Obshchaya Gazeta
No. 10
March 8-14, 2001,
RED IS IN FASHION
A young generation of communists is gathering strength
Author: Maksim Glikin
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
MORE AND MORE YOUNG PEOPLE WITH GOOD JOBS AND EDUCATIONS ARE JOINING
RADICAL COMMUNIST AND SOCIALIST GROUPS. THEY ARE DOING SO IN PROTEST
AGAINST ECONOMIC INEQUALITY. THIS TREND IS VERY UNUSUAL, AND MAY
BECOME DANGEROUS IF THE SITUATION IN RUSSIA IS NOT CHANGED FOR THE
BETTER.
As we know, communism is a faith for the poor and uneducated. But
it is impossible to say that about those who call themselves "the new
left." Their leftism seems to be just a teenage vice, like smoking pot
in a school lavatory.
Yekaterina Skvortsova, aged 28, a biologist by profession, is a
member of the Union of Marxists.
Dmitry Nachin, aged 25, is a graduate of a pedagogical institute.
Now he works as a sales manager at a large company in Moscow. He is a
Trotskyite, a member of the International Workers' Committee.
Oleg Shein, aged 28, also has a higher education. He used to be
engaged in founding independent labor unions in Astrakhan. He does not
resemble a "victim of the system" at all: he has made a vertiginous
political career for his age and has even become a Duma deputy.
The aforementioned people led by Oleg Shein are now uniting "the
new left." Recently, about 30 left groups and independent labor unions
united into a bloc. It is planned to set up a strong Marxist party
based on this bloc.
It is not that easy to understand why these well-to-do people
have joined in the struggle for workers' happiness.
Yekaterina Skvortsova: What I dislike about this life is not that
someone else owns a luxury while I don't. I can't tolerate the fact
that I have to do what I don't like and I can't do what I like. I'm a
biologist, and I'd gladly study ecology. But I'm ashamed to say how
much specialists who still work in my laboratory earn.
Dmitry Nachin: I do have a good job. But I'm not an amoeba that
can just swallow some food and be happy. I never forget that my father
is an ordinary driver, who came to Moscow from the provinces in Soviet
times and now lives in a barracks in terrible conditions. My mother is
unemployed and my brother goes to school, where textbooks are
constantly lacking and where a teacher once died during a hunger
strike. Can this state of affairs be called fair?
The largest organization of the young left is the Union of
Communist Youth (UCY) which has about 38,000 members. The UCY is
larger than many current political parties. This organization is not
noted for any large-scale actions, and its official status is the
youth branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF).
So, members of this organization study communism by Zyuganov's
"schoolbooks."
However, their teachers do not seem to trust them much. The UCY
does not have a right to political activity of its own. "Komsomol"
members cannot run for deputies and arrange their own actions. Many of
them are already not that young, but the Communists unwillingly accept
them to their party. Old bureaucrats of the party apparently fear that
"the young blood" may oust them from the top position and infect the
respectable party with radicalism of the youth.
However, devout Marxists consider Zyuganov's party and its
Komsomol degraded entities fortifying the bourgeois-criminal regime.
According to sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, who is an expert on
the left movement, "new Communists" view the CPRF as a large decaying
corpse lying in their way. Kagarlitsky says, "They are right to some
extent. The CPRF is a monopoly for left viewpoints, whereas its own
viewpoints are far from opposition to the government.
In the opinion of Oleg Shein, this monopoly will soon collapse.
Supporters of Russia's capitalist future need not fear CPRF
conformists and clamorous old women from Anpilov's party. The most
dangerous are young Communists, who are actually enraged and full of
ideas.
Being actually devout communists, the new left deify the working
class and believe that the cause of liberation of working people
should be started from launching the labor union movement.
This is a good idea, since talking to working people it is more
convenient to introduce oneself as a labor union activist than a
Trotskist. The new left are aware of he fact that it is impossible to
gain a large political capital by revolution agitation, whereas it is
easy to gain it by protesting against ungrounded dismissals, delays of
wages, and violations of the Labor Code.
Judging from our talks with the young left, they are not very
successful with their work with the working class.
While people are growing up to understand their young "teachers,"
the young left are growing their muscles in tiffs with other
applicants for the role of "people's pastors." For instan
