Fwd: [Iskra] Interview, Oleg Shein,only elected revolutionary Deputy to

just an info.. i am not quite sure what this means at the moment since 
i could not deeply read it due to my exams...

peace,

Mine


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 07:49:01 -0500 (EST)
From: SMye5@aol.com
To: SMye5@aol.com
Subject: Fwd: [Iskra] Interview, Oleg Shein, only elected revolutionary 
Deputy to Russia


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 SMye5@aol.com), 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’s 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’s 
old Iskra paper. Further it is progressive in that it champions the 
oppressed: is for women’s 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’s RKRP (who got 2.5% in the elections), and Viktor 
Anpilov’s Stalinist-bloc with Stalin’s 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.