Maureen Kelseyposted toCall to Change The stunt Goldman Sachs just pulled with the Royal Mail, was precisely the kind of corrupt privatisation which became a core issue in Ukraines Orange revolution of 2004. Goldman Sachs: Really betraying a revolution Really betraying a revolution was something I was reminded of today with news of Goldman Sachs profiteering from our Royal Mail privatisation. It was the title of an article written in 2005 by my colleague on the ground in Ukraine during their Orange revolution. It was a redaction of a Washington Post article Betrayal of a revolution which had criticised Ukraines new government under Yulia Tymoshenko and came from by Anders Aslund, director of the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The primary thrust of the article was to condemn review of corrupt privatization deals under Ukraine’s former, pre-revolutionary regime. According to Mr. Aslund, who enjoys a respectable bully pulpit due to his job title, most of the ills in new Ukraine’s economy are directed related to Prime Minister Tymoshenko’s management. He states, as an article of faith but without any corroborating evidence to demonstrate cause and effect versus mere correlation, that “economic growth is screeching to a halt as a result.” Peppering his criticism are words like “populist”, “socialist”, and “state capitalism” – suggesting, again as articles of faith and nothing more, that these are necessarily bad things that can only contribute to economic problems. Increasing pensions and salaries, to move workers and retirees a little further out of poverty-level income, were condemned as budget busters that Ukraine’s new government cannot afford – despite the fact that not doing so essentially guarantees perpetuation of graft and corruption. Elimination of graft and corruption, and raising the overall standard of living for ALL Ukrainians rather than a few insanely greedy oligarch clans, was the main underlying and implied reason for the Orange Revolution – at least from hundreds of people, activists and otherwise, I talked with on the ground during and after the Revolution. Drawing attention to the efforts of the Kremlin assisted by BP to undermine the new democracy, he goes on to make an interesting point about US intentions. What economic hit men will surely try to do is persuade Ukraine to give up lucrative state assets to private buyers – and thus lose most of that revenue base – in exchange for the “privilege” of borrowing billions of dollars and going into debt to Western governments, particularly the US. That’s the deal, and that is what and all is going on with most of this noise against Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko at this point in time. God forbid that she have the courage to do the right things for Ukraine. As we all know shes now imprisoned by her political rivals and that stands to scupper an EU Association Agreement.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 23:24:55 +0000
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