No. 3
March 1, 2022
All Out to Oppose Warmongering, Lies and Disinformation
What Is Pertinent and What Is Not in Considering Unfolding Events in Ukraine
Artificial
Intelligence and Fact Checking Can't Replace
Conscious Human
Thinking
Examples of False Social Media Postings About Ukraine
Thoughts on the Present Crisis in Ukraine
Dangers in Canada's Integration Into U.S. War Machine
All Out to Oppose Warmongering, Lies and Disinformation
What Is Pertinent and What Is Not in Considering Unfolding Events in Ukraine
This supplement of TML is published to provide our readers with important information and context for what is taking place in Ukraine today. This includes some of the history of current developments, including the U.S.-organized coup in 2014; the effort by the people of Donetsk and Luhansk to establish the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR); the bombardments by the Ukraine government in the Donbass that have killed an estimated 15,000 people, and other relevant developments.
The
aim of publishing this information from knowledgeable sources is
to
assist those seeking to verify the facts behind the conflict in
Ukraine
and demand solutions which settle the matter peacefully,
beginning with
opposing what the U.S. and NATO, including Canada, are doing.
The warmongering of the U.S., Canada and other NATO countries and their supporters is increasing in volume and intensity. It reeks of chauvinism and revanchism as it presents the U.S. and NATO countries as champions of freedom, democracy and peace while those who do not join them are portrayed as enemies, authoritarian, anti-people and the like. The first principle of any anti-war movement worthy of the name is to serve the cause of the peoples of the world, not pit one section against another in the name of high ideals. It is to favour solutions which will guarantee the peace, not foment the destruction of one country to serve the interests of others.
The jingoist war propaganda does not even make mention of the wars of aggression and occupation and crimes committed against the peoples of so many countries by the U.S. and NATO. This history shows without any shadow of doubt what the U.S. and NATO represent. It shows that their aims in Ukraine are not to defend freedom, democracy and peace. Their claim that this is a dangerous war because it is in Europe, covers up their crimes in Europe itself, as well as Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean and within the United States itself so that excuses are made for what they are doing today.
Minneapolis, February 24,
2022.
Evidence shows that in today's situation, the U.S./NATO aims are to use Ukraine to destroy Russia, also a European nation, whose independent existence and right to be the U.S. and NATO countries will not accept. Their chauvinist mania about European values is such that they choose who is legitimate and who is not on the basis of who agrees with what they call peace, freedom and democracy, all evidence to the contrary be damned. Who they are and what they stand for is to be ignored. Also missing from the equation is the fact that it is the peoples of the world who are fighting against the so-called values the U.S. and NATO countries represent with their very lives; every day they oppose their exploitation, oppression and humiliation.
The propagandists for the U.S. and its aggressive NATO alliance say this is the first war in Europe since World War II, conveniently forgetting to mention that they themselves bombed Yugoslavia to depose then President Slobodan Milosevic and dismember that country. Their 78-day bombardment killed thousands, caused terrible trauma, destroyed infrastructure, cultural patrimony of humanity, and gave status to drug traffickers and criminal elements as freedom fighters, subsequently used as private contractors in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and other countries.
In the name of
the imperialist doctrine "responsibility to protect,"
they instigated civil wars in Yugoslavia, blamed this or that
religious
or ethnic peoples and caused the first massive refugee crisis
under
their so-called New World Order which they also blamed on those
resisting the U.S. and
NATO dictate. In that war they claimed to be the liberators of
Kosovars, just as today they claim to be the liberators of a
self-servingly defined Ukranian people.
According to their chauvinist warmongering what is happening in Ukraine is unique because Ukraine is European and thus somehow worth more than if such a thing takes place in Asia, Africa, Latin America or the Caribbean. Attempts to portray the U.S., NATO and its "coalitions of the willing" as liberators will not erase the facts of what they are doing today or what they have done and continue to do in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and what is being done by them in Yemen, Syria and many other places. It will not erase the memory of the freedom-loving Europeans who grew up in the shadow of crimes committed against them during World War II, despite the takeover of their countries by self-serving private interests who have usurped the decision-making powers to seek their fortunes in wars of destruction and the sales of arms and munitions.
Canadians have to seriously ask themselves pertinent questions of which there are many. Why does the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, which makes up one-third of the population, not count in the eyes of the U.S. and NATO, including Canada? Why are they not defended as an integral part of the Ukrainian people but isolated and attacked in the name of high ideals? Why does Russia also not fight for the entire Ukrainian people but just identify those who it says make up its own kith and kin? Why is Russia isolated, not treated with respect but made the target of personalist anti-Putin defamation as if the use of police powers by his regime is substantially any different to what is taking place in the U.S., Canada and NATO countries? Why is Russia not treated as a European country -- not only the country with the largest landmass in Europe but in the entire world, the country which suffered 27 million losses during World War II whose peoples deserve respect? Why is converting Ukraine into a forward base to isolate Russia seen as heroic? It does not honour the heroic people of Ukraine who stood second to none in World War II and made the supreme sacrifice, as one with the Soviet Red Army, to liberate their country and all of Europe from the Nazi fascists.
