councilor.org
| Source | Ken Hanly |
| Date | 01/03/26/16:33 |
| 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 instance, not long ago some left radicals quarreled with representatives of the UCY during a picket near the Palestinian Diplomatic Representation in Moscow. The left radicals were against the current disobedience campaign against the Israeli government, whereas representatives of the UCY tried to hinder them by chanting anti-Zionist slogans. Another tiff between the left radicals and Barkashov's fascists ended in involvement of knives. The style of political shows of the left radicals is radical too. For instance, picketing the Kazakh embassy in Moscow in December 2000, Moscow Trotskists did not say a word: they were only whistling with whistles loudly. A youth art group led by artist Anatoly Osmolovsky has also displayed unique forms of agitation. Its members once came to Red Square and lay down stark naked in the shape of a three-letter taboo word. Even Zyuganov himself has suffered from them. During a street assembly Moscow extremists were throwing tomatoes at him. During a picket in which Duma deputies took part extremists were throwing bottles with red paint at them. As a rule, such extraordinary escapades are punished as infraction of the public order. However, left radicals have committed a number of scandalous crimes too. For instance, the recent explosion by the reception of the Federal Security Service was arranged by three girls from the organization New Revolutionary Initiative. When the girls are released from prison, the new left will have their own holy martyrs. This trend is not so threatening as AIDS or drug addiction so far. However, it is impossible to guarantee that there will be no more outbursts of the communist disease in the country that lived under the communist yoke for over 70 years. Political analyst Alexander Tarasov, an expert on extremist movements, believes that left radicals will not be a serious social threat for the following several years. But it is difficult to say what is in store for Russia in five or six years. Everything depends on how rapidly the number of unsettled young people will grow. So far, Russia's "protest contingent" consisted of old people, who are unable to shatter social principles. However, they will soon be substituted by a young generation. Boris Kagarlitsky: It is known that all political movements start in the most educated environment. At the end of the 1980's, young people obtained a lot of new opportunities: they could make a career by the age of 25. But now young people who were late for the division of the pie are gaining power. Everything is divided already, all the best jobs are occupied by people who can be called "the Gaidar generation." What should those who are late do? It is not their fault that they were not born on time. If young people from the working class become gangsters or drug addicts, having failed any other business, intellectuals become revolutionaries. The ten years of Russia's reforms have spoiled the natural succession of generations. Those who have occupied all social vacancies will not be old yet when new applicants for their positions will grow up. There will be no other influx of new vacancies. Thus, the army of unemployed young people will grow year after year. The attractive and educated young people who call themselves Marxists now look harmless imitators who like to play "the heroic past." But what if they will play "the communist future"? Russian grown-up politicians are convinced for some reason that this will never happen and that young people will always vote for Yavlinsky and Khakamada. (Translated by Kirill Frolov) ******* |
Copyright (c) 1998, Joongpil Cho