This May 2 marks 11 years since a mob led by members of openly fascist organizations set fire to the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine, murdering at least 42 people opposed to the violent coup that had taken place the previous February.
On March 13 of this year, the European Court of Human Rights, the international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights, announced the results of its investigation into the massacre, which had been requested by relatives of some of the people who died that day, as well as three survivors.
The ECHR unanimously accused the “relevant authorities” of “failure to do everything that could reasonably be expected of them to prevent the violence in Odesa (sic) on 2 May 2014, to stop that violence after its outbreak, to ensure timely rescue measures for people trapped in the fire, and to institute and conduct an effective investigation into the events.” The ECHR also faulted the authorities “in respect of one applicant … concerning the delay in handing over her father’s body for burial.”
The firebombing of the union building was captured on many cellphone cameras and widely viewed online. Many of the assailants’ faces were clearly visible. And yet, 11 years after this atrocity, no one has ever been punished for their part in the murders.
Unfortunately, but predictably, the ECHR report received little coverage by Western media. The massacre goes against the dominant narrative that Ukraine is a peaceful, struggling democracy that has been the victim of an unprovoked attack by Russia.
In fact, the United States government was deeply involved in the 2014 coup, which, relying of neo-Nazi stormtroopers, overthrew a pro-Russian president and replaced him with a pro-U.S/NATO one.
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO, under the leadership of the U.S., has been steadily expanding eastward. Incorporating Ukraine, with its 1,200-mile land border with Russia, would have provided a perfect staging area for any attack on Russia. That expansion, along with the 2014 coup and the subsequent government attack on the people of the Donbass region, is what led to the Russian intervention in February 2022.
Much of the U.S. public, including some in the antiwar movement, have been confused about this situation, which has now become more complicated with the reelection of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
Trump is no friend to Russia. This would-be dictator’s goal isn’t peace, it’s world domination. For him, today’s friend can be tomorrow’s enemy. Trump’s less hostile approach to Russia is simply an attempt to break up the growing cooperation between Russia and the People’s Republic of China, which the U.S. views as its main economic competitor, and so, necessarily, its mortal enemy.
As a result of Trump’s slash-and-burn approach to domestic policies, there is now a rising chorus of popular opposition. Unfortunately, due to the influence of the pro-war Democratic Party, one of the charges being raised is that Trump is abandoning NATO.
Trump should abandon NATO, along with the goal of the entire U.S. ruling class to dominate the world in the interests of U.S. corporations. And the whole U.S. public should oppose Trump, for all the suffering he is causing people here at home, especially immigrants and trans people, and work to promote a foreign policy that respects the right of other peoples to forge their own roads to freedom, justice, democracy and peace.
Promoting the memory of the Odessa Massacre of May 2, 2014, is one way to support those goals, while honoring the memory of those who died on that tragic and infamous day.
What is the reality of Ukraine today? Is it a struggling democracy, as we are told by the corporate news media, or a corrupt, authoritarian regime that relies on openly fascist organizations for its survival? How and why did the war with Russia start? And how can we show real solidarity with the people of Ukraine?
This webinar, sponsored by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign, was broadcast live on May 2, 2024, the 10th anniversary of the Odessa Massacre. The webinar features four longtime U.S. antiwar activists, each of whom have traveled to Ukraine since the massacre and report on what they experienced. Since its first showing, the webinar has been viewed thousands of times. We welcome your comments, which can be added to the webinar’s Comment section, or sent to the OSC at: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com.
The presenters are: BRUCE GAGNON, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; JOE LOMBARDO, United National Antiwar Network; JOHN PARKER, Socialist Unity Party; and PHIL WILAYTO, Odessa Solidarity Campaign. Moderated by ALISON BODINE, Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice, with remarks by African People’s Socialist Party Chairman OMALI YESHITELA and supporter PENNY HESS, both of the Uhuru 3. Technical support by ANA EDWARDS of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality.
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
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.
Each year, the Odessa Solidarity Campaign has promoted actions on May 2 to mark the date in 2014 when a right-wing mob led by openly fascist organizations murdered at least 42 anti-fascists at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine.
