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Russia's aging Communist Party is attempting to attract new, young members by using pop culture and addressing their growing concerns over alleged corruption and income inequality.

Russia's Communist Party, a successor from the Soviet Union's, is celebrating 95 years in May since the founding of its youth Pioneers movement.

On Moscow's Red Square Sunday, young Communist Party members wearing red hats and bandannas waved flags, while others danced to traditional songs; some were indoctrinated into the Leninist Young Communist League of Russia, known as the Komsomol.

Aging leaders of the party laid flowers at the tomb of their founder, Vladimir Lenin. But they insist the Communist Party is far from dying.

"An entire group has today joined the Komsomol," said Chairman of Russia's Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov. "These are guys who we made Pioneers some time ago. And recently 60,000 people of the younger generation have become party members. The organization lives and progresses."

But the Communist Party, like its 73-year-old chairman, is getting old.

"The statement that the Communist Party is a 'party of pensioners' is quite correct, but just partly," said Communist Party member and artist Igor Petrygin-Rodionov. "Because a change of generations is going on, and the older generation is leaving though struggling and quite reluctantly."

Looking for youth

Petrygin-Rodionov was enlisted by the party to try to attract younger members by using images from popular and Western culture. At his Saint Petersburg studio, a promotional poster depicts Lenin using a Communist Party laptop with the slogan "The Second Century is Online."

At a weekend exhibit at Saint Petersburg's University of Technology Management and Economics, Petrygin-Rodionov displays some of his most well-known posters. One revamps the famous image of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin smoking a pipe by replacing it with an electronic cigarette. Another shows communism's founding father, Karl Marx, wearing a leather jacket and jeans with the Arnold Schwarzenegger slogan, from the film Terminator, "I'll Be Back."

But selling communism to Russia's modern youth is no small challenge.

"One can't say that communism was either bad or good," said a student attending the exhibit who gave only his first name, Gena. "It is impossible to go back to communism, like it is impossible to go back in time or to push the toothpaste back into the tube."

Concerns about corruption and growing inequality are rallying some young Russians, but not necessarily to their grandparent's communist party.

New idea of communism

"There is no communism yet," said the leader of the Moscow Duma faction of the Communist Party, Andrey Klychkov. "There is no communism in China either. When we ask what Chinese socialism is and why private property rights, enrichment opportunities are present there, the Chinese say, 'That it is a least-evil measure for the construction of communism, when we reach it, we won't have it.' That's why we are talking today about a different approach."

Klychkov was speaking at a protest rally against a plan by Russian authorities to demolish up to 8,000 Soviet-era buildings in Moscow and relocate more than a million residents. The plan has raised suspicions of corruption and sparked demonstrations, including by the Communist Party.

"Today the main strategy is in giving the young people an opportunity to implement their ideas," said Klychkov. "Not everybody accepts the reproduction of the Soviet past. But the ideas of socialism and social justice, as well as positive attitudes to the Soviet past, start prevailing among many young people, as social studies show."

New leadership

To re-energize the party, Russia's communists may for the first time in 24 years elect a new leader at the party's congress this week. Zyuganov has led the party since it was allowed to be reconstituted in 1993, after being banned with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Klychkov, the party's candidate for the 2018 Moscow mayor election, is one possibility.

"... it's not a question of me replacing him," said Klychkov. "The question of electing the party leader is for the party congress. And the congress will take a decision in the near future on May 26 or 27."

Regardless of any next generation leadership, few expect the once revolutionary party of Vladimir Lenin to pose a real challenge to Russia's ruling elite.

Although its leaders deny being part of a so-called "systemic opposition," the Communist Party has supported the Kremlin on most domestic policies and almost all foreign ones.

VOAs Ricardo Marquina Montanana and Olga Pavlova contributed to this report.

Here is the original post:
Russia's Aging Communist Party Looks to Attract New Generation - Voice of America

LIAM HEHIR

Last updated16:24, May 25 2017

FAIRFAX NZ

Steven Joyce's Budget won't win a lot of votes, but it won't lose them either.

