Resolution approved at the meeting outside the Embassy of Ukraine organized by AKEL to denounce the banning of the Communist Party of the Ukraine

 

21st December 2015, Nicosia

• We condemn the decision of the Administrative Court of Kiev prohibiting the functioning of the Communist Party of Ukraine. This decision was the culmination of a parody of a process over many months which served blatantly undemocratic political considerations of the regime.

• We point out that the criminalization of the Communist Party of Ukraine is the escalation of the anti-communist terror unleashed after the overthrow of Yanukovich by extreme right-wing and neo-fascist groups, which are systematically engaged in attacks against members of the Party and lootings of its buildings.

• We stress that the on-going destruction of the monuments of the Soviet period and of the Antifascist Victory of the Second World War are also part of the rabid anti-communism in Ukraine. The continuing attempt at the vindication of the3 Ukrainian Nazi collaborators during the Second World War is also part of this violent falsification of history.

• We denounce the banning of the Communist Party Ukraine as an attempt to silence the main opposition force in the country opposed to the surrender of Ukraine to the US-NATO-EU-IMF and its use of a vehicle for the escalation of Western aggression against Russia.

• We consider that the banning of the Communist Party Ukraine also adds to a series of persecutions and bans against Communist Parties and the ideology and symbols of the communist movement in a number of EU member-states. At the same time, anti-communism under the guise of a vulgar and unhistorical equation of communism with fascism assumes an institutional foundation within the EU structure. The rise and use of anti-communism is an indication of the European elite’s fear of that ideology which reveals the exploitative nature of the capitalist system and that can inspire organized popular struggles in favour of social change.

• We recall that, historically, anti-communist persecutions heralded wider persecutions against democracy and freedom, against every democratic and progressive voice. Anti-communism was a vehicle for fascism and Nazism.

• We deplore the hypocrisy of the EU and NATO which express democratic sensitivities only when their interests are served. At the same time as the EU and NATO supported the actions of ultra-right, nationalist and anti-Semitic forces of Ukraine, they are not bothered at all by the flagrant violation of democratic principles taking place with the outlawing of the Communist Party of Ukraine. The EU bears additional responsibilities which though proclaiming its adherence to values and principles has proceeded to conclude the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, despite the blatant and systematic violation of human rights and democratic freedoms by the Ukrainian government itself.

• We affirm our unwavering solidarity with the Communist Party of Ukraine, its leadership, cadres and members, as well as with the whole Ukrainian people who is becoming a victim of the imperialist aggressions.

• We urge the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the OSCE to deal with the issue. AKEL will raise the issue at every international forum and urges the other Cypriot political forces to support this effort.

• We call on every democrat to denounce this development, which constitutes a historic setback to the detriment of the democratic achievements of the peoples of Europe.