#ICRM No.982 January 17, 2001 Russia
*The Russian Communist Workers Party:A PSEUDO-COMMUNIST,
ANTISEMITIC ORGANISATION
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- January 17, 2001 -
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THE RKRP: "RED-BROWN" IN RUSSIA
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INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY WITH WORKERS IN
RUSSIA (ISWoR)
Box R, 46 Denmark Hill
London, SE5 8RZ
United Kingdom
E-mail: ISWoR@aol.com
Web: http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html
- Friday, 12 January 2001 -
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The Russian Communist Workers Party:
A PSEUDO-COMMUNIST, ANTISEMITIC ORGANISATION
____________________________________________________________________
by Lisa Taylor
Introduction
"We are socialists, enemies, deadly
enemies of the present capitalist
economic system with its exploitation of
the economically weak, with its
injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation
of people according to
wealth and money instead of responsibility
and achievement and we are
determined to destroy this system!"
At first glance many may believe that the
above words could have been
written by Karl Marx or a modern day prominent
socialist. In fact they are
the words of the antisemite Gregor Strasser,
written in 1926. After Hitler,
Strasser was, up till 1933, the most influential
figure in Hitler's nazi
party, the NSDAP. His use of anti-capitalist
rhetoric did not prevent him
from maintaining a thriving relationship
with industrial magnates.
The Russian Communist Workers Party, (Rossiskaya
Kommunisticheskaya
Rabochaya Partiya -RKRP) led by Viktor T'yulkin
is a reactionary right-wing
party, not a left party. For all its left
rhetoric, it bases itself on
Great Russian chauvinism and antisemitism,
not class struggle. There are
many aspects of the reactionary nature of
this party that need to be
illuminated. Their hatred of gay people,
their connections with right-wing
Slavic racist organisations who incite hatred
against Islamic peoples of
the ex-USSR, and their own covert relationship
with big business - each of
these deserves a study in its own right.
Here I will undertake a short case
study of just one aspect of their reactionary
ideology - their
antisemitism.
Before going any further, we should note
that the RKRP are admirers of the
murderous dictator Stalin, almost to the
point of worship. Those who
believe in the traditional Cold War propaganda
of both the US and the USSR,
which characterised the tyrannical Stalin
as the man who fulfilled the
communist dream of Marx and Lenin, may find
it hard to grasp that a party
that adores Stalin can simultaneously be
pro-capitalist. They should
perhaps take heed in this context of the
views of Malyarov, top Komsomol
leader, who has openly embraced the market
and who sees no contradiction in
his admiration for both Stalin and Putin
at the same time. Perhaps it is no
accident that Malyarov was one of the founding
members of the RKRP'S
popular movement Trudovaya Rossiya.
The significance of the RKRP
The RKRP is tiny, its last election score
minuscule, at one per-cent, its
own supporters admit it has no significant
membership except in very few
places. Why then, should we care about it
at all, and how could it pose a
danger to anyone?
The answer lies in the skilful way in which
they have woven themselves into
the militant workers movement, their dominance
of key positions there,
combined with the vicious reactionary content
of their ideology, even
though this is disguised under a mantle of
apparently passionate
anti-capitalist rhetoric.
Estimates of the size of the RKRP in recent
years vary. What is certain,
however, is that their forces have seriously
declined in the last few
years. So, while they were able to rally
tens of thousands at the beginning
of the nineties, by the late nineties, they
were down to just 6000 (1) ,
and by summer last year reliable estimates
put them at well below 2,000
members (2), in a country of over 150 million.
Yet despite their tiny size, they appear
as if by magic almost every time
an important workplace struggle breaks out.
They often get their members
elected in the local trade union committees
or workplace councils, and then
encourage the workers to vote for their party
candidates in elections.
Through their weekly paper, Trudovaya Rossiya,
and their local and other
publications, they are able to effect a penetration
of the workers'
movement with which other organisations of
smaller financial means cannot
compete. Their papers and leaflets are often
the only alternative press
readily available to militant workers. This
does mean they have the ability
to communicate with the most militant layer
of the working class in a way
that no other militant left organisations
can.
