John Dolva

August 29, 2015

By Victor Shapinov
Union Borotba (Struggle)

Borotba is often criticized for supporting the Donbass people's republics, for the fact that our comrades fight in the militia and assist the peaceful nation-building in Lugansk (LC) and Donetsk (DNR). This criticism is heard not only from those former leftists who succumbed to nationalist fervor and supported first Maidan, then Kiev’s war of conquest in the Donbass. Others criticize us and from the standpoint of "Marxist pacifism,” calling themselves “the new Zimmerwald."

1914 = 2014?

The "Zimmerwaldists" seriously compare the war in the Donbass with the First World War. Historical parallels are always risky. This parallel is altogether meaningless. In the First World War of 1914-1918, blocs of imperialist countries of roughly equal strength fought over markets, sources of raw materials, and colonies. The victory of the Anglo-French bloc, easy to see in hindsight, was not so obvious to contemporaries of the war, even to Marxists. For example, Lev Kamenev, a leader of the Bolsheviks, predicted a German victory in the war.

In 1914, a deadly battle confronted two centers of capital accumulation, two systems of capitalist division of labor, with their centers in London and Berlin. These systems had reached the limits of their geographic expansion in the 1870s, bumping into one another's frontiers. The last act of this expansion was the rapid division of the African continent between the great powers.

The clash of these divisions of labor (the German-Central European, Anglo-French, American and Japanese) was the economic cause of the First and Second World Wars. After World War II, there was only one such system – headed by the United States. In the late 1940s, it incorporated the European and Japanese systems, in the 1970s it absorbed the former colonies, in the 1980s China and the Eastern European people's democracies, and in the 1990s the Soviet Union.

The rightist, neoliberal reaction of Reagan-Thatcher gave this system its finished, current form. At the heart of this system is the Federal Reserve, as the body producing the world's reserve currency, the IMF, WTO, and World Bank.

After 2008, the system entered a period of systemic crisis, the causes of which I have examined elsewhere, and gradual decay. As a result of the collapse, the capitalist elites of some countries began to challenge the "rules of the game" set by Washington, because the existing system was no longer as attractive as it was before the crisis.

Thus, we do not have two blocs gripped in a deadly showdown (as in 1914), but a brand new situation, with no historical analogues, where the system breaks down and starts to fall to pieces, and some capitalist groups (organized in nation-states and transnational formations) try to revise the existing framework of the system, while other groups (Washington’s “Regional Committees"), on the contrary, hold on to the status quo and seek to punish those who encroach on the holy principles of the system.

Conflicts within the system are related to its internal contradictions, rather than a clash between individual centers of capital accumulation and their systems of division of labor, as it was in 1914 and 1939.
Modern imperialism is a world systemThose who present the conflict in Ukraine as a fight between Russian and U.S. imperialism à la 1914 have analytical skills at the level of the propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov, who threatens to turn America into "nuclear ash." Russia and the United States are not comparable in their economic power; they fight in different weight categories. Moreover, there is no "Russian imperialism,” and even "American imperialism" in the sense of 1914 does not exist. There is a hierarchically-organized imperialist world system with the United States at the head. There is a Russian capitalist class, which in this structure resides not on the first or even the second "floor,” which tried to raise its "status" in this hierarchy and is now frightened by its own audacity, after meeting resistance from a united West.

Imagine for a moment that Russia really is an imperialist country à la 1914, that is, like Italy with its "imperialism of beggars." This Russia really had imperialist interests in Ukraine, related primarily to the transportation of hydrocarbons, and to a much lesser extent in industrial assets. However, these are not interests for which it would deliberately risk the deterioration of relations with the West.

In the Ukrainian crisis, the Russian capitalist elite have not conducted any deliberate imperialist strategy, they have only responded to the challenges of a rapidly developing situation. This reaction has been halfhearted, contradictory, inconsistent -- demonstrating to the careful observer the absence of strategy.

As the situation developed following the coup in Ukraine and the beginning of the uprising in Crimea and the South-East, the Russian leadership faced a difficult dilemma. To not step in and not support the population of Crimea and the South-East meant losing legitimacy in the eyes of its own population, amidst a deteriorating economic situation fraught with political crisis, much stronger than in 2011. To intervene meant to break with the West, with unpredictable results. In the end, they chose the middle option -- intervention in Crimea but not in the South-East.

However, when the uprising in Donbass moved from peaceful to armed, Russia had to offer assistance. It had to, because the military suppression of the rebels with the tacit consent of Russia would be a catastrophic blow to the image of the Russian authorities within the country. But this support was given reluctantly. Putin publicly called on the people not to hold a referendum on the independence of the DNR and the LC, and the meaningful flow of military aid only began after the abandonment of Slavyansk, when the capital of Donetsk was under threat of falling to the Ukrainian army.

Such support has aroused dissatisfaction and resistance among most of the Russian oligarchy, which dreams not of restoring the Russian Empire, but of a mutually beneficial partnership with the West.
Historical parallels: Spain 1936, Ireland 1916, Rojava 2015Is it possible to support the republics if the Russian bourgeois regime is trying to instrumentalize the revolt and use it in its own geopolitical interests?

Let’s conduct an historical analogy. It seems to me that it is much more appropriate than the analogy with the situation of the First World War.

1936. There is a civil war in Spain. Let us imagine that the Soviet Union, for one reason or another, could not or would not assist the Spanish Republic, and bourgeois Britain and France, on the contrary, provided support, sent military supplies and humanitarian aid, gave loans and even sent military experts to help the Republican Army and police. Naturally, the capitalist elite of Britain and France would pursue their own goals at the same time -- the retention of Spain in its own system of investment and trade in the context of an emerging confrontation with the German bloc.

Would the left, on this basis, have refused to support the anti-fascist struggle of the Spanish Republicans? Of course not.

Another example: The Easter Rising of the Irish Republicans against the British Empire in 1916. All those who call themselves leftists honor this heroic episode of the anti-imperialist struggle of the Irish people.

Meanwhile, one of the major factions of the uprising -- the Irish Republican Brotherhood -- in 1914, at the beginning of the war, decided to revolt and take any German assistance offered. A representative of the Brotherhood traveled to Germany and obtained approval for such assistance. It wasn’t provided only because the German ship carrying weapons was intercepted at sea by a British submarine.

Lenin unconditionally supported the Irish rebellion, despite the fact that it was much less "proletarian" than the revolt in the Donbass. And in those days there were leftists who called the Irish Rebellion a "putsch,” a “purely urban, petty-bourgeois movement, which, notwithstanding the sensation it caused, had not much social backing.” Lenin answered them, “Whoever calls such a rebellion a ‘putsch’ is either a hardened reactionary, or a doctrinaire hopelessly incapable of envisaging a social revolution as a living phenomenon.” (1)

Despite the apparent support of the Germans, not to mention the fact that the uprising in the rear of the British Empire "played into the hands" of German imperialism, real leftists supported the Irish Republicans. Supported them, despite the fact that bourgeois and petty-bourgeois Irish nationalists fought together with socialist James Connolly and his supporters. Of course, Connolly said that a declaration of independence without the formation of a socialist republic would be in vain. But the left in Donbass says this too.

