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NEWS & LETTERS, December 2001Ukraine protests
Kiev, Ukraine - Powerful anti-war demonstrations have taken place in Kiev and
other cities of Ukraine. A lot of people attended actions in Kiev, Donetsk and
Dnipropetrovsk. The biggest rally and a picket of the U.S. embassy took place in
Kiev Oct. 14. More than 5,000 participants from different left, pacifist and
environmentalist organizations came out to Kiev streets to protest against U.S.
aggression.This day was quite successful for our organization the Ukrainian Workers
Group (UWG). A large group of youth was permanently near our banner. Mainly it
was the students of Kiev Shevchenko University, who we first met at this event.
These contacts have developed and we, with the help of our student contacts,
organized in their university a permanent scientific-political circle, which is
named The Dialectic." We also made contacts with the independent trade union of the Kiev
Golosiyivskiy Beer Plant. Workers of this enterprise as well some students
received information about Marxist-Humanism, the heritage of Raya Dunayevskaya.
The leader of the trade union was under a strong Trotskyist influence, but now
he is coming closer to our positions. UWG distributed 120 copies of our anti-war
leaflet. Anti-war actions are heavily attended by rank-and-file members of the
Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) the largest parliamentary Stalinist party. The
serious CPU activists give unconditional support to bin Laden. Some raised bin
Laden's portrait at anti-war events. The nationalist group, who also attend such
events, burned U.S. flags. CPU leader Petro Simonenko refused to break from such
nationalist and chauvinist actions. The Socialist Party of Ukraine refused to participate in the anti-war
campaign, holding with the pro-imperialist policy of President Leonid Kuchma,
who opened Ukrainian air space for U.S. military planes. Numerous Trotskyist
sects participated in the campaign, but their self-isolation prevents them from
using the campaign for mobilizing wide layers of workers and youth to the
anti-capitalist movement. UWG tried to connect the anti-war movement with the workers' strike movement.
Our supporters in Donetsk succeeded in joining up the column of anti-war
protesters with striking miners from Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) mine during the
rally Oct. 17. On Oct. 25 the Union of Mine Industry Workers declared the
beginning of preparations for an all-Ukrainian miners' strike. WeĠre preparing
leaflets for this event with the aim of intervening in the striking miners'
movement with Marxist-Humanist ideas. Vadym Y. |
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