Oppose Fascism & Political Repression in Odessa, Ukraine!

Three years ago, the U.S. government supported a violent right-wing coup in Ukraine carried out with the use of neo-Nazi paramilitary organizations. The pro-coup campaign was known as “Maidan,” for the city square in the capital city of Kiev where the anti-government assaults were carried out.

Less than three months later, on May 2, 2014, at least 46 mostly young people known as “Anti-Maidan” were murdered when a massive, fascist-led mob set fire to the House of Trade Unions in the Black Sea city of Odessa.

This Tuesday, May 2, 2017, Odessans will mark the third anniversary of this massacre by gathering at the site of the murders. They will lay flowers, sing songs, remember their dead and again raise their demand for an international investigation into the murders - a demand that has been continually blocked by the Ukrainian government.

And once again the fascist organizations are threatening to attack their memorial.

An urgent appeal from Odessa

“On the eve of the third anniversary of the events of May 2, 2014, the situation in Odessa is getting worse every day,” writes a supporter of the Council of Mothers of May 2, which represents the relatives of those who died at the House of Trade Unions.

 “Ukrainian nationalists do their utmost to prevent a mass demonstration dedicated to the memory of the residents of Odessa who died on that day. To this end, the media started a campaign of intimidation against the people of Odessa, informing them about possible bloody provocations with the aim of ‘destabilizing the situation in the city.’

“And while previously these threats were raised mainly by professional organizers, this year floods of lies are being produced by representatives of official state institutions: Odessa prosecutors, officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, representatives of the military department. They are all warning about preparations for allegedly armed provocations on May 2 in Odessa.

“Apartments of anti-Maidan activists are being searched. To counter the peaceful mourning rally, a mobilization of ‘patriots’ has been declared. An atmosphere of fear, hysteria and expectation of a new tragedy is created in Odessa. Everything is aimed at intimidating, misleading and confusing people and eventually making them stay at home.

“In these conditions, we urge the world to closely monitor the situation in Odessa to prevent provocations from those forces that proved to the whole world three years ago their bloodlust and their desire to choose the most cruel and bloody ways.”

These threats of violence follow the arrests by federal police of several anti-fascist Odessans now falsely charged with serious crimes. Ominous reports are surfacing about plans to arrest more relatives and supporters and “extract confessions” of plans to commit violent acts against the government.

April 10 International Day of Solidarity

To support the courageous people of Odessa, the Odessa Solidarity Campaign called for an International Day of Solidarity with the People of Odessa, which took place on April 10, the 73rd anniversary of the day Odessa was liberated from years of fascist occupation. Actions took place in 20 cities in 13 countries across Europe and North America.

That solidarity must now continue.

Since the massacre of 2014, the continuing demand of Odessans for an international investigation has been a serious problem for the Ukrainian government. If the voices of these brave people are allowed to be silenced, Ukraine will have taken another huge step toward becoming a repressive police state in collusion with murderous fascist groups.

We urge all supporters of Freedom and Justice to contact the Ukrainian embassy in your country and demand:

Free all political prisoners in Ukraine!

Stop the repression against relatives & supporters of those killed on May 2, 2014!

No to fascism in Ukraine & all over the world!

For more information on the anti-fascist struggle in Odessa and what you can do to help, contact the Odessa Solidarity Campaign - www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org

On the Situation in Odessa, Ukraine

Below is a message that I will share on Friday night at the Ukraine Teach-In to be held in Bath, Maine.  It comes from a person in Odessa who I know. This person wishes to remain anonymous due to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) current round-up of thousands of peaceful activists in Odessa.  The SBU headquarters building in Kiev has an American flag hanging outside the doorway indicating which nation is really running things these days inside of Ukraine.

SBU headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine - we see who really runs Ukraine these days

Message from Odessa

Odessa region of Ukraine is extremely important for the Kiev authorities. Several lucrative ports with the flow of goods in transit, a strategically advantageous position in the area of ​​the Danube mouth, the economically active population, the infrastructure which is not fully destroyed during the years of independence - this is not a complete list of the region’s benefits.

