----- Original Message -----
From: "Viktor V. Bourenkov" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Russia: 7 November marches
> On the 7th of November, hundreds of thousands of working people
> took to the streets of cities, towns and villages all over the Soviet
> territory to mark the 83rd Anniversary of the Great October Socialist
> Revolution.
> For the 10th consecutive time, this event has to be celebrated
> under the bourgeois powers. What that implies is not surprising. Apart
> from Russia and Belarus, there seems to be no other republic left where
> one of the three most important days in the Soviet calendar is still an
> official holiday.
> And even where communists are given a nominal right to organise
> demonstrations, everything is done to prevent them and to belittle
> their impact. The democratic authorities find all sorts of reasons not
> to give the central streets and squares for communist marches and
> rallies.
> This year, communists were not allowed to use the Red Square on
> their day. Only the 192 veteran participants of the historic parade of
> 7 November 1941 (all who are alive) were briefly given a chance to
> march through the famous square in the morning. Then the central square
> in Russia was allocated for a reactionary �students in support of the
> president� demonstration, clearly organised from above.
> The situation has not been any better in the media. News agencies
> have been reporting more on the presidential race in the USA than on
> the mass demonstrations in Russia, and marginalised the main news of
> the day for the majority of population. The TV programmes featured
> classical anti-communist films, and waged ideological war in defence of
> democracy versus communism. The latter was most remarkably expressed in
> the fact, that the 7th of November was (once again) declared �The Day
> of Peace and Reconciliation�.
> Since Putin declared that the results of Yeltsin�s privatisation
> (read: robbery of the working people) will not be reconsidered, there
> has never been a better time for bourgeoisie to reconcile the
> oppressed. The leader of Communist Party of Russian Federation,
> Gennaddi Ziuganov, seemed to follow the trend quite closely. In his
> speech at the CPRF rally in Moscow, without differentiating between the
> Soviet proletarian patriotism and Russian national-patriotism as usual,
> he called for re-establishing the superpower and building a strong
> state instead of overthrowing it. He said, �Today, the Communist Party
> and the patriotic forces have created a strong movement. We have a
> competent and a qualified fraction.� �I am sure that people will
> support us,� he concluded. Even a pro-capitalist reporter noted that
> Ziuganov �mainly criticised the previous Russian government and did not
> dare to attack Putin.� The official Russian trade unions, who have been
> trying to convert this day into a day of celebrations, have also in
> effect been acting in the fashion of peace and reconciliation.
> However, participants of parallel demonstrations organised by the
> radical left did not share that feeling. The key demand � that the
> existing government should be tried � has not been lifted from the
> banners, and the corruptness of all existing authorities was exposed.
> At the rallies organised by Russian Communist Workers� Party, the
> workers were once again reminded of the necessity to politicise their
> struggle and of impossibility to achieve their ends by voting in
> elections, whose results are pre-determined by the wealth of
> contestants. Particularly big were the rallies in the cities of
> Leningrad and Tiumen. Tens of most courageous communist youths in
> Moscow, who could not reconcile with the fact that Red square is
> unavailable to them, broke through the police barrier and reached
> eternal symbol of Soviet power.
> For all true communists, the key objective of the workers�
> holidays remains the STRUGGLE, for there can be no peace or
> reconciliation between the poor and the rich.
>
> Viktor Bourenkov.
>
> _______________________________________________
