Stop the US/NATO Encirclement of Russia
Money for Jobs, Healthcare, Income Support Not War Profiteers!
US-Trained-and-Funded Ukrainian Nazi Troops Bombing Civilians For Years
The war in Ukraine did not start yesterday. With full U.S. backing, Ukraine has been bombing and shelling the antifascist resistance fighters in the Donbass for eight years, killing at least 14,000 men, women, and children. For eight years Ukrainians have endured the daily terror of fascist raids and terrorist assaults by U.S.-armed-and-trained Gestapo forces that came to power in 2014 when the U.S. enlisted Nazis to violently remove the elected government and install a puppet regime.
Fascists in groups like the Right Sector and the Azov battalion are no different from the KKK. These are the same forces that besieged and set fire to a union hall in Odessa in 2014, burning alive more than 40 antifascist resisters inside.
The move for a referendum in Crimea where residents voted to rejoin Russia and the move to establish the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were defensive measures against the daily incursions of swastika-waving thugs terrorizing the population.
These Nazis act as shock troops for U.S.-enforced austerity, which means the ripping away of all social benefits and support for workers for the benefit of the rich. As soon as the U.S. puppet regime was installed in 2014, the living standards of Ukrainians fell as the U.S.-controlled International Monetary Fund demanded that the Ukrainian government purchase U.S. weapons and cut government pensions, education, health care, and social programs. These attacks have reduced Ukraine to the poorest country in Europe while it has become one of the top purchasers of U.S. weapons.
War profiteers treat working people in the U.S. the same way they do the workers of Ukraine: they rob us of the things we need by raiding our federal budget to the tune of $1.2 trillion dollars a year. As police and military budgets balloon, cuts to social programs, rising prices, etc., are making life unbearable for workers. We have an interest in common with the antifascist resisters of the Donbass, who don’t want to be strangled by U.S. war-profiteering and energy companies.
Reject the Corporate Media Lies, Stand Up to U.S. Imperialism, End All U.S. Sanctions
Since 2014, the U.S. has aggressively moved to build up the Ukrainian military and groom it for NATO membership. U.S.-supplied weapons in Ukraine are aimed at Russia. U.S. nuclear weapons have been positioned in neighboring NATO countries. Imagine if Russia had 29 installations surrounding the U.S., with nuclear weapons aimed at our city centers!
Agreements that were reached twice in Minsk giving partial sovereignty to the Republics of the Donbass and to establish cease-fires have been violated thousands of times by the government in Kiev. After years of attempts at diplomacy, Russia has finally resorted to military means to neutralize the threat of an attack. This is an act of defense. They have fired on military installations in Ukraine and have committed troops to aid the anti-fascist defenders of the Donbass.
The U.S. has leveled brutal sanctions against Russia in response. U.S. sanctions have killed millions around the world through poverty and starvation. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright even admitted that U.S. sanctions were responsible for the death of 500,000 Iraqi children. For the sake of the people of Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, North Korea, and Iran, etc., all people of conscience must demand an end to this inhumane form of U.S. warfare.
U.S. media will have you believe that Russia has been the aggressor despite the extreme escalation of U.S./Ukraine attacks on the Donbass in recent months which has forced Russia’s hand. Others take a cowardly “both sides are wrong” position that allows them to wring their hands and do nothing. This is the same as supporting U.S. imperialism and Ukrainian fascism. The allegedly “left wing” Democracy Now is a prime example, having fallen in line with the far-right by characterizing the removal of Nazis from Ukraine as an assault on Ukrainian nationalism, which is very convenient for the Nazis and an insult the Ukrainians who have been violently oppressed by the fascists.
From their brand-new iPhones, some of these “both sides are wrong” types have finally typed the word “imperialism” for the first time in their lives, hypocritically slinging it at Russia while living in the U.S., the most violent, destructive, exploitative imperialist country in human history. Meanwhile, the right wing in the U.S. is cheering to see their white nationalist brethren glorified by the U.S. media.
U.S. wars, interventions = mass murder for corporate profits
NATO, U.S. AFRICOM = Neocolonial armies for capitalist plunder
No country that has suffered a U.S. intervention, occupation, or coup has ever come out better for it. Over 23 million people in Afghanistan face starvation after 20 years of U.S. war and occupation. While U.S. soldiers guarded poppy fields and pipelines, millions were driven from their homes. The war only worsened conditions for a country which already had its popular democratic government ousted by U.S.-armed and trained Taliban and Mujahideen in 1978.
Whether the open slave markets in Libya after the 2014 bombing campaign or the extreme U.S.-backed repression in South Korea and Taiwan, or the complete disregard of even the slightest show of democracy in Iraq, the results of U.S. “humanitarianism” are crimes against humanity. What was “humanitarian” about the 80,000 tons of bombs dropped by NATO on the former Yugoslavia? U.S./NATO wars have resulted in poverty so severe that life expectancy rates plummet by decades.
The U.S. invokes the defense of Ukrainian “sovereignty” as it ships weapons to fascist Ukraine. At the same time, they are bombing Somalia and expanding their network of military bases in Africa in to enforce brutal neo-colonial rule for maximum corporate profits. NATO and U.S. AFRICOM attacks are flagrant violations of the right of Africans to determine their own national destiny.
Is the U.S. really arming Nazis?
Yes. They fly the swastika, and they are officially part of the Ukrainian military and government. The Ukrainian National Guard–which counts the Nazi Azov battalion in its ranks—was created with the direct assistance of the U.S. government. The Ukrainian government have erected statues to the Nazi Ukrainian Stephan Bandera and have taken down monuments to heroes who fought the Nazis.
The U.S. has a long history of using fascist death squads to enforce capitalist exploitation, and the U.S. continues to condemn armed resistance to Nazism and white supremacy. Never forget that the U.S. propped up the fascist apartheid state of South Africa and designated Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Today, the U.S. funds and arms the fascist, apartheid Israeli government and considers Palestinian freedom fighters terrorists.
The U.S. armed and trained Nazis are the forces leading the attacks on the Donbass. They openly state their goal is to rid the world of people of color, Jews and “undesirables.” The Ukrainian government acts at their mercy for fear of withdrawal of U.S. support.
Fortunately, many Ukrainian soldiers have put down their weapons. Some are even bravely turning their guns on Nazi commanding officers now that the fighters of the Donbass are on a counter-offensive. According to the People’s Militia of the DPR, fifteen soldiers with the Ukrainian Army’s 57th Mechanized Infantry Unit rejected their orders then joined the separatist militias. The working class of Ukraine is suffering at the hands of these Nazis as well.
Why Is the U.S. Even in Ukraine? Military Profits and Fossil Fuels
The U.S. wants the natural gas and resources of Ukraine and Russia, just like it does in Africa and everywhere else around the world. U.S. politicians make little effort to hide this. Biden’s own son was put the board of Ukrainian gas company after the 2014 coup and was milking the Ukrainian people for $60,000 a month while thousands of workers were being laid off.
War and oil profits are all the U.S. capitalists care about, and they will cause the deaths of millions to get them.
Workers should demand the immediate withdrawal of all support for the fascist Ukrainian government. We need funds for healthcare, childcare, and income support not for white supremacist death squads!