Known to everybody Odessa tolerance and multiculturalism, that had always been its hallmark, became an obstacle to the total Ukrainization of the region. Odessa resisted the Maidan nationalism so strongly, that the so-called "patriots" have developed and implemented a bloody campaign of intimidation on May 2, 2014 [Odessa Trades Hall massacre where more than 50 were killed by neo-Nazis.]. Having survived the shock, the city and the region have moved to active resistance to the "new order", expressed in constant actions of resistance which has reached its climax in the period May 2-9, 2015. In these days tens of thousands of people came out into the streets of the city under the newly prohibited red flags, and Poroshenko showed the world a million of fake smiles on the Walk of Fame in Odessa under a thunderous cry "Fascism will not pass!".

Under these conditions, Poroshenko recovered the move which is traditional to Ukrainian presidents – he appointed his godfather as the governor of the trouble-making Odessa region. But this time the choice was approved even by the international curators of the Maidan power, for it was Mikheil Saakashvili [former president of Georgia and a favorite US CIA operative who is now wanted for crimes in Georgia but Ukraine refuses to send him back to his country] who was appointed the governor, and who is one of the most rabid Russophobes of our days and in the same time doesn’t have the reputation of Bandera-nationalist and who is not directly related to the May 2 mayhem.

By all accounts, the Kiev government has assigned for Saakashvili two tasks - an obvious one and quite probable one. As to the first, everyone agrees, then Poroshenko demanded to capture and redirect the financial flows, and above all, the proceeds from the customs and trading port, as well as pave the way for the privatization of the region's largest asset - Portside Plant. As to the probable objective, many analysts mention an escalation of tensions on the border with Transnistria. With this Saakashvili should cause the greatest possible damage to Russia, and the rest we'll see.

The new governor immediately developed a rigorous activity, strengthening his already robust reputation of a populist and a windbag. An objective observer analyzing the situation cannot ignore the following facts.

Firstly, the active process of the property redistribution is at full speed in Odessa and its region. The press has already published numerous stories about the people in camouflage uniforms who appeared on various enterprises, captured them and did not let the owners in. Usually, these people represent themselves as "Pravi sector", "Automaydan" and other Bandera-nationalist brands. The great thing is that they really are those.

Creating and pumping the atmosphere of fear and terror, the nationalists literally beat political opponents with impunity and pay no attention to any laws of the country or to the statements of the liberal leaders of the region. Only recently the militants brutally beat unarmed protesters who were protesting against holding in prison Artyom Buzilov - Bessarabian progressive journalist. They have repeatedly destroyed the humble and touching makeshift memorial erected by Odessans on the Kulikovo Field in memory of those unarmed citizens who were killed on May 2. They also constantly terrorize the participants of weekly meeting-requiem on the Kulikovo field, many of whom are elderly people.

The peak of cynicism of nationalist gangs is the bullying of mothers who lost their children on May 2. On July 13, 2015, the hearing on the case of Sergei Hodiyaka in Odessa Primorsky court was appointed. This euromaidan activist is accused of the murder of Yevgeny Losinskogo (Article 115 of the Ukraine Criminal Code), as well as of the attempted murder of several other people. The relatives of the victims, their friends and Odessans who wanted to support the mothers whose sons were apparently killed by Hodiyak during the May tragedy last year came to the hearing.

What happened later in the hall cannot be named other than coven and lawlessness. Relatives of the victims were insulted, pushed out from the benches. Despite all their appeals to the judge and to the prosecutor, they were taken [photos] on mobile phones and cameras, and were threatened to be burned next time ...

No action on the part of judges and prosecutors to protect the relatives of the victims had been taken. After the abolition of the court session, as the judges again recused themselves, the "patriots" have built a "corridor of shame" through which all the mothers of the victims  and all those who came to support them had to go through. At the same time they were abused, pushed, beaten, kicked in the legs, they spitted at. The police, who could stop this abuse, were absent in the the court room. 

Looking at all these manifestations of painful social schizophrenia that is not suppressed by the authorities, Odessans cannot believe in the good intentions of the new governor Saakashvili. 