Remember the history of the anti-war movement since the bombing of Yugoslavia. At each war, the movement had to oppose disinformation which sought to make sure the peoples of the world would not have a say in determining the outcome. Milosevic was demonized to get the peoples of Europe and the world to remain passive and not oppose the NATO bombing. They were accused of being supporters of Milosevic to cover up the aims of the U.S., the contradictions between the big powers of Europe and to keep the peoples of Europe out of the equation. The anti-war movement stood its ground and prevailed. What Milosevic was or was not doing was spun to justify the takeover and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, to divert attention from what the U.S., France, Germany and NATO were doing there. So too, when Iraq was invaded not only was Saddam Hussein, the erstwhile friend of the U.S., British and others demonized, but lies were piled up on lies to justify the invasion and heinous crimes there. The same applies to all the other cases of U.S. and NATO operations and those of their so-called coalitions of the willing.
In
the name of all those victims of U.S. and NATO aggression and
war, in
the name of all the victims of sanctions and the heinous crimes
the
U.S. has committed and seeks to justify, and in the name of all
those
who are victims of the use of force today, let us demand that
the U.S.
withdraw its troops and weapons from Europe. Let us demand that
NATO be
dismantled, that the security of Russia and other countries
being
destabilized by the U.S., British, Canadian and NATO warships
and
provocations be guaranteed and that the cause of peace prevail
by
resolving conflicts without resorting to the use of force.
Pitting military might against military might can only escalate an already dangerous situation. It is necessary to draw warranted conclusions about what is going on in Ukraine so as to effectively organize the peoples of the world as a force for peace, democracy and freedom. The need to strengthen the anti-war movement must necessarily oppose warmongering, lies and disinformation on an ongoing basis. This task is as great today as ever, if not more so because of the grand-scale presentation of NATO and the U.S. as liberators.
All out to mobilize the people to get Canada out of NATO, dismantle NATO and make Canada a zone for peace. Canadians need an anti-war government, not a government that engages in wars to establish U.S. as "the indispensable nation" at the expense of the legitimate concerns of all other countries and peoples.
Artificial Intelligence and Fact Checking Can't Replace Conscious Human Thinking
TML: Anna, many readers have told us that colleagues and friends and they themselves have fallen prey to inflammatory images which they thought showed civilian casualties and distress in Ukraine which turned out to not be true.
Anna Di Carlo: What is called fake news is a definite problem in the coverage of what is taking place in Ukraine. The "legacy media" -- the term used to describe pre-social media newspapers, news agencies, radio and television, such as the BBC, CBC and Reuters News -- are carrying reports about fake photos and videos related to the Ukraine-Russia military conflict. This refers to fake photos and videos on social media such as Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. The main feature is that they are designed to incite anti-Russia passions and foment war hysteria and panic. Reuters News Agency, in its "Fact Checking Section," provides a significant list of images posted on social media falsely claiming to represent current events in Ukraine.
These media outlets, and myriad other organizations have staff dedicated to exposing what is variably described as "fake news" "misinformation," "disinformation," "propaganda" and the like. They are said to work 24/7 to keep up with the avalanche of such fakes. Their exposures clearly show that the false postings are so prevalent that people must not only read the "news" to try to inform themselves about what is going on, but then also read the news about what is not really news, to make sure that they have not been incited by things that are simply not true or deliberately misleading.
Fake news "experts" give advice on what to do, such as checking to see if a social-media posting has been verified by "reliable" sources, meaning the legacy media. But the fact is that even when social media postings have been debunked, it is not uncommon to see outlets that are supposed to be reliable using the debunked information. This was the case with reports with sensationalist headlines about a residential building in Ukraine that was allegedly attacked by a Russian missile. It was established that the building was in fact hit by a Ukrainian missile, but photos of it, with claims that the Russians are targeting civilians, continue to be published.
All of this is evidence of the modus operandi of covert "intelligence agencies" to make sure people are caught up in the cycle of spin and counter-spin so that they spend no time working things out for themselves, establishing a vantage point from which they can comprehend the facts and draw warranted conclusions. It is to make sure the people do not become a factor which makes a difference. All of it covers up what is not spoken about by these news agencies and outlets which is the causes -- what has led to the current situation -- and the role of the peoples in securing a favourable outcome. Without this, solutions which the peoples can in good conscience get behind are illusive.
