The Odessa District Administrative Court decided to ban two demonstrations which were supposed to take place on November 7: one marking the 126 anniversary of the birth of Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno and the other to commemorate 97 years since the October Revolution.

The Union of Anarchists of Ukraine decided to abide by the court decision and only their representative Vyacheslav Azarov was present to receive the court order from the police. “We have been working in this city for 15 years. We have consistently opposed the arbitrariness of the authorities, from Kuchma, Yushchenko, Yanukovich. We are in no event be suspected of separatism. When all dissenters are painted with the same brush to prohibit them from expressing their opinion – this is the establishment of an authoritarian regime in the country.”- said Azarov.

Despite this, a group of a dozen neo-nazis from “Patriot of Ukraine” appeared to prevent any attempt by anarchists to demonstrate, as reported by Dumskaya.

The Communist Party of Ukraine, which had called for a march to mark the anniversary of the October revolution, decided to go ahead despite the ban, and gathered about 150 people at Theatre Square. The gathering was heavily policed by security forces. At the end of the rally, instead of marching, they gathered their banners and walked in small groups to Kulikovo field to pay homage to the victims of the May 2nd Odessa massacre.

The KPU members and their supporters were harassed by Euro-maidan supporters but there were no clashes.

More pictures of the October Revolution rally in Odessa can be seen in 048.net.

The excuse given by the court to ban the demonstration was the “fear that there would be clashes”. A march by far right extremists on October 14 to commemorate the anniversary of the founding of the second world war nazi-collaborating and genocidal Ukrainian Insurgent Army was allowed to go ahead unhindered (see http://www.segodnya.ua/regions/odessa/v-odesse-vspomnili-geroev-ato-i-proveli-marsh-upa-560750.html).

In other parts of Ukraine there were rallies to mark to anniversary of October which were met with various degrees of harassment by the authorities and far right militants.

The Dnepropetrovsk Committee of the KPU reported that the celebration in their city was faced with around 300 paramilitary fascist thugs as can be seen in this picture:

In Donetsk, according to a report from the Peoples’ Republic press office, a rally in commemoration of October revolution 1917 was also held. The deputy head of the Council of Ministers of the DPR P.S kakun said on the rally: “97 years ago there happened the great event, which changed the world and life of people in Russian empire. As a result, the system of exploitation of labor was destroyed, and the property came into the hands of people. The principle: power and property to the people – was realized”. “In 1991 our great project was destroyed by the ‘fifth column’, though, we believe that its resurrection is not far away. What happened 97 years ago has started to be realized again in the Donbass land”.