1995: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Ukrainians in U.S.: where are we headed? (12/31/95)

1995: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Ukrainians in U.S.: where are we headed?

For the Ukrainian community in the United States, 1995 was a mixed bag, as some organizations continued to work along the lines they had always worked, while others branched out into new ventures. It was also a year in which there was a glimmer of hope for unity - the unity lacking since the ill-fated 13th Congress of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in 1980 that split the community into two, no, make that three: the UCCA, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and the so-called non-aligned organizations, among them such powerful groups as the Ukrainian National Women's League of America.

As a whole, the Ukrainian American community seemed to be more effective in making itself heard in Washington, thanks mostly to the efforts of the UNA Washington Office (which was shut down at the end of September after seven years of work) and the Ukrainian National Information Service, the Washington office of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (which has been functioning for 18 years). Some evidence of that may be seen in the fact that political leaders of both parties made attempts to meet with Ukrainian American leaders and that White House invitations seemed to be more forthcoming.

For example, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, already spoken of as a candidate for the Republican nomination for president (though he had not yet declared), met with leaders of the top Ukrainian American organizations early in the year, on February 28. Sen. Dole agreed with the Ukrainian delegation that thus far the United States had pursued a Russocentric policy toward the newly independent states that had arisen on the territory of the former USSR, and he promised to support more U.S. assistance specifically targeted for Ukraine. Present at the meeting were representatives of the UACC, UCCA, Ukrainian National Association, Ukrainian Fraternal Association, UNWLA and the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine.

Among the meetings and briefings held by Clinton administration officials with the Ukrainian American leadership was one with President Bill Clinton himself, held immediately after a major foreign policy address at a conference convened by Freedom House. The conference, which was aimed at promoting bipartisan dialogue on foreign policy, was sponsored by a host of top Washington think-tanks. Among the organizations participating were the UNA, the UCCA and The Washington Group, an association of Ukrainian American professionals. After issuing a strong warning against isolationism, President Clinton spent about a half hour meeting with ethnic leaders, including Ukrainians, listening to their concerns.

Adrian Karatnycky, president of Freedom House, said he hoped the conference would pave the way for regular foreign policy briefings between the administration and ethnic groups. "We think that there is a patronizing attitude that if you are a 'hyphenated American' you're not fully a part of this. ... Well, we are all real Americans, whether Ukrainian American or Kashmir American," he underlined.

Ukraine's new ambassador to the United States, Dr. Yuri Shcherbak, held his first meeting with Ukrainian American community leaders on February 27, with the participation of Ukraine's consuls general from New York and Chicago, respectively, Viktor Kryzhanivsky and Anatoliy Oliynyk. The participants included the UCCA, UACC, UNA, UFA, UNWLA, CCAU, Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine, Committee to Assist Ukrainian Diplomatic Missions, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, UNCHAIN (Ukrainian National Center: History and Information Network) and the U.S. representative of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine. The meeting's goal: to provide a briefing on the current state of U.S.-Ukraine relations and to set the stage for continuing cooperation between Ukraine and the Ukrainian American community.

Toward the latter part of the year, on October 6, Ambassador Shcherbak again summoned Ukrainian community leaders to the Embassy of Ukraine for a meeting to initiate work on 10th anniversary observances of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. As of the end of 1995, the ad hoc committee had already listed a number of projects, including scholarly conferences, concerts, rallies and other consciousness-raising events held in 1996.

During 1995, one of the two central community organizations in the U.S., the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, received two grants to promote reform in Ukraine.

At the beginning of the year, the UCCA was awarded a U.S. government grant to coordinate U.S.-based assistance to the Ukrainian government in commercial legal reform. The Rule of Law Consortium, a Washington consulting group that administers U.S. Agency for International Development assistance in the former USSR, awarded a $100,000 grant for the Commercial Law Project for Ukraine, which has been under way since 1992 under the leadership of the UCCA, a U.S. law firm and reform advocates in Ukraine. The six-month program was in cooperation with the Ukrainian government's Legal Reform Task Force, a 16-member blue-ribbon panel of economics and legal experts.

The grant was announced on February 24, and by March 1 more than 60 leading commercial lawyers had volunteered to assist, working pro bono. The project aims to provide Ukrainian officials with a blueprint for reform in 12 areas of commercial law, including anti-monopoly provisions, banking, corporate laws, insurance, securities, intellectual property, commercial dispute resolution, natural resources, etc.

Then, on June 7, the UCCA received another grant, this one for $50,000 to promote reform in Ukraine in partnership with an independent Ukrainian television network, UNICA-TV. The Eurasia Foundation grant supports a pilot project aimed at educating the public about democracy and free-market economic reform via a series of television documentaries.

Later in the year, in September, the UCCA and the Ukrainian National Association announced a joint project: to prepare a program of training for social insurance reform in Ukraine, specifically in the field of private pension development and regulation.