The Odessa Massacre took place just a few months after the violent coup that replaced a pro-Russian president with a pro-U.S. one. Not surprisingly, the U.S. was heavily involved in promoting the coup.
Today Ukraine has an authoritarian government that openly collaborates with neo-Nazi organizations, incorporating them into its military and promoting the memory of Ukrainian fascists who shamefully collaborated with the World War II Nazi occupation of their country. The birthday of the notorious Nazi collaborator Stefan Bandera is now a national holiday. His image graces a national stamp. Major streets have been renamed in his honor and Bandera statues have replaced monuments to Soviet war heroes.
For years, relatives of those who were murdered on May 2, 2014, regularly visited the site of the massacre and kept repeating their demand for an international investigation into the atrocity, something the Ukrainian government has never allowed. Today it is impossible for them to come into the streets without risking arrest or physical attacks.
The Odessa Solidarity Campaign was founded in 2016 to support the anti-fascist people of Odessa, and now Ukraine as a whole. That was the year we traveled to Odessa to stand with the Council of Mothers of May 2 as they defied threats of attack by the same fascist organizations that had murdered their daughters and sons.
Today, as the world is inundated with pro-U.S. and pro-NATO propaganda about the war in Ukraine, we believe it is more important than ever to keep alive the memory of the Odessa Massacre and the fact that not all Ukrainians support the current reactionary government and its pro-U.S./NATO stance.
We are asking that all freedom-loving people everywhere please post this message on your websites and social media sites along with the accompanying graphic that was created by a young Ukrainian to promote the anti-fascist message. Please make the graphic your Facebook image for the day and share it on your Instagram, Tic-Toc and Twitter accounts.
And as for the war itself, we call on the U.S. and NATO, which are responsib;e for provoking this devastating confrontation, to stop sending arms to Ukraine and stop using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder in their proxy war against Russia.
Remember the Odessa Massacre!
U.S. Out of Ukraine!
NATO Out of Existence!
If you or your organization post this message and/or graphic, please let us know:
ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
A project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
Below and HERE is a statement from the Odessa Solidarity Campaign condemning the recent attack on the African People’s Socialist Party by the U.S. government. Please share as you see fit. And also please consider issuing your own statement and sending it to the APSP at: info@apspuhuru.org
Odessa Solidarity Campaign statement on the U.S. government attack on the African People’s Socialist Party
The Odessa Solidarity Campaign, a project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, condemns in the strongest possible terms the April 18 federal indictments of three members of the Uhuru movement, one former member and three Russian nationals.
Those indicted include Omali Yeshitela, the chairman and founder of the African People’s Socialist Party; Penny Joanne Hess and Jesse Nevel, who the indictment says “served as a member(s) of a component of the APSP;” as well as Augustus C. Romain Jr., also known as Gazi Kodzo, who left the APSP in 2018.
The Uhuru Movement describes itself as “a worldwide organization, under the leadership of African People’s Socialist Party, uniting African people as one people for liberation, social justice, self-reliance and economic development.”
The APSP was founded by Chairman Yeshitela in 1972 and for more than 50 years has been an outspoken opponent of the oppression of African people everywhere, as well as a fierce opponent of U.S. wars of aggression. In the present period, it has opposed U.S. political and financial support for Ukraine in its current conflict with Russia.
Chairman Yeshitela was one of the speakers at the national protest against U.S. support for Ukraine held March 18 in Washington, D.C., an event that marked a turning point in the long decline in antiwar activity in this country. The APSP initiated the Black is Back antiwar coalition that is part of the United National Antiwar Coalition, one of the major organizers of the protest.
The indictments accuse the four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals of “working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States,” according to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice. “Among other conduct, the superseding indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda ….”
The APSP has vehemently denied the charges.
The indictments come eight months after FBI agents violently raided Chairman Yshitala’s home in St. Louis, Mo., as well as searching the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, Fla. They also come as public support in this country for Ukraine is slipping.
In the last year, the U.S. government has sent more than $116 billion to Ukraine, a country with an annual gross domestic product of $200 billion. At a time of growing economic uncertainty here at home, public support for sending Ukraine more money has fallen from 60 percent last May to 48 percent now. (The New York Times, March 1, 2023)
We believe this government attack on the APSP and the Uhuru Movement is meant to try and intimidate and promote hostility to those who would dare question the official narrative about the war in Ukraine.
