Subj: pt 2 - The RKRP, Pseudo-Communists and Antisemites Date: 12/01/01 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] PART TWO 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. END OF PART 2 _______________________________________________ Leninist-International mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international
