Thirdly, there is the initiative of the leaders of the Marxist Platform.
committee of the Marxist Platform support the initiative for the creation of a new party — the Union of Communists -which hopes to represent the better traditions of the CPSU. Unlike these comrades I think that the CPSU has been terminally discredited by the bureaucratic policies of its leaders and the conformism of the majority of its rank-and-file members. The problem of forming a left opposition can only be met by another party.
However we agree with them in the sense of not wanting to break with traditions of support for social justice, democracy, humanism and the friendship of nations that have been built up within the Russian socialist movement in its century long existence. These traditions need to be continued and given new life in a new historical situation.
The problem of creating a left, that is, a democratic socialist opposition, cannot be resolved either by reviving the CPSU or by creating a new Communist Party. And without such an opposition even a very fine democracy will degenerate into a dictatorship or some other kind of authoritarian form. The rising wave of populism and the attempts to start a witch-hunt mean that there is a real threat of a Pinochet-style dictatorship based on private property and the market. Only real democracy is a guarantee against such a threat. • And what is your answer to the talk about your "illegality"?
Patiently I will say it once again. We are fully open to all our supporters and our critics. Our aim is dialogue, not conspiracy. Our contact telephone number is 29977-39. *
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USSR "We are not
Towards dependent
CHEME MU VRÁTIT LES - A VON HO NECHCE 2PÁTKY!
"We want to give him back the forest, but he doesn't seem to want it!" - cartoon by Vladimir Jiranek from Lidove neviny
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
A separate preliminary report by the Federal Statistical Bureau showed foodstuff prices up 27.7% and an average rise of 67.4% in all other goods over the six months, but said that the rapid growth of consumer goods came to a complete halt in July.
While the total value of retail sales from the beginning of the year to the end