BORIS YELTSIN'S victory in the Russian referendum is a major step in the direction of dictatorial rule. It is also likely to translate into further blows against the living standards of the Russian masses.
The conflict between Yeltsin and the Congress of People's Deputies has been above all over cconomic reform. Yeltsin's plans to speed up market reform involve cutting state credit to industry, and allowing enterprises to become bankrupt. If these plans go through, mil lions of Russian workers will be sacked.
Industrial chiefs Opposition to Yeltsin's plans in the Congress has come from groups strongly linked to industrial managers; the section of the old burcaucracy dependent on the management of big industry and the thousands of large-scale factories which still dominate che Russian economy.
Yeltsin's line has been that economic chaos has been caused by the slow progress of Subscribe the chaos has been produced by the disruption of the old planning system. by deliberate economic sabotage by the West. Up to $24 billion in aid to Russia has been designated by the IMF, World Bank and Western governments - but only $1 billion delivered.
Break-up
The rest depends on "the speed of economic reform' - le marketisation and breaking up the big industrial complexes.
Add to this is the maintenance of the cold-war COCOM trade restrictions, which blocks thousands of Russian goods being imported into the West, and the export of high tech goods to KISSE Further privatisation and marketisation will change the situation in Russia from chaos to social catastrophie. If the big enterprises are allowed to become bankrupt it will result in mass unemployment, and the eventual reduction of Russia to third world levels of subsisThat kind of social catastropne will need the heavy hand of authoritarian government to implement it; and that is the road which Yeltsin is going down.