Left Power Way

Valev Kald
Member of Council of Chairpersons and Executive Board
European Left
Chairman
Estonian United Left

The leadership of the United Left Party of Estonia (EULP) has discussed and analyzed the results of the parliamentary elections of the Riigikogu, which were held in March 2015. So, in comparison with the results of elections of European Parliament 2014, this time EULP has enlarged its potency in almost 3,5 times. However the results of elections have shown, that the main point of left movement has not been heard by the population of Estonia – that the right-liberal development has lead Europe and Estonia up in blind alley and that in Europe there exists an alternate development way, the Left-power way.

So what is the preliminary results of elections’ results analyzes? The main restrictive factor of EULP active development is the absence of public financing and other income. Hence, the party considers that the political system of Estonia obeys the principle of right-ideological concept, when so called major parties have surpassing benefits to small parties. The entire campaign came to millions of euros, spent by the major parties for video clips, bills, distribution materials, concerts and so on. This, together with the „short memory of electorate“ of past unfulfilled promises of the parties, has more effect than understanding of ideological platforms and awareness of the things, that will happen next. Estonia sharply needs right-wing political elite changes. The experience of European Union is earnestly showing that the way out from the crisis is directly connected with country social orientation, but today’s right-wing government is not capable of such development. In such conditions the able-bodied population and youth leave the country.

We are living in country, were reigns injustice:

– Social injustice – is where the every fifth person lives below the line of poverty and every third family with two children is also living in poverty zone.

– Economical injustice – which leads to the fact, that big and small enterprises are almost disappearing out of manufacture.

– In the legal area, where the courts are won not by the truth, but expensive lawyers, which means, that the right is the one who is more rich.

– In politics there are triple standards dominating and no any speech freedom existing.

On the analysis of EULP, the maintenance of country can be a few percent cheaper if the Riigikogu parliament deputies number could be decreased to 71 (now there is 101 of them) and military costs could be decreased to 40%. The biggest military exercises of Estonia (Jozh 2015) have shown, that governmental funds have been spent inefficiently:

– This is the diesel fuel waste to warm up old equipment,

– This equipment operating costs,

– The excess food/canned food/soups throw-out instead of food-bank help in time organization,

– The utility of unused expendable material (such as blank cartridges, office and everyday goods and so on) in the end of military exercises,

– The huge costs to pay for recruits and officers.

All of these is being done under the slogan „Russians are passing through Narva city – we have to defend!“. So, the fear situation of the eastern neighbors has being escalated as well as the point of view, that the defence budget increase and the expansion of NATO are able to defend Estonia from the Eastern aggressor.

The population of the country, as well as in the whole Europe, rapidly grows older. It is understandable, that demographically getting older russian and estonian speaking electorate is interested much more not even in size of pension (in Estonia there is one of the lowest pensions in Europe), but the constancy of getting it. It is obvious, that pensioners are not voting for rights and freedoms of working people, because they are staying right on the edge of survival. But the Left-movement driving ideology is the “proletarian ideology”. The ultra-liberal ruling government of Estonia, in spite of promises to make Estonia the one of five the most rich countries of Europe, failed to achieve any outstanding results in industry development. And in result – there is “working class” missing in Estonia in fact. Here are very few manufacturing enterprises. Having high level of unemployment and almost unlimited employer rights to judge hired workers, the latter are not taking risk to advocate their rights.

The problem is also in the fact, that in Estonia there is no any economic sectors, where strike would cause considerable harm to the ruling right-wing parties.

The right-wing parties of Estonia had created in country an unprecedented bureaucratic apparatus. Around the ministries and departments there are created the huge number of funds, different endowments, corporations, etc. These enterprises are being fed by state and, last time, by the European Union. Their workers do exclusively office job and depend entirely on the state. As well, being relatively young, they have huge burden of hypothecs, leasings and bank loans. They are too attached to their workplace to advocate for their rights and social justice.

In the period between elections, the representatives of EULP are not being invited to TV of radio. The Left Party is not convenient to the authorities, because it is fighting for the working people welfare at the expense of national wealth redistribution. This is contrary to the settled capitalist principle of cheap labor force for foreign enterprises who occupied Estonia. Raising the internal (local) economy is possible due to the development of small businesses in the manufacturing sector. Consequently, it is necessary to remove the excessive tax burden, which size makes the release of any products non-competitive. Removing taxes, reducing the turnover and work insurance tax, it is possible to create the conditions for the small business rapid growth, which means the growth of domestic consumption.

But what is the result? Has the EULP a future in such a monopolar Estonia and is the Left-turn possible? The future exists, but it will require administrative ranks and party structure strengthening. The United Left Party of Estonia is European Lefts’ competent member. European Left parties are the parties of young people! For us everything is clear: people are not born poor – they are made poor by other people! And it needs to be changed! Greece, Spain and Italy are already proving, that the Left powers way is spinning up and poverty fighting program is already being realized at state levels.

After all, the main goal – is to rebuild the unfair socio-economic structure (which is only beneficial for privileged layer) into a state, which could be profitable for everyone! The Left turn is inevitable! Together we will win!

PEACE ALERT