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END THE BLOODSHED IN CHECHNYA!
Statement by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada
(This article is from the March 16-31/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
THE LATEST ROUND of the bloody conflict in Chechnya appears to be winding down, with a costly victory by the Russian Republic over the separatist forces. But it seems likely that this war will flare up again sooner or later, mainly due to the clash of imperialist interests over oil and other natural resources in the region. The Communist Party of Canada condemns the imperialist powers which are actively destabilizing Central Asia and the Caucasus, and appeals to the government of the Russian Republic to cease its military attacks on Chechnya, in favour of negotiations for a lasting political solution to the conflict.
After the October Revolution of 1917 broke one-sixth of the earth's land surface away from the sphere of capitalism, the destruction of working class power in the Soviet Union became a central aim of imperialism. The transnational corporations also wanted to exploit both the labour force of the USSR and its allies, and their vast natural wealth, such as the oil reserves in the Caspian Sea area. The Red Army smashed Germany's attempt to grab these reserves during World War Two, but the break-up of the USSR offered imperialism another opportunity to seize control of Caspian Sea oil and gas.
The USA, Germany and other major imperialist powers are manoeuvring for control in all the former Soviet republics of this region. Already the major oil monopolies are building new pipelines through the Caucasus region to Turkey, bypassing the infrastructure built by the USSR during the decades of socialism. For their part, the new mafia-capitalist bosses of Russia want to extend their own power and influence across the region. Local elites in Chechnya and other territories are busy trying to cut deals with various capitalist interests and powers to maintain their own positions. This drive by the imperialist powers to further balkanize Eastern Europe and Central Asia, to strengthen their domination of the region and its resources, poses new dangers to peace and stability, with implications for the entire world.
But the immediate victims of the war in Chechnya are the working people of this territory, and of the Russian Republic. Under socialism, despite its shortcomings, these peoples lived in peace; now, under capitalism, their blood is spilled in the interests of greedy profiteers.
The Communist Party of Canada condemns the hypocrisy of Western governments, including our own, which criticize Moscow for the inhumane conduct of the war in Chechnya. These are the same governments which have rained terror and death on the people of Yugoslavia and Iraq. The USA and its NATO allies are directly responsible for training and arming dozens of far-right terrorist organizations and military dictatorships, with the goal of preserving the ability of the transnational corporations to exploit labour and the environment in every corner of the planet. Those who are complicit in the ongoing imperialist drive to fragment the former USSR have no moral right to lecture Moscow for its actions.
But our Party does have the right and duty to oppose the Putin government's attempts to maintain the territorial integrity of the Russian Republic through brute military force. We believe it is no coincidence that the renewal of hostilities in Chechnya allowed the new capitalist rulers in Russia to replace the hated Boris Yeltsin, and that ethnic hatred has become a key political tool of these forces just before the presidential election, undermining the campaign of the left and genuinely patriotic forces.
Whatever the outcome of the March 26 election, the working people of the former Soviet republics can only reverse the catastrophe imposed upon them by uniting against their common enemies: global imperialism and the new capitalist rulers of Russia and the other former Soviet republics. The CPC appeals for an end to bloodshed among these peoples, in favour of determined efforts for negotiated political solutions to the conflicts in Chechnya and other areas.
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