Why doesn’t the Irish example apply to the Donbass, an example from the era of the First World War, which the self-styled "Zimmerwaldists" are so fond of?

Or take a modern example. It's no secret that the Kurdish militia in Syria fighting against Islamic fascists receives support from the United States. On this basis, should the left refuse to support the Kurds of Rojava? Of course not.

Over the years, Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation has also relied on the support of bourgeois and undemocratic regimes in the Middle East, and the ratio of advanced and progressive elements in the Palestinian leadership was usually far less beneficial to the forces of progress than in the Donbass. However, the left has always supported the Palestinian liberation movement.

But with Donbass, some leftists apply a double standard, diligently looking for excuses to condemn the DNR and the LC, allowing them to take a position of indifferent pacifism. Genuine leftists never held such a position. "Indifference to the struggle is not, therefore, exclusion from the struggle, abstinence or neutrality. Indifference is tacit support of the powerful, the oppressors," Lenin wrote. (2) Standing aside in a detached posture, the self-styled "Zimmerwaldists" actually side with the Kiev authorities, who are leading a punitive operation against the rebels.
War -- continuation of policy by other means"War is nothing more than the continuation of policy by other means," wrote the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz. This statement is recognized approvingly by the classics of Marxism. (3)

What are the policies continued by Kiev and Donbass? To justify a "neutral" position, the imaginary "Zimmerwaldists" try to prove that these policies are the same. "All cats are gray” -- that's the apex of their “Marxist” wisdom.

The World War of 1914-1918 was really a continuation of the same policies by Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia -- policies of colonial plunder, the struggle for colonies and markets, the fight for the destruction of imperialist competitors. The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905 was a continuation of the same policies.

However, it would be foolish to argue that there could be a civil war where the parties are continuing the same policy. The essence of civil war is to impose one’s policies on the enemy, to break the political force and suppress the social classes or layers that conduct this policy. North and South Vietnam carried out different policies, resulting in a civil war. Different policies are also carried out, for example, by the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and other Islamists in Syria. Different policies guided the Spanish Republic and Franco in the years 1936-1939. Different policies were pursued by Muammar Gaddafi and his opponents in the civil war in Libya in 2011.

So the civil war in Ukraine is not a continuation of the same policy. What are the different policies of Kiev and Donbass?
Policies in KievThe policies of Kiev in the civil war are a logical continuation of the policies of the Maidan. This has several components:

1. "European integration" and subordination to imperialism. The first slogan of the Maidan was so-called "European integration", which in economic terms means the surrender of Ukrainian markets to European corporations, the transformation of Ukraine into a colony of the European Union as a source of raw materials and disenfranchised migrant worker-slaves. Today, more than a year after the victory of Maidan, the economic results are already being felt so deeply that they cannot be ignored by even the most hard-nosed "Euro-optimists.” (4)

The new regime in Kiev also finally abandoned sovereignty and become a puppet state. The solution of the internal conflict within the Kiev regime, between President-oligarch Petro Poroshenko and Governor-oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, came through an appeal to the U.S. Embassy. The handing over of the militarily and logistically strategic Odessa region to the direct control of a U.S protégé, former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, clearly testifies to this.

2. Neoliberalism. The post-Maidan government has consistently pursued policies dictated by the IMF. And this is not "cheating" Maidan expectations. All this was openly declared from the rostrum of the Maidan, and the political forces that led the movement have long and consistently favored economic neoliberalism. Movement toward all-out privatization and the systematic destruction of the remnants of the welfare state -- that is the essence of the economic policies of the Poroshenko-Yatsenyuk regime. Leftist readers probably do not need me to explain the harmfulness of such policies to the working class and other popular sectors.

3. Nationalism and fascism. Nationalists and outright fascists managed to impose their agenda through the Maidan. Our organization wrote in winter 2014: “The undoubted success of the nationalists is due to the fact that, because of their high level of activity, they have managed to impose ideological leadership on the Euromaidan movement. This is evidenced by the slogans which have become a kind of ‘password’ for mass gatherings and activists on Maidan Square. Such as: ‘Glory to Ukraine – glory to heroes!’, which, together with raising the right hand with straightened palm, became the official greeting of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in April 1941. And: ‘Glory to the nation, death of the enemy!’ And: ‘Ukraine above all’ (copying the infamous German slogan, ‘Deutschland über alles’), and ‘Who does not jump is a Muscovite.’ The rest of the opposition parties did not have a clear-cut ideological line or set of slogans, leaving the neoliberal opposition to adopt the nationalist slogans and nationalist agenda." (5)

Thus, the neoliberal-Nazi alliance was formed. The neoliberals adopted the political program of Ukrainian fascists, and the Nazis agreed with carrying out the neoliberal line in the economy. This alliance was "consecrated" by representatives of imperialism, such as Catherine Ashton, Victoria Nuland, and John McCain.

Another important point in the fascistization of society after Maidan was the legalization of paramilitary Nazi groups and the integration of the Nazis into the law enforcement agencies of the state.

4. The violent suppression of political opponents, repression, censorship of the media, banning of communist ideology. It is not necessary to give examples, as this is common knowledge.

5. Contempt for the working class, "class racism.” Established on Maidan under the leadership of the oligarchy, the ideology of the social bloc of nationalist intelligentsia and "middle class" petty proprietors has infected the Western Ukrainian “man in the street,” who clearly defines his class enemy: the "cattle" in Donbass. With this "class racism" against the working-class majority of the South-East, the oligarchy rallies broad social strata around itself, leading even a poor person in the streets of Kiev to support policies in the interests of billionaires Kolomoisky and Poroshenko.

These are the main elements of the policy of the new regime in Kiev. This is the class politics of transnational imperialist capital and the Ukrainian capitalist oligarchy, which tries to escape its crisis at the expense of the working class. This policy is based on using the petty bourgeoisie, the so-called "middle class," as its strike force. In the 1930s, this design of political dictatorship in the interests of big business was called fascism.

Policies in Donbass

Since the statehood of the territories liberated by the rebels of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions is just being established, it is probably too early to draw final conclusions about the policies of the DNR and LC. However, we can highlight some trends.

1. Anti-fascism. The rebels of all political persuasions definitely characterize the regime established in Kiev after Maidan as fascist. Often without a clear scientific understanding of fascism, they nonetheless reject the following features of the Kiev regime: extreme nationalism, chauvinistic language policy, anti-communism and anti-Sovietism, repression of political opponents, exoneration of Nazi war criminals and collaborators.

