Judging by the results of the Social Forum, we consider ourselves a SOVIET MOVEMENT in two senses: first of all, we are for SOVIETS (councils) as a form of self-organization for the protesting masses and the population at large, since the soviets, a form of self-organization that arose 100 years ago, entails both self-government and popular rule; we are Soviet people in terms of our values (social justice, equal rights, solidarity, and the desire to restore the connections between people in “post-Soviet space”.) We are part of a SOVIET RENNAISCANCE FROM BELOW, for which there is a real demand, and whose basis can be found in the self-organization of people into soviets and the rebirth of those portions of Soviet culture that have not yet been “finished off” completely.
These two multitudes almost correspond to one another. Almost. For one group, the self-organization of protest is more important, while the other find it more important to revive the Soviet idea as an idea of a society that could provide an alternative to capitalism. The soviets lie at the core of this idea, but not only as units of protest, but as massive self-organization.
To us, it is important not to lose either of these multitudes, and to bring them together on the unified field of the SOVIET MOVEMENT (A MOVEMENT OF SOVIETS FOR A SOVIET RENNAISCANCE).
A. Shubin, May 2005
Fragment of the discussion on the Russian Social Forum’s mailing list
