The Great Class Struggle, the Democratic Social Front, and the Problems of the Communists
1. Today, a great class battle is unfolding in Russia.
The ruling class is leading an unprecedented attack on the social rights of the population, on the interests of the absolute majority of the people - workers and employees, intellectuals and students, entrepreneurs and the self-employed.
Accepted by the ruling "United Russia" in the first reading, raising the retirement age threatens to deprive 10-15 million people of their pensions, throw 10-15 million unemployed into the market. And this is against the backdrop of a severe economic crisis, rising prices and tariffs! Fierce competition among workers inevitably leads to a fall in wages, the collapse of labor standards, the deterioration of the demographic situation, the growth of interethnic conflicts, a new frenzy.
The oligarchy is embarking on a robbery of the people, and the people clearly see this, in spite of all the diversions, neither on the manipulation of "experts" nor on the crackle of "patriotic" propaganda. Seeds of anger are being sown and are ripening in the souls of the people. This is an objective fact.
2. But in addition to the objective factor, the subjective factor is also important. Even the most massive discontent will not result in anything without an organization coordinating and directing the people's movement. None of the parties today is capable of alone fighting the oligarchy. For the success of such a struggle, even on a particular issue, a single democratic social front is needed.
Why single? Unity is the main condition for victory. Today, we know of no fewer than half a dozen "headquarters" that set the task of coordinating a popular protest, but often unable to coordinate even among themselves. Only by acting as a united front, we are able to defeat the oligarchy - a small but well-organized enemy.
Why democratic? Democracy within the front is an indispensable prerequisite for unity, the basis for mutual trust and cooperation, the only defense against betraying one of the leaders. Openness and collegiality of decision-making is a condition for mass involvement of new people, awakening their initiative. It is unacceptable to attempt to monopolize a protest by one single force. This will only lead to a split and a weakening of the entire movement.
Why social? The struggle for social rights excludes cooperation with antisocial forces - populist marketers who have been nurturing plans for raising the retirement age, new privatization and other anti-people measures for decades, and now hypocritically condemning the government for implementing the same program.
Foreign forces that are alien to the people's cause will inevitably try to adhere to it, but observance of the criteria of unity, democracy and sociality will allow the movement to defend itself and win.
Foreign forces that are alien to the people's cause will inevitably try to adhere to it, but observance of the criteria of unity, democracy and sociality will allow the movement to defend itself and win.
The united front of trade unions and communists, socialists and social democrats, people's patriotic and left-liberal forces, and most importantly of the broad masses of the people, is the most important task. Only by solving this problem the people will achieve real democracy, political and economic, will create prerequisites for the country's progressive development.
3. The current moment and tasks of the Communists.
The aggravation of capitalist contradictions on a world and national scale marks a new stage in the development of the class struggle.
The state monopoly capitalism that has developed in Russia during the last quarter of a century and received its political formulation in the Putin's Bonapartism regime is now losing support both among the proletariat and among the petty and middle bourgeoisie. And the latter, unable to withstand competition with the oligarchy, received an impetus to the political struggle against the regime before the proletariat, falling under the hegemony of liberal, pro-Western, ultra-market forces interested in the new wholesale privatization of state property.
The proletariat, in the end of the tragic, ninetieth period of relative stabilization at the end of the zero - the beginning of the tenths until the last time, remained politically passive, remaining loyal to the regime or completely eliminating politics, and at least avoiding the liberal opposition. The standard of living has gradually improved as compared to the end of the twentieth century, the regime has gradually become tougher, and the political and professional organizations of the working class have become stagnant and declining.
The proletariat, in the end of the tragic, ninetieth period of relative stabilization at the end of the zero - the beginning of the tenths until the last time, remained politically passive, remaining loyal to the regime or completely eliminating politics, and at least avoiding the liberal opposition. The standard of living has gradually improved as compared to the end of the twentieth century, the regime has gradually become tougher, and the political and professional organizations of the working class have become stagnant and declining.
The economic crisis that erupted in 2015 shook this design, and the latest antisocial measures taken against the background of the regime threaten to completely crush it.
Infringing the interests of the absolute majority of the population, pension "reform" (along with rising prices and other ongoing and prepared neoliberal measures) not only induce the proletariat to speak, but also enable it to win hegemony in a democratic, social, anti-oligarchic movement, lead the middle strata , wresting them from the influence of the pro-Western bourgeoisie. It is not by chance that left and trade union organizations, not yet consistently Marxist, but already non-liberal, not open-bourgeois, have come to the forefront of this movement in recent weeks.
Of course, the bourgeoisie will try to intercept and neutralize this movement more than once, but the era of the dichotomy of the right-wing regime and the extreme right-wing opposition is becoming a thing of the past.
In this situation, the task of the Communists and all the left-wing forces is tireless and energetic work at all levels-working among the masses, agitation and propaganda among the broadest strata of the working people; work to create a united front against the oligarchy, work on the hegemony of the proletariat in it. Finally, it is a struggle for the unity of the Communists themselves, overcoming the fragmentation inevitable in the period of reaction and disastrous in the period of social upsurge.
The inertia of the previous stage must be overcome, new large-scale tasks, requiring courage and full return, are on the agenda.
Ilya ZNAMENSKY
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