By Nick Everett
BRISBANE — "The past eight years have provided Russians with a refresher course in the evils of capitalism", declared Green Left Weekly journalist Renfrey Clarke at a public meeting here on May 6.
Clarke was addressing around 60 people at the Resistance Centre as part of a national speaking tour this month. An author, translator and activist, Clarke has been covering developments in the former USSR from Moscow since 1990. He has observed first hand the horrendous impact of "free market reforms" on the everyday life of Russians.
Speaking on the theme "Why Russia needs another revolution", Clarke outlined how President Boris Yeltsin came to power, banning his former party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in 1991 and obtaining authority from a conservative parliament to legislate by decree. After facing opposition to the pace of capitalist reform from a relatively tame parliament, Yeltsin staged a coup in December 1993 and with the West's backing, suspended the courts and closed or censored newspapers. Today, says Clarke, the Russian federation is an "elective" presidential dictatorship with Yeltsin holding enormous sway over the Russian economy.
Formerly strong Soviet industries, such as textiles, have collapsed, while export industries have become the sole priority for foreign investors. These often heavily polluting industries, are highly sensitive to international commodity price fluctuations. This dependency, and the substantial black market in Russia, has left the government with a massive decline in tax revenue, resulting in huge borrowing from the IMF and the World Bank and the non-payment of state workers.
As the government cuts subsidies to private businesses, they too have often stopped paying their workers. The result has been enormous inflation and huge unemployment.
Clarke said that, while there is a distrust of trade union officials and political parties as a result of people's experience in the former Stalinist regime, a fight back to Yeltsin's offensive is emerging.
Different sectors, such as miners and teachers, have been involved in major industrial campaigns and shop steward committees have emerged to coordinate some of them. While these struggles lack cohesion, Clarke says there are Russian intellectuals who are capable of providing an impetus for coordinated revolutionary struggle. However, these are still small in number, and lacking in financial resources or links to the working class.
Clarke stressed the importance of youth in the struggle, citing the example of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League) which, since breaking away from the Communist Party, has grown to 20,000 members. "Young people who have grown up under Yeltsin's barbarism and have closer links with the working class will be an essential force in bringing about change in the Russian federation", Clarke said.
For details of Renfrey Clarke's upcoming meetings, see page 14.