Chesno visits Spravedlyvist

In recent days we have twice had the honor to welcome the representatives of the Chesno Civil Movement, who wanted to learn more about Valentyn Nalyvaichenko’s Justice (Spravedlyvist) Civil and Political Movement, check out the conditions of its existence, and to study its financial and economic activities.
Being confident that the activity of any political or non-governmental organization has to be honest and transparent we decided to provide information that was of interest to our colleagues from the Chesno Movement and would be interesting for the Ukrainian public. So, without further ado:

Party financing

Those are always the most sensitive issues; therefore, we make sure that they are transparent and understandable for everyone.
The main Justice Movement financing source is the membership dues and contributions of our supporters. Actually these funds are small amounts, but the expenses are not sky-high either, in comparison with many other political forces.
Our Movement actively engages physical and legal entities in assisting the Armed Forces of Ukraine: the accumulated money is transferred for target-financing of the Ukrainian enterprises manufacturing modules for the Ukrainian Army, as well as for assistance to Ukrainian soldiers in aerial reconnaissance.
Movement activists work as volunteers, because they are united by a common goal – to change life in Ukraine for the better. Every one of our regional, city, district, town or village organization all over the country, without exception, provides for its activities independently. Active citizens nationally gather around the meaning of our cause instead of around money: It’s our fundamental common position.
To be more specific and to talk numbers: The Movement’s account was credited to the total amount of 544,119.52 UAH in 2016. This money was spent on providing statutory activities, publishing, outdoor political advertising etc. The following information together with all financial statements is published on our website, as well as regularly passed to National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NAPC).
The party account has already been credited with 79,016 UAH during the first two quarters of the year 2017.
I would like to stress that when we are talking about expenses for outdoor political advertising, it’s not about political propaganda of the Justice Movement, but rather about informing the people about the work of our Legal Aid Centers operating all around the country to provide legal advice to everyone who suffered from outrageous conduct of government officials, as well as ads about how people can join our Movement.

Justice Movement billboards

This was the exciting topic for our guests and many journalists, who contacted the Movement’s representatives by phone.
There is also nothing to hide: all the billboards were placed at the expense of the membership dues officially transferred to the party’s account. These funds arrived in the third quarter, that’s why they weren’t declared in the previous financial statements sent to the NAPC. Placing advertisements in July 2017 cost the party 282,000 UAH.
As to outdoor advertisements in the regions, the majority of the billboards were placed during the elections to the united territorial communities. Information about the expenses is contained in the statement to the NAPC in the paragraph “spent from the election funds”.
Office of the Justice Movement and other partner organizations, NGO’s, associated in our civil and political movement
Our office is situated in Kyiv at 143a Saksahanskoho Street. Unfortunately, it is an old and unkept building, where the Movement rents a relatively small floor space necessary for its work. Some of our partner NGO’s are also situated there. Those are Pirogov First Voluntary Mobile Hospital, Ukrainians Together, For a Free Ukraine, Anticorruption Movement, ATO Warriors Organization, the Citizen Civic Organization.
When we are talking about the Justice Movement, we mean a wide platform uniting public, volunteer, non-governmental organizations that keep their subjects within our association. There are 211 such organizations within Ukraine.
We don’t need a large floor space, because our activists work voluntarily taking shifts. In the nearest future we plan to sign civil law contracts with the financial expert, lawyer and two or three managers engaged as permanent employees. Our organization is growing and is in need of people who would work full-time handling legal and financial issues, as well as routine work.
That’s why directly our party rents 22 m2 in the building. The rent costs 2,359 UAH per month. Activists are working on a scheduled basis. We try to provide that someone from our volunteer lawyers is always in the office to offer free legal advice. Since we are actively joined by young people – many of whom are also lawyers – we don’t have any problem with that.
Within a short period, our lawyers offered legal aid to more than 7000 citizens, and filed more than 3000 lawsuits.
Two media professionals cover the activities of the party.

The party

As of today, the Civil and Political Movement of Valentyn Nalyvaichenko «Justice» has created 17 regional organizations (including in Kyiv).
143 district and city territorial organizations are also operating.
The majority of the activists are young people under the age of 35. There are different people among us, and the greater part of them are new to politics. These include volunteers, ATO veterans, businessmen, doctors, teachers and representatives of different professions.
All these people do not merely believe in Ukraine, but do everything possible to change it for the better. Some of our activists – in particular the chiefs of our regional organizations – have been to the ATO area more often then most of our officials responsible for support of the Ukrainian Army.

Uniting and Joint Actions Staffs

Ukrainians have consistently shown their ability to unite in the hardest times: In 2013 we united to drive Yanukovych from office; in 2014 we united to protect our country from the external aggressor; and now it’s time to unite to overcome the internal enemy – corruption.
We maintain partner relations with many Ukrainian democratic political forces, including Patriot Political Party, All-Ukrainian Association Batkivshchyna, Association of the Ukrainian People’s Council, UKROP etc. On a regular basis we hold consultations with them and conduct joint political actions.
The Justice Movement, Saakashivili’s New Forces Movement, UNA-UNSO political force, Alternative, Viktor Chumak’s Wave have recently implemented the initiative of creation of the Joint Actions Staffs. We’ve united our efforts to overcome the internal enemy and build new European Ukraine. The oligarch political forces era must come to an end. Now we need to unite people around the new goal – prosperous Ukraine without oligarchs. Everyone must work towards those ends.
People understand that the authorities have completely discredited themselves. We need either to make them work, or to make them go. It is very important for us that uniting into the Joint Actions Staffs could provide civil counter position to the authorities and protect the people.

We are grateful to the Chesno Civil Movement for their advice, to which we will pay due consideration.