Correspondence With ISWoR
                                     9/18/99
ISWoR,

 It seems like an excellent response at this time
would be to solicit contributions for progressive
unions in Russia that have members with starving
families.  International financial aid would contradict the
fascist theme that the enemies are foreigners, and
simultaneously enable unions to provide basic needs
for themselves-movements that have a vision outside of
the capitalist system.

-Mario
LLE Member

Response from ISWoR:

Dear Mario,

We are in fact discussing right now this question. Up till now we have
only 
appealed for specific workers struggles or initiatives, such as the 
Yasnogorsk occupation and the Second All-Russia Congress of Strike
Committees 
arranged by Samara Stachkom.One pbstacle we have found facing us in
this work 
has been the fact that while progressive activists in the west are
willing to 
give material aid, the technical problems involved (dealing with
bureaucratic 
trade union procedurs in getting resolutions passed, arranging currency

transfer at an economical rate from several countiries etc) often mean
that 
by the time the mechanism for a successful financial appeal is in
place, the 
struggle/event etc for which we are appealing is over.We have also been

searching for  ways in which we can increase the influence of the most 
progressive workers organisations. We know for instance, that
ractionary 
ideologies such as racism and ultra-nationalism are extremely powerful
now 
within the country as a whole. Therefore when we receive an appeal for
aid 
from a specific workplace in struggle, sadly it is fully possible that
at 
least some of the leadership of that struggle are members of orga
nisatins 
openly promoting racial hatred, etc.. We would not refuse to support
that 
struggle for this reason, but we would want to channel the aid through
the 
most progressive members of that leadership, in order to strengthen
their 
hand against the more reactionary ones. And to do this can often be
very 
difficult when we are dealing with activists we do not yet know, the 
atrocious state of the phone and other communications systems in
Russia, the 
language barrier (we have a small team of Russian translators but they
are 
overloaded with work) etc etc..

Therefore one option we are now looking at is the idea of a permanent 
campaign to raise money for a workers centre which would be run by a
united 
front of all the most progressive orgnisations. It would function to
provide 
assistance to workers struggles around the country, to relay news of
their 
struggle outside, and at the same time it would be a source of
ideological 
influence on those struggles itself. We visualise this united front to 
include members of many different political currents with a similar
minimum 
political platform to our own - commitment to the struggle against 
IMF/Yeltsinite exploitation, internationalist outlook, opposition to
racism 
and fascism. We would anticipate marxist, anarchist and other
tendencies 
involved in such an alliance.

We are now in the process of trying to discover which organisation fit
this 
criteria, and have already begun discussing this question with those
that we 
know fit it.

You suggested assistance to a trade union. the problem is that it is
only the 
union Zaschita, to our knowledge, that regularly organises militant
action, 
because 

------(letter ends before finished)

sorry-sent you an unfinished letter by mistake. will send you what was
to be 
added soon.
Lisa
International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR
http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html


Editors Note:  LLE will publish the rest of this letter once it is sent. -9/20/99
Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!