MAY DAY DEMONSTRATORS IN UKRAINE CALL FOR USSR REVIVAL. Some 130,000 Communists and other leftists participated in May Day rallies in nearly 300 localities throughout Ukraine, Ukrainian media reported. At a 3,000-strong rally in Kyiv, Communist leader Petro Symonenko hailed the former Soviet Union and socialism and appealed "to fight against the capitalist way of life imposed on our people." The demonstrators called for Ukraine to join the Russia-Belarus Union and for the restoration of the USSR. In Donetsk, 20,000 demonstrators demanded President Leonid Kuchma's dismissal and branded government policies as "deeply antipopular and anti-national." JM

MOROZ THREATENS TO SEEK CABINET RESIGNATION. Oleksandr Moroz, leader of the Ukrainian Socialist Party and current parliamentary speaker, says the Socialists/Peasants bloc in the Supreme Council will insist that the government resign unless wage and pension arrears are paid, Interfax reported on 1 May. Moroz added that the government may have to resign even before parliament is reconvened because Prime Minister Valeriy Pustovoytenko has won a parliamentary seat and may give up the premiership to take up that seat. JM

UKRAINIAN MINERS STRIKE AGAINST WAGE ARREARS. Miners at 30 coal mines in Ukraine refused to start work on 4 May to demand the payment of wage arrears and improved safety standards, dpa reported. A spokesman for the miners' trade union said most of Ukraine's 215 coal mines are likely to join the strike. The miners have also criticized the government's policy of increasing imports of less expensive coal from Poland and Russia instead of investing in Ukrainian coal pits. JM