Aurora Women’s Club is a revolutionary, anti-fascist women’s organization based in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Donetsk and the entire Donbass mining region in eastern Europe have been subject to five years of war and economic blockade by the U.S.-backed government of Ukraine, at the cost of more than 10,000 lives so far. Nevertheless, these young women and allies continue to carry out internationalist solidarity.

Struggle-La Lucha is publishing this recent statement by Aurora on the fight for reproductive rights in the U.S. and worldwide. It was translated by SLL’s Greg Butterfield.

The right to abortion is a matter of women’s emancipation, a class question.

Those who advocate a ban of abortion falsely call themselves fighters for life – “pro-lifers.” In fact, they condemn women to disease, death and a miserable existence, especially workers, and all those who face discrimination and oppression. As before, conservatives call women who have abortions immoral, crying about “those killed in the womb of the mother,” claiming authority to talk about spiritual matters.

We need the full breadth of reproductive rights. And we are fighting for a society where a woman is entitled to decide whether to be a mother or not. Where quality medicine is available to every person. Where raising children is the business of the whole society, not just the mother. Where we will not have to count the pennies from our paychecks, be afraid of layoffs and crises, and finally we will be able to live and create the future.

Women’s struggle for reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, is an important part of our common struggle for a better world.

We are united with those who defend these rights — in Argentina, the United States, Ireland, Poland and any other country in the world.

After the 2014 U.S.-backed coup in Ukraine, longtime Russian communist activist Alexey Markov organized aid for grassroots militias conducting armed resistance in the Donbass mining region, which declared independence and formed the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR).

With his comrade Petr Biryukov (military codename Arkadich), he soon founded the Volunteer Communist Detachment and joined the anti-fascist struggle. Today Markov, under the codename Dobri, commands the Ghost Battalion, successor to the legendary Ghost Brigade founded by Commander Alexey Mozgovoy.

Struggle-La Lucha asked Markov for an update on the situation at the front line five years after the U.S.-Ukraine war on Donbass began, at a cost of more than 10,000 lives so far. This interview was conducted before the April 30 runoff that saw Vladimir Zelensky selected to replace Petro Poroshenko as president of Ukraine.

Struggle-La Lucha: It’s been five years since the Maidan coup in Ukraine, the beginning of the war against Donbass and the massacre in Odessa. You started out by bringing aid to the people’s militias in Donbass. How did you get from there to your current situation, as commander of the Ghost Battalion?

Alexey Markov: In May 2014, after the killing of peaceful people in Odessa and shootings in Mariupol, my friend from Stakhanov [in the Lugansk People’s Republic] addressed me with a request to assist Pavel Dremov’s detachment. To my surprise, a lot of people responded to my request for help, and Dremov’s group of 45 people was fully equipped with uniforms, body armor, kevlar helmets and walkie-talkies.

After the success of this action, acquaintances told me: “You are good at motivating people. You must continue this work.” This is how the Coordination Center for Assistance to Novorossiya (CCPN), which still provides assistance to the units of the People’s Militia of the LPR and DPR, was born. All the founders of the CCPN were united by leftist or communist convictions.

During the summer battles of 2014, we expected that one of the communist organizations of the Russian Federation or Novorossia would create its own communist unit, which we could join. Unfortunately, the communists in Novorossia were disunited both militarily and organizationally, so we decided to create our own squad to go to defend the Donbass from the neo-Nazis.

At the beginning of September 2014, I and Arkadich drove around the units we provided with assistance in order to more accurately determine their needs and select the location of the future Volunteer Communist Detachment (DKO). We spent three days at the headquarters of the Ghost Brigade in Alchevsk. During repeated conversations with Alexey Mozgovoy, we very much liked his position regarding the future of Donbass, which was to become socialist and free from oligarchs. I promised him that we would soon return with the squad.

Early on the morning of November 6, 2014, the first DKO team from Moscow arrived in Alchevsk and joined the Ghost Brigade as a separate unit, number 404. Two weeks later, having acquired the first weapons and some training, the detachment conducted its first combat operation in the village of Komissarovka, five kilometers from Debaltsevo. The personnel of the detachment led by Arkadich actively participated in the operation to free Debaltsevo in the winter of 2015, as a result of which, by order of Mozgovoy, Arkadich was appointed his deputy for combat training, and I as deputy for the rear.

