>Reply-To: "stachkom ICQ#42743890" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: "stachkom ICQ#42743890" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
>
>Without Slogans - No Revolution!
>As a person, who is definitely an outsider (and this is the case, even
>though some, with light fingers, tossed him into the Samara Stachkom basket
>even if they didn't call him a mushroom), it has been curious to observe
>how, on the Internet easel, a portrait of the face of a "cursed renegade"
>has been sketched by those who have labeled Isaev in this way. "And what a
>face!" those who glance at this portrait want to exclaim. Look, there's
>Putin's smile under Zubatov's whiskers. What a rotten character. "Yes!" you
>think to yourself, "this business has gone far enough." This is a sickness.
>It can't help anything at all. And speaking honestly, it provokes a shiver,
>when you think that you are in the very lair of this anti-worker Dracula.
>
>But then, you hear the sprightly, far from senile, footsteps on the old
>staircase; the heavy door opens, and there, on the threshold of the bunker
>stands that "bloody enemy of all the workers," Isaev with his trademark
>shovel. Good-naturedly cursing the onset of autumn, which brings with it
>slush, mud and falling leaves, he carefully sets his tool in the corner,
>boils up a strong cup of tea, sits in his chair, and with a cheerful, ironic
>twinkle in his eyes, using slightly theatrical but lively gestures begins to
>relate how he was given a dressing-down by his brigade comrades since he had
>been a little late.
>
>Observing this picturesque scene, you think; "Is it really possible that
>this is really the very same apostate from the proletarian cause, whom they
>have accused of just about every sin, except perhaps the fire at Ostankino
>and the sinking of the Kursk?" At that moment the bunker door squeaks
>without really moving. From town and country they come for a fleeting
>glimpse of his face. The people come; young and old, wise and not so wise.
>Some come nicely dressed, some are dressed simply, unpretentiously, and some
>just in their old clothes. Workers and white-collar people come. A stream of
>them come; some to say hello and leave again after exchanging just a few
>phrases, others take a glass of strong tea and get involved in the
>discussion. They want to talk about everything; about their kids, about
>wages they have not received, about the price hikes, about Chechnia, about
>conscription into the army, about pensions, about the Kursk. But not once,
>no not once, have I heard them talk about the new Labour Code, nor about the
>actions of the 17th of May. There was no point in talking about it; for
>Isaev with his shovel had dug even deeper than he himself supposed.
>
>"If it irritates, 'Down with it!'" wrote the well known Russian poet.
>Possibly. Possibly some were irritated. But for the proletairists, beneath
>these brief but pithy words is hidden a basic foundation for tactics. The
>struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeois government, the struggle for
>power, for Marxists, flows above all from the objective state of affairs.
>And in this struggle, the correct selection of slogans is of inestimable
>value. Did Isaev really fight for the adoption of the new Labour Code? Did
>he really say that the old Labour Code should be stuffed down the garbage
>chute and the lid locked down afterwards? No, he spoke out against
>incorrectly posed aims, tasks and slogans. If the principle task of Marxists
>is the overthrow of the existing system, the destruction of its political
>and economic institutions, then, in the end, the point is the seizure of
>power and the establishment of proletarian dictatorship. It is from this
>task that all the political activity and basic slogans must come.
>
>Above all, any slogan must arise from the concrete historical circumstances.
>The slogan, like a mirror, must reflect those facts and events which will,
>inevitably, assist in agitating the masses and be comprehensible to them
>today, now. Appeals and slogans, under which the proletariat can be drawn
>into struggle, must be nourished by the juice which has been produced at the
>given historical moment. They are not created in a laboratory, not in Dumas
>and Parliaments, and not even in the trade unions, but in the workshops,
>brigades and work-units.
>
>Of course, you would have to be somewhat deaf and as blind as a mole, not to
>see the work of the 'Zashchita' union to repulse the "White-guard attack on
>the Labour Code." And this struggle naturally touches everyone. There are
>those who accept and actively work for this anti-worker law (the
>bourgeoisie, the Duma and the Government), there are those who struggle,
>almost hopelessly, against it, and then there are those who try to hide from
>this battle (and these last are the absolute majority). For 60 years the
>former USSR provided full employment. The right to a job was combined with
>the obligation to work. Today there are many millions of citizens on the
>street. I don't believe that a man, desperately searching for work can be
>really interested in the problems of the Labour Code. For an unemployed
>person, answering the questions of where and how to find work is much more
>important than the improvement of the situation in the factories.
>
>In the building where I live there is a family of workers, the husband, his
>wife and son. All three work at different enterprises in Samara. Every
>morning they set off for work at the same time. The wife works in a factory
>which has, for some years had one foot in the grave. However, although they
>pay miserable wages they do it with enviable consistency. Long dissatisfied
>with this state of affairs they considered relying on their own devices.
>They debated staying; "Better the bird in the hand." The more so, since at
>the corner a line had already formed of people ready to accept such wages.
>Are they worried about the problem of the Labour Code? No. The head of the
>household works at a highly profitable enterprise. In fact, that factory is
>really a sweat-shop, with lots of temporary labour. There, the Labour Code
>"Went out of circulation long ago." They hardly even remember it. But
>everyone in town knows about the high wages there. Would the workers in that
>factory risk participating in the protests against the anti-worker law?
