Bulgaria lurches into turmoil UNTIL recently it seemed that Bulgaria's Communist Party, arguably the strongest and most popular in Eastern Europe, had successfully embraced perestroika and the demands of the Bulgarian democracy movement, while keeping its power and massive bureaucracy intact. In fact, after its re-launch as the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), it even managed to take some credit for the liberalization and won an overall majority in the country's free elections in June. Yet Bulgaria's Communists are now on borrowed time.
In August, the BSP headquarters in the heart of Sofia was set ablaze by demonstrators frustrated by the slow pace of reform. In September, the BSP Congress dismayed reformers by re-electing as leader Alexander Lilov, who had failed to break with the conservatives. In October the only thing still holding the faction-riven party together was its fear of the opposition coalition, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF). KATHY LOWE working class. Or "after an earlier phase of national democratic transformation, there will be a fairly rapid progress towards socialism (...) In such a case one might find the evolution of the ANC into a broad mass socialist party, within which the party merges"23.
Collapse of Stalinist world view
Things can no longer happen thus. But Jeremy Cronin indicates to us perhaps that two positions already exist within the SACP - one which wishes to take its distance from Mandela, and the other, following the evolution of numerous Communist Parties in the world, which would be ready to fuse with a "social democratic" project. The weeks to come will in any case confirm these tensions. The SACP will not escape the crisis of identity striking all the CPs of the entire world, in relation to their past and their national political project.
Whatever the future of relations between the SACP and the ANC, the current debate will give birth to tensions inside the Communist ranks. In this climate of setback and confusion it is not impossible that these militants will search for a different road — which is at least desirable.
The first elements of defeat have been put in place. How grave this is will depend on the eventual political recompositions which may result from the crisis of the majority forces. But for that to happen rapidly it is necessary that the revolutionary left presents itself as a credible pole of reference. Such is the challenge today if the memory of the tremendous 14 struggles of the 1980s is not to be lost for ' a long time. *
HE country, meanwhile, lurches into ever deeper political and economic turmoil as the UDF employs its parliamentary weight to paralyze the BSP-led government in the hope of precipitating its final downfall. In under a year the political face of Bulgaria has changed beyond recognition. In November 1989, amidst the clamour of the rising democracy movement, a Gorbachev-backed central committee coup led by the then-foreign minister Petar Mladenov ended the 35-year rule of veteran Stalinist Todor Zhivkov.
Decades of corruption and mismanagement were acknowledged for the first time as the country embarked on a transition from a totalitarian Communist state to a multi-part system. Since then, the CP, now the BSP, has been struggling to repair its tarnished image and to fend off internal splits while keeping at bay the dissident organizations of the Union of Democratic Forces.
In a country with extremely weak political traditions it proved possible for the BSP, pushed by its reformers, to keep an edge on the inexperienced opposition. The party emerged from the June elections with 211 out of 400 parliamentary seats. But political paralysis was not far off. Within weeks Mladenov was forced to resign when it became public that he had muttered in front of a jeering crowd last December: "The best thing is to let the tanks come". A long wrangle followed about who should be put forward for President and in a concession designed to achieve some unity, the BSP finally dropped its own candidate in favour of that of the UDF leader Zhelyu Zhelev. After Zhelev was elected President in August, he invited the UDF to participate in a government of national consensus because of the crisis in the country. The UDF, however, refused. Says its new leader Petar Beron: "A majority of our coalition thinks we cannot trust the Communists - that they want to lure us into some trap."
After several attempts by Zhelev, a govemment was eventually formed in late September by the BSP aided by independents. But in reality the government is totally hamstrung as the UDF has used its 144 seats in the National Assembly to block all major decisions, which, under the Bulgarian system, require a two thirds majority.
### Lukewarm reformists
Petar Beron accuses the BSP of lukewarm commitment to reform. He points to the Communists' failure to dismantle the giant nomenklatura [reserved jobs for approved appointees], 216,000 bureaucrats out of a population of 9 million who dominate every sphere of political, economic and social life in Bulgaria. "The BSP's first concern", Beron insists, "is to hold onto all these red capitalists who have grabbed money which they are now trying to put into private enterprise and private property."