Changing the signs does not change anything in substance - that is the main conclusion of Odessa citizens. Moreover, a growing concern has the steps of the new governor, that can only be described as a rejection of sovereignty. How else can we assess the fact of the regional administration officials being paid their salaries by the US government? Or the upcoming transfer the control of the South (Odessa) customs office to an American corporation? [There has been at least one article speculating that the US wants to use Odessa to port its Navy warships deployed in the Black Sea.]

And only the nationalists and their henchmen do not get tired to extol all the steps of the new governor. This causes vague doubts among ordinary Odessa residents – the patriots of what state are those home-grown radical nationalists been taken. 

Alert from Odessa, Ukraine

March 6, 2017  —  It’s been nearly three years since the brutal massacre of 46 mostly young progressives by a neo-Nazi-led mob in the Ukrainian city of Odessa. Government repression and right-wing attacks against Odessans demanding justice for that atrocity have been constant, but now have entered a new and much more dangerous stage.

On Feb. 23, Alexander Kushnarev, the father of one of the young people murdered on May 2, 2014, was arrested by agents of the federal Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Oleg Zhuchenko, chief prosecutor for the Odessan region, claims Kushnarev had been planning to kidnap and torture a member of the country’s Rada, or parliament.

After Kushnarev was arrested, his home was searched and police claimed they found literature that “promotes national hatred between Ukrainians, Russians and Jews.” According to the online Odessan news site Timer, photos of the literature “show only copies of a memorial book for victims of the May 2 massacre and a pamphlet about the history of Ukrainian nationalism.”

The Rada deputy, Alexei Goncharenko, a member of a parliamentary bloc allied with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, was in fact missing for a short time. But he quickly reappeared and was interviewed on the Ukrainian television channel EspresoTV, stating that his abduction had been staged by law enforcement officers.

Kushnarev may have been selected for a government frame-up because Goncharenko had been at the scene of the 2014 massacre and was photographed standing over the dead body of Kushnarev’s son.
Kushnarev’s arrest may be the opening shot of a wider repression of Odessans who have been demanding an international investigation into the events of May 2, 2014. Since he was taken into custody, the homes of other relatives of the victims of May 2 have been searched by police, including that of Victoria Machulko, president of the Council of Mothers of May 2 and a frequent target of both SBU and Right Sector harassment.

Ominous reports are now surfacing of plans to arrest other relatives and supporters and extract “confessions” of plans to commit violent acts against the government.

Background to the current crisis

In the winter of 2014, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was promoting a trade deal with Russia, while the Rada wanted to orient politically and economically toward the European Union. The EU and the United States both had big stakes in the outcome. 

Yanukovych, who was widely suspected of serious corruption, became the target of peaceful protests that were quickly joined by right-wing paramilitary groups, leading to his violent ouster. Some of the rightists, particularly the neo-Nazi Right Sector, maintain strong ties to the new government. 

Suspicions of a U.S. role in the coup increased after a conversation between Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, became public. The two officials seemed to be discussing how to intervene in the crisis to ensure that their favored opposition figure became the new leader. (1) Nuland had previously bragged that the U.S. had spent some $5 billion supporting “democracy” in Ukraine – funding anti-government NGOs. (2) Nuland also made a big show of showing U.S. support for the protesters by handing out baked goods during the anti-government actions.  

 
(3) The coup appealed to those who consider themselves Ukrainian “nationalists,” many of whom are the political descendants of World War II fighters who alternated between collaborating with and opposing the Nazi occupation of their country. Coup opponents, on the other hand, were largely ethnic Russians, who make up a large part of the population in eastern Ukraine and who remain fiercely anti-Nazi.

Opposition was especially strong in Crimea, the militarily strategic peninsula that had been part of Russia for hundreds of years until 1954, when it was administratively transferred from Soviet Russia to Soviet Ukraine. After the coup, Crimea held a referendum in which voters overwhelmingly decided to rejoin Russia. Unrest also developed in the eastern Dombass region, where anti-coup self-defense forces declared several independent “people’s republics.”