Most people are against wars. They are against the dislocation, deaths, casualties and suffering of the peoples of the affected countries. When they see images of any of these things which blame a particular party for the acts portrayed, then people understandably get very upset. It is only natural that in good conscience they speak out against it and against those said to be causing the suffering. It is also upsetting to see self-serving propaganda that does not treat the suffering of one section of the Ukrainian population the same as the suffering of another section. When section two suffers, there is silence. It is ignored or treated as if it is of no importance, or as collateral damage to a just cause.
In this regard, in all the talk about the "first" attack on Europeans, those seen to be Europeans apparently do not include the Yugoslavs whose country was bombed into submission twenty-three years ago this March. The air strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999 causing deaths, massive destruction and thousands upon thousands of refugees. This is not even considered a war in a European country. Russia is the largest European country, but it is not even considered European! The point is what should people do when they find out they have been duped?
Official media and social media are quite capable of pinpointing what is called fake news. When it comes to images, they use artificial intelligence for verification. Images are checked against a database of existing images. Software is also used to compare data embedded in a photo which indicates its true geo-location with the alleged location claimed at this time.
In the days when people had to contend with print media alone, the phenomenon was called yellow journalism. The Hearst publications and other papers were notorious for disseminating material that served the vested interests behind the newspapers. False news was often the act of covert operatives trying to frame a person or a movement, or instigate a false flag operation. During the Cold war it became a matter of the Nazi big lie technique -- "repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it." The Nazi propaganda machine was based on such lies and then the Cold Warriors picked it up -- both the technique and many of the same lies -- to justify their own striving for domination after World War II.
Today, the use of lies and false photos is integral to everyday life. It has been a major issue since the U.S. intelligence agencies distributed a photo of babies in incubators in Kuwait to say Saddam Hussein was killing babies, followed by the deliberate lying about weapons of mass destruction and so on. Whether it is through legacy media or social media platforms, it is clear that people find themselves at the mercy of purveyors of false facts circulated about what is happening "on the ground" in Ukraine. They are also at the mercy of the owners of certain social media platforms such as those controlled by the interests behind the U.S. war propaganda who are elevated to the status of censors who declare what is legitimate opinion and what is not. Certain countries adopt anti-hate laws or criteria about what endangers national security without the calm deliberation of the people. They are pushed and adopted hysterically by lawmakers who claim to represent the people.
"Winning the hearts and minds" of people has always been a part of military conflict and war. NATO calls it "cognitive warfare." When it is carried out by NATO, the people are told it is for the preservation of "peace and democracy;" when it is carried out by Russia or China or Cuba, the Palestinians or any nation that refuses to kowtow to the U.S.-led military alliance, it is said to be for the purpose of "duping the people."
In this regard, it is a matter of serious concern to Canadians that war-time censorship measures are being taken at this time without even bothering to invoke war measures legislation. For instance, the Canadian government has "suggested" that major TV service providers such as Bell and Rogers remove RT (Russia Today) News from their offerings. The service providers have done it on their own initiative and it is reported that the CRTC is going to investigate the status of RT News. It shows how the concepts of freedom of speech and association, and civil liberties themselves are nilly willy thrown out the window in the name of high ideals. Those who are provoking and encircling Russia in the name of protecting liberal democratic institutions are the first to destroy those institutions, standards and norms, which stand in the way of their plans as part of U.S. striving for domination.
Today the essence of the disinformation is to cover up that the ruling circles will not permit people to calmly debate what is going on and establish their own frame of reference which permits them to analyze the cause of unfolding events and how to provide problems with solutions which favour the peoples. They keep people embroiled in the spin and counter-spin which has the result that they cannot actively deploy their own agency as a force which determines the outcome of events. They are left at the mercy of powers which have usurped decision-making to serve narrow private supranational interests.
The character of warmongering, lies and disinformation is that they do not lead to understanding what is taking place and where solutions lie. The peoples are striving for peace, democracy and freedom. The saying "facts are stubborn things" is true but first the peoples have to establish which facts are relevant and which are not. In other words, to identify the facts that matter and permit the people to get at the heart of the matter is itself an important activity that requires fidelity to relations between humans and humans and humans and nature. In the absence of this, the likelihood of falling into every possible diversion is a real problem.
Basing oneself on these relations in this case will reveal that the conflict in Ukraine is provoked by the U.S., with Canada playing a dirty role second to none, by using Ukraine as a forward base to isolate Russia and disable it as a contender for control over what the U.S. and NATO consider to be their own interests, whether in Europe or the world. They show that the President of Russia and his government finally said "Enough!" and declared they had no way out but to launch a military operation to "demilitarize" and "denazify" Ukraine.
What is meant by this is that Russia wants to make sure Ukraine cannot be a forward base used to threaten Russia's interests. Putin said it was a desperate measure and that he favours a negotiated settlement which, clearly, unlike the Minsk Agreements, must be enforced. Meanwhile, the U.S. and NATO are escalating tensions by plotting revenge and deploying even more troops and munitions.
