This is the next part of Nick Griffin's Question Time appearance. I've probably got a bit bogged down with this, but viewing it in hindsight has made me think a bit more about it.:
This section continues with Saeeda Warsi's quite good takedown of the government's immigration policy, and then goes on to ramble a bit after which we come back to 'has the government's immigration policy helped the BNP?'
Even though it's only a boring statistic, Chris Hulme does state the ridiculous government estimate that 56,000 East Europeans would come to Britain once they joined the EU, whereas it turned out to be 766,000 people. This is sort of an aside but it's quite a monumental public cock up. He does go on to say that a lot of the BNP's success is due to people feeling disconnected with the political system, and that absurdities like this prop that up.
Nick Griffin has been fairly quiet for most of this, but when he gets his turn he seems to have been paying attention and hits his stride fairly quickly. Once he does this though, almost immediately there is an interesting kerfuffle amongst the panel members once he uses the word 'indigenous' (again). Jack Straw immediately butts in and says "you mean white".... this is actually quite an irrelevancy, but does have the effect of introducing race again, which serves to emote the debate once more. Even Dimbleby here has to shut the panel up and give the floor back to Griffin.
It turns out he's quite unruffled by the hijack and continues to say that if Maoris or American Indians (etc), can be considered indigenous the why not the British. This is an important point because it is this issue that is being pursued today quietly in the background and away from the distracting shouting. Griffin does fluff this eventually by talking about the British having been here for 17,000 years, whereas it really only makes sense to consider the period after the Norman conquest, and even then only the English, but his initial point is worth considering.
At the end here, a point is brought up about the BNP's labelling of the immigration policy being (deliberate?) genocide. for quite a long period, this piece of hyperbole is popular in British and white Nationalist circles and got repeated a lot., even though it's fading a bit now (like the BNP). This is another example of them crossing the line into fantasy without even realising it, something they do a lot.
" Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism"
A view of their posting history makes it clear what their interest is here.
Now it would seem that applies to everyone here
Sorry. Let me rephrase:
A view of their posting history makes it clear what their virtually singular interest is here.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
sure like AD's virtually singular interest is here
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
A view of their posting history makes it clear what their interest is here.
Now it would seem that applies to everyone here
Sorry. Let me rephrase:
A view of their posting history makes it clear what their virtually singular interest is here.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
sure like AD's virtually singular interest is here
AD has been a member here since sept. 2007. He has over 11,000 posts. believe it or not he hasn't always been quite so focused on a few issues. Just for shits and giggles if nothing else go look at his posting history. Go all the way back to his first post. You don't have to open any of the threads and read them, unless you want to, but skip through the pages looking at the thread topics he's posted in. It's sort of an interesting thing to do with anyone here.
AD is not your enemy slad. Not in any way that matters.
Now try the same experiment with bluenoseclaret, who has been a member here since March of 2010. Just look at the thread topics. Now open a few threads and read what bnc has to say.
I would guess my world view differs substantially from bluenoseclaret's in ways that are not just differences of opinion for me. They're basic ethical differences.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Exposing troubling ties in the U.S. to overt Nazi and fascist protesters in Ukraine. White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev's occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin.
This is Oleh Tyahnybok, he has claimed a "Moscow-Jewish mafia" rule Ukraine and that "Germans, Kikes and other scum" want to "take away our Ukrainian state."
As the Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev culminated this week, displays of open fascism and neo-Nazi extremism became too glaring to ignore. Since demonstrators filled the downtown square to battle Ukrainian riot police and demand the ouster of the corruption-stained, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, it has been filled with far-right streetfighting men pledging to defend their country's ethnic purity.
White supremacist banners and Confederate flags were draped inside Kiev's occupied City Hall, and demonstrators have hoisted Nazi SS and white power symbols over a toppled memorial to V.I. Lenin. After Yanukovich fled his palatial estate by helicopter, EuroMaidan protesters http://rt.com/news/war-monument-toppled-ukraine-351/ a memorial to Ukrainians who died battling German occupation during World War II. Sieg heil salutes and the Nazi Wolfsangel symbol have become an increasingly common site in Maidan Square, and neo-Nazi forces have established "autonomous zones" in and around Kiev.
