Under the guise of humanism and investments for better days, the race to
rebuild Ukraine is a hymn to war which perfectly illustrates the veryfoundation of the capitalist: destroying the world in order to betterexploit it... Until that he destroys himself? Let's not wait for thismiracle and do the job ourselves. Socialism or barbarism! ----- If thecurrent war in Ukraine officially begins on February 24, 2022, it isonly an extension of the armed conflict with the separatists of Donbasssupported by Russia, following the annexation of Crimea by Moscow in2014 The pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was thenimmediately overthrown by the Euromaidan movement and a pro-Western,Petro Poroshenko, succeeded him (1).In eight years the conflict has left more than 10,000 dead, a milliondisplaced and considerable destruction. The "reconstructors" have had alustful gaze on the ruins since the beginning! But Poroshenko is not theone they need. His brutal austerity policy and his reputation as acorrupt man make him too unpopular to gain acceptance, on top of that,of the measures necessary to transform simple interested looks intohard-hitting investments. He was beaten in 2019 by the cathodic clownVolodymyr Zelensky (2)On your marks...Ultra popular, he is the man for the job. The "reconstructors" canattack. Barely had Zelensky been elected, the Ukrainian government triedto accede to the demands of local employers and multinational companiesto undertake an ultra-liberal reform of the labor code by denouncinghalf of the conventions that the ILO had ratified in the years thatfollowed the declaration of independence of Ukraine in 1991. But thecountry's employees, supported by a certain international unionsolidarity on the part of reformist organizations, temporarily pushedthe government back.We will have to wait until 2022 so that, with the civil war becoming awar in general with the entry of the Russian army into the Donbass, theconditions will be met to finally tackle the reform of legislationconcerning the modalities of the exploitation of workers. From the start of the war, due to the war economy and martial law,entire sections of labor law were suspended and new regulations weredecreed (3).Among the latter, the famous "zero hours" contract, widely used in theUnited Kingdom, at Mac Donald's for example, does not guarantee theemployee any minimum number of paid hours but requires them to makethemselves available at any time. Let us also mention the exclusion,voted by the Ukrainian parliament, from the coverage of collectiveagreements for 70% of Ukrainian employees: companies with fewer than 250employees will therefore be able to directly negotiate the salarystructure, working hours and conditions or terms of termination ofcontracts.As always, "war economy" means less a temporary state of exception whilewaiting for "peace" than a restructuring of the economy under the aegisof political power and multinationals intended to last beyond the end ofthe war. and to eliminate the archaic aspects of capitalist development.We could not summarize this project better than Alexander Rodnyansky,the president's economic advisor, who declared a few months later in TheGuardian: "Ukraine must become attractive through a vast privatizationprogram and an overhaul of labor law ".Ready...The reconstruction project is then estimated at 350 billion dollars. Butas what determines such an evaluation are not so much the needsexpressed by the populations as those which are hoped for by theglobalized economy, they were increased to 500 then 600 billion andfinally 750 according to the Ukrainian Prime Minister the day before ofthe Lugano conference!All that remains is to help yourself.Barely 5 months after the start of the war, Ukraine and Switzerland arejointly organizing a conference in Lugano on July 4, 2022. Heads ofgovernment, ministers representing more or less fifty countries, aroundtwenty international organizations are meeting 350 major players fromthe private sector and civil society, to rebuild Ukraine ("better", theyclaim): the public authorities are finally opening the door to theprivate sector! But to dress up this rather banal marriage ofconvenience, both use the distorted image of what was the Marshall Plan(4) put in place after the Second World War to "rebuild Europe" andwhose "progressive minds" like to evoke the social conquests which wouldbe the consequence. This is just a fiction to pass the pill. Indeed, ifsocial conquests (creation of works councils, recognition of unions andthe right to strike, foundation of social security) were conceded by theemployers, it was following the historic compromise made betweenGaullists and communists on the basis of the program of the NationalCouncil of the Resistance (CNR) with the support of the CFTC and theCGT, by the provisional governments of General De Gaulle from November1944 to January 1946, then of Felix Gouin and Georges Bidault untilNovember 1947. From this date the compromise no longer exists, thecommunists are no longer in the governments of Blum and Ramadier.However, the Marshall Plan only began in 1948 when the working classrefused to accept the austerity measures implemented to reorganize theFrench economy: insurrectional strikes in the fall of 1947 in manysectors, miners in 1948, at Renault, hunger riots, etc.Consequently, if there can be a resemblance with the Marshall Plan it isnot with the progressive image that politicians want to give it but withthe reality of what it was, a machine to defeat the workers' movement (unfortunately represented