Underlying all of this, the curtain of disinformation tries to hide that what the U.S. and NATO are doing and what Russia is doing are the result of the so-called New World Order imposed by the United States and the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in 1990 in which Canada participated as well. The U.S. thought that with the end of the bi-polar division of the world it could declare itself the sole hegemon and force the entire world to submit to its interests. Instead conditions of great disequilibrium remain and the U.S. tries to continually pit Russia against China to secure its own advantage. Such a tri-polar division however is the most dangerous as no equilibrium can be established and conflicts intensify as seen with Ukraine. To secure its own interests, far from disbanding NATO, the U.S. ensured its expansion and continues to do so. Today the encirclement of Russia and the provocations carried out against it and against part of the Ukrainian population have become intolerable.
Opposing false news is a matter of the peoples of the world being able to find their bearings in a world where oligarchs of all kinds from all quarters have seized control of governments and the peoples have no say. It is the peoples who must determine what happens.
All the known facts tell the people that a political solution determined by them is required to bring the world out of this dark period of retrogression, reaction, aggression and war. That political solution requires people to take up the banner of democratic renewal to vest sovereignty in themselves and wrest power from the purveyors of war. It requires anti-war governments which provide the rights of all by virtue of being human, both at home and on the world scale, with a guarantee.
Examples
of False Social Media
Postings About Ukraine
Reuters News Agency "fact checking" reveals a long list of false information disseminated on social media about Ukraine. Similar lists appear on other media fact-checking sites.
One example is a video posted on Twitter which shows a young girl confronting a soldier, with a caption: "'Go back to your country': brave little girl confronts invading Putin's Army telling him to 'go home.'" Reuters informs that "social media users have incorrectly linked a 2012 video of a Palestinian girl confronting Israeli soldiers with Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine." The video, it says, "is nearly 10 years old and shows Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi confronting Israeli soldiers in the West Bank." For its part, Twitter has not removed the posting, but informs that "this media is presented out of context." A TikTok posting of a still shot from the same video carries the caption "Little Girl Try to Stop ... Pray for Ukraine" and was liked by over 800,000 viewers and circulated by 16,000 people.
This is hardly a brilliant discovery requiring the computing power of artificial intelligence: the backdrop is a desert; it is clearly hot weather, the young girl is wearing a sleeveless t-shirt.
Other items listed are:
- A CNN caption quoting Putin warning against India's interference in the 2022 Ukraine crisis is a fake. Social media users have shared a digitally altered screenshot of a CNN news clip that includes a caption quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying: "India should not interfere, otherwise be ready to face the consequences." Reuters found no evidence of this statement being reported by CNN or any other news outlet.
- Social media users are sharing a fabricated story
about a
CNN journalist allegedly killed in Ukraine amid Russia's recent
invasion. The posts are claiming CNN shared a tweet about the
man's
death amidst the ongoing crisis in Ukraine using the same
story
shared during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August
2021. - CNN
did not tweet that a journalist was killed in both Ukraine and
Afghanistan, a claim that stems from imposter accounts. No such
stories
were posted by the news outlet and the screen shots in the
tweets come
from unverified Twitter accounts posing as CNN pages.
- A photograph circulating online of an injured girl is from 2018 and was taken during the Syrian war, not Russia's invasion of Ukraine as users claim.
- Photos and a video captured during the 2014 Maidan protests in Ukraine, against the U.S. backed coup, have been shared on social media in February 2022 to falsely claim they depict crimes committed by Russia against civilians.
A photo of two children watching Ukrainian soldiers roll past atop two tanks have been falsely called Russian tanks today. Reuters has traced the photo back to 2016.
- A miscaptioned clip from the videogame Digital Combat Simulator has been circulating online, with social media users claiming it shows a Ukrainian fighter jet shooting down a Russian plane.
- A clip of artillery fire from what looks like a military camp in low light attributed to Russians dates to at least 2019, despite the clip being shared widely by social media users online as portraying current events.
- Video of a warehouse explosion is from Beirut in 2020, not Ukraine. The explosion in Beirut killed more than 200 people. It does not show civilians casualties incurred by Russians in Ukraine.
- A photo purported to portray Russia bombing Ukraine in 2022 is actually taken of the bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces in 2021.
On February 26, videos and photos were circulated in the media
with
headlines such as Russian Missile Hits Apartment Building in
Kyiv. The Russian Ministry of Defence issued a
statement
saying that the building was struck by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft
projectile. It stated: In attempts of repelling a rocket
attack
on the military infrastructure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,
failure
occurred in the missile guidance system of a Ukrainian AF-BUK-M1
medium-range air defence system and the missile hit the corner
of a
residential building. This assertion by the Russians has not
been refuted, but the photo continues to circulate as "evidence"
of
Russian attacks on civilians.