One of the co-chairmen of the most active
militant union, Zaschita, is a
member of the Central Committee of the RKRP
(3). This union has been at the
centre of the overwhelming majority of militant
actions and strikes in
recent years. The RKRP also encourages its
members to get involved in other
unions such as Sotsprof and the FNPR.
In the year 2000, the calendar of militancy
has been marked most of all by
the fight against the draconian new Labour
Code which the government has
been trying to force through since it was
first conceived under Primakov.
The new Code institutes the 56-hour week,
arbitrary firing at the whim of
the employer, and in general emasculates
the unions. To its credit, the
anti-Labour Code campaign, combined with
the weakness and divisions within
the ruling class, has successfully delayed
the introduction of this
union-busting legislation by organising mass
demonstrations of workers. The
campaign itself was initiated by a core of
activists, most of whom oppose
racism and bigotry. But sadly, the RKRP have
managed to make their presence
felt strongly in their campaign too, and
were the largest organised party
to command influence in it.
At the end of 1999, the Russian labour movement
was inspired by the courage
of the workers of Vyborg Paper and Pulp Mill,
who faced up to repeated
incursions from armed official and private
militias who came to break up
their occupation, even shooting at workers.
The RKRP rapidly moved to steer
workers into support for their election bloc
in the Duma (parliamentary)
elections, enlisting the support of other
RKRP-led or influenced unions in
the Leningrad region in this goal. The move
was disguised as a mobilising
of brotherly support from other workplaces.
The dispute ended after a
leading union representative organised a
treacherous surrender. He had been
a candidate on the RKRP list (4). Yet, according
at least to the RKRP, at
the very meeting in which he was officially
thrown out of his role as
representative, and replaced by someone else,
the Vyborg workers moved a
resolution of thanks to the party for its
"support" (5).
The relation of the RKRP to the country's
largest "left" party, the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
(KPRF) needs to be examined.
Millions of workers have been taken in by
the rhetoric of KPRF leader
Zyuganov, who like the RKRP, fumes against
the oligarchy and promises to
fight for justice for working people. However,
millions of workers have
also shown (even allowing for the corrupt
election counting techniques of
Putin), that they do not support the KPRF,
at least not strongly enough to
want to vote for them. And with good reason.
The KPRF has demonstrated its
commitment to the market, approving every
government budget and even
entering the government itself during the
terms of premiers Kirienko and
Primakov, (under the latter the draconian
plans for a new Labour Code were
first drawn up). Further, many people have
experienced the true nature of
the KPRF at the local and regional levels,
where for example KPRF governors
have sent in armed riot police to physically
crush workers struggles, as in
Yasnogorsk and the Kusbass.
The RKRP, by contrast, exposes truthfully
the relation of the KPRF to
capital (though never that of their own leadership!),
points out KPRF
hypocrisy, highlights their treacherous actions
during strikes. As such,
they reach militant workers who have become
disillusioned with the
dishonesty of the Zyuganov, and are searching
for a political party which
genuinely fights the tyranny of the market.
And the RKRP are expert at
pretending to be just that.
The Red-Brown Phenomenon
For many years now since the fall of the
Soviet Union it has been normal to
read in the mainstream American and European
press about the "red-brown"
opposition to the democrats in Russia. Even
leaving aside the fact that so
many of the so-called "democrats"
themselves are deeply authoritarian, it
is understandable that, as socialists, we
should be suspicious about
capitalists describing left movements as
mixed with nazi ideology.
Nevertheless, an examination of the milieu
that emerged as the main
opposition to the "democrats" in
the early 90's shows that the term
"red-brown" is for the most part,
sadly correct.
