It has been claimed that the role of fascists in the demonstrations has been exaggerated by Russian propaganda to justify Vladimir Putin's manoeuvres in Crimea. The reality is alarming enough to need no exaggeration. Activists report that the far right made up around a third of the protesters, but they were decisive in armed confrontations with the police.Fascist gangs now patrol the streets. But they are also in Kiev's corridors of power. The far right Svoboda party, whose leader has denounced the "criminal activities" of "organised Jewry" and which was condemned by the European parliament for its "racist and antisemitic views", has five ministerial posts in the new government, including deputy prime minister and prosecutor general. The leader of the even more extreme Right Sector, at the heart of the street violence, is now Ukraine's deputy national security chief.Neo-Nazis in office is a first in post-war Europe.
To understand what is happening in Ukraine, we have to understand what the Euromaidan movement is – and what it is not.Euromaidan has been in effect a mass mobilisation behind the pro-EU faction of the ruling oligarchy. It has been dominated from the top by the politicians of the three pro-EU opposition parties, Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), UDAR (“Punch”) parties – and Svoboda.Fatherland and UDAR are conservative, neoliberal parties. Just like Yanukovych’s party, they are tied to the ruling oligarchy, but they represent its western-oriented, pro-EU faction.Svoboda – originally known as the Social-National Party – is fascist. It is allied with the British National Party, Hungary’s Jobbik and the Front National in France. Like many fascist organisations across Europe, it dumped its old name and its traditional nazi Wolfsangel logo and formally distanced itself from its paramilitary wing, the Patriots of Ukraine – a strategy that succeeded as it won 10.4% of the votes in the 2012 elections. It has 36 MPs and a slew of councillors, with its base in western Ukraine.A three-way alliance between these parties normalised Svoboda’s role. It has been a prominent and accepted part of Euromaidan since the start. Svoboda’s position provided legitimacy for a new alliance of hardcore nazi groups – Pravy Sektor (“Right Sector”) – to become an accepted part of the movement too. Right Sector, incidentally, has no interest in the EU, but seeks a fascist “national revolution”.Euromaidan was not like the Occupy or Indignados movements – nor the workers’ protests now in Bosnia. Unlike these movements there were no democratic assemblies or forums to debate and formulate independent, working class demands. This movement has been used as a lever by the pro-EU politicians in their power struggle with Yanukovych and his pro-Russian backers.And the prominent role of fascist organisations sets it clearly apart from the wave of progressive anticapitalist and anti-austerity movements that has broken out across the world in the past few years.
See also:
Ukraine protests: fascists at core of huge new paramilitary force
Tash Sifrin, Dream Deferred, 17.02.2014
Tash Sifrin, Dream Deferred, 17.02.2014
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