An Anarchist group called AntiFascist Union Ukraine attempted to join the Euromaidan demonstrations but found it difficult to avoid threats of violence and imprecations from the gangs of neo-Nazis roving the square. "They called the Anarchists things like Jews, blacks, Communists," one of its members said. "There weren't even any Communists, that was just an insult."
"There are lots of Nationalists here, including Nazis," the anti-fascist continued. "They came from all over Ukraine, and they make up about 30% of protesters."
One of the "Big Three" political parties behind the protests is the ultra-nationalist Svoboda, whose leader, Oleh Tyahnybok, has called for the liberation of his country from the "Muscovite-Jewish mafia." After the 2010 conviction of the Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk for his supporting role in the death of nearly 30,000 people at the Sobibor camp, Tyahnybok rushed to Germany to declare him a hero who was "fighting for truth." In the Ukrainian parliament, where Svoboda holds an unprecedented 37 seats, Tyahnybok's deputy Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn is fond of quoting Joseph Goebbels -- he has even founded a think tank originally called "the Joseph Goebbels Political Research Center." According to Per Anders Rudling, a leading academic expert on European neo-fascism, the self-described "socialist nationalist" Mykhalchyshyn is the main link between Svoboda's official wing and neo-Nazi militias like Right Sector.
Right Sector is a shadowy syndicate of self-described "autonomous nationalists" identified by their skinhead style of dress, ascetic lifestyle, and fascination with street violence. Armed with riot shields and clubs, the group's cadres have manned the front lines of the Euromaidan battles this month, filling the air with their signature chant: "Ukraine above all!" In a recent Right Sector propaganda video [embedded at the bottom of this article], the group promised to fight "against degeneration and totalitarian liberalism, for traditional national morality and family values." With Svoboda linked to a constellation of international neo-fascist parties through the Alliance of European National Movements, Right Sector is promising to lead its army of aimless, disillusioned young men on "a great European Reconquest."
John McCain with leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party Oleh Tyahnybok.
Svoboda's openly pro-Nazi politics have not deterred Senator John McCain from addressing a EuroMaidan rally alongside Tyahnybok, nor did it prevent Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland from enjoying a friendly meeting with the Svoboda leader this February. Eager to fend off accusations of anti-Semitism, the Svoboda leader recently hosted the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine. "I would like to ask Israelis to also respect our patriotic feelings," Tyahnybok has remarked. "Probably each party in the [Israeli] Knesset is nationalist. With God's help, let it be this way for us too."
In a leaked phone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Nuland revealed her wish for Tyahnybok to remain "on the outside," but to consult with the US's replacement for Yanukovich, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, "four times a week." At a December 5, 2013 US-Ukraine Foundation Conference, Nuland boasted that the US had invested $5 billion to "build democratic skills and institutions" in Ukraine, though she did not offer any details.
"The Euro-Maidan movement has come to embody the principles and values that are the cornerstones for all free democracies," Nuland proclaimed.
Two weeks later, 15,000 Svoboda members held a torchlight ceremony in the city of Lviv in honor of Stepan Bandera, a World War II-era Nazi collaborator who led the pro-fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B). Lviv has become the epicenter of neo-fascist activity in Ukraine, with elected Svoboda officials waging a campaign to rename its airport after Bandera and successfully changing the name of Peace Street to the name of the Nachtigall Battalion, an OUN-B wing that participated directly in the Holocaust. "'Peace' is a holdover from Soviet stereotypes," a Svoboda deputy explained.
