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Trudova Ukraina elects a new chairman
Vol. 6, No. 197, November 27, 2000
On November 18, 2000, delegates of the 2nd congress of the Trudova Ukraina ("Working Ukraine")
unanimously elected Serhiy Tihipko, MP, as the party leader. The outcome of the voting was quite
predictable: a few days before the congress the Trudova Ukraina's parliamentary faction leader Igor
Sharov told the media that the party's political executive committee would include members of the
parliament Dmytro Tabachnyk and Oleksiy Kostusiev. The media also spread the news that the party
leadership would be offered to former Minister of Economy of the Yushchenko government, now
member of the Ukrainian parliament Serhiy Tihipko.
None of the party's top activists was forgotten by the high assembly: Andriy Derkach, MP, became
chairman of the political executive committee that included members of the Ukrainian parliament Igor
Sharov (currently the party's official representative in the parliament and leader of the Trudova Ukraina
parliamentary group), Victor Pinchuk, Dmytro Tabachnyk, Oleksandr Yedin and Oleksiy Kostusiev.
Serhiy Tihipko got the chair of the Trudova Ukraina leader by the decision of almost 300 delegates
from 23 regions of Ukraine. In fact, the party hardly has any members other than those who were
present at the congress. Remarkably, the party does not try to keep its small numbers secret.
Notwithstanding the current scarcity of the membership, the influence of the "powerful few" of its
leadership on the general political process in the country should not be underestimated. Commenting
on prospects for further development of the party, one of its leaders and founders Andriy Derkach
noted: "the work in the regions will be carried out by party staffs that will cooperate with NGOs. We
do not need to build up the party membership artificially" (Den, November 21, 2000).
The Trudova Ukraina demonstrates its own way of party-building by paying less attention to the grass-
roots and local constituencies but seeking to establish its prominence in the Ukrainian parliament.
Currently the Trudova Ukraina parliamentary group includes practically all of the party leaders and key
activists. In that sense the Trudova Ukraina fits logically the paradox of the Ukrainian party life and
electoral realities: the party that was de jure and de facto non-existent at the time of the March 1998
parliamentary elections currently has one of the most numerous and influential factions in the
parliament.
Hence, the Trudova Ukraina is a typical "top-to-bottom" structure built at the top of the Ukrainian
power machine. Unlike the older generation of Ukrainian "sofa-type" political parties of early 1990s,
the Trudova Ukraina enjoys significant levers of influence on current political and economic realities.
Creation of political grass-roots and winning voters' preferences need substantial investment of time
and money. Yet in this case time and money factors seem to be logically linked and mutually
supportive. This, among other things, may account for the party's clear focus on the future and the early
(for a Ukrainian political party) start of a strong publicity and information campaign almost two years
before the next parliamentary election, scheduled to take place in March 2002. The party leaders are
aware that "by all means, it should not be allowed that the Trudova Ukraina remained for voters
nothing but a TV-broadcast party," as Andriy Derkach put it at the recent party congress (Fakty i
Kommentarii, November 2, 2000). Yet, so far the TV publicity has clearly dominated real recognition
by potential voters. According to a public opinion poll, in March 2000 only 1 percent of potential
voters were prepared to vote for Trudova Ukraina (Den, April 27, 2000). The number of potential
supporters had not increased by October 2000, according to poll results announced by the Kyiv
International Institute of Sociology. In this context it should be kept in mind that the party was initially
built and publicised through the Ukrainian parliament. As the Trudova Ukraina parliamentary group
leader Igor Sharov, the parliamentary group was meant as an instrument for building a party under the
same name (Den, April 21, 2000).
So far everything has developed as planned. Initial information about the new faction to be formed was
made public in late February 1999. The establishment of the Trudova Ukraina parliamentary block, the
core of the would-be party, was announced on April 20, 1999. The founders included members of the
parliament Igor Sharov, Victor Pinchuk and Mykhailo Syrota. The group was promptly joined by a
number of high-profile politicians, some of them with strong links to the business community: Yuli
Ioffe, Fedir Shpyg, Lev Mirimsky, Oleksandr Yedin, Zoryslava Romovska. Commenting at length on
the event, the Ukrainian media wrote that "it is very hard to find true "workers" among the owners of
plants, newspapers, ships - deputies Mirimsky, Pinchuk, Derkach, Sharov, Shpyg. The present-day
leader of the group Mykhailo Syrota accounted for that peculiar miss-match in a rather original way:
"As everybody knows, labor requires development of a serious economy, and economy, in its turn, is
based on finance. The Trudova Ukraina involves employers as well as those who work..." (Den, April
21, 1999). The newly-established group united 15 MPs; a few weeks later the number increased to 17.
