Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 10:53:43 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Russia: Western Banks to Buy Elections (fwd)




---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 00:09:26 -0500 (CDT)
From: Chegitz Guevara <mluziett-AT-shrike.depaul.edu>
To: "lists -- Conference iww.news" <iww-news-AT-igc.apc.org>,
    Marxism <marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu>,
    Marxism 2 <marxism2-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu>,
    cflist <marxchat-AT-stud.unit.no>, SLDRTY-L <SLDRTY-L-AT-LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: Russia: Western Banks to Buy Elections (fwd)


Marc, "the Chegitz," Luzietti
personal homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett
political homepage: http://shrike.depaul.edu/~mluziett/chegitz.html

fnord

---------- Forwarded message ----------

EYEWITNESS RUSSIA: WESTERN BANKS LOOK TO BUY ELECTIONS

By Bill Doares
Moscow

The world's bankers and capitalists, spearheaded by Washington and Wall
Street, are spending billions of dollars to buy Russia's upcoming
presidential election for Boris Yeltsin. If that doesn't work, they're
willing to support other means to prevent Communist Party of the Russian
Federation (KPRF) candidate Gennady Zyuganov from becoming president. 

On May 23 the Russian Business Roundtable, representing 92 major Russian
corporations, endorsed Yeltsin. And the World Bank announced a
$530-million loan to help Yeltsin "restructure" Russia's coal industry. 

World Bank President James Wolfensohn said his institution would lend
Yeltsin more than $6.5 billion in all this year.  That's on top of a
$10-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. 

In late April the Paris Club, a conclave of Western creditors, announced
it would reschedule payment of Russia's $40-billion debt to stretch over
25 years. 

All this is if Yeltsin wins, of course. But if Zyuganov is elected,
Wolfensohn warned, he would "take a look at what the [World] Bank should
do." The IMF has said it would cancel its loan if Russia elects a
president with "a communist approach" or if "reforms go off track." 

CHAOS FOR WORKERS

Working-class Russians don't share the bankers' enthusiasm for Yeltsin.
Workers World spoke to Vladimir Potishky, the head of the disabled miners'
society of Vorkutia in the far north. 

"Out of 13 mines in our region, five will be closed and two have already
shut down," he said. 

"In those mines that are still open, there are no longer trade-union
safety inspectors, and damaged equipment is not replaced. There are many
more accidents. Wages are delayed for months and so are our disability
payments." 

Iulia Khokovets, age 12, lived on the streets of Moscow with her
grandmother for a year after their home in the Kurile Islands was
destroyed by an earthquake. "The money we were pro mised has not come, and
nothing back home has been rebuilt," she told WW. 

Iulia has received two Young Virtuoso awards for violin and piano. She
composes music. Now, instead of going to school, she is supporting her
family by playing the violin in the Moscow subways for a few dollars a
day. 

More than 9 million former Soviet people have been forced to abandon their
homes since 1989, according to a recent United Nations report. 

BRIBES AND PROMISES

With tens of billions of dollars in Western loans at his disposal, Yeltsin
is now doling out money--or promises of money--right and left. 

He recently signed a decree giving farmers a $5-billion subsidy. He pro
mised that electricity rates would be cut in half. He ordered pensions
increased and overdue money paid to retirees. 

On a recent visit to Yaroslavl, scene of a militant auto workers' strike,
Yeltsin promised $700,000 for housing for veterans of the Afghanistan war.
And in the short run-- before the election, that is--the World Bank's
coal-industry loan will pay miners several months' back wages. 

The pro-Yeltsin media, state and private, trumpet the message again and
again: If Yeltsin is re-elected, billions of U.S. dollars will be
available for industry and agriculture. 

Those who would impose capitalism on Russia hope that need and desperation
will bring a vote for Yeltsin. 

But it's all a trick. The conditions behind the Western loans demand
permanent layoffs and cutbacks even more devastating than those already
seen. For example, the World Bank's plan for Russia's coal industry calls
for laying off 200,000 miners. 

Western money is also financing a glitzy pro-Yeltsin propaganda barrage. 

The most lavish newspaper ever seen in Russia--a six-page, glossy,
multicolored rag called "God Save Us"--is being sent free every week to 12
million homes. One issue ridiculed this year's May Day march by focusing
in on the physical disabilities of the oldest marchers: their missing
teeth and other signs of aging. 

It was a cynical slap at members of the generation that defeated Hitler's
war machine and built the Soviet Union into a modern industrial
country--and who are horrified at what capitalism has done to their land. 

The front page of another issue carried an appeal from Stacey
Edwards--star of the U.S. soap opera "Santa Barbara,"  widely watched in
Russia--urging people to vote for Yeltsin. 

