Aleksandr Turchinov heckled the Communist Party leader and accused him of lies and dissemination of false information.

“You have neither conscience nor honor. Take your place, liar. I order you to stop your speech,” Turchinov said, claiming the Kiev forces “protected” law enforcement in the city of Mariupol from unknown attackers who had tried to seize the police department building.

Turchinov then asked the country’s Justice Ministry to look into the Communist Party’s alleged separatist activities and possibly ban the group.

“I would ask the Justice Ministry to look into this issue and if there is proof, to send the material to court and ban the Communist Party in Ukraine,” he said. “There is a lot of information and material in regard to the participation of the Communist Party’s representatives in the organization of terrorist and separatist activities,” Turchynov added.

The Communist Party says there are no legal grounds for such a measure.

The leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, presidential candidate Oleg Tyagnibok, has claimed that his party has collected documents that would allow the Justice Ministry to ban the Communist Party and the Party of Regions. The latter has also spoken against Kiev’s actions in southeast Ukraine and called on officials to stop their “punitive” actions. In order to prevent Ukraine from splitting, Kiev should “sit down at a negotiation table,” the Party of Regions stressed.

“To listen to you Mr. Turchinov, as you said, only 30 percent of people of Donbass voted. I want to remind you that this is 2.5 million people; they expressed their will. In any country in the world, 2.5 million people is a real power, which a government should listen to,” Party of Regions representative Nikolay Levchenko said at the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada, while calling Kiev officials “neo-Nazis” and “bandits.”

Simonenko also slammed the Victory Day speech of Kherson Governor Yury Odarchenko, who stated that Hitler tried to liberate Ukraine.

“At the Victory Day celebration, he says that Hitler did the right thing when he invaded our country to ‘liberate’ the people of Ukraine from communists. This was said by a person who is either an idiot or a thug,” Simonenko said.

Odarchenko responded by saying he will sue Simonenko.

“I am suing you for a bald-faced lie, for slander, for cowardly and shameful propaganda,” Odarchenko told the Communist Party leader.

Though Odarchenko says Simonenko’s accusations are a lie, the moment when he said the statement about Hitler was caught on video.

The Communist Party of Ukraine, which has been openly speaking against Kiev’s coup-imposed regime since February, has faced increased confrontation since last week. On May 6, Ukrainian lawmakers accused the group of separatism and expelled it from a closed-door parliamentary hearing. It was the first time in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history that such a decision had been made.

09 May 2014

Athens, Greece – May 9th 2014
http://www.wftucentral.org/wftu-on-the-69th-anniversary-of-the-antifascist-victory/

Today, May 9th, we commemorate the 69th anniversary since the glorious victory of the anti-fascist forces over the nazi-fascist axis, when the Red Flag of the Soviet Union was waving over the German Reichstag in Berlin.

The WFTU – an organization born in October 1945, after the end World War II, as the embodiment of the longing that brought workers from different countries who joined in a single front against fascism in its various expressions- is proud and inspired of this great victory of the workers and the peoples. We honor all those who gave their lives, all those who took part in the struggle of the popular movement, the communist parties and the anti-fascist movements for the defeat of fascism in Europe and the world.

Reaffirming this honor is of great importance, especially today when capitalist governments, the monopolies and imperialist organizations try to rewrite history. The hypocrites of the European Union have a central part in this plan, as it has established the 9 May as “Europe Day”, thus hiding its true meaning. Today, the EU supports the “government” of Ukraine, where neo-nazi and reactionary sectors are taking part and the imperialist interference in Ukraine has led to the burning of the Trade Union building in Odessa. The WFTU condemns the Ukrainian “government”, which with a formal government decision prohibited the celebrations of the Day of Antifascist Victory, while on the same time, neofascists perform fascist parades and celebrations.

We know that wars and nazi – fascism are phenomena inherent in the capitalist system. Hitler had risen to power with the support of German monopolies, while WWII, was carefully orchestrated by a concern for redivision of the world for reasons of capitalist interest, as was WWI. Today, the financial crisis generates big overturns and shakings of the imperialist system. It intensifies international rivalries and creates a shift in the correlations of economic power, the imperialist aggressiveness, aiming at the exploitation of natural and economic resources and energy transfer routes becomes more ruthless. At the same time in Europe and elsewhere militant workers, activists of the trade union and people’s movements are persecuted, communist and workers parties are banned. Neo-fascism, xenophobia and racism are growing and become a mortal enemy, for the working class, for the trade union movement, for the struggles of the workers and the peoples. The workers and the peoples must be vigilant.

