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Related: About this forumCPUSA sends protest letter to President Obama on Ukraine
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CPUSA sends protest letter to President Obama on Ukraine
by: Special to PeoplesWorld.org
May 16 2014
The following is a letter of protest to President Barack Obama from the Communist Party USA regarding the political and violent attacks in the Ukraine by the Right Sector against the Communist Party of the Ukraine, the Ukrainian Jewish communities and other minorities and progressives.
May 14, 2014
Dear President Barack Obama,
We write to you because of our grave concern over recent events in the Ukraine. On May 2, reports state, 1,000 extreme right-wing thugs attacked their fellow Ukrainian citizens in Odessa, setting fire to a union hall to which many had fled. At least 40 people perished in the blaze. A few days later on May 6, members of parliament from the Communist Party of the Ukraine - a party that had won 32 seats in Ukraine's Rada (federal parliament) in the 2012 election - were banned from the legislative chamber, according to news reports. Under the leadership of the Right Sector, the drive to outlaw the Communist Party and "communist ideology" is underway with a push for legislation that would implement such anti-democratic measures.
This comes on the heels of anti-Semitic attacks on Jewish Ukrainians and synagogues, attacks on other minorities, and attacks on the central office of the Communist Party in Kiev, which was ransacked and burned, and on regional Communist leaders and activists. The list of outrages could go on.
U.S. policy in the Ukraine purports to uphold democracy, yet reports in the German publication Bild indicate that FBI and CIA operatives are active with Ukrainian "security" forces, including these far right wing forces. How is it democratic to purge a legitimately elected party from parliament? How is it democratic to violently target Communists and others in the Ukraine who disagree with the direction of the right-wing-led acting government? Besides violating the basic premise of national sovereignty, U.S. policy is aiding and abetting the most violent and reactionary forces to grab power all in the name of fighting the Russians.
The United States has its own sordid anti-democratic history of banning the Communist Party and conducting witch hunts against Communists and any person suspected of holding left-wing and progressive political views. During the Cold War McCarthy era people went to jail for the simple act of thinking these thoughts - in the legal terminology it was called "conspiracy to teach." The persecution of left and progressive people during this period has been widely considered a deep stain on the democratic ideals of freedom of speech and freedom of association ...
More here: http://peoplesworld.org/cpusa-sends-protest-letter-to-president-obama-on-ukraine/
socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)Remember it's up to the working class in the USA to do all in our power to stop US imperialism. Our solidarity needs to be international, but it's not up to the Ukrainians to stop the US, it's up to us. Nor is it up to the US working class to stop Franco/German imperialist ambitions. That task belongs to the French and German workers.
It is a step though, IMO, and a good one. Thanks for posting T.
2banon
(7,321 posts)Problem is the working class in this country is largely made up of folks who do not identify with "liberal" causes, much less any association with the left, most especially with any policy that might be viewed as "sympathetic" to the plight of "communists in Ukraine . The message of the Cold War propaganda runs mighty deep in this country.
The effort and strategy to deprogram the American Working Class has been challenging to say the least. And that's putting a positive spin on it, unfortunately.
TBF
(32,081 posts)guns & God to head us off at the pass and they have been very successful with that. You'd think folks would notice the economy at some point though ..
2banon
(7,321 posts)Seems like the economy will have to get so much worse than the great depression of the 30's before we see a "sea change" in the low-wage, working slave Class's thinking.
Hey I have an idea, we could start by creating a party called the Working Class Party, you know, what the Democratic Party stood for up until Clinton.
2banon
(7,321 posts)None of this will be read, much less any of the content questions/message given any consideration or an iota of regard. It isn't even likely the president or his aides will bring this to Obama's attention, unfortunately.
TBF
(32,081 posts)I'm much more concerned with what average folks think. There may be key words like "communist" that scare them, but I think overall most people want many of the same things - and it sure isn't constant war-mongering or hoarding of all the money by the 1%.
2banon
(7,321 posts)Yeah, just the word "communist" creates mental road blocks - fortified with generations of hard core propaganda. It's practically in the "dna" of american mentality to be "anti-communist" without even so much as having an inkling of what it means, and it will always be associated with a failed state.
The only way I see getting around that is to retire the terminology, the actual word communist, changing the Party name, organize on the principles. Before you say it, I know that's not going to happen because of the tenacious attachment to the identity with the party name.
I just don't know how we overcome this dilemma.