Odessa Solidarity Campaign

05/02/2025

May 2, 2025 - Today is the 11th anniversary of the Odessa Massacre.

UNDERSTANDING UKRAINE

By Phil WIlayto
Coordinator, Odessa Solidarity Campaign
https://odessasolidaritycampaign.net/ampaign

This May 2 marks 11 years since a mob led by members of openly fascist organizations set fire to the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine, murdering at least 42 people opposed to the violent coup that had taken place the previous February.

On March 13 of this year, the European Court of Human Rights, the international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights, announced the results of its investigation into the massacre, which had been requested by relatives of some of the people who died that day, as well as three survivors.

The ECHR unanimously accused the “relevant authorities” of “failure to do everything that could reasonably be expected of them to prevent the violence in Odesa (sic) on 2 May 2014, to stop that violence after its outbreak, to ensure timely rescue measures for people trapped in the fire, and to institute and conduct an effective investigation into the events.” The ECHR also faulted the authorities “in respect of one applicant … concerning the delay in handing over her father’s body for burial.”

The firebombing of the union building was captured on many cellphone cameras and widely viewed online. Many of the assailants’ faces were clearly visible. And yet, 11 years after this atrocity, no one has ever been punished for their part in the murders.

Unfortunately, but predictably, the ECHR report received little coverage by Western media. The massacre goes against the dominant narrative that Ukraine is a peaceful, struggling democracy that has been the victim of an unprovoked attack by Russia.

In fact, the United States government was deeply involved in the 2014 coup, which, relying of neo-N**i stormtroopers, overthrew a pro-Russian president and replaced him with a pro-U.S/NATO one.

Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO, under the leadership of the U.S., has been steadily expanding eastward. Incorporating Ukraine, with its 1,200-mile land border with Russia, would have provided a perfect staging area for any attack on Russia. That expansion, along with the 2014 coup and the subsequent government attack on the people of the Donbass region, is what led to the Russian intervention in February 2022.

Much of the U.S. public, including some in the antiwar movement, have been confused about this situation, which has now become more complicated with the reelection of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Trump is no friend to Russia. This would-be dictator’s goal isn’t peace, it’s world domination. For him, today’s friend can be tomorrow’s enemy. Trump’s less hostile approach to Russia is simply an attempt to break up the growing cooperation between Russia and the People’s Republic of China, which the U.S. views as its main economic competitor, and so, necessarily, its mortal enemy.

As a result of Trump’s slash-and-burn approach to domestic policies, there is now a rising chorus of popular opposition. Unfortunately, due to the influence of the pro-war Democratic Party, one of the charges being raised is that Trump is abandoning NATO.

Trump should abandon NATO, along with the goal of the entire U.S. ruling class to dominate the world in the interests of U.S. corporations. And the whole U.S. public should oppose Trump, for all the suffering he is causing people here at home, especially immigrants and trans people, and work to promote a foreign policy that respects the right of other peoples to forge their own roads to freedom, justice, democracy and peace.

Promoting the memory of the Odessa Massacre of May 2, 2014, is one way to support those goals, while honoring the memory of those who died on that tragic and infamous day.

MORE INFORMATION IS AVAILABLE AT:

Odessa Solidarity Campaign
https://odessasolidaritycampaign.net

The Odessa Massacre 2 May 2014 (Warning: Graphic content)

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=AwrFcllE4xRoNAIAKfZXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNiZjEEcG9zAzEEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3BpdnM-?p=odessa+may+2%2C+2014&fr2=piv-web&type=E210US714G0&fr=mcafee =8&vid=cfd445ba7f776fbb20ce431be3b2cf10&action=view

09/13/2024

SPLIT VERDICT IN FREE SPEECH TRIAL OF UHURU 3

By Phil Wilayto
For The Virginia Defender

Sept. 12, 2024 -- “After a weeklong trial that touched on complicated issues of national security, foreign relations and the limits of the First Amendment, a panel of eight men and four women found three members of the St. Petersburg-based African activist group guilty of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents. But the jury found the group not guilty of the more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government.”

That’s how the Tampa Bay Times began their report on the verdict delivered today in the trial of the Uhuru 3. The three are Omali Yesh*tela, the longtime chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party; and white supporters Penny Hess, chair of the African People's Solidarity Committee, and Jesse Nevel, chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement.

The charge of which they were convicted carries a sentence of five years. The more serious charge could have gotten them another 10. No sentencing date has been set and the defense has vowed to appeal today’s verdict.

Note: The jury that delivered the verdict had no Black members.

Watch the Uhuru 3’s summation of the trial and today’s verdict here:

Welcome to a post-verdict summation live from the Uhuru House in St. Petersburg, FloridaLearn more and support at HandsOffUhuru.org.

