[PEN-L:187] Russia: Unemployment rising/Communists desperate for votes

[Gregory Schwartz <grishas@xxxxxxxx>]

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol 2, No. 184, Part I, 23 September 1998

RUSSIAN UNEMPLOYMENT INCREASING. Russia's financial crisis is
already impacting on the labor market, according to
"Kommersant-Daily" on 22 September. The newspaper predicts
that between 500,000 and 1 million people across the country
will lose their jobs. The number of people applying to Moscow
employment services has grown by 30 percent, compared with
September 1997. The demand for specialists in Moscow has
fallen by 30-40 percent, and some 30,000 vacancies have been
cut. Most job openings in Moscow are for manual labor or
junior medical personnel, and 40 percent of those jobs pay no
more than 900 rubles. The newspaper predicts that over the
next few months, the number of registered unemployed in
Moscow may rise to 55,000, while the total number of
unemployed could be two or three times higher. LF

COMMUNISTS OUT OF TOUCH WITH WORKERS. According to a
resolution passed by the Communist Party's recent Central
Committee Plenum and published in "Sovetskaya Rossiya" on 22
September, labor protests are growing but the Communist Party
does not have firm control over the movement. The resolution
cites a '"fivefold increase" in the number of striking
enterprises since the beginning of 1998 but notes that many
Communist Party raion and city organizations have "little
influence" on local labor collectives. Also included in the
resolution is the Central Committee decree that the council
of the Communist Party's Duma faction should set up public
tribunals throughout the Russian Federation "to bring charges
against Boris Yeltsin for the acts he has committed against
the people." JAC

--
Gregory Schwartz
Department of Political Science
York University
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, Ontario
M3J 1P3
Canada

Tel: (416) 736-5265
Fax: (416) 736-5686
Web: http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci