Solidarity with the Communist Party of Ukraine

Statement by the Communist Party of Ireland 
28 May 2014

The Communist Party of Ireland expresses its solidarity with the Communist Party of Ukraine in its struggle against the imperialist coup d’état and in defence of the working class. 
     In the twenty years since the defeat of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian people have been governed by rival groups of thieves, who have enriched themselves with no regard for the impoverishment and misery they were inflicting on the population. These oligarchs have no scruples about placing themselves at the service of the imperialist powers, the European Union and the United States of America. 
     The imperialists have long experience in exploiting differences and creating division. In Ukraine, people of Russian and Ukrainian ancestry are being set at each other’s throats. Russian and Ukrainian chauvinism are equally opposed to the interests of the people of Ukraine, who have long lived together peacefully. 
     The imperial powers—not for the first time—have enlisted the services of openly fascist organisations. Indifferent to the consequences of their actions and the atrocities committed, ignoring even the massacre at the Trade Union House in Odessa, they are concerned only with their expansionist project, the drive to the east. They think they can control the fascist gangs; they think they can create a civil war without consequences for themselves. 
     One hundred years after the outbreak of the inter-imperialist war of 1914–18 the EU and the United States still use war as an instrument of policy. They are prepared to inflict even greater suffering on the people of Ukraine; they are prepared to risk an even wider war. The oligarchs and the fascists are happy to assist them in their plans. 
     The Communist Party of Ukraine is at the centre of the resistance to the coup d’état, to the fascist gangs, to the surrender to imperialism and to their war plans. The regime wishes to silence its voice and now threatens to ban the party. It has suffered terrorist attacks and hooligan assaults, even in the parliament, where it is not allowed to function. It continues the struggle, against the oligarchy, against imperialist domination, against chauvinism, and for a peaceful and democratic Ukraine.