David North

"In the writings of Timothy Snyder we are confronted with an intellectually unhealthy and dangerous tendency: the obliteration of the distinction between the writing of history and the manufacturing of propaganda in the service of the state." ~ David North

A group of right-wing academics, journalists, pro-war human-rights activists, and specialists in “discourse” is gathering in Kiev this coming weekend (May 16–19). The purpose of the meeting—headed by Professor Timothy Snyder of Yale University and Leon Wieseltier, the neo-con literary editor of the New Republic, is to bestow political and moral respectability on the Ukrainian regime that came to power in February, through a putsch financed and directed by the United States and Germany.

Promoting themselves as an “international group of intellectuals,” the organizers have issued a publicity handout—excuse me, a “Manifesto”—in which the meeting is described as “an encounter between those who care about freedom and a country where freedom is dearly won.” There is some truth in this statement, as the overthrow of the Yanukovych government did, in fact, cost the United States a great deal of money.

The meeting is an exercise in imperialist propaganda. Its sponsors include the embassies of Canada, France, Germany, Poland and the United States. Other sponsors include the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, the European Endowment for Democracy, and Eurozine. On the Eurozine web site, which is heavily promoting the Kiev meeting, there are numerous postings relating to the geostrategic implications of the Ukrainian coup. Prominently featured are articles such as “How to Win Cold War II.” Its author, Vladislav Inozemtsev, is presently a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.

More »

Stephen Lendman

Ukraine is Obama's latest imperial trophy. Holding it is another matter entirely.

Fascist regimes run America and Ukraine. Democracy is pure fantasy. Monied interests control things. People have no say. Fundamental freedoms don't matter. They're trampled on. They're crushed.

In Ukraine, democracy was systematically quashed. Washington elevated fascist putschists to power. They're unelected. They're radicalized ultranationalists. They're overt anti-Semites. They're militant thugs. They have no legitimacy whatever. They're convenient US stooges. They're puppets. They take orders from Washington. They masquerade as politicians. They represent mob rule. They make mafia bosses look saintly by comparison.

Growing thousands of Eastern Ukrainians resist. They reject Kiev fascists. They do so for good reason. Maybe their Western counterparts will join them. Maybe a national convulsion will erupt. Freedom is too precious to lose. Nothing remains without it. Ordinary people are putting their bodies on the line to save it. They're doing so courageously. They deserve worldwide support. They represent model resistance for others to emulate.

Kiev putschists have no legitimacy. They're waging war on their own people. They're doing it no-holds-barred. They're murdering people in cold blood. They're doing it at Washington's urging.

Gangsterism reflects official US policy. Accountability is absent. Permanent war is longstanding. Peace is pure illusion. Governance is secretive, ruthless and lawless. It's dressed up to look respectable in legal mumbo jumbo. Monied interests run things. Duopoly power represents it. Checks and balances don't exist. Nor separation of powers. Nor government of, by and for everyone equitably. Claiming otherwise is fantasy.

More »

Chris Marsden

Swedish politician Carl Bildt, a member of the Bilderberg group for 20
years plus (l), Ukranian steel and mining oligarch Rinat Akhmetov (c)
and Nomen Nescio (probably just as evil as the two we've mentioned).

The New York Times has led efforts to portray the setting up of patrols employing “steelworkers” and “miners” in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol as proof of a rising wave of opposition to all those presently engaged in conflict with the Kiev regime and its thugs.

In its front-page lead article Friday, the Times described the move as “a body blow,” asserting that “the pro-Russian protesters have melted away, as has any sign of the Donetsk People’s Republic or its representatives.”

The Times claimed that by late Thursday, “miners and steelworkers had deployed in at least five cities, including the regional capital, Donetsk.” But the Wall Street Journal reported patrols being mounted in only “four smaller towns” where the steel and mining oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s company owns facilities, and cited a spokesman stating that “it wasn’t clear yet whether similar patrols could be introduced in Donetsk….”

Once again, the New York Times —the so-called “newspaper of record”—has distinguished itself only as a useful conduit for the crudest propaganda in the service of US imperialism. In reality, the launching of the patrols has nothing to do with a movement in the working class. Along with their promotion by the Times and other sources, the patrols are part of a concerted effort by the United States and Germany to stifle resistance to Kiev’s coup regime and ensure that presidential elections planned for May 25 go ahead.

To this end, the Western powers are seeking to use the wealth and influence of Ukraine’s oligarchs to bring things under control. The various reports citing a number of patrols, made up of six workers and two police officers, as having taken control of Mariupol all acknowledge that those involved are employees of Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, with a fortune estimated at $11.8 billion. It is Akhmetov who is behind the patrols, and there is no doubt that he acted in consultation with the Western powers.

More »