Thursday, July 31, 2014

the threat of Western capitalism in southeastern Ukraine


THE THREAT OF WESTERN CAPITALISM IN SOUTHEASTERN UKRAINE

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, “peacemaking” at pepinsky.blogspot.com

July 31, 2014

 

                I’m listening to “experts” struggle to explain popular support for President Putin’s resistance to a Ukrainian government that seeks military control with collateral damage to gain hegemony from rebel forces.  Nowhere so far in news media in my country to I hear mention of the economic stakes in the Ukrainian civil war.  What about opening up the largely Russian-speaking breadbasket of the country by German-centered banking and transnational corporate ownership?  Farther west, the U.S. government had led the world in efforts to isolate Russia since 1917, and after WWII, and to compete economically.

                When I let myself imagine not becoming owned by Western capital, and recognize that Ukrainians to the north joined German troops to overrun the southeast in WWII, I find a lot to fear in the triumph of Euro-Ukraine, I find a lot to fear in being overrun by Western capital.  It’s not hard to empathize with Ukrainian resistance and Russian support for aid to Ukrainian separatists—literally fighting for ownership of their own lands.  Love and peace, hal 

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