Bulletin 610
Subject: ON THE IMPORTANCE OF CALLING THINGS BY THEIR
NAME.
6 May 2014
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of
CEIMSA,
WHAT THE UNITED STATES AND ITS ALLIES ARE DOING IN UKRAINE IS CRIMINAL
AND INSANE.
I KNOW OF NO EUROPEAN PRESS THAT IS CALLING THIS US-LED MILITARY
VIOLATION OF UKRAINE BY ITS REAL NAME: AN IMPERIALIST ATTACK ON RUSSIA FOR THE
EVENTUAL US CONQUEST OF EURASIA.
THE ARCHITECHTS OF THIS AUDACIOUS IMPERIALIST INTERVENTION IN
UKRAINE CALL THEMSLEVES NEO-CONSERVATIVES IN WASHINGTON, D.C. THEIR STAGETGY IS
THINLY DISGUISED --WITH AN ATTEMPT AT ‘THE BIG LIE’-- AS AN ANTI-TERRORIST
INTERVENTION IN EASTERN EUROPE.
THEY ARE ALLIED WITH THE INTIMIDATED POST-IMPERIALIST AND
PRO-FASCIST EUROPEANS.
OUR DUTY IS TO STAY INFORMED AS BEST WE CAN, AND ‘CEASE BUSINESS AS USUAL !’
The 11 items below should
serve as a wake-up call to victims of corporate media disinformation. Never has the social
media been of greater service to civil society than now, on the brink of
World War III, when we find ourselves led by Barack Obama selling the ‘big lie’
for US corporate interests. This situation calls for public debate and free
discussion immediately . . . . We urge CEIMSA readers to contact their
lawmakers, the corporate press, and above all to organize locally for political
power to prevent their isolation in the dangerous times ahead.
Item A., from Consortium News, is an early article (written in
March 2014) by investigative reporter Robert
Parry, who describes the American Neo-conservative strategy of US
“full-spectrum dominance,” and “regime change” in Middle Eastern countries
opposed to Israel.
Item B. is a photo essay from the Sunday
May 4 New York Times, beginning to
question who are the rebels resisting the US sponsored coup d’état in Ukraine; are they authentic resistance fighters or
Russian mercenaries? (to be subtitled: “the US Neocons
screw up once more !).
Item C., from Information Clearing House,
is an article by Seumas Milne on
the origins of war in Ukraine.
Item
D., from The Financial Times of London
is an article by John Reed, et al. describing war in Odessa on May 2,
2014.
Item E., from Information Clearing House,
is a video of the United Nations’ May 2 Emergency Meeting with UN envoys from Ukraine, Russia and the United States.
Item F. is an article from The New York Times on Obama and Merkel discussing sanctions against Russia.
Item G., from The Real News Network, is a video interview with Lucky Crosby, Chief Shop Steward,
AFSCME Local 467, and labor historian Bill
Barry on working class consciousness in American.
Item H., from Information Clearing House,
is an article sent by Agence France
Presse describing Civil War activities in Eastern Ukraine.
Item I., from Truth Out, is an article by Renfrey Clark on the future prospects for the Ukraine economy.
Item J., from Information Clearing House,
is an article by Paul Craig Roberts, on the future plans of the US for Russia.
Item K., from Information Clearing House, is an article by Zbigniew
Brzezinski advising
President Obama to raise the volume of his jingoistic rhetoric against Russia
and to mobilize more Americans to pay…, go…, and die…. for us.
And finally, we invite CEIMSA readers
to visit the cartoon explanation of unreason,
as it concerns the schooling system under late American capitalism:
The One Comic That Explains Just
How Screwed America Is
by occupy posters
Sincerely,
Francis Feeley
Professor of American Studies
University of Grenoble-3
Director of Research
University of Paris-Nanterre
Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and
Social Movements
The University of California-San Diego
http://dimension.ucsd.edu/CEIMSA-IN-EXILE/
_______________
A.
From Consortium News :
Dates: 19 March
2014
Subject
: A
Description of the ‘Neocon Strategy’.
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/19/neocons-ukraine-syria-iran-gambit/
The Ukraine
crisis – in part stirred up by U.S. neocons – has damaged prospects for peace
not only on Russia’s borders but in two Middle East hotspots, Syria and Iran,
which may have been exactly the point, reports Robert Parry.
Neocons’ Ukraine-Syria-Iran
Gambit
http://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/19/neocons-ukraine-syria-iran-gambit/
_______________
B.
From The New York Times :
Dates: 4 May
2014
Subject
:
Who are the Rebels?
Yuri commands the 12th
Company, part of the self-proclaimed People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s
Republic, a previously unknown and often masked rebel force that since early
April has seized government buildings in eastern Ukraine and, until Saturday,
held prisoner a team of European military observers it accused of being NATO
spies.
