Vol. 79/No. 24      July 13, 2015

These attacks endanger the working class and labor movement in Ukraine and the political rights of all the oppressed and exploited.

Since the overthrow of the pro-Moscow regime of Viktor Yanukovych by the massive Maidan mobilizations in February 2014, the capitalist government that has been consolidated has organized an offensive against Ukrainian workers and farmers aimed at making production and trade more profitable. They have been pushed along this course by demands from the International Monetary Fund, Washington and the European Union as conditions for loans and financial backing.

At the same time, Ukraine has faced separatist combat by pro-Moscow forces backed by troops and weaponry from Russia, first in Crimea, which Moscow annexed, and then in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

To justify the attacks, the Kiev government accuses the Communist Party, other groups that oppose the government’s course, and workers who have protested against lack of pay and attacks on their unions of being a “fifth column” in the battle with Moscow.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said the CP “does not have the right to appear in the Ukrainian political spectrum due to the crimes committed in the past and in our times.”

The national headquarters of the Communist Party in Kiev has been attacked more than once, and regional offices of the party and its youth organization, the Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine, have been targeted. Personal information on party supporters has been posted on right-wing websites. Members have been beaten, “disappeared,” and killed.

Right Sector forces seized the CP national headquarters building April 9, 2014. When they left, they set it on fire.

When new offices were opened they were attacked. In December 2014, thugs broke into a Kiev district office of the CP and brutalized Igor Plitsyn, city committee leader of Leninist Communist Youth Union of Ukraine.

On Jan. 11, 2015, the party’s headquarters in Kiev’s Sviatoshynsky district was set afire overnight with Molotov cocktails.

These attacks on party members and offices have been increasingly coupled with government efforts to ban the CP, jail its leaders and make support for it illegal.

Moves to ban Ukrainian CP

At the outset the party had a significant following, especially in Ukraine’s east and south. CP General Secretary Petro Symonenko received some 39 percent of the vote for president in 1999.

As support for Ukraine’s independence from Moscow’s influence and control grew, especially after “Orange Revolution” protests in 2004, the party’s support dropped. In 2010, Symonenko obtained 3.5 percent of the vote for president. In 2012 the CP got over 13 percent and was allocated 32 parliamentary seats.

After the overthrow of Yanukovych, whose pro-Moscow policies the party backed, the CP was unpopular and isolated in many parts of Ukraine. It called the Maidan movement a “coup” and backed Moscow’s moves in Crimea and the east.

Figures in the new government campaigned to drive the CP out of politics.

When Symonenko announced he was running for president in March 2014, he faced physical threats and harassment. The government announced it was initiating criminal charges against him. He withdrew from the campaign May 16.

Speaker of Parliament and Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov asked the Justice Ministry to investigate the CP with an eye to banning the party.

After six CP members of parliament resigned from their bloc in July, a special discriminatory law was adopted stating that any party faction losing members could be dissolved. On July 24, amidst a heated debate in which Symonenko was assaulted on the floor of parliament, Turchynov dissolved the CP bloc.

Over the next few days, some 308 criminal proceedings were initiated against party members and leaders, including members of parliament.

The Security Service of Ukraine and national Prosecutor’s Office announced legal proceedings to ban the CP. These proceedings were bottled up in Kiev district courts for months. In February all of the district court judges recused themselves from handling the case in protest against government pressure to rule against the CP. Prosecutors now seek to transfer the case to a different court.

New ‘decommunization’ laws

The law has been criticized in Ukraine and internationally, including by Halya Coynash of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group. A letter to Poroshenko from 70 scholars in Ukraine, Germany, Canada, U.S., U.K. and other countries urged him not to sign.

“According to these laws, communist ideology, symbols and even the name ‘communist’ is under prohibition,” CP leader Symonenko said in a statement. “It means direct repressions, physical and mental pressure and even criminal prosecution of the members of the CPU and other leftists.”

Under the law it is estimated that 871 cities, towns and villages in Ukraine will be forced to change their names, as well as thousands of streets, parks, public schools and other places.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has asked the Ministry of Justice to investigate the legality of three political parties — the CP and two earlier splits from it, the Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed) and the Party of Laborers and Peasants — based on noncompliance with the laws. They have not brought their names, charters and symbols into compliance, he said.

Meanwhile, assaults on CP members and others who have spoken out against the policies of the Kiev government continue.

On April 16, Oles Buzyna, a journalist and author who supports Moscow’s foreign policy, was shot and killed by masked gunmen outside his home in Kiev.
 
 
Related articles:
Attacks on CP a danger to entire working class
 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home