Perestroika and employment
THE MASSIVE STRIKE by Siberian miners that started on July 10 marks a gigantic step forward for the movement for a democratic revolution in the Soviet
Union. The miners have demanded not only better wages and conditions but new elections to their local soviets and union organizations, and a new Constitution by
November. Leadership of the strike is reportedly in the hands of an independent workers committee
The strike may also challenge the project of the liberal wing of the bureaucracy and their intellectual supporters. The theorists around Gorbachev view point with the miners' strikes. In egalitarian "prejudices" and the right to work as crucial interviews broadcast over obstacles to their plans. While some Soviet newspapers are attempting to portray the strike movement as a sign
Soviet TV on July 20, strike of support for the official version of perestroika, the leaders indicated that they had no intention of disbanding the strikers have also been warned that their action may lead strike committees.
to an "uncontrollable situation with unpredictable
GERRY FOLEY
The following article looks at the progress and impact of the Soviet bureaucracy's attempts to "rationalize" the
HE miners' action comes in the context of a general crisis of perestroika and reflects it. In the last period, statements by Soviet officials have more and more acknowledged that there is disappointment with the reforms. In an interview in Pravda of July
17, for example, Minister of the Interior
V.V. Bakatin, while defending perestroika as the only solution, pointed to a generally worsening social situation:
"Legal, financial and [labor] contractual discipline has fallen. Crime has increased.
At times, outrageous economic waste has appcared....The cooperatives milieu has offered new possibilities for criminal elcments. Speculation has increased shortages. Inflation is growing....A sharp social differentiation according to income has begun".
"Polarization and differentiation accelerating"
In his June 18 report to the Central
Committee, Gorbachev himself said:
"The fact is that criticism and discontent with perestroika are growing. A polarization and differentiation...is accelerating."
In this context, the Soviet chief has tried to present the demands of the miners as in effect calling for a speedup in perestroika. One demand of the miners, however,
Gorbachev felt compelled to challenge openly. In his report to the Central Committee on July 18, he noted that the strik-
10 ces tiere ers were demanding the suppression of
"Shutting cooperatives.
them
International Viewpoint #168 • July 31, 1989 consequences"
use of labour.
DAVID SEPPO down is of course easy," he said, "but is that the best path?" Such "cooperatives" often seem to be privatization wolves in
Up until now, the workers have suffered from Gorbachev's market and productivity reforms. The miners seem, at least in one respect, to have begun to challenge them, as well as poor living standards imposed on them by long-standing economic, environmental and social misman-
The reform process first began to get out of hand with the rise of movements for national-democratic rights, starting in Armenia and the Baltic republics. They were the icebreakers of independent mass organization. These movements continued to grow and radicalize and more and more are arising. Before the outbreak of mass workers' strikes, they had already created an atmosphere of crisis.
In his report to the CC, Gorbachev cited three main tests coming up for perestroika: the CC plenum on the national question scheduled for the end of July, the elections for local and republic soviets scheduled for the spring of 1990 and the second session of the Congress of People's Deputies. In particular, defeats for the CP in the elections for the republic supreme soviets could represent a serious political challenge, since these bodies are formally sovereign.
Concession to nationaldemocratic movement
Since the elections the Lithuanian Supreme Soviet, still entirely in the hands of the CP, has made a big concession to the national-democratic movement, voting a sovereignty law similar to the one voted by the Estonian Supreme Soviet in November. In its time, the Estonian action set off a howl in the official Soviet press Now, official spokespersons have begun to refer to the Estonian and Lithuanian laws as "interesting experiments."
It is symptomatic of the regime's retreat that in the front-page report in the July 20 Pravda of the USSR Supreme Soviet session, Gorbachev's speech, centering on the miners' strikes, was followed by a statement of M. Shakhanov recalling that in the Congress of People's Deputies he had demanded an inquiry into the suppression of the December 1986 protests in Kazakhstan against the replacement of Kazakh leader Dinmuhamed Kunaev by a Russian. At that time, the regime tried a general crackdown on "nationalist deviations." Now it has once again put a Kazakh in the top position. *
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USSF Bureaucracy faces widening crisis GORBACHEV's reform project seems to have reached a turning
F EW PEOPLE would dispute the