Press Release: The Bandera Complex

jW Press Release – Friday, 9-29-2023

The Bandera Complex

Daily newspaper junge Welt and cultural magazine Melodie & Rhythmus invite to the conference »Ukrainian Fascism – History, Function, Networks« in Berlin

The war in Ukraine can only be properly classified by those who understand the role of Ukrainian fascism in the past and present. Therefore, the daily newspaper junge Welt (jW) and the cultural magazine Melodie & Rhythmus (M&R) will organize a day conference with international experts, including from the USA, on Sunday, October 29, 2023 in Berlin at the ND-Haus (Münzenbergsaal). Advance ticket sales have already begun. The event can also be followed via a livestream in German and English.

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), especially its Bandera wing, and their political heirs are sensing historic morning air. They seem to have had their day after World War II, but they are needed again in NATO's proxy war with Russia: As fanatical elite warriors and whippers of the Ukrainian population for the fight to the last drop of blood and against a peaceful understanding with the old and new mortal enemy.

For the ideological justification of this alliance with fascists, taboos are broken in the politics of the past: While ultra-right historians in Kiev proudly announce the completion of the »banderization of Ukraine«, NATO propaganda is working at full speed to conceal the crimes and the hateful worldview of the OUN, Azov, and others, which is interwoven with German Nazism. In the land of perpetrators, the line o Holocaust relativization has been crossed since the functional elites of German imperialism and brown revanchists are again driven by the »urge to the East«.

These are reasons enough for jW and M&R to trace and retrace the trail of blood that the OUN and its allies are tracing through history and the present. Likewise, the networks of the fascists and their powerful lobby in parties, think tanks, intelligence services and the military in Ukraine and the Western world are to be uncovered. For this purpose, jW and M&R have invited independent researchers: Publicist Moss Robeson from New York, who will speak under the title »Trident, Swastika, Eagle« about the OUN as Nazi collaborators in the murder of Jews and the war of extermination, as well as the historical origins of the Bandera Lobby in the United States, and in another lecture will focus on the influence of the Banderites on the Ukraine conflict that has been raging since 2014. Russ Bellant, Detroit author whose book »Old Nazis, the New Right and the Republican Party« caused a furor with embarrassing revelations during George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, will shed light on historical continuities and recall the Banderite's role in the Cold War against the USSR. Jürgen Lloyd of the Marx Engels Foundation will analyze the function of fascism for monopoly capital in the current Ukraine war and the failure of German anti-fascism, based on the theoretical work of political scientist Reinhard Opitz.

In a concluding panel discussion, jW editor-in-chief Stefan Huth will discuss the question »Ukrainian Fascists and the Bandera Lobby: Agitators for the World War III?« with renowned publicists such as Jörg Kronauer (German-Foreign-Policy, jW, among others) and also talk about the associated historical revisionism, the synchronization of the media and public opinion, and other dangerous side effects.

Conference: »The Bandera Complex: Ukrainian fascism – history, function, networks«

Organizer: Daily newspaper junge Welt, culture magazine Melodie & Rhythmus

Date: Sunday October 29, 2023, 10.30am (admission 10.00am) – 7.00pm

Place: Münzenbergsaal, ND House (Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, 10243 Berlin)

Livestream (in German and English): jungewelt.de

Further informations (abstracts, portraits etc.): jungewelt.de/bandera_komplex/en/

Notes for the press

Press representatives are expressly invited to attend the event. As the number of places is limited, we can only consider press representatives who have registered in good time.

If you would like to attend the conference on-site, please register by October 16, 2023 using the attached form. You will also have the opportunity to follow the event via the livestream on the jW homepage at jungewelt.de.

For further informations and interview requests, please do not hesitate to contact me at any time!