Statement
of the
Federation
of
Socialist
Social
Clubs
THE TEXT of the statement/platform of Socialist Social Clubs is reproduced below. It was read out on August 23 at the Conference on Social Initiatives in the Framework of the Perestroika held in Moscow, and signed by 16 groups. (See article on page 4.)
S ELF-ACTIVATING social organ-
izations, meeting in Moscow in August 1987 to participate in the informational and discussion meeting entitled "Social Initiatives within the Framework of the Perestroika," make
1. The processes happening in connection with perestroika have given rise to independent social and socio-political organizations. According to the constitution of the USSR, all power in the society belongs to the people. Thus, as a part of the people, the independent social and socio-political organizations have the right to express themselves independently and to defend their interests without any intermediary
2. The groups and unions signing this statement are partisans of a socialist perspective for developing our country. As convinced supporters of socialism, we with the course proclaimed in October 1917 toward building a classless society in the USSR and the withering away of the state.
We see the formation of independent groups and unions and the increase of their role in society as one of the roads for build-
27 inett.. ing social self-management, which will involve the elimination of bureaucratic and
3. In the present period, our country is going through a period of major changes. The success of the reforms underway depends on the level of support that the masses offer to the perestroika and on the degree of their involvement. The victory of the perestroika is a matter of life and death for socialism in
We recognize the constitutional role of the CPSU in our society, but the party is not a homogeneous whole. Its ranks also include those who bear a direct responsibility for the abuses and errors of the past years; and those who have filled the ranks of the bureaucracy, forming the mass of selfsatisfied functionaries cut off from the needs and hopes of their people.
We will endeavor to support the leaders and ordinary members of the party who represent healthy and progressive forces.
4. Both centrally and locally, the perestroika is running up against desperate resistance from those forces that fear for their privileges, and who are trying to maintain a monopoly of information and decision-making. The new initiatives and actions are being either blocked by them or simply
The union of independent groups and organizations, which stands on a platform of support for the policy of developing socialism and democracy adopted by the CPSU at its Twenty-Seventh Congress, is indispensable for another reason. Within the informal movement, groups are forming that defend reactionary points of view, racism and chauvinism, fascism and Stalinism, which are adopting extremist methods of action. By uniting, we will be able to resist extremism in the independent movement and to disseminate information on the ac-
5. On the basis of the above considerations, we, the signatory organizations of this document, have decided mity with the constitution of the USSR, which proclaims freedom of association — to come together in a Federation Socialist Social Clubs, whose main goal is support for the perestroika. The objectives of the Federation are the following: In the ideological field:
• Developing conceptions for democratizing our society and considering means for resolving the dialectical contradiction between an administrative power and so-
• Analyzing the role and place of the social organizations in the political life of Soviet society and in the self-management In the political field:
• Obtaining juridical status for the independent organizations, recognition of the right to take legislative initiatives; systematic application of the decisions of the January Plenum of the CPSU concerning democratization of the electoral system; obtaining the right for the social organizations to run representatives for the Soviets of People's Deputies at all levels, without any limitation or prior accord and with free access for the candidates to the news
• Prolonging the working sessions of the Soviets of People's Deputies, which is essential for constructive work.
• Increasing the budgets of the Soviets of People's Deputies on a strict juridical basis guaranteeing them total independence in appropriating resources.
• Incorporation into the law of a clear difference between the notion of criticizing the defects of the existing system and of
• Implementation of the first point of the program of the RSDP (Russian Social
USSR Democratic Party) on the right of citizens to institute proceedings independently of the state prosecutor's office and independently also of any proceedings instituted by the administration, against people in positions of responsibility who may commit illegal actions. In the economic field:
The Federation proposes to:
• Collaborate in the re-orientation of state planning and management bodies, in which essentially administrative methods now prevail, toward economic methods.
• To help to broaden the sphere of action of monetary-commodity relations as the fundamental mechanism for regulating the country's economic activity, a change that must go hand in hand with solid guarantees for maintaining the workers' social gains (full employment, living wages, right of retirement).
• To fight for the following points:
Reduction of spending on the state apparatus; transferring the economy onto a self-managed basis; setting up of monitoring of the management system from below; transfer of the social means of production (factories) to a system of leasing the self-managed enterprises to collectives; democratization of the planning system; creation of conditions permitting the free development of all forms of socialist property. In the cultural field:
• The right to financial autonomy for artistic unions and groups.
• Tolerance for the both the social and artistic tastes of representatives of various currents, insofar as they are manifested in ways that do not conflict with the constitution of the USSR.
• Free access for the population to statistical material and archives, to the stocks of museums and libraries, and end to the special stocks [of reserved books].
• Elimination of all forms of precensorship; broadening the networks of independent cooperative publishing houses; elimination of the administrative obstacles that the independent organizations run up against in the exercise of their constitutional rights and freedoms - freedom of speech, of the press, the right to demonstrate and march. In the areas of ecology and ecology of culture:
Setting up real mechanisms for the participation of social organizations and movements in the struggle to preserve the environment, as well as historical and cultural monuments. In the field of international relations:
Support for, and solidarity with, the struggle and activity of the democratic, national liberation and revolutionary movements in the capitalist countries and in the 9 developing countries. * November 9, 1987 • International Viewpoint