THE 1970s - A LOOK BACK: In defense of... (12/30/79)

THE 1970s - A LOOK BACK

In defense of...

One of the most effective methods of voicing community outrage at Soviet domination of Ukraine were the many hundreds of demonstrations, rallies, picketings and hunger strikes staged by Ukrainians in the free world during the 1970s.

In 1972, when the KGB unleashed its first major crackdown of the decade against Ukrainian intellectuals in several cities in Ukraine, Ukrainian women and students in the West picked up the chants for their release. The weeklong demonstrations at the United Nations in January 1972 were started by a group of women with children, who disrupted a session of the United Nations. That was followed by a similar action by students at the United Nations on January 28. That evening, some 2,500 persons joined the students in a rally at the United Nations and a march to the Soviet Mission.

These demonstrations were indirectly coupled with disruptions by Ukrainian students of Yevgeny Yevtushenko's appearances across the United States during the late winter of 1972.

Demonstrations in the United States came to a head with a massive rally in Washington, D.C., in May 1972. Though orderly at first, the student participants became overly emotional toward the end of the rally and 59 youths were arrested near the White House.

During the summer of 1974, when Valentyn Moroz began what was to become 145 days without food, Ukrainian students in Ottawa, Washington and New York held hunger strikes of varying lengths of time. None of the students experienced any adverse effects, and the impact of their action was felt in the Congress, Parliament and in Ukraine.

The actions mushroomed in the wake of President Carter's accentuation of human rights as a cornerstone of America's foreign policy.

Probably one of the largest manifestations in recent history in New York City was the September rally in 1977. Some 20,000 persons participated in what was called the "March for Ukraine's Rights." Dr. Mikhail Stern, a recently arrived Ukrainian Jewish political prisoner, was the keynote speaker at the rally in Bryant Park. At the emotionally charged demonstration at the United Nations, several students were arrested and several police officers were injured.

In November 1978, at the conclusion of the Third World Congress of Free Ukrainians in New York City, some 8,000 area Ukrainians joined the delegates to this international conclave for a demonstration at the Soviet U.N. Mission. Leonid Plyushch, Nadia Svitlychna and Simas Kudirka were among the speakers.

The 1970s closed with a peaceful rally in May of 1979, as several thousand Ukrainian youths attended a manifestation in Bryant Park to officially welcome Valentyn Moroz to the United States. This was Mr. Moroz's first public meeting with Ukrainian youths in the free world.

Among various efforts in this respect, of telling significance were actions in Washington initiated by the UNA in 1977 and repeated with the UCCA's cooperation in 1978. They brought together Ukrainian American constituents with their legislators who were thus apprised of the struggle for human rights in Ukraine.

Interspersed between these principal actions were hundreds of other demonstrations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to the demonstrations and rallies, committees in defense of one or another Ukrainian political prisoner sprang up across the United States and Canada. These groups, while supporting and sponsoring protest actions, were primarily geared toward lobbying efforts on behalf of Ukrainian dissidents. These committees hoped to secure official government intercession in behalf of Ukrainian political prisoners. Among the more noted committees of the 1970s were the Committee for the Defense of Soviet Political Prisoners, the committees for defense of Valentyn Moroz (Philadelphia, New Jersey, Toronto, Montreal, Rochester, Cleveland), New York's Committee in Defense of Ukraine and similar rights groups in other centers of Ukrainian life.

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