Snyder: The haze of propaganda

2 03 2014

Historian Timothy Snyder reviews the “haze of propaganda” surrounding the crisis in Ukraine in the New York Review of Books:

“Interestingly, the message from authoritarian regimes in Moscow and Kiev was not so different from some of what was written during the uprising in the English-speaking world, especially in publications of the far left and the far right. From Lyndon LaRouche’s Executive Intelligence Review through Ron Paul’s newsletter through The Nation and The Guardian, the story was essentially the same: little of the factual history of the protests, but instead a play on the idea of a nationalist, fascist, or even Nazi coup d’état.”

See the entire article here.





Kurkov: I’m Russian and I demand removal of Russian troops from Ukraine

2 03 2014

Andrei Kurkov is the leading Russian-language writer and novelist in Ukraine. He writes:

“I’m a Russian. My ancestors settled in Crimea in 1785. Growing up in Crimea, I was nurtured on Russian culture. I think, I talk, and I write in Russian…

“And I want to say this with every fibre of my being: I don’t need any protection. I demand the immediate removal of Russian troops from Ukraine.”





Ab Imperio statements

1 03 2014

Ab Imperio is one of the leading scholarly journals covering the post-Soviet world. Two recent editorial statements concern events in Ukraine. Read them here:

An appeal of the Ukrainian scholars to the international scholarly community (from March 2)

Russian intervention in Ukraine is a disgrace! (from March 1)





Onuch & Sasse: Lessons in protest

27 02 2014

Oxford University political scientists political scientists Olga Onuch and Gwendolyn Sasse have been analyzing the dynamics of the development of the Ukrainian protest movement, from its first stages through to February 22.

Some of their analysis is reported in this blog in this Washington Post blog article.





Gusev: Russian activists facing danger

26 02 2014

Alexei Gusev is a professor of history at Moscow State University and chair of the Praxis Research and Educational Center in Moscow. The following is a letter he sent to Richard Greeman, who asked that I post it online.

Dear Richard,

Read the rest of this entry »





Greeman: Revolution’s first phase now complete

25 02 2014

A friend of mine alerted me to the following unpublished text, which was sent to a network of activists in the international Left. It is by retired scholar and activist Richard Greeman, director of the International Victor Serge Foundation, co-founder of the Praxis Research and Education Center in Moscow (which co-sponsored the first International Congress of Independant Labor Unions last November in Kyiv), and close colleague of political theorists Immanuel Wallerstein and Cornelius Castoriadis.

It is being published here by permission of the author.

 

Ukraine, Revolution or Coup?

Read the rest of this entry »





TAZ is here, TAZ is gone

23 02 2014

eye_of_god

The concept of the TAZ, or temporary autonomous zone, comes from “ontological anarchist” writer and poet Hakim Bey (Peter Lamborn Wilson). It is intended to indicate a space of liberation, a space which is at once physical and real, if temporary, and metaphysical — a space of consciousness outside of the mental frames of social structure, from which a reimagination of the world may proceed.

Read the rest of this entry »





10 things Ukrainians can focus on now…

23 02 2014

Here’s my little provocation, as I wonder whether and how this blog should continue…

10 things Ukrainians can focus on, now that Yankovych is out

  1. Old-style politicians maneuvering themselves to replace him without changing anything of substance
  2. Backroom wheeling and dealing among oligarchs and politicians
  3. Svoboda, Right Sector, et al., clamoring for power to impose their radical rightist agendas
  4. The pressure for neoliberal austerity programs that will accompany Western financial aid Read the rest of this entry »




Wynnyckyj: “It’s not over yet”

23 02 2014

Mychajlo Wnnyckyj, associate professor at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, has provided a useful summary of today’s events, entitled “It’s Not Over Yet.”

A few excerpts:

“It must have been exceptionally painful for Yanukovych to watch his precious Mezhyhiriya residence opened to journalists and ordinary citizens today. There, they found evidence of hasty packing, and multiple works of art and collectibles (e.g. a collection of vintage cars) that were left behind. They also recovered documents that demonstrate the scope of Yanukovych’s massive corruption machine, and others that show his regime was systematically targeting opposition journalists and civil society activists. Read the rest of this entry »





The “threat” of direct democracy

22 02 2014

These are my own thoughts after following today’s events in Ukraine. I am cross-posting them from Immanence. — A. Ivakhiv

download (6)

“Power to the millions, not to the millionaires” (#Leftmaidan)

 

Three forms of democracy vie with each other in Ukraine today.

The first of these is what we might call authoritarian democracy. This is a hybrid of democracy and authoritarian rule, in which partially developed democratic institutions can be relatively easily played off against each other by the powers-that-be to maintain their rule.

Read the rest of this entry »








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