150 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
150 lines
8.6 KiB
Plaintext
Libertarian Labor Review #15
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Summer 1993, pages 30-33
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Anarchism in Russia
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by Mikhail Tsovma
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Tsovma notes that this article reflects his personal views,
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though he is an activist in the KAS. He has attempted to be
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objective, but notes that his positions are inevitably present:
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The majority of anarchist groups remain at the margins of
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social and political life, unable to propose any significant
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alternatives. The groups that were created by dozens last year have
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tended to disintegrate, the number of participants in anarchist
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groups stabilized approximately at the level reached in 1989, when
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the first country-wide anarchist federation (KAS) was created.
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Today the movement is still split in spite of all the talk of
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cooperation between different tendencies. In major cities like
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Moscow, anarchists can enjoy the luxury of creating 5 groups of
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four people, but in the provinces the number of activists is
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usually not more than ten people.
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This year has seen feverish activity by the Federation of
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Revolutionary Anarchists (FRAN)--numerous pickets, leftist meetings
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and organizational attempts. Created in 1992 as a federation of
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libertarian communist groups, FRAN now has activists in half a
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dozen towns in Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine. Its local groups
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usually cooperate with various Trotskyist and Communist sects
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(usually the most "revolutionary" ones). On Nov. 7, 1992, they even
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organized a demonstration to commemorate the anniversary of the
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Bolshevik coup d'etat (which they consider to have been an anti-
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capitalist revolution). The poster which advertised the demo was
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signed by IREAN (Moscow group of FRAN) and two Trotskyist groups
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(each one consisting of only one to two members). The flags of the
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Fourth International and CNT-AIT and wildcat symbols were put
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together at the demonstration. After their own march through the
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streets of Moscow they went to the Stalinist demonstration--an odd
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place to try to recruit members for an anarchist group.
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FRAN is also attempting to create a union which would become
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the Russian section of the International Workers Association.
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During last year's East-West syndicalist conference in Berlin,
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IREAN was made the publisher of the East European bulletin "of the
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friends of IWA." Two issues have been published (in Russian) and
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the tendency is quite clear--the Confederation of Anarcho-
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Syndicalists (KAS) is in fact cut off from this bulletin.
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It is very characteristic that the decision to become an IWA
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section preceded the creation of the union--very few of the FRAN
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activists previously made syndicalist propaganda or tried to
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organize independent unions. Obviously, the attempt to become the
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Russian section of the International is a great motivation in
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itself as it gives those people seeking high esteem the requisite
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status.
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At the same time, the oldest and still the biggest anarcho-
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syndicalist federation in Russia, KAS, declared (in May 1991) that
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it does not yet seek affiliation to any specific international
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tendency, but is open to cooperation with various anarchist and
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syndicalist groups. The results to date are not so great, but still
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they are much more real than the claims of FRAN.
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Another field of activity which attracts activists from
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different anarchist groups is ecology. Every summer this or that
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source of pollution (nuclear power plant, chemical or other heavy
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industry enterprise) becomes the target of anarchists and radical
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ecologists. This year two campaigns will be organized--one against
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the storage of nuclear wastes in Siberia, and the other against a
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metallurgical plant in Cheropovets. Though there's still a lot to
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be desired in the efficiency and organization of these actions,
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they at least have the potential to unite the libertarian viewpoint
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and popular protest movements.
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Recently some groups revived their publications. Thus at the
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end of 1992, Moscow anarcho-syndicalists relaunched Obschina
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magazine, and anarchists in Irkutsk and Kemerovo are also thinking
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about launching new papers. Small publications oriented mainly to
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other anarchists also seem to be developing. This is a good sign as
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for quite a long time the anarchist press was constantly
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collapsing.
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It is necessary to mention that many groups declaring
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themselves "anarchist" do a good job of discrediting the anarchist
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movement in general. Thus at the end of last year, at the Congress
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of the Association of Anarchist Movements (ADA), a group was
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created called the "Association of Anarchist Movements (Marxist-
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Leninist). No comments about this group, but its worth mentioning
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that many people equate anarchist with various foreign Marxist-
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Leninist guerrillas. Anarchist news bulletins constantly inform
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that this or that "anarchist" group made a protest to support the
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RAF, Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), the IRA, Basque terrorists or
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Red Brigades. Moscow IREAN is particularly notorious for this kind
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of action.
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The liberal wing of the anarchist movement also seems to be
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quite confused about anarchist theory. Thus, at the end of last
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year the St. Petersburg Anarcho-Democratic Union declared its
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support for the government's economic "reform" policies. Two
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Moscow-based libertarian capitalist "anarchist" groups--the Moscow
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Union of Anarchists and the Union of Anarcho-Universalists--have
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degenerated into commercial distribution enterprises. The leader of
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the Moscow Union of Anarchists, Alexander Cheryakov, even started
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publishing an advertising paper full of ads featuring "pretty girls
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for wealthy businessmen."
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The conclusion is obvious. The Russian anarchist movement is
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in a terrible state and a lot needs to be done before we can
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present a real alternative to the present destructive developments
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in Russia and the other former Soviet republics. One of the tasks
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will be a clearer definition of what anarchist ideas are and how
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they can be implemented here and now. Surely this process won't
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lead to the creation of the "united anarchism" that some people
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dream about, but it will help activists from different groups try
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out their ideas. At this point the anarchist press both here and
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abroad is filled with short sloganistic manifestos which stand in
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for serious analysis and careful programs. Today the KAS program,.
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adopted in 1989 and devoted mainly to an analysis of the Soviet
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regime, remains the only such consistent attempt to put forward a
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libertarian socialist program. The realities of a "free market"
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Third World capitalism are still waiting to be considered by
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Russian anarchists.
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For readers of anarchist publications from other countries
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Russian anarchists may seem rather weird, and so they are. It is
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quite doubtful that anarchists should try to copy all the ideas and
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actions of their comrades in the First World. But surely there is
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a difference between difference and idiocy.
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There's a very long way to go, and we should start moving.
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Wages and Living Standards
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Inflation in February 1993 was 29 percent a month. A recent
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economics ministry study found that one-third of Russia's
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population was living below the officially defined subsistence
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level. While prices rose by 26 times last year, the average wage
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increased only 13.5 times.
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Unemployment continues to grow, but at a slower pace than
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predicted. Russia's "official" unemployed, fewer than 1 percent of
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the workforce, account for only a fraction of the number who are
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chronically out of work. Starved of credits and raw materials,
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factories shut down for as many as several weeks a month rather
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than carry out mass layoffs.
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The Russian government's "solution" to unemployment is a
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familiar line--"Women: back to the home." More than 70 percent of
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Russia's officially unemployed workers are women. But Labor
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Minister Gennady Melikyan says he sees no need for special programs
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to help women return to the workforce. "Why should we try to find
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jobs for women when men are idle and on unemployment benefits?"
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Melikyan said. "Let men work and women take care of the homes and
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their children."
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A few years ago women made up 51 percent of the Russian
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workforce. But government cutbacks, aimed largely at middle-level
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administrative staff, have disproportionately hit women. The
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government's drive to turn women back into housekeepers and baby-
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minders is reflected in a new law on the family pending in the
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Supreme Soviet. The first draft would have nullified women's right
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to abortion and banned women with children from working more than
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35 hours a week. Following protests from women's and human rights
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groups, the most controversial clauses were dropped, but the
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current draft eliminates the state's obligation to provide day care
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for the children of working women.
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