[The following article appeared in the June 8 issue of Rouge, weekly newspaper of the Ligue Communiste, French section of the Fourth International. The translation is by Intercontinental Press.]
News filtering out of the Soviet Union little by little over the past year indicates that there has been a significant new outbreak of workers struggles in the south of the Ukraine, one of the most important industrial regions of the Soviet Union. Last June, 10,000 "rioters" took to the streets for two days in Deprodzerzhinsk, a city of 270,000. The insurgents, many of whom were women, attacked and partially destroyed the offices of the KGB (political police) and the MVD (Ministry of the Interior.)
They destroyed all the political documents they could find, some files were burned, and portraits of Brezhnev and other leaders were torn up and destroyed. According to reports, the insurgents then took over the offices of the party and of the Komsomol (Young Communists); there also many documents were destroyed.
The KGB and the militia opened fire on the people, killing about a dozen and wounding about 100. According to some reports, the riot began when several young persons were arrested after having an argument with militiaman. According to "official a socialist party in the heat of popular struggle and political polarization.
circles," the events broke out when two drunks were arrested whom a third man was trying to take home. One of the two arrested then struck a match that set fire to the KGB headquarters!
In Dnepropetrovsk, one of the largest industrial cities of the Soviet Union, strikes demanding a rise in the standard of living took place last September and were repressed at the cost of many dead and wounded. A month later, riots again broke out in the city demanding better provisioning, better living conditions, and the right to choose a job instead of having it imposed. At the same time, new violent incidents took place at Deprodzerzhinsk. More people were killed and there was a wave of arrests. These riots and strikes came at the same time that the Soviet bureaucracy was conducting mass arrests of Ukrainian oppositionists struggling against the Kremlin's nationalities policy.
The Defeatists
The U.S. Air Force Academy plans to build a model prisoner-of-war camp to train future officers in "survival and resistance techniques."
The installation, which will cost $244,- 000, will include guard towers, isolation cells, interrogation rooms, and a fence topped with barbed wire. Officials say that underclassmen will be exposed to POW life with upperclassmen as guards. The only unrealistic part of the training is that the prisoners will be held for only forty hours.