The Justice Department statement admits as much: “All Americans should be deeply concerned by the tactics employed by the FSB and remain vigilant to any attempt to undermine our democracy. The FBI remains committed to confronting this egregious behavior and ultimately disrupting our adversaries and those who act on their behalf.”
For the past seven years, the Odessa Solidarity Campaign has been supporting the anti-fascist people of Ukraine. We know who is responsible for provoking the present war: the U.S. government, which supported if not directed the anti-Russian coup of 2014; NATO, which for more than 30 years has steadily expanded eastward to the very borders of Russia; U.S./NATO support for the neo-Nazi militias that have been fighting the people of the Donbass region since right after the coup; and all the NATO member countries that have ignored Russia’s legitimate security concerns and its repeated calls to discuss those issues.
Eight months ago, as soon as we heard about the FBI raids on Uhuru homes and offices, the Odessa Solidarity Campaign reached out to the APSP to offer our support. We have written about the raids in The Virginia Defender newspaper and have sent a financial contribution to the organization’s legal defense fund.
Now that these indictments have come down, we will redouble our support efforts – as well as our unwavering opposition to U.S. and NATO war aims in Asia, Africa, Latin American and Eastern Europe.
On Saturday, March 18, people from all across the country will gather outside the White House in Washington, D.C., to demand an end to the war in Ukraine and all the endless wars the government is waging with our blood and our tax dollars.
In the last year, Congress has appropriated more than $116 BILLION for the Ukrainian government. That’s more than it spent here at home on education, cops – even prisons. The goal isn’t to help the people of Ukraine, but simply to “weaken Russia,” as was recently stated by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin – even at the risk of a catastrophic nuclear war that could end all life on Earth.
Meanwhile, back home, evictions are skyrocketing. Supplemental SNAP benefits have ended. Millions are being forced off Medicaid. Credit card debt is at an all-time high because people have run through their savings and are now deep in the hole just trying to put food on the table.
The March 18 demonstration will make the connections between the human and financial toll of U.S. militarism at home and abroad:
Peace in Ukraine – No weapons, no money for the Ukraine war!
Abolish NATO – End U.S. militarism & sanctions!
Fund people’s needs, not the war machine!
No war with China!
End U.S. aid to racist apartheid Israel!
Fight racism & bigotry at home, not other peoples!
U.S. hands off Haiti!
End AFRICOM!
End Sanctions on Syria!
This protest represents the coming together of more than 200 organizations, including the ANSWER Coalition, United National Antiwar Coalition, Black Alliance for Peace, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, International Action Center, Struggle-La Lucha, DSA International Committee, Shenandoah Valley Antiwar Coalition, Dissenters at UVA, Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and the Defenders’ Odessa Solidarity Campaign.
Join with us in this historic demonstration and make the warmakers listen to the will of the people!
At this point, we know of carpools and vans being organized from Hampton Roads, Richmond and Norfolk:
HAMPTON ROADS
Hampton Roads Coalition for Peace & Planet
peaceandplanet757@gmail.com
RICHMOND
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality & Odessa Solidarity Campaign
DefendersFJE@hotmail.com
Phone or Text: 804-644-5834
ROANOKE
Plowshare Peace Center
To find a ride or provide a ride: 540-989-6875 or hbeskar@gmail.com
June 22, 2022, was the 81st anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, and a prominent German antiwar activist took the occasion to publicly question why the German government is now supporting neo-Nazi organizations in Ukraine.
As a result, that activist is now facing the possibility of up to three years in prison.
Heinrich Bücker runs Berlin’s popular Coop Antiwar Cafe, which since 2005 has been a gathering space for activists working on a wide range of issues. Since 2019 the cafe has co-organized the weekly event “Frente Unido América Latina” in front of the U.S. Embassy. He’s a member of the “Kommunistische Platform” in the party DIE LINKE; a member of the League of Anti-Fascists; and represents the U.S.-based World Beyond War in Berlin. The cafe also represents the “Aufstehen” Initiative in Berlin Mitte, backing the left politician Sahra Wagenknecht and organizing left events against sanctions and for peace.
