Activism in Chernobyl's shadow

On Ju. 20, I was fortunate enough to be
Present on the vs-asion of a very important
Meeting in Kiev, the capital city of the
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Kupyblic, Kievis
located a mere 100 km southwest of Cher-
nobyl, site of the nuclear power plan’caras-
trophe. .

The meeting in question was held. by a
newly-formed organization under the name
“Zlemma Rada” (Green World) which has
now been in existence for about 18 months.
By the end of the meeting and on talking to
members afterwards, it became apparent
that the aims and purposes of the organiza-
tion accord with those of “Greenpeace,”
and the World Wildlife Federation although
there may be differences in methods of
procedure.

The organization draws its members
from all walks of life, but mostly profes-
sional people such as biologists, economists,
Journalists and writers, The elected chair-
man, Yuri Sherbak, is a medical doctor,
writer and journalist and he is head of the
ecological commission of the Supreme
Soviet of the USSR. He was the first to
publish the truth about Chernobyl.

On July 10, 1989 Green World received
official recognition from the state commis-
sion for the protection of the environment
of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
and as such official status. It constitutes an
Important step, giving the organization an
official voice in matters of ecology at state
level.

Some of the proceedings of the June 20
meeting were as follows:

© It was brought up that the pesticide
level in some food products is extremely
high. A motion was passed that Green
World should issue a protest to the
Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine and that the
information should be published in the
newspapers. As consumers are not aware of
the situation, notices listing potentially dan-
8erous products should be posted in all food
shops.

It was also mentioned that as yet this
problem has not been sufficiently researched
and that biologists will provide more infor-
mation for the next meeting.

© There is an election coming up shortly
for three positions in the ministry of natural
resources, two for the state water resources
and one for the ministry of forests. Three
candidates running for these vacant posi-
tions are responsible for withholding
information on the Chernobyl events and

environmental activism.
Green World decided unanimously to
campaign against these people.

e An invitation was extended to the
department head of the central committee
of the Communist Party of the Ukraine to
participate in the organizing committee of
the Green World organization.

@ Inthe Lvov region it is planned to build
a chemical factory and residents are protest-
ing against this. Green World decided to
support these protesters and to propose as
an alternative to this project that the
government build a factory for hypodermic

Chernobyl reactor, now encased in concrete ... events have spurred new

syringes since there is a great shortage of
these needles in the Soviet Union.

After the meeting I asked some of the
members whether they felt glasnost had
facilitated the formation of the organiza-
tion. It was conceded that this organization
may not have been formed or, at last would
have had extreme difficulty coming into
existence without it. It is felt that this organ-
ization may set a pattern for the rest of the
USSR in the future.

Dmitro Woychuk,
Sweden

‘Negative’ views of Stalin questioned

I would like some space to rebut or at
least try to bring into perspective the Soviet
Union’s position during the war years
(referred to as “The Stalin Era’), especially
to the barrage of what I consider to be not
only completely negative but even vindic-
tive lines being pursued in the recent issues
of the Tribune.

that 5v+.--..5< and the capitalist media

shown the ability w ~... are determined

tion of the Soviet economy tie. un fat
sary in order to survive the onslaught of tw~
hundred and twenty divisions of Hitler’s

Elite armoured divisions, stretching from

Leningrad to the Crimea, for over three

years.

At that time, the working class of the
world was in complete support of Stalin
and the Soviet citizens who were demand-
ing the Allies open the Second Front to ease

the enormous pressure on their territory,
citizens, and Armed Forces.

It was only as a result of Stalin’s leader-
ship and ability to get the Soviet citizens to
agree and support to move its heavy indus-
trial potential east of the Ural mountains at
the expense of the people’s consumer goods
that gave the Soviet Union the time and
material necessary to launch the offensive at
Stalingrad (they even took this victory away
from him by renaming it Volgograd). That
offensive was successful in driving Hitler’s

ee a

very SUCCESsiu.
twenty million of F
devastation to its industrial area™
most important aspect, in my estimation, is
that the Soviet Union staged its comeback
at the same time as it was extending finan-
cial aid, with little or no interest being paid,
to many of the underdeveloped countries,

Lat j
if GEEW UP since the
d star-

and was accepting thousands of students to
its universities and vocational training cen-
tres at no charge to these same underdeve-
loped countries.

Unlike the capitalist countries, it was not
taking the raw materials and resources of
those countries at below cost and was not
engaging in the super exploitation of their
people that is responsible for the advance-
ment of the living standards of capitalist
countries.

It was Gorbachev that has undertaken
the job of decentralization of the Soviet
Union’s bureaucracy — call it perestroika
or glasnost or whatever you want — but it
could have been instituted by some of the

seule

. . ry > ae | TS le

its Internal ability to gov, Be nadesieat

Eignivides
Victoria

—

Coalitions
still show

‘the power
of people’

Like most on the Left, I have
been following with interest the
developments and reported
“crises”’ in the socialist nations as
the dynamics of unresolved
contradictions are loudly
trumpeted by the capitalist media
as the final collapse of the
“socialist experiment.”

With the pervasiveness of
mainstream media it is easy to be
discouraged, at first sight. There
are lessons to be learned,
certainly ... but this is not the
Paris Commune — and while
socialism is firmly established,
capitalism has little changed its
tune.

The fact that change is
occurring first in the socialist
states is proof in-the-pudding
that socialism is the ultimate
extension of democracy. The
lessons of “people power”

— public pressure as a
sociological phenomena — are
equally applicable here, even if
awareness of its potential is not
as developed.

Indeed one of the conclusions
we may draw is that awareness is
not as developed precisely
because of the efforts of the
capitalist media.

Most can recall the role of
public opinion in the Viet Nam
war. Less was made of the
vulnerability of free market
economies in the oil crisis. To go
further back in our history ...
the fact the Canadian Seamen’s
Union was smashed is indicative
of the strength of capitalism,
when one considers it took six
years for all the instruments of
state power to destroy a
democratic movement of 20,000
seamen.

The seamen were on the front
line in the fight against
privatization in the years
following World War II.
Another generation involved in
today’s fight against privatization
and the right wing agenda should
be inspired by their
example — were it not that those
in the media keep us unaware of
our own history.

Still one sees “people power”
re-developing in the solidarity
coalitions building against waste
disposal; against Meech Lake;
against the GST; against the
sellout of our sovereignty; against
the plunder of public resources
by the corporations.

The future and indeed the fate
of the planet rests on
consolidating these coalitions, so
that we, and capitalism both,
may learn at last that the “people
united will never be defeated.”

S. Richmond,
Burnt River, Ont.

Pacific Tribune, Sep...