After the March 9 events in Kyiv became top stories in the media the Communists seemed to fade into the background of the political process. No one physically assaulted them and they attacked no one. The impression was (and with reason) that the Communists had themselves decided to avoid the confrontation between the regime and anti-Kuchma opposition.
This scenario by no means satisfied the party with the most popular support compared to other political forces and the strongest faction in Verkhovna Rada. However, the much-advertised protest action called Against the Kuchma-Yushchenko Regime turned out some 3000 Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) supporters, mostly the elderly, representing (if one trusts their posters) over half of Ukraine’s 26 oblasts.
After March 9, the Communist march looked like a group of daycare center inmates taken out for a walk. The militia, tempered by the previous battle with protesters using steel batons, remained impassive to any challenge. Just as a column of protesters formed to set off to the cabinet building, a provocation was staged at Verkhovna Rada. Several assistants to Left people’s deputies unfurled a red banner from the auditorium’s balcony. Before anyone could read the inscription, other assistants, mainly from Kostenko’s Rukh, immediately busied themselves doing something they knew and liked: fighting Communist-Soviet symbolism. An argument ensued, quickly turning into a fistfight with reinforcements promptly provided on both sides as lawmakers raced up the balcony stairs to kick derri О re. They did it very fast, for it was a short way and they had actually nothing better to do in the audience downstairs.
Even if the Communists lag behind the new opposition in working and acting out scenarios for public action, they are unmatched in torpedoing votes in the parliament. The KPU faction marched out of the audience, leaving behind several members for interviews concerning the balcony brouhaha, joining their comrades soaking under the rain outside. The legislative leadership had to await their return lest the voting day be canceled for lack of a quorum.
While the Communists were outside, those in the audience came out with a number of proposals to set up ad hoc committees of inquiry. Considering that our people’s choices give displays of pugilism almost on a daily basis, the parliament might evolve into a convention of policemen, albeit less adept than their colleagues on official payroll yet far more determined and loquacious. As it was, no proposal could be put to the vote without the Communists.
As for Ukraine’s number one Marxist in the street, he voiced his new ideas at a rally. Suppose we listen to what he had to say, without taking it too seriously. Comrade Symonenko called for replacing the “Kuchma- Yushchenko regime” and build socialism. Having thus given due to rhetoric, the Leninist luminary assessed his rivals on the opposition market — those claiming the lead role as opponents to the current regime. In his words, the noncommunist opposition is a “Right extremist ultra-radical force” serving “the interests of criminal capital.”
Leaving the verbiage aside, his statements can be interpreted as the Communists being loath to share their role as the one incorrigible opposition with anyone — not if they can help it. Thus if and when it comes to steering a middle course — voices calling for this are now and then heard inside and outside Ukraine — all talks should be with the Communists. Lest anyone mistake them for Ukraine Without Kuchma or the Forum of National Salvation, the demonstrators carried a poster reading that Viktor Yushchenko’s place is in jail together with Yuliya Tymoshenko.
Without doubt, it will not come to nationalizing the banks, entering a union with Russia, or jailing the premier, at least in the near future. One can actually understand the Reds. After losing the initiative, Symonenko’s party simply has to make up for its lack of radicalism. Even if their slogans are kept in a hackneyed retrograde vein, they are supported by over a hundred seats in the legislature and a solid constituency, even without the so-called administrative resource. We will learn soon whether the KPU leaders will be rewarded for their radicalism by a proposal to negotiate the situation with the authorities and on what terms. The anti-presidential opposition and premier supporters might have an excuse to accuse the “oligarchic” regime of a conspiracy with the Communists. The deja vu of the 1996-99 Russian- Ukrainian scenario is coming true. Are we in for a second round?