09/13/2024

REMEMBERING THE OTHER 9/11

By Phil Wilayto
for The Virginia Defender

On Sept. 11, 1973, the CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Chilean President Salvador Allende, a Marxist. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger oversaw the military coup on behalf of the U.S.-owned copper mining companies Anaconda and Kennicott. Allende was moving to nationalize their Chilean copper mines, reclaiming Chilean natural resources for the Chilean people. Later addressing the fact that Allende had been democratically elected, Kissinger explained, “I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people.” (1)

This wasn’t the first the U.S. had engineered a coup against a foreign leader. In 1953 the CIA overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh of Iran who was moving to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, which was largely owned by Great Britain. (2)

And in 1954 the CIA coordinated a coup against democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz, who was moving to nationalize lands owned by but not being used by the United Fruit Company. (3)

All three coups resulted in decades of tremendous repression and suffering for the poor and working people of those countries, while ensuring that huge profits poured into the coffers of U.S. corporations.

This history is good to remember at a time when we’re being told the U.S. is trying to “restore democracy” in Venezuela by overthrowing the democratically elected president, Nicolas Maduro, a socialist who wants to use the country’s vast oil resources to benefit its people instead of U.S. corporations.

It’s a system, folks. It’s called Capitalism in its Imperialist stage, and if there’s to be any justice in this world, it’s got to go.

(1) https://www.nytimes.com/1975/02/27/archives/the-kissinger-doctrine.html #:~:text=Henry%20Kissinger%20put%20the%20matter%20succinctly%20to%20the,due%20to%20the%20irresponsibility%20of%20its%20own%20people.%E2%80%9D
(2) https://www.npr.org/2019/01/31/690363402/how-the-cia-overthrew-irans-democracy-in-four-days
(3) https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/world/americas/an-apology-for-a-guatemalan-coup-57-years-later.html

More than a half-century after Guatemala’s elected president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman was overthrown in a coup, President Alvaro Colom apologized on Thursday for what he called a “great crime.”

09/04/2024

FREE SPEECH TRIAL OF THE UHURU 3 BEGINS IN TAMPA

By Phil Wilayto
for The Virginia Defender

TAMPA, FL, Sept. 4 -- The trial of the Uhuru 3 opened this morning at U.S. District Court in downtown Tampa, Judge William Jung presiding. The defendants in the highly politically charged case are facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted of charges that they have been operating as unregistered agents of a foreign government, Russia.

The three defendants are Omali Yesh*tela, the longtime chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party; and white supporters Penny Hess, chair of the African People's Solidarity Committee, and Jesse Nevel, chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. .

As noted in a post by the Hands Off Uhuru! Coalition, the 82-year-old Yesh*tela “has protested every U.S. war that has taken place during his lifetime.” That includes the current U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, which is what attracted the attention of the FBI and is the real reason for the trial.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, “The Uhurus are formally known as the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement. The word Uhuru means freedom in Swahili. They operate as the activist arm of their umbrella organization, the African People’s Socialist Party, which has long been a political and social force in St. Petersburg.”

A fourth defendant is a former member of the Uhuru Movement.
About 80 Uhuru 3 supporters turned out for a press conference yesterday morning across the street from the courthouse where jury selection was to take place.

Among those demanding that all charges be dropped were Pam Africa, leader of International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Jill Stein, presidential candidate of the Green Party; Efia Nwangaza, executive director of the Malcolm X Center for Self Determination in Greenville, S.C.; former New York City councilman and former Black Panther Charles Barron; and Benjamín Prado, under-secretary of Unión del Barrio of California. Mwezi Odom read a support statement from Jenipher Jones, an attorney with the Leonard Peltier Ad Hoc Committee, and Jacqueline Luqman of Washington, D.C., brought a statement from Black Alliance for Peace Chair Ajamu Baraka, who arrived today for the trial.

About the same number of people packed the courtroom today.
The well-organized Uhuru Movement is posting daily summaries of the trial, which is expected to last several weeks. The posts can be found at: https://handsoffuhuru.org.

The last line of today’s post reads: “Come to Tampa and stand with the Uhuru 3! Pack the court and put the State on trial!”

PHOTO: Mwezi Odom, Chair of the Hands Off Uhuru! Campaign, opens the press conference held Sept. 3 across the street from the federal courthouse in downtown Tampa. Photo credit: Phil Wilayto

04/29/2024

ALL OUT FOR GAZA!!!
ALL OUT TO SUPPORT THE VCU ENCAMPMENT!!!

VCU students have started an encampment on campus to demand the university administration reveal its investments in companies that do business with Israel and divest from those companies. Richmond is now part of the growing university encampment movement that has succeeded in moving resistance to the Israeli genocide in Gaza back to the front of the news. The students are calling for all supporters to join them on campus. The Defenders are working to help build that community support. Please consider dropping by the encampment by the Cabell Library and expressing your support for these courageous young activists. ALL OUT FOR GAZA! ALL OUT TO SUPPORT THE VCU ENCAMPMENT!!!

