>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>FOREWARD by Steve Myers:
>
>Oleg Shein is the only elected revolutionary Marxist in the new State Duma of
>Russia. He is apparently one of these characters who seems to work non-stop
>around the clock - seven days every week.
>
>The interview was distributed on ISKRA, the internet discussion list (ask for
>details at [EMAIL PROTECTED]), last week. Before the interview, I would like to
>first clarify a few points for readers.
>
>Zaschita: This is the only national militant union in Russia - and is backed
>by a wide range of political forces to the left of the official Communist
>Party - most of whom would describe themselves as anti-Stalinist. This
>network has been built in and through the upsurge of workers struggles
>witnessed in Russia over the last two years - of which it has been at the
>centre.
>
>The Movement for a Workers Party (MWP): was formed last August from 31
>organisations - several small revolutionary Marxist groups and trade union
>branches connected with many of the struggles - including most Zaschita
>regions. The latest to join the MWP is the Committee for a Workers
>International (Taaffee’Äôs section). It is still growing - and now has it own
>Deputy in the Duma, Oleg Shein.
>
>The MWP was set up on a minimum but clearly revolutionary Marxist basis; on
>dialectical materialism, removal of alienation from society, dictatorship of
>the proletariat, international revolution. It intervenes in the struggles of
>the day, including against the new anti-Labour Code that President Putin is
>pushing through the Duma. It allows full and public freedom of criticism
>(each tendency can keep their own publications) - not dissimilar to Lenin’Äôs
>old Iskra paper. Further it is progressive in that it champions the
>oppressed: is for women’Äôs liberation, sexual freedoms; is against racism and
>antisemitism; against patriotism, ultra-nationalism and fascism. Basically it
>embraces the Marxist-bloc tactic.
>
>The "other Stalinist 'Communist' parties" Shein criticises in Q.3 below, is
>reference to Ti-ulkin’Äôs RKRP (who got 2.5% in the elections), and Viktor
>Anpilov’Äôs Stalinist-bloc with Stalin’Äôs grandson (who got 0.5%).
>
>-------------------------------------
>
>
>THE INTERVIEW
>January 2000
>
>1. Steve Myers: Tell me about the work of the Union 'Zaschita' or Defense,
>and to what you owe your success in the election in Astrakhan?
>
>Oleg Shein: In the Astrakhan region, there are two organizations of the
>working class. There is the United Workers Front, which is the political wing
>of the working class organization, and the Union called Zaschita or Defense,
>which leads the predominantly economic struggle of the class. The UWF is a
>Marxist organization founded in 1989, and in 1995 Zaschita was formed from
>its organizational base. The UWF is based on internationalism, and calls for
>the nationalization of large and median scale capital, and the establishment
>of workers' power.
>
>Together the UWF and Zaschita combine many years of experience in the fight
>for the rights of working people. Our organization has conducted dozens of
>strikes, including occupations, hundreds of legal actions against the bosses,
>blockades of roads, mass meetings. Over the years we have won the payment of
>wage arrears, the raising of wages, the re-instatement of workers illegally
>fired, and have successfully resisted attempts by bosses to simply evict
>workers from company housing onto the street.
>
>In 1998 we organized a tent city under the windows of the Regional Governor
>with the demand to pay wage arrears, halting the bankruptcy of factories and
>forcing the dismissal of the local public prosecutor. It was our organization
>that helped to defend the rights of small street vendors, Chechen refugees,
>and mothers, who have not received proper assistance from the government.
>
>Understandably, this fight was not easy. For example, the public prosecutor
>repeatedly tried to instigate suits against myself and my comrades for our so
>called 'illegal' strikes, eight of our comrades have been physically
>attacked, and one especially talented organizer, Oleg Maksakov was killed by
>a gunshot in the back in the spring of 1999.
>
>The bourgeois press has dumped buckets of insults on us, as of course have
>the official Russian "communists," from the party of Ziuganov, who serve the
>bourgeoisie. The election victory confirmed the high standing of the UWF and
>Zaschita among Astrakhaners. It is also telling that we won outright in areas
>dominated by the working class, and the results of this election confirmed
>the class nature of our organization.
>
>2. Myers: How do you intend to use your position as a member of the State
>Duma to advance the cause of the working class?
>
>Shein: It's hard to talk about it in great detail. It's hard right now for me
>to judge what is possible for a Duma Deputy to accomplish, though I do have
>five years of experience as a representative in the local government in
>Astrakhan. From my point of view, the principle work of a deputy is not to
>sit in that warm meeting hall and press the voting buttons, but to use my
>position to:
>
>1. Support struggling collectives fighting for their rights.
>2. Organize contact between workers groups from all areas of the country.
>3. Publicly oppose anti-worker legislation.
>4. Politicize the worker's movement in Russia and to facilitate the formation
>of a Russian Worker's Party.
