Mass protests in Latvia

[L.J.Solidarity]

Apparently, there have been major demonstrations and riots in Latvia yesterday. The country is already being hit by the economic crisis in full force, the second-largest bank went broke and the losses were nationalized, the economy is predicted to shrink by 7%. The government appears to be extremely unpopular (according to poll results published in a German newspaper the ruling parties won't even make it back into parliament in the next elections) and apparently the main demand of the demonstrators were dissolution of parliament and elections to be held immediately. Does anybody know more about the situation and how are socialists involved in the protests?

[Woland]

Serves that pseudo-Nazi/apologist government right. Staging parades of former Waffen-SS veterans and gloryfying them as heroes, allowing Roman salutes, police crackdowns on Russian war veterans, removal of Soviet war memorials, communist parties are banned, etc. The country is in danger of state bancruptcy and is currently in talks with the IMF. Same cases seem to also happen in other Baltic states.

[Sasha]

i saw footage of the riots this morning on the news, seemded that most of the crowd where footbalhooli types, wich makes me fear that (espacely in those area's) a large part of the rioters are neo-nazi's.
can anybody shed more light on this?

[Holden Caulfield]

i saw footage of the riots this morning on the news, seemded that most of the crowd where footbalhooli types, wich makes me fear that (espacely in those area's) a large part of the rioters are neo-nazi's.
can anybody shed more light on this?

exactly what i thought, these crisis creates opportunity for the right as well as the left.

[Rjevan]

The government appears to be extremely unpopular (according to poll results published in a German newspaper the ruling parties won't even make it back into parliament in the next elections)
Haha, this is something new. The ruling party won't make it back into parliament. Great. :D

No, honestly, the ruling party , the Tautas Partija ("People's Party", self- declared conservative) and their right-winged partners must be really unpopular. A week ago I heard of an obscure Latvian organisation, that asked Sweden for military intervention in order to get rid of their government.

As you already said, the economic crisis has hit Latvia really hard and the government isn't able to save their national economy, they only seem to worsen everything. Latvia had to take €7bn ($9bn) from international rescue funds and the European Union.
But I fear it will help the right more than the left. Because of it's history, Latvia isn't very interested in becoming communist again and they are rather Anti-Russian and, as far as I know, nationalist.

[Woland]

Ok, I am reading some stuff right now in Russian, I'll translate, it goes something like:

Latvia is on the verge of a revolution. Due to the rioting, many shops and banks have been smashed and hospitals are full of injured. What is interesting, a lot of the police, including police and firefighter unions, are taking part in the rioting because if their apparent poverty. Tens of thousands of people are on the streets and they have tried to take the building of the parliament. These are the largest demonstrations since their independence in 1991. Since a lot of security personnel are taking part, the government has sent special forces against the rioters. Windows of the parliament building have been knocked out when the rioters attacked the building of the parliament, and were beaten back with rubber bullets and tear gas. The opposition has staged a few demonstrations, yet most of the rioters are more radical. The demonstrators demand the resignation of the government and the dissolution of the parliament. The government has harshly forbidden any further protest in the city centre. Many of the protesters are the recently unemployed through the economic crisis. Government has said that it might agree and dissolve parliament.

[L.J.Solidarity]

I know that in Latvia, the main political divide is not only between left and right, but also between ethnic Latvians and the large Russian minority. Those two categories seem to be somewhat intertwined, with the ethnic Latvian parties all being somewhere between (neo)liberal and outright fascist and the ethnic Russian parties more left-leaning if only on paper (de facto most of them seem to be close to the Kremlin). The main exceptions from this (according to wikipedia) seems to be the Latvian Social Democratic Labour (or Workers', depending on translation) Party, which seems to be a bit more left-leaning than most social democratic/labour parties in the EU, but has also become nearly irrelevant over the years, gaining only 3.4% of the vote and no seats in parliament in the most recent elections.
Also, there seems to be no visible organisation of the radical left, even broadleft.org only knows of the Russian (left) nationalists, the social democrats and the Socialist Party, which is part of the ethnic Russian electoral block despite claiming to be the only non-ethnical party.

