EVENT [MN]: 2006 Financial Crisis Protests - Russia

[Odinson]

The Russian economy, and more specifically the ruble, had been stretched to the breaking point. The economic stress in the Russian Federation started by putting stress on companies and the general means of production, but it did not take long for it to be felt by everyday Russians in the form of inflation. The current Russian debt was a little over $115-billion dollars and represented a whopping 42% of global debt. While this massive debt presented a number of serious issues for the Russian economy, people, and government, the most immediate and serious affect was the large inflation that everyone from the richest to poorest Russians were facing. For example, the price of basic items like bread and milk were up nearly 250% and still rising. Due to this inflation, the value of the rubel was also in a freefall which was making foreign goods extensively more expensive than native goods. Because foreign goods were essentially unobtainable by the average Russian, this only increased the demand on native products and made them even more expensive.

After a lack of assurances of measures taken by the Russian government to address this, and real effects on the global markets, the Russian people started taking to the streets. Grassroots gatherings in Moscow and St. Petersburg spurred larger protests as people came out with Russian flags and protest-slogans written on carboard and posters. While not all of the people understood what was causing things to become more expensive, what they did know is that higher prices were undeniable and that the government had some control over it. Russian economists and political pundits were interviewed by Russian newspapers and television programs where the general consensus was that the government needed to take certain austerity measures and to stop increasing the debt. Secondly, measures needed to be taken to begin paying off the debt and decrease the excess amount of currency that was causing inflation.

In Moscow, thousands of people gathered in Red Square around lunch time where they began peacefully protesting and chanting. Local and national news covered the protests live. As people heard of the protests, some took off of work while others who had been fired from their jobs due to the state of the economy decided they had nothing to lose and joined their compatriots in Red Square.​

Jay

 

[Bossza007]

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Statement on the 2006 Financial Crisis in the Russian Federation​

Published by the Republic Thai Embassy in Moscow​

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The Socialist Republic of Thailand's Embassy in Moscow is watching developments in the Russian Federation. It is in our view by no means a "financial crisis," or even a recession, but rather a predictable and inevitable expression of the contradictions and inevitable collapse of capitalism as a system.

The current Russian crisis is in no sense of the word exceptional or a local crisis. Malaise of the world, instability inherent in it, boom and bust, unevenness of distribution, and exploitation by the mode of capitalist production are particularly acute and palpable in the processes that are underway.

The sirens of the "free market" enticed nations for decades onto their rocky shores, to witness the promise of prosperity strangled by suffocating amounts of wealth and unimaginable insecurity. Having fallen victim to this siren on its post-Soviet trajectory, Russia is now bitterly waking up to the broken promises of capitalism.

That path is one that the Socialist Republic of Thailand is well acquainted with, one that was tested in the crucible of revolution in response to the very same oppressions that were then being perpetuated in Russia. We took a different course based on Socialist Participatory Democracy, communal possession of the means of production, and a firm dedication to the well-being of all of our citizens.

Our democratically planned economy, Labor Token Exchange system, and system of interactively linked Worker Cooperatives are not political policies, however, but a whole new paradigm that puts social harmony, economic justice, and human dignity ahead of the anarchic competition and profit-driven attitude of capitalism.

Capitalist apologists will seek a scapegoat, blaming "mismanagement," "external forces," or bad fortune. Socialists, striving to do better, owe it to us to speak the truth. As in previous and subsequent crises in other capitalist nations, the Russian crisis is a system failure, rather than one of execution.

By definition, capitalism encourages instability, crises of accumulation, and continuous exploitation of humanity's labor in the interest of capital. It thus sows inequality, splits societies, and in the end causes humans to suffer.

Our condolences to the Russian people, workers, students, pensioners, and to all those who today are faced with this system's collapse. We stand in solidarity with those Russians now in the streets demonstrating, putting their own lives in danger, demanding accountability and a path toward a fair and equitable future. These demonstrations are not a protest of a situation, but also a show of the unbreakable human spirit towards justice, dignity, and life free of exploitation.

The Socialist Republic of Thailand stands in solidarity with all others who labor in the pursuit of a better world in firm faith in human rights, humanism, and humanitarianism (3Hs). These identical principles reinforced by Justice, Liberty, Opportunity, Vision and Equality (JLOVE) and by Democracy, Due Process and Development (3Ds), are the benchmarks of our foreign policy that oblige us to recognize the heavy cost in human terms of this crisis and to affirm anew our faith in the inalienable right of all peoples to self-determination and a life of dignity and economic well-being.

We renew the Friends of Thailand's (FOTH) historic pledge of asylum to the persecuted in Russia for the struggle for a fair and equitable society. In a show of proletarian solidarity and hospitality, Thailand remains open to those who struggle indefatigably in pursuit of freedom and justice in the face of repression and exploitation.

Let this be a wake-up call to the world that capitalism is not destiny, nor the end of history. An alternative exists. It is a path to a better, fairer, and more equal tomorrow. Socialist Republic of Thailand, our dynamic socialist democracy and steadfast commitment to the welfare of the people, is the living embodiment of that possibility. We call for the current crisis in Russia to be resolved peacefully, sensibly, and equitably in the near term, yet we also point out to all that lasting solutions can only come by moving beyond the system failures and injustices of capitalism to a democratic socialist and shared liberty future.​

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The Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Socialist Republic of Thailand​

Jay Odinson

 

[Bossza007]

Sasiwat Wongsinsawat likened Moscow’s stifling, oppressive environment to a comfortable blanket of despair wrapped around like an overeager embrace from a close relative that one can never bear to sever. Guttural, widespread poverty, which started from the Kremlin, was no longer a far-fetched headline but instead dominated life with tragic normalcy on every park bench and street corner. Reality was a breath which no longer needed words to describe it, a gilded corruption writ large regardless of what emerged from Red Square, all pronouncements a smooth contempt, a denied rebuff racing through the Global Assembly.

He flashed another glance back to the economic report and its garish numbers charting unreadable progress off in an apparent economic dreamland that was for other people in a different part of the world, for here, digits kept moving in the wrong direction. What was once an occasional click of the figures eventually became a flipping over change of light particles moving rapidly backward on an LED display screen. GDP per capita was not only falling. GDP per capita threatened to fall toward zero, where even a fistful of rubles would not be sufficient to buy even the smallest crust.

Leaning softly into his chair, the Russian twist of words an unconditional surrender to the tranquility of his private small embassy office brought him back to the general work area of the Thai common work area where a room of patient eyes were fixated on the warm glow of a large television screen where another riot in Lenin’s tomb city was being patiently awaited.

Another of the younger workers voiced his Russian voice of trepidation, “The debt. It flipped over again.” The words spoke of bullish factors, but only the words themselves were able to hide the fact. “To $115 billion.” For the moment, that figure seemed to sit there, a shaky, languid reassurance against the wave of hopelessness.

As unemployment blanketed the streets outside, the Thai embassy and the handful of diplomatic missions that remained open had dutifully grown larger in the past weeks as they continued to hire those still seeking to leave this world for the work universe of Russia once the godless work universe had fallen apart around them. Here was work, and here was a restoration of quiet honor, though the struggling diplomat had no Russian curse then or now that could explain it to himself, to the world.​