The third congress of the A Fair Russia party has ended. The charter has been rewritten, the governing bodies have been re-elected and the SRs have again reaffirmed their commitment to building a new socialism in the country. And, they have explained who their actual employer is
The atmosphere of the third congress was somewhat grandiose. The huge stage of the Kremlin Palace of Congresses was lost in a sea of gold and crimson. Tchaikovsky's Concerto No.1 served as a soundtrack to a chronicle of Sergey Mironov's pre-election travels, with intermittent video clips from the happy lives of ordinary Russians. So that the hall's 6000 seats looked full, one of the party's youth organizations brought several hundred supporters to Moscow, albeit supporters who did not quite understand where they were.
Several of them soon became bored with the congress and tried to escape, but were confronted by the Kremlin Palace's watchful cloakroom attendants. The elderly ladies quickly recognized in this an attempt to breach party discipline and refused to let them leave.
The socialists have amended and approved a new constitution, seriously simplifying the structure of the party leadership, and have adopted a new outline programme. The main governing bodies are now the Central Council and its Presidium. In addition, the post of CC first secretary has been introduced with nine deputy secretaries. Aleksandr Babkov, first deputy speaker of the State Duma and the former leader of the Rodina party, has taken up the post of first secretary.
Alexey Mitrofanov, a former member of the LDRP, has also been appointed to a new post. "I will oversee the international direction," he explained to journalists, adding that he will be responsible for preparing the party for joining the Socialist International, for which they even intend to open a party office in London.
The outline programme, which was also adopted at the congress, reaffirmed the party's commitment to building a new socialism. Mironov spoke about the growing divide between rich and poor, and suggested protecting trade unions to his fellow party members.
The head of A Fair Russia said that his party has been and will remain in opposition to the United Russia party. "Two things distinguish us from United Russia: United Russia is the party of power and A Fair Russia is the party of civil society. United Russia is the party of employers and we are the party of workers - that's all the differences," stated Mironov. The hall once again burst into applause.
None of the workers seemed troubled by the risky position of opposing their employers.
Vera Kholmogorova
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