On June 22, Bücker gave a speech at an event hosted by Berlin’s Friedenskoordination (Peace Coordination) at the Soviet War Memorial in Berlin’s Treptower Park, in which, according to a statement on the antiwar cafe’s website, he said that “… it seems incomprehensible to me that German politics should again support the same chauvinistic and especially Russophobic ideologies on the basis of which the German Reich found willing helpers in 1941. The SS and Wehrmacht used Ukrainian national-fascist organizations as repressive and murderous squads against their own countrymen, including millions of Jewish men, women and children.”
The collaboration of ultra-nationalist Ukrainian organizations with the Nazi occupation is a matter of historical record. And, before the present war, Western mainstream media would routinely report on the existence of present-day fascist organizations in Ukraine, such as the Azov Battalion, Right Sector, National Militia, C-14 and many others. (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary/commentary-ukraines-neo-nazi-problem-idUSKBN1GV2TY)
But that coverage has now ended.
On Oct. 19, Bücker received a letter from the Berlin State Criminal Police Office notifying him that he was under investigation for possible violation of Paragraph 140 of the German Criminal Code, which has to do with disturbing the public peace. A violation of the statute can be punished by a fine or a prison sentence of up to three years. The investigation was apparently prompted by a complaint by a Berlin attorney upset about Bücker’s speech.
“In Germany, we are currently experiencing a narrowing of the space for debate and massive restrictions on freedom of expression, caused by one-sided reporting in the mainstream-media,” Bücker writes. “There are now a number of individuals who are in the focus of the German criminal investigation authorities. Similar tendencies are also reported from other EU [European Union] countries.”
The Coop Antiwar Cafe itself also has come under attack. In addition to threatening emails, the cafe’s front windows were recently smashed.
Along with his June 22 speech, Bücker also initiated a statement on the war in Ukraine that questioned the official line that it’s simply an act of unprovoked Russian aggression. Instead, the statement, posted on the cafe’s website, points to the steady eastward expansion of NATO up to the very borders of Russia, and U.S. and European support for the 2014 coup that drove out the elected president of Ukraine and brought in a right-wing government anxious to join NATO and hostile to both Russia and the country’s ethnic Russian minority.
Another reason for the police interest in Bücker could be the prominent role he has played in promoting an anti-imperialist statement on the war in Ukraine initiated by the U.S-based Odessa Solidarity Campaign, a project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality. That statement, similar to the one initiated by the Coop Antiwar Cafe, has been endorsed by more than 230 organizations and individuals in 22 countries, with nearly two-thirds of the endorsers from Germany.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the African People’s Socialist Party is calling for support in the face of expected indictments of four of its leaders and prominent supporters who have been actively speaking out against U.S. support for Ukraine. The APSP is a Pan-African organization that for the past 50 years has been opposing U.S. wars at home and abroad.
In response to the police pressure, Bücker’s allies and supporters in Germany have been preparing a united defense effort. Stay tuned for new developments and calls for solidarity.
For more information on repression directed against antiwar activists and efforts to support them, see:
Phil Wilayto is editor of The Virginia Defender newspaper and coordinator of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign. He can be reached at: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com.
On May 2, 2014, just a few months after the U.S.-backed right-wing coup that overthrew the elected president of Ukraine, a large mob led by openly fascist organizations murdered at least 42 people in the Black Sea port city of Odessa. This is what has come to be known as the Odessa Massacre.
After the coup, the victims had been petitioning for the right to elect their local governors, instead of having them appointed by the federal government, which was now hostile to the Russian ethnic minority in the country. The mob drove the petitioners into the five-story House of Trade Unions on Kulikovo square and set it on fire. Some of the victims died from the flames, some from the smoke, others from jumping from the windows and then being beaten- to death when they hit the ground.
To date, not one of the perpetrators has ever been punished for their crimes, and the Ukrainian government has never allowed an international investigation into the massacre.
The Odessa Solidarity Campaign was founded after three U.S. peace activists – Phil Wilayto, Bruce Gagnon and Regis Tremblay – returned from attending the second annual memorial held at the site of the massacre. The three were responding to an appeal by the Council of Mothers of May 2, an organization of relatives of the victims, to come to Odessa as International Observers because several fascist organizations were threatening to attack the memorial.
