WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!
FOR BOLSHEVISM
INSIDE THE COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ MOVEMENT
No 12(69) DECEMBER 2008 AUCPB - ВКПБ
91 YEARS SINCE THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
Dear Comrades! Members of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and also our like-minded thinkers in other leftist parties and movements!
Dear citizens of our Socialist Motherland!
The Central Committee of the AUCPB warmly congratulates YOU on the 91st Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution – the beginning of a new era in Mankind, a new historical formation – without oppression of the working people, where a person who works is the creator of all values on Earth, and is the full master of everything that humanity has created during its arduous history.
Yes, we Bolsheviks have had to temporarily retreat in the construction of a socialist society due to betrayal, mainly by the degenerated party-nomenclatures of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), which headed the bourgeois counter-revolution in the USSR. Lenin believed that there cannot be a revolution without a counter-revolution (vol. 12 p 171, Rus.). Building something completely new, for the first time in history and never seen before is always very difficult. But we have gained an enormous amount of experience over the 70-year successful construction of a socialist state in conditions of a fortress under siege. We showed the whole world in practice the huge advantages of a socialist system over the capitalist system and encouraged many peoples in their struggle for socialism. These 70 years have been our greatest asset for the rebirth of our Socialist Fatherland. For we have become wiser and more experienced in how we need to run a new society and avoid those mistakes and errors already made in the past. We now know WITH WHOM we can go into battle, WHO are our trusty allies and where the true enemy is. Counter-revolution is conquered by revolution, (K. Marx in Vol 6 p218, Rus). We must prepare ourselves for a new socialist revolution seriously, without whining about difficulties, but being certain in our certain victory because our victory has been historically predestined by the flow of the development of history. We must even more steadfastly and patiently carry out explanatory and agitation of our Bolshevik ideas together with the distribution of our Bolshevik Program among the masses, especially among young people, the working intelligentsia, among the workers and peasants.
Pseudo-Marxists lie when they say that the working class has now ceased to exist, has degenerated and that the “white collar” workers are now allegedly the hegemony of revolutionary transformations in society. The working class, according to the words of V.I. Lenin, does not die, but grows, strengthens, unites, enlightens itself and becomes hardened in the struggle (Lenin, vol.23, p 257). This process of hardening of the working class and the working peasantry is clearly revealed in Bolshevik publications from the localities and Bolshevik central newspapers (Serp I Molot, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Pravda, Vperyod).
We are marking the 91st Anniversary of Great October in conditions of the most powerful global systemic crisis of imperialism since the great depression of 1929-1933. It began with the financial collapse of the leading props of the US financial pyramid and drawing into itself a growing political crisis of the institutes for running the international system which was formed after the ending of WWII, the destruction of all aspects of the existing world order.
The US economic recession has crossed over into Europe, having brought about a serious fall in production and, with this, a rise in unemployment, inflation, mass actions of the proletariat in the struggle for its survival. The hurried nationalization of the US economy will hardly save it from collapse. Europe is occupied with the same thing. The “G7” which had been tearing away trying to save its “friend” the USA, cannot improve the situation, since it no longer occupies the commanding heights in the global finances. The collapse of the soap bubble - the US dollar as the international currency reserve, the collapse of the dominating position of the US in the world, means also the collapse of the American idea of a mono-polar world, having demonstrated its complete failure to be what the USA constantly demonstrated to everyone to be the only aim of solving its own problems on the backs and to the detriment of others.
Russia at one time, in one imperialist connection with the USA has not escaped the financial crisis, although on the strength of a number of reasons, it has at the moment, a less catastrophic character.
Starting from the present political-economic situation in the world, we are standing on the threshold of serious political upheavals.
We, Bolsheviks also mark 8th November as the 17 year since the forming of our All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (AUCPB)
17 years ago, having raised up high the banner of Lenin-Stalin at a turning point of our Soviet history, we proudly and courageously carried this banner forward under the hooting of the pseudo-communists, cowardly hiding from the portrait of Stalin on our banner. We did not allow the renegades to mock our glorious Soviet past. We then were the only ones to point out to the working masses who’s minds had been beaten with anti-Stalin mayhem, pointed out the real path out of the situation that was taking place in the territory of the USSR and in the world after the counter-revolutionary coup d’ etat in the USSR.
Today, like before, we are the only true communist party on the territory of the former Soviet republics, the party until the very end, loyal to the doctrine of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, the party of the working class entering into alliance with the peasantry and working intelligentsia under the banner of Marxism-Leninism.
Over the past 17 years - the difficult years of the bourgeois counter-revolution, the AUCPB has successfully overcome a number of obstacles which the bourgeois regime piled up in our path, smashed all attempts by the opportunists to split, destroy and wreck it from within.
All these years we have been carrying out an uncompromising struggle against opportunism inside the communist movement, not just here in our country, but also abroad, carrying our a struggle for the revolutionary revival of Soviet power as the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism and our great multi-national Motherland- the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The AUCPB from the moment of its founding is an All-Union party, actively working in all regions of the USSR. Our party is the banner bearer of Bolshevism, primordially built as a monolithic, ideological pure, revolutionary party, loyal to the great Marxist slogans of proletarian internationalism, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Its final aim is the building of communism.
Our party carries a large contribution in the cause of the international unification of anti-imperialist forces, has close ties and cooperation with socialist countries – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Cuba, with revolutionary and national-liberation movements of the world. In other countries of the world, the ideas of Bolshevism are spread via our journals in French and English languages as well as via the Internet, and public speeches made by the higher ranking party activists at International seminars, conferences, and symposiums. The main materials of our Party have been translated into many languages of the world and are published abroad.
On the day since the forming of our All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (AUCPB) – 8 November 1991, I sincerely wish all the members of our party good health, much vital strength and success in our exceptionally hard and necessary work on the spreading of the ideas of Bolshevism, on attracting in to the ranks of the AUCPB worthy comrades, on preserving a clear and firm position in the struggle against opportunism for the cause of Lenin-Stalin.
Long Live Great October!
Long Live international unity and brotherliness of all progressive forces on the Planet in the struggle against imperialism!
General Secretary of the CC AUCPB
N.A. Andreeva
October 2008, Leningrad
THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
RUSSIA AND UKRAINE
The adoption after a second attempt by the US Congress at the beginning of October of the “Paulson Bailout Plan” (named after the US Treasury Secretary, who had put forward this plan) on bailing out the country’s financial sector by way of allocating 700 billion dollars, has led to failure. Just in one day, on 7th October, the stock market of the US lost 700 billion dollars in trading, that is to say, equivalent to the sum proposed for saving the economy, having offered to buy up the shares that had dropped in value.
As spokesperson of an association dealing with stock market statistics, Wilshire Associates Incorporated, Kim Shepherd says, in all, starting from 19th September, when the world markets peaked, the US company shares had already lost 3.4 trillion dollars. The market was in panic: analysts and businessmen have admitted that the country’s economy is in depression which has not been reflected in official statistics.
“The packet of emergency stabilization measures which have for so long been discussed, in actual fact represent less than 1% of our financial hole….We are sitting on a ticking fiscal time bomb which needs to be stopped immediately”, declared well-known finance expert David Walker, formerly Comptroller General in the White House under Bush live on air on CNN. In his opinion, any measures taken by the government and directed at the increasing the budget deficit will only play on the financial destabilization, no matter what noble intentions the authors of the plan pursued for holding together the mortgage and financial giants, which finished up going down into the funnel of the crisis.
The US banking sector has been sunk into a new wave of crisis – this time, client credit card default, writes the Wall Street Journal referring to the statement by the Bank of America, commenting on the 68% fall in quarterly profits, and of the need to attract 10 billion dollars.
The US financial media reports of panic by small and medium investors, primarily counting on surviving a collapse in the markets, but now casting out their portfolios (that is, their securities).
The financial crisis also hit the pension system. US citizens over the last 15 months have lost in their pension funds, 2 trillion dollars in savings. According to the words of committee member Peter Orszag, the reason for the catastrophic loss in pension savings of citizens was in the collapse of the stock market. As a result, many Americans have had to re-examine their own pension plans, including when they can actually retire on a pension. One should note here that the minimum pension age in the US is 62 years old.
The US state budget deficit for 2008 stood at 454.8 billion dollars, a record high for the entire American history, is spoken about in a message by the US president. Compared to 2007, it has grown by almost three times – from 161.5 billion dollars. In connection with the 700 billion dollar packet of measures on reviving the US economy, the experts believe that 2009 will be even worse, according to Associated Press.
“I think that we are on the threshold of a complete collapse of the US financial system”, declared BBC professor of Maryland University, Peter Morrissey. “After this, panic may start, which will lead to the collapse of the world’s financial institutions”.
Dominic Stross-Kan, head of the IMF in a statement on the results of the meeting of ministers of finance of the “G7” which took place on 11 October, noted that the leading industrial powers of the world have not done enough to restore confidence in the markets. And that the doubts in the stability of a number of the largest financial institutions of the US and Europe are pushing the world financial system to the edge of a collapse of the system.
Another thing which did not lead to a positive result was the widely advertised plan for rescuing the European financial system adopted at a summit in Paris on 12 October by the leaders of 15 countries in the Eurozone (with the participation of British Prime Minister – Gordon Brown). According to the words of French president Sarkozi, state guarantees for temporary inter-bank lending was decided in order to avert a paralysis of the financial system. This plan also like the US one, is based upon the multi-billion dollar input into the banking sector of these countries and bailing out the banks which are in crisis, up to including their partial nationalization. After the plan was adopted, stocks started going up on the financial markets of Europe, but already by 14 – 15 October, they had already again dropped, that is, the fall continued.
The financial crisis began to influence the real sector of the economy. International financial institutes were gripped by fear. The IMF began talking of a threat of a slowdown in the world economy. According to the opinion of IMF specialists, developed economies have already entered a period of recession. The forecast for the growth in the US economy for 2009 stands at 0.1%, against the 0.6% that was earlier expected. The developed countries of Europe will show a growth in the area of around 0.2%. In Germany the forecast is of zero growth, according to Bloomberg. The IMF believes that the developing economies are also slowing down. A fall in the growth speed in the economy will lead to an increase in unemployment. The number of jobs lost outside the agricultural sector in the US for September stood at 159 thousand people. Across the world, the crisis has left more than 83 thousand bankers without jobs.
RUSSIA
Here the situation still worse. The world liquidity crisis, that is, a lack of money on the money markets, - has led to an even deeper crisis in liquidity inside Russia too. Over the past six months, the Russian market has lost about 70% of capitalization, at the same time when on other markets, the crisis has resulted in a fall in stocks on an average of 30% (China – 40%, Israel -34%, Japan – 29%, Britain and France - by 28%, Poland – 27%, USA – 27-24%, Germany- 25%, Belgium – 22%. Data source- stock report and news “FBK”). One more element of the crisis has been the fall in the price of oil which has led to a reduction in the influx of dollars for oil into the Russian budget.
The experts believe that the accumulated stabilization fund will soften the blow and that there is enough money in there for the time being, but all depends on how deep the world crisis turns out to be. Vice Chairman of the budget and tax committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexander Kogan says – “I think this year there will be no problems, because the budget surplus is now sufficiently big to ward off serious blows to the economy”. According to the opinion of the director of the institute for development, Sergei Glazyev, the problem lies in the fact that this money is invested in the American financial market, and due to the situation in the US, it can simply devaluate, and with this, very quickly.
The stormy growth in the economy will most certainly end this year and, beginning from next year, a significant slowdown will be observed, believes senior analyst of the company “Global Insight” on Russia, Doctor of political science, Natalie Leshenko.
The financial crisis in Russia has crossed over into a new phase: a sharp reduction of turnover capital will lead to stagnation in production. Automobile concerns “GAZ” and “KamAZ” have already announced a partial closure of their assembly lines. Metallurgists have warned of reductions in the volume of production by 20%. Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant (MMK) has announced a reduction in production and layoffs. According to the finance director of MMK Vladimir Shmakov, in October it is possible there would be fall in production by 25% in relation to the previous month.
According to the opinion of economists, the majority of Russia’s population will have prepare themselves for wage freezes and a fall in real incomes by approximately 30%. And in the first half of this year, real incomes of the population had already fallen by almost 10%.
The fall in growth and the stagnation of production will lead to a growth in unemployment. According to the opinion of specialists, the total number of people laid off due to a drop in production may real several million. The hardest hit will be the construction firms which survive entirely on hired means. They, according to data by economist Mikhail Delyagin, which radio station “Nemetskaya Volna” has quoted, have begun to freeze projects that have already been completed, and in the near future, millions of migrant workers who have been deprived of work will be thrown onto the streets of Russians towns and cities, and who could turn into violent criminals. On the whole in Russia at present there are, according to the economist, about 12 million migrant workers. One million of them have legal status, 11 – illegal status. Out of those, 6.5 million work in the construction industry. Delyagin forecasts that between 1 and 1.5 million migrant workers will keep their jobs in construction which are have been spared. Another one million of them will be able to find other jobs or manage to escape in time. But no less than 4 million of them will finish up on the streets – outside the law and outside of society. “For them lies the threat of a cold and hungry death, because they, as people from the warmer southern parts, are more sensitive to the winter that is fast approaching. On the other hand, for inhabitants of major towns and cities, this means a sharp rise in crime. And what is a very true reality, this will be violent crime, because people will be struggling for their physical survival”, warns Delyagin.
UKRAINE
The situation in Ukraine is lot worse than in Russia. More than this, it is catastrophic. The fall in stock market shares on the PFTS for the indicated period (May-October) was more than 70%. The trade balance was completely deregulated. Thus, if back in 2004, Ukraine sold onto the international market commodities worth 3.66 billion dollars more than it bought (that is, it was exporting more than it was importing), then with the arrival to power of the orange group and the first government of Yulia Timoshenko, already according to the total of 2005, the trade balance deficit stood at 1.91billion dollars. After that, with each year, the deficit has grown, and according to the 2007 results, stood at 11.42 billion dollars. For January – May of this year, import was greater than export by already 9.2 billion dollars and, according to specialist forecasts, the annual deficit for this year will be around 20 billion dollars. Ukraine’s financial system is only just floating thanks to foreign investments which in 2007 alone stood at 7.88 billion dollars. But with the start of the global financial crisis, foreign capital has begun leaving Ukraine (as with Russia too).
Ukraine’s foreign debt, according to data of the National Bank, at April 1, 2008, reached the astronomical sum of 92.49 billion dollars which is 65% of the entire GDP. With this, Ukraine has to pay back short-term loans to foreign lenders to the sum of 21 billion dollars. The need to have to repay these loans is forcing them to take out more credit at a higher rate of interest. Moreover, in the conditions of a financial crisis, these credits are extremely difficult to obtain. Economists have forecast that already by the end of this year (2008) the country’s financial system will have collapsed. This will lead to a devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia by a minimum of 1.5 – 2 times, the bankruptcy of the banking system, “having been sown” by foreign credits, the collapse of the stock market with a fall in the price of shares by 3 – 5 times, a hike in inflation up to 15 – 30% a month and the lowering of real income of the population.
The financial crisis has already affected in a negative way the economy of Ukraine. In particular, a large-scale crisis has begun in the steel industry. In connection with the fall in world prices, Ukrainian steel plants can no longer compete with Chinese and Russian producers. A month’s amount of products has accumulated at the companies’ warehouses due to problems with sales. Already 17 of the 36 smelting furnaces have stopped working, and the steel industry is looking at the partial closure of steel plants. Considering that the share of enterprises of the mining-metallurgical complex in the GDP is 20%, and up to 40% of the hard currency enters Ukraine from steel production, the consequences of the crisis in the metallurgical branch of industry may be pitiful; from a budget shortfall and massive job cuts up to the complete collapse in the economy of Ukraine. The country will sink into several years of depression.
The result - a sharp decline in the living standards of the working people of Ukraine and a new wave of labour migration.
***
In this situation, instead of restoring financial-economic and friendly ties with Russia in order to together try to stave off the crisis, the orange leadership of Ukraine headed by president Yukoshenko is forcing anti-Russian sentiment onto society. It has got so bad that the president now confiscates the plane from the prime minister when she goes to Moscow to solve questions on the price of gas. Indeed if Russia raises gas prices from 1st January 09 to the level of world gas prices, then the economy of Ukraine will come to an end. By order of the National Council for TV and Radio broadcasts, from the start of October 08, a number of cable Russian TV channels are to be suspended. All this is being done to stop Ukrainian viewers and listeners from getting information from out of Russia, in particular on the question of shining light on the Georgia- South Ossetia conflict and the participation of Ukraine in the face of the orange leadership, in the arming up of Georgia with weapons of attack. Practically as we were writing this article, Ukraine had taken part in that conflict on the side of Georgia and against Russia.
***
In order to take the attention of Ukraine’s working people off the extremely difficult situation, and also with the aim of dumping the entire blame for the impending catastrophe onto the Cabinet of Ministers headed by Yu. Timoshenko, V. Yushenko announced new elections to parliament. He gave the order for the dissolution of parliament (9 October) and designated the election for 7 December. Yulia Timoshenko in no way wants to lose her high and mighty post of prime minister with huge financial-economic power, and she, together with her power bloc (BYUT), is doing everything in order to wreck these elections. A legal war has broken out between the president and prime minister. The president’s Decree has been annulled by the area court administration of Kiev, the dissolution of this court by the president, the annulment of the given Decree by a higher court, the blocking of courts and the Central Electoral Commission by the BYUTites etc.