People are also taking to social media to denounce examples of false news, such as in the tweet below where a photo of damage done by Ukranian forces in the Donetsk region is presented as damage by Russian troops.
Thoughts on the Present Crisis in Ukraine
Fascist rally in
Odessa
Joe Lombardo is a well respected anti-war activist from Albany, New York.
The propaganda of the U.S. government and its media always looks at what is happening now and does not give us the whole picture. So, if the U.S. and its allies bully a country until it can take it no more and strikes back, you only hear about them striking back not what came before. It is especially important with the present crisis in Ukraine to look at what came before.
In 2013, the president of Ukraine was Viktor Yanukovych. He was a leader of the largest party in Ukraine called the Party of Regions, which generally wanted better relations with Russia. The U.S. and its European allies did not want Ukraine to have good relations with Russia and the U.S. poured $5 billion into Ukraine to support hundreds of NGOs to move the country more towards the U.S. and the West. Ukraine had been in a terrible economic crisis. The country, which once had about 53 million people shrank to about 41 million as people left to go mostly to European Union countries and to Russia to try and get a better life.
In 2014, Yanukovych was negotiating with both Russia and the EU for loans. The loan package from Russia seemed to be the best for Ukraine and he was leaning towards accepting it. The U.S. and the EU were opposed to Ukraine accepting the loan package from Russia.
In 2014 protesters took over Maidan Square in the center of Kiev to protest government corruption and the general circumstances of life in Ukraine.
Ukraine had been divided with a portion of the population having strong nationalist and right-wing, neo-Nazi politics. The right-wing was mainly organized into the Svoboda Party and the extreme right-wing Right Sector. People from these organizations came to Kiev from around the country and joined the protesters in Maidan Square. Many were armed and violent. The U.S. encouraged this. We may remember U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland coming to Maidan Square and offering the protesters treats. Also, Senator John McCain came to Maidan and spoke to the protesters encouraging them on. Imagine if Russian or Chinese officials came to Occupy Wall Street with treats and encourage us in our protests. The U.S. would have called this interfering in U.S. internal affairs and taken strong action.
Soon, the Maidan protest turned violent. The U.S. and its Western allies claimed it was caused by the police shooting at the demonstrators. The Ukrainian government and the police claimed they did not fire on the protesters. When I was in Kiev in 2019, I was escorted around by people who had opposed the Maidan protests. We went to Maidan Square, and they pointed out that the trees around Maidan Square were all newly planted.They told us all the trees were taken down in 2014 and an investigation of the violence was never carried out. They said the trees were taken down because they showed that the bullets were fired from a different angle than the U.S. and the protesters claimed, and that the bullets were not police bullets, but ones fired from high-powered rifles that the police did not have. Our Kiev hosts sent us videos that seemed to prove that the people were shot by snipers brought in from the country of Georgia. Most of those videos were eventually taken off of YouTube but this one has survived: click here.
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The Maidan protesters attacked government buildings and Yanukovych, fearing for his life, fled to Russia. The democratically elected government of Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a right-wing coup supported by the U.S. The question then arose of who would take his place. We may remember the hacked call between Victoria Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. In that call she named the person the U.S. chose to replace Yanukovych. It was Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a hard right member of Fatherland, which was a right-wing, ultra-nationalist, anti-Russian formation. It appeared that the Europeans, especially the Germans, wanted a more moderate figure to head Ukraine. They favoured Vitaly Klitschko, a boxer turned politician with more moderate views than Yatsenyuk. During the hacked call, we heard Nuland say, "F--- the EU," and, of course, the U.S. pick, Yatsenyuk became the first Prime Minister of Ukraine after the coup. The new finance minister in the coup government was Natalie Jeresko, from the U.S. and Joe Biden's son took a position on the board of the largest natural gas company in the country earning a salary of $50,000 per month.
At the time of this coup, UNAC [United National Antiwar Committee] wrote in a statement, "What are [the U.S.] objectives and why is Russia so alarmed? Could it be the U.S.-NATO campaign to militarily surround Russia and bring neighboring countries into the western military and financial orbit? It is clear that Russia will not passively sit by while the Western-backed coup, led by violent fascist forces ...overthrows a democratically elected government and installs a puppet regime on its border."
On the first day of the new coup government, they passed the Language Law. Although Russian had been one of the official languages in Ukraine and the primary language of about a third of the people in Ukraine, it was removed as an official language. So now, schools would be taught only in Ukrainian, street signs and all official documents would be in Ukrainian, even in the Russian speaking area. The Party of Regions, which had been the largest party in Ukraine, was banned along with what some believe to be the second largest party, the Communist Party. This is the "democracy" that the U.S. helped create.