After the tragic death of Mozgovoy [on May 23, 2015], his place was taken by the chief of staff of the brigade, Yuri Shevchenko. In the winter of 2016, the Ghost Brigade was reorganized into the 14th Separate Battalion of the People’s Militia of the LPR under the command of Arkadich. In October 2016, Arkadich was promoted and became deputy commander of the 4th Brigade, and I was appointed to his position as commander of the Ghost Battalion, where I am today.

SLL: What was unique about the militia organized by Alexey Mozgovoy that drew you and other communists from around the world?

AM: Alexey Mozgovoy openly declared that the war in the Donbass should not be interethnic, but a class war. He openly spoke for the socialist future of Donbass, built on democratic principles, and called on Ukrainians to unite to oppose the oligarchs who had seized power. This attracted many leftist people to the ranks of his brigade, although very different people served in the brigade, from anarchists and communists to nationalists and monarchists.

Mozgovoy also conducted active work on the internet, arranged teleconferences with the Ukrainian side, and was always open to the press, which made him a very popular figure in the Donbass. Many viewed him as the most influential national leader and a possible future head of the republic.

Support from the left and anti-fascist forces has always been very important for the Ghosts. A lot of journalists and volunteers visited the brigade. This allowed us not only to attract new fighters, but also to convey information about what was happening in the Donbass to residents of other countries. Also, material assistance turned out to be very important and made it possible to somewhat fix the catastrophic shortage of equipment and weapons in the young army of Novorossiya.

SLL: The Minsk peace negotiations have been stalled for a long time. There have been big buildups of armaments by Ukraine in the war zone, but so far no new military offensive. How do you view the military situation of the republics today? What is the situation of the Ghosts stationed at the front line?

AM: In fact, the military situation in the republics has greatly deteriorated. Over the past year and a half, Ukraine has seriously re-equipped its army, filling it with modern types of weapons, and also conducted mass training of soldiers with the help of Western instructors. Now, the Ukrainian armed forces have not only quantitative, but also qualitative superiority over the army of the people’s republics. Instead of a major offensive, which could lead to a response from Russia, they chose a strategy of constant pressure along the entire front line, which leads to small but permanent losses on our part.

The frontline sector defended by the Ghost Battalion is considered to be the most difficult in the LPR. Daily battles with the use of artillery, mortars and armored vehicles are constant there. Despite the difficult conditions and constant shelling, the fighters of the battalion steadfastly hold their positions and do not intend to retreat.

SLL: Do you believe Ukraine will be allowed to join NATO?

AM: I don’t think that Ukraine will be able to join NATO any time soon. The main reason is that NATO does not accept countries with territorial claims, and Ukraine claims not only Crimea, but also part of the border regions of Russia. Also, Ukraine’s entry into NATO would entail a serious crisis in relations with the Russian Federation, which the European members are unlikely to be ready for. It’s more likely that NATO will confine itself to comprehensive military and organizational support of Ukraine.

SLL: How do you assess the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine?

AM: For us, the elections in Ukraine will not bring any changes. The main presidential candidates have common Russophobic and anti-communist views, and intend to continue the course of confrontation with Russia. Most likely, before the elections, Poroshenko’s regime will try to unite its supporters under the banner of “war with Russia,” so the situation at the front will be complicated, and after the election, the course towards a military solution to the conflict in Donbass will continue.

SLL: What similarities or differences do you see between what happened in Ukraine five years ago and the current situation in Venezuela and other Latin American countries targeted by the U.S.?

AM: The scenarios in all these countries are very similar: with political and financial support from the U.S. and Western Europe, local oligarchs organize mass unrest and seizure of government buildings, provoking the legitimate authorities into limited use of police forces, after which they loudly declare “thousands of peaceful protesters were killed” and call for overthrowing the government. The henchmen of the oligarchs are immediately recognized by the U.S. and Western Europe as the sole legitimate authorities.

I hope Maduro proves to be a more decisive leader than [deposed Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych, and will not give his country away to the mercenaries of international capital.

SLL: How do you view the relationship between what happened in Ukraine and the spread of neo-fascist movements in the West?