The working people of Ukraine understand all too well that all these “battles” have nothing in common with their daily lives, have nothing to do with their pains and concerns, that the president with the prime minister, - and the political forces oligarch clans breathing down their necks are simply carving up their own loot on the backs of the working people.
***
The impending collapse of world imperialism speaks only of one thing – capitalism at its highest imperialist stage has completely exhausted its own historical resources and to the utmost revealed its beastly inhuman essence.
The working people, like 91 years ago have to rise up to the struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of the power of capital and the rebirth of the power of the working people, Soviet power.
We, Bolsheviks have no doubt that a new wave of proletarian revolutions is growing and which will sweep off from the face of the Earth the rotten and criminal system of imperialism.
16 October 2008
A. MAEVSKY, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (CC AUCPB)
The electing of Barak Obama as US president became news item number one in the world recently in conditions of a developing world systemic crisis and recession in the economies of the leading imperialist states.
What is the world expecting from the new president of the USA?
Firstly, the world is expecting a change in US foreign policy after the changeover in power in the White House, and namely:
1. a rejection by the USA of the role of world’s gendarme and that it subordinates to the rules to laid down by the United National Organisation (UNO);
2. the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq;
3. the closure of the Guantanamo concentration camp and the banning of the use of any kind of torture by the Army as well as the CIA, and also the closing of the network of secret prisons scattered by the US all around the world;
4. rejection from the policy of listing a number of sovereign states as belonging to the “axis of evil”, or defining them as “rogue states”, rejection of the human-hating policies in relation to them, made more severe by harsh economic blockades against countries like Cuba and the DPRK. Iran is also included in this list, with its peaceful atomic research that so irritates the USA;
5. cessation of extremist Americanism unleashed on independent states under the pretext of the “struggle of Americans for human rights”, the “establishment of democracy” – the American way of life and the corrupting human personality of American “culture”;
6. cessation of the gangster-style military arbitrariness on Palestinian soil and on the whole, in the Middle East on part of Israel fed by the US;
7. inadmissibility of aerial bombardments by the US airforce over territory of independence, where Americans allegedly suddenly spot the presence of terrorists (Syria, Lebanon and others);
8. signing of the Kyoto protocol, thereby confirming US readiness to cooperate internationally in preserving the environment in the struggle against global warming;
9. ending the construed global anti-missile defence system located close to Russia (Poland, Czech) and the former republics of the USSR as a factor for stepping up military tension;
10. the ending of the expansionist policy of NATO and the unrestrained expansion of zones of activity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation further into the East;
11. a number of other no less important acts.
In the domestic political sphere, the world is waiting from the US serious efforts on ending the US initiated world financial and economic crisis which has led the economies of the leading countries of Europe into recession and strongly hit the economies of countries like Russia, Japan, China and others.
These, maybe are the main questions which the world is waiting a solution to from the 44th president of the USA, Barak Obama. Can he, the first in American history black president, a descendant of a white slave-owner and a Jewess of African origin, fulfill the hopes of the world community?
It seems that serious changes in the foreign policy of the USA under Obama are not envisaged. More than this, to the majority of the listed questions, Obama has already publicly stated – “NO”, or that he is completely unsure. The USA will not be withdrawing from Afghanistan soon, or even at all at this rate. It is of no accident that they got involved in that conflict. Iraq remains occupied by US troops for the long term, for a withdrawal by them from Iraq would mean a loss of US influence in that region. Blood will continue to flow from Palestine, since Israel and the US will not reject their policy of invasion into this territory of the Middle East. Russia, like before represents an interest for the USA only as a source of raw materials, the country, preferably in dismembered form. (A former enemy will never be a friend – proclaims a Russian proverb). We have already analyzed the question as to who real power belongs to in America. It belongs to the Zionist lobby, aiming for world domination. Therefore, any US president is, in all, only an executive of the will of the ruling Zionist elite of America, the Committee of 300, which runs the transnational corporations and dictates its will to the presidents and higher electoral power of the imperialist countries of the world.
Well ok, Barak Obama has black skin, so what? He is still their puppet, from out of their “nest”. The arrival of a politician with other views and another political orientation other than what makes the true power in the USA happy, to the post of US president, is practically impossible. And so Obama will do what he has “been told” by the hierarchs of Zionism and he will do it even more decisively (than George Bush has done, which Obama has already publicly stated), in order to constantly prove his complete loyalty and obedience to the demands of the Zionist lobby of the USA.
One can judge in advance the policy of Obama by the makeup of the pro-presidential team chosen by him. Out of them, who has already been designated as member of Obama’s team are all hawks, who have already showed their true selves in the organizing and carrying out by the US of local wars. For example, Richard Holbrooke is one of the architects of the bombing of Yugoslavia whilst completely ignoring the recommendations of the UN. Joe Biden – engineered and took active part in the plan of action for attacking Iraq. These are just two, but there are other hawks. Post of Head of chancellery of the White House will be filled by Ram Emanuel, who comes from an Israeli family who immigrated to the USA. This is a post which occupies third place in importance in the government hierarchy of the USA. The head of chancellery carries responsibility for the choice of cadres for the government apparatus, the contact with the White House and US Congress, the country’s domestic policy and work with the cabinet of ministers. Ram Emanuel is closely tied in with Israel. Therefore one need not expect any easing of tension in the Middle East. The remaining members in Obama’s team are of the same level of loyalty to the idea of world domination by the American empire and the use of military force for realizing the expansionist plans of the USA.
Therefore, in the White House, besides a change in the colour of the skin of the person who is to carry out the duties of a president, little is going to change. The American naïve euphoria over the coming to pass of the American dream of the forefathers-founders of America will soon pass, and the real affairs will hardly instill optimism into the ordinary Americans.
However, it is not excluded that the choosing out of all pretenders to the White House of namely a black president by the Zionist lobby of America follows long term aims, namely: the use of him, a black man, like one of “their own”, as a passing figure for the broad penetration and conquering by America, of the African continent under the decrepit slogans of “human rights struggle” and “democracy”. The African continent which is so rich in the rarest minerals and raw materials and exceptionally cheap labour power (before, black slaves were sent to America as slaves, but now they can be utilized on the spot, in Africa, and with this, gaining huge profits without the cost of transit and maintenance even it only on the most basic of needs. And imperialist Europe will be able to utter a sigh of relief, for while at least, since the problem of illegal migration of the impoverished African population into the countries of Europe, will lessen.
It is possible that the US Zionist lobby is planning on gaining another doping, by way of enslaving black Africa, stealing its rich minerals and raw materials and with this, finds its way out of the crisis. Indeed, the attitude to the USA in Latin America (one of the main suppliers of energy resources for the USA) is by far cloudy, and in the Middle East, is with hatred towards American occupiers.
In the 1990-s the US gained a huge doping on the backs of the breakup of the USSR which provided the US with a sufficiently peaceful existence in the flow of 20 years (read A.A. Ponomaryev’s “Yeltsin – Russia’s tragedy” M., 1999).
By the words of the 41st US president George Bush (senior) in 1992, - “We have spent 4 trillion dollars on winning the cold war and compared to this amount, the sum we intend to spend now (for breaking up the USSR) - is 24 billion dollars. The democrats inside the Kremlin are able to guarantee our security far more reliably than our nuclear missiles”. In other words, Gorbachev’s betrayal cost America 166 times less compared to the confrontation between the two political systems.
During a meeting in the summer of 1987, Gorbachev together with Shevardnadze on a destroyer in the Mediterranean Sea near Malta, gave their consent to US president Ronald Reagan to dissolve the “Warsaw pact”, withdraw Soviet troops from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and also the ending of the Soviet space shuttle “Buran”…. In passing it needs to be mentioned that West German Chancellor Kohl (1981 – 1998) in those days offered Gorbachev 160 billion dollars for “handing over” East Germany. After time-out, Gorbachev went away happy with 14 billion dollars for the deal.
Thus, the higher party-nomenclature of the CPSU sold off the USSR together with the people, and sold off the countries of the communist camp to their ideological opponent….
Today, the USA is in a state of deep economic recession. Unemployment for the first time in 25 years has reached an unprecedented of level for the first time in the USA of 6.5% (4 million unemployed). In Europe, the number is even greater.
The growth in GDP in 2009 for the USA and countries of the EU is planned to be zero and even into minus figures. Western analysts believe that the consequences from the US mortgage crunch may be overcome no earlier than 2010. May be, but will it? Nobody knows what it will be in 2010.
