Serious, confident, comradely and youthful would be a good start in describing the atmosphere at the Congress of Socialist Alternative, supporters of the ISA in Russia last weekend.
The three-day residential meeting with members from different sections of the International joining online comes after a hectic year of activity.
Official Russian information states that Covid-19 has taken the lives of 115,000 people, although according to the state statistics body in the last year nearly 500,000 people have died more than would have done in an average year. But this has not held back our determined fight. On the contrary we have seen significant growth over the year, including with new members in important cities.
As in other parts of the world of course, Russia has experienced the dramatic consequences of the economic crisis, made worse by the virus. Volatility has increased — during the year Russia has experienced the plebiscite to extend Putin’s rule to 2036, the heroic struggle of neighboring Belarusians against President Lukashenko, the months’ long protests in Russia’s Far East against the sacking of a regional governor, the poisoning of Alexei Navalny, war in Nagorno-Karabakh, the youth anti-corruption protests at the beginning of this year and now a dramatic increase in repression.
The first day of the Congress was devoted to the current world situation. The recent huge stimuli approved by several governments and the increase in tensions between the US and China are not abstract issues as far as Russian socialists are concerned. There has been a dramatic stepping up of diplomatic hostilities between Russia and other countries in the past months. The recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh was an example of how other imperialist interests are being drawn into proxy wars. Contributions were enriched by comrades who had been involved in the recent Belarussian events and youth protests.
On the second day members discussed the situation in Russia. The economy suffered a drop of 3,5% last year, less than originally expected because the government avoided full-scale lockdowns, preferring instead to allow one of the highest Covid death rates in the world. However as one comrade explained, the situation was helped because after the 2008 collapse in which Russia suffered one of the world’s biggest drops, the government made a conscious turn away from neoliberalism in favour of state intervention and support for the large monopolies, whilst continuing with austerity for basic needs such as healthcare and education. This was summed up in the Resolution passed by the ISA’s World Congress last year: “Economically, Russia balances neo-liberalism with state support and regulation. A stringent budgetary policy deprives healthcare, education and the skeleton social services of resources whilst a network of state-controlled corporations in the energy, defence and transport sectors supported by ‘national projects’ supposedly to modernise technology, healthcare and education are in reality propping up Russian capital”. As another comrade commented in this discussion the exact balance between these two approaches will be determined by the outcome of class struggle. There is clearly the basis for thinking this will develop as real incomes have been falling for ten years now, and inflation is eating away at the already low incomes experienced by most Russians.
Another very important part of the discussion was over the nature of the Russian regime, a bonapartist regime in which having lost popular support, the weak capitalist elite has to rely on state control and repression in the form of the Putin regime. As he too is becoming increasingly incapable of seriously addressing any problems, repression is being dramatically ramped up. Opposition activists no longer face arrest on civil charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 days, but increasingly criminal charges with sentences of up to five years. The so-called “Dudin Law” means that anyone detained a third time on charges related to protests automatically leads to a long sentence.
Typical is the case of Socialist Alternative supporter Matvey, who has already served six weeks in prison after participating in one of January’s anti-corruption protests and then handing out leaflets for International Womens’ Day and now faces charges that could send him to prison for five years. Now the regime has declared Navalny’s anti corruption campaign “extremist” and declared that no-one associated with “extremists” will be allowed to participate in September’s parliamentary election.
Those contributing to the discussion pointed out however that this tightening of the screw was not a sign of strength, but of weakness and fear. There are many issues in today’s Russia that can potentially led to major protests: prominent among them the continuing decline in living standards, corruption, the continued violence against women, climate change and the attacks on democratic rights.
In this context there was much discussion about how socialists can maintain the maximum public activity whilst minimizing the risks for our members. Given the very restrictive electoral law which in effect restricts the participation of anyone who is not linked to one of the four “system” parties as candidates, our approach to this Autumn’s parliamentary election was agreed. The position of Navalny is to call for “Smart voting” — voting for whoever is best positioned to beat the Kremlin’s “United Russia” party. This almost always means voting for one of the other three Kremlin approved parties and experience has shown, that even when successful, such candidates simply follow the Kremlin line after election.
At the same time a number of armchair Marxists have pointed out an apparent split in the Kremlin friendly Communist Party “which stands for a left-wing, clear anti-Putin course”. With the potential for protests very high in Russian society it should be no surprise that this is reflected in the CP, which uses it to strengthen its hand in negotiating with the Kremlin. But leaders of this “new current”, which include the leader of the Moscow CP differ little from the national leadership. One of the best known, Nikolai Bondarenko has his office walls plastered with Stalin portraits, his natural electorate consists of pensioners and he has earnt a reputation as oppositionist with anti-corruption rhetoric barely distinguishable from that of Navalny. The Moscow party led by the so-called opposition Valery Rashkin benefitted in the last election from “Smart voting”, but once elected voted loyally for the United Russia’s budget plans, expelling two members who resisted.
In this situation, and with election campaigning still offering limited potential for legal public activities Socialist Alternative will collect signatures for the nomination of independent socialist candidates, with the recommendation to other lefts, trade unions and genuine oppositionists to do the same. Whilst we have no illusions that even in the tens of thousands signatures necessary for nomination are collected that our candidates will be allowed to run, we see the signature campaign as a means of meeting and discussing with workers and youth, of potentially strengthening organised opposition to the Kremlin.
The second day of our Congress finished with a very welcome discussion led by member of the Socialist Party in Ireland on how we develop a genuinely revolutionary atmosphere in the organisation by ensuring that the sexist, racist and anti-LGBT pressures that exist throughout capitalist society can be effectively dealt with.
The Congress concluded with discussions about how we organise our work effectively. There was a training session for our supporters of how to act when arrested and in court. A new leadership was elected. We were then treated with a very inspiring report by Sonja Grusch of the ISA International Executive of the work of the ISA. And, of course, a rendition of the Internationale.