‘Left’ Alibi
About camouflaged Ukrainian nationalists and right-wing terror in his country. An interview with Borotba’s Dmytriy Kovalevich
By Susann Witt-Stahl, Junge Welt
You still publish in left media such as newcoldwar.org and Tlaxcala. But you can no longer engage in your profession as an editor since the change of power in Kiev. Why?
Many left media in Ukraine have been discontinued since the Maidan. Journalists were attacked and imprisoned for their criticism of the new regime. The Ukrainian Ministry of Information has refused to allow our new newspaper, because it is called, after Mayakovsky and Eisler, “Left March.” In my country, a journalist must accept the nationalist course or stop work.
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| Antifascist and socialist organization Borotba of Ukraine. |
… We are talking about an action of a maximum of 15 to 20 people who claim to represent five or six organizations. Many of these alleged left-liberals are in reality nationalists and were very angry when our activists stood in the way of their friends – the militant right. Not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine, there are bizarre phenomena such as “National Bolsheviks” and “National Anarchists” and “leftists” who believe that the EU is “true socialism.”
But in September 2014, Borotba was invited to take part in a conference organized by RLS partner the Center for Social and Labor Research, entitled “The Ukrainian War and Politics of the Left” in Kiev. Why didn’t you participate?
Prior to the conference, there were fierce debates among the organizers. Some nationalist liberals threatened its cancellation if Borotba attended. Only after our offices have been devastated by fascist paramilitaries and our members forced to flee Kiev, or at least no longer appear in public, did they invite us — the only left Antimaidan organization invited.
What role do the “New Left” partners of RLS play?
Each coup must be justified somehow as an expression of “popular will.” The Maidan was dominated by a right-wing mob commanded by the founder of the “Social Nationalist Party,” Andrej Parubi, and had to suggest that it represents the “political spectrum.” Notwithstanding the fact that the Maidan ‘left’ – the anti-capitalist left were not tolerated — consisted of not even ten persons. A fake “left” provides the new government with an alibi to heave Ukraine into NATO, to enforce neoliberal reforms and to suppress the opposition.
The RLS pays tribute to its Ukrainian partners for their “differentiated history and world view.”
None of the partners of RLS in Ukraine have “differentiated history and world views.” They only repeat anti-Soviet nationalism. Pro-Soviet positions which still represent the majority of Ukrainians are completely suppressed. This is done in the name of a sharp critic of nationalism, in particular the Ukrainian. With these “differentiated views,” RLS partners can also support “Pegida.” The result is the whitewashing of the war crimes of the Ukrainian OUN-UPA-fascists. Ironically, with the help of a German institution.
Translated by Greg Butterfield
Red Star News + Translations 
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