Sunday, 8 December, 2013

Article, written for Libcom where it also can be read.

Again, on the protests in Ukraine; this time mostly on the attitude towards ‘Europe’ among the several forces within the protest.

Again, there is mass protest in Ukraine. On Sunday, 8 December, hundreds of thousands have been gathering in Kiev, the capital. Demonstrators torn down a statue of Lenin, still seen as symbol of Russian domination. Opposition politicians are announcing that the protests will continue till government and president are gone. One opposituion leader is giving president Yanukovych 48 hours to resign. Otherwise, his “residence will be blocked”. The demands of the rally, according to an English-language announcement : “Current Ukrainian President and government must resign”; new elections and the forming of a new goivernment should follow; “Stop persecution of innocent people who participated in the peaceful protests”; freedom of assembly and of speech should be guaranteed; “Sign the Association Agreement with the European Union”. Yanukovych ‘s refusal to do so triggered the protests. What makes people so angry about this deciosion, and so insistently ‘pro-European’? Read the rest of this entry »