Ever since, the OSC has called for local events on May 2 to honor the victims of the massacre and support the demand by the victims’ families for an international investigation. This year’s actions were especially important because they drew attention to the existence of the fascist movement in Ukraine, which has only grown since the 2014 coup. Allusions to this fascist movement are routinely dismissed by the U.S. government and mass media as Russian propaganda, but we have seen this movement with our own eyes and have been following and reporting on it since 2016.
This year the OSC worked with two other organizations – the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners in Exile and the Coop Antiwar Cafe of Berlin – to promote activities around May 2. The three organizations jointly issued a May 2 Appeal for International Solidarity with the People of Odessa that called on organizations around the world to hold local events to mark the Odessa Massacre.
They also released an educational webinar about the massacre and the war in Ukraine.
Following is a report on the 2022 solidarity actions.
NOTE: If your organization held an activity on May 2 and it’s not listed here, please send the information to: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com.
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May 2, 2014, Odessa, Ukraine: A fascist-led mob sets fire to the House of Trade Unions in Kulikovo square, killing at least 42 progressives, just months after the right-wing coup.
ODESSA, UKRAINE
Ever since the Odessa Massacre of May 2, 2014, the antifascist people of Odessa have held memorials at the site of the killings, including major gatherings each year on the actual anniversary. This year, the head of the Regional Military Administration imposed a curfew from the evening before May 2 until the morning after. No one was allowed on the streets. Public transportation was shut down. Meanwhile, many people thought to be insufficiently loyal to the right-wing government were arrested and charged with subversive activity, part of a wave of repression that has been sweeping the country. The general repression began with the Russian intervention on Feb. 24, but has since spread widely, with many thousands now charged with subversive activity, often for merely expressing opinions critical of the government on blogs and social media
Members and friends of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign hold a vigil outside the federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA – USA
On May 2, the Odessa Solidarity Campaign held a vigil outside the federal courthouse in downtown Richmond. The OSC is sponsored by the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, which publishes the quarterly newspaper The Virginia Defender, which in its last two issues has carried major articles opposing the U.S. position in Ukraine. The 18-year-old newspaper has a statewide circulation of 15,000.
In addition to the webinar mentioned above, OSC coordinator Phil Wilayto presented on a webinar organized by the International Action Center and was interviewed several times by the Russian news outlet Sputnik International, with some of the interviews picked up by major news outlets in India, South Africa, Venezuela and Lebanon. (See WEBINARS and INTERVIEWS below.)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – USA
On May 2, the New York-based International Action Center broadcast an educational webinar on May 2 and the war in Ukraine. “Reckoning with the Ukraine Government’s Armed Nazi Militias.” The presenters were Leonid Ilderkin, member of the coordination council of the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine; Phil Wilayto, OSC coordinator; Alexey, a survivor of the Odessa House of Trade Unions massacre currently living in Luhansk; and Sara Flounders and Teddie Kelly of the International Action Center.
Socialist Unity Party members and friends hold a May 2 memorial in Baltimore.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – USA
Baltimore solidarity activists held a memorial next to the Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center, reading the names of those who died in the Odessa Massacre, mounting a memorial on a fence and performing a rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “All You Fascists Bound to Lose.” The commemoration was initiated by the Baltimore Socialist Unity Party.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – USA
The Socialist Unity Party’s John Parker, a candidate for U.S. Senate from Los Angeles, Calif., traveled on a fact-finding mission to the People’s Republic of Luhansk in the Donbass and later participated in a ceremony May 2 at the Odessa Memorial in Moscow. The SUP also produced a webinar, “Voices from Donbass – Stop the War Lies.”
Members of The Fire This TIme Movement for Social Justice show solidarity from Vancouver, Canada.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA
The Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice carried out a social media campaign to educate the public about May 2.
Hundreds of people march to the Ukrainian Embassy in Moscow to commemorate the Odessa Massacre victims.
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
The Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine helped organize a procession to the Ukrainian Embassy. Local people carried posters, photographs and flowers to honor the memory of those killed at the House of Trade Unions in 2014. Video HERE.
For the eighth year in a row, leftists in Penza, Russia, hold a May 2 solidarity event.
