======= The Strike
Committee of Samara and the Party of Proletarian Dictatorship
view the ongoing miners' strike as the beginning of a New
Proletarian Revolution in Russia. This is so not only because
this wave of strikes has already reached the breadth and the
depth of the miners' resurrection of 1989 and not because its
blow to economy (i.e. the regime in the first place) has already
surpassed the total impact of all previous strikes. Nor is it so
because now the demands go beyond the return of back wages and
the battle-cry "Down with Yeltsin!" sounds mightily.
Although all of the above has no precedent. The main distinction
of the present situation lies somewhere else.======= We now see the materialization of the third, previously lacking, factor of a revolutionary situation which Lenin defined as a "sharp escalation of the political activity of the masses." The first two signs of the revolutionary situation in Russia have been present already fro several years. Briefly, in Lenin's formulation, it's when "the upper classes can no longer rule and the lower classes no longer want to live in the old ways" and when there is a "sharp rise of poverty and misery among the broad masses of the people." All this was and is present today. What was lacking before was the mass protest and action . While in recent years the public watched the striking miners with interest but from the outside and did not express its attitude to their struggle, now the strikers are joined everywhere by factories, teachers, doctors, students, pensioners, etc. For example, the last radio report announced that
the meeting of the railway workers in the city of Bataisk (Rostov region) declared their support of the miners' just demands. Yet the railway workers are exactly those who suffer from this strike!
======= It is this picture of rising support of the strikes from other sections of the working class and the people in general, and them joining the strikers that allows us to speak about the beginning of a New
Proletarian Revolution in Russia.
======= If the miners do not abandon their demands for another week -- the government may fall. This is a real possibility! But even if the government succeeds in lifting the blockade of the railway system by
paying back the miners huge sums of money it will only postpone the end for another month or two. In any event, the fall of Yeltsin and his regime is approaching fast. Let us follow these developments and let us take active part in them.
======= Long Live Revolution!
======= All Power to Strike Committees!