Odessa: The Pearl of the Black Sea

Odessa was a special situation. Ukraine’s third largest city is a major commercial seaport and transportation hub on the Black Sea. It’s also a multi-ethnic cultural center where Ukrainians, Russians and many other ethnic groups live in relative harmony. Although less than a third of the city’s population is ethnic Russian, more than three-quarters speak Russian as their first language and another 15 percent speak Ukrainian and Russian equally. Odessa also has a strong collective memory of the brutal occupation it suffered under Nazi-allied Romanian fascists during WWII. 

All these factors resulted in strong anti-coup sentiments among many Odessans, some of whom began agitating for a change to a “federalist” form of government in which voters could choose their own local governor. At present, governors are appointed by the federal government, now in the hands of authoritarian anti-Russians in bed with neo-Nazis.

The massacre at Kulikovo Pole

In May of 2014, Odessa was hosting a big soccer match. Thousands of fans were pouring into the city. In Ukraine, as in many countries, many soccer fans are political. Some are overtly right-wing.

On May 2 – just three months after the coup – these right-wing fans held a militant nationalist march. They were joined by neo-Nazi activists who steered the crowd toward Kulikovo Pole (“field,” or square), where pro-federalist petitioners had set up a small tent city.

A huge mob of these right-wingers descended on the camp, set fire to the tents and chased the petitioners into the nearby five-story House of Trade Unions, which they then pelted with Molotov cocktails, setting the building ablaze.

At least 46 people died that day in the massacre at Kulikovo square. Some were burned to death, some suffocated from the smoke, others were shot or fatally beaten after jumping from windows to escape the flames. Google “Odessa massacre” and you’ll find scores of cellphone videos of the siege, with the faces of the perpetrators clearly visible, while police officers stand idly by, watching the carnage.

 
And yet, 34 months after this tragedy, not a single person has ever stood trial for taking part in the massacre.

Almost immediately, relatives, friends and supporters of the murdered formed the Council of Mothers of May 2 and demanded an international investigation. Several bodies, including the prestigious European Council, tried to investigate, but each effort was blocked by the Ukrainian government’s refusal to cooperate.

Every week since the massacre, Council members and supporters gather in front of the House of Trade Unions to lay flowers, say prayers and remember their dead. And almost every week local members of Right Sector show up to harass the relatives, almost all of them women and old men, sometimes physically attacking them. 

 Continuing pressure on the Council of Mothers

The following are just some examples of what has been happening:

• In the spring of 2016, the Council of Mothers called for a large second anniversary commemoration of the massacre. The fascist organizations demanded the Odessan city government ban the memorial and threatened mass violence if it did not. Meanwhile, the SBU announced that a cache of explosives had been found in Odessa, supposedly linked to anti-coup activists. Mothers’ Council President Victoria Machulko, whose apartment had already been raided by the SBU, was ordered to report for questioning at 8 am the day of the planned memorial and was detained until 10 that evening, forcing her to miss the memorial. Odessa authorities also announced they had received information about a bomb threat at Kulikovo and had closed the square – until midnight on May 2. Despite the threats and repression, some 2,000 to 3,000 Odessans turned out for the May 2 memorial, joined by international observers from a dozen countries, including the United States. (4)
• June 7, 2016: Nationalists carried out a siege of the Odessa Court of Appeals, barricading the courtroom and threatening to set fire to the building and kill the judges hearing the case of Yevgeny Mefёdova, a progressive held in prison since the massacre of May 2. None of the nationalists were arrested.
• July 13: representatives of the Polish Senate, specialists in human rights, were in Odessa to meet with witnesses of the massacre. Nationalists physically blocked the representatives’ hotel entrance.
• Oct. 9: During the weekly memorial at Kulikovo square, nationalists tried to grab a flag of Odessa held by a 79-year-old woman, causing her to fall and break her arm.
• Oct. 22: Right-wing activists interrupted a film showing held in commemoration of those who died on May 2, causing it to be cancelled.
• Dec. 8: Neo-Nazis disrupted the concert of Russian actress, poet, well-known author and performer Svetlana Kopylova.
• Sergey Sternenko, leader of the Right Sector in Odessa (https://www.facebook.com/sternenko), has carried out a campaign demanding that Professor Elena Radzihovskaya be fired from her job at Odessa University, claiming she is guilty of “anti-Ukrainian” activities. The professor’s son Andrey Brazhevskiy was one of those murdered at the House of Trade Unions.
• Sternenko has led a similar campaign calling for the dismissal of Aleksander Butuk, a blind associate professor at Odessa Polytechnical University. Professor Butuk’s ”crime” was that he was inside the House of Trade Unions but managed to survive the fire and participate in the weekly commemorative vigils.