Having complete inability to pay and a state deficit astronomical in size, the machines in the US are still printing their long time ago devalued green banknotes, continuing to flood the whole world with them and forcing other countries to carry out payments namely in dollars. “Fanatics” of the US are gaining huge material assets throughout the world for greenbacks. Today, the exchange rate of the absolutely devalued US currency, not having any backup in gold, is artificially incredibly inflated and absurdly growing, bringing huge profits to currency speculators. This soap bubble definitely has to burst, which may naturally lead to the complete collapse of the USA and the imperialist world on the whole. (Today, America is just managing to hold on because of the growth in the volume of paper money being printed). The US Federal Reserve system is not under the control of the president and prints as much paper money as it feels necessary, and with this, gaining a profit from every printed banknote. There is information that John Kennedy wanted to curb the US FRS, and that is probably why he was assassinated. As is known, until this day, the killers remain “unknown”.
Neither the huge financial injections into the US economy of the countries of the EU, nor Russia which supports America with its gold-currency reserves to the detriment of its own economy and the further lowering of the level of social provision of the absolute majority of citizens of the Russian Federation (RF), could NOT prevent the growing crisis in the USA. The export of capital from Russia is fast underway. Between 10 – 24 August, the pure outflow of capital amounted to 9 billion dollars. Russia’s financial reserves are being exported at a catastrophic rate. Huge state financial injections into banks are not reaching their designated goal, but are going towards the writing off by these banks, of loans taken out by them earlier from Western investors who are now fleeing the Russian markets, and therefore the financial doping of the state to the banks has absolutely no effect on the state of the Russian economy itself. Enterprises in Russia are laying off workers or are closing down altogether. Wage arrears in the country in a number of places go back as far as 6 months or more. The growth of GDP is falling and is now already below the earlier predicted figures. Inflation has exceeded the worst predictions earlier made. At the same time, on the TV channels in Russia, merry little talk shows are being aired, like a feast during the plague, together with the manipulation of the minds of the masses and being even more trained up on the lies of the elite with the aim of turning people’s attention away from thoughts about an impending collapse.
In connection with the sharp fall in world prices on oil (in half a year, the prices of oil has dropped three times) all Russian national projects can only remain as such:- projects and only projects. It is known that the Russian budget was made up in such a way that 70 dollars will cover only the obligations of the budget on domestic loans. And this means that all the rest will have to been cut back and reduced or used notes “of the national reserve” which under such a rate of spending may become zero in 3 – 4 months. On 13 November, the cost of a barrel of Russian oil on the world market stood at 45 dollars a barrel (a barrel of oil is equal to 159 litres). With the making up of the Russian budget for 2009 – 2011, they started out from the price of oil at 95 dollars a barrel. (At that time on the world market the price of a barrel of oil stood at 145 dollars, with a forecast of it reaching 200 dollars a barrel)…At the end of October the budget was over estimated taking into account the price of oil already at 78 dollars a barrel in 2009 – 74 dollars in 2010 – and 88 dollars in 2011.
In connection with the global crisis, the countries of OPEC are planning to cut oil output even more, due to recession in the main economies of the world and the sharp fall in consumption of energy resources because of the closing of a number of areas of production. The fall in world oil output will lead to a further fall in the price of oil. Russia will hardly be able to overcome this crisis on the path of the liberal market and deepening of the capitalization of Russia’s economy. However, the arrival to power as a result of the bourgeois counter-revolution, the existing power in the Russian Federation states and by the words of Putin and the words of Medvedev, that there will be no re-examination at the results of the criminal privatization, devoutly defending the sacred cow of private ownership, obtained by the oligarch clan by way of theft of the people’s property.
President of the Russian federation, D.A. Medvedev in his throne speech on 5 November in the Kremlin, said that one of the main things for us is the “preserving and defending of our fundamental values” (bearing in mind firstly, private ownership), having forgotten that all the time that the most fundamental value for a Russian person has always been social justice. Is there any social justice in Russia today? – NO and not even any mention of it. Today, besides those who acquired for themselves the enormous people’s wealth, possess several villas and castles abroad and in Russia, yachts with several helicopter landing sites and a submarine inside the yachts, who boast publicly, openly and arrogantly before an impoverished population about their wealth they stole (these are all those same “seeds” which Gorbachev had sown in ploughed soil after rooting SOCIALISM from out of it, and now oligarchs have grown out of it), shocking the West with their wealth, having seen various swindlers and thieves, and with those who have to survive on bread and water, there is an ever expanding and deepening chasm. Indeed the main mass of the population under a common wage leveling is “ok” but with a miserly wage of 15 thousand rubles, that provide a very modest living, and those who have been cast overboard – senior citizens, the sick, children who have poor parents – to which, by words of Medvedev are supposedly, “guaranteed from birth equal opportunities” which will never be realized due to the lack of financial means from the parents, with hatred look upon the modern day elite oligarchic Bohemia.
Medvedev stated in his throne speech on 5 November, that “we will not tolerate any igniting of social or national discord” and we shall guarantee “constitutional” (bourgeois- our italics) order using all “legal means”.
We were all by birth from the USSR. For each and every one of us, there has never been a superior nationality of our compatriots, our comrades, our friends. And happy marriages took place on the basis of love between people of various nationalities. And in any Soviet republic, no matter where we traveled, we were always greeted as guests and friends. And every citizen of the USSR was proud of their national identity, their national spiritual culture. Interethnic strife brought into our lives constituted in-power counter-revolution.
Concerning social unrest, then it is natural and inevitable under the presence of a huge gap between the super rich and impoverished people. And it will not be quelled neither by fascistic methods of the Russian riot police OMON, or the beating by the police and other law-enforcement structures for suppressing civil resistance. And how they deal with people arriving to take part in pickets and meetings we know all too well on our experience with dealing the servants of the bourgeois “constitutional order”, using their “legal means”. You can read all about this in the Internet and in the bourgeois media as well as in our press. Medvedev also noted that “there are things that cannot be allowed to happen, there are things for the sake of which we have to fight and win”. For Soviet people here are the things which we cannot forego and will never give up:
- our socialist Fatherland – which has been stolen from us,
- our glorious heroic Soviet history in which, like Soviet poet Victor Kochetkov once wrote – “Thirty years of victories and troubles and we are departing from our place and what has been done” our counter-revolutionaries- democrats;
- our Soviet certainty in the morrow and the chance for anyone to study free of charge in an Institute for Higher Learning and receive a scholarship according to ones own choice of profession;
- a purely symbolic sum to have to pay for housing services under Soviet power; symbolic cost of all foodstuffs and public transport; symbolic price to pay of any – including imported- medicines; free universal health care, highly qualified surgical assistance by specialists of the highest qualifications;
- free housing to all in need of it;
- full access for everyone to museums, theatres with world acclaimed artists, access with no restrictions on possessing world culture;
- our great selfless friendship of Soviet peoples – is the main factor in the victory at the end of the Great Fatherland War;
- our national pride of the Great Rus which has been taken away from us, the reminder of our nationality erased from the new passports, having made all of us not just Russians, but “Ivans, not even remembering our past national affinity.”
We shall never give up our Marxist-Leninist principles, our firm certainty in the victory of socialism across the entire planet, our belief in the rebirth of the multinational Soviet Socialist Motherland which the counter-revolution has stolen from us.
We shall never forgo our belief in the triumph of social justice, in the victory of SOCIALISM, because SOCIALISM – is the true future of civilization and its progress.
But we have to fight for all of this and truly carry things to a complete victory. Hatred for all the evil done to the Soviet people is ripening and reprisal is unavoidable against the “architects of perestroika” and the traitorous “democrats” – betrayers of the Motherland.
In his time, president Putin said that a thief must do time in prison. We agree with this. But today the thief sits in the Kremlin and the Federal Assembly, feeding off corruption, wasting enormous state money on maintaining him or herself – money from the taxpayers, and with this, significantly reducing state social benefits for the impoverished population. This is yet another outrageous injustice which must be liquidated.
In the days of celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, we were told that the XXI century would be a century of socialist revolutions, a century of victory for socialism in the majority of countries of the world, a century in the victory of the ideology of Bolshevism. The flow of world history at the start of the XXI century, the processes in Latin America, the systemic crisis of imperialism, overwhelming the world imperialist at present, confirms that prediction.
We are standing on the threshold of large social changes and we need to be ready to correctly understand them and realize them wisely.
With us, in our struggle for social justice, for socialism, are our leaders – Lenin and Stalin!
Today, for every decent person, the struggle for preserving civilization means a struggle against international imperialism, and primarily against US imperialism, against the American empire of evil, hatred and trampling of the rights of the individual wherever a US soldier puts his feet.
The duty of every communist – is to take the most active part in the anti-imperialist and anti-globalist struggle, since this is the type of struggle for SOCIALISM.
