Statement of Lugansk Communists: ‘Simonenko, stop scoffing at the party!’

We, the communists of Lugansk, are deeply outraged by the decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine to disolve the Lugansk Regional Committee of the Communist Party and dismiss First Secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party S. Kilinkarov from his post. We fully understand that this decision was made ​​at the behest of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Simonenko, and that he bears personal responsibility for this cynical attempt to destroy the work of the Communist Party in Lugansk.

We declare that during the entire period of the war, neither Petro Simonenko personally nor the Presidium of the Central Committee made even minimal attempts to help the regional or city party organizations, not even to inquire about the basic conditions in which we, the communists, live and work. Instead, for the second year, we have seen constant attacks by Petro Simonenko, who, other than announcing a witch hunt, will not even speak to us. We, the communists of the Lugansk region, were declared the “witches.”

We have long allowed Petro Simonenko to test our patience. We tried to use all the party’s statutory methods and rules to stop the mad campaign to break up our organization and the party as a whole. Today we, like the communists of other regions, see that the situation is deadlocked. Thus, we cannot move. Thus, we cannot even stand stand our ground! Today, either those who hold the future of communist ideas in our country important and dear must unite their efforts and get rid of Simonenko, like removing stones blocking the path, or elso allow this person, in his political shortsightedness and simple human malice, to destroy everything that was built over the last 24 years by the joint efforts of tens of thousands of communists in Ukraine.

We say, “Enough!” Enough scoffing at us! Enough scoffing at the party! We do not accept the tyranny of the leadership and its decisions!

The Lugansk Regional Committee, legitimately elected by the report-back election conference in 2014, has worked, is working and will continue its work. First Secretary S. Kilinkarov, elected at the Organizational Plenum of the Regional Committee, is and will be the head of the party organization as long as the communists of Lugansk entrust him with that role. Only we, the communists, have the right to elect or reject the leadership of the regional party organization.

Given the situation, we reject any decision from Petro Simonenko — alas, we no longer see any opportunity to reason with the man who has betrayed us all. But we also publicly declare that we intend to not only ignore all his malicious decisions, instructions and regulations, but will also actively resist all attempts to break up and destroy the Communist Party. The party does not belong to Simonenko. The party belongs to the hundreds of thousands of communists throughout the country. And they will decide who the party needs more — those who fight every day in the interests of working people, or those who entered the field of high politics on their backs and now sell out the party right and left.

Adopted at the city meeting, November 28, 2015,
Approved by the decision of the Presidium,
Lugansk City Committee of the Communist Party, November 30, 2015.

Source

Translated by Greg Butterfield