Former Socialist Ivan Chyzh, as was to be expected, is now head of the newly-established Left-centrist party, The Justice All- Ukraine Leftist Association. His deputies are lawmakers Mykola Lavrynenko and Serhiy Kiyashko. Vasyl Arestov is Executive Secretary of the party council.
The preparatory work was done in record time. The organizing committee was set up February 26 and March 8 saw the founding congress. The information bulletin offered a rather detailed story of Ivan Chyzh’s short experience as an SPU member. However, those taking the floor during the convention insisted that ideological rather than personal difference accounted for his moving in the Social Democratic direction, away from the Socialist Party. Justice sees itself as more Left, rooted in Scientific Socialism and Marxism as its most important component, creatively developed by Vladimir Lenin. At the same time, it condemns purges and deformations, distancing itself from all those “turncoats” refusing to acknowledge Ukraine’s independence; it is for fair competition, given various patterns of ownership. “In order for the Party to identify itself at the outset, we must immediately understand this society with all its problems and specifics,” Mr. Chyzh, addressing the convention, declared. “We must not use knowledge and theory accumulated at the turn of the twentieth century if are really determined to turn into a real [political] force, if we want to make proposals and monitor their implementation, rather than just hold forth from the podium. And if this regime fails to carry out our proposals we will have reason to show this society who we really are and what kind of regime it has that ignores our proposals.”
As though by way of sequel to the debate with Moroz’s Socialists, the Justice convention’s resolution reads that the new party “has a different notion of opposition; it must not be formed to raise the popularity of a person, party, or given leader, but to help Ukraine’s rebirth.” The fact remains, however, that neither the Socialists (whose leader was the sole ranking leftist to attend the convention) nor the Justice leadership regard its formation as a rift in the Socialist ranks. In an interview with The Day, Ivan Chyzh stressed that not more than six or seven Justice regional leaders are former SPU members, only a quarter of the convention delegates were SPU adherents, and 70% of the delegates were unaffiliated.
Incidentally, Justice, unlike the rest of the Left, believes the referendum should not be boycotted: first, because there is no guarantee the electorate will be persuaded to ignore it; second, because Ivan Chyzh considers the referendum an embodiment of the principle of a lethargic opposition.
Parliamentary bielections will show whether the new party can offer real opposition, most importantly one that is not “lethargic.” Vasyl Arestov, Justice executive secretary, told The Day the party is considering the option of campaigning in two “free constituencies” — in Zhytomyr and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. Justice plans to run in the next parliamentary elections, although it is still to determine who to side with.. The convention noted that the party’s allies could be “all the Leftist forces.” Ivan Chyzh, in an interview with The Day prior to the convention, spoke very critically of the current Leftist leadership at large: “...the Left party leaders, should have resigned after the shattering fiasco of the elections, if only out of self-respect and a sense of responsibility. As it is, each is holding fast to his party seat.”