Nina Andreeva
General Secretary of the CC AUCPB
14 November 2008
Leningrad
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FOR BOLSHEVISM
INSIDE THE COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ MOVEMENT
No 12(69) DECEMBER 2008 AUCPB - ВКПБ
91 YEARS SINCE THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
Dear Comrades! Members of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and also our like-minded thinkers in other leftist parties and movements!
Dear citizens of our Socialist Motherland!
The Central Committee of the AUCPB warmly congratulates YOU on the 91st Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution – the beginning of a new era in Mankind, a new historical formation – without oppression of the working people, where a person who works is the creator of all values on Earth, and is the full master of everything that humanity has created during its arduous history.
Yes, we Bolsheviks have had to temporarily retreat in the construction of a socialist society due to betrayal, mainly by the degenerated party-nomenclatures of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union), which headed the bourgeois counter-revolution in the USSR. Lenin believed that there cannot be a revolution without a counter-revolution (vol. 12 p 171, Rus.). Building something completely new, for the first time in history and never seen before is always very difficult. But we have gained an enormous amount of experience over the 70-year successful construction of a socialist state in conditions of a fortress under siege. We showed the whole world in practice the huge advantages of a socialist system over the capitalist system and encouraged many peoples in their struggle for socialism. These 70 years have been our greatest asset for the rebirth of our Socialist Fatherland. For we have become wiser and more experienced in how we need to run a new society and avoid those mistakes and errors already made in the past. We now know WITH WHOM we can go into battle, WHO are our trusty allies and where the true enemy is. Counter-revolution is conquered by revolution, (K. Marx in Vol 6 p218, Rus). We must prepare ourselves for a new socialist revolution seriously, without whining about difficulties, but being certain in our certain victory because our victory has been historically predestined by the flow of the development of history. We must even more steadfastly and patiently carry out explanatory and agitation of our Bolshevik ideas together with the distribution of our Bolshevik Program among the masses, especially among young people, the working intelligentsia, among the workers and peasants.
Pseudo-Marxists lie when they say that the working class has now ceased to exist, has degenerated and that the “white collar” workers are now allegedly the hegemony of revolutionary transformations in society. The working class, according to the words of V.I. Lenin, does not die, but grows, strengthens, unites, enlightens itself and becomes hardened in the struggle (Lenin, vol.23, p 257). This process of hardening of the working class and the working peasantry is clearly revealed in Bolshevik publications from the localities and Bolshevik central newspapers (Serp I Molot, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Pravda, Vperyod).
We are marking the 91st Anniversary of Great October in conditions of the most powerful global systemic crisis of imperialism since the great depression of 1929-1933. It began with the financial collapse of the leading props of the US financial pyramid and drawing into itself a growing political crisis of the institutes for running the international system which was formed after the ending of WWII, the destruction of all aspects of the existing world order.
The US economic recession has crossed over into Europe, having brought about a serious fall in production and, with this, a rise in unemployment, inflation, mass actions of the proletariat in the struggle for its survival. The hurried nationalization of the US economy will hardly save it from collapse. Europe is occupied with the same thing. The “G7” which had been tearing away trying to save its “friend” the USA, cannot improve the situation, since it no longer occupies the commanding heights in the global finances. The collapse of the soap bubble - the US dollar as the international currency reserve, the collapse of the dominating position of the US in the world, means also the collapse of the American idea of a mono-polar world, having demonstrated its complete failure to be what the USA constantly demonstrated to everyone to be the only aim of solving its own problems on the backs and to the detriment of others.
Russia at one time, in one imperialist connection with the USA has not escaped the financial crisis, although on the strength of a number of reasons, it has at the moment, a less catastrophic character.
Starting from the present political-economic situation in the world, we are standing on the threshold of serious political upheavals.
We, Bolsheviks also mark 8th November as the 17 year since the forming of our All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (AUCPB)
17 years ago, having raised up high the banner of Lenin-Stalin at a turning point of our Soviet history, we proudly and courageously carried this banner forward under the hooting of the pseudo-communists, cowardly hiding from the portrait of Stalin on our banner. We did not allow the renegades to mock our glorious Soviet past. We then were the only ones to point out to the working masses who’s minds had been beaten with anti-Stalin mayhem, pointed out the real path out of the situation that was taking place in the territory of the USSR and in the world after the counter-revolutionary coup d’ etat in the USSR.
Today, like before, we are the only true communist party on the territory of the former Soviet republics, the party until the very end, loyal to the doctrine of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, the party of the working class entering into alliance with the peasantry and working intelligentsia under the banner of Marxism-Leninism.
Over the past 17 years - the difficult years of the bourgeois counter-revolution, the AUCPB has successfully overcome a number of obstacles which the bourgeois regime piled up in our path, smashed all attempts by the opportunists to split, destroy and wreck it from within.
All these years we have been carrying out an uncompromising struggle against opportunism inside the communist movement, not just here in our country, but also abroad, carrying our a struggle for the revolutionary revival of Soviet power as the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialism and our great multi-national Motherland- the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The AUCPB from the moment of its founding is an All-Union party, actively working in all regions of the USSR. Our party is the banner bearer of Bolshevism, primordially built as a monolithic, ideological pure, revolutionary party, loyal to the great Marxist slogans of proletarian internationalism, the dictatorship of the proletariat. Its final aim is the building of communism.
Our party carries a large contribution in the cause of the international unification of anti-imperialist forces, has close ties and cooperation with socialist countries – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Cuba, with revolutionary and national-liberation movements of the world. In other countries of the world, the ideas of Bolshevism are spread via our journals in French and English languages as well as via the Internet, and public speeches made by the higher ranking party activists at International seminars, conferences, and symposiums. The main materials of our Party have been translated into many languages of the world and are published abroad.
On the day since the forming of our All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (AUCPB) – 8 November 1991, I sincerely wish all the members of our party good health, much vital strength and success in our exceptionally hard and necessary work on the spreading of the ideas of Bolshevism, on attracting in to the ranks of the AUCPB worthy comrades, on preserving a clear and firm position in the struggle against opportunism for the cause of Lenin-Stalin.
Long Live Great October!
Long Live international unity and brotherliness of all progressive forces on the Planet in the struggle against imperialism!
General Secretary of the CC AUCPB
N.A. Andreeva
October 2008, Leningrad
THE GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS
RUSSIA AND UKRAINE
The adoption after a second attempt by the US Congress at the beginning of October of the “Paulson Bailout Plan” (named after the US Treasury Secretary, who had put forward this plan) on bailing out the country’s financial sector by way of allocating 700 billion dollars, has led to failure. Just in one day, on 7th October, the stock market of the US lost 700 billion dollars in trading, that is to say, equivalent to the sum proposed for saving the economy, having offered to buy up the shares that had dropped in value.
As spokesperson of an association dealing with stock market statistics, Wilshire Associates Incorporated, Kim Shepherd says, in all, starting from 19th September, when the world markets peaked, the US company shares had already lost 3.4 trillion dollars. The market was in panic: analysts and businessmen have admitted that the country’s economy is in depression which has not been reflected in official statistics.
“The packet of emergency stabilization measures which have for so long been discussed, in actual fact represent less than 1% of our financial hole….We are sitting on a ticking fiscal time bomb which needs to be stopped immediately”, declared well-known finance expert David Walker, formerly Comptroller General in the White House under Bush live on air on CNN. In his opinion, any measures taken by the government and directed at the increasing the budget deficit will only play on the financial destabilization, no matter what noble intentions the authors of the plan pursued for holding together the mortgage and financial giants, which finished up going down into the funnel of the crisis.
The US banking sector has been sunk into a new wave of crisis – this time, client credit card default, writes the Wall Street Journal referring to the statement by the Bank of America, commenting on the 68% fall in quarterly profits, and of the need to attract 10 billion dollars.
The US financial media reports of panic by small and medium investors, primarily counting on surviving a collapse in the markets, but now casting out their portfolios (that is, their securities).
The financial crisis also hit the pension system. US citizens over the last 15 months have lost in their pension funds, 2 trillion dollars in savings. According to the words of committee member Peter Orszag, the reason for the catastrophic loss in pension savings of citizens was in the collapse of the stock market. As a result, many Americans have had to re-examine their own pension plans, including when they can actually retire on a pension. One should note here that the minimum pension age in the US is 62 years old.
The US state budget deficit for 2008 stood at 454.8 billion dollars, a record high for the entire American history, is spoken about in a message by the US president. Compared to 2007, it has grown by almost three times – from 161.5 billion dollars. In connection with the 700 billion dollar packet of measures on reviving the US economy, the experts believe that 2009 will be even worse, according to Associated Press.
“I think that we are on the threshold of a complete collapse of the US financial system”, declared BBC professor of Maryland University, Peter Morrissey. “After this, panic may start, which will lead to the collapse of the world’s financial institutions”.
