Accordingly, since the Ukraine’s independence, the authorities have been busy nation-building, enforcing a single official language and creating a new national myth for its 45 million inhabitants. The crowds milling about the Maidan were predominantly (though not exclusively) arrivals from Galicia, a mountainous county bordering with Poland and Hungary, 500 km (300 miles) away from Kiev, and natives of the capital refer to the Maidan gathering as a “Galician occupation”.
Like the fiery Bretons, the Galicians are fierce nationalists, bearers of a true Ukrainian spirit (whatever that means). Under Polish and Austrian rule for centuries, whilst the Jews were economically powerful, they are a strongly anti-Jewish and anti-Polish lot, and their modern identity centred around their support for Hitler during the WWII, accompanied by the ethnic cleansing of their Polish and Jewish neighbours. After the WWII, the remainder of pro-Hitler Galician SS fighters were adopted by US Intelligence, re-armed and turned into a guerrilla force against the Soviets. They added an anti-Russian line to their two ancient hatreds and kept fighting the “forest war” until 1956, and these ties between the Cold Warriors have survived the thaw.
On Sun, Dec 22, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Jim Farmelant <farmelantj at juno.com> wrote:
> It should be noted that Israel Shamir is, to say the least, a problematic
> figure, who has been known to engage in anti-Semitic invective from time to
> time.
>
> http://www.nigelparry.com/issues/shamir/
>
> http://web.archive.org/web/20061229234742/http://www.sue.be/pal/nazis.html
>
> This is not to deny that he is a good writer, who, when he is not riding his
> favorite hobbyhorses concerning Jewish conspiracies, can even make sense, as
> he appears to do concerning Ukraine.
>
> Jim Farmelant
> http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfarmelant
> www.foxymath.com
> Learn or Review Basic Math
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Wojtek S" <wsoko52 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Sunday, December 22, 2013 10:05 AM
> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] The skinny on Ukraine
>
>> [WS:] I agree. And he is a good agit-prop writer: he uses everyday
>> language
>> instead of leftish jargon that turns 99 percent of the readers off.
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 21, 2013 at 6:19 PM, JOANNA A. <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Doug, I have a dim memory that you dislike Shamir, but my Russian buddies
>>> say this is much closer to the truth than anything reported in the
>>> western
>>> press,
>>>
>>> http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/12/20/what-really-happened-in-ukraine/
>>>
>>> Joanna
>>> ___________________________________
>>> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Wojtek
>>
>> "An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."
>> ___________________________________
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