Russia, October 6, 1998
These are Communists
What's left of the Russian Communist Party
Oh that Red Horde, the Communists! The eternal
Russian bogeyman these days is the Communists threat. Well its the
bogeyman for the majority of Muscovites, for this city would shrivel up
and die if they took over. In the provinces however, the Reds are still
the heroes of the people, providing something for nothing, like the glorious
Russian past.
A protest by Party members.
There are still quite a few open Communists who parade around the city on important holidays, marching to bring back the days of bread lines and disappearances. They have a quasi-legitimate stance, that the people are getting a raw deal in this new "consumer" society. There are plenty of raw deals, in this and every consumer society, just check out the local bum in any major American city. Here the losers are the grandparents, well actually almost everyone over 30 years old who will not change with the times. Pensions for the elderly have gone from decent to worthless after the roubles devaluations and price inflations. Once a 100 roubles a month could feed and clothe two people, now people will not pick up a 100 rouble note off the streets. Housing, which used to be free, is now approaching unaffordable to all but us over-paid Westerners. How can a person making $600 a month (and that's a good job) afford to live anywhere near the center of Moscow if the rents are $400 for a single room?
Sovetskaya Rossiya October 6, 1998
"To the Working People!"
By Gennadiy Zyuganov, chairman of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia,
Comrade!
Gaydar stole your savings; Chubays stole your property; Chernomyrdin stole your pay. But for seven years you have been patient. First you believed Yeltsin's promises and the lying television. Then you hoped to survive on your own, to sit out the crisis in your vegetable garden.
As a reward for your submissiveness, since 17 August they have been stealing from you all that you have left. And no end to this process is in sight. If you continue to be patient, tomorrow they will drive you out of house and home. They will put your mother and father in the graveyard, turn your wife and sister into prostitutes, and leave your children to beg at the church door. And you will be able to "freely" choose: Either to hang yourself or to take up a cudgel and embark on a life of crime.
Is
there another choice? There is!
You no longer believe in the authorities or in the promises of all the would-be "saviors of the Fatherland," and rightly so. But it is necessary to believe in the power of the solidarity of the working people. It is necessary to believe in your comrades who have already risen up to fight for a dignified existence. And there can be no decent life as long as the "guarantor" of the destructive course remains in the presidential office. Yeltsin is a an obstacle in everyone's way, and won't allow either you, or the government, or parliament to work.
Demanding the president's resignation, miners and power workers and teachers and doctors are striking, going on hunger strike, and blocking the roads. But their efforts so far remain in vain, because up till now they have acted separately. Unified, coordinated, and simultaneous actions by all the working people are needed. Your comrades decided to begin them 7 October -- the day of the All-Russia protest action. Millions of people will attend rallies and demonstrations and form pickets outside government buildings. Hundreds and thousands of enterprises will stop work.
This time you do not have the right to remain on the sidelines -- your comrades need your help. Without you there will be a yawning gap in their ranks, through which the robbers of your family and the corrupters of your children will climb.
Take up your place in the people's ranks!
Everyone attend the protest action!
October 7 is only the beginning. The protest will continue and escalate. The regime must be granted no rest or respite. We will not allow ourselves to be bought with sops; we will not retreat until our demands are fulfilled:Yeltsin must resign! An immediate and resolute change of course!
All power to the working people!