Dominic Stross-Kan, head of the IMF in a statement on the results of the meeting of ministers of finance of the “G7” which took place on 11 October, noted that the leading industrial powers of the world have not done enough to restore confidence in the markets. And that the doubts in the stability of a number of the largest financial institutions of the US and Europe are pushing the world financial system to the edge of a collapse of the system.
Another thing which did not lead to a positive result was the widely advertised plan for rescuing the European financial system adopted at a summit in Paris on 12 October by the leaders of 15 countries in the Eurozone (with the participation of British Prime Minister – Gordon Brown). According to the words of French president Sarkozi, state guarantees for temporary inter-bank lending was decided in order to avert a paralysis of the financial system. This plan also like the US one, is based upon the multi-billion dollar input into the banking sector of these countries and bailing out the banks which are in crisis, up to including their partial nationalization. After the plan was adopted, stocks started going up on the financial markets of Europe, but already by 14 – 15 October, they had already again dropped, that is, the fall continued.
The financial crisis began to influence the real sector of the economy. International financial institutes were gripped by fear. The IMF began talking of a threat of a slowdown in the world economy. According to the opinion of IMF specialists, developed economies have already entered a period of recession. The forecast for the growth in the US economy for 2009 stands at 0.1%, against the 0.6% that was earlier expected. The developed countries of Europe will show a growth in the area of around 0.2%. In Germany the forecast is of zero growth, according to Bloomberg. The IMF believes that the developing economies are also slowing down. A fall in the growth speed in the economy will lead to an increase in unemployment. The number of jobs lost outside the agricultural sector in the US for September stood at 159 thousand people. Across the world, the crisis has left more than 83 thousand bankers without jobs.
RUSSIA
Here the situation still worse. The world liquidity crisis, that is, a lack of money on the money markets, - has led to an even deeper crisis in liquidity inside Russia too. Over the past six months, the Russian market has lost about 70% of capitalization, at the same time when on other markets, the crisis has resulted in a fall in stocks on an average of 30% (China – 40%, Israel -34%, Japan – 29%, Britain and France - by 28%, Poland – 27%, USA – 27-24%, Germany- 25%, Belgium – 22%. Data source- stock report and news “FBK”). One more element of the crisis has been the fall in the price of oil which has led to a reduction in the influx of dollars for oil into the Russian budget.
The experts believe that the accumulated stabilization fund will soften the blow and that there is enough money in there for the time being, but all depends on how deep the world crisis turns out to be. Vice Chairman of the budget and tax committee of the Russian State Duma, Alexander Kogan says – “I think this year there will be no problems, because the budget surplus is now sufficiently big to ward off serious blows to the economy”. According to the opinion of the director of the institute for development, Sergei Glazyev, the problem lies in the fact that this money is invested in the American financial market, and due to the situation in the US, it can simply devaluate, and with this, very quickly.
The stormy growth in the economy will most certainly end this year and, beginning from next year, a significant slowdown will be observed, believes senior analyst of the company “Global Insight” on Russia, Doctor of political science, Natalie Leshenko.
The financial crisis in Russia has crossed over into a new phase: a sharp reduction of turnover capital will lead to stagnation in production. Automobile concerns “GAZ” and “KamAZ” have already announced a partial closure of their assembly lines. Metallurgists have warned of reductions in the volume of production by 20%. Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant (MMK) has announced a reduction in production and layoffs. According to the finance director of MMK Vladimir Shmakov, in October it is possible there would be fall in production by 25% in relation to the previous month.
According to the opinion of economists, the majority of Russia’s population will have prepare themselves for wage freezes and a fall in real incomes by approximately 30%. And in the first half of this year, real incomes of the population had already fallen by almost 10%.
The fall in growth and the stagnation of production will lead to a growth in unemployment. According to the opinion of specialists, the total number of people laid off due to a drop in production may real several million. The hardest hit will be the construction firms which survive entirely on hired means. They, according to data by economist Mikhail Delyagin, which radio station “Nemetskaya Volna” has quoted, have begun to freeze projects that have already been completed, and in the near future, millions of migrant workers who have been deprived of work will be thrown onto the streets of Russians towns and cities, and who could turn into violent criminals. On the whole in Russia at present there are, according to the economist, about 12 million migrant workers. One million of them have legal status, 11 – illegal status. Out of those, 6.5 million work in the construction industry. Delyagin forecasts that between 1 and 1.5 million migrant workers will keep their jobs in construction which are have been spared. Another one million of them will be able to find other jobs or manage to escape in time. But no less than 4 million of them will finish up on the streets – outside the law and outside of society. “For them lies the threat of a cold and hungry death, because they, as people from the warmer southern parts, are more sensitive to the winter that is fast approaching. On the other hand, for inhabitants of major towns and cities, this means a sharp rise in crime. And what is a very true reality, this will be violent crime, because people will be struggling for their physical survival”, warns Delyagin.
UKRAINE
The situation in Ukraine is lot worse than in Russia. More than this, it is catastrophic. The fall in stock market shares on the PFTS for the indicated period (May-October) was more than 70%. The trade balance was completely deregulated. Thus, if back in 2004, Ukraine sold onto the international market commodities worth 3.66 billion dollars more than it bought (that is, it was exporting more than it was importing), then with the arrival to power of the orange group and the first government of Yulia Timoshenko, already according to the total of 2005, the trade balance deficit stood at 1.91billion dollars. After that, with each year, the deficit has grown, and according to the 2007 results, stood at 11.42 billion dollars. For January – May of this year, import was greater than export by already 9.2 billion dollars and, according to specialist forecasts, the annual deficit for this year will be around 20 billion dollars. Ukraine’s financial system is only just floating thanks to foreign investments which in 2007 alone stood at 7.88 billion dollars. But with the start of the global financial crisis, foreign capital has begun leaving Ukraine (as with Russia too).
Ukraine’s foreign debt, according to data of the National Bank, at April 1, 2008, reached the astronomical sum of 92.49 billion dollars which is 65% of the entire GDP. With this, Ukraine has to pay back short-term loans to foreign lenders to the sum of 21 billion dollars. The need to have to repay these loans is forcing them to take out more credit at a higher rate of interest. Moreover, in the conditions of a financial crisis, these credits are extremely difficult to obtain. Economists have forecast that already by the end of this year (2008) the country’s financial system will have collapsed. This will lead to a devaluation of the Ukrainian hryvnia by a minimum of 1.5 – 2 times, the bankruptcy of the banking system, “having been sown” by foreign credits, the collapse of the stock market with a fall in the price of shares by 3 – 5 times, a hike in inflation up to 15 – 30% a month and the lowering of real income of the population.
The financial crisis has already affected in a negative way the economy of Ukraine. In particular, a large-scale crisis has begun in the steel industry. In connection with the fall in world prices, Ukrainian steel plants can no longer compete with Chinese and Russian producers. A month’s amount of products has accumulated at the companies’ warehouses due to problems with sales. Already 17 of the 36 smelting furnaces have stopped working, and the steel industry is looking at the partial closure of steel plants. Considering that the share of enterprises of the mining-metallurgical complex in the GDP is 20%, and up to 40% of the hard currency enters Ukraine from steel production, the consequences of the crisis in the metallurgical branch of industry may be pitiful; from a budget shortfall and massive job cuts up to the complete collapse in the economy of Ukraine. The country will sink into several years of depression.
The result - a sharp decline in the living standards of the working people of Ukraine and a new wave of labour migration.
***
In this situation, instead of restoring financial-economic and friendly ties with Russia in order to together try to stave off the crisis, the orange leadership of Ukraine headed by president Yukoshenko is forcing anti-Russian sentiment onto society. It has got so bad that the president now confiscates the plane from the prime minister when she goes to Moscow to solve questions on the price of gas. Indeed if Russia raises gas prices from 1st January 09 to the level of world gas prices, then the economy of Ukraine will come to an end. By order of the National Council for TV and Radio broadcasts, from the start of October 08, a number of cable Russian TV channels are to be suspended. All this is being done to stop Ukrainian viewers and listeners from getting information from out of Russia, in particular on the question of shining light on the Georgia- South Ossetia conflict and the participation of Ukraine in the face of the orange leadership, in the arming up of Georgia with weapons of attack. Practically as we were writing this article, Ukraine had taken part in that conflict on the side of Georgia and against Russia.
***
In order to take the attention of Ukraine’s working people off the extremely difficult situation, and also with the aim of dumping the entire blame for the impending catastrophe onto the Cabinet of Ministers headed by Yu. Timoshenko, V. Yushenko announced new elections to parliament. He gave the order for the dissolution of parliament (9 October) and designated the election for 7 December. Yulia Timoshenko in no way wants to lose her high and mighty post of prime minister with huge financial-economic power, and she, together with her power bloc (BYUT), is doing everything in order to wreck these elections. A legal war has broken out between the president and prime minister. The president’s Decree has been annulled by the area court administration of Kiev, the dissolution of this court by the president, the annulment of the given Decree by a higher court, the blocking of courts and the Central Electoral Commission by the BYUTites etc.