The largest and most powerful group of "oppositionists"
to emerge from the
ashes of the CPSU was certainly the Communist
Party of the Russian
Federation (KPRF) led by Zyuganov. Though
they project themselves, in their
official propaganda, as defenders of the
working class, ferociously opposed
to the privatisation which has caused such
widespread misery, in practice
this party rapidly became converted to the
politics of the market.
Simultaneously they adopted Russian ultra-nationalism,
with nazi-style
scapegoating of Jews as official policy (6).
When the second Chechen war
broke out in 1999, they tried to outdo the
"strong man" Putin himself in
declarations of anti-Muslim hatred and calls
for blood.
That the KPRF has embraced racism and abandoned
class struggle should
surprise no one. Zyuganov had already demonstrated
his commitment to the
nationalist cause at the beginning of the
1990's, founding a number of
"patriotic" fronts, including with
figures such as the ultra-racist
Prokhanov, today editor of "Zavtra".
"Slavic civilisation, represented by
the Russian Empire", is for Zyuganov
the progressive force - not workers
fighting for socialism (7). He himself declares
that his favourite book is
a work by the ultra-reactionary 1920's philosopher
Ivan Il'in, (which was
widely understood at the time of writing
as a call to kill Bolsheviks)
Contacts between the KPRF and open nazi groups
have also occurred at top
levels of the party (8).
But what about those "communists"
who did not join the KPRF?
In autumn 1991 the RKRP was created. According
to the party itself, they
were formed out of those who had recognised
from the beginning the need for
"uncompromising struggle" against
Gorbachevism (9). But for many
middle-ranking apparatchiks of the outgoing
regime, this "uncompromising
struggle" had nothing at all to do with
a concern for the fate of ordinary
working people, but solely with their own
shattered hopes for political and
economic power, as they realised that they
personally would be cut out of
both the giant carve-up of the country's
assets that was about to take
place, and the new elite that would administer
it.
A look at some of the main personages at
the foundation of the RKRP is
helpful in analysing the party's origins.
A key leader of the RKRP from its birth,
and leader of the mass movement
Trudovaya Rossiya (Labour Russia) which it
simultaneously set up, was
Viktor Anpilov. Early in 1992 Anpilov , who
under the old regime had made
his career as a journalist and political
commentator, became co-secretary
of the RKRP.
In those days 10 - 30,000 people would gather
at rallies of the RKRP's
popular movement, Trudovaya Rossiya, in Moscow.
Its 15-man executive
established in 1992 included many who have
remained RKRP leading members
till this day, but also those who became
founders or key activists of other
parties - such as Vladimir Miloserdov, of
the deeply antisemitic and
ultra-nationalist Russian Party, Viktor Ilyukhin,
KPRF deputy who has said
that Jews are committing genocide against
the Russian people, and Igor
Malyarov, leader of the largest Komsomol
(communist youth league) in
Russia, who recently backed Putin as presidential
candidate on the grounds
of his "patriotism" , and believes
that Russia's destruction of Chechnya
was "precisely what modern Russian society
needs". (10), (11).
Today Anpilov is well-known even outside
Russia for his hysterical
antisemitic speeches, which are a permanent
feature of his meetings and
rallies. For example, at a recent conference
in Moscow, he declared:
'Against the USSR works "nasty monetary
international", but we shall not
hide, it is the Jews who have the most part
of the monetary capital. There
is a world struggle of people for liberation,
and the uniform communist
party is necessary for this purpose' (12)
But this aspect of his politics was also
clear during his role as co-leader
of the RKRP, when for example, he described
Yeltsin's regime on national
television as a "Jewish conspiracy".
(13)
In 1997 Anpilov formed an alliance with the
openly nazi National Bolshevik
Party of Limonov, then later with the grandson
of Josef Stalin, the
antisemite Dugashvilli. (14), (15).
Another well-known personage of the red-brown
scene, General Albert
Makashov, was among those elected to the
central committee of the RKRP at
its foundation (16). Makashov, who was one
of the main leaders of the
battle to defend the parliament from Yeltsin's
troops in 1993, is notorious
for his antisemitism. In 1998 he publicly
called for the extermination of
all Jews in Russia (15). He is admired by
neo-nazis around the world,
including the Ku Klux Klan (David Duke has
travelled to Russia more than
once to discuss "co-operation"
with him. (17).