Svoboda marchers commemorating Stepan Bandera's 105th birthday in Lviv, December 2013
Revered by Ukrainian nationalists as a legendary freedom fighter, Bandera's real record was ignominious at best. After participating in a campaign to assassinate Ukrainians who supported accommodation with the Polish during the 1930's, Bandera's forces set themselves to ethnically cleanse western Ukraine of Poles in 1943 and 1944. In the process, they killed over 90,000 Poles and many Jews, whom Bandera's top deputy and acting "Prime Minister," Yaroslav Stetsko, were determined to exterminate. Bandera held fast to fascist ideology in the years after the war, advocating a totalitarian, ethnically pure Europe while his affiliated Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) carried out a doomed armed struggle against the Soviet Union. The bloodbath he inspired ended when KGB agents assassinated him in Munich in 1959.
The Right Connections
Many surviving OUN-B members fled to Western Europe and the United States -- occasionally with CIA help -- where they quietly forged political alliances with right-wing elements. "You have to understand, we are an underground organization. We have spent years quietly penetrating positions of influence," one member told journalist Russ Bellant, who documented the group's resurgence in the United States in his 1988 book, "Old Nazis, New Right, and the Republican Party."
In Washington, the OUN-B reconstituted under the banner of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), an umbrella organization comprised of "complete OUN-B fronts," according to Bellant. By the mid-1980's, the Reagan administration was honeycombed with UCCA members, with the group's chairman Lev Dobriansky, serving as ambassador to the Bahamas, and his daughter, Paula, sitting on the National Security Council. Reagan personally welcomed Stetsko, the Banderist leader who oversaw the massacre of 7,000 Jews in Lviv, into the White House in 1983.
"Your struggle is our struggle," Reagan told the former Nazi collaborator. "Your dream is our dream."
Activists of the Svoboda (Freedom) Ukrainian nationalist party shout slogans as they take part in a rally marking the 71st anniversary of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought both Nazi and Soviet forces in World War Two, and the feast of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God in central Kiev, October 14, 2013.
When the Justice Department launched a crusade to capture and prosecute Nazi war criminals in 1985, UCCA snapped into action, lobbying Congress to halt the initiative. "The UCCA has also played a leading role in opposing federal investigations of suspected Nazi war criminals since those queries got underway in the late 1970's," Bellant wrote. "Some UCCA members have many reasons to worry -- reasons which began in the 1930's."
Still an active and influential lobbying force in Washington, the UCCA does not appear to have shed its reverence for Banderist nationalism. In 2009, on the 50th anniversary of Bandera's death, the group proclaimed him "a symbol of strength and righteousness for his followers" who "continue[s] to inspire Ukrainians today." A year later, the group honored the 60th anniversary of the death of Roman Shukhevych, the OUN-B commander of the Nachtigall Battalion that slaughtered Jews in Lviv and Belarus, calling him a "hero" who "fought for honor, righteousness..."
Back in Ukraine in 2010, then-President Viktor Yushchenko awarded Bandera the title of "National Hero of Ukraine," marking the culmination of his efforts to manufacture an anti-Russian national narrative that sanitized the OUN-B's fascism. (Yuschenko's wife, Katherine Chumachenko, was a former Reagan administration official and ex-staffer at the right-wing Heritage Foundation). When the European Parliament condemned Yushchenko's proclamation as an affront to "European values," the UCCA-affiliated Ukrainian World Congress reacted with outrage, accusing the EU of "another attempt to rewrite Ukrainian history during WWII." On its website, the UCCA dismissed historical accounts of Bandera's collaboration with the Nazis as "Soviet propaganda."
Following the demise of Yanukovich this month, the UCCA helped organize rallies in cities across the US in support of the EuroMaidan protests. When several hundred demonstrators marched through downtown Chicago, some waved Ukrainian flags while others proudly flew the red and black banners of the UPA and OUN-B. "USA supports Ukraine!" they chanted.
Video below: Right Sector -- The Great Ukrainian Reconquista
[Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author whose articles and video documentaries have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Nation, The Guardian, The Independent Film Channel, The Huffington Post, Salon.com, Al Jazeera English and many other publications. He is a writing fellow for the Nation Institute. His book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party, is a New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller.]
