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On
the Ukraine Elections
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Ukraine
is heading towards a stand-off between the pro-Russian Yanukovych and the
pro-Western Yushchenko. In the election held recently the pro-Russian
candidate Yanukovych won the election with 49.46% of the vote against the
pro-western Yushchenko's who got 46.61% of the vote. But the imperialist
lobby has not accepted the election results and has begun an international
media campaign to bring their pro-Western puppets to power. In this
regard, they have sent their puppet Lech Walesa, the former Polish
president who led the east European anti-communist movement in the 1980s,
to "negotiate" between the two candidates. The picture below
shows how geographically the vote is divided. It is a shocking
picture that demonstrates a pro and anti-western split geographically.
While
in Kiev there are protest being held in favour of the pro-Western
Yushchenko, in the rest of the country and specially in the East, for
example the Donetsk miners and workers, are holding rallies in favour of Yanukovych.
Donetsk makes up 10% of Ukraine's population and provides 20% of GDP; as
such it is the heart of the industrial center of the Ukraine.
Yanukovych's
base is in the industrial east
The
BBC reports that "Here people are celebrating victory - the victory
of Viktor Yanukovych. There is a party atmosphere with music every evening
in the central square." The BBC further reported that "People in
Donetsk voted for Viktor Yanukovych because he is "our man". He
was born here, he worked here, for five years he was governor and they
know him" On the other hand, "People associate [Yushchenko] with
America and the West, whereas the mood here is pro-Russian."
The
history of Ukraine is that Western Ukraine has always been Ukrainian
nationalist that allied itself with Nazi Germany, whereas the bulk of the
progressive working class politics came from Eastern Ukraine. Today
Western Ukraine is once again lining up with the neo-cons of the 21st
century. Certain "leftists" think that workers have no stake in
the outcome of this standoff since it is merely a fight within the
ruling-class. While the latter assertion is correct, it does not mean that
the workers cannot utilise the struggle within the ruling-class in their
favour.
The
pro-Western lobby all over the world is strengthening neo-colonialism and
the continuing enslavement of the people. The people have defeated this
lobby in the polls in Ukraine. The effort on the part of imperialists to
roll back this decision is a blatant plan to further speed up the
colonization of the Ukraine against the wishes of the majority of people.
It should be opposed and exposed for what it is, an insidious campaign
to further speed up the colonization of the Ukraine.
In
solidarity
Hassan
Nasir
-----------------------------------
some
background information
Meanwhile
the Communist Party of Ukraine (Komunistychna Partiya Ukrainy),
the second most popular party in the country, and polled around 20% of the
vote. It has 66 of the 450 members of the Supreme Council of Ukraine. It
is led by Petro Symonenko.
Official
labor
unions have been grouped under the Federation of Labor Unions.
Since capitalism has been restored, strikes based on "political
demands" are prohibited.
In
July 1994,
Leonid
Kuchma was elected as Ukraine's second president. Kuchma was
reelected in November 1999 to
another five-year term, with 56 % of the vote. International observers
criticized aspects of the election, especially slanted media coverage;
however, the outcome of the vote was not called into question. In March 2002,
Ukraine held its most rec ent parliamentary elections. The
pro-presidential "For a United Ukraine" bloc won the largest
number of seats, followed by the pro-western "Our Ukraine" bloc
of former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, and then the Communist Party.
There are 450 seats in parliament, with half chosen from party lists by
proportional vote and half from individual constituencies.
Bulatlat
Past Alternative Readers
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© 2004 Bulatlat
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