The fragmentation of forces on the Left political flank is picking up momentum. It seems we will soon have to report exactly in this style, reminiscent of Soviet reports on harvest campaigns, on the new splits and new political formations. Some see in this process the result of the techniques tried out on the Right; others are inclined to seek the explanation in the peculiarities of the Ukrainian political mentality: to each leader a party of his own, still others are sure to recall the phrase of Vladimir Lenin, founder of the international communist movement: “We must dissociate ourselves before reuniting.”
One way or another, March 12 showed us two new political entities which will be searching for a political niche of their own, asking who is a true Socialist or Communist? The answer to the former question was sought at the meeting of the organizing committee in charge of forming a political party tentatively called the Justice All-Ukrainian Association of Left Forces (the committee is headed by People’s Deputy Ivan Chyzh, purged from the Socialist Party of Ukraine {SPU}). The latter question was answered at the foundation congress of the Ukrainian Communist Youth League (UKSM) which hopes to replace the Leninist Communist Youth League of Ukraine (LKSMU).
The formation of Justice was not unexpected, for immediately after being excluded from the Socialist Party, Mr. Chyzh said he was not going to quit national politics. The new party founders admitted the leftist parties in Ukraine, “even those which have crisis management as their immediate strategic objective, have never shown unity in the real, not staged, struggle for the interests of millions of the downtrodden.” However, unlike Natalia Vitrenko who accused the SPU of betraying working class interests and went on to struggle on the extreme Left fringe, Mr. Chyzh and Co. are quite likely to work for the interests of the downtrodden closer to the center. In any case, both Ms. Vitrenko’s Progressive Socialists on the Left and Justice on the Right have narrowed greatly Socialist leader Oleksandr Moroz’s room to maneuver politically.
The (non-Leninist) Communist Youth League founding congress obviously reflects the fight within the KPU between the old party functionaries and the so-called new Communists. Addressing the congress, chairman of the organizing committee, LKSMU Central Committee First Secretary and member of the Communist parliamentary faction Oleksandr Starynets noted that the LKSMU, once formed as a youth organization, “had turned into a Communist Party youth division, totally deprived of autonomy and made to blindly obey the rules of the older Communist comrades.”
It looks like it is the parliamentary Communist youth that no longer want to play the role of extras (especially with the current unenviable position the of KPU faction). In all probability, having not enough weight in the Central Committee and with the faction leadership, the “new Communists” have decided to challenge the old ones in the youth weight category, using such a powerful factor as Ukrainian sovereignty. Before the congress convened, about ten young people wearing Soviet period Komsomol badges, headed by People’s Deputy and KPU CC Secretary Kateryna Samoilyk, tried to “dissuade” the delegates from holding the congress, calling them “secessionists, traitors, and presidential toadies.” Thus, on the surface, this infighting looks like one between the internationalists who exploit the slogan of restoring the USSR and supporters of Ukrainian sovereignty. The formation of UKSM is the victory of the latter, for UKSM declared it stood for strengthening Ukraine’s political independence, while the new organization’s program would be based on an updated communist ideology and the creative development of the ideas of social justice and power to the people. However, forming UKSM only seems to be the first round of an inner party struggle.
Mr. Starynets stressed, “Having analyzed the situation as a whole, we came to a conclusion that it is necessary to modernize the ideology and policies of the KPU and rally around it all leftist patriotic youth who are not indifferent to Ukraine’s future.” But, as is known, modernization requires new people. It is hard to imagine that the old KPU functionaries, who passed through the mill of Soviet party machinery, can give up power for the sake of modernizing communist ideology. UKSM can thus lay the groundwork for a real-life, not imaginary, Ukrainian Communist Party, or KPU-2. What is important is the process rather than names.