Here's the final two sections of Nick Griffin's Question Time appearence, I'm going to rush these because this is dragging a bit now
This starts with Bonnie Greer questioning Nick Griffin's (inflated) assertion that there are indigenous Britons stretching back 17,000 years, she does make a slight error though in implicitly questioning the idea of indigenous peoples in general.
There is a long section regarding a newspapaper article about the death of a homosexual celebrity, and then this goes on to a more general discussion regarding the recent introduction of civil partnerships. I ends with Nick Griffin making two fairly accurate observtions; that his party still seems to frown upon public homosexuality, but also that in his 10 years he has at least convinced the party not to proscribe it.
Towards the end someone asks if Nick Griffin appearing on Question Time was an early Christmas present for the BNP, and there are mixed responses to this. Most people seemed to agree that it was an inevitable thing due to their recent EU success. Indeed it was a mixed blessing, and it certainly seemed that his party didn't think so.
That's the end of this unintentionally long winded look at this programme. Next, an overall analysis and context and then back to the original series
" Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism"
Ukraine's upheaval: between fascists, neoliberals, and Kremlin tools
"It is right to be horrified and appalled by the brutality of Yanukovych's -- failed -- crackdown, and the huge death toll. No one should support the violence of the state.
"But nor should we cheer for the former opposition forces who have now taken power.
"This has been a battle that has its roots in the long-term divide in the oligarchy, between those whose interests are best served by a tie-up with the EU, and those who profit from links with Russia."
I think this quote from Tash Shifrin is a good starting point for making sense of Ukraine's recent political upheaval -- the mass "Euromaidan" protests and violent street battles that toppled President Viktor Yanukovych earlier this week. Events in Ukraine are still very much unfolding, but whatever happens, it's a critical moment for those of us trying to understand fascism's relationship with popular struggle, state repression, and inter-capitalist rivalry.
Anti-government protest, Kiev, 27 November 2013.
It's easy to find lopsided treatments of the Ukraine struggle in the media. Democracy Now! hosted a debate a few weeks ago between Anton Shekhovtsov and Stephen Cohen. Shekhovtsov declared that the "Euromaidan protest is basically a multicultural, democratic movement" and dismissed claims of major involvement by neo-Nazis and antisemites as Russian propaganda. Cohen argued, more believably, that right-wing extremists had in fact taken control of the protests, but portrayed the Ukrainian police as victims of mob violence who "haven't cracked down" despite extreme provocation. Both speakers seemed more interested in picking sides than analyzing the whole situation critically.
The two best articles I've seen so far about the conflict are Shifrin's "Ukraine: no tears for Yanukovych, no cheers for new regime or fascists in its midst" (the piece quoted at the top of this post) and Mark Ames's "Everything you know about Ukraine is wrong." The key points of these two articles are my main focus in this blog post. (A follow-up post will focus more specifically on Ukraine's major fascist groups.)
Both Shifrin and Ames try to go beyond one-sided caricatures. Both argue that the majority of Euromaidan protesters were motivated by real anger at police brutality, political corruption, and economic misery, but have been used by one faction of the elite against another. Shifrin writes,
"Euromaidan was not like the Occupy or Indignados movements -- nor the workers' protests now in Bosnia. Unlike these movements there were no democratic assemblies or forums to debate and formulate independent, working class demands. This movement has been used as a lever by the pro-EU politicians in their power struggle with Yanukovych and his pro-Russian backers."
Ames takes this a step further, arguing that the factional lines within Ukraine's elite are actually quite fluid: "Today's neoliberal ultranationalist could be tomorrow's Kremlin ally, and vice-versa." He points out that Yanukovych had previously embraced International Monetary Fund and EU austerity demands, and that other major politicians had switched sides from pro- to anti-Kremlin forces. "Many of those oligarchs have close business ties with Russia, but assets and bank accounts -- and mansions -- in Europe. Both forces are happy to work with the neoliberal global institutions."
