FACES AND PLACES: Time to cut bait (12/13/98)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Time to cut bait

With Askold Lozynskyj's election as president of the Ukrainian World Congress, it's time for the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council, one of two Ukrainian American umbrella organizations, to stop trolling for power and cut bait.

For the benefit of Ukrainian Americans under the age of 30 who may not know how our community came to have two "umbrella" organizations, a brief historical overview is in order.

It all began at the 1980 Ukrainian Congress Committee of America convention when, to put it in the simplest of terms, a slate supported by the Banderite faction of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists [OUN(B)] was elected over the objection of the "democratic" opposition. Since adopting decisions by consensus was the foundation of the UCCA's activity, when efforts at compromise failed, delegates representing 27 organizations - including the Ukrainian National Association, Ukrainian Fraternal Association, Ukrainian National Women's League of America, Plast, ODUM and the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine walked out in protest. For the first time in 40 years, the Ukrainian American community would not present a united front.

When reunification talks - which continued for two more years - yielded nothing, the dissidents moved to create a second organization, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council. A convention was convened in Washington on October 1, 1983, and John Flis was elected president. The following day the UACC-initiated National Committee to Commemorate Genocide Victims in Ukraine 1932-1933 sponsored a rally and march that began at the Washington Monument and ended at the Shevchenko statue. Some 18,000 people from 11 states participated in what was the largest single gathering of Ukrainian Americans since the unveiling of the Shevchenko monument in 1964.

As a vice-president of the newly established UACC, I was most optimistic about its future. With the two largest fraternals and the entire democratic front supporting it, there was no reason it could not offer healthy competition to the more narrowly constituted UCCA which, after all, had fewer organizations and fewer members. Competition, I reasoned, would be good for the entire community.

I was wrong. During the 1980s both the UCCA and the UACC were diminished as community interest waned and donations dried up. Some of the original UACC member-organizations later declared their "neutrality" and became independent, while the original UCCA member-organizations, still loyal to the Liberation Front-OUN(B) bloc, became more intransigent. In time, both sides were merely going through the motions whenever they met to discuss reconciliation. Leaders in both camps seemed unwilling to lose their power base.

By the middle of the 1990s, the UCCA was making a comeback. The leadership, both at the local and the national levels, was younger and more active. A program was in place. Finally, and this is a crucial, the UCCA had "Indians" (or grunts), the UACC had "chiefs." Today, unity with the UACC is not even on the UCCA agenda.

Uniting our community has never been an easy task. The first such effort occurred in 1903 when Catholic clerics and lay leaders came together in Yonkers, N.Y., to establish the Ruthenian National Committee. Soon after the arrival of America's first Ukrainian Catholic bishop, the committee passed out of existence.

The next attempt to organize a representative national organization began in 1914 following the eruption of hostilities in Europe. Three secular fraternals convened the first Diet of Ukrainians in New York City on October 30, 1915, with 295 delegates holding mandates from 457 local, non-sectarian organizations. The result was the Federation of Ukrainians in the U.S.

Once again, unity was short-lived. Charging the federation with having failed to carry out the mandates of the diet (the real reason was that the federation was dominated by the Ukrainian left), the UNA joined forces with Ukrainian Catholics and other organizations to establish the antithetical Ukrainian Alliance of America. With the end of the war, member-organizations regrouped and created the Ukrainian National Committee (UNC).

A unity of sorts was finally achieved after both the federation and the committee disappeared. Another coalition, the United Ukrainian Organizations of America came into being in 1922. The most active and visionary organization thus far, the UUOA piloted the community through the incredibly difficult 1920s and 1930s. The UUOA called America's attention to western Ukraine's struggle for independence, Polish pacification in western Ukraine, famine in eastern Ukraine and the Ukrainian freedom crusade. With the exception of the Communists, it united most of our community. Its influence in Washington began to wane, however, once Ukrainian American Communists, the Communist-controlled Popular Front and the Anti-Defamation League initiated a smear campaign labeling the UUOA a "fascist" enterprise.

Believing that a new beginning was called for, 805 delegates from 168 Ukrainian American organizations came together in Washington on May 24, 1940, and established the UCCA, a coalition that has survived longer than any other such representative organization.

So where do we go from here? I have some unsolicited suggestions. My first recommendation concerns the UACC. Both the UNA and the UFA should withdraw from this largely moribund organization and declare their neutrality. UACC membership has done nothing for these two faternals and in some instances has actually hurt.

My second proposition involves the UCCA leadership. Can Askold Lozynskyj remain president of the UCCA while heading the Ukrainian World Congress? I think not. The UWC needs more than cursory attention. The best thing Mr. Lozynskyj can do is to turn over the UCCA reins to Executive Vice-President Orest Baranyk and focus on the UWC. Mr. Baranyk can then begin work to unite the community.

Here's one final recommendation for Mr. Lozynskyj, someone I have known (and disagreed with) for decades. He is bright, brash, articulate (often given to demagoguery), thoroughly bilingual and dynamic. I have watched him mature over the years from a firebrand Banderite to a more nuanced Banderite. Now that he is head of what is potentially the most significant Ukrainian organization outside of Ukraine, he is in a position to truly unite all corners of the diaspora, but only if he moves well beyond his ideologically limited parameters. The choice is his to make.

I congratulate Mr. Lozynskj on his election and wish him godspeed.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

| Home Page |