The following is the statement that the Socialist Standard Editorial
Committee has drafted to appear in the September issue of the Socialist
Standard and which will also be put on our Website as soon as possible.



Party News: Ukraine



In this column in March we reported that a party had been formed in the
Ukraine with the same object and declaration of principles as the other
parties in the World Socialist Movement.



It now turns out that this was a hoax, part of an elaborate scam to extract
money from political groups in Europe and North America to finance the
activities of a Trotskyist group in the Ukraine (a sister organisation of
Militant in this country in the so-called "Committee for a Workers
International"). Members of this group would contact groups in the West by
email feigning agreement with their political position; if the groups from
the West sent a delegation to the Ukraine to check, the Trotskyists
concerned would assemble a dozen or so of their supporters, all of whom had
been coached in the views of the group concerned. Thus, our delegates who
went to Kiev in November 2001 met a group of individuals who expressed
socialist views and had no reason to doubt their sincerity. Any money sent
went into the coffers of the Trotskyist group. At least ten groups seem to
have been taken in by this scam including, besides ourselves, the SLP of
America, the Socialist Studies group, and various rival Trotskyist outfits
to Militant.



We know that vanguardist groups resort to underhand tactics as a matter of
principle, but this is a particularly scandalous example.