While there is undoubtedly some truth in what Comrade Klo says in his
comments on the Moldova election victory, I must say I found the tone rather
dismissive and lacking in a broader view of the struggles underway in former
socialist countries.
There is a fundamental question here about the possibility or otherwise
of what could be termed “halting the counter-revolution”.
After the best part of a decade of “actually existing capitalism” the
people of Moldova have turned to the Communist Party to deal with the
problems they have faced.
There are increasing signs that a similar process is underway in Ukraine
and also to some extent in Russia, so the question posed takes on some
significance.
The communists in the former Soviet republics tend to express a
“pro-Soviet” position in that they favour greater economic and political
ties with Russia – some movement back towards union. Their positions tend to
favour a “slowing down of reforms” and in some cases a halt to privatisation
and return to state managed economies.
I am not aware of the full position of the Moldovian communists with
regard to the questions of capitalist economic reforms, but I note that the
day after they were elected they were at pains to “reassure” international
financial organisations that they intended to continue with “reforms”.
However it is too easy to use such statements to dismiss them as social
democrats, opportunists etc as Klo does.
The people have elected them to govern in a situation of economic and
social crisis – the fact that the people turn to Communists, who we were
told were “hated” and “despised” and had been “cast out forever” should
encourage us.
The country they have been asked to govern is utterly dependent on
foreign loans and credits as a result of the counter-revolution. Without
such resources they will be unable to deliver even the most minimal of
demands of workers and other strata in Moldova.
What in this situation is a Communist Party to do?
It would, in my opinion, be an ultra-left folly, for communists in a
small, dependent, poor country such as Moldova, to announce to the IMF and
the World Bank that they have rejected wholesale the programme of reforms
that credits and loans have been linked to.
The tap would be turned off and the Moldovian people would pay the price
and the Communists would never be forgiven.
In the absence of a strong socialist camp to back up Moldova, the
communists have no choice but to the best for their class, within the
limited options they are given in current conditions.
Communist parties were not formed to govern in such situations.
Most parties were formed in the wake of October and they expected to
come to power with the might of the Soviet Union and then later People’s
China alongside them.
That is no longer the case.
The South African comrades Klo refers to had hoped to come to power in
an era when the Soviet Union would have been a strong ally and could have
assisted them to develop on a non-capitalist road as happened in other
African and other liberated countries.
That did not happen. Liberation in South Africa came in an era of
historic defeat and massive setbacks for the international communist
movement.
So the South African comrades have had to deal with the situation as they
found it.
That does not mean that communists who are elected to power in such
situations should be totally defeatist and carry out without complaint the
policies of international capital.
On the contrary they must clearly set out to move as much as is possible
towards socialist forms of production, they must explain clearly to the
people the conditions in which they have been forced to operate and they
must not foster illusions in the possibilities that will be given to them by
international capital.
In effect they are essentially being asked to carry out what has
traditionally been the role of social democracy – they are the mass parties
of the working class who have been elected to power, not driven into power
by a revolution.
But Marxist-Leninists have never denied the possibility of moving
towards socialism in countries outside the sphere of advanced capitalism. It
was certainly much easier in the days of the USSR but as Cuba shows it
continues to be possible, albeit damn difficult.
Nor have communists ever abstained from the responsibility of governing
when they have been put in that position.
History does not work towards a set timetable. Russia, according to some
theorists was not ready for socialism because it had not yet gone through
the capitalist phase of development but the Bolsheviks dealt with power when
they achieved it.
Other countries that advanced on the socialist path did so in various
stages of historical development.
Now we are dealing with a new situation post counter-revolutionary Soviet
Union. Is it possible to advance on a socialist path in such conditions?
The answer, as always has to be yes, but it will be very difficult.
So clearly there will be no glorious Moldovian revolution, Chisnau will
not become the new revolutionary centre for the international communist
movement, but their victory is yet another sign that we have not reached
“the end of history”.