2. Anti-oligarchism. The role of the Ukrainian oligarchy, as the main sponsor and beneficiary of Maidan and the right-nationalist coup, became an essential element of the consciousness of the resistance movement in the South-East. Also, during the winter and spring of 2014, the complete dependence and subordination of the Ukrainian oligarchy to imperialism, headed by the United States, became apparent. A good example is the behavior of the "master of Donbass" and one of the main sponsors of the Party of Regions, Rinat Akhmetov. This "friendly" Donetsk oligarch, after a conversation with U.S. State Department representative Victoria Nuland, openly supported the Maidan, making a special statement on behalf of the SCM Corporation. Then his countrymen could see Rinat Akhmetov at the inauguration of "Maidan President" Petro Poroshenko.

In this regard, it can be argued: for the rebels of Donbass and the masses involved in the resistance movement in the South-East, anti-oligarchic slogans are not mere "populism." These masses, from their own political experience, understand the role of the apex of the ruling class -- the Ukrainian political oligarchy.

This distinguishes the mass progressive movement in the South-East from the mass reactionary movement of Maidan. Some mild anti-oligarchic slogans were also heard on the Maidan, but they did not go beyond the limits inherent in far-right social demagogy and populism -- direct proof of this is the election by the pro-Maidan masses of oligarch Poroshenko to the presidency, as well as approval of the appointment of oligarchs such as Igor Kolomoisky and Sergei Taruta to key posts.

3. Anti-neoliberal policies. An important feature of the internal life of the Donbass republics is the trend towards social-democratic, Keynesian models of economic development, socially-oriented state capitalism. While this is only a trend, though an important one, it is the opposite of the economic policy of the Kiev authorities. Tentative steps to nationalize strategic assets (such as retail chains, mines, etc.) are met with delight by the population. Alexander Borodai, who distinguished himself by stating that “we will not carry out nationalizations, because we are not communists,” left the leadership of the DNR. On the contrary, the leadership of the republics not only takes steps to return some industry, trade and infrastructure to state ownership, but also actively promotes these measures among the population.

4. Friendship of peoples, internationalism and Russian nationalism. Everyone who has been in the Donbass notes the international character of the region. Dangerous trends of Russian nationalism in response to the Ukrainian chauvinism of the new Kiev authorities have not developed in a serious way (although that danger has been actively exploited by opponents of the people's republics for propaganda purposes). On the contrary, the formalization of the Ukrainian language as the second official language in the almost entirely Russian-speaking region demonstrates the intention to carry out a democratic policy on nationalities and language. It was also an important signal that the birthday of Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko was officially celebrated in Donetsk and Lugansk. This shows that the republic's leadership understands the importance of presenting an alternative to the chauvinistic and repressive language and cultural policy in Kiev.

Also, there has been no serious development of another danger -- clericalization of the resistance movement. Despite the fact that the Orthodox Church is mentioned in several documents of the people's republics, clerical forces do not play a decisive or significant role in the social life of Donbass. The resistance movement is predominantly secular in nature, and the influence of religion and the church does not go beyond what it was in the pre-war period in Ukraine. This distinguishes the resistance forces from the Maidan, wherein the Greek Catholic Church played a significant role (with daily prayers read from the official Maidan rostrum, church hymns sung, etc.).

These are the main elements of the policy of the people's republics of Donbass. Of course, this policy is not socialist. But it leaves room for the left, the communists, to participate in such a movement under their own banner, with their own ideas and slogans, without abandoning their own views and program. The Maidan movement and post-Maidan regime, focused from the beginning on militant anti-communism, does not provide such opportunities.

Having considered in detail what kind of policies the civil war continues for both sides, we can conclude that this policy is not the same from the point of view of left-wing, anti-capitalist forces. The self-styled Zimmerwaldists, stating that “both sides are the same,” show that they are either unable to carry out an analysis of the policies of Kiev and Donbass, or (more likely) are hypocrites.

Just and unjust wars

The attitude of Marxists to war cannot be reduced to the single example of the First World War. Marxists have always supported wars of the oppressed against the oppressors, considering the retreat into pacifism and indifference in the case of a just war to be bourgeois hypocrisy and hidden support for the masters.

Yes, even in the First World War, those socialists who did not disgrace themselves by betrayal, who did not shift into the service of the imperialist governments, were not just for ending the fratricidal war, where workers of one country kill workers of another country for the alien interests of the capitalist elite; these socialists advocated turning the imperialist war into civil war. They said that the oppressed should turn their weapons against their own oppressors, using the mass arming of the people as a tool for social revolution.

“History has known in the past (and very likely will know, must know, in the future) wars (democratic and revolutionary wars) which, while replacing every kind of ‘right,’ every kind of democracy, by violence during the war, nevertheless, in their social content and implications, served the cause of democracy, and consequently socialism,” Lenin wrote. (6) It is this kind of war we have now in the Donbass.

Such was the position of genuine left-wing Zimmerwaldists. The imaginary "Zimmerwaldists" from Kiev, calling for disarmament of both sides of the conflict, place an equal sign between the rebels, on the one hand, and the regular troops forced to the front and neo-Nazi volunteer battalions, on the other.

The demand for disarmament of the rebel militias is a demand for their surrender, and it is unlikely that the self-styled Zimmerwaldists do not understand this.

Of course, any war means blood and suffering of people, but to stop this war by a complete renunciation of the uprising means that the blood has been spilled in vain. Moreover, it means revenge and repression by the nationalist forces against the population of Donbass.

-------------------------

Notes:

(1) Lenin further wrote: “To imagine that social revolution is conceivable without revolts by small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without revolutionary outbursts by a section of the petty bourgeoisie with all its prejudices, without a movement of the politically non-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against oppression by the landowners, the church, and the monarchy, against national oppression, etc.-to imagine all this is to repudiate social revolution. So one army lines up in one place and says, ‘We are for socialism,’ and another, somewhere else and says, ‘We are for imperialism,’ and that will be a social revolution! Only those who hold such a ridiculously pedantic view could vilify the Irish rebellion by calling it a ‘putsch.’

“Whoever expects a ‘pure’ social revolution will never live to see it. Such a person pays lip-service to revolution without understanding what revolution is.

“The Russian Revolution of 1905 was a bourgeois-democratic revolution. It consisted of a series of battles in which all the discontented classes, groups and elements of the population participated. Among these there were masses imbued with the crudest prejudices, with the vaguest and most fantastic aims of struggle; there were small groups which accepted Japanese money, there were speculators and adventurers, etc. But objectively, the mass movement was breaking the back of tsarism and paving the way for democracy; for this reason the class-conscious workers led it.

