The Ukrainian Left During and After the Maidan Protests
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THE UKRAINIAN LEFT DURING AND AFTER THE MAIDAN PROTESTS Study requested by the DIE LINKE. delegation in the GUE/NGL Volodymyr Ishchenko [email protected] ABSTRACT The paper seeks to present a balanced, well documented and nuanced discussion covering the full range of positions of the Ukrainian left and activities in relation to the Maidan and Anti-Maidan movements and the war. It covers all the major groups and parties who at least identify with the socialist and/or anarchist tradition: from ‘old left’ parties originating from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to ‘new left’ organisations, unions and informal initiatives that did not have any relation whatsoever to the CPSU. The paper gives a brief overview of the most important (and often still unresolved) questions about major political events in Ukraine starting from 2013. Then it describes and explains the positions and political activities of the various Ukrainian organisations on the left towards the Maidan uprising, the Anti-Maidan movement and the war in eastern Ukraine. The paper attempts to answer the following questions. How did different left wing organisations try to intervene in the Maidan and Anti-Maidan movements and how successful were their interventions? To what extent were they able to defend the left agenda against liberals and (both Ukrainian and Russian) nationalists? To what extent did they rather follow the agenda of their political opponents? What were the differences not only between the different left wing organisations but also between groups in Kiev and in the provinces? What was the real scale of repression by the new government and by the far right against various left wing organisations? To what extent did the repression specifically against the left or rather against separatist forces challenge the state’s integrity? What are the current prospects and opportunities for left wing politics now in Ukraine both in the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary spheres? Are there any prospects for a ‘left turn’ in the separatist republics? What political lessons should the European and the international left draw from the political events in the Ukraine and what were their results for the local left? ABOUT THE AUTHOR Volodymyr Ishchenko is a sociologist studying social protests in Ukraine. He is the deputy director of the Centre for Social and Labour Research, a member of the editorial board of Commons: Journal for Social Criticism and LeftEast web-magazine, and a lecturer at the Department of Sociology in Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. He authored a number of comments and interviews about Ukrainian Maidan and other recent political events, particularly, for The Guardian and the New Left Review. 1 CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. 1 ABOUT THE AUTHOR ................................................................................................. 1 LIST OF ACRONYMS ................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 4 WHAT HAPPENED IN UKRAINE? ................................................................................ 5 THE UKRAINIAN LEFT BEFORE MAIDAN .................................................................. 13 Old left: the Communists and minor political parties ............................................ 13 New left organisations, unions, initiatives ............................................................. 17 Old left and new left in the Ukrainian protests before Maidan ............................. 21 THE UKRAINIAN LEFT WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THE MAIDAN PROTESTS .................. 27 The anti-Maidan left during the Maidan protests .................................................. 27 Why did other left-wing groups join the Maidan protests? ................................... 32 How did the left take part in the Maidan protests? ............................................... 35 Results and alternatives ........................................................................................ 38 ANTI-MAIDAN PROTESTS ........................................................................................ 41 Pro-Maidan left and Anti-Maidan .......................................................................... 42 Why did the left support Anti-Maidan? ................................................................. 48 How did the left take part in the Anti-Maidan protests? ....................................... 54 Results and alternatives ........................................................................................ 62 THE UKRAINIAN LEFT AND THE WAR ...................................................................... 63 Anti-war positions and activities ........................................................................... 63 Left choosing sides ................................................................................................ 69 Ukrainian left-wing combatants in the war ........................................................... 76 CURRENT PROSPECTS OF THE UKRAINIAN LEFT ...................................................... 83 CONCLUSIONS AND LESSONS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL LEFT ................................ 93 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 97 2 LIST OF ACRONYMS AR – Autonomous Resistance ATO – Anti-Terrorist Operation AWU – Autonomous Workers Union CFTU – Confederation of Free Trade Unions of Ukraine CPDPR – Communist Party of Donetsk People’s Republic CPRF – Communist Party of Russian Federation CPSU – Communist Party of the Soviet Union CPU – Communist Party of Ukraine CSLR – Centre for Social and Labour Research CSR – Centre for Society Research DPR – Donetsk People’s Republic KMA – National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy LO – Left Opposition LPR – Lugansk People’s Republic OM – Organisation of Marxists PSPU – Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine RCAS – Revolutionary Confederation of Anarcha-Syndicalists SPU – Socialist Party of Ukraine ULP – United Left and Peasants UPCD – Ukrainian Protest and Coercion Data VCD – Volunteer Communist Detachment in Prizrak brigade VCRC – Visual Culture Research Centre VIF – Left International Forum foundation 3 INTRODUCTION Ukraine’s Maidan protests, the Anti-Maidan counter-mobilisation and the subsequent civil war in eastern Ukraine posed very difficult questions for both the Ukrainian and international left wing movement. As with other major mobilisations in eastern Europe (in Russia in 2011-12, Romania in 2012 and Bulgaria in 2013) in recent times and previously in some Middle East countries during the ‘Arab spring’, left wing forces were not able to gain political hegemony as a result of the mass mobilisations. At the same time, even when successful, these mobilisations were sometimes able to remove incumbent governments but only to replace them with traditional opposition elites that were as distant from the masses as the governments that they had overthrown. Some observers have made naïve attempts to put the Ukrainian Maidan protests into the same category as the Occupy, Indignados or popular anti-austerity movements based on superficial similarities in the protest tactics of occupying major city squares. However, the differences in ideology, social base and political representation between the Maidan protests and the other movements are also striking. The Maidan and Anti-Maidan movements were both highly complex phenomena where there was no clear position that the left could obviously sympathise with by aligning with this or that competing nationalism or rival imperialist power. To various extents both movements combined progressive and reactionary elements that in both cases in the end appeared to be dominant. It was therefore no surprise that the left’s positions towards these events and attempts at active intervention or criticism were complicated and ambiguous although they were also highly charged and impassioned due to the intensity and violence of the events. Deep splits in the Ukrainian left in relation to Maidan and the civil war exacerbated this problem. Both the pro-Maidan and anti-Maidan part of the Ukrainian left were actively promoting very contradictory messages for the international left and making serious accusations against each other. At the same time, repression against at least some parts of the Ukrainian left (the Communist Party of Ukraine and the ‘Borotba’ organisation) created a pressing need for the international left to decide whether and how to support them, which led to highly emotional discussions. This paper seeks to present a balanced, well documented and nuanced discussion covering the full range of positions of the Ukrainian left and activities in relation to the Maidan and Anti-Maidan movements and the war. It will use a very broad definition of the left, including all the major groups and parties who at least identify with the socialist and/or anarchist tradition: from ‘old left’ parties originating from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to ‘new left’ organisations, unions and informal initiatives that did not have any relation whatsoever to the CPSU. This spectrum is so wide that the extremes of it in either direction could perceive each other as not being part of the same movement at all, especially after the events in