© Unknown
This interview with a comrade from the
Autonomous Workers' Union in Kiev was done on January 28, 2014. It sheds some light on the events around the Maidan: the array of reasons behind the protests, their focus on the hated president, the differences to the "orange revolution", the role of the right, the weakness of social struggles and possible scenarios.
Q: Looking at the pictures from Kiev (for instance, here) it seems that all kinds of people are at the barricades. In your opinion, what brings them together? What do the people at the barricades and all the supporters discuss? Merely the practical issues of the fight against the cops? Or are there assemblies, or other forms of "organized" debates, at the barricades or elsewhere?A: The main motive for the protests right now is extreme unpopularity of the president. Of course, the actual reasons are economic crisis, social inequality, corruption, decay of social services, poverty, unemployment - the usual set of grievances which make people go into the streets these days. This is not a leftist dogma; people do speak about all these issues. But nevertheless the force which made them stop grumbling at their kitchens and protest loudly is their feelings towards president Yanukovich. The demand of president's resignation is the ultimate one; unfortunately, this is the most radical thing people can actually think about.
The second thing is the sheer hatred towards the police forces. But then again, protesters just don't think there's anything wrong with the fact that one of the leaders of the protests - Yuriy Lutsenko - himself used to be Minister of the Interior; during that time Berkut and other special police forces existed as usual, and Lutsenko himself had announced that he would disperse protesting crowds with tear gas. So, here, too, protest against police as such (it has extremely bad reputation among all social classes here) is channeled into relatively harmless direction.
The president, his government and police are main subjects of discussions, I guess. Protesters' main task, as they see it, is to get rid of the Party of Regions, that's all. A small fraction talks about shifting the balance of power in the constitution from president to parliament. But of course, the main topics are indeed the practical matters - tear gas, food, shields, Molotov cocktails, tactics of street battles, and endless rumors - about the imminent threat of introducing the state of emergency, about snipers and riot police (whether they are Russians or not, whether they intend to fight any longer etc.).
About the assemblies - no, I don't know anything of the sort. The situation is too dynamic and unstable to do any such things, I guess; so, I don't see any forms of direct democracy evolving at the barricades right now.