NEWS&VIEWS FROM (THE FORMER) SOVIETSKY SOYUZNo.2, Sept.1993

ANARCHIST CHRONICLE

SOLIDARITY WORKS! MOLDAVIAN ANARCHISTS WON THE TRIAL BECAUSE
OF INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

Two Moldavian anarchists, Tamara Burdenko and Igor Hergenreoder,
recently won their trial against the administration of the
magazine "Kodry" where Tamara worked.  Tamara was fired soon after
her husband's articles criticizing the Moldavian
national-authoritarian regime appeared in some papers. But for
about a year (since May 7, 1992) the authorities denied the
political character of that act. Because of the international
solidarity campaign with Tamara and Igor it was possible to force
the judges to make a just verdict. Numerous protests were send by
anarchists and human right activists to the Moldavian authorities
and in January 1993 the Moldavian prosecutor general had to make
an appeal to the court himself asking for another trial.  Tamara
and Igor insisted that all the articles that started their
repression be put into their file and refused to go to court until
this was done. On May 11, 1993 the court handed down its verdict -
the firing was judged illegal and they ordered that Tamara be
paid. Ironically, the sum is ridiculous - 18,500 roubles for
almost a year of lost work (about US$18). However, the
administration refused to pay even this and told Tamara that she
will be taken to court again. Still, the decision of the court is
certainly a victory and now it's much easier for Tamara Burdenko
and Igor Hergenreoder to resist the attacks of the Moldavian
authorities. Tamara and Igor are very grateful to all the comrades
who have helped them to fight the injustice.

MAY DAY IN THE EX-USSR

On May 1st anarchists in Moscow didn't hold their own
demonstrations. Members of the Initiative of Revolutionary
Anarchists (IREAN) and Group of Radical Anarcho-syndicalists
(GRAS) (about ten people in total) joined the trade union
demonstration. Since they denounced the unions as "nomenklatura
unions" the organizers tried to kick them out of the demonstration
and even appealed to police. The incident didn't end badly and the
radicals continued their rally near the union one.  In Donetsk
(Ukraine) the local anarcho-syndicalist group joined the
demonstration of the ex-CPSU groups, but was asked to leave it
because of their black banners. In spite of all reservations some
groups tend to look at the communist organizations as potential
allies - this is rather sad.  In Tomsk activists from the Tomsk
and Seversk (Tomsk-7) local anarcho-syndicalist groups held a May
Day rally.Communists which held their rally nearby called on the
anarchists to join it and even to join the Russian Communist
Workers Party, but surely get a refusal.  (Also see the story
about May Day riot in Moscow.)

BYELORUSSIAN ANARCHISTS AGAINST UNEMPLOYMENT

GOMEL (BYELORUSSIA). On May 25th, the Gomel organization of the
Byelorussian Anarchist Federation, the Union of the Unemployed and
a local of the Byelorussian Confederation of Labour from the Gomel
AgriculturaL Machinery Factory, held a demonstration outside of
the factory, where many people had recently lost their jobs.
Several hundred workers from the factory attended the demo. The
workers who spoke criticised the management of the factory who are
actively involved in speculation using the factory's products and
demanded that salaries be raised.(In the foundry workers earn just
9,000 roubles a month - less than 9 US dollars.) There were also
demands for worker control. The organizers of the action hope that
the 880 workers at the factory who may be fired will stand up and
join the Byelorussian Confederation of Labour's independent union
which is capable of protecting them from getting fired.

WHAT'S SO ANARCHIST ABOUT LIBERALISM?

MOSCOW. On June 19-20 the founding congress of the Libertarian
Workers Union (SVT) was held in Moscow. The name, however, is very
misleading as the Union is composed of anarcho-capitalists, many
of whom are entrepreneurs.  Currently the Union has member groups
in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Tula and Kazan. The Union stands for
the limitation of state interference into economy, reduction of
taxes and liquidation of state economy. All very anarchist.  As a
result of discussion at the congress the decision was made that
SVT will have a strong structure with central coordination
committee and will be registered as a political party. The social
base of the new organization will be the middle class. A
theoretical magazine called "The Black Line" will be published by
Saint Petersburg group, which already publishes "information
bulletin of the anarchist movement An-Press". The bulletin will
also be sponsored by the SVT.  The founders of the American state
who wrote the Declaration of Independence would have been very
surprised to know that there is somebody to the right of them, who
calls himself an anarchist.

