[Reader-list] Fascism in Ukraine

[A. Mani]

Source:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-and-the-rebirth-of-fascism-in-europe/5366852

Related: http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-conquest-by-subversion-victoria-nulands-admits-washington-has-spent-5-billion-to-subvert-ukraine/5367782
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Ukraine and the Rebirth of Fascism in Europe

By Eric Draitser
Global Research, January 31, 2014
stopimperialism.org

The violence on the streets of Ukraine is far more than an expression
of popular anger against a government.  Instead, it is merely the
latest example of the rise of the most insidious form of fascism that
Europe has seen since the fall of the Third Reich.

Recent months have seen regular protests by the Ukrainian political
opposition and its supporters -  protests ostensibly in response to
Ukrainian President Yanukovich's refusal to sign a trade agreement
with the European Union that was seen by many political observers as
the first step towards European integration.  The protests remained
largely peaceful until January 17th when protesters armed with clubs,
helmets, and improvised bombs unleashed brutal violence on the police,
storming government buildings, beating anyone suspected of
pro-government sympathies, and generally wreaking havoc on the streets
of Kiev.  But who are these violent extremists and what is their
ideology?

The political formation is known as "Pravy Sektor" (Right Sector),
which is essentially an umbrella organization for a number of
ultra-nationalist (read fascist) right wing groups including
supporters of the "Svoboda" (Freedom) Party, "Patriots of Ukraine",
"Ukrainian National Assembly - Ukrainian National Self Defense"
(UNA-UNSO), and "Trizub".  All of these organizations share a common
ideology that is vehemently anti-Russian, anti-immigrant, and
anti-Jewish among other things.  In addition they share a common
reverence for the so called "Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists"
led by Stepan Bandera, the infamous Nazi collaborators who actively
fought against the Soviet Union and engaged in some of the worst
atrocities committed by any side in World War II.

While Ukrainian political forces, opposition and government, continue
to negotiate, a very different battle is being waged in the streets.
Using intimidation and brute force more typical of Hitler's
"Brownshirts" or Mussolini's "Blackshirts" than a contemporary
political movement, these groups have managed to turn a conflict over
economic policy and the political allegiances of the country into an
existential struggle for the very survival of the nation that these so
called "nationalists" claim to love so dearly.  The images of Kiev
burning, Lviv streets filled with thugs, and other chilling examples
of the chaos in the country, illustrate beyond a shadow of a doubt
that the political negotiation with the Maidan (Kiev's central square
and center of the protests) opposition is now no longer the central
issue.  Rather, it is the question of Ukrainian fascism and whether it
is to be supported or rejected.

For its part, the United States has strongly come down on the side of
the opposition, regardless of its political character.  In early
December, members of the US ruling establishment such as John McCain
and Victoria Nuland were seen at Maidan lending their support to the
protesters.  However, as the character of the opposition has become
apparent in recent days, the US and Western ruling class and its media
machine have done little to condemn the fascist upsurge.  Instead,
their representatives have met with representatives of Right Sector
and deemed them to be "no threat."  In other words, the US and its
allies have given their tacit approval for the continuation and
proliferation of the violence in the name of their ultimate goal:
regime change.

In an attempt to pry Ukraine out of the Russian sphere of influence,
the US-EU-NATO alliance has, not for the first time, allied itself
with fascists.  Of course, for decades, millions in Latin America were
disappeared or murdered by fascist paramilitary forces armed and
supported by the United States.  The mujahideen of Afghanistan, which
later transmogrified into Al Qaeda, also extreme ideological
reactionaries, were created and financed by the United States for the
purposes of destabilizing Russia.  And of course, there is the painful
reality of Libya and, most recently Syria, where the United States and
its allies finance and support extremist jihadis against a government
that has refused to align with the US and Israel.  There is a
disturbing pattern here that has never been lost on keen political
observers: the United States always makes common cause with right wing
extremists and fascists for geopolitical gain.