AM: The world is entering a phase of another economic crisis, and for big capital it is very natural to try and channel the discontent of the masses by setting some nations against others. Uninformed people will sooner see the cause of their impoverishment in “illegal immigrants” or the machinations of treacherous neighbors, than realize that their poverty is a necessary condition for the further enrichment of a handful of super-rich.

This was already the case at the beginning of the 20th century, when global capital relied on the Italian and German fascists in their struggle against the world labor movement. So the current oligarchs set Ukrainians against Russians, Europeans against Asians, and white residents of the U.S. against African Americans in order to distract them from their real enemies.

SLL: What are the prospects for anti-fascist revival in Ukraine and the former Soviet countries?

AM: It’s difficult to talk about the prospects for the revival of the anti-fascist movement in the post-Soviet republics while there are openly comprador bourgeois regimes in power that hate the Soviet past. For them, the fascists and Nazi collaborators are far closer socially than the Soviet heroes of the war against Nazism.

But in general, among the masses, the memory of the heroism of the anti-fascist fighters and hostility to Hitler’s ideology remains at a very high level. We will do everything possible so that victory will be on our side this time too!

SLL: How can working people in the U.S. and the West aid the struggle of the people’s militias in Donbass?

AM: In the first place, of course, there needs to be constant pressure on the governments of their countries to cancel or limit support for the fascist regime in Ukraine. Without constant military and financial assistance from the West, the neo-Nazis in Kiev will not last long.

Second is the widest possible dissemination of information about what is happening in the Donbass among ordinary residents of the United States and Western Europe. This applies to both traditional media and the internet.

Last but not least is providing material and technical assistance to units of the People’s Militia of the LPR and the DPR, which are in a very difficult position due to lack of supplies.

Pavel Grigorchuk is a fighter against capitalist oligarchy in Moldova, a former Soviet republic in Eastern Europe. Grigorchuk, a militant communist and anti-fascist, has been targeted by the regime of wealthy oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc many times. Despite court-imposed restrictions on his political activity as a member of the Petrenko Group political prisoners, he continues to fight for the country’s liberation from oligarch domination. Struggle-La Lucha joins in the international call for his freedom.

Freedom for Pavel Grigorchuk

We, the undersigned, urgently demand that the government of Moldova release civic activist Pavel Grigorchuk from preventive detention in Chisinau. Grigorchuk was arrested March 21 after leading an anti-corruption protest outside the Moldovan Parliament.

Following the protest, Grigorchuk encountered Sergey Syrbu, a leading member of the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM), dominated by oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc. Syrbu insulted and cursed at Grigorchuk, who responded by slapping the deputy’s cheek. Within an hour, police descended on him. Grigorchuk was placed in preventive custody for 30 days and reportedly faces up to five years in prison.

According to Grigorchuk’s attorney, the activist, who suffers from asthma, is currently confined to the basement of jail PU-13, Building 3 (SIZO), in dangerously cold and damp conditions that severely threaten his health. This blatant act of political retribution must end.

The prescribed punishment for slapping someone in public is a fine of 200 lei, or approximately 10 euros. But because Grigorchuk is a committed opponent of Moldova’s oligarch-dominated regime, he has been targeted for political repression. In cooperation with media outlets owned by Vlad Plahotniuc, Deputy Syrbu has concocted a fairytale version of events in which he supposedly suffered head trauma and a concussion from the slap and had to be hospitalized. Syrbu has not allowed any of these claims to be independently verified.

This is not the first time the authorities under Plahotniuc’s influence have targeted Grigorchuk. In 2014, he was arrested in the so-called “Antifa Case,” where he and another activist were falsely charged with trying to disrupt the country’s elections. In September 2015, Grigorchuk and several others were brutally attacked and arrested during a peaceful anti-oligarchy protest led by former MP Grigory Petrenko, leader of the opposition party Our Home is Moldova. The “Petrenko Group” were jailed for several months and only released after an international outcry – though the defendants still face serious restrictions on their right to travel and political activity. Lead defendant Petrenko was forced to seek asylum in Germany. Their case is soon to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights.

All of this establishes a clear pattern of politically motivated repression against Grigorchuk.