KAS MEETING IN MOSCOW

MOSCOW. On June 26-27 an impromptu meeting since activists from
Tomsk, Omsk and Khabarovsk simultaneously arrived to Moscow.
Current political and social situation was discussed, there were
reports about the Information Bureauof KAS (run by KAS activists
in Tomsk), publishing anarcho- syndicalist magazine "Obschina"
(Moscow). Also a proposal was made to organize the next convention
of KAS in Moscow in the end of May 1994. Proposed topics for
discussion were the problems of building independent unions (it is
possible that it will be a joint seminar together with Swedish
syndicalists and Labour Information Centre KAS-KOR) and
anarcho-syndicalist press. One day of the congress will probably
be devoted to the 180th anniversary of Mikhail Bakunin. These
proposals are to be discussed through KAS information bulletin.

ARE THERE ANY EAST EUROPEANS IN EASTERN EUROPE?

ZAPOROZHYE (UKRAINE). On July 16-20 "the second conference of East
European anarchists" was held in Zaporozhye. Strange as it may
seem none of the ex-Soviet anarchists were invited. In spite of
that people from Donetsk, Moscow (IREAN) and Byelorussia came to
the conference. None of the East European participants came, there
were only some people from Germany, England, Holland and Belgium
(obviously invited by the organizers to "strengthen international
contacts" and probably get some money). Some discussions on the
current situation in the ex-USSR took place, foreign participants
spoke about their activities. The participants of the
anarcho-syndicalist meeting in Moscow (see the info above) send
greetings to the organizers of the conference stating that since
they were not invited to the East European conference, they
consider themselves to be Northern Eurasians and are very grateful
to the organizers of the conference for the help in their
self-identification.

AGAINST NOMENKLATURA PRIVATIZATION

SEVERSK (TOMSK-7). We already informed the readers about the
activities of local anarcho-syndicalist group and their struggles
against bureaucratic privatization. (See News&Views No.1.) On
March 19 and 20 late in the evening two activists of KAS were
attacked and severely beaten. This happened soon after the
information about the maneuvres of the administration aimed at
privatization of the factory behind the backs of the workers was
published in the newssheet "Worker" published by
anarcho-syndicalists.  Vladimir Yefimov and Piotr Melnyk, the
victims of these two attacks, had to spend about a week at home
recovering from the wounds. After Vladimir Yefimov appeared at the
factory he was told by the administration that it would be better
if he quits his job.  On April 15 the workers collective discussed
whether the establishment of the small business by administration
of the factory was legal or not. The bosses had to retreat saying
that the business was already liquidated and the money invested
illegaly from the factory fund were returned.Nevertheless, as a
result of these events Vladimir Yefimov quited from the factory,
but anarcho-syndicalists from Seversk don't regret about the work
done to fight back against bureaucratic privatization.

POLICE/PRISONS

COPWATCH IN KALININGRAD (KONIGSBERG)

On April 20 an activist from the libertarian socialist group
"Solidarity" and a deputy of the city Soviet Alexander Zhidenkov
was attacked by policemen. After he got several blows with a
rubber baton, he was taken to the police department, where his
deputy mandate was confiscated and he was held there for about an
hour. Later on when he was released local authorities refused to
open a case against policemen.  Solidarity together with other
groups (Ecodefence and anarchists) decided to organize an
information centre and launch a campaign called "People Against
Police Terror".  They will be gathering information about all the
cases of police abuse, spreading them through mass media and
assisting in taking the police to courts. You can contact the
organizers of campaign at: Press centre "People Against Police
Terror", 30-8 Ulitsa Nevskogo, Kaliningrad/Konigsberg 236041,
Russia/CIS

PRISON RIOT BRUTALLY SUPPRESSED

5 people were killed and 40 injured (including 20 policemen) while
supressing a riot in a correctional institution in the city
Vladimir, north-east of Moscow. The riot started early in the
morning July 7. About 1000 people made barricades on a small
territory and demanded that representatives from the Ministry of
the Interlnal Affairs come to speak to them. The demands included
the liquidation of local zones, the introduction of permanent
waiters in the canteen, the possibility to have meals whenever one
needs, smoke whereever one wants and wear slippers instead of
heavy boots. The negotiations which lasted until the evening
didn't bring any results and the riot was crushed with 400
policemen and soldiers supported by two armoured cars. 70 people
were taken to the special cells until the end of the
investigation. The riot in Vladimir was the biggest one this
year.