04/22/2024

“MAY 2, 2024: REMEMBER THE ODESSA MASSACRE!”

A webinar sponsored by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign
Thursday, May 2, noon - 1:15 pm (EST)

Click this URL to join: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84423011498
If calling in, dial +16469313860 or +19292056099, then 84423011498 #

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign invites you to attend an important webinar on May 2 that will explore the true nature of the government of Ukraine and expose the myth that it is a democracy unjustly targeted in an unprovoked war.

The webinar is timely for two reasons:

First, May 2 will mark 10 years since a fascist-led mob murdered at least 42 people when it set fire to the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine. What has become known as the Odessa Massacre took place shortly after the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the elected president of Ukraine and replaced him with a regime anxious to ally with the U.S. and its growing global military, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO.

And second, the U.S. House of Representatives has just approved $61 billion for the U.S. proxy war with Russia, along with $26 billion for Israel to support its genocide in Gaza and billions for Taiwan, a provocative move certain to increase tensions with China.

The May 2 webinar will have four presenters, all of whom have visited Ukraine since the Odessa Massacre:

Bruce Gagnon - Coordinator, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (Maine)
Joe Lombardo - Coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition (New York)
John Parker - Leading Member, Socialist Unity Party; Coordinator, Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice (California)
Phil Wilayto - Coordinator, Odessa Solidarity Campaign; Editor, The Virginia Defender (Virginia)

The Moderator will be:

Alison Bodine - Representative, Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice (Vancouver)

There will also be a special presentation by a member of the Uhuru 3, leaders and supporters of the African People’s Socialist Party who have come under severe political repression for speaking out against the U.S. role in Ukraine’s war with Russia. The Uhuru 3 are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 3 in Tampa, Florida.

The May 2 webinar is being sponsored by the Odessa Solidarity Campaign and has been endorsed by:

Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice (Vancouver)
Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice (Los Angeles)
Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) - Vancouver
Socialist Unity Party.
United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC)
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 USA - https://odessasolidaritycampaign.wordpress.com
Ph: 1-804-644-5834 - Email: [email protected]

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign, a project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, was founded in 2016 after three U.S. antiwar activists answered a call from the Council of Mothers of May 2 for International Observers to attend the 2nd annual memorial of the Odessa Massacre, which several fascist paramilitary organizations were publicly threatening to attack. Every year since, the OSC has encouraged local actions to remember the massacre and support the Council of Mothers’ demand for a genuine international investigation into the killings, something the Ukrainian government has yet to allow.

Supporting the Heroic Anti-Fascist People of Ukraine

02/23/2024

Please consider signing this petition in support of Catherine Massalha, the Palestinian social studies teacher in Henrico County Va., under attack for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza. Please sign - ahd share.

Support Mrs. Massalha in upholding her rightful position as a Deep Run educator.

11/28/2023

ON GIVING TUESDAY, REMEMBER THE DEFENDERS!

Nov. 28 is Giving Tuesday, and that means it’s time for us to stick out our hands and ask for your support. If you appreciate the work the Defenders do, please think about sending us a donation. No amount is too small, everything is appreciated.

And here are a few possible reasons to donate:

* More than 20 years of struggle to reclaim and properly memorialize Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom, once the epicenter of the U.S. domestic slave trade.
* More than 20 years of supporting Virginia’s prisoners, most recently with the People’s Tribunal on Virginia’s Prisons, Jails & Detention Centers.
* More than 20 years of consistent antiwar activity.
* Approaching 20 years of publishing The Virginia Defender, Virginia’s only statewide progressive community newspaper.
* More than 20 years of maintaining an all-volunteer, multi-issue, activist organization.

Here’s how you can make a donation:

Send a check or money order made out to “Defenders” to:

Defenders
PO Box 23202
Richmond, VA 23223

Or make a contribution online on our website, using either a credit or debit card or PayPal: Click here: https://defendersfje.blogspot.com/p/supporting-defenders.html

Thanks, and see you in the streets!

For the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality,

Ana Edwards - Chair, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project
Phil Wilayto - Editor, The Virginia Defender

Support the Defenders By Rosewood in Virginia How can you help? No matter how large or small the amount, your financial support helps us maintain equipment and supplies used to produce the newspaper, pamphlets, fliers, posters and other expenses related to our work via social justice activities, pub...

04/30/2023

STATEMENT BY THE ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN ON THE 9TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ODESSA MASSACRE

Each year, the Odessa Solidarity Campaign has promoted actions on May 2 to mark the date in 2014 when a right-wing mob led by openly fascist organizations murdered at least 42 anti-fascists at the House of Trade Unions in Odessa, Ukraine.