>That's just a poetic dream!
>
>The son works in another factory. He is a die stamp operator. His enterprise
>is always on the verge of falling apart. The more they plate, the more they
>get. In his brigade, they have accepted a piece-work system. This is why, in
>pursuit of the "last rouble" it has been more than six months since they
>abandoned the eight hour working day, and in the last month have gone to the
>six day week. For him, the problem of the Labour Code simply doesn't exist;
>and these are not isolated examples. Is it possible, under such conditions,
>to expect a broad and uncompromising struggle for the Labour Code? No. In
>such a situation, the side opposing these conditions can only make use of
>the delayed flash-attack at dusk.
>
>However, this does not mean that the struggle to retain (if only for the
>museum) the old labour code makes no sense. If it draws in some fraction of
>the population, that isn't bad. What is important is only that the immediate
>tactical tasks and the slogans are correctly formulated. Accordingly, it
>must be remembered, that the slogan is not an aim, but a means of achieving
>the aim. So what must be done in order to correctly identify the immediate
>tasks and, together with them, the right slogans?
>
>"For this," declared V.I. Lenin, "it is essential to study the concrete
>historical situation, to follow every development and each successive
>movement of the revolution, deducing our tasks not from principles, but from
>the preceding steps and stages of the movement." ("The Dissolution of the
>Duma and the Tasks of the Proletariat." V.I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 9)
>It is essential to pay close attention to what is, at the given moment,
>actually agitating the masses. And then to efficiently react to it. The task
>of creating slogans includes both continuously proving our rightness and
>uninterruptedly whipping up sympathy for the destruction of the existing
>system and authority; it has nothing to do with the search for objective
>truth and the snobbish, doctrinaire exposition of it to the masses.
>
>The people reason straightforwardly; Truth-Lies, Destroy-Build,
>Enemy-Friend, Yes-No!
>
>"Down with the Dumas and the Government, they are stealing from the workers
>the last achievements of October!"
>
>"Down with Duma, the Government and the President, they are the ones pushing
>the New Labour Code!"
>
>"All Power to the Workers!"
>
>"All Power to the Strike Committees!"
>
>What are the activists demanding? They demand that we keep the old Labour
>Code. Good. Who is against this? We are for it.
>
>But under what slogans is the defence of the old Labour Code being led? "No
>to the Government's Labour Code!", "Stop the Adoption of the New Labour
>Code!"
>
>Miraculous. Feeling, desire, demand, indignation, upset; these are the only
>content of such slogans. Nothing more. These slogans signify full trust in
>the Duma, Government and President! Such slogans speak eloquently to the
>fact that some people (and what is most offensive is that they are honest
>and decent people) are trying to play on the "democratic field" according to
>the rules of the so-called "legal state." In other words, such people are
>pointing out a target whose destruction can resolve nothing; "they aimed at
>the cow but shot the raven!"
>
>The problem of slogans is not to make individuals in the Government and Duma
>understand that the masses are against the new Labour Code, but to make the
>masses understand that the Government, Duma and bourgeoisie must be
>relentlessly eliminated. These slogans must be directed not at the mind of
>the bourgeoisie, but at the feelings of the working class. The direction of
>such slogans need be turned around, 180 degrees.
>
>Each appeal, each slogan of the Marxists must propagate the rectitude and
>necessity of the overthrow of the existing authorities. Conducting a
>struggle against the new Labour Code is, of course, essential. Who argues
>with this? But this struggle must take such a form as to pose the question
>in all its breadth, pointing out the ultimate aim of the revolutionary
>movement and using such slogans as are capable of calling forth enthusiasm
>on the part of the masses! Isn't it impossible to do this without
>continuously harping on the fact that it is the Government and Duma, driven
>forward by the bourgeoisie, that is pushing the new Labour Code? And can it
>be done in such a way that they will never (!) be able to adopt even one
>anti-worker law? Well there you have it, it is impossible to achieve this
>without destroying the bourgeois state and its organs of power.
>
>By the way, today it is not only 'Zashchita' which is protesting against the
>New Labour Code. The "communists", Trotskyists, nationalists, anarchists,
>even monarchists and a section of the left-liberal bourgeoisie are against
>it. Moreover, even representative of the bourgeoisie can appear under the
>banner "No to the Government's Labour Code."
>
>Where is the boundary, where is the watershed which must exist between the
>Marxists of 'Zashchita' and these other movements? There is no boundary,
>there is no watershed. But there must be such a boundary! This is why it is
>vital to continually underline that Marxists are not only against the
>Government's Labour Code, but that they are also against the Government
>itself, the Duma and bourgeois system.
>
>M. Kochetkov
>
>PS. By the way the majority of the slogans of the PDP and the Samara
>Stachkom correspond to the current moment. The following are key;
>
>"All Bosses are Bastards!"
>
>"Down with the Communists and the Democrats!"
>
>"Down with Dumas and Presidents!"
>
>"All Power to the Stachkoms!"
>
>E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ICQ#42743890
>http://proletarism.org/
>http://stachkom.org/
>
>
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