An Reabhloid special - after the coup in the USSR

An Rea bhloid s 9ecial| Inaspecial report John North Afte i T h e ( O U looks at events in the USSR | | and their significance for Why did the attempted coup in the USSR take place and why did it fail? It wasn’t because the organisers were drunken fools oramateurs. A number were involved in the crackdown on Solidarnose in Poland which went with clockwork precision, fragmented the mass struggle there, and drove it underground.

in fact the dynamics of the coup explain a great deal about the situation in the USSR and the prospect of future slrugitle, As explained elsewhere, the Gorbachev project was to save the bureaucracy by reforming it. Its fragmentation and inertia prevented the development of a clear plan and working class opposition slowed and blunted its implementation, Gorbachev was forced by the depth of the crisis Into increasingly violent zig-zags between the different sectors of the bureaucracy.

workers everywhere The rise of Baltic nationalism led to an alliance between Gorbachev and the hardliners around a policy of military repression. The Liberals left the communist party in protest at the tum to reaction. The repression failed and Gorbachev did another U-turn. Negotiations with the Liberals and the new-all-union treaty were the result.

The hardline coup leaders were members of the “Military- Industrial complex" - the Army, KGB and that section of the indusirial bureaucracy in charge of weapons production. They had most to lose from the new treaty and the eve of its signing forces their “split” from Gorbachev.

Their major problem was that no section of the bureaucracy believed any longer that the command economy can survive. The coup statement did not mention socialism and expressed no real program. Their agenda was seen as the “Pinochet option” - capitalist restoration under an armed Junta who would suppress all democratic nights and For a revival of Internationalism Earlier this year, well before the dramatic events surrounding the Coup in the USSR, the Fourth International, of which Peoples Democracy is the Irish section, held its World Congress in Europe. From that congress came a ringing call for a revival of socialist internationalism. This intemationalism, itself one of the casualties of Stalinist betrayal, is even more | necessary following the decay of Stalinism and the proclamations of capitalist triumph.

The appeal sets out a number of tasks: *The need for an ability to mobilise against imperialist interventions such as the Gulf war.

*The obligation of solidarity with the oppressed *The need to fight against backward prejudices of racism and sectarianism within the work ing class. *Combating the increasing capitalist organisation at the international level *Fighting for a Socialist alternative to bureaucratic plan and capitalist market based on human needs For reasons of space we are unable to print the full document, but copies are available from the contact addresses in the journal An Reabhloid page 12 |

Preserve ihe top DUTCaUCTALs.

The depth of the crisis had destroyed the hardliner’s confidence in their own ideology. They were-not able to uniic or organise effectively in tts absence. The got no support from the working class and the presence of an active resistance led toa steady defection of key figures.

Soviel workers were a major component of the resistance and the failure of the coup gave the confidence for mass mobilisauens. This mobilisation and growing militancy are the overwhelmingly positive gains following the failure of the coup. This analysis gives us some indication of the dangers ahead. The Communist party's grip has been broken but yf y disunguishable by the date of their leaving the party, None of the major issues have been resolved and the “Pinochet option” remains arcal danger. A number of “Nationalist” leaders are already involved in building asiate of sicge intheirown republics while enriching themselves through the introduction of privatisation and “free market” reforms.

Workers have mobilised, but they need an altcmative to the false Counter-position of market and bureaucratic plan - the possibility of production for their own needs and under their own control. Intemational solidarity has an important role to play in developing that consciousness both in the USSR and in the capitalist cconomics of the West.

The role of the bureaucracy Leon Trotsky saw the Stalinist bureaucracy as a counter-revolutionary force, balancing between the working class and imperialism. It could not be. reformed, and in crisis would move further to the right. Gorbachev, who came from the bureaucracy itself, set himself this impossible task of reform. In the process he proved Trotsky tight. No call, no inspiration, no zig or zag of policy could wake them to anything but a dull defence of theirprivileges. Every advance of democracy showed the hatred felt by the working class for these parasites. Those, like Yeltsin, who broke away from the Communist party did so to launch projects for capitalist restoration.