Apparently the demonstration yesterday was organized by a guy named Aigars Shtokenbergs, a former government minister who was fired and expelled from the conservative People's Party in 2007 for causing a split in the party, so it doesn't look as if anything progressive is to be expected from the opposition movement. :(
Russian nationalists seem to be somewhat involved, too (there's photos of people waving russian flags at the demonstration) and the government apparently tries to blame the riots that took part in the evening on the ethnic russians, even claiming they would be controlled by the Kremlin.

[Woland]

Thats because the communist party is banned!

But you are right about the large Russian minority. Though the split between Russia and the baltic states have been mainly caused due to the latter's controversial 'history revisionism', I have to say Russians there have had to suffer quite a lot of segregation, racism, and lack of political representation because of the governments policies. But then, I find the claim that the Kremlin has had something to do with it a bit ridiculous.

[Woland]

I hope someone actually reads this or I wasted my time translating this article I found on Leftfront (in Russian):

Latvia, already one and a half years ago, was the leader of economic growth in the European Union - increase of the GDP composed 16%. And suddenly, in a year, it all collapsed. Many branches diagnose a 40% decrease. The IMF forecasts a 2% drop of the GDP, i.e. -2%. In the country there are more than 7% insolvent borrowers who took credits on mortgage, and this percentage is growing, as places for work are reduced, wages drop and prices grow.

The banks, which very recently gave out credits to everyone, now suffocate not only particular creditors, but also enterprises, requiring the immediate recovery of debt. This worsens the situation with the employment even more. During the last year, the government knew that the production was constantly falling, but it did not reveal this information. This started in middle 2007. In fact, the government deceived people, indicating that “everything is good”, without preventing the massive crediting. As a result, in December, the government and the parliament accepted a plan of economic stabilization, which is based on trying to keep the budget, in order to meet the conditions of the IMF and obtain a loan.

The program consists of an increase in taxes, strengthening of the fiscal system, reduction of state's expenditure, including to public health, education and law enforcement. However, even in face of such a disaster, the government gave money to the ministry of culture for the construction of things like a new national library, whose budget is 200 million Euros, or a concert hall for 90 million Euros. In this situation, forces of the opposition decided to organize a meeting for the resignation of the parliament and the government on 13 January.

The organizers of the demonstration, a number of whom are right-wing Latvian nationalists and moderate centrists, promised to gather over at the main street, in 100 meters from the Parliament, in total around 20.000 people. The street was way too small for even 12.000 people, so many nearby streets were also occupied by people coming from all over Latvia. A lot of young people were present, which was surprising. Official speeches, slogans and criticism of the authorities continued about an hour. The main demand of the protesters was to dissolve the Parliament and to lower prices and taxes. After a while, the crowd began to disperse, until a certain group of people began to call for marching to the Parliament. A special forces team was there to stop them. The protesters first threw eggs and tomatoes at the building, but then moved on to stones and bricks. After the protesters attacked the police, they were chased away with teargas and batons. As the crowd moved away from the Parliament, there was some looting of shops and buildings. 51 people were injured, including 10 police officers, and 14 were delivered to a hospital. There were both Latvians and Russians at the protest.

The president has ordered the parliament to accept the conditions to control the situation, or there would be a dissolution of the parliament.

[Das war einmal]

Basically, can we conclude that, the whole 'economic growth' after the fall of the USSR was based on lending instead of production and that it was all a big farce?

[Das war einmal]

exactly what i thought, these crisis creates opportunity for the right as well as the left.


Yeah, probably because a lot of youth have totally been brainwashed about the 'evil empire' of the USSR and now see the 'democracy' as corrupt aswell, it can drive them into the arms of fascists.