Ames and Shifrin both make good points about the role of fascists within the Euromaidan forces. Ames writes that fascists are
"a powerful minority in the anti-Yanukovych campaign -- I'd say the neo-fascists from Svoboda [Freedom party] and Pravy Sektor [Right Sector] are probably the vanguard of the movement, the ones who pushed it harder than anyone. Anyone who ignores the role of the neo-fascists… is lying or ignorant, just as anyone who claims that Yanukovych answered only to Putin doesn't know what they're talking about. The front-center role of Svoboda and the neo-fascists in this revolution as opposed to the Orange Revolution [of 2004-5] is, I think, due to fact that the more smiley-face/respectable neoliberal politicians can't rally the same fanatical support they did a decade ago."
But Ames also cautions that it's a distortion to think that the right-wing danger is only on one side:
"What's happening in Ukraine is not a battle between pro-fascists and anti-fascists. There are fascists on both sides; the opposition happens to like fascist costume parties more, but watch this video of Yanukovych's snipers murdering unarmed protesters and tell me who the real fascists are in this fight... [WARNING: BRUTAL VIOLENCE]"
Shifrin makes a related point:
"Both the pro-EU and pro-Russia sides are stoking reaction. The fascists' ideology is based on ethno-nationalism and anti-Semitism, as well as worship of the Nazis' ally [Stepan] Bandera. Svoboda's [leader Oleh] Tyahnybok is notorious for his anti-Semitic views while the nazi groups of Right Sector are happily pictured with the White Power and Hitler-loving graffiti common to fascists across Europe.
"The pro-Russian side has also been pouring out anti-Semitic propaganda, such as that on social media sites supporting the (rightly hated) Berkut riot police, which claims that the Euromaidan leaders are all Jews. It also warns that the dangerous liberalism of Europe will mean children will be 'turned gay'."
At the same time, Shifrin emphasizes that the role of far rightists in helping to topple Yanukovych represents a major breakthrough for fascist forces internationally:
"Fascism traditionally has a twin track approach, with both electoral and street fighting wings. In Ukraine, the fascists have made a huge leap forwards -- in addition to their successful electoral breakthrough in 2012 [when Svoboda went from 0.76% to 10.44% of the vote in parliamentary elections], they are now set to enter the government.
"And they now have armed, paramilitary troops -- proven in pitched battle with the forces of the state, and admired as militant fighters and heroes. "While before, Svoboda kept the Patriots of Ukraine [paramilitary organization] at arms length and the nazi groups that make up Right Sector carried out their combat training quietly under the radar, now they are recruiting openly. Right Sector as well as Svoboda is a big player now.
"In recent years, fascists have not achieved anything like this elsewhere in Europe. It is a milestone, a new benchmark."
I think this point is well taken. Certainly, the Ukrainian fascists have gone beyond what Golden Dawn party achieved in Greece, for example.
The fascists' success reflects the left's weakness. Shifrin writes:
"The genuine left in Ukraine is tiny, and has no hinterland of a mass labour or social democratic party to draw on. The main trade union federation is based largely on the old Stalinist state unions. The left has had no meaningful impact at all on recent events -- there is no point in starry-eyed optimism about this situation."
Ames extends the point:
Euromaidan, Kiev, 29 November 2013
"Ukrainians do have a sense of people power that is rare in the world, and it goes back to the first major protests in 2000, through the success of the Orange Revolution. The masses understand their power-in-numbers to overthrow bad governments, but they haven't forged a populist politics to change their situation and redistribute power by redistributing wealth.
"So they wind up switching from one oligarchical faction to another, forming broad popular coalitions that can be easily co-opted by the most politically organized minority factions within -- neoliberals, neofascists, or Kremlin tools. All of whom eventually produce more of the same shitty life that leads to the next revolution."
While I agree with Ames's basic point here, I would add is that maybe "populist politics" is part of the problem, to the extent that it tends to mask class differences and other stratifications within "the people."
One important issue that neither of these two articles deal with much is the politics of Ukraine's fascist organizations. What do they stand for and how they relate to other political forces, Ukraine's oligarchic factions, and the great powers jockeying for influence in the country? I will explore this question in a follow-up post.