Despite this pressure from the government and neo-Nazis, the Council of Mothers of May 2 has continued to hold their memorials every week at Kulikovo square. As long as they are able to be active and public, Odessa remains a critical outpost of resistance to fascism in Ukraine.
That resistance is now under the most severe attack since 2014. An immediate response is needed!

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign is calling for:
(1)   the immediate release of Alexander Kushnarev,
(2)   the dropping of all charges against him and
(3)   an immediate end to all government and right-wing harassment of members and supporters of the Council of Mothers of May 2. 

You can help by contacting Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly and raising the above demands. 

Phone: (202) 349 2963. (From outside the U.S.: + 1 (202) 349 2963)
Fax: (202) 333-0817. (From outside the US.: +1 (202) 333-0817)
Email: emb_us@mfa.gov.ua

This statement was issued March 6, 2017, by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign

Email: contact@odessasolidaritycampaign.org  –  Web: www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign was founded in May 2016 by the United National Antiwar Coalition after UNAC sponsored a delegation of U.S. human rights activists to attend the second memorial of the Odessa massacre held at Kulikovo square on May 2, 2016.

Webinar: “MAY 2: REMEMBER THE ODESSA MASSACRE!”

 

 

“MAY 2: REMEMBER THE ODESSA MASSACRE!”

 A webinar sponsored by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign

Thursday, May 2, noon - 1:15 pm (EST)

 

Register in advance for this webinar:

 
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XcxaoXglQragoqh1Dc9oHg

 

 

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign invites you to attend an important webinar on May 2 that will explore the true nature of the government of Ukraine and expose the myth that it is a democracy unjustly targeted in an unprovoked war.

The webinar is timely for two reasons:

First, May 2 will mark 10 years since a fascist-led mob murdered at least 42 people when it set fire to the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine. What has become known as the Odessa Massacre took place shortly after the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the elected president of Ukraine and replaced him with a regime anxious to ally with the U.S. and its growing global military, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.

And second, the U.S. House of Representatives has just approved $61 billion for the U.S. proxy war with Russia, along with $26 billion for Israel to support its genocide in Gaza and billions for Taiwan, a provocative move certain to increase tensions with China.

The May 2 webinar will have four presenters, all of whom have visited Ukraine since the Odessa Massacre:

• Bruce Gagnon - Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (Maine)
• Joe Lombardo - Coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition (New York)
• John Parker - Leading Member, Socialist Unity Party; Coordinator, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice (California)
• Phil Wilayto - Coordinator, Odessa Solidarity Campaign; Editor, The Virginia Defender (Virginia)

The Moderator will be:

• Alison Bodine - Representative, Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice (Vancouver)

There will also be a special presentation by a member of the Uhuru 3, leaders and supporters of the African People’s Socialist Party who have come under severe political repression for speaking out against the U.S. role in Ukraine’s war with Russia. The Uhuru 3 are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 3 in Tampa, Florida.

The May 2 webinar is being sponsored by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign and has been endorsed by:

•       Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice (Vancouver)
•       Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space 
•       Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice (Los Angeles)
•       Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) - Vancouver
•       Socialist Unity Party.
•       United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
•       Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

  

ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

 PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 USA - https://odessasolidaritycampaign.wordpress.com

Ph: 1-804-644-5834 - Email: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign, a project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, was founded in 2016 after three U.S. antiwar activists answered a call from the Council of Mothers of May 2 for International Observers to attend the 2nd annual memorial of the Odessa Massacre, which several fascist paramilitary organizations were publicly threatening to attack. Every year since, the OSC has encouraged local actions to remember the massacre and support the Council of Mothers’ demand for a genuine international investigation into the killings, something the Ukrainian government has yet to allow.