His is one of the
faces behind the shadowy paramilitary takeover. But even with his mask off,
much about his aims, motivations and connections remains murky, illustrating
why this expanding conflict is still so complex.
Behind the Masks in Ukraine, Many Faces of Rebellion
by C. J. Chivers & Noah Sneider
_______________
C.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 1 May
2014
Subject
:
Who has pushed Ukraine to the brink of War?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
The attempt to lever Kiev into the western camp by ousting an
elected leader made conflict certain. It could be a threat to us all.
It's not Russia that's pushed Ukraine to the
brink of war
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38387.htm
by Seumas
Milne
_______________
D.
From Financial Times :
Dates: 2 May
2014
Subject
:
War in Odessa.
Violence in Odessa leaves dozens dead
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/466d9bba-d1c1-11e3-8b5b-00144feabdc0.html#axzz30djnFxwZ
by John Reed in
Donetsk, Roman Olearchyk in Kiev and Courtney Weaver in Moscow
+
Civilian deaths deepen east Ukraine alienation
May 5 - At the town hall in Kramatorsk on Monday morning, about 300 people waited, some clutching bunches of carnations or roses, to pay their last respects to Yulia Izotova, whose coffin was displayed outside.
The 21-year-old nurse was shot on Saturday, local people said, while standing ready to provide first aid during the Ukrainian government’s offensive against pro-Moscow separatists, which had been launched the day before.
The mood was sombre and angry. The separatist Donetsk Republic’s red, blue and black flag was flying over the municipal building, which separatists occupied on Saturday along with the SBU security service headquarters.
“It is a crime to shoot at your own people,” said a woman named Anna, who declined to give her surname because she holds a government job. “They call us terrorists, separatists – look at us,” she said, pointing at herself. “Do I look like a terrorist?”
On Monday Ukraine’s military continued its offensive against pro-Moscow rebels who want to hold a May 11 referendum on autonomy. Sirens and church bells sounded and shots were heard in Slavyansk, the separatist stronghold that is Kiev’s prime target in the operation.
The interior ministry said four Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 30 wounded in fighting on the city’s outskirts. There were unconfirmed reports in the afternoon that an Mi-24 helicopter had been shot down.
The campaign to take the town, which Ukrainian and some western officials say is in the hands of heavily armed men, including Russians, is seen in Kiev as crucial in efforts to reimpose authority in the east.
However, it is making fitful progress at best, as Ukrainian forces strike from helicopters or armed vehicles at checkpoints and other separatist positions, then retreat or are driven back.
At two separatist roadblocks south of the town, charred tyres and detritus – in one case still smoking on Monday afternoon – marked the spot where Ukrainian forces had struck. But men wearing the orange-and-black separatist St George ribbon were back at work, stopping and checking cars.
At the weekend, Ukrainian national guard forces managed to seize control of a television transmission tower near Kramatorsk, a strategic gain in a conflict where information and propaganda are being deployed on both sides. They positioned snipers outside and switched broadcasting from Russian to Ukrainian TV.
While some pro-Kiev Ukrainians are criticising their government for pursuing the operation too gingerly, the deaths of an unknown number of civilians such as Ms Izotova – for now documented mostly by word of mouth – have enraged others who are alienated from their government or sympathetic to the pro-Russia cause.
People attending the woman’s funeral in Kramatorsk, a strategic town because of its airfield and proximity to Slavyansk, voiced anger over what they described as “fascists” fighting them on Ukraine’s behalf.
Images of unarmed civilians blocking Ukrainian armoured cars in the area have been widely transmitted in Russian-language media, reinforcing the Moscow-supported narrative that Kiev is brutally suppressing a peaceful citizen’s revolt for regional autonomy with a “punitive operation”.
Emotions are running high in eastern and southern Ukraine after clashes in Odessa on Friday that killed 42 people.
“We do not want to live with fascists,” Anatoliy, a pensioner, said as he described how Ukrainian armoured vehicles had entered the town from Slavyansk during the campaign.
People came out to block them, he said, and Ukrainian troops turned around, retreating from the city to positions on approach routes.
Armoured vehicles headed north through Kramatorsk again on Monday on their way north to battle in Slavyansk.
“We have no government here,” said Valentina Shevlekova, who closed her shoe shop last week as the security operation began, then reopened on Monday. “We have been left on our own.”
She said that since Ukrainian troops had captured the TV transmission tower, programming had been all films and concerts. People did not know what was going on, she said.
Two burnt-out vans blocked the road in front of Ms Shevlekova’s shop, apparently put there by separatists during the weekend’s fighting to halt the approach of Ukrainian armoured vehicles.
On another city street stood the burnt-out husks of three small buses blocking the road, also set alight at the weekend.
