Autonomous Resistance Автономний Опір | |
|---|---|
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| Abbreviation | AO |
| Leader | Collective leadership |
| Founded | 15 July 2009 (2009-07-15) |
| Dissolved | 12 October 2017 (2017-10-12) (de facto) |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Far-left Before 2012: Far-right |
| Slogan | "Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more."[a][b] |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| opir.info(Archived 3 January 2019) | |
Autonomous Resistance (Ukrainian:Автономний Опір, АО,romanized: Avtonomnyi Opir; abbreviatedAO) was a Ukrainianleft-wing nationalist political and militant organisation, primarily based in the city ofLviv in western Ukraine. The group was known for its combination ofneo-Nazi and Ukrainian ethnic nationalist themes withanti-globalist andlibertarian socialist political positions. It often engaged in street fights with far-right groups, among themSvoboda,Right Sector andS14. Its members were arrested by theSecurity Service of Ukraine in October 2017 after being accused of receiving support from the Ukrainian government
According to the group's blog, Autonomous Resistance was formed on the basis ofReaktor (Ukrainian:Реактор). The first "autonomous community", a local branch of AO, was established in the city ofLviv on 15 July 2009. It was followed by other branches throughout Ukraine, including inSimferopol andSevastopol in theAutonomous Republic of Crimea.[3]
Autonomous Resistance primarily spread among Lviv's youth via a series of websites, including its own website "opir.info",Reaktor and the websiteKhvatit Bukhat (Russian:Хватит бухать,lit. 'stop drinking'), which promotedstraight edge culture. AO was funded bypunk concerts, music releases and martial arts tournaments linked to the organisation.[4] The group also spread its influence viaUkrainian Wikipedia, including by writing and frequently editing its own article.[5]
Autonomous Resistance was initially closely aligned with the far-rightSvoboda party, with Svoboda memberYurii Mykhalchyshyn [uk] serving as the group'sde facto leader despite AO's official policy of collective leadership. Following the2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, in which Mykhalchyshyn was elected as aPeople's Deputy of Ukraine, however, AO denounced him and other Svoboda members as equivalent to theParty of Regions. This was followed by an attack on AO members by supporters of Mykhalchyshyn in June 2013, which led to the beginning of street clashes between Svoboda and AO.[5]
In January 2014, Autonomous Resistance became involved in a conflict over the preservation of theSheptytskyi Hospital [uk], a historical building in Lviv that was slated for destruction and replacement by affordable housing. Joined by local residents living onOzarkevych Street [uk] (where Sheptytskyi Hospital is located) and members of Svoboda, AO activists began a fight by publicly reading the names and displaying photos ofLviv City Council members from Svoboda who voted for the property development. After an individual attempted to take a photo from the group's members, a fight ensued that subsequently spread toRuthenian Street [uk] andMarket Square.[6]
Autonomous Resistance was one of the anti-government organisations duringEuromaidan in Lviv, with activists Zenon Dashak and Anton Parambol serving as the group's figureheads. AO cooperated closely with the far-rightRight Sector in protests.[7] AO members in Crimea also actively supported Euromaidan, and following theannexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation they fled to mainland Ukraine.[8]
Under the influence of Oleg Vernik, a left-wing trade unionist and member of theParty of Social Revolution, Autonomous Resistance moved further to the left and denounced capitalism, xenophobia and ethnic division in favour of class conflict. It has continued to maintain its nationalist stance.[9] Following theRevolution of Dignity that led to the overthrow of PresidentViktor Yanukovych, AO protested againstIryna Sekh becomingGovernor of Lviv Oblast, citing her membership in Svoboda and her concurrent People's Deputy status.[10]
After the Revolution of Dignity, Autonomous Resistance increasingly came into conflict with Ukrainian far-right activists. ALabour Day march in 2015, which planned to go from theViacheslav Chornovil monument [uk] to theIvan Franko monument [uk], was disrupted by Ukrainian police and Right Sector members.[11] On 6 November 2016 Autonomous Resistance was involved in a street fight with several far-right groups, including Right Sector,S14 and theAzov movement after the latter groups marched towards an Autonomous Resistance vigil toNestor Makhno at theMetropolitan Sheptytskyi monument [uk]. The fight later spread to Citadel Sports Complex. TheAzov Battalion and Right Sector both distanced themselves from the brawl after it occurred, though S14's leadership claimed responsibility for organising attacks on Autonomous Resistance members and declared their intention to continue doing so.[12]
In 2017, Autonomous Resistance came under surveillance from theSecurity Service of Ukraine (SBU), which accused them of having received support from the Russian government to stage demonstrations so as to encourageRussian allegations of fascism against Ukraine. The group continued to protest, this time against the Ukrainian government.[13] On 12 October 2017, following a protest calling for the release ofpolitical prisoners in Belarus at the Belarusian consulate in Lviv, the SBU began launching mass arrests against AO members. The protest at the Belarusian consulate was the group's last.[8] 15 members were arrested under organising an attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government and violate Ukrainian sovereignty.[13]
Following the arrests, Autonomous Resistance attempted to attend celebrations honouring theUkrainian Insurgent Army on 17 October. However, they were blocked from attending by the Lviv police, which said that the organisation's members were armed. AO claimed the police had planted weapons on its members, and said that far-right activists had conspired to prevent their attendance.[14] Opir.info continued to be updated until 21 December 2018,[15] but the group was no longer active after its leadership was arrested.
Autonomous Resistance's location on the political spectrum has been debated. They have frequently been referred to asNeo-Nazis, including in a 2018 paper published by theMinistry of Education and Science of Ukraine[4] and by left-wing activist Denys Gorbach.[9] By contrast, Yevhen Vasylchuk, a professor atCherkasy National University, has described Autonomous Resistance as aleft-wing nationalist group,[16] a phrase also used by Gorbach.[9] Darka Hirna, a journalist for news portalHromadske, wrote in 2017 that the organisation transitioned from far-right to far-left in 2012.[8]
Autonomous Resistance has expressed its opposition toglobalism, believing it to be harmful to the development of Ukrainian culture. According to Vasylchuk, AO has also advocated forrevolutionary socialism,anarchism, a classless society, equal rights between various social groups and the right of countries to self-determination. The latter concept is taken from theOrganisation of Ukrainian Nationalists andStepan Bandera, with AO specifically citing the slogan of "Freedom to nations! Freedom to people!" (Ukrainian:Воля народам! Воля людині!,romanized: Volia narodam! Volia liudyni!) as the basis of its argument.[16] According to the group'sYouTube account, it also had a division called "Ecological Resistance" (Ukrainian:Екологічний Опір,romanized: Ekolohichnyi Opir), which was devoted to environmental conservation.[2]
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