OPINION:Government Budgets come in four flavours.

Popular and bold: When a government pulls one of these off, it changes the fiscal landscape. These budgets are the rarest of animals. The 2004 Budget is the only one of recent vintage that comes close.

This budget introduced Working for Families. John Key denounced it as "communism by stealth" but had to accept its permanence as the price of winning office.

Unpopular and bold: These budgets inflict mortal wounds upon their governments. Sometimes they are necessary but unpalatable medicines needed to cure economic disease.

At other times, they are a triumph of ideology over survival instincts. The Black Budget of 1958 is the textbook of an unpopular and bold budget.

READ MORE: *As it happened: Budget revealed *Tax and housing assistance in Joyce's first Budget *Paying down debt and rationing lollies *Govt answers school pleas for funding *What families get, by the numbers

Unpopular and conservative: These budgets are usually the result of mismanaged expectations. In 2005, the rumour was that there were tasty tax cuts in store for us. When the cuts proved to be paltry, Labour handed its opponents a club to beat it with. The party limped back into office that year, but the "chewing gumbudget" sore never fully healed.

Not unpopular and conservative: Sorry for the "not unpopular" double negative but "popular" would not be quite right. These budgets fine-tune the status quo, adjust margins and tweak existing programmes. They don't win a lot of votes, but they don't lose them either.

They are the best type of budget because they are symptoms of continuity and stability. Fortunately, they are also the most common type of budget.

Steven Joyce's first budget falls into the last of these categories. While the government's publicity has assaulted us with facts and figures, there's nothing all that surprising in it.

Income tax thresholds will be relaxed slightly.

The "communism by stealth" programme is going to be made more generous for some, while abating more quickly and paying less to others. Those without children will lose access to some tax credits. Some students and people on lower incomes will receive more help with their accommodation costs.

All this fits within the global pattern of Centre-Right governments trying to bring Centre-Left voters into the fold. Communal conservatism is on the rise and market individualism is being pushed aside. This Budget is a continuation of the trend, not a revolution in and of itself.

This particular budget is not without risk. Matters on which the government is vulnerable remain on the table. The cost of housing is the big one and nothing in this budget will put an end to the demagoguery on that subject. There is a limit to the extent you can sell tinkering as the solution to an ongoing problem.

The balance of election prospects should remain unchanged by this Budget. We will have to wait for the campaign and the attendant promises to see if National has anything more revolutionary in mind for the next year. In the meantime, the onus is on the opposition coalition to articulate a plausible alternative.

-Stuff

See original here:
Not a chewing gum budget or communism by stealth - Stuff.co.nz

29 mins ago Canada By Christopher Guly /Special to The Ukrainian Weekly | 29 mins ago

OTTAWA The design for a Victims of Communism memorial in Ottawa submitted by Ukrainian Canadian architect Wiktor Moskaliuks team topped one independent poll as the public favorite, but didnt fare as well in a survey led by the Canadian government, which likely gave the design of another team, without a Ukrainian connection, the edge in winning the competition.

On May 17, the Canadian government announced that a five-person jury it assembled had selected the design by a team led by Toronto architect Paul Raff. Called Arc of Memory, Team Raffs concept involves a sculptural array of more than 4,000 bronze rods arranged along 365 stainless steel fins configured into a gigantic arc, and is intended as a dynamic living calendar that would commemorate moments of suffering and injustice that eventually resolve into reflection and gratitude, according to a news release by Canadian Heritage, the government department that oversaw the design competition.

Mr. Moskaliuks team included Washington, D.C.-based Ukrainian American architect Larysa Kurylas and landscape architect Claire Bedat, also based in the U.S. capital.

Based on the results of an online Canadian Heritage poll, conducted in March and after the winning design was revealed, Team Raff scored the highest in overall favorability with 23 percent; Team Moskaliuk received 14 percent, or the second-lowest score among the five competing firms.