Postscript
Ukraine does have some genuine leftist organizations. Here are some recent statements from two of them.
From the Autonomous Workers Union, an anarchist group:
Ukraine after Yanukovych: 50 shades of brown - Autonomous Workers Union
Ukrainian anarchist analysis of the situation following the overthrow of Yanukovych, pointing out that the opposition in power alongside fascist groups will not improve the lot of the working class.
The overthrow of the authoritarian regime of Yanukovych by no means signifies for us the end of our fight.
New dictators hasten to take the place of the Party of Regions. They will not hesitate to rely not only on considerably weakened security agencies, but on the far right militants as well. The regime of police and prosecutorial arbitrariness deserved its overthrow unconditionally, but now there may come a time for a new terror that will justify itself ideologically.
At the moment, the main power is concentrated in the hands of the opposition party “Batkivshchyna” (“Fatherland”) , which has managed to rally a substantial part of the ruling class. Its leader, recently released from prison Yulia Tymoshenko, has obvious presidential ambitions. It should be remembered though, that when Tymoshenko’s sentence was pronounced, the rally in her support in Kiev gathered no more than five thousand people, and all the mass demos of this party had to use paid-for extras. Batkivshchyna as well as the Party of Regions has virtually no serious grassroot support or activist base, but it has large enough material resources.
In order to stay in power, Yulia Tymoshenko’s team will have to appease the far rightists, the Right Sector in particular. Two such attempts have already been made – the fascists who had been imprisoned in cases not related to the Maidan were released after the enactment of the according law in the Parliament. New Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has promised to introduce representatives of the RS in his ministry. Now we’ll be able to call the cops “Nazis” with a good reason. But Batkivshchyna is clearly frightened of such a passionate and uncontrolled element in power. So they will try to get the far-right on the hook, not only by buying but also by tying them with blood. Right Sector dreams of settling old accounts with subcultural anti-fascists, so they were carefully supplied with the Security Service or police dossiers containing personal data. Probably in the near future the authorities will close their eyes to violence against the left or racist attacks, but will recall it a few months later, when they will need an excuse to reign in the uncomfortable allies.
Right Sector leads its own game, and has been doing so for long enough. Today its leader Dmitry Jarosh claims entry into power at a very high level, as a deputy prime minister for law enforcement agencies. At the same time, as reported by the journalist Mustafa Nayem, according to the records found in the Presidential Administration, Yarosh was communicating with Yanukovych or his representatives on February 20. Even before that, on January 28 the negotiations between the Right Sector and Security Service / Ministry of Internal Affairs were officially announced. A day later representatives of the right let this fact slip, declaring “the desire to join the negotiation process.” Probably such negotiations actually has been taking place since much earlier, especially when one considers the background of all the organizations that were a part of “Right Sector”: “Tryzub” (“Trident”) as well as SNA, and “Bely Molot” (“White Hammer”) have in various forms actively interacted with politicians from both system parties, and with the security forces since the 90s – 2000s.
“Svoboda” (“Freedom”) Party is a competitor for both Batkivshchyna and RS equally. The latter will actively infringe on Svoboda electorate and by the time of the election the standoff between these political forces will escalate. Now Svoboda has a chair in the prosecutor’s office. It is symbolic, because the cops and prosecutors always work closely and at the same time hate each other; their interests are very similar, but occasionally come into conflict. This is the type of relationship that exists between Svoboda and Right Sector. Security Service is headed by Nalivaychenko who already held the post under President Yushchenko. Chief security officer of the country is famous not only for the posthumous prosecution of Joseph Stalin for the Holodomor (which looks like a particularly dark joke), but also the fight against “Kremlin-sponsored terrorist organization Antifa.” After losing his job, Nalivaychenko worked with the ultra-right (including future Svoboda activist Eugene Karas, known under the pseudonym “Vortex”), trying to create a movement “Otpor”, but this project was not successful.
