1983: A LOOK BACK: The UCCA-UACC dichotomy (12/25/83)

1983: A LOOK BACK

The UCCA-UACC dichotomy

1983 was the year that the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA was reorganized as the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council.

The UACC was established at the May 14 meeting of the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA, and its creation reflected the sad fact that all attempts at negotiations with the current leadership of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America had been unsuccessful and that the Committee for Law and Order in the UCCA had merely decided to get on with the business of community activity.

However, the new organization noted, the door to negotiations was still ajar, provided that the UCCA accepted the preconditions previously delineated by the Committee for Law and Order.

These prerequisites, presented by the Committee for Law and Order at a meeting with UCCA representatives on January 10, included two key provisions: that representatives of Ukrainian Churches be invited to participate in the negotiations; and that both sides examine the UCCA By-laws and create a by-laws committee for this purpose. They were rejected by the UCCA representatives, however.

The Committee for Law and Order also noted that the UCCA had refused to accept it as an equal partner in any negotiations toward community unity and a return to the pre-13th Congress status.

Once the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council was established, the new organization appealed to the World Congress of Free Ukrainians for recognition as the representative of those U.S. Ukrainian community organizations that had walked out of the 13th Congress and had since declared that the UACC - not the UCCA - was its representative. As the Fourth World Congress of Free Ukrainians approached, the number of organizations making official declarations that the UCCA was no longer their representative (and the the UACC was) grew daily.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council held its first national conference on October 1 in Washington on the eve of the Great Famine memorial observances. A total of 122 delegates, representing 30 national organizations, attended. The national conference unanimously approved the creation of the UACC; approved the acts of incorporation and by-laws already filed in the state of Delaware; and re-elected the UACC executive board with John O. Flis as chairman. Mr. Flis said at the conterence that the UACC's first objective would be to unite all Ukirainian democratic organizations that do not approve of the one-party hegemony that now exists within the UCCA.

The newly re-elected executive of the UACC held its first meeting on October 19 in New York and decided that among its first assignments was to plan the 20th anniversary celebrations of the unveiling of the Taras Shevchenko Monument in Washington. The anniversary is in May 1984.

Both the UACC and the UCCA were represented at the Fourth WCFU in Toronto on November 30 through December 3. The UCCA tried at first to block the UACC's membership in the world body, but then, seeing that the numbers were simply not in their favor, retracted its opposition. As a result, the UACC was granted membership in the WCFU and, what's more, was recognized as the second central representation of U.S. Ukrainians. Thus the UCCA and UACC are now equal members of the WCFU with the same number of representatives on all WCFU bodies.

Many hope that the fact that the two organizations are now on an equal footing will spur moves toward the eventual reunification of the U.S. Ukrainian community. The cautious words of the UACC chairman perhaps reflect reality best: "Do not expect this (unity) will happen tomorrow. But we will begin talking tomorrow."

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