The UDF's strategy, encouraged by the defeat of the reform wing at the recent BSP congress, is to let the BSP carry the can for the economic mess, to go all-out to win the local elections in November and then try to force another general election. The trouble is that the assortment of 16 political groups that make up the UDF -among them the revived Social Democratic Party, the Green Party, the Podkrepa
International Viewpoint #193 • October 29, 1990
trade unions and the Ecoglas-
BULGARIA made umons and te acoglasnost movement — appear to be united by little more than their
СПОЕТЕ 18 ГОДИШОТО РЕЛИ С hatred of the BSP. They offer no
ВАНЕ НА СТЧИЧЕСКИТЕ ТУРЦИ answers for the crisis and cannot agree on overall policies on
БИВШИЯ which to campaign and give a lead, whether as part of an emergency coalition government or from outside.
The UDF's decision to use wrecking tactics and to restrict themselves to saying that the
BSP has not really changed only serves to squander the possibilities for independent mobilization opened up by the democracy movement and the
Turkish group demonstrating in Sofia, Bulgaria: Banner reads
June elections.
ia's waged workers.
Says Krustyo Petkov: "We are not revolutionaries. But we believe that organizations like the trade unions can be changed if you remove the top leadership, if you cut the links with the dictatorship of the Communists and if you get support from the base."
Under Petkov's leadership, the posts of 50% of the old union officials have been abolished. Gone, too, are the partycontrolled regional and municipal trade union councils. Instead, local union branches have been formed on a trades, rather than geographical, basis,
The political stalemate is compounding the already monumental problems bequeathed by the old Zhivkov regime. The break-up of the Comecon trading bloc as well as the reduction of Soviet oil supplies has knocked Bulgaria sideways. The Gulf crisis, too, has had a profound impact, increasing energy costs and, most disastrously, freezing some $1.3 billion owed to Bulgaria by Iraq.
In March the government took a step unique in the Eastern bloc countries, declaring a moratorium on repayments of principal on its huge $12.5 billion foreign debt. But industrial productivity continued to fall as enterprises remained starved of capital investment due to the moratorium and the huge budget deficit. Now the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given its blessing to Bulgaria's membership, opening the door for other Western institutions to offer loans and investment packages.
Forlorn queues for food
The people's high post-Zhivkov political expectations, have been rewarded with unemployment, galloping inflation and rationing of all basic foodstuffs. Forlorn queues outside Sofia's foodstores have begun to mirror those on the streets of Moscow. Youth, students and workers are increasingly venting their frustration on the streets — as on August 27, when the BSP offices were set alight.
The BSP-UDF power struggle presents a false political choice to the population at large. In fact, both see the free enterprise treatment as the only solution for the ailing Bulgarian economy, albeit with different emphases, modifications and attitudes to social safeguards. Both include groups of right-wingers who would be happy with a piece of the free market action and who are hostile to the independent organization of workers. The leaders of both, for fear of jeopardizing political popularity with the Bulgarian nationalists, have also been reluctant to publicly support the Turkish minority in its struggle to recover the rights it lost at the hands of the Zhivkov regime.
Format with CITUB representatives
If there is a deadlock between the two political blocs on the parliamentary front, it is in the workers' movement where the fastest and most far-reaching changes are currently underway.
Following the fall of Zhivkov and the Bulgarian Communist Party's proposal to end its monopoly of power, a wave of strikes swept the country, many of them in pursuit of pay claims, many spontaneous and many demanding the removal of corrupt Communist officials. Between December 1989 and March 1990 alone there were some 300 strikes. One, at the Radomir steel plant, 25 miles from Sofia, was led by women who drove the cranes carrying molten steel rods. They were not asking for higher wages but for improvements in their unsafe working conditions - plus the sacking of the director who had ignored these dangers.
The new independent labour confederation, Podkrepa ("Support"), successfully supported and recruited from a number of these strikes. Founded in February 1989, before the liberalization, by a group of Sofia intellectuals, Podkrepa has enjoyed a meteoric growth, now organizing some 150,000 workers across the country. Podkrepa was also one of the founder organizations of the UDF where its leaders have established a reputation as the most staunchly anti-Communist, pro-free marketeers in the coalition.