“The socialist revolution in Europe cannot be anything other than an outburst of mass struggle on the part of all and sundry oppressed and discontented elements. Inevitably, sections of the petty bourgeoisie and of the backward workers will participate in it—without such participation, mass struggle is impossible, without it no revolution is possible—and just as inevitably will they bring into the movement their prejudices, their reactionary fantasies, their weaknesses and errors. But objectively they will attack capital, and the class-conscious vanguard of the revolution, the advanced proletariat, expressing this objective truth of a variegated and discordant, motley and outwardly fragmented, mass struggle, will be able to unite and direct it, capture power, seize the banks, expropriate the trusts which all hate (though for different reasons!), and introduce other dictatorial measures which in their totality will amount to the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the victory of socialism, which, however, will by no means immediately ‘purge’ itself of petty-bourgeois slag.”

From “The Discussion on Self-Determination Summed Up,” July 1916

(2) V.I. Lenin, “The Socialist Party and the Non-Party Revolutionary,” Nov.-Dec. 1905

(3) For example: "In the case of wars, the basic position of dialectics … is that ‘war is merely a continuation of policy by other (violent) means.’ This is the wording of Clausewitz. … And it was always the standpoint of Marx and Engels, who viewed every war as a continuation of the policies of the interested power – and the various classes within them – at that time.” V.I. Lenin, Collected Workers (Russian edition), 5 ed., vol. 26, p. 224

(4) It should be remembered that those leftists, who today are trying to pass themselves off as “Zimmerwaldists,” fully supported the same policy which was continued as the war against Donbass. Here is what the imaginary Liebknechts from Kiev wrote: "We demand the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union and are confident that it will enhance democracy, increase transparency in government, lead to development of a fair legal system and limit corruption." (http://gaslo.info/?p=4541)

Even then, we wrote: "Euro-hysteria has swept the political movement" of the left outside the Communist Party. “An anarchist group published a leaflet, which doesn’t mention that European anarchists actively oppose the EU — only the usual mantras of ‘self-organization.’ A small Trotskyist group was photographed on the edge of the Maidan crowd, singing ‘Glory to the nation! Death to enemies!’ and released a statement which could grace the website of any liberal NGO: "’We demand the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union and are confident that it will contribute to greater democracy…’ blah blah blah.

“Comrades of the left, it's time to remember what opportunism is. It's not necessarily participation in elections (the parliamentary system can be used in a revolutionary way). Opportunism is – among other things -- adapting one’s politics to the mood of the crowd, to the mainstream, and ultimately, to alien class interests.

“Those Ukrainian leftists who removed from their statements slogans against the EU, common to all the European left, are on this path. Removed so they would be allowed to stand on the sidelines of ‘Euromaidan’ … the victory of which not only will not help the dissemination of the notorious European values but, on the contrary, is guaranteed to put in power those nationalists who attack us today. ....

“Are these real leftist politics — or just playing along with the right-liberal bloc? Can they seriously persuade someone in the Euromaidan crowd? No, on the contrary, they have adapted their line to the hysteria for European integration that swept the petty-bourgeois masses in Kiev, where 20 years of right-wing propaganda always makes the ‘democratic’ crowd dance to the ‘democratic’ chant, ‘Whoever does not jump is a Muscovite.’ They remove all slogans against the imperialist EU, to appear that they ‘belong’ in a liberal-nationalist crowd — although only the left can convey to Ukrainians the arguments against the EU, which their fellow European leftists and trade unionists share. They succumbed to the mood of their non-leftist friends. And then they will feel ashamed for their actions, as it was embarrassing to the supporters of the ‘people's president’ Yushchenko a few years after the previous ‘Maidan’ — where a few leftists also campaigned, and with the same success.

“The hysteria will subside, but the memory remains, comrades.”

(5) Сергей Киричук: «Активное участие националистов – ключевой фактор падения популярности Майдана»

(6) V.I. Lenin, “Reply to P. Kievsky (Y. Pyatakov),” Aug.-Sept. 1916.

Source

Translated by Greg Butterfield

August 28, 2015

The fascism became the habitual and everyday phenomenon in life of Ukraine long ago. However till today officially nobody recognized this phenomenon.
Poroshenko properly pondered this situation, and made the decision that it is time to place all points over і. The fascism is, but isn't legalized.
Therefore the Ministry of Justice registered the Ukrainian national assembly – the Ukrainian nationalist self-defense (UNA-UNSO) as political party.

Cheerfully, isn't that so?

Business won't be limited to one registration. Now UNA-UNSO intends to take part in local elections in October. Fascists in power, not bad.
Nationalists declared that begin qualitatively new stage of political struggle for Ukraine. They are ready to prove not words, and actions that ranks of the Ukrainian nationalists are worthy. I put much. - it isn't less enemies.

Earlier, at the beginning of July, 2015, the Ministry of Justice refused to register nationalists because of "complicity in fascism". UNA-UNSO is claimed that tried to register party since 2014.

However, now the party registration passed easily and easy as the chief Fuhrer Poroshenko gave a green light.
Long live lawful fascism in Ukraine! Zig Hayl!

1440679954_1440622958_image761-1140x641.

News of day: Events of Novorossiya

The review of military operations on Donbass for the morning 27.08.2015g.

Yesterday, 07:59 | Category: Events, News of day

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Donbass, on August 27.

Strong explosions sounded near Mariupol Donetsk region the night before. The head of a health service of PS of Gospitalyera Jan Zinkevich reported that from Grads the southern part of Sartana was fired.

Information on the victims aren't present so far, Ukrinform writes. According to locals, explosions are audible in different parts of the city. According to preliminary data, light regarding the settlement of Sartana was gone.
Kiev accuses rebels of all cases of attacks.

The night before Armed forces of Ukraine started firing at the settlement Dokuchayevsk of the Donetsk People's Republic from Nikolaevka and Novotroitsk. Self-propelled artillery installations were put to use.

In a course of action the direct hit on east pit of Dokuchayevsk was recorded, the power substation lit up. Security officers also don't leave Gorlovka. A battle is conducted in northern part of the city, around Zaytsevo. AFU large-caliber shells fired at Golma.

Reports of military operations for August 27.

The last days passed in the Republics under sounds of cannonades. Practically on all line of contact periodic battles of average and high intensity are conducted. The situation with attacks in LPR is much more silent, except for the area adjoining Debaltseve (DPR). Hyperactivity of the UAV in a front zone, and activity of DRG in the territory of LPR.

For the last days settlements Donetsk, Gorlovka, Debaltseve, Krasnogorovka, Staroignatovka, Starobeshevsky and Telmanovsky areas, Dokuchayevsk, Logvinovo underwent artillery and mortar attacks. Still the most hot spot there is White Kamenka of the Volnovakhsky region of DPR.

Consolidation of forces of the opponent near Marinka with probability of break to Donetsk is observed. The serious group of chasteners is located opposite by Béla Kamenki and aimed at Telmanovo with a probable problem of a capture under control as it is possible a bigger site of border with the Russian Federation.

