What about the Workers? Workers and the Transition to Capitalism in Russia, Simon Clarke, Peter Fairbrother, Michael Buroway and Pavel Krotov, Verso £10.99 Reviewed by Paul Clarke THIS BOOK is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand present-day developments in Russia.
The main author, Warwick University academic Simon Clarke, challenges the received wisdom that Russia is undergoing a more-or-less rapid transition to capitalism, and insists on the resilience of the previously-existing relations of production.
For Clarke the bureaucracy, and more specifically the managerial bureaucracy based on the factories and enterprises, is still in power. And privatisation, at least in its present forms, is not creating genuine capitalism.
This thesis of course poses the question of what the 'previously existing' relations of production actually were. Clarke's terminology is not that shared by this journal since he considers the bureaucracy a ruling class.
Divisions
But his analysis, particularly that of the centrality of the labour collective' as the key element in the productive system, and his account of the divisions and stratification of the working class, is important in the light of the underdevelopment of socialist theory on Russia and similar societies.
Stuck
For, although the 'Russian question' was a central debate among socialists for decades, much of this debate remained stuck in a repetitive groove of generalisations.
In what does the continuity of the production relations consist? A huge part of the economy is in state hands, although the central planning system has been disorganised.
Perestroika weakened the Party and the state, and the main beneficiaries have been the 'industrial nomenklatura' who were able wrest control of much of industry.
However, for the industrial nomenklatura to stay in power it has to resist a fundamental transition in the labour collective system.
Very refreshing here is Clarke's insistence on the power and strength of the working class (or at least its potential in preventing a fundamental disruption of existing social relations. As he puts it 'the Russian working class is a sleeping giant which no one dare wake up'.
Capitalism without a bourgeoisie is a nonsense, and for Clarke 'if capitalism is to develop in Russia it can only be through the transformation of the industrial nomenklatura into a capitalist class'.
Manoeuvrer
Yeltsin is not the political representative of this layer, indeed he is seen as a classic apparatus manoeuvrer, attempting to balance between different bureaucratic interests; although Clarke doesn't examine this, it is the forces organ-. ised in the Civic Union, opposing Yeltsin and the more extreme neo-liberal plans, which represents this layer.
Temporary
Compared with the neo-liberal politicians the Civic Union forces are much more grounded in present social reality. Compared with them, Yeltsin is a temporary figure.
Much of the book reviews, as its title indicates, the emerging workers movement and how the actions of the workers, particularly the miners strikes, have been crucial in determining the major political developments.
If you want to understand the reality behind the headlines on Russia, read this book together with David Mandel's Perestoika and the People.