Gorbachev, unable to. adapt to the full restoration of capital, unwilling to support the alternative of worker's democracy and power, need only a push for his claims of supreme power to evaporate. The theory of “Socialism in One Country”, advanced by Stalin as the main theoretical justification for building bureaucratic mule, argued that the USSR could isolate itself from the political and economic currents in a world dominated by imperialism. The international socialist movement was crushed to provide him with a diplomatic shield. A vast apparatus of repression, an immense bureaucracy, were linked to a command economy controlling every aspect of Soviet life. By the time of Stalin’s death the system was creaking into crisis. Shoddy goods were produced at enormous cost, Labour productivity fell further and further behind the West and indebtedness grew. Kruschev, Stalin's successor, condemned his crimes but didn’t dare go public and appeal to the workers. He was himself purged.

The period of “Stagnation” followed. Soviet production faltered and began to fall. The crisis was accelerated by the US led arms race. Corruption grew throughout the bureaucracy and rigid repression kept political challenge at bay.

In desperation the bureaucracy turned to Gorbachev, Glasnost was to win public support for reform and perestrotka to bring in lirnited market reform under the control of the bureaucrats.

Gorbachev ruled out worker's control and took detailed steps to prevent it from being an option.

In the end his project failed. Democracy showed the vast unpopularity of Stalinism and the coup its failure and decay asa political project. There is no middle way between workers power and capitalism. The fall of the Stalinist nightmare makes this clear while removing a suffocating weight from the backs of soviet workers.

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Why we opposed the coup Many Communist Party members and supporters in the West either secretly or openly supported the coup by herdliners in the USSR, and are appalled at the events following its collapse.

Theirreaction is based on a fundamental! mistake - what Trotsky called the relationship of things rather than the relationship of people.

REMNANT

If the Soviet union had represented the shining light of working-class revolution then its fall would indeed by an overwhelming tragedy. It was nothing of the sort. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the remnant of a glorious revolution strangled by imperialism. In defeat the remnant held on to a number of the gains of the revolution but was deformed by bureaucratic rule and by an evil ideology that collaborated with imperialism and acted as a block on the further development of workers power.

There are dangers, but nothing in the recent developments in the USSR has yet removed any of the gains of working people and, by unleashing the Soviet proletariat and allowing the possibility of links with workers around the world, has actually improved the medium and long term potential for revolutionary change on a world scale. In this the Russian experience is actually returning toitsroots. The Bolshevik leaders saw their revolution as the first blow in a world-wide struggle for power. “The existence of the Soviet Republic side by side with imperialist states for a long time is unthinkable. One or the other must triumph in the end” - Lenin An Reabhloid page 14

Svents confirmed iis internalionalist pole y, SIM pcrialisis armed “White” counter-revolutionary forces and sent in their own armies 10 crush the revolution. Massive repression was unlcashed aginst solidarity MOovVemenLs, against incipient revolutions { a senes of nsings in Germany were drowned in blood) and against the revolution ary movement of workers across the globe - the 3rd Inter.

national. The USSR was isolated and it’s working class decimate,

STALIN

Outol the ruins rose Stalin. He united the state forces and the growing bureaucracy around his theory of “Socialism in one country”. To many this idea seemed like common sense. In practice iL meni: * The crushing of all democracy “The organisation of the party takes the place of the party itself: the central committee takes the place of the orzanisation; and finally, the dictator takes the place of the central committee” - Trotsky [Trotsky first wrote this as a criticism of Leninism. He laler came to support the party and rose to leadership in an organisation with a throughgoing internal democracy, only to sec his words come tragically true with the rise of Stalin as the revolution’s pravedigger] * The elevation of brutality, dictatorship, starvation and poverty to the status of “socialist society”.