STRUGGLES AGAINST PRIVATIZATION IN RUSSIA

THE BARBERS HAVE TO TAKE THE PATH OF WAR
NOVOSIBIRSK. The Labour Collective of Barber's No.5 has occupied
the premises in the centre of the city and have been protecting
them round the clock for almost two months.  The barbers are
struggling for their existence. Thedesperate struggle of the
barber's No.5 collective stands out against the quiet background
of the Novosibirsk workers' movement like something
extraordinary. The Novosibirsk public, however, takes the events
cooly, the more so, as the action is presented as an ordinary
strike.  But this is not the case. The collective of 16 does not
leave the premises of the barber's day-and-night, does not let in
the managers and takes other precautions. Round-the- clock
protection is the only means to prevent the planned lock-out, the
barbers believe. "We are put up for sale and we don't know about
it!" says one of the placards in the barber's window. The thing is
that the management of the lease association "Diana" determined,
against the will of the labour collective, to reconstruct the
premises of the barber's and open a commercial shop. They do not
admit to this decision publicly and the director promises that
after the reconstruction there will be a hairdressing saloon of an
international category instead of the barber's and accompanying
goods traded by it. But the labour collective doesn't believe him,
and not without reason.  A case like that has already taken place
at barber's No.7.  Last year after the summer leave the employees
found a commercial shop in the building of their barber's and in
the former auxiliary room there were two seats for work. Thus
eight out of ten barbers became unemployed.  The labour collective
of barber's No.5 applied to the city federation of trade unions
but with no result. Then the employees left this union and set up
a cell of the Sotsprof regional association. The collective of the
barber's No.7 has declared that they will proceed with their
action until the mayor cancelles the lease with "Diana"'s director
and concludes an agreement directly with the labour collective.
On June 1st the head of local adminisrtation signed the new
statutes of the lease association "Diana" according to which all
the workers are the owners of the association and have the right
to participate in decision-making. On June 2nd the barber's No.5
opened to the customers. The workers collective forced the former
director to resign and elected their union leader to that
position.

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKI. In the last few days of May, the
residents of the microregion of "Dachny" have spoken out against
the transference of their local food store to a private company
called "Yaroslavl". The store was privatized at a closed auction.
This is against privtization laws which state that businesses in
the regions of the Far North can be privatized only in agreement
with residents of the area and its workers. A crowd of
demonstrators blocked traffic in a number of city streets. The
privatization of the store was put off.  Soon a resolution signed
by Boris Yeltsin was recieved which said that the store should be
given to the workers collective. But the present situation is
still troublesome,because according to the plans of privatization
the store should be privitized by the end of this year and it is
quite probable that at the next auction the price of the store
K8will be much higher and the workers won't be able to buy it.
Currently the store is closed for repairs and all the sales are
taking place out in the street. The struggle of the workers of the
store against nomenklatura privatization was supported by dozens
of protests sent by fishermen, who are the main dwellers in the
region. Workers of some enterprises thretaened the authorities
with holding mass hunger-strikes if the store will be turned into
a commercial enterprise.  Now the prices in the store are lower
compared to the other commercial stores and thus the workers can
afford themselves to shop there.

ONE MORE VICTORY FOR "DEFENCE"

MOSCOW. On March 29 the labour collective of store No. 53 set up a
cell of the trade union "Defence." This action was undertaken in
order to prevent the director of the store from privatizing the
store on her own - thus evading the law and ignoring the labour
collective's opinions. The store is a lease enterprise and cannot
be put up for sale at auction.  However just that was done and all
the employees were dismissed. The labour collective
representatives applied for help to the prefect and the public
prosecutor, but in vain.  Then the labour collective voted against
the director at a general meeting and elected a new director.
After that, in the presence of the prefecture's representatives
and municipal militiamen, the seals were removed from the doors
and the labour collective went back to their routine work.

OMSK. For a week since July 8 workers from the "Rakurs"
photostudio held an occupation strike protesting against a deal
made between the city administration and a Chinese- Russian joint
venture (the Russian side of that enterprise is being represented
by only one person) allowing the joint venture to occupy the
premises of the studio. On July 7 twenty five workers from the
photo studio were told to move the equipment out of the premises
and take it to another building in the suburbs of the city. In
response the workers locked the doors and refused to leave the
building. The court refused to take their appeal about
privatization of the studio by the labour collective. The mayor of
the city refused to make any negotiations with the strikers untill
they are all arrested (!). On July 14 police troops surrounded the
building threatening to break the blocked doors with a truck. The
strikers surrendered to the police and left the premises, but they
continue their struggle.  Some public organizations from Omsk,
including the Workers' Movement Support Committee, ecological
groups and even Cossacks. You can support the labour collective of
the studio by sending protests to: the Committee of CityProperty,
Ulitsa Lenina 13, Omsk 644001, Russia/CIS.

