Documents menu

Resolution of the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation:

Moscow Pravda Rossii, 8 May 1997

On the Attitude to Russia's Ruling Political Regime

Reviewing the period since the previous party congress, the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation [CPRF] observes that over this time the profoundly anti-people's character of Russia's ruling political regime has become even more distinct and obvious.

The president and his government are growing ever closer to the bigwigs of new-found Russian capital, venal officialdom, and criminal structures. All their schemes and efforts are aimed at definitively entrenching capitalist ways in Russia and making irreversible a system that oppresses and politically and ideologically represses many millions of people.

Personal bitter experience leads every honest person to the inevitable conclusion that the interests of the current state authorities are those of a narrow, corrupt grouping which has grown rich by plundering the common property of the people.

The accelerated and barefaced capitalization of Russia has returned society to class antagonisms which make talk of "social partnership" hollow and naive.

Furthermore, we can now see the full scale of the task of saving Russian statehood itself and our very country, which international capital is turning into a semi-colony. This is a task of national importance and unites the workers' class struggle with the national liberation struggle of all patriotic strata of the population.

In these circumstances, the CPRF, which continues to consistently express the will and interests of the working people, can only be implacably opposed to Russia's ruling political regime, the president, the government, and their comprador, pro-Western entourage. Being implacably opposed means speaking out openly against the current authorities' anti-people's course, against the capitalization and colonization of the country, against any step by the ruling circles aimed at further impoverishing and violating the legal interests of working people.

To this end, as V.I. Lenin declared, Communists should actively use those levers on the current state regime that have been entrusted to them by the will of the electorate. With a major faction in the Federal Assembly and a large number of seats in regional representative and executive organs and in local government, Communists are called upon to do everything in their power to resist policies aimed at destroying the Russian state and to combat private capital's attack on the interests of workers, the debasement of Russian culture and morals, and the defilement of our people's heroic past.

In this sense, the CPRF represents not only the implacable opposition but also a responsible opposition force fighting to preserve the integrity of the country and to save society and the state. The government's political maneuvering, ministerial reshuffles, and countless assurances and promises cannot hide the essence of what the authorities have actually done. Any government created by the current regime will serve its aims of robbing the people.

On this basis, the Fourth Congress of the CPRF considers that in the prevailing situation the party's most important task is to replace the entire ruling regime and to systematically build up popular opposition to the new ruinous bout of "shock reforms," presidential autocracy, and the betrayal of national interests. Uncoordinated strikes, pickets, rallies, and demonstrations should merge into a growing wave of organized mass workers' protests. The lack of confidence in the current regime, the president, the government, and other bearers of anti-people's reforms, the need for a radical change of sociopolitical and economic direction, and the creation of a government of national interests and popular trust should be clearly expressed from the parliamentary platform by Communists and their allies and supported by all legal extra-parliamentary forms of mass struggle.

The ruling regime's striving to maintain its supremacy, to dissolve the Duma, which it has dubbed "Red," and moreover to use force can only intensify popular protests and lead to a Russia-wide political strike, mass acts of civil disobedience, and the demand for a nationwide referendum on the abandonment of Yeltsin's "reforms."

Communists believe that the mounting wave of popular opposition is primarily attributable to the social nature of the current crisis and the continuing fall in the living standard of millions of people. At this important stage of mass protest the CPRF, as the spearhead of an implacable and responsible opposition, remains true to Lenin's call to fight for the people's interests. We advocate the removal of the current ruling oligarchy by constitutional means and the return of power to the working people. We advocate the creation of a government expressing the fundamental interests of the majority of the population and working under the reliable control of popular, soviet-type representation. We advocate the salvation of our motherland from fatal capitalist degeneration and the restoration and renewal on Russian soil of the great values of socialism.

WNR has now been up and running for over a month, it has covered news stories otherwise difficult to obtain, or news from the Labour and Trade Union movement.

If you wish to submit articles you are more than welcome, we particularly invite articles on Labour disputes, conditions at work, the activities of Multinationals, and reports on economic and political developments in your country.

WNR is sent to several Labour and Trade Union listsev systems, if you receive WNR through one of these lists already please inform us. If you wish to unsubscribe simply mail us and say so.