“FIRST they came for the communists”, Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous confessional prose opens as he speaks of the consequences of remaining silent over the rise of the Nazis in Germany. 

He details how the Hitlerites consolidated their power by targeting group after group, socialists, trade unionists and then “Jews”, some 6 million of whom were killed in the Nazi gas chambers. 

This, he argues, was allowed to happen because of the silence of intellectuals and the clergy, along with the vast majority of the German people who did not object as the purges took place. 

The final line - “Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me” - stands as both a somber reminder and a rallying call to future generations to never allow this to happen again. 

But last week, the very same thing did happen in Ukraine without a murmur from the Western media or those who pride themselves on defending democracy and upholding European values, whatever they are.   

Just days after being granted European Union candidate member status, Ukraine showed its commitment to those same European values by permanently banning the Communist Party of Ukraine. 

Soon after the announcement, the EU flag was displayed in the Rada - the Ukrainian parliament - as lawmakers gathered in euphoria with President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen addressing the chamber via video link. 

Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk described it as a “historic moment” and that his dream had come true as von der Leyen the EU was committed to helping Ukraine win the war and would stand with them as long as it takes. 

“We will not rest until you prevail”, she told Ukrainian parliamentarians, going on to praise the country’s armed forces. 

“Their vision of a free Ukraine that is part of a democratic Europe. I have them clearly in my mind as I speak to you today”. 

“You have kept your state and your democracy up and running against all odds”, the EU diplomat declared. 

Yet, on Tuesday the Lviv Eighth Court of Appeal gave a glimpse of the parlous state of democracy in Ukraine as it outlawed the KPU, turning over all its assets, including party buildings and funds, to the state. 

In a statement, the court said that it had satisfied the claims of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and ordered the party’s closure. 

“The activity of the Communist Party of Ukraine is prohibited; the property, funds and other assets of the party, its regional, city, district organisations, primary centres and other structural entities have been transferred to the state", the court reported.

The KPU is the latest opposition party to be banned by the Ukrainian authorities, which should be a matter of huge concern. But democracy is being eroded and crushed by the Zelensky regime to global silence. 

A list of others including the Opposition Platform - For Life party, Left Opposition, Union of Left Forces, the Socialist Party of Ukraine and other left-wing organisations have also been prohibited. 

This followed a decree signed by Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky outlawing all political parties deemed to be “pro-Russian” on May 14. 

Yet while Kiev has issued bans for mainly left-wing parties, it has not placed any such restrictions on far-right or neo-Nazi organisations, despite responsibility for a string of atrocities and alleged war crimes in eastern Ukraine. 

Who are the Communist party of Ukraine?

The KPU has a long history in the country, having been founded on July 5, 1918, as a branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which came to power following the 1917 Russian revolution. 

The party was first banned in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union before it was reestablished two years later. It claims a direct lineage to the original party. 

In 1999, KPU First Secretary Petro Symonenko polled nearly 6 million votes in the first round of the presidential elections and 10.6 million - 38.8 percent - in the second round of polling. 

It followed the general election held in 1998 in which the party polled 6.5 million votes, equating to 25.4 percent of the vote and 84 deputies elected to the Ukrainian parliament, its biggest-ever tally. 

As recently as 2012, the KPU, which was subsequently banned from participating in elections, received just under 2.7 million votes, 13.2 per cent.

Moves to ban the party escalated after the 2014 Maidan coup and the ousting of the democratically elected Ukrainian government. 

Perhaps surprisingly the KPU voted in favour of impeaching President Viktor Yanukovich despite being ardent opponents of what it described as an attempt to install a pro-NATO regime in Kiev. 

But the party has maintained a distinct anti-NATO line and campaigned for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region. 

This has made it a target for the state with its members persecuted and attacked and others, like the Kononovich brothers, facing lengthy prison sentences on trumped-up charges. 

Chronology of the ban

The banning of the KPU follows a long history of court cases and legal arguments aimed at shutting it down or restricting its activities. 

In 1993 the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Ukraine overturned its 1991 decision and ruled that Ukrainians who support communist ideas can form their own parties. 

In 2001, ten years after the first ban, the Ukrainian Constitutional Court ruled that the renewed KPU bore no relation to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, rehabilitating it in the eyes of the law. 

The 2002 congress formally unified the old and the new parties electing former party functionary Petro Symonenko as its leader.

It wasn’t until May 2014 when moves to ban the party raised their heads again when acting Ukrainian president Oleksandr Turchynov made a request to the Ministry of Justice accusing it of complicity with separatism in the country’s east. 

The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) filed documents with the ministry less than a month later paving the way for the lifting of parliamentary immunity from the KPU deputies and the banning of the party. 

However, while the Ministry of Justice filed a court case seeking a ban, it was never examined by the Kiev regional administrative court. The judge, Valeriy Kuzmeno recused himself after his office was raided by law enforcement officers relating to a different case. 

The remaining judges also refused to examine the case, citing pressure from the state, and it was passed on to a higher court. However, the KPU appealed its transfer and the case lay buried at the bottom of a pile of other cases for years. 

Then in January 2019, for unknown reasons, the KPU withdrew the appeal to the Sixth Appellate Court which returned the case to its initial stage. 

The Ministry of Justice had already adopted an alternative strategy to ban the party, using Ukraine’s “decommunisation law” with a separate case opening in July 2015. 