[Wanted Man]

I once met someone from the Socialist Party of Latvia. He had a Latvian name, as far as I could tell, although he also spoke Russian to Russian comrades. I didn't find the time to ask about the political situation, unfortunately.

My sister has an exchange friend from Latvia. The total disregard for the Russian minority was shocking. The elite paints them as ungrateful folk, who live in Latvia because it is a richer country, but refuse to integrate. A majority Russian city like Daugavpils is depicted as a shithole where only tracksuited mouth breathers live. And of course, a film like The Soviet Story (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soviet_Story) is promoted...

[L.J.Solidarity]

What else is to be expected in a country that deprived about one third of its inhabitants of citizenship upon achieving independence? Apparently, it was a very successful measure to split the working class, despite allowing the stateless (mainly ethnic Russians) to re-apply for citizenship after a few years, many (16% of the populace) still refuse to do so on principle or are unable due to not speaking enough Latvian for the naturalization exam.
Also, the (semi-?)fascist party (LNNK) is part of the government coalition. Latvia seems to be not a good state to live in unless you're ethnic Latvian, your ancestors lived in the country in 1940 and you don't mind a bit of Apartheid.

[Woland]

Basically, can we conclude that, the whole 'economic growth' after the fall of the USSR was based on lending instead of production and that it was all a big farce?

Yes.

Its not just Latvia, other countries in Eastern Europe are now on the verge of state bancruptcy aswell. Ukraine, Bulgaria, and others. Really, there has never been any growth, just decline, and visiting Russia/etc. will tell you this when you see all of the abandoned factories in every city, incredible amount of alcoholics (former workers), falling life expectancy and rise of disease. 50% of Russian government budget comes from selling gas and selling wood and other minerals- and this is from a country which once had the second largest industrial output in the world. The only places where this new wealth is going are Moscow and St. Petersburg and regional centers which are made by loans and import of consumer goods. The rest is just rotting.

Btw, 13 January wasn't the only protest, they still continue in the same strengh, just the political parties are not that present. They still continue to try to attack the building of the parliament, as the only thing stopping them are the special forces team and some police officers.

[Cumannach]

Those IMF gangsters really need to get what's coming to them.

[S. Zetor]

Thanks to Behemoth for useful translations!

As far as Estonia is concerned, it is a Swedish neocolony; Swedish banks own over 90% of the country's banking system. Curious then that the only threat to Estonian independence is seen to come only from the east..

Estonia is also one of those countries that has failed to bring any nazi criminals to justice despite having been declared the first judenfrei area during 2WW.

Estonia's former guest is 'wanted nazi'
April 30, 2008, 17:32
http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/24190

A former officer in the German security forces, who two years ago was invited to Estonia as an honorary guest of the government, has appeared on a list of the ten most-wanted Nazi war criminals still at large. Estonia claims he is innocent.

Harry Mannil, now living in Venezuela, has been implicated in the deaths of hundreds of Jews during World War II. The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which tracks Nazi war criminals, has campaigned for his extradition and trial. They claim that during the Nazi occupation of Estonia, Mannil was responsible for hundreds of Jews and Communists being sent to their deaths at the hands of the Nazis and their Estonian collaborators.

Harry Mannil admits working as a political police officer during the occupation, but denies persecuting Jews or Communists. He has downplayed his police career and says he only joined “because they were looking for capable young people with a talent for languages”.

Estonia has conducted an investigation into Mannil’s past, and insists that he has a “clean record”. The Wiesenthal Center labelled this investigation “a pathetic political whitewash”, and repeated its calls for Mannil to be brought to justice.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of the 10 most-wanted Nazis was released on Wednesday. Harry Mannil is at number ten, accused of the “murder of hundreds of Jews” during his time as an officer in Estonia’s political police and the German security forces.

The Wiesenthal Center last year criticised Estonia for removing a Soviet memorial commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany, calling the removal of the statue an “insult to victims of Nazism”.