Re: STRATFOR Predicts A New Russian Revolution

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From what I know of STRATFOR, I tend to agree with your assessment of it as 
>different
>than the monopoly media propaganda outlets.

However, the equation of brutal repression by secret police and brutal 
repression by
the revolutionaries is vintage bourgeois propaganda. If they are really
revolutionaries, the repression will be of the bourgeoisie. Also, from the
descriptions of Russia, I'm not exactly sure how the brutal repression by 
"secret"
police would fly ( why they would be secret ,  I don't know. This "secret' 
label tends
to be old anti-communist propaganda. I mean didn't people know who the police 
were in
the old SU ? Are the FBI "secret police ?) . What would be the purpose of the
repression ? To stop all of the chaos ? How would that work exactly ? Seems 
like it
would take a lot of police. Also, the crackdown might beget the revolution.

Anyway, I sure as hell hope there is a revolution in Russia , toute de suite. 
Then
maybe we can argue for one in the U.S. better."See capitalism doesn't work. The
Russians tried both and preferred socialism "


Charles Brown

>>> "Owen Jones" <owen.jones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 10/04/99 03:41PM >>>
> In other words, electoral politics in Russia now all lead back to
> the same place: the KGB and the oligarchs to whom they are
> intimately connected. The central question here is whether this
> faction can survive. To put it simply, it is either this faction or
> a revolution. We are increasingly of the opinion that Russia is in
> a pre-revolutionary state, which might well be as cataclysmic as
> 1917.  We simply do not see how Russia's corrupt and collapsing
> institutions can sustain themselves in the face of almost universal
> bitter contempt and hostility from virtually every segment of
> society.  The choice is between a brutal repression by the secret
> police or chaos and revolution followed by brutal repression by the
> revolutionaries.  It seems to us that the second option is
> increasingly the more likely outcome.

 I thought I would highlight this part of STRATFOR's prediction. To remind
comrades of the difference between STRATFOR and the bourgeois press -
whereas the bourgeois press is a propaganda tool used to enforce bourgeois
rule and so distorts and lies about the world; STRATFOR is aimed at the
bourgeoisie (specifically big business) as its function, is not used as a
propaganda tool, and so it MUST tell the truth in order to survive - no
accuracy, and it will collapse. As Marxists, though, we can take this with a
smile. All sections of society are opposed to the ruling class and the
ruling class is DEEPLY divided. The necessary component we are missing -
with which revolution would happen next week - is a revolutionary party to
channel the revolutionary energy of the radicalised Russian proletariat and
lead it to overthrowing the bourgeoisie. There can be no hope for the
"Communist" Party of the Russian Federation to lead such a thing, that
right-wing nationalistic party made up of several segments of the industrial
bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie (one of their deputies is a millionaire
owner of several casinos, for Christ's sake) who are violently opposed to
revolution, and have capitulated to the market and the bourgeois form of
democracy.

 All eyes looking for a revolutionary party to emerge as a mass force.
Radical ones exist. We just can't hear them.

---
Owen Jones