ONE of the six initial signatories of the document calling for a new Party of Labour (see IV nos. 213 and 214) is Andrei Isayev, a long time activist on the Moscow left and leader of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (KAS). In this interview Isayev, who is now the editor-in-chief of the weekly of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions, Solidarnost, comments on some of the developments after the appeal was launched on August 28 and outlines the next steps towards the founding conference of the party. The interview was given to Poul Funder Larsen in Moscow on October 1.
W HAT has been the gener-
al tenor of the reactions to the initial appeal for a new Party of Labour?
In the liberal press — that is the press of our opponents — there were several comments. Nezavisimaja Gazeta and Moskovskiye Novosti ran articles suggesting that this was just another "Communist" project and that of course all the other parties wanted to protect working people. In Komsomolskaya Pravda the Party of Labour was dubbed the "heir of the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union)". In my opinion all these attacks are factually wrong.
The people who have signed the first declaration were actually all in opposition to the CPSU when it existed. People like me and Kagarlitsky were not members of the party but of opposition groups and the leaders of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions (MFP) who signed the declaration left the party in the spring — before its general secretary dissolved it.
Neither is it correct to say that we are just another party defending working people. All the other parties that have so far been set up either claim to defend the rights of the people as a whole (as did the CPSU) or the interests of private enterprise. If there were other parties defending the workers we would have participated in their foundation.
However we have also had many positive reactions from people who have read or heard about the party and want to do something. An initiative group in support of the Party of Labour has been formed in the trade union of aviation workers. We have also received information that similar groups have been founded in Moldova and Donetsk, while the idea of founding a group in the Baltic States is also being discussed. But those groups must act indeindependent states. Therefore we will stay in touch, and if our positions turn out to be close we can aid them. But these groups won't be branches of the party. The Party of Labour is being founded as a Russian • The call for a new party was signed by leaders of the MFP, the Socialist Party and KAS - does this mean that these organizations as a whole support the initiative? And what has been done to attract other forces to the project?
The first declaration was signed not by the organizations but by individuals. None of the organizations has so far discussed affiliation. Some activists from the left wing of the Social Democratic Party, such as Rakitsky, have supported and cooperated with the project. There are also links with the Green Party; we are now discussing the possibility of forming an electoral bloc between the Green Party and the Organizing Committee of the Party of Labour, if elections for the soviets are called for this November. The question of the Green Party entering the Party Labour has not been touched upon, but we see the Greens as potential collaborators.
Many former Communists want to take part in setting up the party. This is a difficult question; on the one hand there are rank-and-file Communists who sincerely believed in the building of communism and wanted to protect the social rights of working people. They may be somewhat biased but they are honest people; in any case far more honest than the leaders of the party bureaucracy now jumping on the capitalist bandwagon. I support these people being allowed to join the party, although we need to debate with them. For a long time we have been on different sides of the barricades, and it will take
On the other hand there is a danger that many former CPSU functionaries will join the new party. I don't want the Party of Labour to end up like the PDS in Germany. I am nervous that there will be an influx of party functionaries, because after all the only thing they know how to do is work in a party apparatus. Personally I think there should be a limit on the admission of former party functionaries, but this is a view that not all activists sharer. • A key factor in the formation of the party is winning support from trade unions and workers' organizations. Have there been any tions on the part of the independent workers' organizations, for example the Independent Union of Mineworkers (NPG) or the Confederation of Labour (KT)?
As with most other major trade unions, the NPG is now a conglomerate of widely differing political forces. I think it is unlikely that the new leadership of the NG will endorse the Party of Labour, but we hope that the project will attract support from the group in the NPG which in July opposed corruption within the union and demanded a purge of the leadership and an extension of trade union democracy. These are people like Sergeyev and Cherkisev - most of them from Eastern Ukraine. In the very near future a Russian Independent Union of Miners will probably be set up and we think it will be possible to have closer relations with this
Unfortunately the KT is in decline. This is linked to the role that the KT played all-out support to the Yeltsin camp. Now that this camp has in reality won, new contradictions are shaping up;
USSR but it is very difficult for an activist in the workers movement suddenly to oppose Yeltsin if he has been supporting him all the way through. On the other hand they can't go on supporting Yeltsin as he attacks the rights of working people. Meanwhile the local clubs, the activities and internal links within the KT have declined and they are now seemingly unable to convene the congress of the workers' movement scheduled for this • It seems that the centre of gravity of your initiative is situated in Moscow, drawing support both from leaders of the MFP and prominent figures within the Moscow City Council. Do you see any immediate possibilities of gaining additional support from elsewhere, for example through the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia
It is likely that the Party of Labour throughout the next period will be a child with a big head and small limbs. That is; a strong branch in Moscow and weaker supporting groups in other cities. In my opinion this is unavoidable, because it is primarily in Moscow that the intellectual left wing groups have been formed, and it is only in Moscow that the leadership of the trade unions have so far supported the
The MFP is not going to participate in the Party of Labour as a whole, but we are working to set up some structures within 11 the MFP which can become collective
International Viewpoint #215 • October 28, 1991
USSR / GREECE members, as the party will have both an individual and a collective membership. The Committee for Political Action within the MFP — which is today a political discussion club uniting trade union activists on different levels — could become such a collective member.