The results are based on a regionally and linguistically representative sample of 500 of the 717 surveys received.

However, in an earlier Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) online survey, 1,954 out of 5,183 votes cast, or 38 percent of respondents, chose Team Moskaliuks design and put it in the top position. Team Raff received 440 votes, or 8.5 percent of the total, putting its design in last position.

Team Raffs design is a sculpture and not a memorial, Mr. Moskaliuk commented in a telephone interview from Toronto.

Photos of Team Raffs design appear on the Canadian Heritage website (http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1488208623937), along with a statement that describes the concept as a dynamic living calendar, designed to capture the many, many moments of suffering and injustice to be commemorated, in solace and in gratitude.

Each of the bronze rods in the memorial will point to a unique angle of the sun, for every hour of every day, across a year divided in the middle at the winter solstice, the darkest of the year, inviting visitors to step through in a metaphorical journey from darkness and oppression to lightness and liberty.

Team Moskaliuks design, which had no official title, was intended to focus on the memorials subtheme of Canada as a land of refuge, by focusing on the four principles of democracy equality, freedom, justice and representation depicted in four spire-like pillars made of white granite at the core of the monument to be situated in what is known as the Garden of the Provinces and Territories, west of Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

Reached by phone in Washington, Ms. Kurylas said she was very disappointed in her teams loss, and described Team Raffs sculpture as very intriguing. But she also believes her groups effort better reflected the thematic victims-of-communism connection to the subject of this memorial.

Team Moskaliuks proposed monument of four granite pillars was to be set at the center of a contemplative oval space symbolizing Canadian sanctuary for hundreds of thousands of refugees from communist regimes, according to the groups design-intent statement.

The oval space symbolizes Canada as a land of refuge, and the four pillars at the center embody the democratic ideals that refugees from communist regimes sought out, said Ms. Kurylas, whose design for the Holodomor Memorial to Victims of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Washington was chosen from among 45 entrants.

Our memorial was unique in the bunch because it created a space in addition to creating an object.

Vox populi had a different take on the competing bids.

In its online survey, Canadian Heritage asked respondents to provide up to three adjectives that describe their impressions of each of the five designs.

The three most popular words for Team Moskaliuk were boring, dull and uninspiring, as ranked by level of frequency. For Team Raff, the results were interesting, beautiful and powerful.

With a team effort that involved more than 500 hours to pull together the design concept, Mr. Moskaliuk said he is done submitting bids for memorials. Its too labor intensive and costs a fortune, he explained.

Canadian Heritage reimbursed his team a small honorarium to cover travel costs to Ottawa and the printing of the design proposal the amount of which Mr. Moskaliuk declined to identify.

Mr. Moskaliuk expects to receive a debrief from Canadian Heritage officials some time next month as to why his team didnt make the final cut for the Victims of Communism memorial.

Ms. Kurylas said that design competitions are hard on entrants.

You cannot make a career of creating memorials, she observed. There is just too much emotional involvement in it, and it cant become production-line work.

She wont rule out designing another memorial, if hired to do so.

Ms. Kurylas acknowledged the nature of any design competition, that only one entrant ends up being selected.

I sincerely feel that if another project had addressed the theme better than ours, I would be taking it less hard, she said.

The Victims of Communism memorial, which will cost $3 million (Canadian, about $2.2 million U.S.) to build, is scheduled for completion next year.

View post:
Team Moskaliuk loses competition to design Victims of Communism memorial - The Ukrainian Weekly (press release) (subscription)

The government's budget is "rinky-dink" and will provide some minimum-wage earners with only one extra dollar a week, Labour says.

Labour leader Andrew Little said Budget 2017 did not go far enough to support lower-income New Zealanders. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

The centrepiece of the National-led government's budget, announced today, is a $2 billion a year package that lifts the bottom two tax thresholds and increases Working For Families payments.

