Ukraine: young workers pick up the pieces from the wreckage of Stalinism

Ukrainian activist Sergei S. Filchashkin, was interviewed by Michael Proebsting. Sergei S Filchashkin is a 23 year old Law student in Kiev. He is a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Progressive Youth Trade Union. He is also a member of the sympathising section of the LRCI in the Ukraine. Proebsting is a member of the Austrian section of the League for a Revolutionary Communist International (LRCI).

Michael Proebsting (MP): When was the Progressive Youth Trade Union (PYTU) founded, and why?

Sergei Filchashkin (SF): The PYTU was founded in September 1998. It is a union organised by and for young people. Since then, it has been officially recognised by the Justice Ministry. In the 1990s, the so-called Youth Co-ordination Council still functioned as the official representative of youth. It originated in the Stalinist period but had been taken over by forces which were close to the right wing President, Kuchma. As a result, it was anything but a real representative of the interests of young people. At the same time, you have to bear in mind that the official trade unions are completely passive, fossilised old bureaucratic structures from which young people are, effectively, excluded.

MP: How big is PYTU today?
SF: For some time we have been organised in eight regions including Kiev, the Crimea and the Donbas. Today we organise some 7,500 youth. The strongest group is in the Crimea where we have about 3,000, most of whom have been won just in the last few months. A significant proportion of our members are activists, between 500 and 700 in the Crimea. You have to take into account that the Crimea has a unique tradition and that the Communist Party is very strong there.

MP: You describe yourselves as a "youth trade union", could you give me a clearer picture of the social make up of the organisation?
SF: In Crimea, for example, the majority are apprentices with a further 10-15 per cent university students and about the same number of young workers and school students.

MP: What are the main demands of the PYTU?
SF: Raising living standards for young people is particularly important. Incomes here are miserable. Let me give you an example: a student here gets 17 Hrywna a month (approximately £2.40). A loaf of bread costs H2 and a monthly bus pass is H9. We have calculated that you need about H75 a month just to survive, and that’s without power and heating. You don’t have to be a mathematician to see that no student could live on that. So, most students have to work alongside their studies - many young women work as prostitutes. Wages are often not paid either - just at the moment, 40,000 miners are on strike for six months of unpaid wages. The most important demands for us, therefore, are higher wages and grants, payment of back pay and the creation of more jobs.

MP: Do you have any other demands?
SF: Yes, obviously we defend basic democratic rights which are threatened by Kuchma’s grab for greater powers. But we don’t limit ourselves to immediate demands, we try to link them to ideas which go further. For example, the decline of the economy and the plundering of firms’ assets by the oligarchs is a central problem in Ukraine. The PYTU, therefore, stands for self-administration, the control of the workplaces by the workers. Another very important idea for our union is the fact that, today, there is no party that really represents the interests of the workers and the youth. We are in favour of the building of a new workers’ party.

MP: Is the PYTU a non-party organisation then, or is it close to any particular party?
SF: The PYTU is certainly non-party in the sense that it is not subordinate to any party. But naturally there are several political forces active within it. For example, I myself am active in Workers’ Power - the Young Revolutionary Marxists. Seven of the 23 members of the Central Executive Committee are in the Komsomol, the youth organisation of the Communist Party, another one is active in the group Workers’ Resistance. However, the majority of our leadership belong to no political party. That has led to arguments because the Komsomol representatives originally proposed that PYTU should simply join the Communist Party of Ukraine - which was heavily defeated.

MP: What are your most important activities?
SF: One of the central problems that we have - which, perhaps, you don’t have in the West - is the extreme lack of information. Most young people simply don’t know anything about what rights they have, to say nothing of what they could do against the attacks from the government or the employers. Therefore, we try to organise big information meetings. In Crimea, for example, we have recently been able to hold meetings of several hundred young people in different towns. We’ve also organised protest meetings outside government buildings. In Crimea, we’ve set up commissions which are now negotiating with the regional authorities over concrete reforms.

MP: Could you tell me something about the structure of your union?
SF: Members in our branches meet at least once a month. Town leaderships hold at least two meetings a month and the Central Executive, in other words the leadership of the whole of Ukraine, meets at least once in three months. Our union has absolutely no full timers- not because we fear the old problem of bureaucracy but simply because we have no money.

MP: So finances are your biggest problem?
SF: Yes, certainly! I’ve already told you how low the wages are and how high the cost of living. Obviously, that doesn’t leave much for the union. Just the fares for going to leadership meetings are practically impossible. A train to Crimea costs about 70H. We just don’t have enough money to publish a paper or a discussion journal. As a result, all of our work depends on donations. I know that even in the West, the Left and trade unionists have to struggle with financial problems but here, in Ukraine, the situation is really dramatic. The government is continually restricting the rights of young people. But the growth of our union in such a short time shows there is widespread anger amongst the youth and a readiness to get active.

• You can help to support the work of the LRCI in the Ukraine and across Eastern Europe by sending donations to Workers Power, BCM 7750, London WC1N 3XX. Please make cheques payable to Trotskyist International.
  

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