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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

SDU: "The economy, not society, should be market-based"

9 February, 1999 - 00:00

On January 30 Ukraine received a new party, the Social Democratic Union
(SDU). The SDU founding congress attended by 304 delegates from all Ukraine's
oblast plus the cities of Kyiv and Sevastopol, was held in Kyiv. People's
Deputy Serhiy Peresunko, 47, was elected party leader. A program declaration
was adopted. It was decided to hold the next SDU congress after the presidential
campaign begins, with Yevhen Marchuk nominated as candidate for presidency
by Centrist, Left Center, and Right Center forces.

The first question that occurred to me when I was reading an invitation
to attend the SDU congress as The Day's correspondent was this:
"Why does Ukraine need yet a fourth party calling itself social democratic?"
However, the congress itself started its work by answering the questions
about why they were gathered: "Are we true social democrats, or are we
creating a new party to defend the narrow interests of our leaders? Do
we have a real, not just ceremonial, candidate for President of Ukraine?"

WHO WILL RAISE THE FLAG OF SOCIAL DEMOCRACY

IN UKRAINE?

But has this flag not yet been raised ? SDPU(o) ran it up with its "united"
hand during the last Verkhovna Rada elections and, with this flag in hand,
entered Parliament.

However, the party leadership, pursuing a policy of supporting the executive
power when it comes to the implementation of the United Social Democrats'
business projects, seems to have carefully folded it up and, wrapping it
in the mothballs of "constructive criticism," put it away in a drawer to
await better days. Better days for SDPU(o) are likely to come around the
next parliamentary elections, when the electorate will again need attractive
ideas.

Mr. Peresunko stressed in his speech that SDPU(o) in fact supports the
authorities and their ruinous course. The other two social democratic parties
have no serious political leverage. In his words, the SDU is the only party
created on the grassroots level and not at the expense of existing parties.
He hopes all Social Democrats will unite on a single political platform
traditional for their European counterparts, and will finally identify
who is a real Social Democrat professing the ideas of this movement and
who only uses the relevant terminology to pursue their personal or clan
interests. Mr. Peresunko said that one of SDU's principal ideas is: "The
economy, not society, should be market-based."

The creation of the SDU has in fact placed the SDPU(o) leadership in
quite a complicated position.

First of all, SDU has deprived them of their monopoly on social democratic
values, i.e., the idea of a market economy and reforms (attractive to the
nascent middle class) and the mechanisms of social security (attractive
to barely surviving working people and pensioners). Add to this the inspiring
example of West European countries (Great Britain and Germany) which have
Social Democrats in power.

Secondly, SDU already has a brilliant leader in the person of Yevhen
Marchuk.

Thirdly, most of SDPU(o) regional representatives announced at the party
congress held late last year that they would be supporting none other than
Mr. Marchuk in the presidential elections.

Chairman of SDPU(o) Odesa oblast organization Volodymyr Maksymovych
said in an interview with TsZhI (Center for Journalistic Research) 
that 70% of party members stick to the opinion that today there is no alternative
to Mr. Marchuk as a presidential candidate. "In this connection I do not
rule out emergence of a revolutionary situation in SDPU(o), where 'the
grassroots do not want and the upper crust cannot.' Otherwise, regional
leaders who do not want to support Leonid Kuchma's candidature will be
purged," Mr.  Maksymovych believes .

Besides, SDPU(o) cannot accuse SDU (as was the case with former United
Social Democratic leader Vasyl Onopenko) of dissension, intrigues, and
leadership ambitions for the simple reason that SDU did not emerge from
SDPU(o) fold.

This way or another, the Social Democratic Union has again raised the
flag of social democracy, which bears the motto "Law, Order, Justice,"
and voiced its opposition to the executive.

SIMPLE ANSWERS

TO NOT-SO-SIMPLE

A QUESTION: "WHAT FORCED PEOPLE TO

CREATE THE NEW PARTY?"

Svitlana BARABASH, professor at Kirovohrad State Technical University:

"I have joined SDU because I hope that the central element in the new
party's concept - protection of the individual and his/her rights - will
become everyday practice rather than a slogan. What we need are not curtsies
to the authorities dropped by SDPU(o) leaders but real actions to defend
the working people."

Kazymir LIUTY, pensioner and war veteran:

"Many fresh graves have appeared in the cemetery in my native village.
I have never seen such things before in my life. What has happened to Ukraine?
I'd been working since I was ten and the government gave me a 67-hryvnia
pension. I believe in Mr. Marchuk, for I think: only his strong hand can
pull the country from the abyss of crisis."

Maksym SHKURO, delegate from Kyiv:

"One must make the people regain their trust in the opposition. I believe
the main thing is the decentralization of power. The Constitution clearly
states that the people of Ukraine have the right to self-government. For
example, residents of my neighborhood know better how to spend money coming
to the local budget.

Vladyslav ZHURAVSKY, editor of a Svitlovodsk district newspaper,
Kirovohrad oblast:

"A committee called With Yevhen Marchuk into the Third Millennium has
been set up in Svitlovodsk. Pressure groups have also been organized in
other districts. But I think Mr. Marchuk is a very tolerant person. We
must undoubtedly take power in our hands. One must return to the people
their faith in the future.

A THIRD FORCE

The creation of SDU may be perhaps considered an attempt to answer the
question which all too often pervades the mind of voters before the presidential
elections: if not Kuchma or the Left (Symonenko or Moroz), then who?

Most analysts agree that the Right - Rukh and Reforms and Order with
their claim to be a third force - have put forward Hennady Udovenko as
a candidate going nowhere.

However, for the Social Democratic Union to become a third force, it
must form a broad coalition of those who reject returning to the totalitarian
communist past, on the one hand, and understand, on the other hand, that
the same communist nomenklatura, now in power, is not only unable but also
unwilling to carry out reforms.

NICHE OF

UNCOMPROMISING

ATTITUDES IN POLITICS

IS STILL FREE

SDU has stated its unconditional opposition to the current regime.

Member of the SDU board and Verkhovna Rada deputy Olekdsandr Chubatenko
quoted official statistics: 27 million Ukrainians live below the poverty
line. Ukraine's domestic and international debt has reached $18 billion,
having increased threefold in the years of Mr. Kuchma's rule. Freedom of
speech has practically been abolished. Only those media survive which sing
praises of the President. State-run TV channels immediately confirmed this:
they brazenly ignored the formation of SDU in their news bulletins.

Mr. Chubatenko made what amounts to an official SDU statement: "The
niche of uncompromising attitudes in politics is still free. SDU must fill
it."

I personally liked very much the phrase of a Social Democratic Union
delegate: "When the people do not trust the state, the country still has
a chance. When the people also disbelieve the opposition, that country
has no chance." These words are worth being written on the entrance to
Parliament.

 

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