First, let’s keep this in perspective. \u00a0I sent out a mailing to 65,000 people with that as the subject line yesterday. \u00a0A very large number of them responded to our Georgia and Kazakh campaigns. \u00a0Ten (10) of our subscribers wrote back with messages supporting, to one degree or another, Soviet Communism.<\/p>\n
I share these with you (below) because I find it odd, to say the least, that there are still die-hard Stalinists (who actually deeply admire Stalin) who are prepared to defend the USSR even now, decades after its collapse. \u00a0And I don’t mean Russians — I mean people in the West who should have known better.<\/p>\n
So here goes:<\/p>\n
Maybe these silly bastards should have had their wits about them when they allowed Gorbachev and Yeltsin to seize power. Your picture labelled “Back in the USSR” is the opposite of what it was—free education, health, cheap clothing and food. They were building a Utopia until they were sold out.<\/strong><\/p>\n Contrarily to what you say, “Back in the USSR”, growingly the proletariat and the Soviet People want the return to the Soviet Union with the orientation of Lenin and Stalin<\/strong> (1917-1953).<\/p>\n What did you expect from the overthrow of a socialist system (however corrupted or distorted)<\/strong> for raw-and corrupt-capitalism? Nicholas II is probably laughing from Hell.<\/p>\n astonishingly opportunist & right wing appeal<\/strong> re workers rights. Rethink the approach.<\/p>\n This report on this critical labour struggle in Georgia is useful, but what’s with the ridiculous red-baiting opening comment <\/strong>– “It’s been twenty years since the USSR collapsed, but you wouldn’t know it from the way workers and their unions are being treated in some of the former Soviet republics” \u00a0Clearly, brother Lee has no conception about what has unfolded in terms of vicious attacks on workers’ rights, wages and benefits in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe over the past two decades. Union rights and living conditions for the working classes have plummeted since the restoration of capitalism.<\/strong> All this is well documented, and spewing such dis-information does a disservice to LabourStart.<\/p>\n This, Eric, is, frankly, un-called for and out-dated Cold War bullshit<\/strong>. \u00a0I really respect what you and Labour Start do, but I feel like strong language is truly called for in this case. \u00a0The standard of living has gone down drastically since the fall of the USSR and workers’ rights have eroded<\/strong>. \u00a0The implication here is that you expected things to improve under a new ultra-Capitalist government? \u00a0And, seriously, I don’t know what your politics are, but I know plenty of Trotskyists, even, who were critical of the Soviet Union but who nonetheless considered its dissolution in favor of a right wing movement that was aided and abetted by US imperialism, as a bad turn. \u00a0The simple fact is that it is in Belarus where workers are enjoying a higher standard of living than in any of the other CIS countries<\/strong>. \u00a0What’s more, there has been a steady and intensive effort by the US National Endowment for Democracy and it’s attack dog, the International Republican Institute, to undermine Left and more nationalist movements in Eastern Europe. \u00a0This kind of language just gives fuel to the fire to the kind of guiding philosophy exercised by these foreign interventionists, so beholden to transnational corporate interests. \u00a0I am just astounded that you would participate in this kind of shameless and completely misleading red-baiting<\/strong>.<\/p>\n It is very naive to think that the fall of the USSR would bring about improved working conditions. Are you people surprised that the working class have gone backwards in the former soviet states as well as in China since trade and market liberalisation. Georgia is the most reactive of the former Soviet states and are very good friends with the US<\/p>\n why keep harping on the Soviet Union when USA is doing the same <\/strong>things? <\/strong>They have double standards, be it Palestine [yesterday’s\u00a0Obama’s stand], or women right in afghanistan, or their own workerswho were rendered jobless in the so called ‘recession’.<\/p>\n This report on this critical labour struggle in Georgia is useful, but what’s with the ridiculous red-baiting opening comment – “It’s been twenty years since the USSR collapsed, but you wouldn’t know it from the way workers and their unions<\/p>\n I have suported LS on many issues, however this one is questionable to the extreme. I feel little research or investigation has taken place. First, let’s keep this in perspective. \u00a0I sent out a mailing to 65,000 people with that as the subject line yesterday. \u00a0A very large number of them responded to our Georgia and Kazakh campaigns. \u00a0Ten (10) of our subscribers wrote back with messages supporting, to one degree or another, Soviet Communism. I share these with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1906"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1914,"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions\/1914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.labourstart.org\/blogs\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nWhen the so referred to ‘Soviet Republics’ existed, to my knowledge every one was in employment; all school children were provided
\nwith free education; there was also free access to health care for all; food and shelter for all. I am also aware of the old aged stories that were
\nnever proved with evidence, mainly to prevent others from discovering that there is an alternative to a market ‘free for all’ economy.<\/p>\n
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