May 2: Remembering the Odessa massacre

This video is by Regis Tremblay who joined Phil Wilayto and me in Odessa, Ukraine on May 2, 2016 for a remembrance event with the Mother's Committee of those killed at the Trades Union Hall in 2014 by Nazis.

International Solidarity with the People of Odessa!

On May 2, 2014, the people of Odessa, Ukraine, experienced the worst civil atrocity in Europe since World War II. Scores of people [46] died when a fascist-led mob chased a group of progressive activists into the five-story House of Trade Unions in Kulikovo Square - and then set it on fire. Some died from the flames, some from smoke inhalation, some from gunshot wounds. Some leapt from the building, only to be beaten to death when they hit the ground. Dozens of cellphone videos posted on the Internet clearly show that this was a mass lynching. Just google “May 2, 2014, Odessa.”

But even though many of the attackers’ faces are clearly visible on the videos, to date not one of the perpetrators has been brought to justice - while victims who survived the fire still languish in prison, many without ever being charged with a crime.

Background to the Massacre

The winter of 2013-14 in Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev saw escalating protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, who was accused of corruption and anti-democratic practices. He also favored strengthening trade relations with Russia, while the parliament, or Rada, wanted a trade deal with the European Union. The initially peaceful protests on a large city square, or “maidan,” were soon taken over by extreme right-wing paramilitary organizations, leading to violence and the overthrow of the president. Today Ukraine is run by a right-wing government that openly works with neo-Nazi organizations to suppress dissent. Those who supported the coup are called Maidan. Those who opposed it are known as anti-Maidan. In Odessa, the anti-Maidan activists started a petitioning campaign to allow local provinces to elect their own governors, hoping this would provide some protection from the increasingly reactionary central government. It was this simple demand that infuriated the fascists, leading to the massacre of May 2.

Role of the US, EU, NATO & IMF

After the coup, then-U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland openly bragged that the U.S. had spent $5 billion cultivating “civic” organizations in Ukraine. During the Maidan protests she was even seen handing out pastries to the protesters. She also was caught on tape deciding with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine who should be the country’s next president!

Today Ukraine is a country in crisis - economically, politically and socially. Its leadership is desperate to join the European Union. But first it has to submit to “structural reforms” demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF): privatization of state-owned industries, deregulation of businesses and deep cutbacks in social services - including raising the age at which workers can collect their meager pensions. Ukraine also wants to join NATO, which would give that military alliance a new member with a 1,200-mile land border with Russia. Meanwhile, Ukraine receives massive military aid and training from the U.S. and other NATO countries and conducts regular joint air, sea and land exercises with the U.S. military.

Today in Odessa

Despite the hostility of a right-wing government and the openly fascist forces that support it, the people of Odessa continue to regularly gather at the site of the May 2 massacre and demand justice. This May 2 they are holding another mass gathering - even though the fascists have called for a march on their memorial. This is why solidarity events are being carried out in so many countries today. Together we can raise our voices and say to the world:

* Solidarity with the People of Odessa!
* Justice for the Victims of the Massacre of May 2!
* US, EU, NATO & IMF out of Ukraine!
* No to Fascism - from Charlottesville to Odessa!

This statement is issued by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign, which works in support of the Council of Mothers of May 2 in Odessa. The OSC is a project of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC). For more information, visit us at:

https://odessasolidaritycampaign.org 

Never Forget Odessa!

A Call for an April 10 International Day of Solidarity with the People of Odessa!

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign is calling for an International Day of Solidarity with the People of Odessa on April 10, 2017, to draw attention to the Ukrainian government’s repression of anti-fascist activists in that city. We are calling for rallies, vigils and demonstrations outside Ukrainian embassies and consular offices around the world. April 10 is a date of great significance to all Odessans, as it marks the day in 1944 when Odessa was liberated from years of fascist occupation.

February 2014 saw the overthrow of the elected president of Ukraine in a violent, right-wing coup supported by the U.S. government. Just three months later, on May 2, Odessa experienced one of Europe’s worst civil disorders in many decades, when 46 mostly young progressives were brutally murdered by a fascist-led mob at Odessa’s Kulikovo square.