Makashov's hopes to get the RKRP involved
in the project to revive a mass
communist party in Russia in the form of
the KPRF were not realised, and in
1993 he left to join the latter, lamenting
the amount of "Anpilov-worship"
in the RKRP and also its "separation
from the patriotic movement" (16).
This may seem laughable given that Anpilov
himself is one of the most
notorious nationalists in Russia, but in
fact what Makashov meant was the
separation from the new regroupment of "patriotic"
forces in the KPRF and
the National Salvation Front, which were
rapidly dropping all use of
'Marxist' rhetoric and referring to the struggle
only in national terms.
Makashov understood that these forces would
become powerful as the new
opposition to Yeltsin, and he wanted to be
sure of the best launch pad for
his own political ambitions.
T'yulkin and Anpilov, the de facto leaders
of the RKRP, however, did not
want to join any formation in which they
could become overshadowed by other
dominant and charismatic political figures.
Their strategy was to continue
to use old stalinist rhetoric and nostalgic
symbols of Stalin himself to
build a popular movement. They stubbornly
insisted that the RKRP was the
"sole heir of the old Communist Party
of RSFSR" (16), and maintained their
party as an independent force, in which they
could shine undisturbed as
leaders.
Undisturbed, that is, except by each other.
In a party built around
admiration of the dictatorial rule of Stalin,
there can never be room for
more than one "Man of Steel". By
the middle of the decade, the two rivals
were finding it increasingly difficult to
co-exist in the same party.
In 1996, Anpilov broke with party discipline,
ignoring an agreement to back
no candidates in the presidential election.
His choice of candidate -
himself. Later, he dropped his candidacy,
but backed Zyuganov instead. He
received an official reprimand from the party.
By the following year, Anpilov had resigned,
or was booted out, according
to whether you want to believe his own account
or that of T'yulkin.
Certainly Anpilov took some of the most racist
elements with him, and as
already described, proceeded to construct
a party for whom antisemitism is
not only a constant feature but a virtual
political programme. Anpilov has
also recently created a "youth league",
which conducts military training
exercises.
With Anpilov gone, did the party abandon
racism for a more traditionally
Marxist analysis, based on class?
The answer is no, as we shall see in the
next section.
The RKRP after Anpilov
In the explanation of Anpilov's departure
given on the party's official
website, there is not a word about racism.
Instead, his expulsion in 1996
is described as necessary because he "had
denied the leading role of the
communist party and scientific Marxism and
instead emphasised the vanguard
role of non-party masses and organisations
outside the party and called for
popular struggle to be limited to primitive
forms" A further explanation is
that his group had "openly set upon
the path of counteracting party
decisions." (9)
The exit of Anpilov from the RKRP meant that
the movement Trudovaya Rossiya
which he had led had to split too. So today
there are two movements using
that name, though only Anpilov's is officially
registered with the
authorities. The chief newspaper of the RKRP
today is also called Trudovaya
Rossiya, and describes itself as the organ
of the "RKRP, the Council of
Workers and of the movement Trudovaya Rossiya."
Of course this last signifies the Trudovaya
Rossiya founded after the split
by the then RKRP deputy Grigoriev, and not
that of Anpilov. Nevertheless
the paper considers itself the direct continuation
of the Trudovaya Rossiya
paper that existed all through the Anpilov
years, and recently celebrated
its anniversary glorying in its long history.
(18)
On their website the RKRP boast proudly of
the great "theoretical,
practical and propaganda value" of a
conference they organised in Leningrad
in November, 1997. At this conference, they
managed to get dozens of
"communist parties" from several
countries to sign a declaration which
embodied, according to the RKRP, the "lessons
of 80 years since the Great
October socialist revolution". But what
were these lessons encapsulated in
this declaration?