In the afternoon on August 26 occupational troops made Logvinovo's attack. The artillery of the opponent worked from Svetlodarsk. Also under fire there was Uglegorsk, Golma, Kalinovka, Debaltseve (some falling in various districts of the city).

Half an hour I underwent attack the area of mine of Abakumov in Donetsk later. At 16:00 attack amplified to a limit.

Around 17:00 around Krasnogorovki shooting fight is recorded. In Borisovki's regions and пгт the Beacon hits are also recorded.

In the same time under attack there was a district of the village Ran cold. Inhabitants got over in basements, eyewitnesses recorded some hits in the private sector and around local school. Also from chasteners the farm Petrovsky underwent attack.

About 18 hours the Ukrainian chasteners fired at Aleksandrovka (The Petrovsky district of Donetsk) from artillery. Ignition of a house is recorded. Explosions sounded also around Briquette and Beams. Smoke in the Twelfth settlement is visible.

Firefights in the Telmanovsky area are at the same time recorded: on Béla Kamenke and Staroignatovke from Granite the Ukrainian chasteners fire from all types of arms, including caliber of 152 mm.

In suburbs Béla Kamenki VS DPR positions are exposed to attack (crew "Vikings"). AFU uses howitzer artillery, the IFV.

Around the 8th evening landings around a waste heap of mine Trudovskaya (Donetsk), ignition of a house in Aleksandrovka are recorded. To attack подверся Petrovsky area and Kremennaya. Later according to the specified information ignition of 6 houses in Aleksandrovka (Chelyuskintsev St.) is established.

Around 20:30 Michurino's shelling (the Telmanovsky area) is recorded. Several minutes later chasteners once again fired at the village Ran cold. Arrivals to the area of mine are recorded, the houses located nearby suffered.

Closer by 21 o'clock Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk underwent attack by nazis. Hit to the inhabited five-floor house is recorded, the woman (slight injury) suffered.

At 21:00 rebels reported about shooting fight near Aleksandrovka.

Around 21:30 over Gorlovka activity of the Ukrainian UAVs considerably increased. Shooting fight around Zaytsevo is audible. By 20 o'clock eyewitnesses recorded sounds of explosions in the next suburbs.

The area I Had a reputation — according to the specified information two persons got wounds. One in a serious condition.

About the 10th evening chasteners fired at Dokuchayevsk. It is reported about explosions around a pit East.

Result of operation of UAVs: Gorlovka under attack. At 21:50 explosions of shells are recorded on Golm. Approximately in the same time eyewitnesses noted shooting fight in the area

Staromikhaylovki - Krasnogorovki. Around 22:30 on the Mariupol direction art duel and shooting fight around Sartana proceeds.

According to data from a source on positions of chasteners near Mariupol — losses of nazis made at least six units of manpower and a little wounded.

About 23:30 area of mine of Abakumov and Trudovskiye (Donetsk) underwent attacks again. Attack of the Petrovsky area, to the area of the 14th hospital is also recorded. Chasteners fire from Krasnogorovki.

In the same time near the village I Ran cold mass hits in houses are recorded, there are victims, the quantity is specified.

At midnight (LPR) knew of massive art duel near the Village Lugansk.

After midnight from positions of chasteners in Marinka the region of the Resident of Smolensk (Donetsk) underwent attacks. Arrivals in Petrovsky the area proceed.

At night under Volnovakhoy six Ukrainian soldiers, 17 wounded — "activists of anti-terrorist operation" were lost

As a result of night fight near Volnovakhoy 9 servicemen of AFU (the 19th baht were lost., 40th crew, 41 OMPB). Helpers of invaders from Mariupol report about it on social networks, and they claim that information is completely confirmed.

The official statement from headquarters of so-called "anti-terrorist operation" didn't arrive yet, however judging by geography of night fights and the divisions participating in them, these data true.

27.08.15. The message from the resident of Gorlovka.

"I was in Donetsk today, the beauty, life beats a key everything healthy but all somehow differently, I don't know as it will explain, but Gorlovka and Donetsk now two different poles, in Donetsk people "almost" don't feel war, well shoot! get away!

But it where that there … the airport, Oktyabrsky … on on another at us "beat across Gorlovka" there are no areas here where won't fall, at all at us when that but nearby fell, thus when Donetsk citizens "are evacuated" by Gorlovchache go to work …

In total somehow on another when bakhnut on the center people from distant areas at which so … we others helped every day … Donetsk citizens friends don't take offense but it is life, our city Hera we slightly differently feel war …

Yes I forgot the most important, is more main than all post, each of Gorlovchan buried the friend, the brother, mother, и.т.д., in any case almost the relative or the friend remained with someone from us in 2014 or 2015, they stood during life, but all of them is equal with us." The message from the war correspondent Yury Yurchenko.

"Now, in "News": "In DONETSK, the SHOT of the SNIPER KILLED the WOMAN …". "Sniper's shot"!. It — not the artillery "reached", this is the ordinary person with the gun. It means that residents of Donetsk live on a front line. And a year to rebels FORBID to move forward.

As after that, you want that people looked at DPR army if it, this army, in one and a half years "has to" — to win and finally to break the Ukrainian army, no! — at least to remove it on such distance that their artillery didn't reach houses of civilians?!.

Yes they will damn it (as it be called — "militia" or "republican guard"), eventually, if she doesn't go to approach and will continue to play at giveaway with the enemy, let and under someone else's order.!"

.
Central news agency of Novorossiya
Novorus.info

August 27, 2015

Donbass residents rally as Ukraine regime prepares new military assault

By Greg Butterfield, Workers World

Despite overnight shelling in the city, and faced with the imminent threat of a new military offensive by Ukrainian troops, thousands of people in Donetsk city rallied August 24 to demand that the Kiev regime headed by President Peter Poroshenko stop the war against the independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics of the Donbass region.

The antiwar protest, titled “Ukraine’s Dependence Day,” was a rejoinder to the jingoist Independence Day celebrations organized in Ukraine by the junta of oligarchs, neoliberal politicians and fascists that took power with U.S.-European Union backing in February 2014. The far-right regime has been dependent on Western economic and military support ever since.

August 24, 1991, was the day pro-capitalist and nationalist forces in Ukraine declared “independence” from the Soviet Union. The breakup of the first socialist state took place under Washington stooges Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev.