Of course, Ukraine was not the first country that surrounds Russia that the U.S. and its NATO allies have moved into. Despite an agreement made by Secretary of State James Baker as the Soviet Union was dissolving that NATO would not move to any of the countries east of Germany, it is now in 14 of those countries. It has placed nuclear capable missiles near the Russian border (the Cuban missile crisis in reverse) and has held "war games" in these countries right at the Russian border. Now they want to move NATO into Ukraine, the country with the largest border with Russia of any of the other European countries. This will further surround Russia.
But it is not just that NATO will further surround Russia if Ukraine becomes part of NATO. It is also the fact that Ukraine has a vibrant neo-Nazi movement that is also part of the government. During World War II, there had been a Nazi movement in Ukraine. One of its central leaders was Stepan Bandera who was a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and a Nazi collaborator. The OUN was accredited with supporting and organizing massacres of Ukrainian Jews during WWII. Today, Bandera has been named a "hero of Ukraine." Groups such as the Svoboda Party and the Right Sector claim to be the heirs of Stepan Bandera.
The ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi movements are alive and well in Ukraine and in the Ukraine military. The Azov Brigade of the Ukrainian military openly uses fascist symbols like swastikas and uses fascist salutes. The Soviet Union including Russia lost more than 20 million people defeating the Nazis during World War II and are not happy to see fascism on their doorstep.
Members
of the Azov Brigade showing their Nazi sympathies along side
NATO
banner.
Many areas in Ukraine did not go along with the 2014 coup and opposed it. This was especially true in the Eastern and Southern areas of the country where many of the Russian speakers live. In the city of Odessa, a largely Russian speaking city, people protested the Kiev coup and set up an on-going protest camp outside of the House of Trade Unions in the city. This was a big threat to the Kiev government. Not only was Odessa one of the largest cities in the country but it was their main port, located on the Black Sea. On May 2, 2014 there was a football game in Odessa that brought people from throughout the country to the city. The fascists mobilized for this football game. Before the game was over, the fascists got messages on their phones to leave the stadium and march to the House of Trade Unions to attack the anti-Maidan protesters there.
A huge crowd of fascists attacked the anti-Maidan protesters, beat them and shot at them. Many ran into the building for protection. The fascist mob used Molotov cocktails and set the building on fire -- some were killed by smoke and some jumped from windows to be beaten to death on the ground. The police stood by and did nothing. Though the fire station was only blocks away, the fire trucks did not arrive until an hour after the House of Trade Unions was burning. Forty-eight people were killed, and hundreds injured. Although there are many cell phone videos of the entire event, some even showing the people firing guns, and making and throwing Molotov cocktails, none were arrested. But several of the victims were arrested. The next morning when people saw what had happened at the House of Trade Unions and heard that the victims had been arrested, 30,000 Odessans marched to the police station and set them free.
Each year on May 2, the people of Odessa hold a memorial to the people who were killed. Each year on that date the fascist groups mobilize and come to Odessa to try and stop the memorial. So, the people of Odessa ask for international observers as protection. UNAC has sent delegations there on two occasions. I went to Odessa to be an observer in May, 2019. There, we witnessed thousands come to the burnt-out House of Trade Unions building to lay flowers and commemorate those killed by the fascist mob. Groups of fascists, some wearing swastikas and other fascist symbols came to try and intimidate the crowd. During the middle of the afternoon, the families of those killed arrived and tried to address the crowd. But the police would not allow them to use their sound equipment. That night hundreds of fascists marched through the streets of Odessa and held a torch-light rally in the center of the city. The police allowed them to use their sound equipment. As they marched, they chanted "hang the communists from the trees."
Additionally, our host, a woman who arranged for our visit had her name put on a fascist web site just as we arrived and had to leave the country out of fear that she would be beaten or killed.
Crowds come to
memorialize those murdered at the House of
Trade
Unions. Fascists come to intimidate.
For video of fascist rally in the centre of Odessa click here.
Protests of the coup in Kiev also occurred in many places in the country including Crimea and in the Donbass regions in the eastern part of the country. These are areas where there are predominantly Russian speaking people. In these regions there are many families that have members on both sides of the border with Russia. Crimea had actually been part of Russia for hundreds of years but in 1954, when Ukraine and Russia were both part of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier at the time, gave Crimea to Ukraine, since it was close to both countries. When the Soviet Union dissolved, Crimea was part of the independent Ukraine. After the coup the people of Crimea protested and called for a vote in which more than 95 per cent voted to return to Russia. In the U.S. news media, you will hear that Russia invaded Crimea and took it back. This did not happen. There was no invasion. There was a Russian military base in Crimea that had been there when it was part of the Soviet Union and remained there with the agreement of Ukraine. This was the only Russian warm water navy base and strategically important for the Russian military. These Russian military personnel were in Crimea, but there where fewer of them than their contract with Ukraine allowed. There was no invasion and no interference by the Russian military stationed there.