After a long glorification of the old Soviet
system, in particular under
the reign of Stalin, the document gets to
the core of the problems to be
tackled. Under the subheading of "To
purge in view of consolidating the
communist movement", we read:
"Financial oligarchy, transnational
companies, whose assault troops are
American imperialism and international Zionism,
under the banners of deceit
and "World Democracy" exert increasing
pressure in order to impose a world
order, striving to halt the objective historical
process and to impose
industrial slavery on humanity, based on
unfair international division of
labour and a system of indebtment.
Their ideology is neo-liberalism as well
as the social-democratic theories
of social partnership, civil peace and the
liquidation of all revolutionary
potential. This ideology is further developed
through the revisionist and
opportunist ideas spread by the bourgeoisie
and acting as sources of
infection amongst the communist international
movement. And when these
tactics fail, the military machines of the
United States and Nato set
forth" (19).
So here it is in a nutshell- the main cause
of world suffering , alongside
American imperialism, is "international
zionism".
It is important to realise that although
some of the signatories are from
Arab countries, this document is in no way
a document about the Middle
East. It is a general document contrasting
a glorified and sanitised
version of life in the USSR under Stalin
with the world misery caused by
capitalism. There is no mention of the giants
of European capital, nor of
Japan. The world financial oligarchy, according
to the RKRP, operates
basically through "American imperialism
and international Zionism".
The phrase "international zionism"
has nothing to do with traditional left
critiques of zionism, or indeed with zionism
at all. It is a code-word for
Jews. The phrase, and indeed sometimes even
the words "zionism" , "zion"
,
"zionisation" etc on their own
, is used by thousands of antisemitic
organisations today, from openly fascist
parties like the RNE to Cossack
nationalist movements, from the RKRP and
the KPRF, to west European
neo-nazis and the Ku Klux Klansman David
Duke in exactly the same way that
the tsarist authors of the forged "Protocols
of the Elders of the Zion"
used it - to derail class struggle, to deflect
workers anger away from
capitalism itself and onto a convenient scapegoat
- the Jews.
The myth that there is a mighty force called
"international zionism"
controlling the global economy is the same
Big Lie used by Hitler to create
his popular nazi movement, and to pave the
way for the eradication of all
labour and trade union rights in Germany,
in the service of German
capitalists against British, French and American
capital.
While the Hitlerian "international Jewish
conspiracy" lie is common to
nearly all Russian ultra-nationalist movements
today, yet something else is
common to most of them too.
All movements must have a practical programme
to survive, even if it is a
hidden one. Today's Russian nationalists,
like west European capitalists,
perceive clearly that the end of the Cold
War has freed European big
business from dependence on American military
might for survival. Now the
project of a united Europe poses a huge threat
to American economic (and
therefore ultimately military and political)
hegemony. A union between
Russia and continental Europe, possibly including
Japan, Iran, India and
certain other Asian states, is dreamed of
by the ideologues of a new
Russian millennium. Sometimes called "Eurasianism",
this philosophy, or
variants of it, can be found in the writings
of Zyuganov, Dugin, and many
other Russian ultra-nationalists. It appeals
especially to army officers,
directors of the military-industrial complex,
and managers of large
enterprises which are now decaying due to
lack of export markets, having
been effectively cut out of them by the giants
of US capital. The existing
regime of Vladimir Putin tries to straddle
a position between co-operation
with America and "Eurasianism"
- an impossible contradiction which will
ultimately lead to its collapse.
It is no accident, therefore, that European
and Japanese capitalists are
exonerated from blame in the "Leningrad
declaration" drawn up by the RKRP.
The party boasts proudly of its regular contributions
in Zavtra, the
ultra-racist journal headed by Prokhanov.
