Ukrainian Communist Party to Be Dissolved Thursday

[Starry Messenger]

However one may feel about Communist Parties in general, making them illegal or trying to dissolve them is usually a bad sign and a harbinger of a right-wing backlash against labor and progressives.

http://en.ria.ru/politics/20140723/191141040/Ukrainian-Communist-Party-to-Be-Dissolved-Thursday.html

KIEV, July 23 (RIA Novosti) – Ukrainian parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov announced that the Communist Party, who occupy 23 seats in the Verkhovna Rada, would be dissolved on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, made changes to its rules that would allow the speaker of the house to dissolve the Communist party. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a bill on Tuesday evening legalizing the move.

“Yesterday, a bill was signed that brings changes to the rules … Tomorrow morning [Thursday], it will be published in Golos Ukrainy [official newspaper of the Verkhovna Rada], meaning it will come into force, and I will fulfill a historic mission and announce the Communist Party’s cessation," Turchynov said while opening Wednesday’s parliamentary session.

<snip>

This has been in the offing for a few months.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Russia, EU Politicians Denounce Ukraine Parliament's Ouster of Communists

Russia's Communist Party and European leftist parliamentary groups have denounced the ousting of the Ukrainian Communist party from the country's parliament as a breach of free speech.

Leader of the Russian Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, called the ban, set to go into effect on Thursday, the latest attempt to "massacre" the party of his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Symonenko.

"Attempts to muzzle them and do away with them are evidence of the cowardice and hideousness of those who are doing this," Zyuganov told state-run Rossiya 24 television channel on Wednesday.

Ukrainian parliament voted to oust the party after Symonenko on Wednesday accused his country's security services of having "destroyed" Ukrainian citizen to harvest their organs on the black market, Interfax reported, citing members of the nationalist Svoboda Party.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/russia-eu-politicians-denounce-ukraine-s-ousting-of-communists-from-parliament/504003.html

[Starry Messenger]

2. Ukrainian government moves to ban Communist Party

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ukrainian-government-moves-to-ban-communist-party/2014/07/24/34b8bb14-131d-11e4-ac56-773e54a65906_story.html

The hearing opened Thursday as the speaker of the parliament, Oleksandr Turchynov, declared the Communist group in parliament dissolved because its membership fell below the threshold for forming a separate faction. A law passed Tuesday gives him authority to do that.

Communist delegation head Petr Symonenko said the move “trampled on the will” of those who voted for the party.

The Communist Party came in fifth at the 2012 parliamentary election, garnering about 13 percent of the vote.

President Petro Poroshenko on a visit to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe last month was grilled about the plans to ban the Communists in Ukraine. Poroshenko said he thought parties should be barred from politics “by means of elections” rather than a straightforward ban.

He has not commented on Thursday’s court hearing.

I wonder how the membership threshold density for factions was decided upon. "Hmmm, who do we dislike?..."

[Karmadillo]

3. Svoboda received only 10% in the last parliamentary election. I'm guessing

they're not on the chopping block?

[Starry Messenger]

4. Good point. I looked it up.

It doesn't appear to be the case. I'm sure you are as shocked as I am.

There's some shifting around in the offing of the upcoming election, and Svoboda has left the majority coalition. It doesn't say anything about their party being dissolved, however.

http://en.ria.ru/politics/20140724/191193129/Ukrainian-Lawmakers-Quit-Coalition-to-Enable-Parliaments.html

KIEV, July 24 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s Svoboda and UDAR parties announced Thursday their factions in the Ukrainian parliament were quitting the majority coalition, paving the way for the dissolution of parliament.

The majority coalition in the Ukrainian parliament, created after the February coup, had 256 members, the vast majority of them representing the erstwhile opposition parties of Batkyvshchina, UDAR and Svoboda.

With today’s resignations from the coalition, their number has fallen below the constitutional threshold of 226 members, giving the president the legal power to dissolve parliament in one month.

[HooptieWagon]

5. When fascists take power...

... banning the Communist Party is always one of their first actions.

[Starry Messenger]

6. Yes.

It doesn't bode well, to say the least. Hopefully the centrists and liberals aren't breathing premature sighs of relief that it isn't them, since historically, they are usually next.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

7. "We only have to tolerate this party for another day"

according to Turchinov yesterday.

With 13% of the popular vote in 2012, there's going to be a lot of underground Communists.

This is textbook fascism, and the upcoming show trials and parliamentary elections will be a farce.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. Yep, this IS textbook fascism.....

The first ones they go after are communists, socialists, and unionists.

Not a big fan of the old-line Communist Parties, but I'm not a fan of banning ANY parties. I wonder what all the Kiev coup apologists are saying now? Their line has always been that the coup isn't fascist and that the fascists aren't an influence in the government. I've always said that, although they aren't popular with the people of Ukraine, the fascists have an outsized role in that government. This kind of proves it.