In the Donbass region there were protests against the Kiev coup especially in the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk where the protesters took over government buildings. When the Ukrainian military came to stop them, they confronted the military. In most cases the military refused to fire on the people. Eventually, the People of Donetsk set up their own government called the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the people of Luhansk set up the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). These regions created militias to defend themselves from the Ukraine military and fighting persisted in the region. Russia, the Ukraine government and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) with mediation from France and Germany set up the Minsk Protocols, which were then signed by the DPR, the LPR and the Ukraine government. This was supposed to stop the fighting in the Donbass, but the agreement was continually broken by the Ukraine military and 14,000 people have been killed in the fighting in Donbass.
Over the past month or so we have heard that the Russians have been massing troops on their border with Donbass. But we have not heard that during this period the Ukrainian army had been massing troops in the area and had 150,000 troops there. The shelling of the independent regions in Donbass had greatly increased in the past month and on the day before the Russian troops entered Ukraine, it had reached an intolerable level and the leaders of these two independent republics asked Russia for help.
We hear in the U.S. media that there are civilians ready to fight the advancing Russian military, that many are leaving the country and perhaps there are civilian deaths in the hundreds. We have not heard the voices of people from Donbass, Crimea or the many who opposed the 2014 coup. We heard President Biden proclaim, "Who in god's name gave Putin the right to invade Ukraine?" The hypocrisy is amazing. Who gave the U.S. the right to invade Vietnam? Yugoslavia, Iraq? Afghanistan? Libya? Syria?[...] or support the Saudi invasion of Yemen or Israel's attacks on Palestine? Who gave them the right to sanction over 40 countries and create coups in one country after the next? The USA has its military all over the world. It has 20 times the number of foreign military bases as all other countries combined. The country with the second most foreign military bases is its NATO ally Britain and the country with the third most foreign bases is its NATO ally France. What about the 4 million Vietnamese who died or the million who died in Iraq or the 14,000 in Donbass? Who gave the U.S. or NATO the right to kill all these people?
The war in Ukraine may have been avoided simply if the U.S. had agreed to not admit Ukraine into NATO. But they refused to do this. The U.S. recognizes no legitimate security concerns of Russia.
The world is changing. The U.S. hegemony in political, economic, and military spheres is being challenged, mainly by China. Yet the U.S. refuses to recognize this and continues to bully the rest of the world. As the crisis in Ukraine is unfolding, the U.S. provocatively sent a warship through the Taiwan Strait near China. On the first day of the war in Ukraine, there was also a U.S. airstrike in Somalia, an Israeli airstrike in Damascus and 37 Saudi airstrikes in Yemen, but because the U.S. supports these, we hear nothing in our corporate media.
The only way to end the fighting and perhaps future conflicts is for the U.S. and its NATO allies to respect the legitimate security concerns of all countries; to respect the right of self determination of all people including those in Donbass and Crimea; to close U.S. foreign military bases and to bring the troops home and to end NATO.
(February 27, 2022)
Dangers in
Canada's Integration into
the U.S. War Machine
The situation in Ukraine shows how important it is to elaborate why Canada should get out of NATO and NORAD and how Canada's membership in NATO and NORAD are factors that contribute to war. Getting out of these and other aggressive alliances will make a contribution to peace internationally and contribute to the pro-social development of the economy.
There is a great
pressure at this time to make the issue
whether
Russia was or was not justified in its action in Ukraine.
CPC(M-L) has
indicated that the action was provoked by the U.S. and NATO.
This hits
at the heart of the matter, which is what are the factors for
war
internationally and what
contributes to peace? The Canadian government deliberately
presents the
situation as if Russia is acting irrationally, and repeats that
this
was an "unprovoked" attack. This is done to make the issue
Russia and
its actions, and to deliberately hide what Canada has done and
is doing
in the service of
the U.S. and its war machine to foment conflict and prepare for
war.
This creates the conditions for war itself. When conflict takes
place,
as it has over the prospect of Ukraine becoming a member of
NATO, then
all the war preparations aimed at Russia as the "threat" are
presented
as justified,
which is the height of cynicism and fraud. Canadians must speak
out now
to make clear that the escalation of war preparations is not the
way
forward and will only fan the flames of war.
Prior to the September federal election, the Trudeau Liberal government announced plans to spend more than $553 billion on war preparations over the next 20 years. Much of this funding will go into the U.S. war economy to purchase fighter jets, armed drones and other implements of war. It will be taken from the value produced by Canadian workers and handed over to the war monopolies.
TML pointed out that "This increased spending was confirmed the day before the election call when Canada's Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a joint statement agreeing to 'modernize' NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, and outlining 'priority areas for new investments.'
"Canada and the United States share a desire to coordinate in fielding new capabilities to complement and eventually replace the North Warning System with more advanced technological solutions as soon as possible. Ensuring effective awareness ultimately requires a system-of-systems approach including a network of Canadian and U.S. sensors from the sea floor to outer space."