Prokhanov, an admirer of the
writings of David Duke, recently met with
Duke of the Ku Klux Klan at a
public meeting in which the fate of the white
race at the hands of Jews was
lamented. (17) .Zavtra has also published
an interview with Barkashov.,
leader of the openly nazi Russian National
Unity, in which Prokhanov
expresses much admiration for him (20)
While not actually denying the Holocaust,
the RKRP tries to minimise it,
cynically contrasting it with the USSR death
toll in the war , ignoring the
fact that one was a planned and industrially
executed genocide, while the
nazi killing of Soviet soldiers on the battlefield
and POW's, however
horrific, was not. So, in an article in Trudovaya
Rossiya (21) we read
that: "Today the global press counts
Jews as the unique victims of
fascism." No mention is made of all
other war deaths, he charges, including
"executions of the English pilots".
(Strange, that a so-called
anti-capitalist organisation should mourn
so much for the pilots of the
most powerful imperialist nation of that
time, but the intention of the
writer is not to fight capitalism, but to
incite hatred against Jewish
people).
But the RKRP are not above outright lying
about the Holocaust when
necessary. Referring to a controversy about
the decision of right-wing
Catholic nuns to site a convent at Auschwitz,
the writer says: "Here in gas
chambers and famine were exterminated three
million citizens of the
different countries. Therefore, if to follow
the historical truth and if
religious symbols, an orthodox cross are
necessary here, David's star and a
Catholic cross should stand here in one building."
(21)
Considering that the overwhelming majority
of the victims of Auschwitz were
Jews, and only a tiny handful were followers
of the Orthodox faith, this is
an insulting phrase that seeks to rewrite
history. Proportionally speaking,
the only significant groups of Auschwitz
victims which included practising
Christians were the Romany and gay deportees
, both communities rejected by
the official Church. The Vatican condoned
fascism and actively collaborated
with Nazis escaping trial after the war..
The writer continues:
"It is possible to give due to the World
Jewish Congress, a Zionist lobby,
their political, financial and propaganda
opportunities, their skill to put
pressure upon the largest organisations and
the whole states. So much is
possible for them. In the European countries
the laws providing
responsibility for denying of the Holocaust
are accepted. Law suits between
the Swiss banks and the Jewish organisations
recently were finished.
Despite all indignation, " the Zurich
gnomes " are compelled to pay to them
1 billion 250 million dollars. They have
even compelled the Vatican to
recognise the responsibility for destruction
of Jews. " Christians too are
guilty..."
The Swiss government and banking industry,
and the wartime Catholic
establishment, bear an enormous responsibility
for collaboration with the
Nazis. That a so-called "communist"
party should spring to their defence
against the financial and moral claims of
survivors of the death camps is
unbelievable, except when you understand
that this party is led by people
for whom "communism" is just a
question of empty rhetoric, and who are
anticipating a rise to power on the bandwagon
of a Strasserite antisemitic
hysteria.
Recently the RKRP published, on the front
page of Trudovaya Rossiya, a long
article criticising Putin and Zavtra for
not being true "patriots" (sic).
In the centre of the text are 2 photos next
to each other. The first is a
picture of relatives crying as they light
candles for the victims of the
Kursk submarine. Next to it we see a photo
of Putin standing on a platform
next to two ultra-Orthodox Jews in their
traditional religious gear. There
is a giant Star of David hanging from the
platform. The caption can be
summarised as follows: Putin was not present
at the 40 days anniversary
vigil of the Kursk. He had much more important
business than the perished
sailors - he was opening a new national Jewish
community centre in Moscow
sponsored by Gusinsky and other prominent
Jewish businessmen. The caption
then goes on to give the area in square metres
of the hall, to say that the
synagogue will hold seating for 2000 etc..(22)
It is impossible to mistake the message:
Putin ignores the bereaved Russian
families because he is controlled by Jews!
The fact that there are tens of thousands
of Jews living in abject poverty
across the ex-USSR, the fact that in the
west Jewish charities collect
second-hand clothes for them, the fact that
there are non-Jewish
capitalists, in Russia and outside of it,
making billions out of the
country's privatisation - all these are ignored.
