X-WebTV-Signature: 1 ETAtAhQ5MtkxAce/KnV2gbrplD33GlH51wIVAIfFuvBKqpzqoYppGoTrvD9RQoqe From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez) Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 02:24:27 -0600 (MDT) To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu Subject: Capitalist Russia in Free Fall (fwd) From:    janet@wwpublish.com To:    "Workers World News Service" Subject:    Capitalist Russia in Free Fall Date:    Fri, Oct 2, 1998, 8:46pm (MDT+1) Sender:    listserv@wwpublish.com RUSSIA IN FREE FALL: WORKERS PLAN MASSIVE STRIKE FOR JOBS, BACK PAY By Gary Wilson The 50-million-member Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia is planning a one-day general strike Oct. 7. Union leaders predict that more than 36 million workers will join the protest action. The massive day of protest is to demand full back pay and job guarantees. Some left parties are also calling for the protest to continue longer than one day--until President Boris Yeltsin resigns. Some are predicting a winter of strikes and demonstrations as the economic crisis brought on by the return of capitalism grows worse by the day. The next big action is expected on Nov. 7, the anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution led by the Bolsheviks. The pro-capitalist pollsters are anxiously trying to gauge the extent of working class resistance. They are asking questions like, Do you support another communist revolution? The Institute of Social and National Problems in Moscow found that only two in 10 Russians prefer capitalism. Almost 80 percent prefer the former Soviet socialist system, finding it far superior in all areas. They also prefer Leonid Brezhnev to Boris Yeltsin by five to one. In the years since the overturn of the socialized economy, Russia has become severely impoverished and dependent on foreign imports. As much as 70 percent of the food consumed in big cities like Moscow comes from abroad. The International Red Cross is predicting that some regions of the country will face mass starvation this winter. The economic crisis gripping the country continues. Industrial output fell by 11.5 percent in August. Inflation is now at 43 percent, with prices for some basic foods doubling or tripling. Official unemployment is now at 11.5 percent, or just over 8 million people. The Russian gross domestic product--goods produced--had already fallen about 45 percent from 1989 to 1997, reported the Oct. 5 U.S. magazine Business Week. Oil output, for example, was down 50 percent from its peak. And investment in new plants and equipment has plunged downward by 92 percent. Meanwhile, Business Week reported, "some two-thirds of the federal budget in mid-1998 was devoted to debt servicing." That means two-thirds of the government's funds went directly to the Western imperialist banks, primarily in the United States, Germany and Britain. Since the plunge of the ruble and the Duma's refusal to approve a prime minister representing the new billionaires, Yeltsin has replaced his cabinet with former members of the Mikhail Gorbachev government that introduced the capitalist "reforms." But there is no sign that this move has won any popularity with the working class. There has been no enthusiasm for the new prime minister, Yevgeny Primakov. As long as the government in Moscow upholds capitalist relations in Russia, the wealth of the country will continue to be drained by profiteers, at home and especially from the imperialist West. And even if the Oct. 7 general strike wins promises of back pay, there won't be money of any real value to pay the workers unless they fight to take back their rightful ownership of all the industries and land that have been sold off, privatized and looted for the benefit of the new exploiting class. More protests are sure to follow. Mine worker leaders have already said they will continue their ongoing strikes and protests, whatever happens in October.                                                  - END - (Copyright Workers World Service. For more information contact via e-mail: ww@workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org)