Yes, whatever the system was, it did not seem to have the deadly effect of whatever is
going on now. The empirical evidence is mounting of this, and basically there "must
be" some kind of emergency transformation of the "system" to whatever, something
different than the thing there now.
The Soviet and Russian peoples have suffered so much for humanity, for trying to lead
the way to a better world.
Charles B.
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/08/00 06:58PM >>>
>
> >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 12/06/00 04:04PM >>>
> Russia's Population To Decline
> =====================
> by VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
> Associated Press Writer
>
> MOSCOW (AP) -- The steady decline of Russia's population, unprecedented
> for an industrialized nation not at war, is likely to last for decades
> to come, the head of the government statistics agency said Tuesday.
> ''The population decline, which started in 1992, will continue for many
> years, maybe decades, maybe even a half-century,'' Vladimir Sokolin, the
> head of Russia's State Statistics Committee, said at a news conference.
>
> ((((((((((((
>
> CB: Gee, don't they need to think about bringing back socialism before going down
>hill
for fifty years ?
>
> ((((((((
Actually your off-the-cuff comment, with which I of course agree, reminds me (yet
again)
of my basic pat peeve. While all Marxists would ultimately agree that socialism is the
only final answer that we can lean back on to help Russia's population, many of us
would
like to argue whether or not the old system was "socialist". Suffice to say that these
kinds of empirical facts demonstrate the only really needed point: That the old USSR
signified something so vastly different from the basic capitalist world system as to
prove it was not "capitalist" in the modern sense, nor was it a part of the Imperial
world structure. With that in mind, we should spend less time fighting over labels for
it, and point at these obvious facts.
The USSR is gone and with that economic structure, we have what appears to be a suicide
by an entire people. That is sufficient cause to regret her loss. Marxists do not make
a
distinction between a person who is killed by a bullet over a lack of food when the
food
does indeed exist. This is fundamental. When we return to this fundamental, we see
immediately the destruction wraught on these people. Moreover, we notice that the
decline in life standards is stark enough to be worthwhile of defending. While Marxists
cheer the fall of Suharto and White-0Apartheid South Africa on the basis that it is an
improvement in living for the citizenry ther, they certainly should weep with the exact
same motives for the fall of the USSR. Call it the "U.nusually S.elf- S.ustaining
R.epublic" if it makes you feel better, but to overlook the destructive impact of its
collapse is a mockery of the Marxist approach.
Macdonald
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