The Bylevsky Komsomol
This organisation , named after its overage
leader Pavel Bylevsky and also
known as the Revolutionary Young Communist
League (b) (Russian initials
RKSM-b) , is intimately linked to the RKRP.
According to their website,
"The majority of members RKSM-b are
members or supporters of the Russian
Communist Workers Party" . (23) Claiming
to be influenced by maoism, they
admire the genocidal Pol Pot as a "great
leader".
The attitude of the Bylevsky Komsomol to
racism and antisemitism can be
easily be seen by a glance at the "List
of Progressive resources" compiled
by one of the party's webmasters . Apart
from a comprehensive collection of
Russian stalinist, maoist and trotskyist
groups, the list includes an
entire section devoted to "national-patriots",
listing the openly nazi
National Bolshevik Party, the Arctogaia website
of the neo-nazi philosopher
Dugin, and the racist Zavtra.
Following the public appearance of nazis
of the National-Bolshevik Party on
a Leningrad demo against the anti-worker
Labour code on 1 December 2000,
internationalists within the anti-Labour
code campaign called for the
drawing-up of a statement condemning their
presence. Oleg Torbasow, RKSMb
central Committee member and the RKSMb journal's
"secretary for ideology",
spoke out publicly to defend the NBP, insisting
that they should even be
allowed onto the organising committee of
the campaign. (24)
Conclusion
In a country where living standards are being
turned back to the nineteenth
century, there is no doubt that workers will
rise up to fight back. Whether
this fight can go forward to achieve social
justice and an end to the
misery created by the profit system, or whether
it will be dissolve itself
into a mass fascist movement , in the naEe
belief that the enemy is
"comprador capitalism", "the
Jews" etc, rather than capitalism itself
-
remains to be seen. It will depend on the
ideological make-up of those that
are seen to be at the forefront of the resistance,
the resources they can
command, the international solidarity they
can rely on, for there is no
doubt that the US will respond massively
to any threat of an anti-NATO
political force re-emerging on the territory
of the old Soviet Union,
regardless of whether that force is a revolutionary
left one or a fascist
one.
It is extremely ominous that the largest
opposition party in Russia today,
the KPRF, is led by a man inspired by tsarist
terrorists and antisemitic
conspiracy theories, and that the current
regime of arch-exploiters can
maintain itself in power by whipping up mass
hatred of Chechens or by
singling out only Jewish big businessmen
for interrogation.
In a country ripe for fascism, the sole hope
lies in those who put class
first, and fight the ideas of race or nation.
1998 onward saw the awakening
of militant resistance. Sadly, here too a
reactionary, antisemitic party
(although in "Marxist" clothes)
has managed to position itself - the RKRP.
The party itself may never be able to complete
the process it has embarked
on, and convert itself into a fully-fledged
fascist organisation. But as
long as it is allowed to hegemonise so many
of the most militant arenas of
workers struggle, poisoning them with its
racist, homophobic and
authoritarian ideology, workers will see
that there is little to
distinguish between what their (RKRP) leaders
are saying and what the most
reactionary parties of the nationalist extreme
right say.
Like the RKRP, Barkashov's unashamedly nazi
RNE also speak of the
"anti-national" forces and the
need to oppose these with "patriotism".
They
too, speak of the need for nationalisation
of the land and natural
resources (let us recall that Hitler also
used nationalisation to
consolidate the Reich and to re-allocate
assets in the interests of his
most important capitalist backers). The Barkashovites,
too speak of their
goals of "improving the way of life"
of workers, of "social security of all
citizens". They promise to deliver "free
health service and free education"
(25). All this to be achieved, of course,
when the masses adopt the black
shirt and swastikas of the RNE, in a mass
liberation movement to drive out
the Jews and the race-mixers.
Workers faced with such similarity of the
propaganda of openly fascist
parties to that of the self-proclaimed workers'
parties will inevitably be
persuaded to put race and nation ahead of
class. The way is paved for the
most able fascist leader to take charge.
