Flag and war By Victor Shapinov Maidan supporters love to paint all sorts of surfaces in the blue and yellow colors of the national flag of Ukraine, approved in 1991. This year they tied yellow-and-blue ribbons on trees and bridges, capturing city spaces. The repainting of cities serves as a symbolic addition to the forced suppression of dissenters practiced by Maidan nationalists. During the 23 years of independence, the blue-and-yellow flag never became a symbol of a Ukrainian civil nation, which would be able to unite people of different languages and different cultures. The blue-and-yellow flag was the banner of ethnic Ukrainian nationalism, which based its policies on hostile confrontation with non-Ukrainians. For 23 years, the blue-and-yellow flag was a symbol of the linguistic, cultural and political oppression of non-Ukrainian sections of the population. The blue-and-yellow flag was also a symbol of social oppression of the working majority of the population. Under this flag, a 1% oligarchy grew up. Under this flag, 70% of the population were on the verge of poverty, or impoverished. Today, under the blue-and-yellow flag, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk announces the sale of state property. Under this flag, Kolomoisky pumps oil from the Odessa-Brody pipeline and sells it, along with body armor, to the Army at exorbitant prices. Soldiers die for him and his fellow oligarchs’ profit. Under the blue-and-yellow flag, the association agreement with the EU and the conditions for obtaining the IMF loan were signed – meaning increased tariffs for the population and cuts in social spending. Under the blue-and-yellow flag, editors of opposition newspapers are smashed and dissenters are forced to shout Glory to Ukraine! Under the blue-and-yellow flag, inhabitants of Odessa were burned and killed in the House of Trade Unions on May 2. Today, under the blue-and-yellow flag of the Kiev regime, representing the richest part of the Ukrainian oligarchy, a colonial war is fought in the Donbass. Under the blue-and-yellow flag, militia who dared to take up arms in the struggle against 21st century fascism are killed. Under the blue-and-yellow flag, blocks of flats in Donetsk and Lugansk are destroyed, and civilians killed. Under the blue-and-yellow flag, opponents are arrested, tortured and intimidated, kidnapped and murdered. Recently, a group of Muscovites painted in blue and yellow colors the star on top of the Stalin-era skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment in Moscow. The pro-Maidan climbers also hung the blue-and-yellow flag of Ukraine. During the Maidan, or in February, immediately after the coup in Kiev, such support and solidarity could still be attributed to ignorance. Indeed, many Moscow liberals believed that the Right Sector was a myth created by the Russian media, that there were no Bandera supporters in Kiev, and that Maidan stood against the oligarchs and for freedom of speech. Today, even the most naive realize that Maidan brought to power a disgusting bloc of the parasitic oligarchy, its neoliberal political servants, and explicit Nazis. Maidan gave all the levers of power to the Ukrainian billionaires, making one of them president and the others governors. Maidan has narrowed the space of possible political expression to the limits of support for the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” and the policies of the new government. Maidan actually declared all its political opponents criminals: separatists and terrorists. Those who today hang the blue and yellow flag in Moscow support the policy of the new Ukrainian regime. It is a public endorsement of the neoliberal-fascist aims and methods of the new Kiev authorities. Moreover, they would like such a policy and such a government for Russia. The events of the winter, spring and summer of 2014 show that there is no one country built under the blue-and-yellow flag. The concept of an ethnic-nationalist Ukrainian state was at best tolerated when it moved by relatively peaceful methods under Kravchuk and Kuchma, Yushchenko and Yanukovych. When it began to be imposed by force, the country began to fall apart. Under the banner of the oligarchs and nationalists, a multinational territory with different languages and cultures cannot unite. Under the banner of the oligarchs and nationalists, it is impossible to keep working-class Donbass or internationalist Odessa. One country within these borders was possible under the red banner of labor, as the unity of the workers of different nationalities and different languages. This unity was directed against parasite-capitalists and the worst enemies of the Ukrainian people -- the pro-Bandera Ukrainian Nationalists, against those whose historical heirs are today Kiev’s princes. Ukraine in its present borders was built under the red flag with the hammer and sickle. Under the blue-and-yellow flag, the country awaited the gradual degradation of industry and the social structure, which this year switched to territorial disintegration. Unity of the Novorossiya and Ukrainian land was only possible within the framework of a socialist federation. The ethnocratic, oligarchic dictatorship installed by Maidan leads only to further disintegration, war and devastation. borotba.org/flag_i_vojna.html Флаг и война Сторонники Майдана любят раскрашивать всевозможные поверхности в цвета желто-синего национального флага Украины, утвержденного в 1991 году, повязывают желто-синие ленточки на деревья и мосты, «захватывая» таким образом пространство городов. Это перекрашивание городов служит как бы символическим допо…
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 15:19:32 +0000
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