Renfrey Clarke

Political Activist, Adelaide, Australia

ABSTRACT

The 2014 revolt in Ukraine’s Donbass provinces had deep roots among the region’s industrial workers. Key sources of the uprising included resistance to neoliberal austerity measures planned by the radical right-wing government that had come to power in Kiev, and a determination to block attacks by ultra-right militias allied with the new Kiev authorities. The inchoate nature of labour movement politics in the Donbass meant that leadership of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics fell primarily to politically illassorted individuals drawn from the region’s socio-economic “middle layers.” The Russian leadership met the Donbass uprising without enthusiasm, but under pressure from domestic opinion, provided sufficient aid to allow the revolt to survive. Meanwhile, the Kremlin used a variety of pressures to forestall any evolution of the uprising in a radical left direction. Despite the limitations of the rebellion, it defended important interests of the Donbass proletariat, and dealt a sharp, unexpected rebuff to the eastward advance of NATO military influence and of neoliberal economic policies. Important numbers of workers gained a much keener grasp of their class interests.

KEYWORDS

Ukraine; Donbass revolt; nationalism; neoliberal austerity; Russia

From: International Critical Thought 2016 6 (4)

Editor: Wang Yi