May 7, 2014 at 4:37pm

Ukraine may burn to the ground any time now. Up to 8 million Russians and other national minorities may be “cleansed” from the country, dead or alive. Two camps are rapidly forming throughout the world: Those who want to appease the new Kiev regime and those who believe the source of the danger is the rise of extreme nationalist, fascist forces in Ukraine, backed by the country’s ruling oligarchy.

Unless progressive, anti-war diplomacy prevails, Ukraine’s crisis may cause a confrontation more serious than the 1962 Cuban missile crisis.

In Canada, the deception in the corporate media about Ukraine is at a dangerous level. The stories we are expected to believe are preposterous – that the regime in Kiev is legitimate and moderate, or that Russia is the main source of Ukraine’s internal conflict.

Ask “Who benefits?” and one will instantly see Russia would lose if it is drawn into war with Ukraine and the NATO military alliance. It is Russia that wants to continue having extensive economic ties with Ukraine. No other explanation exists why Russia gave the country up to $300 billion in gas subsidies since 1992.

It is US and European corporations that would benefit if Ukraine cuts ties with Russia, which was a condition of the European Union’s trade offer last fall. It is Ukraine’s oligarchs and fascists who would use oppression and war to cut ties with Russia, and who have no idea where they will buy gas if there is a war with Russia.

The Conservative government’s solution is to support military confrontation – to send warplanes, ships and troops as part of NATO’s build-up of forces in Eastern Europe.

The problem is that adding NATO forces will embolden the Banderite regime in Kiev. It will do nothing to encourage a peaceful, political solution that involves the respect and equality of all national groups in Ukraine. NATO’s focus is on military confrontation, and possibly a war of the most serious kind. It would be a war involving up to four nuclear armed countries – Russia, the U.S., France and Britain.

Parliament and the need for action on the streets

Yet we can expect no challenge to NATO’s dangerous role from Canada’s parliament. Thus the task of the day is to build opposition outside parliament to Canada’s policy on Ukraine – a policy to blame Russia for Ukraine’s internal crisis, send the military to Eastern Europe and appease the fascists in Kiev.

The reality is that only the Green Party in parliament opposes the deployment of warplanes, ships and troops to Eastern Europe. Like the discussion in parliament days after the coup in Ukraine, another debate would merely show parliamentarians bragging they have the brain of one.

Despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, in parliament we would hear nothing except that Putin is causing all the trouble and his tanks may end up – figuratively – in Washington. NATO is using the finger of blame to deflect attention from its own intentions.

In fact, the main parliamentary parties have similar views on other crucial foreign policy issues. For example, the NDP was asked to comment on the Conservative government’s decision to send a warship to the Mediterranean for possible use against Syria. The NDP foreign affairs critic said “I don’t have a strong opinion about that” and urged “tougher pressure” on the Syrian government (Toronto Sun, November 21, 2011).

As we now know, two cruise missiles were in fact launched against Syria in September, 2013, but their source is not known. They could have come from US warships or Israel, which has been called imperialism’s regional aircraft carrier. It is highly unlikely the missiles came from the Chinese or Russian warships in the area at the time.

The main parties agree on Ukraine, Syria, Libya and free trade. But right now, the build-up of NATO forces in Eastern Europe is fraught with risk.

If there was a time for renewal of the peace movement, it is now. Relatively inactive since the Liberals agreed to keep Canada out of US Missile Defense in 2004, the peace movement needs to come out of hibernation.

The NDP and Ukraine

You can’t escape the corporate media’s unrelenting propaganda campaign about Ukraine on behalf of the Conservative government. Less known is that the main opposition parties are in lockstep with the Conservatives, so here is a quote from the Feb. 26 debate in parliament by the NDP:

‘As for Yanukovich, we put up with him, as we would a monkey that we think we can eventually train. After all, we are now free to say out loud what we were whispering at the time…. In November 2013, the Yanukovich administration refused to sign the agreement to join the European Union that had been in progress for years. In one fell swoop, it was as if the country’s heart had been ripped out…

“If the question is whether the Russian government is involved in everything that has happened, the answer is yes, of course. As are Europe and the United States. We need to stop being surprised that the Russian government is doing everything it can to keep a grip on the former Soviet republics. Who can they turn to?…

“I am calling on the Government of Canada to follow the example of the European Union and the United States, support the new transitional government and reaffirm its unwavering support for Ukraine and its democratic aspirations.” – Ms. Alexandrine Latendresse, Deputy Critic for Democratic Reform.

An offer Ukraine could not refuse
The real story is that the European Union Free Traders made Yanukovich an offer he could not refuse. The price of thinking about it was his overthrow at the behest of the oligarchs behind the pro-West protests. But to say that the working class of Ukraine – the majority of people, rose up to defend free trade with Europe is to tell a cockamamy fairy tale.

The NDP’s defence of free trade between Ukraine and the EU could not be firmer. Free trade means a “country’s heart.” The speech is remarkable coming from a party that once opposed the very notion of free trade. The NDP forgets the massive loss of jobs caused by free trade in North America. It would be the same with Ukraine and the European Union.

The NDP, free trade and fascism
The pandering to Canada’s economic elite, who mainly support free trade, has yet to make the NDP the preferred party of big business in Canada. Harper continues to have that sewed up very well still.

Calling Ukraine’s last elected president a trainable monkey is a notable example of dominant nation chauvinism, of aggressive imperialism, of speaking down to another nation.

Free trade, appeasing fascism and helping spark a war here or in Ukraine is not in the interest of working people. It is time to act in solidarity with the working people of Ukraine, whether they are Ukrainian or a national minority. We can’t count on parliament to do so.

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It is worth adding here that the NDP’s platform in 2011 had not a hint of criticism of free trade. The NDP is working hard to prove it can serve Canada’s petro-state capitalists. They do not care to admit increasing similarities Canada has with Russia and other petro-states, such as restrictions on civil rights. They are not prepared or inclined to deal with a deindustrialized, resource economy.

On every issue of economic and foreign importance, the NDP is aligned with the big business parties.

The NDP’s support for NATO’s confrontation with Russia over Ukraine and its praise for free trade shows how much dense philistine opportunism has accumulated in the NDP.