TRADE UNIONS

People continue to leave formerly official trade unions in Russia.
>From Jan. 1 , 1992 - Jan. 1, 1993, membership in the ex-communist
Russian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (FNPR) decreased
from 72.6 million people to 64.3. But according to the leadership
of the FNPR, this decline in membership is related to the number
of people who have left their permanent place of residence for
other countries, to the number of businesses that have closed down
and to the transference of workers to commercial enterprises.
Still it was announced that only 1.6 million members had left the
FNPR voluntarily.  Unions affiliated to FNPR are the only unions
at the majority of workplaces. Currently they unite not only wage
labourers but administration too. Membership fees are taken from
the workers automatically

ECOLOGY

There have been a number of ecological actions this summer
organized by anarchists and radical ecologists. One of them is an
ecological camp in the city of Cherpovetz which started on July
1st. In Cherepovetz there is a giant metallurgical factory which
has caused great environmental damage to the area. The factory,
which was built in the 50's uses outdated technology; the factory
emits a gas which is similar in composition to the poisonous gases
used by the military. Cherepovetz is one of the top 5 polluted
sites in Russia; the population suffer from certain diseases at
least twice as much as the general public and more than half of
the children born die within the first year of life. For this
reason they decided to hold a camp at this site.  Participants
from Russia, the Ukraine and Tartarstan came to hold pickets and
to talk to the inhabitants of the city and workers at the plant.
They did not demand that the plant be shut down as it is the main
source of employment in the city (2/3 of the population is in some
way connected with the enterprise). Instead they propose that
money be invested to build a new, ecologically safer plant using
Japanese technology.  On July 16 a rock-concert to support the
camp was organized by local bands. On July 19 participants of the
camp went to the office of the director of the plant and demanded
to negotiate with him. He refused saying that the ecologists were
"criminals" and are not competent enough in ecological issues.
After that protesters locked the doors of his cabinet and forced
him to negotiate. In half an hour policemen arrived and detained
the troublemakers. Soon they were all released. The incident was
covered by the local TV and newspapers and has been favourably
greeted.Unfortunately the participants of the camp were few and
although they received verbal support from the inhabitants of the
city they didn't get active assistance. Besides that there were
some unpleasant incidents in the camp caused by some people who
were using alchohol and drugs. Some people (including those who
were the initiators of the camp) decided to leave and finally did
so, but others didn't. They understood that if the camp will
achieve no concrete results it will be impossible in the future to
get the people in Cherepovetz to hold any ecological campaigns -
they will think it's absolutely useless. So two of the protesters
decided to hold a hunger strike on the chimneys of the
metallurgical plant (five people were on a hunger strike before
but they quit). On the second day they were taken down by police
force but public opinion was on their side.  The local television
program made a favourable report. As a result the municipal
ecological committee decided that the administration of the plant
should make a program to reconstruct the plant. Of course, the
protesters understand that this really means nothing, but the
official decision can serve as a ground for further campaigns. The
numbers of the protesters at that time were already very low, so
the camp stopped on August 8

* * *

Another action took place at Samarskaya Luka state park where they
have set up a quarry. They are continously blasting holes in the
side of the mountain. Activists from the group "Rainbow Keepers"
decided to set up camp there and demand that the area not be
exploited for commercial purposes. The action began on July 5 and
people from the Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and America went
there (about 20 people in total). They set up camp close to where
the explosions go off and so on July 6-7 they didn't set off any
explosions. The camp is supported by the collective of the
national park. The most severe opposition to the camp is from the
side of the workers who work in the quarry. They several times had
fights with the protesters and destroyed the camp. No further
information at this time. You can contact the camp at the
following address: Yuri Roshevsky, ulitsa Tkacheva, d. 109-A,
Zhigulevsk, Samarskaya oblast, 446350, Russia/CIS.