The working people of Ukraine understand all too well that all these “battles” have nothing in common with their daily lives, have nothing to do with their pains and concerns, that the president with the prime minister, - and the political forces oligarch clans breathing down their necks are simply carving up their own loot on the backs of the working people.
***
The impending collapse of world imperialism speaks only of one thing – capitalism at its highest imperialist stage has completely exhausted its own historical resources and to the utmost revealed its beastly inhuman essence.
The working people, like 91 years ago have to rise up to the struggle for the revolutionary overthrow of the power of capital and the rebirth of the power of the working people, Soviet power.
We, Bolsheviks have no doubt that a new wave of proletarian revolutions is growing and which will sweep off from the face of the Earth the rotten and criminal system of imperialism.
16 October 2008
A. MAEVSKY, Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (CC AUCPB)
The electing of Barak Obama as US president became news item number one in the world recently in conditions of a developing world systemic crisis and recession in the economies of the leading imperialist states.
What is the world expecting from the new president of the USA?
Firstly, the world is expecting a change in US foreign policy after the changeover in power in the White House, and namely:
1. a rejection by the USA of the role of world’s gendarme and that it subordinates to the rules to laid down by the United National Organisation (UNO);
2. the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq;
3. the closure of the Guantanamo concentration camp and the banning of the use of any kind of torture by the Army as well as the CIA, and also the closing of the network of secret prisons scattered by the US all around the world;
4. rejection from the policy of listing a number of sovereign states as belonging to the “axis of evil”, or defining them as “rogue states”, rejection of the human-hating policies in relation to them, made more severe by harsh economic blockades against countries like Cuba and the DPRK. Iran is also included in this list, with its peaceful atomic research that so irritates the USA;
5. cessation of extremist Americanism unleashed on independent states under the pretext of the “struggle of Americans for human rights”, the “establishment of democracy” – the American way of life and the corrupting human personality of American “culture”;
6. cessation of the gangster-style military arbitrariness on Palestinian soil and on the whole, in the Middle East on part of Israel fed by the US;
7. inadmissibility of aerial bombardments by the US airforce over territory of independence, where Americans allegedly suddenly spot the presence of terrorists (Syria, Lebanon and others);
8. signing of the Kyoto protocol, thereby confirming US readiness to cooperate internationally in preserving the environment in the struggle against global warming;
9. ending the construed global anti-missile defence system located close to Russia (Poland, Czech) and the former republics of the USSR as a factor for stepping up military tension;
10. the ending of the expansionist policy of NATO and the unrestrained expansion of zones of activity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation further into the East;
11. a number of other no less important acts.
In the domestic political sphere, the world is waiting from the US serious efforts on ending the US initiated world financial and economic crisis which has led the economies of the leading countries of Europe into recession and strongly hit the economies of countries like Russia, Japan, China and others.
These, maybe are the main questions which the world is waiting a solution to from the 44th president of the USA, Barak Obama. Can he, the first in American history black president, a descendant of a white slave-owner and a Jewess of African origin, fulfill the hopes of the world community?
It seems that serious changes in the foreign policy of the USA under Obama are not envisaged. More than this, to the majority of the listed questions, Obama has already publicly stated – “NO”, or that he is completely unsure. The USA will not be withdrawing from Afghanistan soon, or even at all at this rate. It is of no accident that they got involved in that conflict. Iraq remains occupied by US troops for the long term, for a withdrawal by them from Iraq would mean a loss of US influence in that region. Blood will continue to flow from Palestine, since Israel and the US will not reject their policy of invasion into this territory of the Middle East. Russia, like before represents an interest for the USA only as a source of raw materials, the country, preferably in dismembered form. (A former enemy will never be a friend – proclaims a Russian proverb). We have already analyzed the question as to who real power belongs to in America. It belongs to the Zionist lobby, aiming for world domination. Therefore, any US president is, in all, only an executive of the will of the ruling Zionist elite of America, the Committee of 300, which runs the transnational corporations and dictates its will to the presidents and higher electoral power of the imperialist countries of the world.
Well ok, Barak Obama has black skin, so what? He is still their puppet, from out of their “nest”. The arrival of a politician with other views and another political orientation other than what makes the true power in the USA happy, to the post of US president, is practically impossible. And so Obama will do what he has “been told” by the hierarchs of Zionism and he will do it even more decisively (than George Bush has done, which Obama has already publicly stated), in order to constantly prove his complete loyalty and obedience to the demands of the Zionist lobby of the USA.
One can judge in advance the policy of Obama by the makeup of the pro-presidential team chosen by him. Out of them, who has already been designated as member of Obama’s team are all hawks, who have already showed their true selves in the organizing and carrying out by the US of local wars. For example, Richard Holbrooke is one of the architects of the bombing of Yugoslavia whilst completely ignoring the recommendations of the UN. Joe Biden – engineered and took active part in the plan of action for attacking Iraq. These are just two, but there are other hawks. Post of Head of chancellery of the White House will be filled by Ram Emanuel, who comes from an Israeli family who immigrated to the USA. This is a post which occupies third place in importance in the government hierarchy of the USA. The head of chancellery carries responsibility for the choice of cadres for the government apparatus, the contact with the White House and US Congress, the country’s domestic policy and work with the cabinet of ministers. Ram Emanuel is closely tied in with Israel. Therefore one need not expect any easing of tension in the Middle East. The remaining members in Obama’s team are of the same level of loyalty to the idea of world domination by the American empire and the use of military force for realizing the expansionist plans of the USA.
Therefore, in the White House, besides a change in the colour of the skin of the person who is to carry out the duties of a president, little is going to change. The American naïve euphoria over the coming to pass of the American dream of the forefathers-founders of America will soon pass, and the real affairs will hardly instill optimism into the ordinary Americans.
However, it is not excluded that the choosing out of all pretenders to the White House of namely a black president by the Zionist lobby of America follows long term aims, namely: the use of him, a black man, like one of “their own”, as a passing figure for the broad penetration and conquering by America, of the African continent under the decrepit slogans of “human rights struggle” and “democracy”. The African continent which is so rich in the rarest minerals and raw materials and exceptionally cheap labour power (before, black slaves were sent to America as slaves, but now they can be utilized on the spot, in Africa, and with this, gaining huge profits without the cost of transit and maintenance even it only on the most basic of needs. And imperialist Europe will be able to utter a sigh of relief, for while at least, since the problem of illegal migration of the impoverished African population into the countries of Europe, will lessen.
It is possible that the US Zionist lobby is planning on gaining another doping, by way of enslaving black Africa, stealing its rich minerals and raw materials and with this, finds its way out of the crisis. Indeed, the attitude to the USA in Latin America (one of the main suppliers of energy resources for the USA) is by far cloudy, and in the Middle East, is with hatred towards American occupiers.
In the 1990-s the US gained a huge doping on the backs of the breakup of the USSR which provided the US with a sufficiently peaceful existence in the flow of 20 years (read A.A. Ponomaryev’s “Yeltsin – Russia’s tragedy” M., 1999).
By the words of the 41st US president George Bush (senior) in 1992, - “We have spent 4 trillion dollars on winning the cold war and compared to this amount, the sum we intend to spend now (for breaking up the USSR) - is 24 billion dollars. The democrats inside the Kremlin are able to guarantee our security far more reliably than our nuclear missiles”. In other words, Gorbachev’s betrayal cost America 166 times less compared to the confrontation between the two political systems.
During a meeting in the summer of 1987, Gorbachev together with Shevardnadze on a destroyer in the Mediterranean Sea near Malta, gave their consent to US president Ronald Reagan to dissolve the “Warsaw pact”, withdraw Soviet troops from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and also the ending of the Soviet space shuttle “Buran”…. In passing it needs to be mentioned that West German Chancellor Kohl (1981 – 1998) in those days offered Gorbachev 160 billion dollars for “handing over” East Germany. After time-out, Gorbachev went away happy with 14 billion dollars for the deal.
Thus, the higher party-nomenclature of the CPSU sold off the USSR together with the people, and sold off the countries of the communist camp to their ideological opponent….
Today, the USA is in a state of deep economic recession. Unemployment for the first time in 25 years has reached an unprecedented of level for the first time in the USA of 6.5% (4 million unemployed). In Europe, the number is even greater.
The growth in GDP in 2009 for the USA and countries of the EU is planned to be zero and even into minus figures. Western analysts believe that the consequences from the US mortgage crunch may be overcome no earlier than 2010. May be, but will it? Nobody knows what it will be in 2010.