The "immigration" of MPs to the Trudova Ukraina from other factions and groups continued,
particularly after Leonid Kuchma's presidential victory and the April 2000 referendum. Nowadays the
48-strong group is one of the largest formations in the parliament.
A demonstrative fact that fits well the electoral context and clearly indicates the long-term goals is that
the title of the parliamentary group and the party was "borrowed" from the Trudova Ukraina, a 1997-
1998 election block that consisted of the Chornobyl Union of Ukraine, the Association of Afghanistan
Veterans, and the Ukrainian Veteran Organization. The block that actively struggled for a niche within
the Ukrainian political environment but failed to overcome the 4-percent barrier needed to bring a party
or a block to the parliament has nothing in common with the present-day Trudova Ukraina except its
title.
The party, established on July 19, 1999, was among the most active, consistent and successful
supporters of Leonid Kuchma's bid for re-election. No wonder that - regardless of the withdrawal of
one of its founding leaders, Mykhailo Syrota - the party integrated into the system of division of power
rather smoothly and effectively, for a number of key activists of the Trudova Ukraina had been closely
associated with the "proper" political forces. During the January 2000 "velvet revolution" in the
Ukrainian parliament the Trudova Ukraina became a major constituent of the newly-shaped majority.
When the new government had to be formed following the inauguration of Leonid Kuchma as the
"new" president, the Trudova Ukraina's executive committee announced that "the most acceptable"
candidate for the position of the Prime Minister of Ukraine would be head of the Security Service of
Ukraine Leonid Derkach. The list of preferred candidates included Valery Pustovoitenko, Anatoly
Kinakh, and Mykola Azarov. The name of the current Prime Minister was not mentioned in the list.
Later on, the Trudova Ukraina publicly criticized the government for the situation in the fuel and
energy complex. In April 2000, for instance, the party's parliamentary activists argued that "nowadays
Ukraine consumes probably the highest amount of energy, compared to other European countries.
Besides, in our case 30 billion kW [of electricity] are lost (in other words, stolen) annually" (Ukraina
Moloda, April 20, 2000). The party continues criticism of the government. Meanwhile, its new leader
Serhiy Tihipko argues that the party's agenda, in addition to parliamentary activity, should include
involvement in the parliamentary majority and, at some point in the future, to a coalition government
"with the maximum number of ministers" (Holos Ukrainy, November 21, 2000). So far it has not been
announced when exactly the declared changes are expected to occur, but the party's repeated statements
suggest that the Trudova Ukraina will seek to reach the objective as soon as possible.
Serhiy Tihipko is a new political personality in the party's leadership and, therefore, deserves a closer
look as the party's public "face". Given the new leader's general image, his career experience, the
ability to build strategic and tactical relations with various participants of Ukrainian politics, the
Trudova Ukraina is likely to benefit from the choice. Notwithstanding his rather successful business
past, Tihipko has never been directly accused of being a Ukrainian "oligarch" or immediately linked to
any of the "oligarchic" groups. This fact is a rather significant element for improving the image of the
party and the parliamentary group that has the definition "Trudova" (i.e., "working") in its title and has
been repeatedly described by opponents as an "oligarchic" formation. For instance, deputy chairman of
the Socialist Party of Ukraine Iosyp Winsky, discussing "oligarchic" political forces in the Ukrainian
parliament and in Ukraine in general, argues: "Among the oligarchic ones, we class the factions of the
SDPU(o), the Vidrodzhennya Rehioniv and the Trudova Ukraina" (Den, November 23, 2000).
According to observers, "the information gravitation center" in the party is its "official oligarch Victor
Pinchuk" (Silski Visti, November 21, 2000).
With Serhiy Tihipko as the chairman, the Trudova Ukraina will probably seek to reduce the pressure of
its "oligarchic" image and capitalize on Tihipko's own image of a leading "young reformer" and a
person that has not been publicly accused of wrongdoings. Some time before the 1998 parliamentary
election analysts pointed out to the fact that Serhiy Tihipko had a rather steady image of a
representative of a "new generation of politicians" backed with a "new ideology" of consistent
advocacy of market reforms while free from the voters' perceptions of "the negative "image" gathered,
for instance, around Victor Pynzenyk" (Ukraina, Evropa, Svit, January 17, 1998). The "negative
image" in this case was the widespread public attitude of "petty Ukrainians" to individual politicians
routinely blamed for the hardships of the lasting transitional period. What was the fact in early 1998 is
still true. Serhiy Tihipko, advertized as a reformer that was involved in three of Ukraine's Cabinets of
Ministers, is normally not perceived by Ukrainian voters as contributor to their grievances and
impoverishment.