Ever since that day, relatives, friends and supporters of those who were killed have been demanding an international investigation into the massacre, a demand that has been blocked by the federal government working hand-in-hand with the fascist organizations responsible for the deaths. This obstruction by the Ukrainian government has been noted by the United Nations, the Council of Europe and other international bodies, as well as the U.S. State Department.

It should be noted that, despite many videos taken of the fascists participating in the massacre, not one of those responsible for the murders has ever been brought to trial, while many anti-fascists arrested that day are still in prison, many never having been charged with a crime.

Each week since the massacre, Odessans have gathered in Kulikovo square to remember their dead and press the demand for an investigation. And nearly every week, neo-Nazi organizations like the notorious Right Sector harass and sometimes physically attack them. The police occasionally intervene, but the fascists are never arrested.

In an alarming new development, several anti-fascist Odessans have been arrested by federal authorities and falsely charged with serious crimes. On Feb. 23, Alexander Kushnarev, 65, a deputy of the Limansk District Council and father of one of the young people murdered at Kulikovo square, was arrested by agents of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Also arrested was Anatoly Slobodyanik, 68, a retired military officer and the head of the Odessa Organization of Veterans of Armed Forces. The Odessan region’s chief prosecutor claims the two men were planning to kidnap a member of the country’s Rada, or parliament.

The Rada deputy, Alexei Goncharenko, a member of a parliamentary bloc allied with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, was in fact missing for a short time. But he quickly reappeared and was interviewed on the Ukrainian television channel EspresoTV, stating that his abduction had been staged by law enforcement officers. Kushnarev may have been selected for a government frame-up because Goncharenko was at the scene of the 2014 massacre where Kushnarev’s son was killed.

Kushnarev and Slobodyanik are now languishing in the Odessa prison where conditions are aimed at breaking the prisoners’ will to resist. Both elderly men have had long-standing heart problems and it is feared they may not survive their confinement.

Since the two men were taken into custody, the homes of other relatives of the victims of May 2 have been searched by police. Ominous reports are now surfacing about plans to arrest more relatives and supporters and extract “confessions” of plans to commit violent acts against the government.

Since the coup of 2014, the right of the Ukrainian people to free speech has been steadily restricted. The continuing demand of Odessans for an international investigation into the massacre at Kulikovo square has been a particular irritant to the federal government. If the voices of these brave people are allowed to be silenced, Ukraine will have taken another huge step toward becoming an undemocratic police state in collusion with murderous fascist groups.

All out for the April 10 International Day of Solidarity with the People of Odessa!

Free Alexander Kushnarev, Anatoly Slobodyanik & all political prisoners in Ukraine!

Stop the repression against relatives & supporters of those killed on May 2, 2014!

No to fascism in Ukraine & all over the world!

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign is a project of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC).

It was founded in May 2016 following the second anniversary memorial of the massacre of May 2, 2014.  A delegation of UNAC members from the United States attended the memorial, which was held at Odessa’s Kulikovo square.

www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org 

Int'l Sign-On Statement to Support U.N. Investigation in Odessa, Ukraine

Some of the 46 who were burned alive inside the Odessa Trade Union hall

To add your name, organization, city, state & country please send to globalnet@mindspring.com

Statement in Support of the May 2 Memorial to be Held in Odessa, Ukraine...

Join Call for a United Nations Investigation into the Tragic Events of May 2, 2014
 
On May 2, 2016, a memorial will be held in Odessa, Ukraine, to honor the memory of scores of prodemocracy activists who were brutally murdered on that date in Odessa two years ago.

There is no reason for the City authorities to forbid a peaceful memorial, but rightwing radicals, some of whom are believed to have been involved in the events of 2014, have declared that they will not allow it to proceed.

The tragedy of Odessa and the continuing danger of rightwing [fascist] violence in that beautiful city is of growing concern to decent minded people around the world.

Therefore, we the undersigned representatives of human rights organizations in the United States and other countries hereby call on the governments of Odessa, Ukraine and the United States to ensure that the civic rights of those attending the May 2 memorial in Odessa will be respected, including the delegations of international monitors who will be present on that day.