MAY DAY RIOT IN MOSCOW

On May 1st the first big clash with the police took place in
Moscow during the May Day demo organized by the communists.  The
demonstration was banned by Moscow authorities and when the people
who gathered on Oktyabrskaya Square went down along Leninsky
Prospekt, they faced the barricades of trucks and police lines.
The demo was going away from the centre of the city and thus posed
no danger to "public safety". Thestreet was blocked in the
narrowest place; that shows that the authorities were looking
forward to provocation. If the crowd would have been let 100
metres further it could have been easily dispersed on the big
square. Demonstrators attacked the police lines trying to break
through. Fire fighting cars and special police troops were used
against them. A few moments after heaps of stones flew into the
police; some demonstrators took over the police batons and
shields. The active fighting went on for about about 40 minutes.
579 people were injured, 250 of them are reported to be policemen
(of course "Moscow News" exaggerated this figure to 400). One
policemen hit by a truck died several days after in the hospital.
Several trucks were burned, but the expensive Western foodstores
and commercial kiosks remained unlooted.  This was the first such
big urban fight in Moscow and surely it became the subject of a
hysterical media campaign against the national-communist
opposition. At the same time it helped communists and nationalists
to hold the biggest ever demonstration on May 9, commemorating the
victory of the USSR over Nazi Germany. Though the authorities
tried to pressure the of National Salvation Front to make this a
"non-political" demonstration it turned out to be strictly
anti-Yeltsin. Russian chauvinist and anti-semitic slogans were
very popular among the demonstrators. Various groups ranging from
the fascist Front of National-Revolutionary Action to some members
of the Party of Labour participated in the demo. They even managed
to break through to the Red Square. Police didn't interfere as the
number of the demonstrators was considerable, maybe even
approaching 100 thousand people.  Authoritarian tendencies on both
the side of the government and the national-communist opposition
are growing. Though a considerable part of the population abstains
from politics, those who don't are moving to the extremes
following the campaign in the media for the restoration of order
and shit like that. Yeltsin's drift to the right is rather
considerable as during the referendum he appealed to the most
nationalist and authoritarian forces (Cossacks, for example) using
the same "Great Russia" ideology as his rivals. You can imagine
how bright the future might be.

PUBLICATIONS

OBSCHINA. This is the second issue of this ananrcho- syndicalist
magazine since it was re-launched at the end of last year. But
today the chances that it will appear more regularly are much
greater. This issue features articles about the future of "Russian
statehood" (the sooner it dies, the better, Obschina collective
thinks), debates on Constituent Assembly, etc. The special
supplement carries a collection of articles devoted to 1968 world
revolution.  Obschina collective can be contacted at the same
address asNews&Views or at P.O.Box 16, 129642 Moscow, Russia.

MOTHER ANARCHY. The fourth issue of this Moscow-based multi-
lingual magazine (it has sections in English, Russian and
Esperanto) is devoted to the problems of nationalism.  Contents
include "The Fantastic World of Russian Nationalists" and "The
Fear of Poverty: Immigration Policies and Nationalism" by Laure
Akai (in English), "The Macedonian Question and the Recent War in
Former Yugoslavia in Historical Perspective" by Lacenaire (in
English). The Russian section includes the article on Macedonia by
Lacenaire and the first part of Fredy Perlman's "The Continuing
Appeal of Nationalism". Mother Anarchy can be reached at P.O.Box
500,            Moscow, Russia/CIS.

ASPIRIN WON'T HELP is a new magazine which strives to deal with
the ideological hunger from which Russian radical circles suffer a
lot. The first issue features George Bradford's "Triumph of
Capital" (from American @ magazine Fifth Estate) and a brief
review of the ideas and activities of the Situationist
International. The second issue contains a lengthy analysis of the
fall of Soviet totalitarianism and the problems it failed to
resolve, as well as the story about Los Angeles riot (from
American Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed) and the May Day riot
in Moscow. Those who read in Russian can get a copy of the
magazine from the same address as News&Views.

RUSSIAN LABOUR REVIEW. The second issue of this English- language
quarterly is being published KAS-KOR Labour Information Centre. It
features a story about the recent miners' strike in the Donbass,
an account of privatization in Lithuania (see this issue of
News&Views) as well as numerous other articles carrying
information about the workers' movement and trade unions in the
former USSR.  Political section overviews spring government crisis
and the processes taking place in various communist and socialist
parties, including a critical article on the Russian Party of
Labour (see this issue of News&Views). Of great interest will be
the story about the workers uprising in Novocherkassk in 1962 and
an article about Piotr Siuda, a veteran of the workers movement,
an anarcho-syndicalist, and one of the participants in the
Novocherkassk uprising. For more information you can contact
News&Views.

News & Views From (the former) Sovietsky Soyuz Mikhail Tsovma
21-62 Volzhsky blvd.  Moscow 109462 Russia/CIS e-mail:
cube@glas.apc.org, krazchenko@glas.apc.org (This file contains
only chronicle of events, bigger pieces are sent separately or you
can request them from the address above. The other materials
include a review of privatization in Lithuania, stories about
strikes in Donbass and Lithuania in summer 1993 and a critique of
the Russian Party of Labour (PT). These articles appeared also in
the "Russian Labour Review", No.2.)