The Guardian 21 November, 2007
Belarus:
standing against counter-revolution
This year's International Meeting Of Communist And Workers' Parties
took place in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, from 3-5 November
2007. The CPA was represented by Guardian columnist and CPA Central
Committee member Rob Gowland.
In this, the ninetieth anniversary year of the October Revolution in
Russia, it was timely that the meeting was held in Minsk, for it was in
this city that the first congress of the Russian Social Democratic
Labour Party (Lenin's party) took place 109 years ago.
There were 154 representatives at the Meeting from 71 Communist and
workers' parties from 58 countries.
The International Meeting began with a message of welcome from President
Lugachenko of Belarus, read by the General Secretary of the Communist
Party of Belarus, Tatyana Golubeva.
Bordering the Baltic states in the north, the Ukraine in the south,
Russia in the east and Poland in the west, Belarus has had a chequered
history. Part of the country was under Polish occupation until 1939, and
then in 1941 it was overrun by the Nazis.
Devastation in the war was extreme and brutal: every fourth inhabitant
died. 83 percent of the capital was levelled.
Under the Soviet Union's overall economic plan, Belarus was developed as
an engineering powerhouse. The country has few natural resources, but
instead built a quarter of all the heavy trucks, buses and tractors used
in the whole of the USSR and Eastern Europe. Belarus tractors were even
exported to Australia.
In 1991, Belarus unlike most of the rest of the Soviet Union, did not
embrace capitalism. Instead, they have retained, as Golubeva put it,
"the system and ideas of the Soviet Union".
In contrast to the rest of Europe, state enterprises not only dominate
the economy, they are visibly successful. In the period January-August
this year, state-owned enterprises produced almost 38% of the total
volume of industrial products; another 50% was produced by
privately-owned companies with a government stake in their authorized
capital.
In addition there are over 37,000 small enterprises and nearly 203,000
individual entrepreneurs (in 2006 they accounted for nine percent of the
GDP).
GDP growth is 9-10 % annually, while unemployment is only 1.9%. Unlike
some other parts of the former Soviet Union, life expectancy is
comparable to Soviet times, being 69 for men, even higher for women.
The country is under severe ideological, economic and political assault
from imperialism. In the first half of this decade, there was an
economic depression and one assumes the intense inflation took place
then as well (50,000 rouble banknotes are commonplace).
However, the economy is now stable (a fact recognized by international
agencies like Standard and Poor's and Moody's) and in advance of the
pre-depression levels. The National Bank expects that price increases in
2007 will not exceed 8%.
Production in the agricultural sector has been so successful that the
country is turning from an importer to an exporter, supplying potatoes
and grain to states like Moldova which have suffered from unfavourable
weather conditions.
Belarus is the site of Russia's principal electronic listening posts,
keeping tabs on NATO forces and US nuclear-armed forces, including of
course nuclear submarines. Needless to say, imperialism is less than
pleased by this resurgent USSR-in-miniature in such a sensitive location.
The West finances a small but vocal opposition taking the form of a
"pro-democracy" movement in an effort to destabilise the country.
(Earlier this year, SBS' Dateline program joined in, devoting most of an
episode to "exposing" President Lugachenko as a "dictator".)
There was apparently some ideological pressure applied beforehand to
stop parties coming to the International Meeting on the grounds that it
would "give support to Lugachenko's repressive regime", and in a few
cases this apparently had an effect. The French and Japanese parties,
for example, were not there.
There was even apparently a small demonstration in Minsk against the
Conference on its opening date, but I did not see it. It was presumably
staged for the benefit of foreign news media and was over as soon as the
cameramen had got their pictures.
In her address, Golubeva condemned the USA's efforts to export "colour"
revolutions (actually counter-revolutions, as in the Ukraine, Georgia,
Czechoslovakia, etc), to countries like Belarus. Considering the strife
that has followed these counter-revolutions in other parts of Eastern
Europe, and having seen the tranquil and steadily rising quality of life
in Belarus, I agree with a comment from one of the international
delegates: "I hope these people realise what they've got here".
Although Belarus has an army, it depends for its main defence on Russia.
Its people are acutely conscious that the USA's so-called anti-missile
defence shield (supposedly — and incredibly — to defend Europe from
attack by the DPRK or Iran) is being deployed on their borders, in
Poland and the Czech Republic.
Visiting Belarus today as a member of a communist party delegation is
like revisiting the Soviet Union. The Communist Party has prestige and
influence; the conference had the whole-hearted support of the government.
The country is small, and despite its growing economy it is by no means
rich. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is one of relative prosperity. They
did an excellent job of organising the conference (if on a sometimes
modest scale).
Delegates were taken to a folk-song-and-dance concert which was very
accomplished. They also took delegates to their choice of one of four
enterprises. I went to the motor factory, a huge enterprise
manufacturing four and six cylinder engines for trucks, buses and tractors.
Until recently, Belarussian truck engines did not meet EU emission
standards, so they had to fit their trucks for export to EU countries
with MAN engines bought from Germany. However, they now mass produce
their own engines certified to Euro3 standard and plan to produce Euro4
standard engines (which will be marketable anywhere) by 2009.
The factory was noisy (naturally) but the air was surprisingly clean,
and the production lines moved very slowly (a capitalist would
undoubtedly have seen scope for "speed up", but they still managed to
turn out an engine every minute). The slow pace of the line probably
helps account for the accident rate being "very low".
In response to a question about whether there was any pressure to
privatise industry in the country, one of our guides from the factory
replied that industry in Belarus was not under threat because "it is
too inefficient"! Presumably he meant "by capitalist standards".
The CP of Belarus' youth organisation was circulating a petition for the
17th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Belarus. I was
more than happy to sign it on behalf of our Party.
On the whole, I thought the international delegates were favourably
impressed by Belarus and its government's policies.
The effect of Belarus on the Communist visitor is complex. One is
impressed by the way they have managed to successfully retain their
segment of the Soviet Union, but at the same time it makes one sad that
it is only here in this small area. It drives home how much has been
lost to the world's people through the counter-revolution in the USSR.
Russia and the former USSR
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) was the organiser
of the Moscow celebrations that followed the International Meeting, and
during the Meeting the KPRF leaders were treated as joint-organisers of
it. So KPRF leader Gennady Zyuganov was on the presidium, accompanied
Golubeva to lay wreaths at the war memorial and was the second speaker
after Golubeva herself.
In his contribution, Zyuganov said that "the 21st century is veering
left". He pointed out that "forty percent of the world's people live in
countries where the Communist Party is either the governing party or
takes part in government".
In the former USSR, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan now have governments
of that type.
The delegate for the Communist Party of Moldova reported that the
economy of Moldova had improved "now that the Communists are in power".
However, they are battling with a dire legacy from the period of
counter-revolution in the '90s: private property now accounts for 80
percent of the economy. Moldova now has the unenviable record of being
"the most privatised country in Europe".
After the International Meeting in Minsk, all the delegates were taken
by train to Moscow as guests of the KPRF. In Moscow they visited Lenin's
Mausoleum, took part in a concert and KPRF election rally in the House
of Trade Unions (the Duma elections are to be held shortly) and also
took part in an evening march by tens of thousands of people to Red
Square and an outdoor rally (very cold!) with songs, speeches and fireworks.
All the opinion polls in Russia indicate that the great majority of the
people would like to see the Soviet Union restored. The success or other
wise of the KPRF's "centre-left" ticket hinges on the extent to which
those people also want the Communist Party back in power.