-----Original Message----- From: Lisa Taylor <FFWi at aol.com> To: (It's a secret, the Third Position fascists infiltrated the last list this was on...) Date: Thursday, August 23, 2001 6:09 AM Subject: Red-browns out of the antiglobalisation movement!(Appeal)
Dear friends, Here is the document I mentioned in my last mail. Please sign the letter yourself and forward it as widely as you can. Solidarity Lisa T. ------------- Help Russians Kick Racists/right-wingers out of the anti-globalisation movement!
RUSSIA INFO-LIST from International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR at aol.com ISWoR web-site - http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
HELP RUSSIANS KICK RACISTS/RIGHTWINGERS OUT OF THE ANTI-GLOBALISATION MOVEMENT!
IMPORTANT - please sign the short petition following the letter below in solidarity with anti-racists and internationalists in Russia.
THEN - forward this letter and petition as widely as you can.
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Dear activists of the anti-globalisation, labor, antiracist and progressive movements,
In July the Genoa protests saw the first ever participation of an organised Russian delegation in the international protest movement. Now, despite the offer of the Putin government to use massive police brutality, live firearms, etc to make the country the "safest" place for future assemblies of the G-8, WTO, IMF, etc, there is a growing determination to build the movement in Russia and the Ukraine.
But there is a great danger! As many of you know, Russia and other countries of the ex-USSR have suffered the collapse of their industry and the near-total impoverishment of their people since the market economy was re-introduced. Diseases such as TB are now epidemic in Russia, and the average male life expectancy is down to 56. Russians have every reason to be angry at the world's capitalist leaders, the neo-liberal monsters, coming to Moscow as Putin requests.
But into all this misery have stepped the venomous forces of racism, fascism, bigotry - who try to divert the just anger of Russian people away from those responsible and onto traditional scapegoats - Chechens, Muslims, Black people, Jews, the gay community, etc..
In July the international association ATTAC (via its French and Belgian sections) largely financed the trip of the joint Russian-Ukrainian delegation to Genoa. Alexander Gelenin, a Russian left activist known for his uncompromising stand against racism, nationalism and collaboration with neo-liberals, has exposed the participation in the delegation of racists (the so-called "red-browns") as well as a former Yeltsin money-launderer (see link to The Gelenin Letter, below). In Genoa, and then back in Russia, these right-wingers succeeded in taking almost all the credit for the delegation in the mass media.
Two participants of the delegation, Nicolaev and Vedernikova, are leading members of the RKRP, an extremely racist and homophobic party whose members worship the murderous dictator Stalin. Many of the youth closest to the party are admirers of the butcher Pol Pot. The party recently published material urging Russians to struggle against rap music (!), on the grounds that Russians and Black people can never agree. In 1997 the party approved an official statement blaming the economic crisis in Russia on Jews, and they have also published material urging that gay men be locked up in prison.
On their return from the trip, Nicolaev appeared prominently in the Russian mass-media, where he was quoted by Interfax urging indiscriminate smashing of windows, property, etc., reminiscent of the provocateurs who infiltrated the Black Bloc in Genoa.
Another delegation participant, Sergey Khramov, head of the union Sotsprof, was in 1996 involved in the laundering of millions of dollars for the Yeltsin election campaign. In Genoa he made statements in favour of Putin on national TV. (N.B., Khramov, it seems, had alternative funding for his journey, nevertheless he was a leading voice of the delegation in Genoa).
Additionally, Evgeny Kozlov was present. This man is responsible for bringing the nazi National-Bolshevik Party, who call for imprisonment of Black people in labour camps, into the leadership of the Leningrad branch of the mass Labour Code campaign. In the outcry afterwards, he publicly defended his actions.
During the trip these named individuals were able to gain effective leadership of the contingent. On their return home, the delegation held a press conference in which plans to build an anti-globalisation movement in Russia were revealed. The racists were allowed to appear in the mass media as
spokespersons for the newly-forming movement.
In the anti-globalisation movement internationally, people are becoming more and more aware of the threat from nationalists who advocate protectionism and racism as the antidote to "globalisation". As a result people are now using slogans such as "globalise resistance" in order to demonstrate the need for unity of all peoples in the fight against the corporate giants, not for exclusion.
We urge you to sign the e-mail petition below to help our Russian friends kick racists, bigots, and pro-Putin forces out of the emerging anti-globalisation movement in Russia. The events which soured the Russian delegation to Genoa must not happen again!
>From the Executive Committee
International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR
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Further information can be found at: http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/news/genoagel.html - (the letter by A.Gelenin exposing the reality of the Genoa delegation)
http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/isworarts/Russianleft01.html - (links to a recent article explaining the above with far more detail)
http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/isworarts/rkrp2001.html - ( Lisa Taylor article on the Russian Communist Workers Party , the RKRP)
http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/discuss/cesspit.html - (article on red-brown phenomenon in Russia)
http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html - ( ISWoR homepage)
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Petition/letter - please sign below
Dear ATTAC,
I am writing to express my/our extreme disappointment on learning that, during the recent anti-G8 demonstrations in Genoa, a Russian-Ukrainian delegation mainly funded by ATTAC included leading members of a red-brown organisation, the Russian Communist Workers Party (RKRP), an individual responsible for promoting the fascist National Bolshevik Party in Russian labour campaigns, and a former Yeltsin money-launderer who, during the demonstrations, praised Putin in front of the mass media. Further, these individuals manoeuvred to assume political leadership of the delegation and afterwards stole the limelight in the mass media.
We condemn the Putin government, and its western puppet masters, the IMF, World Bank etc., for imposing the market-led impoverishment on Russian working people.
We oppose the hardened racists, the bigots, the ultra-nationalists. We call on you to ensure that in future the funds or the name of ATTAC are not misused in this way again.
In general the bringing of Russian activists of the labor, civil rights, and women's movement to Genoa was a very positive achievement, and we welcome the birth in Russia of a resistance movement to global corporate domination. We assert our solidarity with all genuine internationalist organisations who are fighting Putin, the IMF and the neoliberal privatisation which has devastated
the lives of ordinary people in Russia..
Signed
NAME
ORGANISATION
TOWN
COUNTRY
Now send to following addresses:
attacfr at attac.org belgium at attac.org shein72 at mail.ru ISWoR at aol.com
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