Ukraine: Zelenski is a condemnation of Poroshenko and his system of a corrupt oligarchic capitalism

He 21 of April, in the second round of presidential elections, el comediante Volodimir Zelenski, He won a landslide victory. Took out a 75% of the votes and left far behind the current president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko (with a 25%). Nevertheless, this sensational victory was not unexpected for Ukrainian citizens. Five years governorate Petro Poroshenko, with absolutely failed neoliberal reforms that put the citizens of Ukraine and, especially, his working class on the brink of misery, logically they led to the current authorities to failure in presidential elections.

In public debates Zelenski and Poroshenko, for the first time in the history of Ukraine they were held in the stadium ¨Olimpiyski¨, which it is the largest in the country, Volodimir Zelenski rightly said that was no match to Poroshenko, but a sentence Poroshenko and his system.

Of course, the new president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, It was not promoted by workers and social activists. It is a successful businessman in the field of television and cinema, and the social component of its election manifesto was extremely unimpressive and poorly differentiated. Nevertheless, Zelenski fierce critic against the present bourgeois government is extremely corrupt was actively supported by the masses of Ukrainian workers.

The satirist Kvartal-95 project, coming out on TV and is directed for many years by Volodimir Zelenski, He has been at the forefront of criticism of the current authorities and is the favorite television for millions of Ukrainians. And the third season of the telenovela servant of the people, which she appeared on the eve of elections, where Zelenski played the role of Vasily Goloborodko, a modest teacher who accidentally became president of Ukraine and achieved significant success, It produced an overwhelming effect on voters.

further, It should be noted that in these elections Zelenski received serious media support the most popular television channel in Ukraine, "1 + 1" that the Pertenece Ihor Kolomoiski, opposition oligarch who now resides in Israel. This gave Zelenski critics reason to assert that it was not an independent candidate, but in this election it was nothing more than a creature of one of the competing oligarchic groups. Nevertheless, This thesis failed to dominate the consciousness of the masses of Ukrainian voters, since the current President Poroshenko is publicly known as an oligarch and one of the richest people in Ukraine, who, while in office, It has greatly increased its assets and profits.

The decisive blow to electoral positions of President Poroshenko gave it the bold journalistic investigations on corruption within the public corporation involving Ukroboronprom closest friends and business partners Poroshenko. In the context of a real conflict with Russia, these traders are rigged to buy Ukrainian army for defective spare parts and used for various weapons in Russia itself and resold at an exorbitant price using the budget money.

President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, It is not just a confectionery magnate transport sector, if not, Besides, the largest media owner. In fact, They belong two channels of influential television in Ukraine: el «5 Kanal» y el «Pryamiy Kanal». During the election campaign Poroshenko assets held several thousand "bots" in the social network Facebook that were agreed upon with informative orders of the current president and his activity an illusion of massive support of the current president was created. Nevertheless, this deception ended without glory and the figure of a 25% the support of voters buried finally and irrevocably to Poroshenko as president of Ukraine.

As in the case of Zelenski, Poroshenko's election program contained virtually no social guidelines. Demagogy about his successful war against Putin and on obtaining autocephaly for one of the many Orthodox churches in Ukraine (Kiev Patriarchate - Ukrainian Orthodox Church) nothing did not work and could not be effective a priori. While the incessant policy of the authorities against workers, anti union and generally anti-social rhetoric of the past 5 years has spoken for itself. I write down just a few moments:

1. The attempt by the authorities to approve the Ukrainian parliament in the new Labor Code is anti-worker and anti-union that and, as provided by their bourgeois authors, eradicated all labor and trade union rights in principle.

2. The implementation of the so-called "pension reform", which condemned millions of Ukrainian citizens to the absence of pensions.

3. The implementation of the so-called "medical reform" which significantly reduced the volume and quality of medical care in Ukraine and, in fact, It made inaccessible to a significant proportion of the country's population.

Thus, clearly we understand that the triumphant victory of Volodimir Zelenski is rather the cumulative result of a vote of protest against the system of oligarchic capitalism that formed in Ukraine with the direct participation of Petro Poroshenko and then was headed by himself.

Of course, the labor movement in Ukraine has no illusions about the political and social course of Volodimir Zelenski, who is now trying to please the major imperialist players from Russia to the US. To please the United States, promises to continue cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.

To please Russia, He promises to quickly end the war in dombas and soften attacks on Russian language. To please the European Union, He promises to start a real fight against corruption in Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the resumption of the political system of Ukraine, `However problematic and ambiguous that it is for the labor movement, It is absolutely imperative. The failed outcome of the representatives of the parties of the "left" (Serguey Coupling (Social Democratic party) with the 0,07%; Ilya Kiva (Socialist Party of Ukraine) with the 0,03%) clearly it shows that the proletarian left flank of Ukrainian politics is not only extremely weak, but it is absent as such a priori.

The trade union movement of Ukraine still faces many challenges, successes and failures. We are at the very beginning of the road. Maybe, the sensational results of presidential elections 2019 They will be for us a sort of starting point.

by Vernik, Ukrainian president of the Independent Union "Zakhist Pratsi" ("Labor Protection")

reproduced from Anticapitalist Network | 26.4.2019