Donetsk Referendum will go ahead on May 11

Denis Pushilin, Leader of the Donetsk Republic, announces the independence referendum will take place as planned.

DONETSK REFERENDUM WILL
GO AHEAD AS PLANNED:

Donetsk Republicans in eastern Ukraine have pledged to go ahead with a referendum on Sunday to establish their own independence despite Russia calling for the vote to be postponed.

"The referendum will happen on May 11," said the leader of the Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin. "The date of the referendum will not be postponed." A separate independence referendum has been organised for the neighbouring eastern region of Luhansk.

The Donetsk leaders were adamant on Thursday that the referendum would go ahead. "If we don't have a referendum on the 11th then we will lose the trust of the people," a spokesperson said. "We face the choice: referendum or war, and we choose the peaceful way."

In Brussels, the EU/NATO denounced the plebiscite plans, with dumb-ass Cathy Ashton (EU Foreign Affairs) and US public liar John Kerry declaring the referendum was “bogus”, “illegal” and “illegitimate” (interesting how something can be illegal and illegitimate in the same sentence). More lies from the Cathy and Johnny Show as the Ukrainian Constitution, Article 143, shows that local referendums are quite legal (and by definition also legitimate which is obvious from the text):

Article 143

Territorial communities of a village, settlement and city, directly or through the bodies of local self-government established by them, manage the property that is in communal ownership; approve programs of socio-economic and cultural development, and control their implementation; approve budgets of the respective administrative and territorial units, and control their implementation; establish local taxes and levies in accordance with the law;

ensure the holding of local referendums and the implementation of their results;

establish, reorganise and liquidate communal enterprises, organisations and institutions, and also exercise control over their activity; resolve other issues of local importance ascribed to their competence by law.

The US-EU has used the Kiev Junta to promote a “military response” to mass popular dissent and encouraged the coup-regime to eliminate the civil rights of the Russian speaking majority in the Eastern Oblasts  through neo-Nazi terror such as the Odessa massacre where they bussed in armed thugs to the multi-ethnic city of Odessa who staged an ‘exemplary’ massacre:  Burning the city’s major trade union headquarters and slaughtering 70 or more, mostly unarmed civilians who were trapped in the building with its exits blocked by neo-Nazis.  The dead included many women and teenagers who had sought shelter from the rampaging neo-Nazis.  The survivors were brutally beaten and imprisoned by the ‘police’ who had passively watched while the building burned. This to force the population to accept junta-appointed regional rulers in place of their elected leaders. 

In response to this repression, popular self-defence committees and local militias have resisted and challenged this repressive regime and demanded a restoration of democracy and a federalised state in Ukraine which would guarantee their civil, political and economic rights. This has brought a halt to the US/EU scheme to integrate Ukraine into the imperialist bloc and exploitation of Ukraine’s resources under inhuman neo-liberal economic oppression as is being applied in the EU currently in Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

 

The Kiev Junta has already lost political control of over a third of the country to pro-democracy, anti-coup movements and self-defence militias.  By cutting off strategic exports to Russia to serve US military interests, the Ukraine lost one of its most important markets, which cannot be replaced. Under NATO control, Ukraine will have to buy NATO-specified military hardware leading to the closure of its factories geared to the Russian market.   The loss of Russian trade is already leading to mass unemployment, especially among skilled industrial workers in the East. Rising trade deficits and the erosion of state revenues will bring a total economic collapse.  As a direct result of the Kiev Junta’s submission to NATO, the Ukraine has lost billions of dollars in subsidised energy from Russia. High energy costs make Ukrainian industries non-competitive in global markets. 

In order to secure loans from the IMF and the EU, the Junta has agreed to eliminate food and energy price subsidies, severely depressing household incomes and plunging pensioners into destitution.  Bankruptcies are on the rise, as imports from the EU and elsewhere displace formerly protected local industries. No new investments are flowing in because of the violence, instability and conflicts between neo-fascists and neo-liberals within the squabbling Junta.  Just to stabilise the day-to-day operations of government, the Junta needs a no-interest $30 billion dollar handout – from its NATO masters, an amount, which is not forthcoming now, or in the immediate future.

The US-EU coup and establishment of the illegal Junta regime in Kiev has produced a failing regime and a society riven by violent conflicts – spinning into open ethnic violence.  What, in fact, has ensued is a system of dual power with contenders cutting across regional boundaries.  The Kiev Junta lacks the competence and stability to serve as a reliable NATO military link in the encirclement of Russia.  On the contrary, US-EU sanctions, military threats and bellicose rhetoric are forcing Russians to quickly rethink their ‘openness’ to the West.  The strategic threats to its national security will lead Russia to review its ties to Western banks and corporations.  To preserve its economy, Russia will have to rely more on State public investments and this will lead to a weakening of the political power of Oligarchs in Russia and an inevitable change in the political order there totally contrary to NATO/EU plans for the destabilising and dismemberment of the Russian Federation.

What is clear is that the power grab in Kiev will not result in a ‘knife pointed at the heartland of Russia’.  The ultimate defeat and overthrow of the Kiev Junta can lead to a radicalised self-governing Ukraine, based on the expanding democratic movements and rising working class consciousness.  This will have to emerge from their struggle against IMF austerity programs and Western asset stripping of Ukraine’s resources and enterprises which is the future planned for the people of Ukraine by NATO/EU and its Vulture Capitalist  economy. The industrial workers of Ukraine who have succeeded in throwing off the yoke of the western vassals in Kiev have no intention of submitting themselves to the yoke of the IMF and Brussels Dictatorship.  Their struggle is for a democratic state, capable of developing an independent economic policy, completely free of imperialist military alliances.This is why they are being viciously demonised by public liars like Kerry, NATO sleazebag Rasmussen and political prostitutes like dumb-ass Ashton.

Donetsk City Hall.

The people of the Ukraine are, unfortunately, now at the sharp end of this geo-political struggle and must firstly rely on their own resources and capabilities against the coming repression. Solidarity between ethnic groups, strong local organisation, both defence and community based, is the necessity for ultimate victory against the NATO/EU conspiracy and the establishment of a democratic and peaceful Ukraine.

US activists protest Washington's policy on Ukraine.