PENZA, RUSSIA
A memorial was held in the provincial capital of Prenza. Activists with the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Left Front and the Leninist Communist Youth Union laid flowers at the monument to the Fighters of the Revolution on Sovetskaya Square in memory of all those who died in the Odessa House of Trade Unions in 2014. This is the eighth consecutive year in which similar memorials have been held in Penza by the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Left Front. See a detailed report HERE.
In an action called by the Coop Antiwar Cafe, activists gather near the U.S. Embassy in Berlin to remember the Odessa Massacre.
BERLIN, GERMANY
Despite harassment from provocateurs and the police, the Coop Antiwar Cafe sponsored two May 2 events in Berlin. The first, near the Ukrainian embassy, was shut down by police because some of the images of Ukrainian neo-Nazis that were displayed included their fascist symbols, which are banned in Germany. The second event was held at Pariser Platz by the Brandenburg Gate in front of the U.S. Embassy, where there were some provocateurs. Despite the opposition, the organizers read the appeal for international actions on May 2 that was issued by the Antiwar Cafe, Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine and the OSC. There also were remarks by the chair of the German Communist Party.
One national and three regional Italian television stations broadcast a documentary on the Odessa massacre. This was part of “Forbidden Peace,” a special event also broadcast on these stations, in which actors, journalists, writers, philosophers, poets and citizens united to say what is really happening in Ukraine, pointing out the responsibilities of the United States, Europe and NATO.
No details yet, but we have been told an action took place.
TURKEY
A leftist organization posted an online report on the Odessa Massacre.
VIENNA, AUSTRIA
A group of Turkish communist emigrants held an activity.
SPAIN
The Galician Committee of Support to Donbass carried out a social media campaign to remind the public about the Odessa Massacre and other attacks that have taken place since. “Go ahead with denazification! Long live Donbass and anti-fascist Ukraine!”
Reckoning with Ukraine’s Armed Nazi Militias – by the International Action Center. Presenters: Leonid Ilderkin, member of the coordination council of the Union of Political Refugees and Political Prisoners of Ukraine; Phil Wilayto, coordinator of the Odessa Solidarity Campaign; Alexey, a survivor of the Odessa House of Trade Unions massacre currently living in Luhansk; and Sara Flounders and Teddie Kelly of the International Action Center.
Statement on the Present Crisis in Ukraine– Issued jointly by The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality; Odessa Solidarity Campaign; and The Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice (written four days after the invasion)
Political Repression in Ukraine – by Phil Wilayto for The Virginia Defender – March 28, 2022. The U.S. media is full of stories about what it calls political repression in other countries, but is strangely silent when it comes to Ukraine.
INTERVIEWS
Finland, Sweden Applications for NATO Membership Add to Regional Instability – US Activist – Virginia Defender editor Phil Wilayto on what it means for Sweden and Finland to join NATO. This interview was with the Russian news outlet Sputnik International, which is now banned from broadcasting in Europe. However, the interview was carried by several other large media outlets, including United News of India, that country’s second-largest news agency, and Independent Online (IOL), a major news and information website based in South Africa.
Remembering the 2014 Attack on Odessa– Odessa Solidarity Campaign coordinator Phil Wilayto on the online program “By Any Means Necessary” with Jacquie Luqman and Sean Blackmon (April 23, 2022).
Prepared by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
Eight years after the Odessa Massacre, a new wave of repression has been unleashed on the people of that city in southern Ukraine.
According to the mainstream Odessa Journal, the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police is claiming that Russian operatives are planning to incite riots in Odessa on May 2 with the goal of overthrowing the government.
May 2 is the anniversary of the massacre in 2014 in which a fascist-led mob murdered at least 42 progressives at Odessa’s House of Trade Unions. This took place just a few months after the U.S.-backed, right-wing coup that brought an anti-Russian, pro-NATO government to power with the open support of neo-Nazi organizations.
Every year on May 2, thousands of Odessans gather at the site of the massacre to peacefully remember their dead and demand justice for the victims. This year, In anticipation of these “riots,” the regional military administration is imposing a curfew on May 2 for the entire city. All public transportation will be shut down. Mass arrests are already being carried out.
