FREEDOM ASSULT BY UKRAINE = FREEDOM OF SPEECH + ENTIRE PARTIES CAN BE DONE AWAY + UNIVERSITIES CAN FIRE LECTURERS FOR THEIR OPINIONS = POTENTIAL DICTATORSHIP

Ukrainian Government Assault on Political Freedom and Criminalizing of Support For Rebellions in the East cannot be justified on the threat of Russian troops on the Border.

The Real News Network Interview by ANTON WORONCZUK! August 14, 2014

Click for Source Interview on The Real News Network

INTERVIEW OF: Sociologist Volodymyr Ishchenko = Sociologist and deputy director of the Centre for Society Research in Kiev, an editor of Commons: Journal for Social Criticism, and a lecturer in the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

FACT: A Russian convoy of trucks carrying tons of humanitarian aid for Eastern Ukraine primarily for Donetsk and Lugansk regions that have a humanitarian crisis without water and electricity caused by Kiev government so-called “antiterrorist operations” against Russians living in Ukraine.

FACT: Kiev refused to allow the humanitarian vehicles crossing.

ISHCHENKO: Russian intervention in the eastern regions seems more probable, with this move to BLOCK humanitarian aid to desperate citizens. Russia has concentrated troops along Ukrainian border, but that doesn’t mean they plan to intervene, but they have a potential to do this.

ISHCHENKO: The military situation in Eastern Ukraine have changed in favor of Ukraine Military and rebels are in a very critical situation and may be encircled and cut the Donetsk group from the Lugansk group of rebels = Cuts off supply of goods and military support.

ISHCHENKO: The population is not really supporting the Ukrainian army. And there were a number of protests against them, especially in Western Ukraine.

ISHCHENKO:  Army has a very interesting class nature as they recruit poor people from the villages into the army under local pressures of those in power. In some cases management actually sent draft cards to all the union members in the factory = like in good old times army recruitment is used for political repression against union activists.

ISHCHENKO: The oligarchs of Ukraine are actually making profits on this war using the blood of poor guys. = Class division with the poor people dying for the rich people interests.

WORONCZUK: Ukraine elitists recently banned the Communist Party = You wrote this “will be only the first step in outlawing most forms of genuine, peaceful opposition in Ukraine.”

ISHCHENKO: The Communist Party is not the OLD Communist Party, it’s NOT genuine leftist. Today’s Communist Party is quite conservative, reactionary, bourgeois Russian nationalist party, which for a decade has been after cultural division, cultural wars, and church split in Ukraine and voted anonymously for Yanukovych’s repressive wars on January 16.

ISHCHENKO:  Violent phase of Maidan toppled Yanukovych then. And the Communist Party sold their votes to the rich. Oksana Kaletnyk, was a wealthy member of communist parliamentary group.

ISHCHENKO:  But the Communist Party is not being banned for being a reactionary, conservative Russian nationalist, but for voicing opposition opinion against the antiterrorist operation and the other decisions of the government. = Official accusations by the Ministry of Justice against the Communist Party — Communist Party expressed overtly negative attitudes for the actions of Ukrainian military in the Eastern Ukraine. = Simply expressing negative attitudes.

ISHCHENKO: Ukraine is a quite plain and simple attack on the freedom of speech, and many Ukrainians are expressing those negative attitudes. So the Communist parliamentary group was disbanded. It must be taken to the courts in the middle of August. = Framework of a Ukrainian RIGHTS large assault on the political freedoms in Ukraine = Comparable to those repressive laws on January 16 passed by the Yanukovych government.

ISHCHENKO: A Ukraine bill that includes very large range of repressive activities = Ban mass media or disband any party of social movement with no court decision done by the top officials in Ukraine = President and the Ministry of Defense etc. = not more than 15 people can decide to ban a party, to ban mass media, to arrest without any court decision.

ISHCHENKO: This repressive bill will create a mechanism for establishing of full-scale dictatorship in Ukraine. = Saddly supported by patriotic feelings that can justify many things under the threat of foreign invasion. This attack on the political freedoms cannot be justified with this Russian threat. It’s exceeding what can be justified in this situation. Even potential threats to national interests can be used to institute a Dictatorship.

WORONCZUK: As a lecturer at a university in Kiev, do you think that this sanctions bill can also be a threat to academic freedom?

ISHCHENKO: Yes, but it’s not the only assault on political freedoms in Ukraine. The new minister of education official letter to university administrations allows them to sack university lecturers on the grounds of their immorality (not loyal to Government) = Open for WIDE interpretation including political positions of those lecturers. = Called Immoral.

The problem is any person charged is fired without having to prove what they have done breaks any law. = Extremely Repressive on the faculty who cannot voice any opposing opinions without being fired. = They can be threatened, blackmailed, and fired for virtually any reason. = Another mechanism of establishing censorship and oppression in Ukraine.