Corporate Raiding & Svoboda

Corporate Raiding is an epidemic in Ukraine. Politically connected people harness the violence of government to seize property from others. Kind of like the Kelo Case back in the land of the free, but in Ukraine, it’s done even more crudely.

Here are the websites of two anti-raiding organizations:
http://www.antiraider.ua/
http://obsheedelo.org.ua/

I distrust all politicians and political parties. Here is a video from the nationalistic Svoboda Party, which, strangely, is believed to by financed by Russians. It combines their nationalistic message with anti-raiding.

[youtube]0actjED5iow[/youtube]

@ 3:30 the video shows a group of guys, students apparently, beating away another group. Very dramatic (political).

I hope the victors were really on the side of property rights for all — not just for their friends. The chants of “Ukraine belongs to Ukrainians” isn’t encouraging. Their dialogue seems to dress this up as an ethnic battle. Property rights must be applied to everybody. On the other hand, a journalist friend of mine claims that the raids are most often conducted by non-Ukrainians.

I am mindful of the historic precedent of nationalism ultimately undermining property rights.

As I’ve often told self-proclaimed conservatives back in the United States: people who want to socialize in the name of national greatness are still socialists, even though they consider themselves ideologically opposite.