Reform of official union
Meanwhile reformers from the ranks of the rapidly disintegrating official trade union federation astonished sceptics by voting out the old guard, breaking all links with the BSP and re-launching in February this year as the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB). Headed by former sociology professor and dissident Krustyo Petkov, the Confederation is unique in Eastern Europe in having severed all connections with the state and democratized its structures, at the same time holding on to some three million of the old federation's 3.5 million members — over 80% of Bulgaracting as co-ordinators between the branches in a given area.
A recent innovation in 30 towns are the Confederation's Centres for Trade Union Protection. Each centre is staffed by a small team — a lawyer, sociologist, economist, health and safety officer — who advise individual workers and provide back-up for branches in their negotiations with the managers of their enterprises. Delegates to the Confederation's first annual conference at the end of this year will be elected directly from the local branches.
### Bargaining agreement
Asked what concrete gains have been won, Krustyo Petkov points to a national collective bargaining agreement signed in March, followed by similar agreements in 20% of plants and factories. Although there are tensions between their leaderships, CITUB and Podkrepa jointly negotiated with the government and the Union of Economic Managers increases in minimum pensions (January) and in minimum wages (April), together with an indexation agreement due to be introduced this month which links levels of wages, pensions and unemployment benefit to inflation.
From the unions' standpoint, indexation still left a lot to be desired because it is graded to give those on higher incomes lower benefits. And even if the agreement is honoured by subsequent governments, it is questionable whether indexation will actually keep pace with soaring inflation. Nevertheless, all the accords represent a breakthrough for workers and show the growing strength of their independent union organizations.
In July the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions published its own Alternative Economic Programme. This rejects "total and rapid privatization" in favour of a transition to a mixed economy "in which a minimum state sector coexists with other forms of property: coopprais in the programme include a special 15 erative, municipal and private." Other pro-
"Stop the 18 years of repression of ethnic Turks" - photo:
BULGARIA
Thuss fonde
Inree races of the
Bulgarian opposition Continued from previous page state-controlled agency to supervise privatization and workers' share-ownership schemes. It also stresses the need for an action plan to create new employment for those rendered jobless by the restructuring of the economy and the closure of dangerous industries.
For Krustyo Petkov, the biggest immediate risks facing Bulgaria as it ventures into the world of free enterprise are the nomenklatura and the black market dealers who are already cashing in on the privatization of state property. Petkov adds: "We fear the economic colonization of the economy. Foreign investment will be welcome, but it, for example, multinational corporations and rich citizens start to buy their way in, it will be a very wrong step and against the interests of the country."
Significantly, Petkov is also talking about the Confederation being prepared to break the present political stalemate between the BSP and UDF by setting up a social democratic "Labour" party — perhaps along British lines. He undoubtedly commands the political authority in the country to carry off such a move. And if it materialized, a party of this kind could have a powerful popular appeal at this time.
### Horrendous prospects
Although socialist forces exist in both the BSP and opposition camps, no current or organization has yet come to light which might be able to offer a lead to the Bulgarian left and argue for a socialized economy, centrally planned, under the democratic control of the workers themselves. Thus Bulgaria faces the prospect, whoever is in government, of horrendous austerity and unemployment. Even civil strife followed by military intervention to end "chaos" cannot be ruled out in the future.
Whatever happens, however, strong and tested opposition looks likely to come from three main quarters. 16 minority has formed its own party, the Bulgaria's million-strong Turkish
Movement for Rights and Freedom, which emerged as a significant force in the June elections with 23 seats in the National Assembly. The movement is not demanding autonomy for the two regions in the North East and South East of the country where the majority of Turkish Bulgarians live, but is opposing Bulgarian nationalism and fighting for the full restoration of its cultural and religious rights.
Zhivkov in his time played the nationalist card first by his persecution of the 200,000 ethnic Bulgarians who practise the Muslim religion (the Pomaks). Then came his "Bulgarization" campaign of 1985 aimed at the whole Turkish community. Many suffered acts of violence and some were killed. Such was the persecution that in June of that year, 300,000 fled Bulgarian for Turkey.
Turkish names permitted
After the liberalization, demonstrations and hunger strikes by Turkish human rights activists intensified until in March 1990 the National Assembly passed a law allowing Turks to re-adopt the Turkish names they had been forced to relinquish. However the community has yet to regain other major rights it lost — its schools and a university faculty among them — and remains bitterly resentful of continuing discrimination.