Kalyakin Got a Clap in Moscow

The only alternative to the old world order can only be a people-oriented model of economy, a social-democratic development of society on the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States. That is the conclusion reached at the First Forum of the socialist and social democratic parties of the CIS held on 8 February in Moscow in President Hotel.

However, in order to help their countries to embark on social democracy, political parties will have to overcome a lot of difficulties. The main problem appeared to be common to all the socialists of the CIS – a monopoly rule of one party in power.

"The old world order" is a liberal-monetarist model of world order which automatically entails a lot of problems unsolved on the whole territory of the CIS – unregulated issues of labour migration, extremism, poverty, drug trafficking and much more. All this is a direct result of extreme heterogeneity of economic and political space of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as the leader of Fair Russia, Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov said opening the meeting of the Forum.

The performance of the Chairman of the Belarusian Party of the Left "Fair World" Syarhey Kalyakin got a round of applause while he described the effects of monopoly of the authorities on the example of his country and made unusual for the Belarusian politics critical remarks regarding the current political system in Belarus. "Any monopoly is always a stalemate; even if a purely economic indicators increase. In any case we obtain Belarus where now there is a clear lack of democracy and respect for human rights", said Kalyakin.

According to him, the state media in Belarus are busy only with telling voters about the infallibility of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. "Some of the governors even once said that Alyaksandr Lukashenka is not God, but higher than God." According to Kalyakin, the situation can be corrected by a single socialist policy of all the parties who participated in the forum. However, at the end of his speech he also complained about the same "negative historical memory". He called to attract for a general work as many reputable scientists as possible and the best researches in order to tell people what is "true socialism". However, he said, the alliance of socialist parties in no case should remind the Union of Russia and Belarus. "After 16 years of integration, totally incompatible countries appeared to be together. And Alyaksandr Lukashenka openly attacks Russia. How could this lead to a real Union", asked Kalyakin a rhetorical question.

Other forum participants dedicated their speeches to what problems should be solved first. Thus, the chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada Anatol Lyaukovich drew attention to the problem of alcoholism.

The result of stormy debate and exchange of views was the statement of members of the First Forum of the Socialist and Social Democratic Parties of the CIS countries. It concludes that modern socialism is a promising socio-economic model of information society, diversity of ownership, as well as a reasonable balance of free market, public participation in the economy, and public control over business.

Modern socialism is freedom and democracy, equal access to cultural and educational values, alignment of basic conditions of life, and strengthening sovereignty of a person.

Summing up the event, the leader of the "Fair World" said: "Without struggle it is impossible to gain freedom and democracy. And this forum became a trigger, a start for effective cooperation of socialist and social democratic forces of the Commonwealth countries."