Communists commemorate May 1 with march, public rally in Penza Politics

Penza, 1 May 2016. PenzaNews. Several hundreds of Communist Party supporters from Penza and areas of the region marched from the Fontannaya square to the “Rodina” cinema theater along the Moskovskaya street for a public rally dedicated to Day of Worldwide Working-Class Solidarity.

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The people were holding banners calling people to support nationalization, return public wealth back to the people, and resist the current course of the authorities.

Also, some of the banners read “No To Paid Education,” “We’re Against Cutbacks,” “Capitalism Equals Death for Russia,” “Yes To Progressive Tax!”, “No To Travesty Of Justice By Communal Companies As Authorities Idle,” “Children Of War Built State Power,” “Shame To Country Where Ads Promote Loans To Buy School Stationery,” “If Paid ER Goes In, We’ll Move Out,” and “Soviet Quality To Education.”

Citizens were actively taking photos with the march and the orchestra that accompanied it, while members of the “Children of War” movement capped of the column.

As the column approached the “Rodina” cinema, they were joined by a rights activist Yuri Voblikov, known by a moniker “the Gas Mask Man.” He attempted to attract public attention with five banners in a row to highlight the issues of municipal transport, capital repairs of apartment buildings, debt collectors and more.

The May 1 public rally opened with a speech by the head of the Penza city Duma CPRF faction Oleg Shalyapin, who congratulated the crowd with Day of Worldwide Working-Class Solidarity.

He was followed by other members of the Communist Party, who harshly criticized the current course of the Russian government.

In particular, Georgy Kamnev, first secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region, suggested that the authorities only give promises to return the life back into the good state, but in reality have little to hold back prices and taxes.

“It’s hard to name now an area where we don’t have a money funnel: there’s one for transportation, for passage – for anything. What are the ministers doing? They are not watching the oil price forecasts. They are not thinking about developing industry, or about our lives 5 years ahead. […] Why do we even need this government at all? We’d do better off with a strategic department to fix the oil price, that’s all. The current government is unsolvable. The government must be oriented towards the nation, towards the society,” stressed the leader of Penza Communists.

At the same time, he added, CPRF seeks to support the working people, including through creation of a people’s enterprises – the consumer cooperative “Tovarisch” – in the Penza region.

“Over 300 people have joined the cooperative right as it opened. And we reduced the prices even further by several rubles during the very first week,” said the deputy, and added that the people’s enterprise is both an opportunity to buy foodstuffs cheaper than in stores and a way to support local producers.

The Communist public rally concluded with adoption of a resolution that included a number of points, such as putting an end to infill development of Penza city, abolishing capital repairs bills, reducing public transportation ticket prices, and returning to the direct election of the city mayor.

The official part of the event was followed by free food for the people to celebrate May 1. The ice cream stand was particularly popular, and a queue of seniors nearly upturned the free ice cream stand.