When on May 15, 2000 Tihipko announced his intention to resign from his position of the Minister of
Economy, the media viewed the move as a signal that "leading reformers" were leaving the
Yushchenko government. "The intentions of key reformers to leave the Yushchenko government can
be viewed as unquestionable sensation", wrote Vechirniy Kyiv on May 28, 2000. Other newspapers
agreed that the Tihipko's resignation was of a "demonstrative character". However, nothing special in
the life of the government followed the resignation of its Minister of Economy and his arrival to the
parliament in a new quality of an elected people's representative. Later on Tihipko criticized the
government on several occasions and showed his disappointment with the government's performance:
"... the organizational moments in the government do not function properly, there is no clear delegation
of authority to individual ministers and vice prime ministers, clearly specified tasks are missing" (Den,
July 14, 2000). Analyzing the government's economic achievements, Tihipko argued that "most of
positive moves that may be seen in the economy nowadays are primarily temporary phenomena and not
a result of a consistent governmental policy" (Den, July 14, 2000).
Serhiy Tihipko's way to the "greater politics" was marked by some specific inheritance. He learned
about the nature and temptations of political power in early 1980s as an activist of the Young
Communist League, the Soviet Comsomol. He started as a head of the Agitation and Propaganda
Department of the Dnipropetrovsk Comsomol City Committee, and was shortly promoted to the
position of head of the Agitation and Propaganda Department of the Dnipropetrovsk Comsomol
Regional Committee. In September 1989, Serhiy Tihipko was elected to the position of First Secretary
of the Dnipropetrovsk Comsomol regional committee. Several years later Tihipko argued that "the
necessary knowledge for running the bank [he] received due to the broad practice of managing the
Comsomol and the [Communist] party work". In 1997, commenting on the ideological transformation
of his generation, he argued that "the last generation of Comsomol workers to which I belong, by its
beliefs belonged to Social Democrats. They understood the necessity of private property."
After the quiet end of "perestroika" and the collapse of the Soviet Union Serhiy Tihipko chose to link
his future with business activity. In October 1991-February 1992 he served as deputy chairman of the
board of the Dnipro Design Bureau. In March 1992-April 1997 he was one of the leaders of the
Privatbank. Tihipko became a public politician in 1994. On November 18, 1994, President Leonid
Kuchma appointed him as his free lance monetary policy consultant. On January 22, 1996 the President
ordered to include Serhiy Tihipko to the working group authorized to prepare The Presidential Report
on "Economic and Social Development of Ukraine in 1995". On January 26, 1996 Serhiy Tihipko
joined the Interdepartmental Consultative Council for Banking Activity. On April 8, 1997 President
Kuchma signed a decree appointing Serhiy Tihipko to the position of Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine
for Economic Reform. On July 25, 1997 his title was changed to that of Vice Prime Minister for
Economy. In January 2000 Serhiy Tihipko joined the Yushchenko government as the Minister of
Economy. A few months later, in June 2000, he left the government to take part in the parliamentary
by-election on June 25, and eventually won a seat at the majoritarian constituency #36 in the
Dnipropetrovsk region.
In early July 2000 Serhiy Tihipko announced his intention to join the Trudova Ukraina parliamentary
group. The move was perceived with no doubt that the choice had not been made in order to remain an
ordinary party member or to switch to unusual political roles. Shortly after Tihipko made his intention
public his step was interpreted as an intention to shape his own political spring-board for returning to
the government. On the other hand, the Trudova Ukraina itself could become such a spring-board at
some point, but that is likely to take some time, notwithstanding the optimistic predictions that the
election of Tihipko as the party's new leader would make substantial qualitative changes to its strategy.
Speaking at the congress, newly-elected party chairman Tihipko announced that the party would focus
on "socio-economic issues" (Segodnya, November 20, 2000). It was also argued that the Trudova
Ukraina should become the "party of power", i.e., be directly involved in forming "the state power and
the government". That, according to the new leader, "will make us working hard". Meanwhile, it
becomes evident that Ukraine's "parties of power" find it increasingly difficult to win a place for
themselves at the top of Ukraine's power structure, and feel increasingly uncomfortable without real
masses of voters - with all the consequences of the situation.


Trudova Ukraina elects a new chairman

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