Ukrainian left THE following article by the Ukrainian historian and leftwing activist Sergei Klimovsky was originally published in IV's Russianlanguage sister publication Inter-Vzglyad, no. 3/1992. It offers a participants account of events in the Ukrainian left in the period 1989-91. It has been slightly abridged for space reasons. DOCUMENT F OR the time being, the leftwing in Ukraine is experiencing a period of decline, suffering from the absence of real organizational forms.
In the years 1989-91 different leftwing groups in Ukraine, identifying themselves as Anarcho-Syndicalists, Anarcho-Communists or Left Socialists, attempted to establish mutual contacts and founded regional associations such as the Confederation of Ukrainian Anarchists or the Socialist Wor26 kers Party of Left Forces.
But today the activities of these regional political associations have in practice ceased.
Among the reasons for this state of affairs one can cite the following:
• The lack of a theoretical understanding on the left of the developing social processes and its own place in this;
• The absence of a real social base for the leftwing organizations — a phenomenon which is also true for other political organizations — meaning that they never won any significant backing. Even the largest of the leftwing organizations, the Confederation of Ukrainian Anarchists, counted no more than about 200 relatively active members in its prime;
• the absence of well-defined organizational forms of a new type - even though there was a search for this — as the principles of traditional party building were being rejected;
• The general decline in political activity and the peculiar disappointment of the people with politics in the autumn of 1991;
• The relatively peripheral position of Kiev, Kharkov, Zaporozhe and other Ukrainian centres compared to Moscow and Leningrad - and consequently the absence of common, all-Union links among the leftwing groups. these are fundamental causes for the relative weakness of the leftwing, which meant that it did not become a
CPSU, pursuing the same ends or with other leftwing or social democratic forces.
Inside the CPSU the return to classic
Marxism took two forms. One was the so- called Bolshevik Platform, which drew the conclusion that it was necessary to return to the early 1950s. These "defenders of socialism" were oriented not towards the future but towards the past — as were the liberal democrats wanting a return to pre-October times — and therefore reactionary.
Another attempt to return to classical Marxism, and partially to renew it, was undertaken by the Marxist Platform left by Buzgalin and Kolganov. However, its activities did not lead to the formation of a conceptually independent leftwing organization.
When the CPSU was liquidated, the Marxist Platform ceased to exist as an organized whole, and the diversity of conceptual orientations within the Platform was decisive in its dissolution. But whereas in Russia the modernist wing merged with the Socialist Party of Kagarlitsky in the Party of Labour — no such wing existed in Ukraine, and here the Marxist Platform was integrated into the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU), which stands on social reformist positions close to those of the former CPSU.!
In summing up the results of the years 1989-91 one has to note two peculiarities characteristic of the leftwing in this period. Firstly, in spite of some attempts to build links to the workers movement, which all leftwing currents traditionally understood as their social base, and to organize some 1. In a later article IV will take a look at the situation of the Russian left today.
Russian socialists hold congress
December 21, 1992 • # 241 International Viewpoint kind of common action, the leftwing and the workers' movement existed separately and on the whole did not interact.
Secondly, under conditions when both the official and the emerging democratic press were in reality launching a massive campaign to discredit leftwing ideas, it was, not surprisingly, youth who constituted the backbone of the leftwing groups
UKRAINE / RUSSIA
RUSSIA's "new left" political formation, the Party of Labour, and organizations, whereas the right, cenheld its founding congress in Moscow on October 9 and 10.
trist or even neo-Stalinist organizations were led by people who were usually over
The party was established in the form of an organizing
40.
committee at the end of August last year. With the adoption
However, one should not evaluate the of a constitution and other founding documents, it can now virtual discontinuation of the activities of apply for official registration, in order to run election leftwing organizations in Ukraine as the disappearance of the leftwing as such. On the contrary, if anything, the 1989-90 period could be seen as a period of growth in breadth, when small, but rather active groups were springing up in all the major cities, putting considerable effort into proclaiming their existence up to the point of establishing international links.
From breadth to depth
But from the autumn of 1991 the situation started to change. For the movement, a period of reduction of external activities began — links between the groups in different cities were getting weaker and they were concentrating more on their own problems, often searching for theoretical clarification. This period could conditionally be seen as time of growth in depth, although only time can confirm or disprove this hypothesis.
In analyzing the current state of the left in Ukraine, one can then single out the following tendencies, which will undoubtedly determine its future development:
First and foremost it is a break with the dogmatic interpretation of classic leftwing theories and an attempt to work out an independent methodology for understanding the processes in society. In many ways the Ukrainian leftists are searching for theoretical clarification that runs parallel to that of the "new left" in the West, although it does not so much touch on general philosophical questions, but is oriented towards the socio-historical concrete.
At the same time, there is a search for new, non-traditional forms of leftwing organization — different principles for building and functioning — and the emergence of a different form of psychological interaction inside the organization itself.