I for one wish them the best of luck.
Comradely
Harry
>From: KloMcKinsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], MLLlist
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [MLL]Re: [downwithcapitalism] FW: Analysis: Communists Return to
>Power in Moldova
>Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 21:32:13 +0800
>
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Monthly Review Current Commentary. 13 March 2001. Communists Return to
> >
> > Power in Moldova: Hope for a Communist Democracy in the Former Soviet
> > Union? Excerpts.
> >
> > The February 25, 2001 electoral victory of the Moldovan Communist
> > party
> > marked the first return to power of a Communist party in any of the
> > sovereign fragments of the Former Soviet Union ("FSU"). If you have
> > left
> > wing politics and can use a dose of optimism, this event is a positive
> >
> > portent foróat lastóan end to the Mafia capitalist regimes of
> > "democratic reform" that constitute the glory of the U.S. victory in
> > the
> > cold war. The most interesting question is not what the Moldovan
> > Communists can achieve in their sovereign ministate, but what can be
> > hoped to happen as a result in the rest of the FSU community.
> >
> > ... [W]ere you mistakenly to believe the Moscow English language press
> >
> > corps, you would have concluded that these various oppositional
> > Communist parties are ever in the process of disappearing. It is
> > endlessly, and incorrectly, repeated that these CPs are supported
> > entirely by old poor people, and it is indeed undeniable that old poor
> >
> > people are everywhere in the FSU dying at rates that in the past were
> > attained only in times of war, plague and famine. But the Russian
> > party
> > has maintained its core of support at between a quarter and a third of
> >
> > the population, and the Ukrainian party has been growing stronger. In
> > fact, support for these parties is broad based and persistent, and the
> >
> > officially unthinkable notion must be entertained that these
> > oppositional Communists could return to power in the FSU with majority
> >
> > support.
> >
> > It's therefore of great interest that on February 25, 2001, the
> > oppositional Communist party of Moldova won control of the government
> > of
> > the Republic by a decisive victory in an undeniably free, democratic,
> > etc. etc. election. Unlike U.S. president Bush II, the Moldovan
> > Communist party actually won more votes than their main opponent;
> > indeed, it even won a majority of all votes cast. No other
> > oppositional
> > Communist party in the FSU has yet achieved this result; it's an
> > interesting "first."
> >
> > ... Moldova joined the Soviet Union in 1940, and by the end of World
> > War
> > II its population was decimated and the little that had been
> > previously
> > achieved in the way of industry was totally destroyed. As part of the
> > Soviet Union, Moldova underwent rapid development of infrastructure,
> > agriculture and industry. Electric power became universal, where
> > previously it had reached only the heart of the largest cities. Rapid
> > economic development depended on the supply of raw materials and
> > finished products from the rest of the Soviet Union: coal, gas,
> > petroleum, iron & steel, motor vehicles, fertilizers, cotton and
> > woolen
> > textiles, lumber and paper. In turn, Moldova supplied fruit, wine,
> > canned goods, refrigerators, washing machines, silk fabrics and
> > knitted
> > goods, and "hi tech" industry and science for the Soviet space and
> > maritime programs.
> >
> > The demolition of the USSR severed these links, crucial for the
> > metabolism of both Moldovan industry and agriculture, which withered.
> > By
> > 2001 industrial production in Moldova was a third of that of 1991.
> >
> > ... The election of February 25 has given the Western intelligence
> > agencies a new and bothersome task; it will now be necessary to
> > undertake to co-opt, or failing that destabilize and subvert, a
> > democratically elected Communist government of a sovereign segment of
> > the FSU. Because there is a sense in which the FSU remains a
> > community,
> > a territory that threatens to break with the "reform" program poses a
> > significant danger to the shining achievements of the U.S. victory in
> > the cold war.
> >
> > ... Meanwhile the sole significant political organization throughout
> > the Ukraine is the Ukrainian Communist Party, which has been growing
> > steadily in strength and which probably won the last elections but for
> >
> > Kuchma's massive electoral fraud.
