A Marxist Marshall Plan for Ukraine?

The call is made in The Huffington Post by philosopher Bernard Henri Levy, former student of Louis Althusser  who says:

"The first task is to win the war that the Ukrainian people did not start but that they are waging with courage.
But economics, as well.
Or, more precisely, the continuation of war by other means that is economics.
That is what is at stake this morning!
Please understand that I am speaking of economics as history.
I am speaking of economics underpinned by an intellectual and moral reform of the entire society.
I am speaking of economics as understood by my professor, French philosopher Louis Althusser, who would say that economics is never solely a matter of production, finance, and accounting—these parameters always imply profound choices about the spirit of laws, about biopolitics and the health and possible suffering of human beings, and about one's idea of time, space, and the very nature of being.
It is for that reason, ladies and gentlemen, that for the next 200 days you will be called upon to make proposals and suggestions about Ukraine's finances, to be sure, but also about public health, about strengthening the rule of law, and about fighting the open wound, the leprosy, that is corruption.
In the course of the task that awaits you, you will encounter eternal defeatists and professional cynics.
You will encounter those who go around saying that Ukraine is a leaky barrel that is not worth your effort.
You will encounter those who think that history and geography are destiny and fate and that Ukraine belongs almost by natural law in the Russian sphere of influence.
Do not let yourselves be intimidated.
For when your recommendations—followed in 200 days by the Marshall Plan of my dreams—see the light of day, the entire history of this region will be changed.
And you will have written a new page of the history not only of Ukraine but of Europe."

As utopian as this may sound, it's soon apparent that one of the prominent backers of this new 'Marshall Plan' is 'gas king' Dmitri Firtash who is probably as far away from Marxism that one can get.    

Graham Stack, writing for BNI Intellinews describes the backlash to a massive PR campaign.

"Analysts see Firtash's investment initiative as largely a PR ploy connected to his fight against extradition. Firtash named a headline-grabbing figure of $300bn that his modernisation plan could help attract to Ukraine, without explaining how the figure was calculated."

Notably Lord Risby of the British Ukrainian Society who are part sponsored by some of Ukraine's corporations is mentioned too

There's also the matter of another 'Marshall Plan' . It came from inside Ukraine and was introduced to goverment with the help  of Ukraine's civic activists. It was also introduced to USAID and the EU in 2008.

For Maidan, I wrote What the West wouldn't do for Ukriane. 

So where's the impartiality in journalism? This 'Marshall Plan' doesn't come from those on the ground, neither does it exist in terms of a plan.  

Since 2007, when our 'Marshall Plan' was released, the impact of the economic crisis has seen increasing calls for economics which puts people before profit. The Green Party is about to enter a general election under this banner. The Catholic Church and Cooperatives Europe have both  described the need for people-centred economics and business practice.  Our 'Marshall Plan' put it like this:

'This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for "people-centered" economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority – as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine's poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a "top-down" approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first -- not secondarily, along the way or by the way. ' 

Of course, none of this translates into a news portal like Huffington Post publishing an actual 'Marshall Plan' proposal for Ukraine, or indeed the 'Death Camps for Children' story which became the central focus - placing all children in loving family homes.

The 'Marshall Plan' for Ukraine had been published nevetheless,. on an Ukraine news site. As my deceased colleague described:  

 "After six translations and seeming endless discussion over a three month period, the final paper was delivered to Kharkiv National University on February 20, 2007, for immediate release to government officials as they saw fit.  Two weeks later, Kyiv announced agreement on the central point and metric of the paper: modern rehabilitation treatment facilities for Ukraine's most vulnerable people.  Those were, and are, children diagnosed as psychoneurologically disabled and hidden away in isolated, remote rural locations to live or die.  Death was common and an accepted norm due to neglect arising from almost incomprehensible medical ignorance, corruption and misappropriation of millions of dollars in funding channels that were supposed to assist the children, and entrenched protection of that money stream for benefit of what some judges characterized to me as Ukrainian mafia.  The point was not the welfare of the kids as much as siphoning off millions of dollars budgeted to protect and assist them.  

Opening up the reality of that situation resulted in threats against me and anyone else interfering with that system.  I came under direct assault by tax police, government's primary enforcement arm if anyone steps out of line.  This is not a research activity where many, if any, other people dared to participate.  UNICEF was willfully blind to the matter because it was just too dangerous to bother to intercede  Powerful interests remained entrenched with enforcers to make it dangerous.  Jurists were correct, in my view.  It was more a mafia operation than anything else, aimed at misappropriation and laundering of large money.  That was perfectly congruent with how Ukraine operated before the revolution.  USAID wanted nothing to do with it, nor would they fund any organizations or activists who might try.  Some things could be done and some things could not be done.  Helping these children was something that could not be done.  So, I exposed it and made it the central focus and metric of Ukraine's microeconomic development blueprint.  In that context, it was far more difficult to ignore, dismiss, or argue about.  For about six months, I really did not expect to survive.  Nevertheless, Ukraine's government finally conceded the point and announced the opening of more than four hundred new treatment centers for children who were theretofore invisible under tight and deadly enforcement.

As the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan came around in June 2007, noise was emerging within Ukraine of a certain political boss preparing a Marshall Plan for Ukraine.  This person was a reputed mob boss -- exactly the sort of entity that the original Marshall Plan meant to oppose.  It seemed most likely that whatever he came up with would be self-serving, hijacking the label 'Marshall Plan' and turning the whole notion on its head.  I reviewed the original Marshall Plan and realized that what I had written was, in fact, the definition and spirit of the original Marshall Plan.  Thus, in June 2007, I appended the original title with "A Marshall Plan for Ukraine."  After some discussion among trusted colleagues over timing, I published an abbreviated version of the paper in two parts in August 2007 in the 'analytics' section of the Ukrainian news journal for-ua.com.  "

We're back where we were in 2007, it seems., Another decade another oligarch  

As for the children: