No US-Ukraine war on Donbas and Russia

Joint statement 

initiated by Solidarity with Novorossiya & Antifascists in Ukraine

The right-wing government of Ukraine, supported by the US, has been at war with the people of the independent Donetsk and Lugansk republics in the Donbas for seven years. More than 14,000 people have been killed, according to the United Nations. The people of Donetsk and Lugansk live under a blockade by Ukraine and its Western allies. Workers in Ukraine suffer repression, joblessness and price hikes while their government sells off the country to Wall Street.
    On April 3, a Ukrainian military drone strike killed 5-year-old Vladik Shikhov and wounded his 66-year-old grandmother in Aleksandrovskoye, Donetsk. On April 4, another Ukrainian drone strike wounded a civilian in Nikolaevka, Lugansk. On March 22, a 71-year-old pensioner was killed by sniper fire near the capital of Donetsk. Many members of the anti-fascist People’s Militia have also been killed while defending residents.
    Since January, Ukraine has been building up its military forces on the front line of the conflict. It uses prohibited weapons, targets civilians, schools and homes in violation of international law and regional ceasefire agreements. Battalions of troops affiliated with neo-Nazi groups have been sent to the region, replacing regular Ukrainian Army troops. But the Ukrainian and U.S. governments and mainstream media blame Donetsk and Lugansk for taking steps to defend themselves, and threaten Russia for pledging to protect the people there if Ukraine invades.
    The Biden administration, as the Trump administration did before it, wants to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project that would allow Germany and other Western European countries to purchase Russian gas. Children, elders and other civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk are considered expendable targets by Kiev and Washington as they try to provoke a crisis to give them an excuse to further NATO military expansion and punish Russia.
    In recent days, the US and NATO have been warning of a Russian military buildup near the Ukrainian border, but never mention that one of the largest US Army-led military exercises in decades has begun and will run until June: Defender Europe 2021, with 28,000 troops from 27 countries operating in a dozen countries from the Balkans to the Black Sea. This is where the real danger of war is coming from.
     We say no! People in the U.S. don’t want war with Russia to protect the profits of Big Oil and U.S. banks. We don’t want the U.S. proxy regime in Ukraine to kill our sisters and brothers in Donetsk and Lugansk. We don’t want U.S. troops to be sent to fight and die in another needless conflict. We need an end to racist police brutality and anti-Asian violence. We need money for jobs, housing, healthcare and schools, not war.
    End U.S. aid to the Kiev regime! End all U.S. wars and sanctions! Shut down NATO and bring the troops home!

Endorsers:

Individuals:

•  Jose Maria Sison: Chairperson Emeritus of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle
•  Phil Wilayto: Coordinator, Odessa Solidarity Campaign
•  Berta Joubert-Ceci: Coordinator, International Tribunal on U.S. Crimes against Puerto Rico
•  William Camacaro, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle
•  Sharon Black, Peoples Power Assembly
• John Parker, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Los Angeles;
•  Joe Lombardo, National Co-Chair, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
• Professor Vijay Singh, editor, Revolutionary Democracy journal, New Delhi (India)
•  Bridget Dunne, Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (UK)
•  Theo Russell, International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity (UK)
•  Andy Brooks, General Secretary, New Communist Party of Britain
•  Gedrius Grabauskas, Chairperson, Lithuanian Socialist Front
•  Donatas Shultsas, Chairperson, Lithuanian Union on Human Rights; 
• Heinrich Bücker, Coop-Anti-War-Café Berlin
•  Panagiotis Papadomanolakis, Editor, GuernicaEu (Greece)
•  Gerry Downing, Socialist Fight (UK) 

Organisations: 