* The destruction of the Comintem and the reduction of its constituent parties to diplomatic pawns of Soviet foreign policy. * Impotence im face of the nse of Fascism * The development of “Blocs’ - an historic ‘compromise’ with imperialism which justified the USSR in betraying genuine revoiutions in the west and the third world while imposing acaricature of its own system. on Eastern Europe * A precondition of all of the above was the liquidation of all the genuine Bolshevik revolutionaries, starting with the left opposition led by Trotsky “Communists have become bureaucrats. If anything will destroy us, it is this” - Lenin For decades the Stalinist bureaucracy has lived in uneasy balance between the working class and imperialism, A parasitic growth, it repressed working class protest ruthlessly. At the same time it had to oppose capitalist restoration which would also have swept itaway. The command economy wasted and blunted productive forces Leon Trotsky while the bureaucracy was riddled with inertia. They held back reform to the last and, when their own refonn proved impossible, they lacked any alternative but the tanks,

WORKERS OPPOSITION

However, precisely because of the nature of bureaucratic rule in the Soviet Union, it did not return to the capitalist fold following the decline of revolutionary forces. _ It remains a non-capitalist country with a strong working class. The decline of Gorbachev, the failure of his many schemes, rested in the end on working-class opposivion to privatisation schemes. There are many dangers. The crisisin the burcaucracy was nomic and military offensives by imperialism. The opposimon, led by Boris Yeltsin, is commuticd to a program of capitalist restoration. No major force of the left has emerged in a position of leadership. Yet the overwhelming fact is that the workers are free, they are on the move and they are gaining confidence in their own power.

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Triumph of the West? There’s no doubt at all about the immediate gains that the imperialist powers have made from the crisis in the Soviet Union. The USSR has vanished from the map as a world power. The US stands forth supreme as the sole superpower on the world stage. Above all there is the proclamation of the final political supremacy of Capitalism. Are we seeing what one US analyst called “the end of History”? and what George Bush defined as a new imperialist world order? Is the future a long dark night of the soul, while reaction rules triumphant and socialism struggles for survival?

CHAMPIONS OF DEMOCRACY?

Peoples Democracy rejects this doomladen scenario. The role of the West before the coup and since is hardly the tmumphant picture of the masters of the world directing events. Gorbachev’s pleas to the G7 meeting for help were rejected. He returned to to the USSR in derision with his pockets empty - a tempting target for the hardliners. During the coup the protests of Western leaders were muted. They kept their powder dry and were obviously willing to do business with the coup leaders. Even now, with the Communist party decisively defeated, there has been litths change of tack. British foreign secretary Hurd has advanced the suggestion that the West should demand the disbandment of the Red Army and then discuss the release of some petty cash. So much for the “champions of democracy” - the new “friends of the Soviet Union”!

CRISIS

his political weakness is based on an underlying economic weakness of imperialism. The economic erisis has laid waste the poorest counwes in the world and forced a flow of capital to the nch countries while uncounted numbers die.

Now it has intersected the crisis of the Stalinist bureaucracy and is moving with gathering momentum to the imperialist heartlands, bringing recession and mass unemployment. Alongside the recession goes a growing fragmentation of the imperialist powers, forced apart by economic rivalry and no longer held together by their joint fear of the USSR.

NO TO CAPITALIST ROAD

Capitalist restoration in the USSR would cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Without this the West risks a social upheaval by Soviet workers whoreject therestoration and seek workers power.

Where is this money to come from? Certainly not from the Group of Seven leaders - they offer membership of the IMF and World Bank. Both institutions are linked with superausterity policles in Africa, Asia, Latin America - and have had their hand in th: present austerity offensive in Ireland. At the moment they are successfully alienating Polish workers who are facing the full rigours of the Capitalist road.

There is everything to play for. The collapse of Stalinism has released the productive capacity of Soviet warkers.and linked them again to the world working class without the mask of the bureaucracy: Political revolution for workers power is an underlying dynamic to the situation. The West lacks the unity, understanding and capacity io oversee a capitalist restoration, The outcome of this struggle willnot be decided within any national boundaries but will be truly international in scope. That's why the tasks of solidarity are so vitally important.

FOR A REVIVAL OF

INTERNATIONALISM!

FOURTH INTERNATIONAL

APPEAL

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