INTERNATIONAL UKRAINE ANTI-FASCIST SOLIDARITY

by Bernie Holland The ‘Monroe Doctrine’ originated by US President James Monroe in 1823 proclaimed that the whole of the Americas was its own ‘backyard’ and that any intervention by external powers in the politics of the Americas was a potentially hostile act against the USA. During the Cold War this ‘principle’ was extended to enable US imperialism to establish its hegemony over Western Europe and large parts of Africa and Asia. It was during a visit to South Africa by US Foreign Secretary Anthony Blinken that Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor explained it is South Africa that will decide who their allies are and not have their choice of allies dictated to them by the USA. The purpose of Blinken’s visit was to ‘persuade’ South Africa that it should join the ‘democracies’ of the ‘international community’ in a concerted effort to isolate and contain Russia and to join the clamour and outrage against the Russian leadership in what can only be described as an effort towards regime change in...

by Konrad Rekas “We have been asked here if we have any permission to demonstrate on the Glasgow Green. I have replied: We, the representatives of the working-class parties, the true heirs of the Red Clyde, we have the historic and permanent right to express our views right here, with no additional legalisation!” This is how George Galloway, the leader of No2NATO and the Workers Party of Britain, opened the rally launching the No2NATO Scotland.      Comrades and friends joined over a hundred anti-war campaigners at the Glasgow rally. The hidden hand had done its best to stop it.      “As previously with the London conference, the organisers had been refused of any venue they had tried to book for a meeting. Threats and intimidation have been mixed with surrealistic demands of ‘anti-terrorist requirements’ or impossible amounts of insurance. This is yet another attack on our freedom of speech, on the freedom of those who want to discuss the danger facing our...

by Bill O’Brien one of the co-founders of the Irish Truth & Neutrality Alliance The war in Ukraine has been going on for more then a year now and the left in Ireland are in a most confused state as they are in the rest of Europe and globally. Let's examine the issues involved and the different attitudes that prevail. The history Modern Ukraine became the state after the Russian Revolution when it was established. The commission of Nationalities chaired by Joseph Stalin established Ukraine, took the proposals to the Politburo where it was discussed and voted upon and agreed, then made official and stamped by Lenin.      Previous to that the landmass of what is now the Ukraine was divided between different empires, mostly Polish, Hungarian and Russian.      The new entity was to be economically viable, the existing big estates were to be nationalised and controlled by Soviets, production was to be collectivised, and the large estates amalgamated to increa...

  By Michael Rotenshtern Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine S anctions against the Russian Federation have already had a rather long history of their development.      Western sanctions against Russia began in 2014 following the reunification of Crimea and the Russian Federation. They were then submitted to the public of Western countries as a reaction to Russia's actions and as an attempt to force Russia to change its policy regarding Crimea and Ukraine as a whole. The sanctions since 2014 have also had their background in the internal Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas.      A qualitatively new stage in the development of the sanctions policy has come since February 2022, as a reaction to the Special Military Operation of the Russian Federation.      Now they are being served up for the public opinion of the West as a way to put economic pressure on Russia to force it to minimise its actions against the Kiev...

  By New Worker correspondent We had a good turn out at the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity campaign (IUAFS) picket in Whitehall on Saturday. NCP leader Andy Brooks joined comrades and friends at another picket organised by the International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (IUAFS) campaign to highlight the plight of political prisoners jailed by the Zelensky regime and stand by all those bravely fighting the fascism in Ukraine.      Some 30 to 40 supporters joined the lively protest including Paul C annon, the general secretary of the Workers Party of Britain, and supporters of the new No2Nato campaign who came along with their banner that was attached with the others on the railings opposite Downing Street.      "We are protesting today because we believe that the British people should be aware of the crimes committed by forces that our government has spent billions of dollars and arms supplies to prepare. We are well aware that many peo...

  By our Eastern European Affairs correspondent Vladimir Putin has endorsed the Chinese peace road-map for Ukraine. But it can be implemented only when West and Kiev are “ready” for it, the Russian president said after talks with his Chinese counterpart in the Kremlin this week.      On Monday, Chinese president Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin held almost five hours of informal talks behind closed doors. President Xi’s visit is his first to Russia since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, and also his first foreign trip since securing an unprecedented third term as China’s head of state.      Putin praised Beijing's 12-point peace plan during a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The Chinese leader said Beijing continues to strictly adhere to the UN principles over the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, maintaining a balanced position calling on all parties to exercise restraint and a return to negotiations to seek a diplomatic solution to hos...

by our Eastern European Affairs correspondent As Russian forces battle for control of the streets in central Bakhmut waves of Russian rockets and drones hit Kiev and other key Ukrainian cities last week in what the Kremlin says was a reprisal for a deadly Ukrainian commando attack across the border earlier in the month. Meanwhile reports claiming that the Nord Stream pipelines were sabotaged by the Ukrainians have appeared in the American press and security forces say they’ve foiled a plot to kill the pro-Russian leader of Transnistria, a breakaway republic that lies between Moldova and Western Ukraine, that has been under Russian protection since the early 1990s.      Wagner forces, Russia’s ‘foreign legion’, are fighting to root out Ukrainian troops dug in the ruins of Bakhmut with orders to delay the Russian advance for as long as possible regardless of the sacrifice. But the Ukrainian command has been blowing up bridges and pulling out their most experienced units fr...