Fascism's Ugly Face in Ukraine

Fascism's Ugly Face in Ukraine

by Stephen Lendman

Far-right Ukrainian ultranationalists are fascist extremists. Washington provides support. Oleh Tyahnybok heads the neo-Nazi Svoboda party. It's allied with likeminded groups.

They openly display Stepan Bandera's Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN-B) red and black flag.

He was a Nazi collaborator. He participated in mass executions and ethnic cleansing.

Svoboda's slogan is "Ukraine for the Ukrainians." Bandera said the same thing. He wanted Ukraine made ethnically pure. Mass extermination followed to do so.

Svoboda earlier called itself Socialist-Nationalists. It bears erie resemblance to Hitler's National Socialism. It reflects fascism writ large.

Hooliganism is longstanding fascist strategy. Blackshirt and Brownshirt violence helped elevate Mussolini and Hitler to power respectively.

Communists, socialists, unionists and other opponents were attacked. El Duce's 1922 March on Rome coup made him Italy's youngest ever prime minister.

He took full advantage. He established a one-party state dictatorship. He eliminated competitors. Italy's business class, military and moderate right wing supported him.

In Weimar Germany's final years, economic and political crisis conditions existed. Ahead of 1932 parliamentary elections, Prussian authorities reported about 300 acts of politically motivated violence.

About two dozen were killed. Hundreds of others were injured. Brownshirt storm troopers enlisted working class support.

Goebbels provoked communists and social democrats. Propaganda highlighted Nazi martyrs killed or injured in street battles.

Hitler's Mein Kampf was a revolutionary manifesto. It denounced what he called the world's twin evils - communism and Judaism.

It openly said Germany's future "lie('s) in the acquisition of land in the East at the expense of Russia."

He blamed Weimar governance, communists, social democrats and Jews for Germany's crisis. He wanted an entirely new order established.

He wanted absolute control. He eliminated all competitors. He transformed Germany into a one-party state dictatorship. He wanted Nazi hegemony over Europe.

Right-wing extremism dominates Western societies today. America more than ever resembles a police state. Duopoly power runs things.

Rule of law principles don't matter. Human and civil rights are disappearing in plain sight. Friendly US fascism is increasingly unfriendly. It's a short leap to tyrannical rule.

Ideological extremists threaten Europe. They're more subtle than earlier day fascists. They're just as dangerous. They want unchallenged power replacing democratic freedoms.

Neoliberalism replaced social justice. Right-wing politics dominates. US Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin.

Not a dime's worth of difference separates them. Most of Europe operates the same way. Societies are increasingly unfit to live in.

Hard line fascism is a short leap away. Con men like Obama and like-minded European counterparts take full advantage. Powerful interests are served at the expense of all others.

In summer 2013, months before violence erupted in Ukraine, Svoboda conducted paramilitary training.

Obama supports its extremism. So do key EU partners. Fascist elements operated openly in Ukraine since Washington's 2004 Orange Revolution.

Democratically elected Viktor Yanukovoych was ousted. Viktor Yushchenko replaced him.

Soros money was involved. So were State Department funded organizations. In January 2010, Yanukovych was reelected.

He defeated Yushchenko. His last presidential act was naming Bandera a Hero of Ukraine.

It's the highest national title award. It's given for "personal heroism and great labor achievements." Honoring Bandera caused uproar in Russia, Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish groups condemned it. His award was later revoked.

Post-war, he worked for West German intelligence. Washington-recruited Nazi General Reinhardt Gehlen headed it. In 1959, KGB assassins killed him.

His close associates were CIA and MI6 operatives. Their past Nazi affiliation was no deterrent.

Bandara's legacy thrives in Ukraine today. His present day counterparts get open US support.

In late January, Ukrainian leaders, civic groups and religious organizations wrote Washington, EU officials and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

They condemned neo-Nazi support. They said in part:

"You should understand that in supporting the actions of the guerrillas in Ukraine…you...are directly protecting, inciting and egging on Ukrainian neo-Nazis and neo-fascists."

"None of these oppositionists (Yatsenyuk, Klitschko, and Tyahnybok) hide that they are continuing the ideology and the practices of the OUN-UPA."

