International Action Center

MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact: Greg Butterfield, 718-541-7940

 

Global protests to mark 4th anniversary of massacre in Odessa, Ukraine

 

New York anti-fascists will demand justice for victims, end of U.S. aid to gov’t

 

Wed. May 2, 5:30 pm, Times Square, NYC

 

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On May 2, 2014, neo-Nazis attacked opposition activists in the city of Odessa, Ukraine. Nearly 50 anti-fascists were shot, beaten to death, and burned alive in the House of Trade Unions. The massacre came less than three months after a violent, U.S.-backed coup d’état overthrew the elected government of Ukraine and installed a right-wing dictatorship. 

Protests, vigils and memorials will be held in cities around the world to mark the fourth anniversary of the massacre. In New York, anti-fascist and anti-war activists will protest at the Times Square U.S. Army Recruiting Center, 43^rd St. and Broadway, starting at 5:30 p.m. They will read out the names of those who were killed and demand justice for the victims and their families. The action is organized by the International Action Center.

 

Demands of the protest include: end the cover-up; justice for Odessa massacre victims; stop U.S. aid and weapons to Ukraine; end the war and blockade against the Donbass region; stop blaming Russia for the crisis created by Washington.

“The Odessa attack was a forerunner to the outrage in Charlottesville, Va., last year, when white supremacists invaded that city and murdered anti-racist protester Heather Heyer,” said Kayla Popuchet of the IAC. “Today the Odessa killers continue to walk free, despite ample video and photographic evidence of their guilt. Instead, victims who survived were put on trial or forced into exile, and the grieving families of the dead face ongoing harassment and violence by neo-Nazis.”

“Washington’s puppet government in Kiev has blocked the investigation of the Odessa massacre and covered up the facts. The U.S. government and corporate media have aided in this cover-up,” said Greg Butterfield, coordinator of Solidarity with Novorossiya and Antifascists in Ukraine. “President Trump and Congress recently removed the last restrictions on selling heavy weaponry to Ukraine. The Ukrainian army and fascist military gangs have already killed more than 10,000 people in the Donbass mining region, where people refuse to accept the rule of the ultra-right oligarchs and Nazi gangs. We join with people around the world to say: Enough is enough!”

 

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