> >I do not know whether General Makashov was a CPRF CC member, but he was
>>elected on the CPRF slate to the Duma. Unfortunately it will be rather easy
>>to find more antisemitic quotes from leading CPRF members.
>>
>>Johannes
>
>Just as you will find antisemitic quotes from leaders of the German
>Communist Party in the 1920s, including Ruth Fischer who was herself of
>Jewish origin. When a society is in deep crisis, there is a tendency to
>find scapegoats. Jews have traditionally played that role in Russia and
>Germany. In the USA, it is blacks who fill that role. The real question,
>however, is not what racist comments are uttered by one or another official
>of the CPRF, but what economic measures can resolve the crisis and relieve
>the tensions that give birth to racial demagogy. From that standpoint,
>there can be little doubt that the CPRF's program is what Russia needs.
>While making all sorts of concessions to "free market" orthodoxy, it is an
>attempt to reverse the course set by Yeltsin and continued now by Putin.
>Unfortunately, the people in charge of the CPRF are steeped in bureaucratic
>modes of functioning that prevent them from mobilizing the power of Russian
>workers to dislodge the gang in power right now. They have much in common
>with Milosevic, who can also be faulted for using "business as usual"
>methods at a time of deep crisis. If Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
>Union can not generate true communists, then the situation will continue to
>deteriorate with all the resultant woes of xenophobia, suicide, alcoholism,
>dope addiction, prostitution, etc.
>
>Louis Proyect
The CPRF's program, such as it is, can never be achieved by the
CPRF's means. I'm afraid that the anti-Semitic rhetoric employed by
some officials of the CPRF is not just a reflection of "a society in
deep crisis" but also rooted in the CPRF's social democratic
orientation, easily harnessed by someone like Putin. Anti-Semitism
is an index of the very limited criticism of capitalism (e.g., a
criticism of finance & "foreign" profiteers, with no readiness to
reject capitalism wholesale); it's a "socialism of fools." Not
surprisingly, Putin is _not at all_ afraid of the CPRF:
***** THE HINDU
December 4, 2000
HEADLINE: Communists call for Putin's resignation
MOSCOW, DEC. 3. The Russian Communist leader, Mr. Gennady Zyuganov,
has accused the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, of failing to deliver
on his election promises and called for "irreconcilable opposition"
to his regime.
Speaking at the opening of a Communist Party congress in Moscow, Mr.
Zyuganov called for the resignation of Mr. Putin's Government, which
he said, had blindly followed economic reforms prescribed by the
International Monetary Fund. The Communist leader said the party was
forming a shadow government that would suggest alternative policies
in all spheres of life, especially economics.
"The party remains a responsible and irreconcilable opposition," Mr.
Zyuganov said.
Interestingly, Mr. Putin sent a congratulatory message to the
Communists' congress, expressing the hope that the party "will firmly
adhere to the principles of constructive dialogue and reasonable
compromise in its work.
"I believe that national interests, stability and civil peace in
Russia will continue to be unconditional priorities for the Russian
Communist Party," the message said.
Mr. Zyuganov said his party's top priority was establishing a
"Soviet-type democracy" and building a socialist society in Russia.
"Socialism is the modern form of Russian patriotism," he said.
He said the party had more than 500,000 members and was steadily
increasing its ranks.
The Communist Party is the biggest single party in Russia's lower
House of Parliament, though it lost many seats during last December's
elections. *****
Putin got Zyuganov's number: "national interests, stability and civil peace."
***** The Independent (London)
September 11, 2000, Monday
SECTION: FOREIGN NEWS; Pg. 10
HEADLINE: MILLION PEOPLE 'INVENTED' FOR RUSSIAN ELECTION
BYLINE: Helen Womack In Moscow
BALLOT PAPERS were burnt, voters bullied and entire electorates
invented in large-scale fraud perpetrated during Russia's
presidential election in March, The Moscow Times newspaper has
claimed. In its weekend edition, the respected English-language
daily said its journalists had gathered enough evidence to question
the legitimacy of the vote that brought Vladimir Putin, an obscure
former KGB agent, to the pinnacle of power.
The defeated Communist Party candidate, Gennady Zyuganov, complained
at the time that he had been robbed of the chance to go into a second
round against Mr Putin. And observers from the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, while finding the elections on
the whole "democratic and a step forward for Russia", spoke of
abuses. However, the newspaper's inquiry, carried out over the last
six months, was the most far-reaching and hard-hitting critique of
the poll on 26 March.
Perhaps the most startling discovery, it said, was that 1.3 million
new voters had appeared between the State Duma elections on 19
December 1999 and the presidential election just over three months
later. These were not "dead souls", as described in Nikolai Gogol's
famous novel of that name, but "new-born souls" who were given the
vote. Not only were children listed as adults but also corrupt
officials added fictional floors to multi-storey apartment buildings
and had their occupants vote for Mr Putin.
The newspaper did not even consider the gross manipulation of the
media that smeared and sidelined the opposition and made Mr Putin
seem the only viable candidate. It concentrated only on the
instances of bosses bullying workers to vote for Mr Putin or risk
losing their jobs and of election officials "correcting" unacceptable
results. It interviewed a policeman who witnessed government
officials burning sacks of votes for Mr Zyuganov.
In the Caucasian region of Dagestan, the newspaper said, theft of
votes from opposition candidates amounted at a conservative
calculation to 551,000 and there were disturbing discrepancies in
Saratov, Kabardino-Balkaria, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan as well.
The latter two regions voted en masse for Mr Putin even though their
leaders had been involved in the opposition. In Chechnya, the public
was asked to believe that 50.63 per cent of a population whose lives
and homes had been destroyed by Russian bombing had voted for Mr
Putin.
"Fraud was far from insignificant," The Moscow Times commented.
"Given how close the vote was - Putin won with just 52.94 per cent or
by a slim margin of 2.2 million votes - fraud and abuse of state
power appear to have been decisive. The inescapable conclusion is
that Putin would not have won outright on March 26 without cheating."
While the Communists and other opposition candidates complained,
however, all seemed to accept that after a second round, victory
would have gone to Mr Putin in the end. And in a country where
people still fear the authorities, few seemed inclined to take the
matter of vote-rigging to the courts. *****
The last paragraph in the above article is the key to understanding
the CPRF. It is ready to accept Putin's rule, presenting no serious
political challenge to it.
***** The Washington Post
April 10, 2000, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A20; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
HEADLINE: Antisemitism In Russian Politics
Rowland Evans and Robert Novak's March 30 op-ed column, "Putin and
the Press," about how supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin
used state-controlled media to attack his opponents recently missed
an important point:
In addition to linking Mr. Putin's liberal opponent Grigory Yavlinsky
to homosexuals, state-run television attacked him for his perceived
links to Jews, using antisemitic language and imagery. Mr.
Putin...has not disassociated himself from the broadcast....
NICKOLAI BUTKEVICH
Research and Advocacy Director
Union of Councils for Soviet Jews *****
Putin, by co-opting anti-Semitic & anti-liberal rhetoric widespread
in Russia, can coopt the themes of "socialism = the modern form of
Russian patriotism" as well. The CPRF has only itself to blame,
since it's happy with the role of the loyal opposition.
Yoshie
P.S. Johaness, I ask you to come back to the list & take part in the
debate. Anti-semitism has no place in revolutionary Marxism.
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