"Wherever the Euromaidan people go in Ukraine, they disseminate, besides the slogans mentioned above, neo-Nazi, racist symbols."

"Also confirming the neo-Nazi nature of the Euromaidan is the constant use of portraits of the bloody executioners of our people, Bandera and Shukhevych - agents of the (Nazi military intelligence) Abwehr."

"Have the UN, the EU, and the USA ceased to recognize the Charter and Verdict of the International War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremburg, where the Hitlerite Nazis and their henchmen were convicted?"

"Have human rights ceased to be a value for the countries of the EU and the world community?"

"Is the Ukrainian nationalists' devotion to Hitler and his mass murders of civilians now considered democracy?"

Western-supported fascist elements are responsible for violent protests. They're terrorizing Ukrainians. They're murdering civilians. They're killing police.

They're occupying government buildings. They're setting others ablaze. Yanukovych defends his country responsibly.

He's wrongfully blamed for their violence. He's battling fascism's ugly agenda.

Rogue elements support it. Others are duped to do so. Washington and EU partners fund it. Most Ukrainians have no idea what's going on.

Their futures are on the line. So is Ukraine's sovereignty. Eighty-one years ago this past January 30, Hitler rose to power.

He became Germany's chancellor. He did so with Western support. He kept it through much of the 1930s.

He established a ruthless dictatorship. Mass slaughter, barbarism and anti-Semitism defined it. He ravaged most of Europe. He murdered millions.

He might have emerged victorious if he hadn't invaded Soviet Russia. Waging war on two major fronts defeated him. Imagine if things turned out the other way.

Fascism didn't die. It's alive and well. It resides in Europe. It thrives in America. US policy exceeds the worst of Nazi crimes.

Hitler's Third Reich lasted a dozen years. Post-WW II America wages war on humanity. It does so at home and abroad.

Millions ruthlessly slaughtered attest to America's ruthlessness. Syria is in the eye of the storm. So is Ukraine. Both countries are US-instigated battlegrounds.

How many more will die before both conflicts end? What will happen in their aftermath?

How many more countries will America attack? Venezuela is the top Western Hemisphere target. Iran tops the Middle East list.

Trotsky once wrote:

"Fascism is a particular governmental system based on the uprooting of all elements of proletarian democracy within bourgeois society."

"The task of fascism lies not only in destroying the Communist vanguard but in holding the entire class in a state of forced disunity."

"To this end, the physical annihilation of the most revolutionary section of the workers does not suffice."

"It is also necessary to smash all independent and voluntary organizations, to demolish all the defensive bulwarks of the proletariat, and to uproot whatever has been achieved during three-quarters of a century by the Social Democracy and the trade unions."

European Jews suffered most under Hitler. So did all other Third Reich enemies.

Washington wants all challengers eliminated. It wants supreme global power. It's waging war on humanity to achieve it.

It may end up destroying it altogether. How many wars are too many? How many more millions will suffer and die? How much more ravaging is too much?

When will Washington's imperial agenda be challenged? When will White House lies be universally denounced?

On February 20, an Office of the Press Secretary statement wrongfully blamed Yanukovych. It ignored months of US-instigated, manipulated, supported street violence. It lied said:

"We are outraged by the images of Ukrainian security forces firing automatic weapons on their own people."  

"We urge President Yanukovych to immediately withdraw his security forces from downtown Kyiv and to respect the right of peaceful protest, and we urge protesters to express themselves peacefully."  

"We urge the Ukrainian military not to get involved in a conflict that can and should be resolved by political means."   

"The use of force will not resolve the crisis - clear steps must be taken to stop the violence and initiate meaningful dialogue that reduces tension and addresses the grievances of the Ukrainian people."  

"The United States will work with our European allies to hold those responsible for violence accountable and to help the Ukrainian people get a unified and independent Ukraine back on the path to a better future."

It bears repeating. Washington bears full responsibility. Plans to topple Yanukovych were made well before violence erupted.

Obama chose when and how to initiate it. He's in league with Ukrainian fascist extremists. He wants another imperial trophy. He'll stop at nothing to get it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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