It is not impossible that these general developments could lead to the appearance within the next two to three years of a broad leftwing, in new organizational forms, if favourable objective conditions and a consistent evolution of the current tendencies on the left prevail. * candidates in its own name. RENFREY CLARK
VEN by the standards of Russian politics, with its swarm of small groupings, the Party of Labour is not a large organization. At the height of the congress the hall contained about seventy people, and the party's total membership is probably no more than 400. However, the party occupies a strategically important political space and is almost unique in having a leadership with a real grasp of international political and economic thought.
In a Programmatic Declaration adopted at the congress, party members stressed their opposition to the government's neo-liberal reforms," which include the privatization of state assets throughout most of the economy. Instead, the declaration called for a large state sector to be retained and modernized to serve as the "locomotive" required to haul the Russian economy out of depression.
This is a position which the Party of Labour shares with large sections of the main anti-Yeltsin bloc in Russian politics — the so-called "right-left opposition," based on an alliance of Russian nationalists with old-style Stalinists. However, the new party in fact has little in common with these forces.
As a central element in its plans to rebuild the shattered Russian economy, the Party of Labour urges the development or organs of workers' self-management. These concepts are quite incompatible with the "command-administer" system to which the neo-Communist parties want to return.
Also, the Party of Labour - unlike the great majority of Russian political groups - refuses to make cheap gains by adapting to Russian nationalism. One of the main challenges before the congress was to choose formulations which would make this position clear, while stressing the need for workers of different nationalities to develop their economic and political collaboration. After lengthy discussion, a section of the party constituting endorsing the concept of a "new federalism" was adopted, with the proviso that debate on the issue would continue.
The Party of Labour thus rejects both the "barracks socialism" of the past and the capitalism of the neo-liberal future, while condemning the nationalist thuggery that has been an ugly feature of Russian states for hundreds of years. These general positions are shared by scores of millions of Russians, so there can be no doubt that the territory which has opened up for the "civilized left" is exceptionally fertile.
Traumas of Russian history
However, the traumas of Russian history have left this political space thinly populated. Throughout most of the period since independent organizing became possible in the late 1980s, the democratic left has been represented by small and isolated political groups; by cells of worker militants within the heavily bureaucratized trade unions; by a largely stillborn movement of labour collectives; and by the still small environmental and women's movements.
If the democratic left is to become the massive force it ought logically to be, these groups need to develop the habit of collaboration. A key task which the Party of Labour has set itself is to provide a framework within which the political groups, at least, can combine their efforts. The list of currents which have 27 joined the Party of Labour process is
International Viewpoint # 241 • December 21, 1992
RUSSIA already considerable, and reflects the talent of party leaders for intelligent compromise.
The new organization contains veterans of the Socialist Party, formed in 1990 by left-wing opponents of Communist Party rule, and of an anarcho-syndicalist current with roots in the student movement. Also present are people who worked within the Communist Party to ning members in a number of provincial industrial centres where the party did not have an implantation in the past. In all, delegates were present from eight cities.
If the congress could not be described as a great triumph, party economic strategist Andrei Kolganov observed, members had nevertheless gained a sense that despite their differences they could work together.
"There won't be rapid successes, and there are many years of struggle ahead, Kolganov concluded. "But we're not going to wait with our arms folded."*
Programme of the recruit activists to the struggle for democratic socialism and workers' control.
There is also a socialist-populist ele-
Party of Labour ment, made up of people who look to the traditions of the Social Revolutionaries of the first decades of the century. Finally, there are individuals whose positions could be described as left social democratic.
Combining people from these backgrounds into an effective campaigning unit will not be easy. However, the diverse origins of party members have meant that debates within the Party of
Labour have been exceptionally rich.
Party of Labour members tend to be much more familiar with the thinking of the international non-Stalinist left than Russian leftists whose main experience has been within the Communist Party, and they also have a far keener grasp than most Russian liberals of the realities of Western capitalism. As a result, the Party of Labour is well placed to join in the debates of educated Russians as these layers lose faith in the neo-liberal utopia.
However, the party does not want to remain a discussion group for the intelligentsia. As speakers at the congress stressed, the party seeks to act as a bridge between progressive movements and political action. Much of the work of party activists consists of building contacts with the environmental, women's, and above all, labour movements, and of trying to defend the interests of these movements in the political
Forging contacts
While useful contacts have been forged, the party's influence in broader progressive circles has so far been slight; Russian activist groups which have arisen outside established structures are almost always suspicious of political parties. Consequently, the Party of Labour has developed a strategy of building itself as a "party-movement." For a long time, leaders expect, the party's progress will be reflected not so much in increased membership, as in the spread of collaborative relations with numerous movements and organizations. 28 theless able to report progress in win- Speakers at the congress were never-