| According to our mass media, usually opposition parties
end up splitting and squabbling during their congress meetings and thereby
end up eliminating themselves. In the current information blockade and
direct political censorship it is very difficult to fight such "black
PR". You have to take extraordinary measures. Dear readers, you see
the first ever newspaper issue in modern Russia consisting exclusively
of the resolutions of a political party. You have an opportunity to find
out yourself about the real problems of concern for the Russian Democratic
Party YABLOKO, its positions and demands and either agree with them or
express your objections. You can do it independently, without the aid of
specialists on foolishness and lies. The resolutions of the recent congress
of YABLOKO which took place at the beginning of July 2004 are presented
in the paper variant here, with some contractions and corrections, although
we fully preserved their sense and most of the text.
From the Programme resolution of YABLOKO
The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO considers the results of the presidential
elections and the election campaign to the State Duma to represent the
triumph of bureaucracy over society. The citizens of Russia turned out
to be helpless and deprived of civil rights before an omnipotent bureaucracy
which has been increasing its army under cover of statements that its
size would be cut.
What regime has developed in Russia?
By now a new political regime has finally taken shape in Russia. It
is a bureaucratic, oligarchic and police regime.
A narrow group of bureaucrats makes decisions in the Kremlin. Then these
decisions are blindly executed by the bureaucrats sitting in the government
and are blindly adopted by the bureaucrats voting in the State Duma. Furthermore
bureaucrats assume all controlling functions in this system. And if a
citizen wants to challenge these decisions, they will be defended by bureaucrats
sitting in courts.
The bureaucracy merged with large-scale business to achieve impenetrable
mutual responsibility aiming at appropriating the maximum possible share
of GDP. The demonstrative thrashing of several oligarchs has not changed
anything in this system. Dozens of less noticeable and political ambitious,
though no less mercenary oligarchs, came to replace them and profit from
proximity to the power clans.
To protect itself from society, the bureaucracy requires a powerful
police apparatus of compulsion. Courts have been merged with the executive
authorities, while the Public Prosecutor and other "power structures",
including the law and enforcement agencies, have been transformed into
the President's "praetorian guards". The arbitrary rule of the
authorities and corruption, inefficiency of the law enforcement system
and inability of the state to provide security for the citizens are the
most visible signs today.
Why are democrats losers?
Democracy suffered a convincing defeat at the elections [to the State
Duma]. The process and results of these elections, which were neither
fair, nor free, demonstrated that the institute of democratic elections
in Russia does not exist any more. It is emasculated, transformed into
imitation, as have other democratic institutes: parliament, the mass media
and judicial system. The system of checks and counterbalances has been
destroyed - there is no control by society over the state. In these conditions
the recipient of the administrative resource wins elections in exchange
for loyalty to the authorities. For these reasons the democratic parties
ended up cast outside the walls of Parliament. However they bear a huge
share of responsibility themselves.
Putin's Russia is the direct successor of Yeltsin's Russia which was
built with the active participation of those who under the guise of democracy
created the foundations for the oligarchic system.
The politicians who named themselves "democrats" are responsible
for the chosen path to a market economy which led to the loss of all savings
of most citizens and redistribution of the property to the benefit of
a narrow circle of people closely connected to the authorities and criminals.
Democrats in the opinion of most people are those who intentionally
created gangster capitalism in our country. Consequently the word "democracy"
in public consciousness is strongly associated with the concept "oligarchy",
and the word "democrat" with the concept "the defender
of oligarchs". For this reason most voters both at the Duma and presidential
elections voted for the liquidation of democracy and the establishment
of authoritarianism.
That does not mean that the management of YABLOKO absolves itself of
responsibility for the results of the elections. We are responsible before
the elections in 1999 for allowing the authors of gangster reforms to
bring to their side a number of democratic politicians and voters supporting
them. We failed to convince the mass democratic voters that reforms in
Russia could be conducted essentially differently, than had been done
by reformers in the 1990s.