This year, a social media call for a flashmob in central Donetsk brought young and old into the streets. They marched from the statue of Taras Shevchenko, an 18th century Ukrainian nationalist figure, to the statue of V.I. Lenin, leader of the revolution that established the first modern, multinational Ukrainian state as part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

They carried flags of the Donetsk republic and signs reading, “Poroshenko – puppet in the U.S. show,” “You’ve already perished, Ukraine” (a reference to Kiev’s national anthem), and “Stop the war, bloody President Poroshenko.” (Online reports by Denis Grigoryuk and Novorossia Today)

'Poroshenko -- puppet in the U.S. show'

Photo: Thinking Out Loud

Death toll grows as offensive loomsThe Human Rights Ombudsman of the Donetsk People’s Republic reported that 23 civilians were killed and 32 injured in shelling by Ukrainian troops from August 15-21. Some 17 were killed and 45 wounded in the prior week. (Novorossia Today, Aug. 24)

The death toll has grown steadily over the summer. Sporadic Ukrainian shelling that claimed a few lives each week has intensified. There has also been an increase in attacks in the Lugansk People’s Republic, especially near villages under the protection of the Ghost Brigade anti-fascist militia.

According to the United Nations, nearly 7,000 people have been killed since the start of Kiev’s “Anti-Terrorist Operation” in the spring of 2014.

There is no doubt now that Kiev’s army and volunteer neo-fascist battalions are preparing a new offensive. Along with Poroshenko’s boasts of sending more troops and weaponry to the front – obtained (directly or indirectly) through the U.S. and other NATO powers – the anti-fascist militias that defend the Donbass republics have reported a steady buildup of Ukrainian troops for months.

On August 20, Donetsk Deputy Defense Minister Eduard Basurin reported on intelligence received from a high-ranking member of the Ukrainian military who opposes the junta’s latest moves. (Dontesk News Agency)

According to this information – which confirms what the militias have observed on the ground – Ukraine now has more than 90,000 troops on or near the front line; 450 tanks; more than 2,500 armored personnel carriers; 5 mobile rocket launcher complexes; 230 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems; over 1,000 artillery guns and mortars; and more than 3,500 anti-tank weapons. (Colonel Cassad blog, Aug. 21)

The planned Ukrainian offensive is said to be modeled on the Croatian assault that defeated Serbian forces in Krajina during the Yugoslavian civil war, also masterminded and manipulated by Washington and Berlin.

Attacking from several directions simultaneously, Kiev’s forces hope to reach Donetsk’s eastern border with Russia, preventing any military or humanitarian support from reaching the resistance, and blocking Lugansk militia forces from coming to their aid. (For maps and in-depth information in English, see RedStarOverDonbass.blogspot.com.)

However, military analyst Colonel Cassad points out that, unlike Krajina, where Croatian forces outnumbered Serbian troops by a factor of 10, Ukraine has not even twice the number of troops as the Donbass republics, who have resoundingly defeated previous Ukrainian offensives.

Map of planned Ukrainian offensive in Donbass.

Source: Colonel Cassad Washington wants war, not peaceThe buildup by Ukraine is a direct violation of the Minsk 2 ceasefire agreement it signed in February with Russia, Germany and France. Even after the Donbass republics unilaterally withdrew heavy weaponry from the contact line, Kiev refused to budge.

An intervention by U.S. officials to force Kiev to pass legislation required by the Minsk accords in June led to speculation that Washington might try to tamp down the war. But in fact, it appears to have been another fig leaf to cover Pentagon and NATO training and arming of the Ukrainian military, while giving the regime more time to build up its offensive forces.

As Workers World reported previously, the war in Donbass is a step in a long-term U.S. effort to undermine the existence of an independent capitalist Russian Federation. This bipartisan policy, more than 20 years in the making, may take tactical twists and turns, but there are no signs that Washington and Wall Street plan to fundamentally change course. (See “Ukraine, Donbass and the New Cold War against Russia," July 31, 2015)

What the Obama administration, Congressional leaders and the Pentagon have done is to further U.S. control over the disparate, competing factions of the Kiev regime, united mainly by their hatred of Russia and the people of Donbass.

In late August, leaders of the Right Sector fascist group, which repeatedly threatened to overthrow Poroshenko, suddenly announced on social media that some of their squads would be integrated into the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Ukrainian political police similar to the FBI.

Right Sector members will be put on the government payroll, issued “official” weapons and have the legal cover of the SBU.

The integration of Right Sector into the state apparatus came shortly after statements by the U.S. ambassador and other officials defending Poroshenko from the most recent flare up between the rival factions. (Col. Cassad blog, Aug. 22) It fits a pattern that has seen neo-Nazis like the Azov Battalion integrated into the Ukrainian military structure and trained by U.S. troops.

Add these developments to the International Monetary Fund’s declaration that it will continue to bail out Kiev even if the bankrupt regime defaults on its loans, while it pours money into the war and imposes ever greater austerity measures and repression on the working people of Ukraine.

The message is clear: U.S. imperialism wants the war in Donbass to continue at all costs. Washington is determined to use Ukraine to wear down the People’s Republics and Russia, and doesn’t care how many people on both sides are killed in the process.

But, as Donetsk residents showed with their protest August 24, the people of Donbass are prepared and determined to resist.

August 27, 2015

Good heavens, Ernie. I believe you may have rendered Paul temporarily speechless!

Impressive.

edit typos

August 26, 2015

Yes, I've already looked at some of the chapter headinga and index. Looking forward to reading it and reading what people have to say.

I was a bit gobsmacked when I first heard about the book as I've been connecting segregation and the assassination since I joined the forum, generally with little support. Looks like maybe now at last there'll be something for me to support.

I don't forget

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." -- Arthur Schopenhauer

The reason I'm interested in Walker and German POW's is because of wanting to know more about Ewald Peters who somehow went from the SA in a town in Germany to leading an Einsatzgruppen in Belarus during Operation Barbarossa to disappearing then reappearing as Adenours/Erhardts Kriminalrat (Head of West Germany's SS) in the late 50's early sixties to being exposed by East German Nazi hunters in early '64 (after visiting LBJ's ranch in Dec'63) and suiciding in jail. He was a friend of US SS members.
So, with a scenario that connects persons in Germany and Walker it's reasonable to look at Nazi-KKK-Segregationists and this guy has a lot of unanswered questions attached to him that if answered may provide important answers to other questions. Ditto H.D Holmes. J.E. Day, Colonel Birdsong ...

I also have a lot of questions about Eastland and the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and it's Louisiana equivalent. I gather from the headings and index that the book covers this.

August 26, 2015

William, does this book cover in any detail Walker's time in Norway when he dealt with German POW's after WWII?

August 25, 2015

770x500cc-srnk-23-08-15-ekinwan-timi-man

JINHA

ŞIRNEX - As police attacks escalate in the Kurdish town of Cizre, Turkey, young women have founded an autonomous self-defense unit.

The town of Cizre, in Şırnak province of Northern Kurdistan (in Turkey), is no stranger to police violence. As the AKP continues pushing war on the region, police have launched raids and attacks in many province. The state's attacks have especially targeted women's bodies. Recently, police tortured the naked body of Kurdish guerrilla Kevser Eltürk (nom de guerre Ekin Wan). They then posed with her dead body and shared photographs on social media.