The bottom tax threshold (taxed at 10.5 percent) will rise from $14,000 to $22,000 and the next bracket up (taxed at 17.5 percent) will rise from $48,000 to $52,000.

But Labour leader Andrew Little told Parliament it was a "rinky-dink, short-changing, dollar-bill budget".

"For all National's talk about tax cuts, the reality is that a single cleaner on a minimum wage will get just $1 a week extra," he said.

"The big winners of this budget are the top earners who take home most of the tax benefits."

Mr Little also attacked the government's spending on health, which will receive an extra $3.9bn over the next four years, and education, which will get an extra $1.5bn.

"In health, this budget is $200 million a year short of what [district health boards] need to stand still," he said.

"In education, schools are short $70m at a time when we have overcrowding and falling standards."

The was nothing in the budget to address the housing shortage, Mr Little said.

"Too many people are squeezed into our big cities... and they've done nothing about it.

"National is only building one affordable house a day in Auckland for every 100 new Aucklanders."

On the other side of the House, Act Party leader David Seymour immediately labelled the Working For Families increases as "communism by stealth" - echoing former Prime Minister John Key's description of the policy when Labour first introduced it in 2004.

"The boost to Working for Families is the perfect example of how National is abandoning its roots," Mr Seymour said.

"The National Party is meant to believe in personal responsibility and low taxes - now they've not only adopted Labour's policies, they're championing them."

The tax bracket changes were "welcome compensation" but were underdone, he said.

"The most any taxpayer will save is $20 a week... Bracket creep will eventually cancel out this tax relief because National refuses to permanently tie brackets to inflation."

The Mori Party said it was "proud" that the budget included $122m for Mori initiatives, including an extra $10m for Whnau Ora and $21m for Mori language and culture.

It also included $1m for the Te Mana o Te Wai Fund, to improve freshwater quality, and $4m for New Zealand's climate change policies.

That was "paltry", Greens co-leader James Shaw said.

"There is nothing in this budget that will clean up our polluted rivers, lakes and streams, or protect our drinking water. A million dollars for one fund isn't going to cut it - especially when National refuses to turn pollution off at the tap."

There was nothing in the budget to stop property speculation or "rampant" investment, Mr Shaw said.

"The government expects rents to keep rising, and more people to require emergency housing. It has admitted defeat in the face of the housing crisis.

"New Zealanders will be paying the social and financial cost of National's inaction for many, many years to come."

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said following this budget, the National Party did not deserve to be in charge for three more years.

He said there were people living in poverty, mental health services in disarray, conservation services lacking, social housing relying on motels, run-away immigration, and regions were neglected.

Mr Peters said the government was not equipped to deal with these issues.

"Budgets are meant to be about philosophy, they're meant to be what demarcates a party against all the others, they're meant to be about a plan, a vision, except the National Party came in today with no plan, no vision, no idea - just trying to hang on for three more years."

Want more detail? Read RNZ's full Budget coverage here.

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Budget 2017: 'Rinky-dink' and 'communism by stealth' - Radio New Zealand

To the editor: You write that communism has led to the deaths of tens of millions of people through brutal purges, starvation policies and war. (It's 2017. Being a communist shouldn't be a barrier to public employment, editorial, May 19)

In all fairness, cannot it also be said that capitalism has led to the death of millions of people through brutal wars in Vietnam and Cambodia and tens of thousands in totalitarian regimes in Chile and Brazil, as well as the two great world wars? Go back two centuries as capitalist expansion led to the deaths of millions of native American Indians and African slaves.

The list goes on, past and present: child laborers in third world factories, workers without protection and populations without healthcare. These are the fruits not only of communism and capitalism but also of tribal and nationalist competition.

Can the human species survive its instinctive contradictions? Not until we all abandon our hubris, our irrational and tribal ideologies, our greed and our addiction to violence.

Jay W. Friedman, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

The rest is here:
Communism kills. So does profit-craving capitalism. - Los Angeles Times