The situation in Ukraine is deeply troubling because it represents a
political conflagration that could very easily tear the country apart
less than 25 years after it gained independence from the Soviet Union.
 However, there is another equally disturbing aspect to the rise of
fascism in that country - it is not alone.

The Fascist Menace Across the Continent

Ukraine and the rise of right wing extremism there cannot be seen, let
alone understood, in isolation.  Rather, it must be examined as part
of a growing trend throughout Europe (and indeed the world) - a trend
which threatens the very foundations of democracy.

In Greece, savage austerity imposed by the troika (IMF, ECB, and
European Commission) has crippled the country's economy, leading to a
depression as bad, if not worse, than the Great Depression in the
United States.  It is against this backdrop of economic collapse that
the Golden Dawn party has grown to become the third most popular
political party in the country.  Espousing an ideology of hate, the
Golden Dawn - in effect a Nazi party that promotes anti-Jewish,
anti-immigrant, anti-women chauvinism - is a political force that the
government in Athens has understood to be a serious threat to the very
fabric of society.  It is this threat which led the government to
arrest the party's leadership after a Golden Dawn Nazi fatally stabbed
an anti-fascist rapper.  Athens has launched an investigation into the
party, though the results of this investigation and trial remain
somewhat unclear.

What makes Golden Dawn such an insidious threat is the fact that,
despite their central ideology of Nazism, their anti-EU,
anti-austerity rhetoric appeals to many in the economically devastated
Greece.  As with many fascist movements in the 20th Century, Golden
Dawn scapegoats immigrants, Muslim and African primarily, for many of
the problems facing Greeks.  In dire economic circumstances, such
irrational hate becomes appealing; an answer to the question of how to
solve society's problems.  Indeed, despite Golden Dawn's leaders being
jailed, other party members are still in parliament, still running for
major offices including mayor of Athens.  Though an electoral victory
is unlikely, another strong showing at the polls will make the
eradication of fascism in Greece that much harder.

 Were this phenomenon confined to Greece and Ukraine, it would not
constitute a continental trend.  Sadly however, we see the rise of
similar, albeit slightly less overtly fascist, political parties all
over Europe.  In Spain, the ruling pro-austerity People's Party has
moved to establish draconian laws restricting protest and free speech,
and empowering and sanctioning repressive police tactics.  In France,
the National Front Party of Marine Le Pen, which vehemently scapegoats
Muslim and African immigrants, won nearly twenty percent of the vote
in the first round of presidential elections.  Similarly, the Party
for Freedom in the Netherlands - which promotes anti-Muslim,
anti-immigrant policies - has grown to be the third largest in
parliament.  Throughout Scandinavia, ultra nationalist parties which
once toiled in complete irrelevance and obscurity are now significant
players in elections.  These trends are worrying to say the least.

It should be noted too that, beyond Europe, there are a number of
quasi-fascist political formations which are, in one way or another,
supported by the United States.  The right wing coups that overthrew
the governments of Paraguay and Honduras were tacitly and/or overtly
supported by Washington in their seemingly endless quest to suppress
the Left in Latin America.  Of course, one should also remember that
the protest movement in Russia was spearheaded by Alexei Navalny and
his nationalist followers who espouse a virulently anti-Muslim, racist
ideology that views immigrants from the Russian Caucasus and former
Soviet republics as beneath "European Russians".  These and other
examples begin to paint a very ugly portrait of a US foreign policy
that attempts to use economic hardship and political upheaval to
extend US hegemony around the world.

In Ukraine, the "Right Sector" has taken the fight from the
negotiating table to the streets in an attempt to fulfill the dream of
Stepan Bandera - a Ukraine free of Russia, Jews, and all other
"undesirables" as they see it.  Buoyed by the continued support from
the US and Europe, these fanatics represent a more serious threat to
democracy than Yanukovich and the pro-Russian government ever could.
If Europe and the United States don't recognize this threat in its
infancy, by the time they finally do, it might just be too late.

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