Community-labor resolution: Stand with Odessa!

Workers World received this resolution, initiated by the International Action Center.

Join Cynthia McKinney, Ramsey Clark, José María Sison, Cindy Sheehan, Banda Bassotti, Marcha Patriótica and hundreds more.

Stop the cover-up of the Odessa massacre of trade unionists and anti-fascist activists!

Stop the U.S. Expansion of NATO!  

Whereas, on May 2, 2014, at least 48 people were massacred by neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa;

And, whereas those killed were anti-fascist and opposition activists, as well as trade unionists who opened the doors of the headquarters to offer protection;

And, whereas the House of Trade Unions was set ablaze by fascists who surrounded the building, destroying the labor headquarters;

And, whereas the culprits of the massacre, though clearly identifiable in numerous videos and photos of the events, have been sheltered by the government in Kiev, which came to power through a U.S.-backed coup and has received billions of dollars in direct and indirect aid from Washington;

And, whereas the survivors of the massacre have been criminalized, forced into exile in fear of their lives or imprisoned by the Ukrainian regime;

And, whereas the U.S. government and U.S. corporate media have aided Kiev in covering up the truth about the May 2 massacre at the Odessa House of Trade Unions, while continuing to misrepresent the anti-fascist struggle in Ukraine and the independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and imposing sanctions and threatening war against Russia;

And, whereas the crisis in Ukraine is the result of the U.S. drive to expand NATO on Russia’s borders far beyond its original membership, through a U.S.-supported coup and the funding of right-wing and fascist groups in the Ukraine;

Be it resolved,

We honor the labor and anti-fascist activists who died in Odessa on May 2, 2014, and will make their sacrifice known throughout our unions and communities;

We demand that the government in Kiev, our elected officials in Washington and the big-business media stop the cover-up of what happened in Odessa on May 2 and engage in truthful reporting on the civil war in Ukraine, the involvement of open fascists in the Kiev government and the underlying U.S. goal of NATO expansion;

We further demand that the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress immediately halt all financial and military aid to the Ukrainian junta, stop NATO military expansion in Europe, and restore food assistance and other desperately needed social programs for our communities.

Sign the statement here: tinyurl.com/oueoq7t

Partial list of signers (in formation) Oct. 30, 2014

• Cynthia McKinney, former United States Representative
• Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
• José María Sison, Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle
• Cindy Sheehan, anti-war activist, Director, Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox
• Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor, Pan-African News Wire
• B. Ross Ashley, Vice President, Toronto-St. Paul’s New Democratic Party*, Ontario, Canada
• William Camacaro, Coordinator, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle of New York
• John Catalinotto, Managing Editor, Workers World newspaper
• Ed Childs, Chief Steward, UNITE HERE Local 26*, Mass.
• Bernadette Ellorin, Chairperson, Bayan USA
• Mary Lou Finley, San Diego County Co-Chair, Peace and Freedom Party*
• Sara Flounders, Co-director, International Action Center
• Steven Gillis, Vice President, Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union, Steelworkers Local 8751*
• Martha Grevatt, Civil & Human Rights Committee, United Auto Workers Local 869*
• Paul Harris, Editor, Axis of Logic
• Larry Holmes, Peoples Power Assembly Movement
• Joe Iosbaker, Executive Board, SEIU Local 73*, Ill.
• Mick Kelly, Editor, Fight Back! News
• Steve Kirschbaum, Grievance Chair, Boston School Bus Drivers, Steelworkers Local 8751*
• Joe Lombardo, Co-coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)*
• Rev. F. Mark Mealing, Anglican Church of Canada*
• Lucha Rodriguez, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement
• Margaret Sarfehjooy, Women Against Military Madness (WAMM)
• Waltraud Schauer, Women in Black*, Vienna, Austria
• Gerry Scoppettuolo, Co-founder, Gay and Lesbian Labor Activist Network / Pride at Work, AFL-CIO*
• David Sole, former President, United Auto Workers Local 2334*, Detroit
• David Welsh, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council *
• Phil Wilayto, Editor, The Virginia Defender
• Organizations:
• Banda Bassotti
• Comité de apoyo a la Ucrania Antifascista de Madrid, Spain
• FIST – Fight Imperialism, Stand Together
• Fuerza Mundial
• International Action Center
• Juventud Comunista del Perú (Patria Roja)
• Marcha Patriótica, Colombia
• Mütter gegen den Krieg (Mothers Against War) Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany
• Parents to Improve School Transportation, New York
• Party of Communists, U.S.A.
• Peoples Video Network
• Russian & American Goodwill Association
• Solidarité Novorossia, Paris
• Solidarity with Ukraine Antifascists Committee, U.S.
• Team Solidarity – the Voice of United School Bus Workers, Boston
• U.S. Friends of the Soviet People
• Workers World Party

*For identification only

In New York, join us on Nov. 2 at 1 p.m. in Times Square to commemorate the six-month anniversary of the Odessa massacre. Facebook event: tinyurl.com/mbmkl9h

IACenter.org
No2NATO.org