We demand:

• That Pavel Grigorchuk be immediately removed from the dangerous conditions at PU-13, Building 3, and given appropriate medical attention in a hospital;
• That Grigorchuk be released from preventive detention;
• Drop all charges against Girgorchuk stemming from the incident on March 21.

Signers (list in formation):

Individuals:

Jose Maria Sison, chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle

Berta Joubert-Ceci, convener, International Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes in Puerto Rico

Gloria Verdieu, Committee Against Police Brutality-San Diego and Coalition to Free Mumia & All Political Prisoners

Sergei Kirichuk, coordinator, Borotba-Berlin

Alexey Albu, coordinator, Borotba-Donbass

Victor Shapinov, coordinator, Borotba

Stanislav Retinsky, secretary of the Central Committee, Communist Party of Donetsk People’s Republic

Greg Butterfield, Struggle-La Lucha newspaper (U.S.)

Milos Raickovich, composer and conductor, adjunct assistant professor, College of Staten Island, CUNY (U.S.)

Bistra Staykova (Bulgaria)

John Catalinotto, New York (U.S.)

Dr. Dimitrios S. Patelis, associate professor of philosophy, Technical University of Crete (Greece)

 

Organizations:

United Communist Party of Russia, Central Committee

Socialist Unity Party (U.S.)

Prisoners Solidarity Committee (U.S.)

International Action Center-West Coast (U.S.)

New Communist Party of Britain

Communist Revolutionary Action (Greece)

Workers International Vanguard League (South Africa)

Baltimore People’s Power Assembly (U.S.)

Solidarity with Novorossiya & Antifascists in Ukraine (U.S.)

Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice-Los Angeles (U.S.)

Revista Opera — Brazil

Dear comrades at the Unity for Socialism and  Revolution conference:

We received with joy and contentment the news that such a conference would take place this March 16 in Los Angeles. As you comrades know, Latin America today is a central theater of anti-imperialist struggle. The realignment of governments in the region, most of which were progressive Social-Democrats, was unprecedented. In Argentina, the progressive government of Cristina Kirchner was replaced by the neoliberal Mauricio Macri. In Ecuador, Rafael Correa’s successor, Lenín Moreno, proved to be a traitor. In Colombia, a bastion of the empire in our continent, right-wing Juan Manuel Santos, responsible for the peace agreement that demobilized the FARC, was replaced by Iván Duque Márquez, an ultrarightist linked to the former terrorist president Álvaro Uribe. In Peru, Ollanta Humala was replaced by Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, and in Paraguay, by means of a coup, Fernando Lugo was overthrown and replaced by Horacio Cartes.

Venezuela and Brazil are important stages of this theater of war, both because of their size and natural resources, and because they are the two countries in Latin America in which China has invested most. In Brazil, a parliamentary coup has ensured the end of the so-called “progressive cycle.” Michel Temer, in truth a bandit, was taken into power temporarily, and his successor, as everyone knows, is the protofascist Jair Bolsonaro. Here, we do not believe that this will be the scenario for a long time, because the military, millenarian guarantors of the order of the powerful, are too close to power. It will not take long for them to take it upon themselves, and in this process, it will become much harder to fight them. Unlike Brazil, however, in Venezuela we should not carry the task of overthrowing a government, but rather of assuring it against attempts to overthrow it. That will already guarantee us a stronger hand in Brazil, a stronger hand in Peru, a stronger hand in Colombia … and a stronger hand in the United States.

And, unlike the powerful, we are fortunate to have true friends, not just partners. Each defeat imposed on imperialism in Brazil is a defeat imposed on capitalism in the United States. Each defeat imposed on capitalism in the United States also translates into a defeat to imperialism in Brazil. We are brothers of soul, brothers of morals, brothers of destiny and, if necessary, brothers in arms.

Long live to the alliance of all peoples of the world!

Death to imperialism!

Our day will come!

Pedro Marin – Revista Opera (Opera Magazine)

Aurora Women’s Club and Komsomol of Donbass

Dear comrades!

We know how important this conference is for you. This is another step towards our common victory over capitalism and other ugly phenomena, which it reinforces and reproduces.

You live in the very capitalist country that is trying to subdue the whole world. Your struggle is a manifestation of great courage, because you, living in the U.S., are not afraid to challenge this imperialist state. You are not afraid to fight against the lies of the world’s biggest media, which spread distorted and often false information around the world. You are not afraid to speak out against U.S. imperialist aggression against Venezuela. And today, imperialist aggression is one of the central issues to be discussed.

For us Communists of Donbass, the problem of imperialism is one of the most important. This year, the Donetsk People’s Republic is five years old. Our republic has appeared largely thanks to communists. These are five years of struggle for our freedom. These are five years of the war of Ukraine against the workers of Donbass. In 2014, we were not afraid to say “no” to a coup d’état in Ukraine. Our goal now is to strengthen the communist movement here.

In 2014, Ukraine finally lost its independence and turned into a toy in the hands of the largest imperialists. We are witnessing with excitement how the working people of Venezuela defend their independence and defend the Bolivarian Revolution. At this time, we all must express our solidarity with their struggle.

We are grateful that you never forget about our struggle and spread information about the crimes of the Ukrainian state against the workers of Donbass. It is very important that during the period of reaction you are not silent about the strengthening of the ultraright in the U.S., discrimination against Black and Indigenous peoples, migrants, women and other oppressed groups.

Now the communists need unity more than ever before. We stand in solidarity with the struggle of the working class anywhere in the world. Each of your victories is our common victory.

We wish you a very fruitful conference today. We believe that the united struggle of the left can stop U.S. imperialism. Successes, strength and inspiration in your difficult struggle

With solidarity,

Aurora Women’s Club
Leninist Union of Communist Youth (Komsomol) of Donbass

Union Borotba (Struggle) — Ukraine

Comrades in the U.S., the whole world is watching you!

Dear comrades! Sisters and brothers!

The world is on the verge of great changes! The world imperialist system has reached a dead end. It is torn apart by contradictions that cannot be solved within the framework of capitalism.

The whole world feels the burden of the chains of exploitation. People are dying in factories — because the bourgeoisie saves on safety measures. People are dying during flights — because the bourgeoisie saves on fuel for maneuver. People are dying of drought — because the bourgeoisie makes profits from clean drinking water. There are thousands of such examples all over the planet.

Today, all the peoples of the world have a common misfortune — the pursuit of profit.

The contradictions that exist between the oligarchic groups push the world towards new wars.

Under these conditions, the responsibility of the working class in the U.S. is very great, since the United States is at the center of the world imperialist system, controls the issuing of global currency and manages many political processes in favor of the large capitalists.

We are glad that the U.S. communists have begun to raise their heads. We are grateful for your solidarity and practical help in our struggle! We are proud that we have friends like YOU!

The All-Ukrainian Union Borotba (Struggle) greets all the delegates to the conference and sends greetings from the workers of Donbass, from the anti-fascists of Odessa, from imprisoned communists of Kharkov and Kiev!

We are confident that today’s meeting will be the first step towards building a powerful communist structure capable of breaking the back of such a dangerous enemy as the U.S. bourgeoisie.

Know that the whole world is watching the communists of the U.S.!

Know that for the people of the United States, there is no one to liberate you except you!

Know that you have friends and comrades around the world, and in Ukraine too!

We wish you victory!

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

Red salute, fraternal workers!

Union Borotba

United Communist Party of Russia

Dear comrades!

The Central Committee of the United Communist Party welcomes your conference and wishes you successful work, and that the movement of U.S. communists and leftists, formed by you, is able to succeed in the fight for the future of human rights, for the rights of U.S. workers, for the unity of the progressive forces of the United States, for social progress against our common enemy — world capitalism and imperialism!

The United Communist Party enthusiastically perceives the clearly outlined tendency toward the left in U.S. society. The impressive rise in popularity of the spokesman for leftist views in the Democratic Party, Bernie Sanders, the desire of the scattered detachments of the U.S. communist movement to unite, the growing number of anti-government actions directed against the imperialist policies of the U.S. administration — all this inspires hopes that society will be forced to reckon with the opinion of the progressive forces who do not profit from war and blood. We would like to hope that these changes in the public consciousness are not the result of primitive “anti-Trumpism”, but evidence of society’s understanding of the laws of the historical process, the anti-people and reactionary essence of imperialism.

