Giant protests rock Ukraine

Submitted by AWL on 11 December, 2013 - 2:05

Mass demonstrations in Ukraine have demanded closer links with Europe, and an end to the government’s pursuit of a “strategic partnership” with Russia.

Ukraine president, Viktor Yanukovich, wants the country to enter a Moscow-led “Customs Union” — a reversal of his previous support for political and free trade agreements with the EU. Ukrainians fear Russian domination, arguing that it evokes the domination of the country during the Stalinist era. Demonstrations on Sunday 8 December toppled a statue of Lenin, still regarded by Ukrainians, unfortunately but in many ways understandably, as a symbol of Russian domination.

The giant demonstrations, which, despite immense police repression, have swelled and now constitute a semi-permanent “Occupy”-style presence in Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, have a contradictory character. While their demand for closer links with Europe is internationalist and outward-looking, there is a nationalist element too. The far-right Freedom Party’s flags have been seen on the demonstrations, and much of the anti-Russian rhetoric has a nationalist dimension.

Jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a pro-European conservative, has called for Yanukovich’s resignation.

Riot police have raided her party’s offices, and the European Commission says that while the offer of trade agreements remain on the table, Ukraine must meet certain conditions, including Tymoshenko’s release.

The pro-Moscow and pro-EU wings of the Ukrainian ruling class are both looking for paths out of the country’s economic crisis. Ukraine’s economy has been in recession for over a year, and both bourgeois factions believe that foreign investment, either from Moscow and Beijing or from Brussels, will ameliorate the situation. The protests indicate a huge groundswell of public support for the European path, but while EU trade agreements will not tie Ukraine so closely to authoritarian states like Russia and China, they too will come with neo-liberal strings attached.

The divide in bourgeois strategic opinion is also reflective of a real ethno-linguistic divide in Ukrainian society, between ethnic Ukrainians and Russian speakers. A November poll showed that while only 14% of Ukrainians supported the country’s entry into Moscow’s “Customs Union”, the European option did not have a clear majority either (45%), and 41% were undecided. Protestors quoted in the press often describe themselves as “anti-Putin” or “anti-Russia” rather than “pro-EU”.

Although organised labour has not thus far been a visible, independent element in the protest movement, a statement from the International Trade Union Confederation said: “Ukraine’s trade union movement has pointed to the damaging role played by the International Monetary Fund, which has been pushing economic and social policy ‘reforms’ which are further weakening the economy.

“The IMF’s demand for freezes in public sector wages, social benefits and pensions, as well as for higher utility costs, are strengthening the position of powerful oligarchs whose dominance over the economy would be threatened by closer ties with Europe.”

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