> >
> > ... What may be the most important change resulting from February 25
> > is
> > that the national Moldovan television is now under the control of the
> > Moldovan Communists, who have openly said that they shall end the
> > media
> > blockade of left wing and communist points of view... The Ukrainian
> > Communist Party, which has grown into a major force despite a total
> > media blackout, now may finally have a media window.
> >
> >
> >
> > My reply,
>
> Although this is certainly good news, one must take certain
>facts into consideration and take certain facts into consideration.
>What I said in regard to the Communist Party victory in Mongolia is
>applicable here as well. I stated,
>
>This kind of electoral victory must be viewed very critically, without
>an elevation of hopes and dreams, as it will more than likely result in
>a replay of what has occurred many times in Eastern Europe in recent
>years. The scenario begins with the undermining and overthrow of
>socialism by some revisionist traitors. That, of course, is followed by
>a deluge of changes in order to institute capitalism. This, in turn,
>results in a drastic increase in unemployment, prices, wealth
>differentials, crime, and poverty. Thousands of programs that were
>formerly financed out of the general fund such as no-charge medical
>care, no-charge education from kindergarten through college, no-charge
>daycare, parks, playgrounds, health spas, vacation resorts, sports
>programs, cultural programs (opera, ballet, etc.) and so on ad infinitum
>are terminated and become open only to those who can pay for them
>directly out of their own pockets. As a result of all this mayhem,
>those claiming to be communists and promising to rectify this
>catastrophe are voted back into power in a subsequent general election.
>But their program turns out to be nothing more than an attempted
>alleviation of the mess WITHIN THE CAPITALIST STRUCTURE that has
>recently been established. As a result the situation turns out to be
>little better than, and often worse than, the capitalist control the
>masses thought they were expelling.
> So where did these ìcommunistsî make their primary mistake. Thatís not
>particularly difficult to determine. They erred in not reasserting
>public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and
>exchange. In simple terms, they assumed control of the government but
>left the wealth, that which really matters, in the hands of a few--a
>prescription for disaster. There is absolutely no way they are going to
>adequately cope with the myriad of problems confronting the masses
>without expropriating WITHOUT COMPENSATION the means of production,
>distribution, and exchange. In other words, they are going to have to
>take the factories, land, equipment, buildings, tools, machinery,
>transportation facilities, communications. banks, and everything else
>that produces wealth away from the few who own them and do so without
>paying a dime for their seizure. Will this cause violence? How could
>it possibly be avoided? If you were a millionaire or billionaire
>receiving incredible amounts of wealth from the labor of others while
>doing absolutely nothing to earn it, what would you do? If our new
>"communist" leaders think they can ameliorate the conditions of the
>masses by any other method than expropriation, all I can say is good
>luck, youíll definitely need it. And before you embark on any other
>path than the one I have outlined, before you embark on a path which is
>doomed from the outset, I strongly suggest that you consult the ANC in
>South Africa or Mugabe's Party in Zimbabwe. After much warfare they
>finally obtained control of the government only to find they were very
>much on the short end of the stick when agreements were reached with the
>former power structure and the dust settled.
> Unfortunately the primary, unavoidable by-product of this repeated
>implimentation of a foredoomed program on the part of those claiming to
>be communists is that the masses develop a strong dislike for the word
>ìcommunistî and start viewing those claiming to be communists or
>Marxists as no better than capitalists themselves. Marxism-Leninism is
>discredited in the eyes of millions and one can easily see why. The
>masses are repeatedly being deceived into believing that phoneys,
>charlatans, social-democrats, and revisionists are the real mccoy. They
>are tricked because, to put it succinctly, people who call themselves
>communists or Marxist-Leninists all too often are anything but and their
>programs are nothing more than disguised pie-in-the-sky dreams.
>
>For the cause,
>
>Klo
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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