| Radical communists will protest on May 1st on a crawl Russians will begin a long weekend tomorrow in the name of international workers' solidarity. Those who consider themselves workers will simply celebrate. Those who are professionally involved in protecting workers will first protest and then celebrate. There will be hundreds of thousands of defenders. But all of them, according to the tradition that has been established over the past ten years, will be divided into two groups - trade union and communist. Each group in all major cities of the country will prove from tomorrow morning until lunchtime that it is within its power to defend itself. The trade union bosses will list the workers' rights that they intend to protect. The communists will name those phenomena and personalities from which they want to protect workers and pensioners with children.
In Moscow, trade union leaders intend to bring 120 thousand of their activists to Vasilyevsky Spusk. In previous years they were limited to 30 thousand. But due to the economic situation that has developed in the capital over the past month and a half, it was decided to increase the mass participation, the leader of the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions, Mikhail Nagaitsev, said yesterday. According to him, there has been an increase in unemployment in the capital: 450 people are losing their jobs every month. Unemployment in the first quarter increased in all regions of the country “by almost 16%,” explained the leader of the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) Mikhail Shmakov, and young people are joining the ranks of the unemployed. According to professional bosses, up to 40% of vocational school graduates are unable to find work in their specialty. Therefore, during tomorrow’s May rally, trade unions will demand that the government “return compulsory unemployment insurance,” which was abolished almost two years ago in connection with the introduction of a single social tax.
Moreover, the government will be required to abolish social tax, as well as accelerate the growth of the minimum wage. FNPR believes that the “minimum wage” should rise to the level of the subsistence level in the next two years, no later. Mikhail Shmakov is not satisfied with either 2010, which the cabinet is talking about, or 2028, named in the forecasts of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
Activists from United Russia will demonstrate in the same column as the trade unions this year. Apart from United Russia and the Communists, none of the many Russian parties is going to hold a rally tomorrow. But communists always hold rallies separately from trade unions, considering them “corrupt.” In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the matter even came to court: trade union leaders and communists are arguing over which of them should rally on the main square of the city. Usually, professional bosses came to this square. But this year the city authorities refused them, offering them another location. The leaders of the FNPR attribute the refusal of the authorities to the fact that both the governor of Kamchatka and the mayor of the city are leaders of the regional organization of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In court, Kamchatka trade union leaders were unable to prove anything (the hearing of the case was postponed until after the holidays), so tomorrow they will come to the main square without permission.
In Moscow, there was a place for everyone: the capital authorities separated the protesters. Trade unions will move to Vasilyevsky Spusk in four columns: from the monument to Yuri Dolgoruky along Tverskaya, from Bolotnaya Square, from Ordynka Street and from Kitay-Gorod.
The Communists will move a single column from Kaluga Square at 10 am. Walking along Yakimanka, Mokhovaya, Okhotny Ryad and stopping at Teatralnaya Square opposite the Bolshoi Theater, they will hold an hour-long rally. The left also promises to bring about 120 thousand activists to the streets. “You can swear in the kitchen, in the smoking room, but this will not help anything,” said the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov, emphasizing that the leftists will demonstrate to the authorities with increased mass participation: “Such an anti-people policy has never happened before.” Hence the slogans with which the communists will go: “All power to the working people, not to thieves and bandits!”, “Let’s stop the lawlessness in housing and communal services!”, “Television for the people!”, “No to violence and lies in the media!”
This time, the radical communists from Viktor Anpilov’s “Labor Russia” will also march in the same column with the moderate communists. The radicals’ demands will be extremely targeted: “Hand over Gorbachev and Yeltsin to the people’s court,” “Russia, forgive us for the St. Petersburg gang!” and “Putin, go away!” The last two slogans will visit the square of three train stations before reaching Teatralnaya Square. They will be carried by 30 St. Petersburg activists of Labor Russia, Mr. Anpilov explained, as a sign of repentance for the “St. Petersburg gang”, where the radicals included German Gref, Anatoly Chubais, Sergei Mironov, as well as the communist Gennady Seleznev because “he has a pedigree starts there."
The rite of repentance described by Mr. Anpilov will be similar to the “path to Canossa” (a castle in Italy, near the walls of which the German Emperor Henry IV stood in the 11th century, begging forgiveness from Pope Gregory VII). True, the route of the repentant radicals will be shorter: from the train at the Leningradsky station to the Lenin monument at the Yaroslavsky station, then around the monument and to the nearest metro station to go to the meeting site. The Anpilovites will not walk all the way to the metro, but will crawl. The procession of crawlers will be led by Vyacheslav Marychev, now an activist of Labor Russia, a former deputy of the First Duma from the Liberal Democratic Party.
But everything will end peacefully - both for the trade union leaders and the communists. The organizers of both rallies planned: after the demanding and accusatory speeches of the speakers, concerts would be held. Maria NIKIFOROVA, Victor KHAMRAEV |
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