Fourth International, recounts a discussion he had with Soviet workers trying to start an independent trade union. It has been translated from the January 4 issue of Internationalen, the paper of the Socialist Party.
DICK FORSLUND
A LL VOLGOGRAD exploded
in rage in February 1990 when it was revealed how the top bureaucrats had broken the law and commandeered nice apartments for themselves. All of them were forced to resign. You could say that the government apparatus was somewhat shaken up. But in December it was clear that nothing
Bobgenko is an engineering worker in Volgograd, formerly grad, a legendary turning point of the second world war. Volgograd lies along a southern stretch of the Volga between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
I met Sergei at a seminar in Leningrad organized by the Socialist Party in the USSR at the beginning of December. The party had invited Western friends to the discussions. A varied group of Soviet groups were represented. There were also new workers' leaders who are trying to form independent unions and seeking various forms of workers' management in the plants.
Until quite recently, Sergei Bobgenko was a member of the Communist Party, and he was a delegate to the TwentyEighth Party Congress in August 1990.
"I had been in the opposition in the party for several years. 'Despite everything, it's a workers' party,' I thought. At the congress, I realized that I had made a mis- 25
International Viewpoint #199 • February 4, 1991
USSR
"It was the government bureaucracy's party. I looked for a new party, and I have just made contact with the Socialist Party (USSR) in Volgograd.
"Volgograd has a million inhabitants. Of them, 200,000 are industrial workers, official unions. Sixty percent of industry is heavy industry. With the current evolution, it is expected that after the start of the new year, there will be 100,000
"The popular rage that forced the old apparatus to resign was the high point of the democratic movement in Volgograd,"
"But it soon became clear that that was not sufficient. We had a democratic election with competing candidates. We got new people in the old posts. Now it is evident that nothing, absolutely nothing, has changed. And the people are very
It was in this situation that Sergei Bobgenko and others started up the Democratic Workers' Movement of Volgograd, a union that is to be independent of the
"We have existed for two weeks," Sergei said. "We have about a hundred members. Most are workers who have left the Communist Party to but that is not a bad result for such a short time. There is a considerable interest in our statements, and people often sign them. Local trade-union
"On the basis of the experiences that people have gone through over the last year, is not easy to go around and try to win members for a new organization.
only one more that wants to have power and sit on our backs, is a com-
"A lot of people are starting to get desperate. At a facanswer from the workers: 'An organization!? We don't need any new organizations. Give us machine guns instead!'
"Another problem in building independent unions is that health insurance is paid today half by the state and half by the unions. So, everybody joins the official unions. If they leave, they lose half their sick pay.
"Our demand is that the unions be separated from the state, and that the state take responsibility for social security. When the union uses state resources, it becomes a state institution. The state should not give grants to the unions but to people who have special needs, such as students, the handicapped, the elderly. 26 continued, are hat the prior munSonari "Other points in our program," Sergei ies should get the average wage. No priv-
"Moreover, we want to build the union on the basis of profession rather than industry. Today, everyone in the factory, including the bosses, is in the union. We want a union for every profession. After that, a coordinating committee should be organized in every factory." • I realize that the bosses should not be in the union, but the others,
"The unions also have to be able to express narrower interests on the labor market. Today, we have a shortage of engineering workers. But we engineering workers have the lowest wages. If we had a union of our own, we could take advan-
La positive conjuncture on the labor market to push up our wages.
"We also think that wages should be adjusted in line with the cost of living. We are demanding that the threshold for price rises be revised upward.
"The decisive thing now is not whether the owner is the state or private persons; the important thing is for the workers to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor," Sergei had said in the debate a the seminar a few hours earlier. I asked him to
GLASNOS
"Our new organization aims at getting the workers more and more to take control over distribution of what they produce and over profits. A union has to devote itself to economic problems.
"We are against the layoffs that the bureaucrats are decreeing now. Those who are threatened by unemployment have to have the right to start up their own business, a small business that can be a part of the big factories where the workers are now employed. The mass layoffs have to be stopped.
"We often see there is a shortage on the market, and that we should be able to
"But to start up new production today, we have to ask the bosses closest to us, then they have to ask their bosses, and so on.
There is no responsiveness to the demands of the market. The bureaucrats would rather lay people off than try to meet the demands of the market. Small enterprises of that type are a threat to the bureaucracy." • But isn't there a threat that a section of the workers will only become capitalists?
"No, no. We want a moral economy. The income people get must be based on work, not ownership. The workers should have control over what happens, over what they produce. The aim of the economy is to achieve prosperity. The workers must be able to keep a part of the surplus in their pockets." • That seems reasonable. But can that work for production of paper, steel and other raw materials? How can it work for the big plants that are the bases for the small ones? And how can it work for health care and transport? All these can't be run as workermanaged small enterprises.
"No, that has be decided centrally." • But in that case, who decides centrally? Is it the bureaucratic plan again? Our interpreter, and the whole Volgograd group joined in the discussion. How can the government be electEvery citizen has to be able to participate in the decision about, for example, how big military production should be. That is already clear in the Soviet Union. There have to be various parties that offer various lines. There has to be management can be distorted. Maybe after discussing needs locally, you will have the means for economic management through workers' cooperatives so that you don't get scarcities of some necessities and surpluses of someone interjected.
The discussion continued into the evening, and went over into anecdotes and stories. "Gorbachev got the peace prize. People despise him. The whole country is breaking up and a civil war is starting! The peace prize!"
I learned the latest joke... "First perestroika, and then perestrelka (a shootout)."
We parted with promises to stay in touch and develop ideas about international solidarity and trade-union experiences.
New onslaught on