At the same time, in the regions that have not yet submitted to the new government, but renounced Yanukovych, their own fascist sentiments are ripening. The Party of Regions representatives, who failed to join the parliamentary majority, establish blocks with pro-Russian far-rightists and Stalinists. Imperialists and Stalinists, Cossacks and Orthodox fanatics – all together fight against the often imaginary Banderovites, meanwhile cracking down on journalists and human rights activists. Brown center is confronted by at least as brown regions. The only difference is the historical tradition to which they appeal. All of them will focus on their “fight for traditional values”, appealing to the social partnership and at the same time slashing social expenditures.
We take no side in the conflict between the Ukrainian and the Russian nationalists. But many protesters against the regime of Yanukovych will be dissatisfied with both the rapacious policies of Batkivshchyna, which will hit the pocket of workers, and the “national revolution” of Right sector and Svoboda, which will try to take away the remnants of human rights and freedoms. It is these people who are indifferent to the ultra-right and critical of the system opposition, the “disgruntled members of the Maidan,” who can soon fill the ranks of the left and anarchists.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
I know you miss me you're always talking about me when I go away
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
Fascists take deputy prime minister and other posts in Ukraine’s new government
By Tash Shifrin | 27 February 2014
Fascist Svoboda activists occupied Kiev city hall in December. Now the party is in government
Fascists are now part of Ukraine’s government. Oleksandr Sych, of the fascist Svoboda party, has been appointed as deputy prime minister of Ukraine.
He will take the post under prime minister Arseniy Yatseniuk of the neo-liberal, conservative Batkivshchyna (“Fatherland”) party.
Sych is one of Svoboda’s 36 MPs and has made a particular name for himself with an attempt to ban all abortions.
Svoboda also has Andriy Mokhnyk as ecology minister and Ihor Shvaik as agriculture minister in the new administration.
A Svoboda MP, Oleg Mokhnytsky, already runs the general prosecutor’s office.
The appointment of fascist ministers by Ukraine’s parliament does not mean that this is a fascist government, nor that Ukraine is now a fascist state.
Coalition of neoliberals and fascists
The new government is in effect a coalition of neoliberals and fascists. This situation has happened before, for example in Italy, where the Alleanza Nazionale – formed from the fascist MSI, the heirs of Mussolini – joined coalition governments under Berlusconi. Former MSI leader Gianfranco Fini held the positions of deputy prime minister and foreign secretary.
The remainder of the new Ukraine government is made up of Fatherland MPs and unelected figures drawn from the Euromaidan movement, plus rear admiral Ihor Tenyukh, a former commander of Ukrainian Navy, as defence minister.
But entry into the government is another huge step forward for fascists in Ukraine. They have made a major breakthrough both in parliament and on the streets as a result of the leading role that fascist organisations have played in the Euromaidan movement.
The nominations for members of the new government announced to the Euromaidan crowds on Kiev’s main square last night also included Andriy Parubiy, the commander of the paramilitary Samooborona, or Self Defence, as the new head of the national security council.
[UPDATE 28 February: Parubiy's appointment is now confirmed.]
Parubiy and Yarosh
Parubiy is now an MP for the Fatherland party. But he has a fascist past – he was one of the original leaders of the Social-National Party of Ukraine, with current Svoboda boss Oleh Tyahnybok. He later moved to the conservative Our Ukraine party, and then to Fatherland.
The leader of the hardcore nazi Pravy Sektor (Right Sector), Dmytro Yarosh, was also reported to have been nominated as a deputy to Parubiy. The Right Sector’s fighters have been a major component of the Self Defence paramilitaries – but they remained independent of Parubiy’s leadership, with Yarosh as their commander.
It remains unclear whether Yarosh has accepted his nomination, or whether this will go to a parliamentary vote. But, worryingly, the BBC reported that there were calls for Yarosh to be given a government post from the Euromaidan crowd.
Right Sector fighters are more popular with a section of Euromaidan than the traditional parties in Ukraine’s corrupt political system, where a tiny number of super-rich oligarchs pull the strings.
