Dear Comrades,
The article below was written on 17th August, the anniversary of the
Rouble's collapse last year. It is published in Labour Left Briefing in
Britain, and in Green-Left Weekly in Australia.
in comradeship - Steve Myers
RUSSIA INFO-LIST
from International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR
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PLEASE NOTE !!!!!!!!!!! ISWoR=E2=80=99s new web-site
http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html
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Russia Crisis Deepens
December Elections Loom
by Steve Myers
It is just over a year since Russia declared a moratorium on its debts and
the Rouble crashed - sending an already dire situation in Russia spiralling
down into deeper levels of social, economic and political crisis.
Since then the response of much of Russia's political opposition has been
to blame not just Yeltsin but simultaneously the Jews and other ethnic
minorities for the crisis. Gennady Zyuganov (leader of the Communist CPRF)
has specifically declared that the Jewish rape of his country is worse than
Nazism.
1998 saw the largest mobilisation of militant workers action for the last
decade, with mass blockades of railway lines by miners and other workers,
and up to 15 million participating in the October general strike.
July 9th this summer marked a special day in the calendar of Russian
workers' resistance with the events in Vyborg Pulp and Paper Mill, under
occupation by its workers. On that day large gangs of armed bosses'
mercenaries (in conjunction with local police) tried to re-possess by force
the mill which was under total workers control. So fierce was the
resistance that the scab militia was physically beaten off by 500 unarmed
workers - two of whom ended up seriously injured.
That same day a famous victory was declared by workers of the the mass 8
month occupation of Yasnogorsk machine factory, Tula region, ending in a
degree of workers control unheard of in the west.
Boosted by the Yasnogorsk victory, nearby Kimovsk workers occupied a large
factory - also with very militant demands to oust the bosses and for
workers control. And the Tula region miners' committees have just voted for
a big march on the Kremlin - with support from other Tula workers.
There are important hunger strikes in Vladivostok for back pay (17 workers
are near death as I write). Perhaps more ominous for the Kremlin are
numerous reports from the giant Kusbass industrial region where there is
much talk of a general strike or even insurrection.
Workers attitudes tend to be those of extreme pessimism, and suspicion=20
towards all political parties. Yet once they take the decision to act, they=20
do so with heroic militancy (as in the examples above).
All this comes in the context of the draconian proposals for a new Labour
Code now going through the Duma. These new laws stand to strip back
hard-won rights, far more than the anti-union laws passed in this country
against British workers - and give unprecedented dictatorial powers to the
bosses. The question is - can they be implemented and what will be the
composition and political character of the government that implements them?
The elections are on 19th December.
The most likely victors are a populist-nationalist alliance more
anti-western 'in words' than Yeltsin. The new Fatherland All-Russia FAR
party is an alliance between Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov's own 'Fatherland'
party, and the 'All Russia' movement of regional Governors. If it gains a
victory in December, one of the two leading lights in FAR, former
Prime-Minister Yevgeny Primakov, or Luzhkov himself, would likely inherit
Yeltsin's semi-dictatorial constitutional powers, following Presidential
elections in June 2000. FAR is characterised as 'centre-left', and friendly
to labour. This is wrong! This party represents the unification (minus the
few oligarchs close to Yeltsin) and protective umbrella of the emergent
(but still relatively weak) Russian capitalist class against their total
domination by the IMF/Yeltsin. The bureaucrats of the largest trade union
federation (the FNPR) have joined in this unholy alliance too.
Luzhkov promises to implement the new Labour Code and use all the
dictatorial powers needed to crush workers' resistance - whilst at the same
time he has popularly promised to force Russian businesses, at the threat
of investigating their accounts, to provide cheap food for the poor. He is
now using the Army as scab harvesters at local farms around Moscow,
lowering vegetable prices.
In recent presidential polls, Primakov leads at 20%, Zyuganov follows at
16%, and Luzhkov is on 11% but rising fast. Luzhkov spends considerable
time supporting the Orthodox Russian church "the truly Russian way". Openly
critical of 'democracy', his populist slogan is "Food - Heat - Order!"
Waiting in the wings of ARF, is Zyuganov (CPRF leader) and the red-brown
alliance. Already in a number of regions there is collaboration between the
CPRF and outright fascist groups. Zyuganov has called an extraordinary
national Congress on 4 Sept, to ditch the name 'Communist' in the
elections, in favour of a "broad patriotic front". This has been in the
offing for years - but internal resistance exists. There may well be a
split in the offing.
Meanwhile, a broad range of 31 organisations, all to the left of the
Communist Party (mainly those involved in organising and supporting the
actual workers struggles mentioned above), have just had a unity Conference
in Moscow, 7th August, to launch the Movement for a Workers Party - an
initial statement says they base themselves on Marxism, dialectics and
revolution. They are set to stand candidates in the coming election. More
details on this soon.
--
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