Russia: Interview, Oleg Shein, only elected revolutionary

Interview by Steve Myers, January 2000

Forward

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

1. 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. 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:

• Support struggling collectives fighting for their rights.
• Organize contact between workers groups from all areas of the country.
• Publicly oppose anti-worker legislation.
• 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. 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. 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.