The great antifascist victory, achieved 69 years ago, is an inspiration for the struggles of the workers and the peoples all over the world and reminds us and the younger generations that the workers and the people are stronger and can rise victorious no matter the strength of their enemies, bringing hope and confidence to the workers, to the people who struggle for a better tommorrow, for the end of exploitation of man by man.

WFTU Press Room

U.S. Religious Leaders Urge President
Obama to Open Good-Faith High
Level Discussions with Cuba

www.thecuban5.org

May 7, 2014

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As religious leaders in the United States, we are writing to you to express our hope that you will take bold executive action to improve the relationship between our nation and Cuba.

We welcome the changes to U.S.-Cuba policy that your administration made in 2011. And late last year we were delighted to hear you call for an update in U.S.-Cuba policy. You stated that we must continue to be thoughtful and creative in our approach to Cuba.

However, Mr. President, we have since been disappointed with the pace of change in U.S. policy. This issue has become more urgent with the recent hunger strike by imprisoned USAID contractor Alan Gross to highlight his plight and to urge high-level action by your administration to secure his release. With the support of our Cuban church partners, and in recognition of the vulnerable situation of Mr. Gross, we call upon you to enter into immediate good-faith discussions with the Cuban government at the highest levels. These discussions must take into consideration the concerns of the Cubans about U.S. policy, including the imprisonment of the remaining three members of the Cuban Five.

In addition, we firmly believe that programs such as the ZunZuneo (Cuban “twitter”) project are ineffective and misguided. Our faith partners in Cuba consistently tell us that positive engagement with the Cuban government is much more helpful to them and their congregations than covert actions.

The need for bold action to update our policy was underscored for us during a recent visit here in Washington, DC by six Cuban church leaders. For many years, U.S. and Cuban churches have worked with one another toward common goals. Our relationships have been strengthened as religious freedom in Cuba has improved and church membership has grown. Thus, we join our Cuban counterparts in urging your Administration to take major new steps toward pursuing a policy of engagement and normalization. Such a policy shift will benefit the churches and civil society in Cuba, in addition to going a long way in achieving the release of Alan Gross.

We urge you to:

Open up a high level dialogue between the United States and Cuba to address a wide range of issues, including the issue of Alan Gross and the Cuban Five.
Issue a general license to permit people-to-people travel in all categories.
Remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, an unnecessary irritant in an already tense relationship which undermines the credibility of the list itself and harms our relations with the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
Open the opportunity for U.S. citizens to support the emerging small business and cooperative sector in Cuba by permitting U.S. citizens to buy from, sell to, or provide investment or technical assistance to Cuban small businesses and cooperatives.
We pray for the full normalization of relations between the United States and Cuba, while understanding that a Congressional vote to end the embargo is not likely in the near future. In the meantime we believe that these steps will benefit both the U.S. and Cuban peoples. We urge you to seize this moment of opportunity to improve relations between the United States and Cuba.

Rev. Paula Clayton Dempsey

Director of Partnership Relations

Alliance of Baptists

Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley

General Secretary

American Baptist Churches USA

Shan Cretin

General Secretary

American Friends Service Committee

Dr. Sharon E. Watkins

General Minister and President

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the

United States and Canada

Rev. Joel Boot

Executive Director

Christian Reformed Church in North

America

Stanley J. Noffsinger

General Secretary

Church of the Brethren

Rev. John McCullough

President and CEO

Church World Service

Very Rev. John Edmunds, ST

President

Conference of Major Superiors of Men

Elizabeth A. Eaton

Presiding Bishop

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Diane Randall

Executive Secretary

Friends Committee on National Legislation

The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth D. Miller

President, Provincial Elders’ Conference

Moravian Church Northern Province

Very Rev William Antone OMI

Missionary Oblates USP

Jim Winkler

General Secretary and President

National Council of Churches, USA

Rev. Gradye Parsons

Stated Clerk of the General Assembly

Presbyterian Church (USA)

Rev. Geoffrey A. Black

General Minister and President

United Church of Christ

Bishop Rosemarie Wenner

President of the Council of Bishops

The United Methodist Church