The Odessa Massacre took place just a few months after the violent coup that replaced a pro-Russian president with a pro-U.S. one. Not surprisingly, the U.S. was heavily involved in promoting the coup.

Today Ukraine has an authoritarian government that openly collaborates with neo-N**i organizations, incorporating them into its military and promoting the memory of Ukrainian fascists who shamefully collaborated with the World War II N**i occupation of their country. The birthday of the notorious N**i collaborator Stefan Bandera is now a national holiday. His image graces a national stamp. Major streets have been renamed in his honor and Bandera statues have replaced monuments to Soviet war heroes.

For years, relatives of those who were murdered on May 2, 2014, regularly visited the site of the massacre and kept repeating their demand for an international investigation into the atrocity, something the Ukrainian government has never allowed. Today it is impossible for them to come into the streets without risking arrest or physical attacks.

The Odessa Solidarity Campaign was founded in 2016 to support the anti-fascist people of Odessa, and now Ukraine as a whole. That was the year we traveled to Odessa to stand with the Council of Mothers of May 2 as they defied threats of attack by the same fascist organizations that had murdered their daughters and sons.

Today, as the world is inundated with pro-U.S. and pro-NATO propaganda about the war in Ukraine, we believe it is more important than ever to keep alive the memory of the Odessa Massacre and the fact that not all Ukrainians support the current reactionary government and its pro-U.S./NATO stance.

We are asking that all freedom-loving people everywhere please post this message on your websites and social media sites along with the accompanying graphic that was created by a young Ukrainian to promote the anti-fascist message. Please make the graphic your Facebook image for the day and share it on your Instagram, Tic-Toc and Twitter accounts.

And as for the war itself, we call on the U.S. and NATO, which are responsib;e for provoking this devastating confrontation, to stop sending arms to Ukraine and stop using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder in their proxy war against Russia.

Remember the Odessa Massacre!
U.S. Out of Ukraine!
NATO Out of Existence!

If you or your organization post this message and/or graphic, please let us know:

ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN
A project of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 - USA
Phone/Text: 1-804-644-5845
Email: [email protected]
Web: https://odessasolidaritycampaign.org

03/09/2023

AN URGENT CALL FROM THE VIRGINIA DEFENDERS
& THE ODESSA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN:

ALL OUT FOR MARCH 18!

PEACE IN UKRAINE!
SAY NO TO ENDLESS U.S. WARS!
FUND PEOPLE'S NEEDS, NOT THE WAR MACHINE!

On Saturday, March 18, people from all across the country will gather outside the White House in Washington, D.C., to demand an end to the war in Ukraine and all the endless wars the government is waging with our blood and our tax dollars.

In the last year, Congress has appropriated more than $116 BILLION for the Ukrainian government. That’s more than it spent here at home on education, cops - even prisons. The goal isn’t to help the people of Ukraine, but simply to “weaken Russia,” as was recently stated by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin - even at the risk of a catastrophic nuclear war that could end all life on Earth.

Meanwhile, back home, evictions are skyrocketing. Supplemental SNAP benefits have ended. Millions are being forced off Medicaid. Credit card debt is at an all-time high because people have run through their savings and are now deep in the hole just trying to put food on the table.

The March 18 demonstration will make the connections between the human and financial toll of U.S. militarism at home and abroad:

* Peace in Ukraine - No weapons, no money for the Ukraine war!
* Abolish NATO – End U.S. militarism & sanctions!
* Fund people’s needs, not the war machine!
* No war with China!
* End U.S. aid to racist apartheid Israel!
* Fight racism & bigotry at home, not other peoples!
* U.S. hands off Haiti!
* End AFRICOM!
* End Sanctions on Syria!

This protest represents the coming together of more than 200 organizations, including the ANSWER Coalition, United National Antiwar Coalition, Black Alliance for Peace, Code Pink, Veterans for Peace, International Action Center, Struggle-La Lucha, DSA International Committee, Shenandoah Valley Antiwar Coalition, Dissenters at UVA, Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality and the Defenders’ Odessa Solidarity Campaign.

Join with us in this historic demonstration and make the warmakers listen to the will of the people!

At this point, we know of carpools and vans being organized from Hampton Roads, Richmond and Norfolk:

HAMPTON ROADS
Hampton Roads Coalition for Peace & Planet
[email protected]

RICHMOND
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality & Odessa Solidarity Campaign
[email protected]
Phone or Text: 804-644-5834

ROANOKE
Plowshare Peace Center
To find a ride or provide a ride: 540-989-6875 or [email protected]

For more information:

[email protected]
https://www.answercoalition.org
https://www.unacpeace.org

We are a peace coalition of antiwar, social justice and anti-imperialist antiwar, social justice, group.