• Anti-Imperialist Front
• Socialist Unity Party (U.S.)
• Struggle-La Lucha newspaper
• Borotba (Ukraine-Donbass)
• Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic
• Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine
• Women In Struggle-Mujeres En Lucha
• Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
• Workers Voice Socialist Movement (U.S.)
• International Action Center
• No Pasarán Hamburg (Germany)
• Anti-NATO Group Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany)
• “Frente Unido América Coordinamento Ucraina Antifascista (Italy)
• "Latina" Berlin (Germany)
• Communist Revolution Action – KED (Greece)
• Liaison Committee for the Fourth International (LCFI)
• Frente Comunista dos Trabalhadores (Brazil)
• Tendencia Militante Bolchevique (Argentina)
• Socialist Workers League (U.S.)
• Trotskyist Faction/Consistent Democrats (UK)
• Socialist Solidarity Party of Bangladesh
• Molotov Club

Strengthen international solidarity against all forms of fascism

Resolution of the International Anti-Fascist Forum
Donetsk, May 10th  2019

In February 2014, a coup d’état took place in Ukraine. Nationalist forces came to power, for whom fascism became their state ideology.

The residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine did not recognize the new government and its ideology.

On April 7, 2014, a congress of representatives of territorial communities, political parties and public organizations of the Donetsk region proclaimed the Act on the Establishment of the Donetsk People’s Republic and adopted the Declaration of Sovereignty.

On April 14, 2014, the illegitimate Kiev regime launched a full-scale war against the people of Donbass, who had chosen the path of self-determination. The war led to thousands of civilian casualties in the region and large-scale destruction of production facilities and infrastructure.

The people’s republics of Donbass have been living in incessant hostilities for more than five years. Systematic violations of the truce by the Ukrainian side indicate that Kiev and the Western imperialists behind it are not interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

With the aggravation of the general crisis of world capitalism, the bourgeoisie applies the most stringent measures in the struggle against the working people, up to and including the use of fascist methods. Denying the masses even the minimum legal guarantees of protest against capitalist exploitation, the workers’ right to fight for their economic and political interests, the bourgeoisie proceeds to openly suppress the protest movement by armed force.

It is necessary to resist all attempts to rehabilitate fascism. It is also necessary to prevent its political and ideological revenge in the modern world!

Only together will we, the working people of the whole world, be able to counter the fascist threat.

The participants in the International Anti-Fascist Forum call upon the workers of all countries:

— to strengthen international solidarity in the fight against all forms of fascism;
— for all progressive forces of the world to cooperate in support of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics;
—  for the recognition of the will of the people of Donbass to create peaceful people’s republics;
— for the creation of an international tribunal to bring to justice the military and political criminals of Ukraine.

We, the participants in the International Anti-Fascist Forum, demand:

— from the Ukrainian authorities – to stop the war in Donbass, to begin negotiations with the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics on the establishment of peaceful relations;
— from the European Union and the United States – to stop funding the military spending of the Ukrainian government and supplying arms to it;
— from the governments and parliaments of all states – to recognize the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as sovereign states, being guided by the UN Charter, the basic principles of international law, the right of peoples to self-determination, respecting the will of the people of Donbass confirmed in a national referendum; to establish a peaceful, friendly and mutually beneficial relationship with them.

No to the war in Donbass! Yes to the self-determination of the DPR and the LPR!

Long live international anti-fascist solidarity!

Signers:

1. Communist Party of the Donetsk People's Republic (KPDPR)
2. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)
3. New Communist Party of Britain (NCPB)
4. Socialist Labour Party of Croatia
5. French Communist Party (City Committee of the PCP Riez, City Committee of the PCF Venissieux, Regional Committee of PCF Pas de Calais)
6. Tatyana Desyatova, Coordinator of the Interbrigade of the Moscow Communist Party City Committee
7. Renate Koppé, member of the Central Committee of the German Communist Party (DKP)
8. Okay Desprem, Turkish journalist and writer, representative of the Labor Party (EMEP)
9. Solidarity with Novorossia and Anti-fascists of Ukraine (USA)
10. Struggle for Socialism - La Lucha por el Socialismo (USA)
11. Anti-fascist organization "Save Donbass" (Greece)
12. "Anti-Nazi Donbass" Committee (Rome, Italy)
13. "Anti-Fascist Ukraine" Committee (Bologna, Italy)
14. Donbass Association (Sweden)