We further respectfully appeal to the United Nations Human Rights Committee to initiate an international investigation into the events of May 2, 2014, as requested by family members, friends and supporters of those who died on that day.

According to widely published reports, protesters opposed to the February 2014 coup that overthrew Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had set up a symbolic tent city in Odessa’s Kulikovo Square, in front of the five story House of Trade Unions. On May 2, rightwing soccer fans, whipped up by procoup activists, attacked and burned the tent city, driving the much smaller group of protesters into the union building. The mob then set the building on fire. At least 46 people died from burns, smoke inhalation, gunfire and beatings. Many more were wounded. It was the worst case of violence in Odessa in many decades.

Ever since the massacre, representatives of the families of those who died have held weekly vigils to honor the memory of their loved ones. Many of these memorials have been harassed by procoup groups. As recently as April 10, a large gathering of people celebrating the liberation of Odessa from Nazi occupation was attacked by rightwing thugs. These same forces now are threatening to physically prevent the second May 2 anniversary memorial from taking place.

At a formal meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Committee held on March 21, 2016 in Geneva, family members and their supporters asked the committee to initiate a longoverdue impartial investigation into the events of May 2, 2014.

For their part, the procoup forces are expressing their opposition to such an investigation. This contradiction alone should make clear which side wants the truth to be revealed and which side wants it to remain hidden.

Again, we call on the United Nations to initiate the requested investigation. And we call on the governments of Odessa, Ukraine and the United States to ensure that the civic rights of those attending the May 2 memorial in Odessa are respected.

Sincerely,

Elliott Adams, Veterans For Peace, Sharon Springs, NY

Abayomi Azikiwe - Editor, Pan-African News Wire; Organizer, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice

Judith Bello - Member, Administrative Committee, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)

Choi Sung-Hee, Gangjeong village international team, Jeju Island, Korea

Ramsey Clark - Former U.S. Attorney General

Bob Dale, Veterans for Peace, Brunswick, Maine

Jacqui Deveneau, Maine Green Independent Party, Portland, Maine 

Ana Edwards - Chair, Virginia Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project

Sara Flounders - Co-Director, International Action Center

Bruce Gagnon - International Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, Veterans For Peace 

Ellen Grady, Ithaca Catholic Worker, Ithaca, NY

David Hartsough, PEACEWORKERS, San Francisco, CA

Herbert J. Hoffman, Ph.D., Albuquerque Veterans For Peace, Albuquerque, NM

Tamara Lorincz, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Saanichton, British Columbia, Canada

Jeff Mackler - Director, Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal; Past Vice President, American Federation of Teachers, Hayward Local 1423, AFL-CIO

Natasha Mayers, Union of Maine Visual Artists, Whitefield, Maine

Ray McGovern - Former CIA Analyst

Agneta Norberg, Swedish Peace Council, Stockholm, Sweden

Patricia Patterson, retired international mission executive, United Methodist Church, Claremont, CA

John Pilger, award winning journalist

J. Narayana Rao, All India Peace & Solidarity Organisation, Nagpur, India

Sr. Megan Rice, shcj, Transform Now Plowshares, Washington DC

Lisa Savage, Maine Natural Guard, Maine

Jean Sommer, Peace Action, Cleveland, OH

Gar Smith, Co-founder, Environmentalists Against War; Director, Academic Publishing; Free Speech Movement, Berkeley, CA 

Alice Slater, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, New York City

Mary Beth Sullivan - Greater Brunswick PeaceWorks (Maine)

Aaron Tovish, Executive Adviser, Mayors for Peace, Stockholm, Sweden

Marguerite Warner, Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 

William H Warrick III, MD, Veterans for Peace, Gainesville, Florida 

Kay Weir, editor, Pacific Ecologist, The Pacific Institute of Resource Management, Wellington, New Zealand 

Phil Wilayto - Editor, The Virginia Defender

Mike Wisniewski, Los Angeles Catholic Worker, California
 
* Organizations listed for identification purposes only


This statement was initiated by the United National Antiwar Coalition (www.UNACpeace.org), a broad coalition of peace and justice organizations in the United States. UNAC encourages the circulation of this petition among peace and human rights organizations all over the world. 

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