>
>The first steps towards that goal have been taken. The Union Zaschita is an
>organization that spans the whole country and has members and locals not only
>in Astrakhan, but in Komi, the Federal Atomic Center, in all regions of
>European Russia and in the Urals. Not long ago the Siberian Federation of
>Labor joined with us.
>
>>From 1994 to 1999 we have been involved together with a whole spectrum of
>left parties in a fight with the Government against their attempts to
>liquidate progressive labor laws. In August of 1999 in Moscow there was the
>founding conference of the Movement for a Worker's Party, in which
>representatives from 31 organizations in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan
>participated. Now the possibilities for the growth of this work have
>significantly widened.
>
>3. Myers: How do you propose to unmask the character of Zyuganov's
>'reformism'?
>
>Shein: The best way to expose the careerist officials of the CPRF, who live
>off the word "socialism," is by the practical organization of the working
>class and by defending the rights of all workers. The other Stalinist
>'Communist' parties, who blamed the CPRF for moving away from Marxism met a
>gruesome fate in these last elections. People in Russia need deeds, not mere
>words.
>
>Neither the CPRF, nor the other parties in Russia express the interests of
>the working class. The general logic of each is simply to state (to the
>people) "Give us power!". These parties fight for their own power, not that
>of working people, which is something that people very clearly understand.
>
>It's not surprising then that the Communist Party based its election campaign
>on public nostalgia for the social benefits that people fondly remember from
>the days of the Soviet Union. If one looks at the statements of Putin,
>Ziuganov or even of Barkashov, the leader of the Russian Fascists, there is
>no visible difference between them.
>
>Each of them speaks of patriotism, Russia's great power status, strengthening
>the state, strong power, of limiting the appetites of individual capitalists
>for the sake of the stability of the system. Ziuganov and his party do not
>speak of the power of the working people nor do they speak of the
>nationalization of the banks. Today, their slogans have been totally stolen
>by Putin, while the so called "red" Governors and directors merged with big
>business and help it to smother the worker's movement, even sending in
>special militias to crush workers demonstrations and strikes.
>
>Yet, voters do not know that the CPRF's elected Deputies vote in favor of all
>government budgets, for any candidates for the post of prime-minister, for
>the passage of anti-worker legislation. It's absolutely necessary to tell the
>people about this.
>
>4. Myers: To what developments in Russia do you owe the growth of Russian
>nationalism?
>
>Shein: Russian nationalism has more of a shade of wounded pride than it does
>a racist tone. The election results prove this out. Parties who won seats did
>so on the issue of strengthening the state, not on open chauvinism. Over the
>past ten years Russia has existed in the state of national humiliation.
>
>It is necessary to mention that the anti-Chechen mood has been warmed up for
>quite some time, since 1992-93, because the authorities needed some lightning
>rod.
>
>The Chechen state itself gave enough reasons for this mood. Racism in
>relation to the Russian-speaking population, the multi-million financial
>stints, kidnappings, slavery, the stealing of cattle, executions and
>tortures, constant threats to "liberate" the Northern Caucuses from "kafirs"
>[infidels], the intervention into Dagestan by the Wahhabites - created a very
>negative attitude to what was going on in Chechnya.
>
>It is quite telling that at the start of the war in August it were the
>peoples of Dagestan, ethnically close to the Chechens, who were most opposed
>to the Chechen leadership and Wahhabism. Dagestan is the only territory in
>Russia, where Wahhabism and Islamic extremism are prohibited by law. Then,
>after some residential buildings had been blown up, public defense
>detachments were formed in practically all large cities in Russia. They
>guarded residential neighborhoods around the clock. Finally, on the pretext
>of struggle with the "Caucasians," the businessmen of other nationalities
>solved their own problems, pushing their competitors from the market.
>
>One has to keep in mind that the war of 1994-96 has sharply increased kin
>("teip") divisions in Chechen society. Practically all industries have been
>destroyed. Large sections of agricultural land remained mined. This is
>another reason why the Chechen economy became reduced to one of consumption
>and Chechen society lost stability.
>
>Maskhadov [Chechen Premier] simply could not stop Islamic extremists. It
>should be noted that all prominent politicians - who demonstrated their
>"patriotism" - became discredited for various reasons. This is why the "small
>victorious campaign" has served as a spring-board for the presidential
>promotion of Putin, until then an unknown officer of special services from
>Yeltsin's circle.
>
>Except for his role in this war, Putin did not do anything to prove himself
>in the eyes of Russian society. This is why the current failures of Russian
>army in Chechnya weaken him before the presidential election. In the future,
>Russia will hardly be able to control the territory where, as the result of
>two wars, every family experienced death and mutilation. The economy has been
>totally destroyed. And there is simply no money to rebuild it. This hardly
>bothers the Kremlin.
>
>Essentially, this war has been conducted for the elections. This is a
>political war. END
>
>translation by Steve Kerr - with help from Willi Firth and V.Bilenkin.
>
>
> --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
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