MEDIA MONOPOLY

Russia's state and private media--the first by government order, the
second by their owners' choice--have turned the television and print news
into a virtual nonstop commercial for Yeltsin and a diatribe against
Zyuganov. 

Yet Yeltsin is regularly jeered on campaign trips. In Krasnodar and
Yaroslavl he was met by workers chanting, "Bring the Yeltsin gang to
trial." 

The TV news doesn't show that. On TV, he's always shown getting a friendly
reception. 

Igor Malashenko, director of Russia's biggest commercial TV network, also
works as Yeltsin's media consultant. 

TV news anchor Nikolai Svanidze told Time magazine: "I make no bones about
what we are doing. ... We coordinate with Yeltsin's staff. ... Honesty
will have to wait until later." 

Every night, TV news shows broadcast poll results that supposedly show
Yeltsin leading Zyuganov--a dramatic change from just two months ago. A
Yeltsin adviser admitted to Time, "None of these polls is accurate." 

A secret poll taken by the government itself shows Yeltsin leading in
Moscow and Leningrad--centers of the country's new Russian capitalist
class--and in his hometown of Sverdlovsk (Yekaterina burg). 

But the Communist Party candidate leads by a big margin in more than 60 of
Russia's 70 regions. In petitioning to get on the ballot, Zyuganov's
supporters collected 7 million signatures to Yeltsin's 1.4 million. Many
of Yeltsin's signers were state employees ordered to give their names or
lose their jobs. 

Time explains the Communist Party's popularity by saying that "Russia has
no democratic culture" and "real democracy has not taken root" here. To
the U.S. corporate media--which applauded Yeltsin's armed assault on
Russia's elected parliament three years ago--elections are only democratic
if Wall Street's candidate wins. 

THREATS OF ANOTHER CHILE

What if corporate America's billions can't buy the election? There's
always the kind of democracy that the CIA and Pentagon brought to Chile,
Argentina, Guatemala and El Salvador. 

Recently in Krasnodar, a Workers World correspondent overheard a
government commando warning a group of voters who were discussing voting
for Zyuganov: "Then the shooting will begin." 

Aleksandr Korzhakov, chief of Yeltsin's 25,000-member praetorian guard,
and Leonti Kuznetsov, commander of the Moscow Military district, have
called for invalidating the election if there is a Communist victory. 

Yeltsin officials also talk of setting up a "government of people's trust"
with Yeltsin retaining the presidency, even if he doesn't win, and giving
cabinet posts to some of his opponents. 

A group of 13 bankers issued an ominous letter noting that business
interests "have the necessary resources to influence political leaders who
are not willing to compromise, and we will use them." 

Russian banks and businesses maintain their own private armies. Not long
ago, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sold 30,000 automatic weapons to
private security forces. 

What are the wealthy and powerful in the United States, Europe and Russia
afraid of? It's not Zyuganov's stated program. The KPRF leader is trying
hard not to antagonize Russian or Western capital. 

In a May 23 interview with Workers World and the Brazilian newspaper Hora
do Povos, Zyuganov did not mention socialism or communism. 

But he did speak of the urgent need to build roads, housing and pipelines.
He also spoke of social protection for the poor. 

Zyuganov denounced Yeltsin's re gime as representing a comprador "feudal
mafia" that is selling out Russia's interests. He appealed to the owners
of Russian industry, saying: "Capitalist countries fight wars over
markets.  Developed capitalist countries do not surrender their markets.
But our regime has done just that. 

"They do not give up an acre of their territory, but our regime has. They
do not drive out their intellectuals, but 70,000 scientists have left
Russia since the fall of Soviet power." 

The problem is, that is exactly the kind of regime Washington and Wall
Street want in Russia. And it is perhaps the only kind of regime the world
capitalist market will allow. The Pentagon did not spend tens of trillions
of dollars to destroy the Soviet Union just to create a strong capitalist
competitor. 

FOR A WORKING-CLASS PROGRAM

Only socialist measures can stop the looting of the former USSR by Western
banks and corporations. 

At a May 20 conference of opposition leaders, Viktor Anpilov of Workers'
Russia and the Russian Communist Workers' Party warned that Zyuganov would
fail to rally working-class support if he does not speak more strongly
against capitalism. 

"We must decide who is our social base," Anpilov said. "If it is bankers,
that is one thing. But if it is the working class, then our program must
reflect the interests of the working class. 

"It must be for socialism." 

That social base worries both Western and Russian capitalists. The
millions of workers and farmers who stand behind Zyuganov want work,
wages, food, housing and security. Only a socialist program can satisfy
these needs. 

                         - END -

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source
is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY
10011; via e-mail: ww-AT-wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message
to: ww-info-AT-wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)





     --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---