It further pointed out: "'System-of-systems' is Pentagon jargon for Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD). NORAD modernization includes the positioning of U.S. missiles in Canada and weaponization of outer space as part of the U.S. ballistic missile shield. When BMD is declared operational, the U.S. and its war allies including the Canadian government believe and will then declare that 'a U.S. nuclear war is winnable' and a pre-emptive nuclear strike could be used. The U.S. war economy since 2014 has conducted 17 BMD tests of its 'system-of-systems' to 'destroy incoming ballistic missiles.'"[1]
There is a constant attempt to create conditions for Canada to join BMD in opposition to the public opinion that exists in Canada against such a thing. Canada joining would mean handing over more territory, money and authority over Canadian affairs to the U.S. military.
In the past, especially following 9/11, the pretext used by the U.S. was the need to protect itself from terrorist or rogue states. At the time Canadians spoke out all across the country against having any part of missile defence. Following the U.S. invasion of Iraq, and Canadians' strong opposition to that war of aggression coupled with their steadfast refusal to accept the placement of U.S. missiles in Canada, then Prime Minister Paul Martin, with his government in a minority situation, announced Canada would not participate.
Later, under Harper, the justification became one of countering an alleged attack from Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). After the Harper government made its contribution to trying to destroy public opinion on the question of missile defence, the Trudeau Liberals took up the mantle, albeit very quietly, when they were elected.
No doubt now with the response of Russia to NATO's constant provocations the Canadian ruling class may see it as an "opportunity" to let the cat out of the bag that they intend to pursue missile defence after all. Only now the pretext switches from a supposed threat to "North America" from Iran, or the DPRK, to Russia. Meanwhile the year by year increase in U.S. missiles on land and sea surrounding Russia, China and the DPRK is not to be considered a threat to those countries. What's good for the goose is not good for the gander.
The issue of the placement of U.S.-controlled missile systems in Eastern Europe and on Russia's borders is a serious matter, showing why NATO's expansion must be taken seriously. It is not just about embroiling more countries in the U.S. war machine, but expanding NATO's offensive weapons in existing NATO member countries.
For example, it was reported in November 2021 that a land-based Aegis surface-to-air missile system, also misnamed a Ballistic Missile Defence System, will be made operational at the end of 2022 in Redzikowo, Poland. The system has been there for a number of years; however the decision to make it operational was taken by the U.S. last year. Redzikowo is roughly 200 km from the border of Russia's port city of Kaliningrad. It also sits right on the Baltic Sea.
Such a system called "Aegis Ashore" already exists in Romania and has been operational since 2015. The Aegis system was originally designed to be based on ships. In 2017 the U.S. had 33 ships with the Aegis system on board, marauding the maritime borders of its adversaries in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Japan also has four warships with the systems, which it uses to patrol the waters around China and the DPRK.
It is important to note that these systems are not simply meant for defence against incoming missiles. They are first-strike systems meant to hit mid- to long-range targets on land, sea or in the air. This was clearly revealed for example when in July 2020 the head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command asked Congress to fund such a system in 2022, to be built in 2026 for Guam, to prepare for war with China. He made it clear that the system could provide offensive "long-range precision strike capability into the First Island Chain." The First Island Chain is defined by the U.S. as the chain of islands that begins at the Kuril Islands, runs through the Japanese Archipelago, the Ryukyu Islands and the island of Taiwan, the northwestern portion of the Philippines (particularly the islands of Luzon, Mindoro and Palawan) and finishes towards Borneo. The decision to place such a system in Guam, an unincorporated U.S. territory, came following Japan's cancellation of plans for such a system to be placed on its territory.[2]
The massive amount of public funds and corruption that goes along with such missile systems in the interests of the U.S. war machine is astounding. Each installation costs billions of dollars -- not to mention the destruction of the local environment and takeover of territory in the host country, with the U.S. military put in command of it.
The U.S. and NATO would no doubt want to place similar systems in Ukraine as well as the Canadian Arctic as part of preparing for war with their rivals. As far as Canada goes, the U.S. has made this very clear, and the Canadian ruling circles have already indicated it is something they also want to pursue. Canadians must remember that the Canadian Arctic shares a maritime border with Russia as well as a land border with Alaska. These territories are the hereditary lands of the Inuit and other Indigenous peoples and belong to them.
In the face of the dangerous provocations of NATO and the escalation of war preparations it is critical that Canadians speak out against attempts to expand NATO, modernize NORAD and other euphemisms for increasing the militarization of the economy and turning Canada into a base for U.S.-led wars and provocations against the peoples of the world.
Notes
1. "Oppose Attempts to Embroil Canada in U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence," TML Monthly, October 10, 2021.
2. "INDOPACOM Wants Billions to Build, as Pentagon Plans Cuts to Overseas Presence," Breaking Defense, July, 23, 2020.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca