ON THE HISTORIC REFERENDUM IN CRIMEA FOR ITS RETURN TO RUSSIA –

The uprisings in Crimea and Ukraine stimulate an international anti-imperialist front –

Posadist IV International, 10.4.2014

The masses of Crimea, Donetsk, Kharkov, Lughansk, Slaviansk and other towns in the South and East of Ukraine are mobilising against the pro-imperialist and fascist coup of February 2014 in Kiev. Those who are creating Popular Republics in two regions of the country proclaim their attachment to Lenin and the Great Struggle of the USSR against Nazism. By doing this, they demonstrate their desire to return to the epoch of the Workers State. Their demand to be attached to Russia again expresses also their refusal to become dominated by Nato and the European Union.

The workers of the whole of Ukraine rejected energetically the right wing and pro-fascist government in Kiev. They have condemned the pillage of the Trade Union Centre in Odessa, the provocations and the murders, the anti-communist pogroms as well as the anti-Russian and anti-Jewish ones. They do not accept that the banning of the Russian language and that of other minorities in Ukraine.

In Crimea, in the mines, the enterprises, the shipbuilders, the ports and the military bases, the workers, the Communists, the soldiers and their families have participated massively to the referendum that proposes their return to Russia. And Russia accepted this. It is not Putin who organised this referendum, and no Russian soldier has imposed it either.

The population of Crimea has decided to return to Russia, thinking of the USSR. Crimea was an autonomous Republic within the Union of the Soviet and Socialist Republics. In line with his bureaucratic policy, Krutchev attached Crimea to Ukraine, but when this happened, it was still within the Soviet Union. It was not making much difference to anybody at the time. The people of Crimea, as part of the USSR, contributed to the Soviet victory against Nazi Germany and its local allies. This is why, even today, no one there is prepared to let the military bases fall to the Kiev neo-fascists and putchists.

The referendum ws organised by the population in a very few days and more than 80% of the voters opted for their return to Russia. This reincorporation of Crimea to Russia triggers a process of pro-Russian uprisings in all of the East of Ukraine. These are regions of great Bolshevik and proletarian traditions. People want to live in Russia because they see mighty confrontations on the horizon, bringing civilisation against fascism, communism against capitalism. This is why they protect the statues of Lenin, whilst it the fascists are bringing them down.

European capitalism speaks of economic and political ‘sanctions’ against Russia, but Nato – as the EU militarised arm – reorganises itself, places huge military forces along its ‘frontiers’ with Russia, puts in place a permanent presence in Lithuania and Poland and brings US missile-carrying warships to the Black Sea.

The masses of Crimea have decided to return to Russia. In so doing, they impel other regions in Ukraine to take the same road, so that together, they may confront the military plans of imperialism. This is how they reply to the military coup in Kiev.

In our globalised world today, it is not possible to build an independent Socialist Ukraine. The struggle for Socialism in any part of the world is now part of the global confrontation between capitalism in its final crisis, and the forces that seek to recover the historic experience of the Workers Sate. This is happening in Ukraine, but it is happening in Russia too. In the course of this process, the government of Putin is made to accept impulses that he had not foreseen. To defend Russia, and to combat barbarism, he must count on the mobilisation of the populations and accept decisions such as the return of Crimea to Russia. The Posadist IV International salutes the decision of the masses of Crimea to unite to Russia. And to build Popular Republics and Federations as a result of the State coup in Kiev.

Posadist IV International – 10.4.2014