------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 8, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
EDITORIAL: NOV. 7, 1917 Workers in the U.S. are bombarded with racist stereotypes of people in Central Asia and the Middle East. The picture painted by U.S. officials and the corporate media is one of chaotic, despotic societies that require Washington's strong hand to guide them. In this myth, the terrible legacy of Western colonialism and imperialism is completely erased from the historical record, as is the people's long, heroic struggle for liberation. The world's attention is now focused on the U.S. war against Afghanistan and the desperate poverty endured by people there and in neighboring countries. By does it have to be this way? Class-conscious workers and progressive people will mark the 84th anniversary of Russia's 1917 socialist revolution on Nov. 7. It is an appropriate time to remember the revolution's impact on the peoples of Central Asia. Great strides were made by people living in the Soviet republics of Turkmenia, Uzbekistan, Kirgizia, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan, beginning in the 1920s. Before 1917, the Russian empire ruled by Czar Nicholas was known as the "prison house of nations." Conquered lands were seen only as sources of raw materials and slave labor. Central Asian peoples in the Russian empire-who shared the same history and culture as those in neighboring Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan-had no rights. All that changed after 1917. The multinational Soviet government led by Lenin, in its "Declaration of the Rights of the Working and Exploited Peoples," insisted on a "complete break with the barbarous policy of bourgeois civilization, which has built the prosperity of the exploiters belonging to a few chosen nations on the enslavement of hundreds of millions of working people in Asia, in the colonies in general, and in the small countries." The Soviet Union, a voluntary union of the revolutionary republics that emerged after 1917, was an historic recognition by the many nationalities that they could develop better and faster working together. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the main governing body, included a Soviet of Nationalities that gave equal representation to each national group. "In this way, not only the general interests of the working class are reflected, but also the very special and important interests of all nationalities," Sam Marcy wrote in the book "Perestroika: a Marxist critique." Marcy was the founder of Workers World Party. It's not hard to imagine the revolutionary impact of such a measure, even in today's highly industrialized United States- -if, for instance, the millionaires' club of the U.S. Senate were replaced with a body giving equal representation to African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Arabs, Native peoples and whites. "The Bolsheviks not only brought about a political transformation and a social revolution," Marcy wrote, "but they completely wiped out illiteracy, which had affected over 90 percent of the population. The revolution brought about a renaissance of native arts, music and theater, and also brought with it the great social and cultural achievements of the Soviet Union." The right to a job was guaranteed. Schools, universities, hospitals and modern cities were built throughout the formerly oppressed Central Asian republics. Children across the USSR were taught in their native languages-52 in all. In his 1985 book "Soviet But Not Russian," author William Mandel said the Soviets "invented the policy we call 'affirmative action.'" He noted the revolution's profound impact on women in the Central Asian republics. For the first time, women not only went to school and college, but became political leaders and scientists, engineers and doctors, authors and film makers. "Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and China flank the formerly colonial areas of the Soviet Union. In 1928 they, and the Islamic Soviet areas, were essentially still in the Middle Ages in terms of industrialization, agricultural techniques and education," Mandel wrote. "Even by that early date--when guerrilla fighting by former ethnic nobility and tribal leaders was still going on--the Soviet territories had doctors and hospital beds in quantities that Turkey did not reach until 40 years later." He continued: "By 1969 the Soviet peoples of this area were totally literate (99.7 percent to be precise), the Turks only one-third. The Turkic- and Farsi-speaking peoples of the USSR had, in that year, four-and-a-half times as many college students, 14 times as many newspaper readers, nearly five times as many physicians, seven times as many hospital beds as Turkey, in proportion to population." It's no wonder, then, that people in neighboring Afghanistan sought to emulate the achievements of their Soviet kin. In the 1970s and 1980s, a pro-socialist revolution liberated Afghan women, built schools and hospitals, and tried heroically to raise up the whole society. That effort was undermined and eventually destroyed by U.S. imperialism and those it funded, which included the Taliban. The Afghan counter-revolution contributed mightily to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the subsequent plunge of the Central Asian republics into capitalist chaos. Today, as in 1917, the path to liberation in Central Asia lies along the road of socialist revolution. It's the solemn responsibility of the working class here to do everything possible to clear that road-first of all by stopping the U.S. war in Afghanistan. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