Though not a community organization per se, it should be noted that the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation was among other grant recipients. The USUF continued its work with local government officials in Ukraine through its workshops for local government officials, aimed at helping local governments function more effectively in conditions of an emerging democracy. That two-year project was partially supported in 1995 by a $200,000 grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, along with grants from the National Endowment for Democracy and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. A companion program, the USUF's rule of law project, aims to involve non-governmental citizens' groups in public policy formation in Ukraine.

The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (which formally changed its name in December to Children of Chornobyl Foundation) sent five airlifts to Ukraine during 1995, bringing to more than $36.3 million the value of humanitarian aid - more than 960 tons of it - shipped since 1989. This year's airlifts (two in February, and one each in April, August and November) were paid for by the USAID through a grant in support of the CCF's cancer treatment and physicians' training program. Using $350,000 in funds from USAID, the CCF succeeded in sending $5.5 million worth of aid to Ukraine as well as organizing a pediatric oncology seminar at the Kyiv Institute of Endocrinology in April to mark the ninth anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster. The organization also learned in 1995 that it had been awarded a grant of up to $263,000 for women's and children's rural health care programs in Ukraine, which the Children of Chornobyl Foundation will launch in 1996 to mark Chornobyl's 10th anniversary. The benefactor is the European division of the Monsanto Co., which has made large investments in agricultural development in Ukraine.

Another noteworthy organization, the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine, continued its educational assistance programs for Ukraine, which include providing new textbooks and organizing courses for teachers, and securing financial assistance for educational institutions, teachers and students. The CCAU held its third general meetings in May, electing Wolodymyr Wolowodiuk as president and outgoing president Walter Baranetsky as chairman of the organization's board of directors.

The United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, which is perhaps best known for the assistance it provided to nearly 60,000 post-World War II refugees, this year helped Ukraine's needy miners. The organization donated more than $18,000 to help victims of last year's explosion at a Luhanske coal mine. Thirty miners were killed and 36 injured in the underground explosion at the Slovianoserbska mine on September 1, 1994. Through a benefactor who chooses to remain anonymous, the UUARC allocated $100 to every miner injured and $500 to the family of every miner killed. (The first installment of the UUARC's donation had been paid in December 1994, and the second in August of this year.) The UUARC today has chapters in five Ukrainian cities; it sponsors soup kitchens, supports orphans and invalids, and promotes educational endeavors.

Professionals' organizations continued to make their presence felt on the Ukrainian community scene in 1995.

In January, the recently formed Federation of Ukrainian American Business and Professional Organizations, at the age of 11 months jumped into action to coordinate the U.S. tour of Ukraine's former president, Leonid Kravchuk, which was sponsored by the Foundation for an Independent and Democratic Ukraine. The federation scheduled events in New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit, Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y., as well as stops at Columbia, Yale and Princeton universities.

Later in the year, the Ukrainian American Professionals and Businesspersons Association of New York and New Jersey organized a panel discussion titled "The Current Business Climate in Ukraine" on September 24 at Columbia University. Speakers included representatives from the World Bank, the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and the public relations firm Burston Marsteller. The event was co-sponsored by the Harriman Institute at Columbia, which has recently begun expanding its Ukrainian studies program.

The Ukrainian Professionals of Northern California, in conjunction with the state's Ukrainian Medical Association, held its second conference during the weekend of October 6-7, focusing on the theme "Bay Area Meets Ukraine." The organization, which sees the need to fill a gap in organized Ukrainian community life on the West Coast, is studying ways to best serve the interests of the area's Ukrainian Americans.

That same weekend, The Washington Group held its annual Leadership Conference. Its theme, "The Ukrainian Community: Defining a New Role," promised to review the direction in which the Ukrainian American community was heading and to determine whether a course adjustment is necessary. Nonetheless, most of the time still was spent on looking at Ukraine's place in the world today and at how Ukrainian Americans can best help that country after four years of independence. So, what of the future of the Ukrainian American community? Perhaps that'll be discussed at some other conference...

There remains the matter of community unity. In September, The Ukrainian Weekly was pleased to note in an editorial that it seemed unity was on the horizon as the UCCA and UACC were soon to begin formal negotiations on uniting into one organization that will represent the entire Ukrainian American community. Some informal preliminary discussions took place between the two parties in August, with both sides agreeing to speak further and to address the concrete issues of union. The UACC went ahead and named a four-member committee to take part in formal negotiations with the UCCA. But, it turned out to be not that simple. The UCCA protested the appointment of what it called a new negotiating team, noting that it now appeared the UACC was discarding everything that had been discussed in August. And, that is where we stand at the end of 1995.

What will 1996 bring for the Ukrainian American community? Will it be a renewed unity, or continued squabbling? Will there be a refocusing on our priorities in this country, or will we continue to set our sights on Ukraine, often to the detriment of our community life here?

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