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The Weekly paper of the New Communist Party of Britain

Free all political prisoners in Ukraine!

Western politicians are the first to proclaim their support for civil liberties and religious and political freedom. Some civil rights campaigners are elevated like icons by the Western ‘human rights’ campaigners. The chosen few even get awards from the European Parliament and the United Nations. But only those who serve the interests of imperialism.

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks campaigner, languishes in Belmarsh jail ignored by those who loudly proclaim their support for free speech in the bourgeois media.

We see the bourgeois ‘human rights’ gang brand freedom-fighters as “terrorists” whilst passing off the brutish gunmen who served imperialism in Syria as the “moderate opposition”. We see the imperialists and their lackeys holding “Summits for Democracy” to provide a platform for a new propaganda offensive against People’s China, Russia and the rest of the world that refuses to submit to Western economic and political control. We see some of the worst human rights abusers in the world, such as Israel, Ukraine and, of course, the USA itself, hailed as bastions of freedom and democracy.

In Ukraine all opposition parties have been banned. Thousands of Ukrainians, journalists, politicians, elected representatives, activists, priests, sportspeople, and even Ukrainian negotiators and military officers, have been jailed on trumped-up charges of “treason” or support for Russia. Some have been tortured or murdered by the police or the fascist militias that prop up the Zelensky regime.

Since the Russian intervention most of our media has claimed that the fascist groups in Ukraine have changed their spots and are no longer fascists but “patriotic defenders of Ukraine”. We refuse to believe this ridiculous claim that is completely at odds with the evidence.

We think it is essential to speak out about the actions of a government whom the British government seems to have unlimited resources to support, at a time when millions here in Britain are facing a grim and uncertain future and our basic public services are chronically underfunded and understaffed.

We stand side-by-side with the victims of fascist oppres- sion in Ukraine. We demand their immediate and unconditional release and the restoration of full civil and political rights in Ukraine.