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| Andrii Ishchenko and Inna Valeshkovskaya |
A regional European Assembly of Resistance (EAoR) was held in Budapest (Hungary) from March 2 to 4, 2018: a delegation of the All-Ukrainian Independent Trade Union Zahist Pratzi (“Labour Defense”), consisting of its coordinator, Andrii Ishchenko, and a member of its feminine department, Inna Valeshkovskaya, took part in its work from Ukraine. Among the participants there were representatives of the left and social organizations of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Serbia, France and Sweden.
As it was expected, the most heated discussion was on the “Ukrainian issue”. The representative of the pro-Russian party Union of Leftists, Sergei Markin, living outside the country, claimed that a fascist regime is already established in Ukraine and their party is being persecuted and works underground, trying to add to the text of the Final Resolution some paragraphs which would shift its emphases from classist priorities to civilizational ones.
On the contrary, I focused on the fact that the right regime in Ukraine, although slipping increasingly into authoritarianism and carrying out ultra-capitalist reforms, tries to preserve democratic decorations; however, at this time its nature is undistinguished from right-wing authoritarian regimes surrounding Ukraine (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan).
There are no sufficient grounds to believe that the Ukrainian regime has already turned into an open terrorist dictatorship, since there left and trade union activists can work using legal methods; they consider suicidal to enter stealth mode and will make maximum use of the remaining opportunities for a legal struggle for the Ukrainian workers rights, in spite of the growing pressure of an authoritarian and anti-democratic regime and the persecution of trade union activists in different parts of the country.
In the final text of the General Resolution of the Assembly of Resistance, as a result of an acute and open controversy and a lengthy discussion, almost all of the attendees of the meeting decided to retain its classist orientations and accents of genuine proletarian internationalism; its substance wasn’t distorted by the seeking of “progressive” imperialism and the struggle of civilizations.
Based on the results of the three-days work, the Final Declaration was adopted, in which the participants stated the crisis of the political and parliamentary left-wing practically in all countries of the world, the ubiquitous reduction of the social state (even in Sweden) and the need for joint international actions in which the “overthrow” of authoritarian systems can begin socially only with a broad, mass movement of public self-defense.
Four main directions of joint actions was adopted:
1) In the economy – the fight against the oligarchic economy and its replacement by a mixed multi-sector economy, creating a pluralistic ownership structure for broader groups of society, in other words, the necessity of freedom in organizing cooperatives in all spheres of economy;
2) In social policy – the struggle to improve the living conditions of impoverished social groups. Instead of various forms of bourgeois nationalism, racism, ethnic folly, the persecution of Roms and migrants, the most important public task of the left-wing – regardless of politics – is to ensure the cultural growth of the population, the establishment of civilian “people’s” educational structures and self-education groups;
3) In the political field – the concept of political democracy needs to be supplemented with concepts of economic and cultural democracy, so that everyone could be involved in “democracy”, and not just “elected”. Authoritarian regimes and their excluding constitutions must be rejected. Social rights should be fixed in the constitutions and implemented;
4) In the field of social base – the main keys of the anticapitalist left-wing are trade unions and public organizations. If left forces don’t act as a spokesman of the interests of people living on wages or labor incomes and unemployed workers, they will destroy themselves.
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