Obviously, the authorities are afraid that the people of Odessa will once again gather in a memorial that exposes the government’s tolerance of and collaboration with openly fascist organizations – not the narrative being promoted by Washington and the mainstream Western media.
If the people of Odessa are unable to speak, we must raise our voices in solidarity with them and their demand for justice.
The Odessa Solidarity Campaign
The Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality is a multi-issue, all-volunteer activist organization based in Richmond, Virginia, USA. In addition to our 20 years of community struggles, we’ve always been involved in opposing U.S. wars. And we know very well that Washington lies about those wars. It lied about Vietnam, it lied about Iraq and it’s lying today about Ukraine.
In 2016 we traveled to Odessa to stand in solidarity with the people of that city as they commemorated the second anniversary of what has been called the worst civil conflict in Europe since World War II. After returning to Richmond, we founded the Odessa Solidarity Campaign to support the anti-fascist people of Odessa and their demand for an international investigation into the massacre, something the Ukrainian government has never allowed. Each year we have encouraged local actions to remember the massacre and support the demand of the people of Odessa for justice.
Who’s responsible for today’s war in Ukraine?
Today Ukraine is involved in a terrible war. We do not support the Russian attack on Ukraine, but we are trying to explain what made it inevitable: the steady expansion of NATO to the very borders of Russia and U.S. support for the right-wing coup of February 2014 that set the stage for the Odessa massacre and everything else that followed.
It’s vitally important to understand the role that the U.S. government is playing in the current war.
According to The New York TImes of April 30, President Biden is asking Congress to authorize $33 billion more in aid to Ukraine: “The request represented an extraordinary escalation in American investment in the war, more than tripling the total emergency expenditures and putting the United States on track to spend as much this year helping the Ukrainians as it did on average each year fighting its own war in Afghanistan, or more.”
This “aid” is in addition to the ongoing training of Ukrainian soldiers, sending thousands of additional U.S. troops to Europe and providing intelligence to the Ukrainian military.
It is inconceivable that Washington is doing all this without at the same time telling Ukraine how to conduct the war. This is not a war between Russia and Ukraine, it’s a proxy war by the U.S. against Russia, a war that has been long in the making.
It’s an old truism that the first casualty of war is truth. But no matter how many times we’ve been lied to about Washington’s wars, people still tend to give the warmakers the benefit of the doubt, especially when virtually all the news media is repeating the official line.
What can we do?
We can educate ourselves. This packet of information is meant to try and counter the lies we’re being told about Ukraine, the war and who is responsible for the current tragedy. Please take the time to educate yourself about this war that has the potential to ignite a much broader conflict, one in which there will be no winners.
We can raise our voices in solidarity with the anti-fascist people of Odessa and all of Ukraine. Gather a few of your friends and co-workers, hold up signs saying “We remember the Odessa Massacre and Demand Justice for the Victims!” Take a photo and post it on social media. Then send us the photo, with the name of the city and sponsoring organization. We’ll compile and promote the photos and make sure the world knows that people do remember, and do care.
So far we know of actions planned for May 2 in Richmond, Baltimore, Vancouver, Berlin and Moscow, as well as webinars planned by the International Action Center and jointly by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign, the Coop Antiwar Cafe in Berlin and the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine.
And finally, let us know if you’d like to stay in touch and work together to support justice in Ukraine.
Kat McNeil – Member, Antiwar Committee of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
Presenters:
Phil Wilayto – Editor, The Virginia Defender newspaper, and coordinator, Odessa Solidarity Campaign, speaking on what led up to the present situation: the steady eastward expansion of NATO and U.S. support for the right-wing coup of 2014.
Leonid Ilderkin – Member, Coordination Council of the Union of Political Emigrants and Political Prisoners of Ukraine, speaking ON the current wave of repression against all dissidents in Ukraine.
Heinrich Buecker – Founder, Coop Anti-War Cafe Bar, a meeting place for local and international peace activists in Berlin, Germany, reporting on the reactions in Europe to the situation in Ukraine by the various governments and by the peace movement.
Statement on the Present Crisis in Ukraine – Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality; Odessa Solidarity Campaign; The Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice – Feb. 28, 2022
Odessa Solidarity Campaign 