Valeriy Kuzmeno, the same judge that refused to examine the case against the communists on accusations of support for separatism, agreed to look at the new submission. 

This was to prove more successful with an expert commission - in this case the Ministry of Justice - concluding that the KPU name, charter and symbols fell foul of the law. It was a position with which the Kiev city administration agreed, leading to the banning of the KPU.  

That would have been the end of matters, but in May 2017 a group of 46 Ukrainian lawmakers filed a petition calling on the Constitutional Court to find the “decommunisation law” unconstitutional. 

The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission said in December 2015 that while parliaments could make their own decisions on the banning of symbols and ideology, parts of Ukraine’s “decommunisation law” where not clearly worded. 

Because of this, the Commission said, political parties faced potential bans on the basis of their name rather than anti-constitutional activities. This is what happened to the KPU, lawyers argued, leading to a pause in the appeals process.

But in 2018 the party website was closed down and its newspaper Rabochaya Gazeta (Workers Newspaper) was banned a year later following trumped-up allegations of promoting “armed insurrection.”

The claims were based on a speech made by Symonenko published by the newspaper in which he spoke about the struggle for workers’ rights.

KPU officials alleged that police planted stickers in the party offices during the “illegal search” in May 2018, and then claimed they were calling on communists to take up arms against the state on Victory Day.

In 2019 Symonenko was blocked from standing in the presidential elections on the grounds that the statute, name and symbolism of the KPU did not comply with the 2015 decommunisation laws.

EU anticommunism 

The ban on the KPU should be a cause of concern for all those who claim to stand for freedom and democracy, however, the response from the Western left and progressive organisations has been muted to say the least. 

The prohibition on communist organisations and activities inside Ukraine will not however come as a surprise to many observers after years of such attacks, including the tearing down of statues and the renaming of streets related to the Soviet era. 

Ukraine’s “decommunisation laws” introduced after the 2014 Maidan coup, are fully-backed and encouraged by the EU which has itself passed a number of motions equating communism to fascism under the guide of opposing totalitarianism. 

In 2019 one such motion was passed with the support of social democratic parties, including Britain’s Labour Party with former MEP Julie Ward who closed the debate by delivering a bizarre, apolitical speech that claimed that the EU was “first and foremost a peace project” while praising the Erasmus + programme and other educational projects.  

But the resolution was rightly branded a “reactionary monstrosity” and a grotesque falsification of history by communists and progressives across the continent. While the Labour Party MEPS shamelessly lined up alongside Europe’s right-wing populists in the vote, its passing had serious consequences. 

The Greek Communist Party warned at the time of an attempt to normalise the criminalisation of communist ideology and people’s movements across the world that are resisting “the anti-people policies of the EU and the growing trend of fascism”.

It unleashed an orgy of anti-communism and as predicted, boosted far-right movements and populist governments across Europe who set about dismantling memorials to the very people and organisations that defeated fascism.

Kononovich brothers trial

It is in this context that the trial of Alexander and Mikhail Kononovich, two communist youth leaders and anti-fascists, is taking place in Ukraine.

The brothers were detained on March 3 soon after the start of the war in Ukraine, and were accused of spying for Russia and Belarus. 

Fears were raised they were to be executed in the immediate aftermath of their arrest however the European Union ignored appeals to ensure their safety raised by the Greek Communist Party. 

Last month, they were pictured alive for the first time however their lawyer said they had been tortured and threatened with life in prison unless they admitted to the charges against them.

The court hearing began earlier this month with the pair barred from the courtroom while proceedings opened without their lawyer present; he left after prosecutors told him the trial would not be heard that day. 

They are accused of “actions aimed at forcibly changing the political system or seizing state power” under Article 109 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

According to prosecutors, the brothers belonged to an “organised group”, consisting only of them, with the brothers insisting the case against them is “fabricated from start to finish”.

Ukraine’s notorious state intelligence services claim that the Kononovich brothers planned to seize one of the country’s district administrations, although they have not identified which one or when the capture was to happen.

It cited statements on their social media platforms as evidence and says they pose a risk to the state if they are released.

Alexander and Mikhail issued an appeal to the European left and called on MEPs and the Western press to attend their next court session “so that the whole world can see the true face of the Zelensky regime”.

So far their pleas have been ignored. No MEP has attended the trial and the Western media - with the exception of the Morning Star - seem disinterested. The brothers have been left to their fate due to callous indifference, but insist that the truth will come out. 

Ignoring the ban on the KPU and the trial of the Kononovich brothers however sets a dangerous precedent. Leftists, progressives and others should heed the prophetic words of Pastor Niemöller who himself spoke from bitter experience. 

Supporters of the EU should not be blinded to its very serious deficits and the inherent dangers of the anti-communism which lies at the heart of the imperialist bloc. Comparing the people who built “Auschwitz” with the people who liberated it - the line promoted by the EU - is reactionary and has serious, real-life consequences. 

We know that when communist parties are banned or destroyed, the labour movement soon follows, press freedom is crushed and democracy stifled. This is exactly what is happening now in Ukraine. 

It is incumbent on us to vociferously oppose the ban on the KPU and campaign for the immediate release of the Kononovich brothers. We must learn the lessons of history. If we don’t speak out now, to paraphrase Pastor Niemöller, there will be nobody left to speak for us.