Having complete inability to pay and a state deficit astronomical in size, the machines in the US are still printing their long time ago devalued green banknotes, continuing to flood the whole world with them and forcing other countries to carry out payments namely in dollars. “Fanatics” of the US are gaining huge material assets throughout the world for greenbacks. Today, the exchange rate of the absolutely devalued US currency, not having any backup in gold, is artificially incredibly inflated and absurdly growing, bringing huge profits to currency speculators. This soap bubble definitely has to burst, which may naturally lead to the complete collapse of the USA and the imperialist world on the whole. (Today, America is just managing to hold on because of the growth in the volume of paper money being printed). The US Federal Reserve system is not under the control of the president and prints as much paper money as it feels necessary, and with this, gaining a profit from every printed banknote. There is information that John Kennedy wanted to curb the US FRS, and that is probably why he was assassinated. As is known, until this day, the killers remain “unknown”.
Neither the huge financial injections into the US economy of the countries of the EU, nor Russia which supports America with its gold-currency reserves to the detriment of its own economy and the further lowering of the level of social provision of the absolute majority of citizens of the Russian Federation (RF), could NOT prevent the growing crisis in the USA. The export of capital from Russia is fast underway. Between 10 – 24 August, the pure outflow of capital amounted to 9 billion dollars. Russia’s financial reserves are being exported at a catastrophic rate. Huge state financial injections into banks are not reaching their designated goal, but are going towards the writing off by these banks, of loans taken out by them earlier from Western investors who are now fleeing the Russian markets, and therefore the financial doping of the state to the banks has absolutely no effect on the state of the Russian economy itself. Enterprises in Russia are laying off workers or are closing down altogether. Wage arrears in the country in a number of places go back as far as 6 months or more. The growth of GDP is falling and is now already below the earlier predicted figures. Inflation has exceeded the worst predictions earlier made. At the same time, on the TV channels in Russia, merry little talk shows are being aired, like a feast during the plague, together with the manipulation of the minds of the masses and being even more trained up on the lies of the elite with the aim of turning people’s attention away from thoughts about an impending collapse.
In connection with the sharp fall in world prices on oil (in half a year, the prices of oil has dropped three times) all Russian national projects can only remain as such:- projects and only projects. It is known that the Russian budget was made up in such a way that 70 dollars will cover only the obligations of the budget on domestic loans. And this means that all the rest will have to been cut back and reduced or used notes “of the national reserve” which under such a rate of spending may become zero in 3 – 4 months. On 13 November, the cost of a barrel of Russian oil on the world market stood at 45 dollars a barrel (a barrel of oil is equal to 159 litres). With the making up of the Russian budget for 2009 – 2011, they started out from the price of oil at 95 dollars a barrel. (At that time on the world market the price of a barrel of oil stood at 145 dollars, with a forecast of it reaching 200 dollars a barrel)…At the end of October the budget was over estimated taking into account the price of oil already at 78 dollars a barrel in 2009 – 74 dollars in 2010 – and 88 dollars in 2011.
In connection with the global crisis, the countries of OPEC are planning to cut oil output even more, due to recession in the main economies of the world and the sharp fall in consumption of energy resources because of the closing of a number of areas of production. The fall in world oil output will lead to a further fall in the price of oil. Russia will hardly be able to overcome this crisis on the path of the liberal market and deepening of the capitalization of Russia’s economy. However, the arrival to power as a result of the bourgeois counter-revolution, the existing power in the Russian Federation states and by the words of Putin and the words of Medvedev, that there will be no re-examination at the results of the criminal privatization, devoutly defending the sacred cow of private ownership, obtained by the oligarch clan by way of theft of the people’s property.
President of the Russian federation, D.A. Medvedev in his throne speech on 5 November in the Kremlin, said that one of the main things for us is the “preserving and defending of our fundamental values” (bearing in mind firstly, private ownership), having forgotten that all the time that the most fundamental value for a Russian person has always been social justice. Is there any social justice in Russia today? – NO and not even any mention of it. Today, besides those who acquired for themselves the enormous people’s wealth, possess several villas and castles abroad and in Russia, yachts with several helicopter landing sites and a submarine inside the yachts, who boast publicly, openly and arrogantly before an impoverished population about their wealth they stole (these are all those same “seeds” which Gorbachev had sown in ploughed soil after rooting SOCIALISM from out of it, and now oligarchs have grown out of it), shocking the West with their wealth, having seen various swindlers and thieves, and with those who have to survive on bread and water, there is an ever expanding and deepening chasm. Indeed the main mass of the population under a common wage leveling is “ok” but with a miserly wage of 15 thousand rubles, that provide a very modest living, and those who have been cast overboard – senior citizens, the sick, children who have poor parents – to which, by words of Medvedev are supposedly, “guaranteed from birth equal opportunities” which will never be realized due to the lack of financial means from the parents, with hatred look upon the modern day elite oligarchic Bohemia.
Medvedev stated in his throne speech on 5 November, that “we will not tolerate any igniting of social or national discord” and we shall guarantee “constitutional” (bourgeois- our italics) order using all “legal means”.
We were all by birth from the USSR. For each and every one of us, there has never been a superior nationality of our compatriots, our comrades, our friends. And happy marriages took place on the basis of love between people of various nationalities. And in any Soviet republic, no matter where we traveled, we were always greeted as guests and friends. And every citizen of the USSR was proud of their national identity, their national spiritual culture. Interethnic strife brought into our lives constituted in-power counter-revolution.
Concerning social unrest, then it is natural and inevitable under the presence of a huge gap between the super rich and impoverished people. And it will not be quelled neither by fascistic methods of the Russian riot police OMON, or the beating by the police and other law-enforcement structures for suppressing civil resistance. And how they deal with people arriving to take part in pickets and meetings we know all too well on our experience with dealing the servants of the bourgeois “constitutional order”, using their “legal means”. You can read all about this in the Internet and in the bourgeois media as well as in our press. Medvedev also noted that “there are things that cannot be allowed to happen, there are things for the sake of which we have to fight and win”. For Soviet people here are the things which we cannot forego and will never give up:
- our socialist Fatherland – which has been stolen from us,
- our glorious heroic Soviet history in which, like Soviet poet Victor Kochetkov once wrote – “Thirty years of victories and troubles and we are departing from our place and what has been done” our counter-revolutionaries- democrats;
- our Soviet certainty in the morrow and the chance for anyone to study free of charge in an Institute for Higher Learning and receive a scholarship according to ones own choice of profession;
- a purely symbolic sum to have to pay for housing services under Soviet power; symbolic cost of all foodstuffs and public transport; symbolic price to pay of any – including imported- medicines; free universal health care, highly qualified surgical assistance by specialists of the highest qualifications;
- free housing to all in need of it;
- full access for everyone to museums, theatres with world acclaimed artists, access with no restrictions on possessing world culture;
- our great selfless friendship of Soviet peoples – is the main factor in the victory at the end of the Great Fatherland War;
- our national pride of the Great Rus which has been taken away from us, the reminder of our nationality erased from the new passports, having made all of us not just Russians, but “Ivans, not even remembering our past national affinity.”
We shall never give up our Marxist-Leninist principles, our firm certainty in the victory of socialism across the entire planet, our belief in the rebirth of the multinational Soviet Socialist Motherland which the counter-revolution has stolen from us.
We shall never forgo our belief in the triumph of social justice, in the victory of SOCIALISM, because SOCIALISM – is the true future of civilization and its progress.
But we have to fight for all of this and truly carry things to a complete victory. Hatred for all the evil done to the Soviet people is ripening and reprisal is unavoidable against the “architects of perestroika” and the traitorous “democrats” – betrayers of the Motherland.
In his time, president Putin said that a thief must do time in prison. We agree with this. But today the thief sits in the Kremlin and the Federal Assembly, feeding off corruption, wasting enormous state money on maintaining him or herself – money from the taxpayers, and with this, significantly reducing state social benefits for the impoverished population. This is yet another outrageous injustice which must be liquidated.
In the days of celebrating the 80th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, we were told that the XXI century would be a century of socialist revolutions, a century of victory for socialism in the majority of countries of the world, a century in the victory of the ideology of Bolshevism. The flow of world history at the start of the XXI century, the processes in Latin America, the systemic crisis of imperialism, overwhelming the world imperialist at present, confirms that prediction.
We are standing on the threshold of large social changes and we need to be ready to correctly understand them and realize them wisely.
With us, in our struggle for social justice, for socialism, are our leaders – Lenin and Stalin!
Today, for every decent person, the struggle for preserving civilization means a struggle against international imperialism, and primarily against US imperialism, against the American empire of evil, hatred and trampling of the rights of the individual wherever a US soldier puts his feet.
The duty of every communist – is to take the most active part in the anti-imperialist and anti-globalist struggle, since this is the type of struggle for SOCIALISM.
Nina Andreeva
General Secretary of the CC AUCPB
14 November 2008
Leningrad
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