The leadership of the FNPR is strongly pro-Yeltsin; but they are the type of followers who could as well endorse Gorbachev or whoever else is in power. The Yeltsinites are advancing the concept of a "strong executive power" which the Party of Labour must reject because we want a strong representative power and the protection of the rights of workers during the privatization process. For that reason the leadership of the FNPR is opposed to our project. They have issued demagogic declarations saying that we are using trade union structures for political ends and claiming that we have a Communist conception of the relationship between trade unions and party. • There have been contradictory statements concerning the character of the Party of Labour, some of which have suggested that It will be a traditional parliamentary-type party. What type of party do you envisage?
It will be a party with the character of a movement, where there is the possibility for collective membership and where the decisions of the leading bodies are not binding for the local organizations. It will be a federalist party, not built on democratic centralist lines. In principle the whole society is still based on centralistic structures — for example, the "strong executive power". Our party must demonstrate a new type of social relations even in its structures. • The call for a Party of Labour comes at a time when there is no strong radicalization within the working class, when struggles are sparse and the independent workers' organizations — and other progressive movements — are still embryonic. Do you have any thoughts about the relation between these conditions and the time It will take for the Party of Labour to become a real political force?
For the time being, the formation of a powerful mass workers' party is not possible. But in the very near future the government of this country will unleash a very strong attack on the rights of working people. The number of unemployed may reach 40 million, a considerable number of enterprises will be closed resulting in mass sackings, and the standard of living will drop while work intensifies.
Under these conditions there will be outbursts among the workers. We think it 12 is hich one t orkers can test ucters he which the workers can turn when the resistance to these anti-popular policies breaks out. I think that in the next few months there will be an economic crash, which can be the beginning of this movement. • What are the next concrete steps In the process of setting up the Party of Labour?
The initiative group for the Party of Labour has approached the leadership of the MFP with a proposal for an offensive putting strong demands on the government of the Russian republic and the city of Moscow. A very considerable part of workers in Moscow have wages below subsistence level, which is officially 300 roubles a month, but which the MFP fixes at 410 roubles a month.
Therefore the first demand is that the minimum wage should be set at at last 300 roubles a month. We also demand that in the case of privatizations at least 50% of the stocks should be handed over to the labour collective in order to control the policy of privatization.
If the privatization means that more than 30% of the workforce gets laid off, the labour collective should have the right to take over the property. Finally we unconditionally demand of the mayor of Moscow that he ensures employment for school-leavers and for soldiers being demobilized this autumn. Most of them have gone directly from school into the army and are now given a benefit which can be as low as 25 roubles a month. There will be tens or hundreds of thousands of these people in Moscow, and no particular employment programme has so far been worked out.
We are proposing these demands as a nizing a mass demonstration on Red Square at the end of October or the beginning of November in support of these demands and in defence of the soviets, which are being deprived of their influence by the strong executive power. This doesn't imply that we are content with the present form of the soviets, but we defend them as a principle.
In the middle of October the MFP will consult with the trade union centres in the major cities and discuss, among other things, the question of support for the Party of Labour. We think most of them will reject this, but probably three or four trade union centres — in Leningrad, Kazan and maybe in Sverdlovsk — will express their support for the party. The Organizing Committee for the Party of Labour will be set up by mid-October after the consultation with the trade union centres, so that it will not consist solely of Muscovites. Our initiative group has only called for the formation of a party — the actual foundation is the task of the Organizing Committee. Until that has been set up it is difficult to know when the founding congress will take place, but it will probably be at the end of this year. *
The Macedonian temptation