Therefore we assume our share of responsibility not only for the defeat
of democracy, but also for the implementation of these mercenary reforms
in a lighter form under Kasyanov's Government, and their continuation
under Fradkov's Government of technocrats. We are responsible for not
doing enough to stop the formation in Russia of an oligarchic, and then
- on its basis - bureaucratic police state.
Goals of the democratic movement
However, we believe in the future of the democratic movement in Russia.
Democrats can only regain the trust of the electorate, if they manage
to rehabilitate democratic values in the opinion of Russian society and
offer the voters a clear and attractive path for the country's development,
that differs from today's road to nowhere. In our opinion, the following
problems must be resolved to achieve this goal:
1. Comprehend the tragedy of privatization. To perform
the first of these conditions it is necessary to reconsider radically
the relationship of democrats to "the oligarchic heritage".
Democrats should comprehend the tragedy of Russian privatization and assess
its results. The total revision of privatization results and redistribution
of property are inadmissible if we are to avoid an even greater tragedy.
But democrats should offer society a mechanism to compensate for the damage
that the consequences of privatization continue to impose on society.
2. To break off communication with oligarchs. It is
necessary to put to an end the financially extremely seductive, but politically
destructive informal union of democrats and oligarchs. We condemned and
we shall condemn selective political prosecution of the large business
which made a fortune from privatization. We continue to advocate the human
rights of victims of similar arbitrariness. However, our principled position
is that individuals and organizations involved in the creation of gangster
capitalism in Russia or obliged to it for their capital, can be neither
sponsors, nor participants of a democratic coalition at elections. The
political parties supported by such structures, or carrying out their
orders, cannot become members of a democratic coalition irrespective of
whether they constitute an arrangement with the authorities, or "are
offended" by them and went into opposition.
3. To find a social face. The recent elections demonstrated
that democratic values in themselves are not interesting to most voters.
This does not mean that the people oppose democracy, simply that they
are more concerned about welfare and stability. Democrats should prove
to society that only the European way of development of the country results
in the social welfare of most of the population. It is necessary to formulate
an alternative course to Putin's politics: reforms in the interests of
society, instead of bureaucracy, oligarchs and monopolies. One of the
global objectives of this course should be to not only restore real democratic
institutes, but also achieve real growth in the welfare of the majority
of the population.
THE RUSSIAN DEMOCRATIC PARTY YABLOKO CONSIDERS THE PRIMARY GOALS
OVER THE NEXT THREE-FOUR YEARS:
1. Protection of democratic gains and institutes, opposition to the
onslaught of authoritarianism.
To resolve this problem it is necessary:
- To consolidate civil society which today faces severe pressure from
the authorities while its efforts and resources today are separated and
weakened;
- To create a wide front to protect liberties where all independent
parties and civil organizations could take part with the exception of
Stalinists, fascists and virtual drafts. Such a front is necessary not
to take part in elections but to ensure that elections are held;
- To mobilize all forces to oppose falsification of election results
and the mass use of "the administrative resource" in the process.
2. Opposition to the implementation of anti-social reforms.
The party will actively resist
- The state's abdication of its social obligations through their transfer
to the regions or the "monetisation" of privileges;
- The violent ousting of the population on the housing market with the
risk of a sharp increase in the homeless;
- Transition to paid education and medicine.
3. Protection of citizens against the arbitrariness of bureaucrats and
the law and enforcement agencies. With this aim in mind the party creates
public offices, committees of protection of citizens, etc. YABLOKO will
fight both the system generating this arbitrariness, and specific bureaucrats
creating it.
4. Creation of an effective model of coalition politics assisting the
mobilization of democratic voters at local, regional and federal elections.
5. Successful participation in regional and local elections, as well
as in elections to the State Duma in 2007.
The Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO declares that it is a democratic
opposition to the President, the Government and the State Duma and considers
as its overall objective a change in the political regime in Russia.
See also:
The 12th
Congress of the Russian Democratic Party YABLOKO
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