A woman photographing wreckage on Monday, when asked whether she knew what had happened there, said: “War, that’s what happened.”
Odessa holds vigils |
|
---|---|
In the Black Sea port city of Odessa, where clashes claimed 40 lives last Friday, hundreds of pro-Russians gathered to lay flowers and hold vigils at the entrance to the building where at least 30 people died in a blaze police said was ignited by Molotov cocktails, writes Roman Olearchyk in Odessa. The doors to the building were open even though an investigation into the incident was still being held, with people walking through the charred interior. “I came here to see what Europeanisation looks like,” said Nikolai Zvyagin, 67, a former Soviet army officer who opposes Kiev’s interim pro-western government. “My father died on the front fighting fascist Europeans in the Great Patriotic war [second world war]. Now I have a chance to see the dirty work of these European fascist nationalists from western Ukraine.” Standing at the entrance to the building alongside placards that read “the Americans are killers,” a female pensioner shouted to an approving crowd: “Ukraine has created a totalitarian state here on Russian soil. It will not last long – Putin will come soon to bring order.” Yet elsewhere in Odessa the mood was calm. A 48-year-old businessman who gave his name as Alex said: “Most of the people on both sides clashing on Friday were not from Odessa. Most [of us here] don’t care for either side and do not want to be pulled into [the fighting].” Local pro-Ukrainian activists claimed that the risk of more “provocations” by separatist groups would increase as Soviet nostalgia took hold ahead of the May 9 Victory Day celebration commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany. Later on Monday, reports emerged that the government was sending extra police units – described as “civil activists” by Kiev – to Odessa to try to prevent the city from coming under the control of separatists in the manner of Slavyansk and other eastern urban centres. |
_______________
E.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 2 May
2014
Subject
:
Who has pushed Ukraine to the brink of War?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Catastrophic consequences are inevitable if Kiev authorities do
not stop their “criminal venture,” Russia’s envoy Vitaly Churkin stressed at
the emergency UNSC meeting summoned by Moscow on Friday.
Emergency Meeting
Ukraine's,
Russia's and US Envoys to UN
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38399.htm
Video
(23 mins)
May 02, 2014
F.
From The New York Times :
Dates: 2 May
2014
Subject
:
Obama and Merkel on Ukraine.
The president and the visiting Chancellor Angela Merkel of
Germany delivered remarks on finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis in
Ukraine.
by AP, May 2nd, 2014
Related:
Article: Merkel Says Gaps With U.S. Over Surveillance Remain
_______________
G.
From The Real News Network :
Dates: 1 May
2014
Subject
:
Working Class Consciousness in America.
Bill Barry is
retired director of labor studies at The Community College of Baltimore County
in Dundalk, and was a union organizer for 20 years before that. He has written
three books on unionism: I Just Got
Elected, Now What: The New Union Officer's Handbook ; Union Strategies for Hard Times ; From First Contact to First Contract: An
Organizer's Handbook and will have a new book running--appropriately on
May 1--off the press, The 1877
Railroad Strike in Baltimore , which grew from the historical marker
erected last year at Camden Yards. Bill has also been a 3-time candidate for
Baltimore City Council as Green Party member in northeast Baltimore.
Lucky Crosby is the chief shop steward of the American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 467.
Workers' Struggle in Baltimore
(1/2)
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11794
_______________
H.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 2 May
2014
Subject :
Video Documentary of Civil War in Eastern Ukraine.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Ukraine has launched a
military assault on the flashpoint town of Slavyansk, raising the stakes in the
showdown with Russia, which has promised "catastrophic consequences"
if Kiev stepped up operations.
&
The Ukrainian army has begun a special operation against
pro-autonomy activists in the eastern town of Slavyansk. The city is now
blockaded by the Ukrainian military, with 20 helicopters reportedly deployed to
crack down on self-defense forces.
Ukrainian troops begin special operation in Slavyansk
_______________
I.
From Truth Out :
Dates: 2 May
2014
Subject :
What is the future of Ukraine’s post-coup-d’état economy?
The Economic Plans of
the Kiev Government Will Spell Ruin for a Great Many in Ukraine
by Renfrey Clarke
_______________
J.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 2 May
2014
Subject :
Washington D.C.'s rendez-vous with destiny in Moscow ?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Washington is licking its chops, seeing an opportunity to gain
Russia as a puppet state.
Washington Intends Russia’s Demise
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38396.htm
by Paul Craig Roberts
_______________
K.
From Information Clearing House :
Dates: 5 May
2014
Subject :
Brzezinski to Obama : “Tell the 99% one more time to pay…, go…, and die… for
us.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
“The
crisis is getting worse. It’s time for the president to rally the nation.”
What Obama Should Tell Americans About Ukraine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38392.htm
by
Zbigniew Brzezinski