Also in the list of nominees, but so far unconfirmed by parliament, is the appointment of Tetyana Chornovol to head a new anti-corruption bureau. Chornovol is known as a journalist – but her background is in the hardcore nazi UNA-UNSO group, now part of Right Sector, where she was formerly head of its press department.
An old poster for Patriots of Ukraine – the paramiltary wing of Svoboda
Svoboda – originally known as the Social-National Party of Ukraine – is fascist. It is allied with the British National Party, Hungary’s Jobbik and the Front National in France. Like many fascist organisations across Europe, Svoboda dumped its old name and its traditional nazi Wolfsangel logo and formally distanced itself from its paramilitary wing, the Patriots of Ukraine – a strategy that succeeded as it won 10.4% of the votes in the 2012 elections.
Svoboda militants gained respect during Euromaidan, taking initiatives such as the seizure of Kiev’s city hall. They were at the core of the Euromaidan Samooborona or “Self Defence” paramilitaries, making up a significant chunk of its “hundreds”, or squadrons.
Euromaidan has been in effect a mass mobilisation behind the pro-EU faction of the ruling oligarchy. Neither the pro-Europe parties, nor Yanukovych’s pro-Russia Party of Regions has anything to offer Ukraine’s working class.
The new government takes office in Kiev as the armed seizure of Crimea’s government building ratchets up tensions in a deeply divided Ukraine, and the threat of military intervention by Russia has increased massively.
I've opined that the few months in between their EU success and the Question Time programme represented the zenith of the BNP's arc, it wasn't so obvious at the time, but in hindsight it seems that that was the case.
Nearly every report I've read about that programme says Griffin did badly and the party suffered, opinion within the BNP seemed to reflect that too and some old rifts started to re-open. The only internal effort to put a spin on it claimed that Griffin had been set up, he was hijacked, that the audience was defined by the venue of the program (QT does travel around the country). This was classic BNP victimhood which got a lot of use in various situations, but I think there was a crumb of truth in it, one example of this was the 'trajectory' of the very first question asked. Even though this victimhood did a small amount to shore up BNP solidarity, in the larger picture it made not a jot of difference
I was still pretty green at having an online presence right amongst BNP supporters, and still had more or less the same opinion of them as your average anti-fascist ie, that they are monolithic, and a bit thick/unsophisticated. One thing about being on a forum though is that it gives you the potential** to sidestep immediate emotional kneejerk responses and to relax and take a more measured look at things.
I'm going to spend the next post revisiting and enlarging upon what I've said regarding online activity amongst 'opponents', and then to describe some actualities about that particular site.
**The potential is there, but I'm often dismayed how few people make any use of this.
" Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism"
American Dream » Sun Mar 02, 2014 7:34 am wrote:http://www.dreamdeferred.org.uk/2014/02/fascists-take-deputy-prime-minister-and-other-posts-in-ukraines-new-government/
Fascists take deputy prime minister and other posts in Ukraine’s new government
By Tash Shifrin | 27 February 2014
Fascist Svoboda activists occupied Kiev city hall in December. Now the party is in government
Fascists are now part of Ukraine’s government. Oleksandr Sych, of the fascist Svoboda party, has been appointed as deputy prime minister of Ukraine.
“Washington openly backs fascist Svoboda party leader Oleh Tyahnybok…In 2004, Tyahnybok was expelled from former President Viktor Yushchenko’s parliamentary faction. He was condemned for urging Ukrainians to fight against a “Muscovite-Jewish mafia.”
In 2005, he denounced “criminal activities” of “organized Jewry.” He outrageously claimed they plan “genocide” against Ukrainians.”…
Tyahnybok extremism didn’t deter Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland. On February 6, she met openly with him and other anti-government leaders.
In early January, 15,000 ultranationalists held a torchlight march through Kiev. They did so to honor Nazi-era collaborator/mass murderer Stepan Bandera. Some wore uniforms a Wehrmacht Ukrainian division used in WW II. Others chanted “Ukraine above all” and “Bandera, come and bring order.” (Steve Lendman blog)
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started. They could still get him out of office. But instead, they want mass death. Don’t forget that.
.jpg)
