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This guy is seriously deluded (or a complete hack - maybe both). I wonder whether there is any truth to his claims about European leftists coming in to fight with these outlaw bands. I know Die Linke is particularly deluded by Russian propaganda, but I can't imagine what other European leftists would possibly be taken in by this bullshit... [this is only a partial translation of the most relevant passages...] Aleksey Albu: European leftists have come to Alchevsk to get combat training Aleksandr Chalenko Journalist, Ukraina.RU author Ukraina.Ru author Aleksandr Chalenko interviews a deputy of the Odessa Oblast Council, one of the leaders of the Russian Spring in Odessa and an active participant in the events of 2 May. At present, Albu “emigrated” to the Lugansk People’s Republic and is helping the young republic achieve statehood. - Alyosha, why and how did you make the decision to join the Prizrak [ghost] brigade commanded by Alekseya Mozgovoy? - I decided to join Prizrak for various reasons. The main one being that I want to do all I can to topple the Kiev government of nationalists and oligarchs. I also want to help this unit - my comrades - which is fighting them. I don’t want to partake in battle – which is not due to fear, but my worldview: I do not want to kill a man because [I know] I will be tormented the rest of my life by the regret of depriving someone of their son, father, or brother. I even have an ID that lacks the permits for carrying or maintaining a weapon. What do you do in the brigade? - I have become a specialist in financial/economic issues. Since this is not an army, but a people’s militia, there aren’t any guidelines for my position and it’s not clear what my duties are. I can only determine my goals that I set for myself. The unit needs for the fighters to have regular provisions of food and there are obligations to the indigent strata of the population who need to be fed. Aleksey Borisovich Mozgovoy has tried to resolve this issue by creating a war economy. I want to help further his efforts. - How were you received in the brigade? - I was received very well in Prizrak since my comrades from Borotba and communists from other organizations are fighting here. A few “Prizraks” came to know me after [our] attempts to create an Odessa Autonomous Republic on 3 March of last year and [our attempts] to organize a takeover of the oblast administration and after the events of 2 May. Therefore they barely did a check on me in the special department; they said there were great reviews from Odessa. …- How do the leftists that came to fight or help out in the Prizrak battalion see themselves? - There are a good many leftists in Prizrak. There are a lot of European leftists in particular – ones who believe that the capitalist crisis will lead to the destabilization of the situation inside their own countries and came here to gather some experience and prepare for a similar situation [as we face here]. Many of Prizrak’s leaders are leftists. The majority, however, are apolitical - they are fighting against the nationalists, fighting to liberate their land, and protect their loved ones. There are members of the Ukrainian Red Army here, which was formed in May of last year – underground fighters who passed through the Ukrainian prisons [zastenki]. In addition, the DKO – the Volunteer Communist Detachment – fights as part of Prizrak. The DKO holds position at the 44th checkpoint as wel as in the area around the Denetskiy village. A lot of leftists work in the Information Detachment [Informotryad], in the political department, and in Prizrak’s other structures, which is definitely a more leftist unit than others. Nevertheless, there are a lot of communists in the LNR [Lugansk People’s Republic]. - A lot of leftists in Russia and Ukraine supported the Euromaidan and do not support Novorossiya. Why is that? - It’s a complicated question and it’s difficult to answer it in just two words. Yes, in fact, a lot of people claiming to be leftists supported the coup in Ukraine. But how can a “leftist” support the Nazis from “Right Sector”? A “leftist” should be on the side of progress, yet what’s happening in Ukraine is a return to feudalism. For a communist, the main issue should be that of ownership of the means of production. Here in Novorossiya, a large number of enterprises have been nationalized, the workers are trying to establish councils of worker collectives and direct the enterprises on their own. But in Ukraine this issue isn’t being addressed at all. This issue is well understood by the European leftists that are coming from every corner of Europe to fight for this young people’s republic, but, unfortunately, a number of Ukrainian and Russian “lefties” couldn’t manage to grasp this. After supporting right-wing nationalist forces, I can’t consider them “leftists”. They are enemies all the same. They are the guardians of the right-wing liberal Poroshenko regime. - How are your relations with Russian nationalists, imperialists, and monarchists coming along in Alchevsk? Have you clashed with them at all? - I am going to be here a relatively short time, but I haven’t clashed with pro-Russian right-wingers. I haven’t seen a single Russian nationalist, although I’m told that there are some somewhere. We try to debate with people who have monarchical or imperialist views [t.n. interesting that there are no Russian nationalists, yet there are monarchists and imperialists] to explain that today the idea of monarchy is absurd, since it’s impossible to determine an heir to the throne and to explain the reasons why we communists are against concentrating power into a single set of hands and transmitting it through inheritance. With the imperialists, the discussion is usually about the historical past and the mutual relations between oppressed peoples that were part of the Russian Empire. In general, they all come to the conclusion that no one is striving to oppress other peoples and the issue of mutual relations between the various nationalities were dealt with best back under the USSR. There is a political department for educating the fighters and it works towards this same end. http://ukraina.ru/interview/20150720/1013708570.html _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
