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VPERED (“FORWARD”) SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
Who We Are - download in .pdf (50Kb)
The VPERED (“Forward”) Socialist Movement is a Russian revolutionary Marxist organization that was founded in 2005. It works in several regions of Russia: Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Saint Petersburg, Saratov, Tyumen, and Yaroslavl.
A Marxist organization cannot exist without deep ties to the revolutionary tradition. VPERED considers itself an heir to the legacy of Bolshevism, the International Left Opposition, and the Fourth International, as well as the riches of creative Marxist thought, worker self-organization throughout the world, the anti-imperialist struggle, and the proletarian resistance to bureaucratic dictatorship in the USSR.
Russia Today
Contemporary Russia is a peripheral capitalist state that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like other countries of the periphery, it is attractive to capitalism and its agents as a source of raw materials and cheap labor and as an export market. At the same time, Russia possesses advanced technology and nuclear weapons, which prevents it from slipping to the level of the Global South. Russia’s ambivalent status in the capitalist system explains the zigzags of Russia’s economy and politics in the post-Soviet period. The semi-peripheral status of Russia in the capitalist economy likewise determines its position in the system of international relations. Although it has given up its rivalry with such major imperialist powers as the US and the EU, it attempts to play on their contradictions. Within the post-Soviet space, however, Russia aspires to the role of the regional imperialist power, regarding the former Soviet republics as the sphere of its political influence and economic interests.
The development of the Russian economy halted and even reversed the process of pauperization that raged in the early and mid-nineties. The power of the new bourgeoisie didn’t arise in a vacuum—it arose on the backs of the working class, which no longer has the slightest illusions either about capitalism or about its own place in this system.
The workers movement in Russia is still weak and divided. Although right now its demands rarely exceed local, economic considerations, it is this movement that will have the last word. After the total rout of the last decade, the number of labor conflicts, protests, and strikes is again rising. The mass participation of the trade unions in the struggle against neoliberal policies is only a matter of time. And this participation will be both the first step on the road to the further politicization and growth of class consciousness and, simultaneously, its guarantee.
Our Task
In order to change the balance of forces in the political arena, we need a powerful upsurge in the social movement. Significant masses of people have to want to change the conditions of their existence. It is therefore the social movement that has become the focus of our efforts. It is the desire to develop mass social movements that should be the principal criterion of any leftist organization when it makes important decisions.
We strive to become an integral part of this movement by advancing a program of social change in all of the workers organizations we collaborate with—trade unions, strike committees, protest action coordinating councils. We don’t fancy ourselves the master builders of a workers party. We are certain, nevertheless, that such a party must and will be built, and we clearly see our place in this work.
Our Work
In the past few years, VPERED has played a key role in a series of solidarity campaigns with strikers and militant trade union activists in various parts of Russia. We have aided strikers at the Mikhailov Cement Plant (summer 2007), the Avtovaz Auto Plant (August 2007), in the mines of Severouralsk (April 2008), and many other places.
In order to publicize the recently revived workers movement in Russia and integrate it with political practice, VPERED, in cooperation with the All-Russian Labor Confederation, began publishing the journal Free Trade-Union (Svobodnyi Profsoyuz) in 2007.
Our organization also participates in the housing movement. In our political work, whether it involves trade unions or housing, we come into contact with one and the same group—the working class. For the problems faced by those who constitute this enormous social category make themselves felt both in and outside the workplace. The housing movement has become a part of the broader democratic, anti-capitalist movement. In the winter and spring of 2006, VPERED participated in protests against utilities rate hikes in Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Saratov, and Tyumen.
VPERED sees the campaign against the commercialization of higher and secondary education as an important part of its work. Thus, in 2006–2007, we actively participated in the campaign against the passage of a law that would make it possible to privatize schools. We have also worked to create militant student unions.
Recently, the anti-militarist and anti-imperialist aspect of our work has become more and more relevant.
The International
VPERED considers itself part of the international anti-capitalist and socialist movement. Our theoretical development cannot be complete under the conditions of involuntary ideological isolation currently faced by all leftist groups in Russia. We believe that our international work must lead to the unification and interpenetration of the intellectual practice of Russian and international leftists.
That is why that, since early 2008, we have had permanent observer status in the Fourth International (United Secretariat).
Our Future
In Russia today, we are faced with a situation in which society is recovering from the frustrations of the nineties and the first growths of the social movement are visible. It would be premature to speak of a mass mobilization or even the genuine beginning of such a mobilization, but there is every reason to count on this mobilization—and to be one of its sources.
We are building our organization in unfavorable circumstances. Educating revolutionary cadres and preparing them for the long struggle is one of the most valuable contributions that our organization can make to the workers movement. Whether or not our own organization continues to exist or is successful will not change this fact.
We are open to dialogue and cooperation with all leftist and labor activists with similar views.
You can contact us at:
kashamanka@yahoo.com, hastalavictoria1@mail.ru
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