Your conference has set noble goals — uniting the left-wing, progressive groups of U.S. society on a single platform, and is taking place in the days of the next global political crisis associated with the attack of U.S. imperialist circles on sovereign Venezuela, as well as with the U.S. administration’s attack on the other countries of the Western Hemisphere that chose the alternative to the Euro-Atlantic mainstream. The United Communist Party expresses its full support and our desire to further strengthen friendly relations.

On behalf of the Central Committee,

Darya Mitina
Secretary of the Central Committee, United Communist Party

Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic

Dear comrades! On behalf of the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic, we warmly greet you. We are sincerely glad to be once again assured that the U.S. workers oppose the imperialist policy of the Trump administration and are ready to stand up for the socialist achievements in Venezuela. The masses of Donbass and the United States have common interests in the struggle against exploitation and oppression. Proletarian internationalism is our response to the global ambitions of capital.

Forward under the banner of Marxism!

With best regards,

Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Donetsk People’s Republic

 

No Pasarán Hamburg, Germany

Comrades,

We wish to extend our solidarity to all those assembled in Los Angeles and to all those the world over engaged in the anti-imperialist struggle.

The battle against the rising tide of fascism is the duty of all those [who] sit comfortably in the imperial core. We in Hamburg endeavour and struggle to continue to organise demonstrations and actions against the far-right: the neo-Nazi government in Kiev, handed power through a putsch supported by the Obama administration and NATO; the apartheid state in Israel, which besieges Palestinians confined to open-air prisons; the German police, who in 2005 arrested and murdered asylum seeker Oury Jalloh, the family and friends of whom are still purposefully denied justice by the state; and just as it was nearly 20 years ago in Yugoslavia, the U.S.- and European-backed coup in Venezuela.

Here in Hamburg and across Germany, anti-imperialists are in the absolute minority. A significant portion of the so-called Left in Germany wave Israel flags and serve as the stormtroopers of imperialism.

In spite of it all, from the heart of the European imperialist beast we say to those in Donbass and Catalonia; in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela; in India and the Philippines; to those mass movements around the globe who fight for self-determination and who carry the banner of anti-imperialism: solidarity forever!

– No Pasarán Hamburg

Anti-imperialist Action – Germany

On behalf of Anti-imperialist Action from Germany, I want to address greetings to you and your conference. Let us anti-imperialists stay globally strong for the independence of Venezuela, as well as for the Syrian Arab Republic, the Donbass People’s Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk  — and last but not least, the Republic of Abkhazia.

With solidarity and an appeal for worldwide unity,

Yours,

Andreas Wisuschil
Anti-imperialist Action in Germany

Berlin Alliance Hands off Venezuela

To the March 16 public conference in Los Angeles,“Unity for Socialism and Revolution”:

Greetings from the members of “Berliner Bündnis Hände weg von Venezuela” (Berlin Alliance Hands off Venezuela). Since the end of February, we have held a weekly demonstration against the intervention against Venezuela.

Because the time is short, we can only greet you with a video of one of our pickets at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Together we will win! ¡No Pasarán!

Maren Cronsnest
Berlin, Germany

Lugansk Communists

We sincerely greet our comrades, active fighters against capitalism for the bright future of all mankind, for COMMUNISM!

Galina Tischenko
Lugansk Communists

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Jan. 27 was Holocaust Remembrance Day. We remember the mass genocide of over 6 million Jews, and more than a million communists, Romani, LGBTQ2S and disabled people. We remember Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner, Regina Safirsztain and Róza Robota, four Jewish women prisoners of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp who were hanged by Nazi SS officials in January 1945 for helping to organize the Oct. 7, 1944 revolt.

In 1944, the prisoners’ resistance movement of Auschwitz concentration camp informed members of a Sonderkommando, one of the work units responsible for disposal of the corpses of gas chamber victims, that Nazi prison guards planned to murder the whole unit on October 7, 1944. Nazi prison guards regularly murdered and replaced entire Sonderkommando units because the prisoners knew so much about the camp’s murdering practices.