Now, the young women of Cizre have formed a self-defense team named for Ekin Wan. They have hung posters of Kurdish woman resistance fighters throughout the streets of Cizre. Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) founder Sakine Cansız's face now hangs over the streets. Fallen YPJ fighters who traveled to Rojava to fight in the revolution also appear on the posters.

The women announced that they have no ties with any organization. They said that they have autonomously founded the team "to stop the savagery waged on women's bodies in the person of Ekin Wan."

"The AKP government's answer to the resolution process started by Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people, has been killings and imprisonment," said a young woman named Zelal. "And we understood that the state never approaches the Kurdish people with sincerity." She noted that the Turkish state has taken no steps in resolving the Kurdish issue. Instead, police have begun attacking civilians across the region.

"In Ekin Wan, we saw the state's rage against women," said Zelal. "So we founded a young women's team." The women have armed themselves and plan to defend themselves and their neighborhoods.

(ma/mg/cm)

August 21, 2015

Pat I pointed out your error back in 2006. I can't find the particular topic called (from memory) BE7 (you hopped in with a comment you thought it was about cars) but you did engage me in a disucssion then about just that. (The orientation of this photo and interpretation of it).

Unforunately the images are gone, but the disussion can help in a couple of other threads from then
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=01d41db9edf81993d66f79db30b8704f&showtopic=5949&hl=crease#entry52420

particularly
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?s=01d41db9edf81993d66f79db30b8704f&showtopic=5917&hl=crease&page=8

Anyway, good to see you've corrected your position re orientation.

August 21, 2015

Editor Igor Guzhva, left, on trial.

Aug. 17 — Igor Guzhva is one of the most profiled journalists of Ukraine. He has been daring, however, not to follow the political narrative of the government and Ukrainian nationalism at large. Therefore the authorities have been prosecuting him, and seem to take the final step in silencing one of the few remaining dissenting voices.

Since May of 2014, the Ukrainian authorities, as well as extremist right-wing organizations, have repeatedly undertaken all manner of actions against the Vesti holding and its head Igor Igor Guzhva (the holding includes the newspaper, Internet site and radio station of the same name, the magazine Reporter and the television channel UBR).

On May 22, 2014, the activities of the editorial team of the Vesti newspaper, which is the largest daily newspaper in the country, were entirely locked down by personnel of the tax police on the pretext that they were carrying out a search. It should be noted that this happened two days before the presidential elections in Ukraine, despite the moratorium declared by the authorities on checks on the mass media.

It was at this point that it became known that there was an investigation into non-payment of taxes by Vesti. Toward the end of the summer of 2014, the investigation of this case stalled as a result of the clear absence of any crime, and the authorities decided to use different mechanisms to battle against the Vesti holding.

Thus, representatives of the right-wing extremist groups, headed by the notorious Kiev neo-Nazi Oles Vakhny, who had previously been convicted for pogroms, smashed up the editorial offices in the summer of 2014.

In September of 2014, the newspaper’s work was again brought to a halt under the pretext of a search, but this time it was not carried out by the tax police — it was carried out by the SBU, the Security Service of Ukraine — on the grounds of another fabricated investigation, this one into alleged offenses against the territorial integrity of Ukraine. This resulted from articles in Reporter magazine, where quotations of the opinions of separatists in the Donbass were given alongside the opinions of those supporting a united Ukraine.

In addition, in the spring of 2015, distributors of the newspaper were subject to frequent attacks by representatives of extreme right-wing organizations. According to the investigation carried out by Vesti, the actions of the right-wing extremists against the newspaper were guided by the SBU.

However, despite all these actions, the Vesti holding company continued to function. Thus, at the end of May of 2015, the authorities decided to return to the already forgotten “tax” case. By then, the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, through a direct forgery of the evidentiary base, made a complaint against the founder of Vesti newspaper, the limited liability company Vesti Mass-Media (its director was Igor Guzhva) for the non-payment of 17 million griven (about $770,000) in taxes. The case was clearly fabricated.

This is the background to the case:

In 2013, when Vesti needed money to launch the project, it took repayable financial assistance from the firm Ledis. Many enterprises that are experiencing cash deficiencies/gaps operate in this way. According to the agreement, Vesti was to return the resources at the end of 2013, but this time period was later extended to the end of 2014.

The tax authorities established the fact of the presence of the agreement on repayable financial assistance as well as that the banking payments were carried out under this agreement.

In 2014, organs of the State Fiscal Service blocked the work of the firm Ledis and arrested its accounts. Because of the block, Vesti could not return the financial assistance to the firm.

What did the tax authorities do? Without any grounds to do so, they requalified the repayable financial assistance as non-repayable and insisted that it be included in the gross income of Vesti Mass-Media LLC for 2014 and that income tax be paid on it accordingly. Changing the character of financial aid from repayable to non-repayable is a clear case of deliberate forgery and falsification. The authorities did this despite the fact that all the documentation, where it can clearly be seen that financial assistance was repayable, had been provided by the company to the fiscal authorities.

It is clear that the tax authorities substituted the concepts and falsified the evidentiary base with one clear goal — to fabricate corpus delecti (the crime of non-payment of tax on profits).

Vesti did not include the repayable financial assistance in its gross income because — according to article 135 of the tax code — this only has to be done where the debt is written off. That will only happen when the limitation period runs out, as it will after three years, in 2017. Such a norm is entirely logical, as Vesti was not in possession of any information as to whether the firm Ledis had passed on the right to retrieve the debt to third parties.

Thus, if Vesti were to include repayable financial assistance into its gross income now and to pay taxes on it, then no one could guarantee that at any moment over the course of the next three years a third party would not make a claim for the retrieval from Vesti of the amount of the financial assistance. Similarly, the amounts paid as taxes, of course, would never be returned.

Vesti is currently involved in legal proceedings with the tax authorities with regard to this matter. The chances that Vesti will win this case are very good. However, the criminal case, which is constructed on an obviously falsified base, is continuing to run its course, allowing the state authorities to carry out various repressive actions against Vesti. These actions include the freezing of accounts, the carrying out of “masked shows” (where masked officials carry out searches) and the arousing of suspicions.

It was not long before the tax authorities acted. At the beginning of June, all 200-plus personnel of Vesti Mass-Media LLC, including freelance writers and employees who had already resigned, received summonses for interrogations.

In mid-June, the editorial offices of Vesti were for a third time cordoned off — they were searched by the tax police. And, finally, in July of 2015, the editor-in-chief of Vesti newspaper, director of Vesti Mass-Media LLC and head of the Vesti holding, Igor Guzhva, was accused of non-payment of taxes.

On July 29, it was announced that Igor Guzhva had sold his share in the capital of Vesti holding and left all of his posts there. Igor Guzhva himself has not commented on the current situation, but according to mass media sources, this decision could only have been taken under pressure that the authorities put on the investors in the project. According to a series of Ukrainian media exports, in order to improve relations with the authorities, the investors forced Igor Guzhva to leave the project.