then by the Communist Party) and to openEurope to the American economy via Coca Cola, Marlboro and John Deere.The numerous documents circulating at the Lugano conference areunmistakable: they all spoke of the need for an upgrade (calledflexibilisation) of labor law to overcome union resistance towards a"modern labor market" and reduce the number weeks' notice for dismissal.A few months later, in December, when 40 million euros had just beenreleased by the Swiss group Nestlé for a new factory, and 200 million bythe Irish construction group Kingspan, the director of "Ukraine Invest"announced, during a Franco-Ukrainian conference held in Paris, newpromises of investments from American and German companies on Ukrainiansoil.The following year, on November 14 and 15, 2023, the "Rebuilt Ukraine"forum was held in Warsaw, allowing some 300 companies from around fiftycountries to meet mayors of Ukrainian cities accompanied by variousfinanciers. An operation led by the government agency "Ukrain Invest"responsible for attracting investors to rebuild towns that are sometimescompletely destroyed like Bakhmout. For the globalized financial powers,it was no longer a question of doing their shopping by sniffing out thebest deals on offer: a high school here, an aquatic center there, inshort, reviving or inventing "any place where a future begins." happy ".At the same time, when the war was raging in the almost completelydestroyed areas and there was no sign of an end more or less imminent,we could be concerned about the risk these investors were taking out ofsolidarity with the Ukrainian people. Rest assured, the "real risk isthat you miss opportunities in Ukraine" affirmed the director of UkraineInvest. The CEO of BlackRock, the world's leading financial power, LarryFink, confirmed: "Those who truly believe in a capitalist system willflood Ukraine with capital[...]. if we want to rebuild Ukraine, it canbecome a beacon to the rest of the world of the power of capitalism."French companies are also positioning themselves, especially sincebefore the war they were the country's largest foreign employer with30,000 Ukrainian employees (Eiffage, Airbus, Alstom, Dassault, Thalès,Renault, Saint-Gobain, TotalEnergies, Engie, Servier or Sanofi).The first French beneficiary of the war in Ukraine is undoubtedlyTotalEnergie. Thanks to the war, gas companies (5) moved from an "energytransition" discourse to an "energy security" discourse, pushinggovernments to invest in fossil gas imports and the development of gasinfrastructure (eight terminals for liquefied gas are underconstruction, and 38 more have been proposed) a Greenpeace investigationfound. So much so that climate objectives and the energy transition willremain propaganda slogans (if they were anything else).Two other sectors of the French economy are successfully trying to finda place in the sun in the "reconstruction" of Ukraine: a conference atthe French Ministry of the Economy concluded in December 2022 threeagreements involving the delivery of infrastructure seed and fertilizerfor Ukraine. As for the first French business delegation to go toUkraine (February 24, 2022), it concerned... cybersecurity companies.No reconstruction without destruction"Don't bite the hand that feeds you" states a wise proverb that thecapitalist powers have adopted. Doing your market in Ukraine forreconstruction still implies not drying up the supply of the market,namely Russian aggression. For form they shout loud and clear thatRussia is the enemy, they applaud with both hands the banishment of thenew tsar and the boycott of the empire of the bear, but in reality it isa whole another story. The question in their eyes is how to rebuildUkraine while supporting the Russian economy and circumventing theembargo. They succeeded. Only 10% of European companies have initiated awithdrawal of their Russian subsidiaries. Among the French, some likeBonduelle, Auchan (with products intended for the army) and Leroy-Merlinare even accused by kyiv of having taken advantage of the situation todevelop there! According to the observatory of multinationalsTotalEnergie (again) whose gas strategy is based on Russia, engaged infinancial manipulation consisting of depreciating the value of itsRussian assets and putting its expected profits for 2023 on the accountsfor 2022 so as to reduce the annual amount of its profits. To concludethe article, let us point out Accor, Blablacar, Engie, Sanofi, Veoliaand Vinci who are not left out in contributing to the Russian war effort.In short, doing business is on both sides of the front line. And younever know, these companies could one day be called upon to "rebuild"Russia. You might as well already be well placed there.Long live the war!JPD1. Regarding previous years, from 2000 to 2005 read in CAhttp://oclibertaire.lautre.net/ spip.php?article298)2. read "Ukraine between genocide and Nazification", in AlternativeCurrent http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip...).3. (see http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip...).(4) In Berlin, in October 2022, representatives of the G7 and theEuropean Commission speak of a "new Marshall Plan" for the recovery,reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine.(5) The 5 largest oil and gas companies in the world achieved a recordprofit of 192 billion euros in 2022, half of which was returned toshareholders.http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4054_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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