The morning of Oct. 7, 1944, hundreds of of Auschwitz prisoners in the Sonderkommando rose up and revolted against the Nazi SS. The prisoners hoped to destroy the gas chambers of Auschwitz and initiate an uprising. Leading up to the revolt, Jewish women smuggled gunpowder and explosives into the camp from a nearby munitions factory where they were forced to labor. Nineteen of the prisoners were Soviet prisoners of war from the Majdanek concentration camp who helped organize members of the Sonderkommando to revolt.

Nazis crushed the revolt and brutally murdered 451 prisoners who participated, but not before the prisoners killed three guards and destroyed the crematorium and a gas chamber. In January 1945, Nazis publicly hanged the Jewish women prisoners who had helped smuggle the explosives into the camp. Their names were Ester Wajcblum, Ella Gärtner, Regina Safirsztain and Róza Robota. These women refused to give up the names of their comrades despite being violently tortured by SS guards.

#WeRemember

 

In the countries of the former Soviet Union, activists mark January 19 as the Day of Anti-Fascist Remembrance and Solidarity. Following a U.S.-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine, fueled by neo-Nazi violence, in 2014, the people of the Donbass region declared independence and formed the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. More than 10,000 people have been killed in Ukraine’s war against these anti-fascist republics.

This statement from communists and anti-fascists living in Donetsk — including some who fled Ukraine under threat of death or imprisonment — addresses the selective “anti-fascism” of many left-liberal forces which is also widely seen in the U.S. and other Western countries. Translation by Struggle-La Lucha editor Greg Butterfield.

Today, we remember all those who died fighting the fascists. In 2009, Russian neo-Nazis killed attorney Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, people who set an example for all anti-fascists.

Ten years have passed and the situation has changed. Everything has become even scarier. Today, not only street gangs terrorize those who disagree with their cannibalistic ideas. In Ukraine, Nazi battalions are involved in a war against the “wrong” region, march in torchlight processions through the streets of cities, smash Roma settlements. … The fascists have penetrated into all levels of government, and their ideology has ceased to be marginal.

Some people who call themselves anti-fascists are amazing in their obliviousness. They do not see the terror of the ultraright against people living in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and the territories controlled by Ukraine. They do not notice how the state actively indulges ultrarightist sentiments and uses the fascist scum to harass people who, despite everything, retain their humanity. Such “anti-fascists” see only those crimes which are committed against them. They express solidarity with the intellectuals protesting against Putinism [in Russia], but refuse to acknowledge the people opposing Ukrainian militarism.

We cannot say how many people have already suffered for their views. In 2014, 67 convictions for high treason were handed down in Ukraine, in 2015 the number rose to 89, and since 2016, the number has exceeded 100. Often, people who are accused of “treason” cannot afford a good lawyer, and their cases will not be covered in the media. And we know that the reasons given to make charges under this law may be quite insignificant. In addition, dissenters can be prosecuted under other laws.

We express our solidarity with all people who disagree with this state of affairs, who do not echo the chauvinists, who do not reproduce hatred. We are in solidarity with those who have been intimidated by the ultraright gangs and silenced.

Worse than the fascist is the fertile ground for dissemination of his ideas. If one day all the Nazis disappeared, the idea itself would not go anywhere. It is generated by the logic of capitalist relations, which seeks to transform all living things into commodities, and pits the exploited and oppressed against each other.

Fascism has a thousand disguises.There is no need to wait for your country to take the same path as Germany or Italy at the beginning of the last century. It is important to nip fascism in the bud. The fascists always act on the margins of bourgeois legality. They will not necessarily kill their opponents. They can also harass, humiliate and morally trample people.

We, the communists and anti-fascists of Donbass, are told to compromise with the Ukrainian authorities. But how can we concede to those who are trying to destroy us? For the fifth year, people here have been killed, robbed and denied civil rights. We live under an economic blockade. We are separated from our families. We were, in fact, driven into the ghetto under the hypocritical words that Donbass is an inseparable part of Ukraine.

We are frightened by the devaluation of human life. It is now normal to divide the victims of the fascists into the deserving and undeserving; into the good and the “pro-Russian,” as they call those who burned in the Odessa House of Trade Unions or have died or suffered during the war.

Despite the delusions of the left-liberals, we are ready to show anti-fascist solidarity.

Anti-fascism is a struggle against capitalism, which generates fascism. True anti-fascism knows no reservations.

— Communists and Anti-Fascists of Donetsk