07.05.1996

May Day staying alive

Eastern Europe

Many parts of the world celebrated the international day of workers. There were also demonstrations, marches and rallies in ‘post-communist’ countries. The rallies said much about the societies where they were taking place.

The Russian Federation saw numerous demonstrations, with the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia estimating that three and a half million people turned out. Even if the true figure were half of this, its equivalent in Britain would be half a million demonstrators. The demonstrations were larger than in previous years, perhaps because of the election campaign. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation in particular used the rallies to agitate for its candidate in the June 16 presidential election, Gennady Zyuganov.

In Poland, there were rallies in Warsaw and Krakow, though rightwing groups tried to disrupt them by throwing firecrackers.

Poland’s president Aleksander Kwasniewski is a member of the ‘post-communist’ Democratic Left Alliance and is helping to restore capitalism. He invited representatives of employers, employees, trade unions and the government to a picnic in the grounds of the presidential palace in Warsaw to mark May Day. Solidarnosc representatives would not go even though they were invited. They probably associate May Day too strongly with socialism. However, Kwasniewski will invite them again next year. Clearly a patient man.

In Hungary, which like Poland has a government of the ‘left’ which is carrying through pro-capitalist ‘reforms’, the May Day rally was addressed by prime minister Gyula Horn of the Socialist Party. According to Budapest radio, he said the government was not planning to “introduce further restrictive measures this year”. Gyula Thuermer, chairman of the Workers’ Party, called on Horn to resign because of the increasing poverty experienced by many Hungarians under the market. Both the Socialist Party and the Workers’ Party are descended from the old ruling party, but they have taken different paths.

In the Czech Republic, there was a rally of about 20,000 in Prague. This was mainly organised by the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, which is in opposition to a rightwing government. The party’s chairman, Miroslav Grebenicek, denounced Nato, the political right and compensation claims by Sudeten Germans.

In Slovakia, about 600 people attended a rally in Bratislava organised by the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS). The main slogans were “Socialism - our hope, the future of mankind” and “For socialism, labour and peace”. KSS chairman Vladimir Dado said everyone had a right to a job, but there are 300,000 unemployed in Slovakia and most of those in work earn low wages. He compared the situation unfavourably with before 1989, “although people damn socialism”. The Slovak social democrats also held a rally criticising privatisation.

In Bulgaria, there is conflict between prime minister Zhan Videnov of the ‘post-communist’ Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and president Zhelyu Zhelev, a veteran anti-communist. Zhelev issued a May Day statement calling for greater unity in Bulgarian society. He called for “reform”, saying that the old Communist Party of Bulgaria’s nomenklatura was benefiting from the privatisation of state property. This is probably true, but Zhelev would prefer it if people grew obscenely wealthy from privatisation without ever having held a Party card.

There were two alternative May Day rallies in the capital Sofia. One was organised by the BSP and supported the government. The other was supported by the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions and the Podkrepa Labour Confederation. This one called on the government to resign because of its “antisocial” policy, involving price rises and tax increases. At the BSP rally, premier Videnov accused the opposition, president Zhelev and the trade unions of trying to destabilise Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a country where concepts of ‘left’ and ‘right’ are confused, but this is far from rare in countries that were once bureaucratic socialist.

May Day has not disappeared in Eastern Europe. It is still celebrated with varying degrees of enthusiasm. There is not much revolutionary spirit detectable in reports of events, but at least those that go actually want to be there. Under the bureaucratic socialist system there was often an element of compulsion in peoples’ attendance at the rallies.

Andrew MacKay