Certainly, there are some RKRP supporters
who do not share the antisemitism
of the party leadership, and who believe
deeply in the "Marxist" rhetoric
of the party. But their willingness to shut
their eyes to official party
antisemitism, to the appearance in the paper
of material inciting violence
against gay people, calling them a "fifth
column" polluting the country's
social and cultural life, (26), to the publishing
of "information" on
neighbouring Islamic countries and the Chechen
conflict from Slavic
supremacist sources - all these things make
them the willing tools of
T'yulkin and his reactionary allies. T'yulkin
is nothing but a more subtle
Anpilov - a power-seeker who uses rhetoric
about abolition of privatisation
and extension of workers rights in EXACTLY
the same way that, more than
half a century ago, the Strasser brothers
used anti-capitalist rhetoric in
Germany on behalf of the NSDAP and the industrial
magnates.
Hitler, we may remember, called his party
the National Socialist German
Workers Party, in order to appear something
other than ultimate defenders
of capitalism in crisis - such is the importance
of this nazi tactic to
fool workers. The RKRP is a red-brown formation
which needs to be exposed.
References
1. Obninsk Komsomol,
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3814/index.html
2. Verbal sources including Duma Deputy Oleg
Shein, co-chair of Zaschita union
3. Trudovaya Rossiya 7/111
4. Vitaly Kiriakov stood on the RKRP's bloc
No. & in the 1999 duma
elections, http://grankin.com.ru/elections/block6/block6_sp3.htm
5. Trudovaya Rossiya 1/105 (Model of Russia
Vyborg TSBK Soviet)
6. Statement by KPRF Chairman Gennady Zyuganov
23 December 1998 (published
on website of KPRF under the heading "Official
Information")
7. Biography of Gennady Zyuganov published
by internet news site,
http://www.panorama.ru
8. "KPRF na Zapasnom Puti Rossiskogo
Kapitalisma" by Oleg Shein, pub.
Astrakhan Organisation of OFT 1998 p. 149
9. See RKRP website: http://www-win.convey.ru/~RKRP
10. history of Trudovaya Rossiya published
on website http://www.nns.ru
11. "Communists Defect as Putin Heads
for Triumph Bandwagon", by Amelia
Gentleman in "The Observer" (UK)
19 March 2000
12. http://www.leviy.ru/news/live_op/kommunizm/kprf/May/21.htm
13. 1997 report on antisemitism published
on
http://www.ort.org/jpr/AWRweb/Europe/russia.htm
14. "The Stalin block: Labour Russia,
Officers - for the USSR"
http://elections.ru:8080/duma/others/stal.html
15. "The Escalation of Antisemitic Violence
in Russia", August 1999
published by Union of Councils for Soviet
Jewry
16. http://www.panorama.ru:8101/works/vybory/party/rkrp.html
17. LA Times 6 Jan. 2001
18. Trudovaya Rossiya 100 published 1999
19. English translation of the Leningrad
declaration found on website of
the Parti du Travail de Belgique http://www.wpb.be/icm.htm
20. "Zavtra" 10 November 1998 Prokhanov
interview with Barkashov, leader of RNE
21. Trudovaya Rossiya 2/83
22. Trudovaya Rossiya 15/119
23. Website of Bylevsky Komsomol http://komsomol.narod.ru/faq.htm#question8
24. Letter from Oleg Torbasow to internet
list KZoT- STOP (list hosted by
http://www.egroups.com) 30 Dec 2000
25. Documents from Russian National Unity
party website http://www.rne.org
including RNE programme adopted on 15 Feb
1997 and "Primary Goals"
26. Trudovaya Rossiya 14/95 article "The
Fifth Column"
Lisa Taylor may be contacted care of: International
Solidarity with Workers
in Russia (ISWoR); Box R, 46 Denmark Hill,
London SE5; E-mail ISWoR@aol.com
WORKERS OF ALL LANDS & CULTURES UNITE!
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