This, however, didn’t bring an end to the pressure being put on Igor Guzhva. On July 31, he announced that he was returning from his holiday to Ukraine, and on the same day the Ukrainian mass media carried reports that he was on police wanted lists and that he would be arrested on his return to the country. Guzhva deemed these reports to be an act of intimidation aimed at preventing his return to the country. Despite the risk of arrest, he returned to Ukraine as he had planned to do on Aug. 1.

He wasn’t arrested at the airport, although representatives of the tax service presented him with a notification that he was being investigated.

Then, in accord with the requirements of Ukrainian legislation, a court hearing was held at which restraints were to be set for Igor Guzhva pending the investigation. It should be noted that the article under which Igor Guzhva is being accused (non-payment of taxes) according to the Ukrainian Criminal Code does not provide for any custodial sentences; the maximum penalty is a fine of 400,000 griven ($18,333). Accordingly, there could be only one restraint imposed by the court — the posting of a bond/bail. If such a bond could not be posted by the suspect, then the court could impose another form of restraint and even arrest him.

In view of this, the prosecutor’s office asked that the court set a record amount for Ukraine as the bond/bail — 17 million griven (which is 42 times more than the maximum amount of the fine that the article in question provides for). For comparison, those accused of murdering Buzina were released on bail of 5 milllion griven (about $225,000). One of the leaders of the Party of the Regions, Alexander Yefremov, had to post bail of 3.6 million griven (about $150,000) for his release.

Obviously, Igor Guzhva would have difficulty posting a bail of 17 million griven, which would mean that the term of restraint that could be imposed on him would be arrest.

At the same time, the unprecedentedly high amount of the bond/bail attracted a great deal of mass media attention to the case and a great deal of disapproval among the general public. In these circumstances, the court decided to compromise with the clearly repressive requests of the prosecutor’s office and reduced the amount of the bond/bail from 17 million to 1 million griven (about $45,000).

At the same time, the court limited Igor Guzhva’s freedom of movement, forbidding him from going abroad or leaving the city of Kiev.

The case is now being readied for court. However, Igor Guzhva believes that the authorities could attempt to bring new cases against him, which would allow stricter limitations to be imposed on him, even arrest. Igor Guzhva has also announced that unidentified individuals are following him. According to his statement, the secretary of the SNBO (National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine), Alexander Turchinov, is coordinating the actions of the authorities against Vesti and Guzhva.

Answering a question as to why the authorities are continuing to put pressure on him despite the fact that he has left the Vesti holding, Igor Guzhva has said that this may be the result either of vengeance for his work as head of the holding and editor-in-chief of the newspaper, or a wish to prevent him taking part in new media projects.

“The Vesti holding and I, as its head, over the course of the last year have provided an example of how a repressive state system can be resisted. That is what annoyed the authorities. I don’t count out the possibility that it is precisely for this reason that they are continuing to put this unprecedented pressure on me through clearly fabricated criminal cases. They’re putting pressure on me so that others won’t risk providing any resistance to the system,” said Igor Guzhva in one of his recent interviews.

It should be noted that the authorities have accused Vesti of “anti-Ukrainian activities.” At the same time, the editorial team has denied these accusations and said that it is a blatant lie aimed at putting pressure on the holding. Igor Guzhva himself has always stressed that the editorial team has taken a pro-Ukrainian stance; but unlike many other Ukrainian mass media, it does not believe that a war is grounds to put a ban on any criticism of the authorities.

The newspaper regularly published materials that raised acute issues in Ukraine — corruption, the impoverishment of the population, issues involved in mobilization and the leadership of military actions in the East; it has published the opinions of experts who have criticized the course taken by the authorities. In addition, Vesti was one of only a few Ukrainian publications that attempted to provide coverage of the war in the East from different points of view, giving an objective view of events and the opinions of people on both sides of the front line.

Igor Guzhva, in one of his interviews in June of 2015, also stated that representatives of the authorities had approached him as co-owner of the holding with a proposal that he give (not sell, but give) a share in the corporate rights to representatives of the authorities in exchange for pressure being taken off him. Igor Guzhva refused to do that, after which the problems with the holding continued.

August 21, 2015

The Southern Kurdistan government in Iraq is seriously corrupt. It helps Turkey to put down the North Kurdistan guerillas and also does its best to thwart the Kurdish Liberation Movement. The US supports Turkey and the Southern Kurdistan government in Iraq.

The US created the conditions that nurtured the pol pot tlike ISIS. The most effective forces against ISIS are the North Kurdistan Liberation Armies. (same as the Viet Cong that liberated Kampuchea). For the US this is merely another attempt to control central asia by driving wedges between peoples that would benefit most from unity. Same old same old.

August 20, 2015

A possibility: just a note on bikes : a bike that's running hot and engine-brakes will probably backfire. If you want to brake quickly with control it can help to do an engine brake. All those bikes were primed to backfire after such a long run.

August 20, 2015

Press Release Kurds in Turkey under threat of massacre

August 18, 2015

Turkish army besieges and attacks several Kurdish provinces and villages

With Erdogan’s ending of the Kurdish-Turkish peace process on the 24th of July a new total war against the Kurds is under way. Since this date Kurdish mountains, villages and geography have been under daily attack and bombardment. For almost a week the Turkish Special Forces, supported by the army, has declared a state of emergency in Kurdish towns and are undertaking extrajudicial killings in the region.

Most recently in districts like Varto, Semdinli, Farqin, Yuksekova, Nusaybin and Lice a state of emergency has been declared, civilians have been targeted, workplaces have been bombed and houses have been set alight. They are not allowing for those that have been killed as a result of these attacks to be buried and those that have been injured to receive treatment. All entries and exits from these towns and provinces have been banned, while the security forces are terrorizing the people in the regions that have been cut off from the rest of the country. Main power supplies and water supplies to these towns are being purposefully cut.

The people living in these places are very worried and say that they are facing the threat of massacre. Until now several civilians have been reported killed, however, according to local sources the death toll is much higher than what is being reported on by the state. The Turkish army has also besieged the rural regions surrounding these districts and is conducting heavy bombardments in the villages; these bombardments are still continuing.

The main reason behind these attacks and the extrajudicial killings of civilians is down to Turkish President Erdogan giving unlimited powers to the security forces. This is yet another sign of the animosity of the AKP towards the Kurdish people. By attacking the Kurdish people, the Turkish government and President Erdogan are morally and practically supporting ISIS.

• We call upon the international public to stand against this war effort led by the Turkish President Erdogan.

• We call upon the EU and the member states, the USA and the UN to break their silence over the threat of massacre against the Kurds in Turkey.

• We call upon the international media to take an interest in the issue that has a significant bearing on the fight against ISIS in the region

KNK

August 19, 2015

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