WORLD Le MOSCOW — The Boris Yeltsin affair, jike a sudden flash of lightning, has brief- Hly illuminated the Soviet political land- _}8C4Pe, showing in sharp relief a number ‘jof new and changed features. | Such upsets as Yeltsin’s removal as _}head of the Moscow city party apparatus ace bound to occur during these turbulent jumes — it would be surprising if they {didn’t — and Yeltsin himself has long | been known as something of a loose can- non among the forces of perestroika. }Still, there is no denying that he is jextremely popular among the ordinary } people, both in Sverdlovsk where he ran © Party organization for several years, }2m¢ In Moscow, where he took over in December 1985. In both cities people have taken his removal very hard, seeing it aS a bad sign, and in both there have been demonstrations of support for him m recent weeks. AS party leader in Moscow, Yeltsin was Tesponsible for initiatives like setting wp the Arbat and Stoleshnikov Lane ; pedestrian malls, and organizing the yarmaki’’ — farmers’ fairs that cut out 2€ Middlemen and brought produce directly from collective farms to city consumers, But the real secret of his popularity was his blunt, slashing ap etoric. Yeltsin was the first public of- ficial in a long time to openly identify all "< sorts of problems — such as those in isttibution, transport, housing, ser- -}vices, the environment — declare his ‘outrage, and promise that steps would be quickly taken to deal with them. Poor Tactician _ lt seems that the very characteristics |that made people respond to him — his /SPoNtaneity, his passion — also made 1M avery poor political tactician. There $ 10 doubt, as Gorbachev described in HIS Speech to the Moscow City Commit- fee On November 11, that Yeltsin nearly derailed the recent Central Committee }p'enum that was intended to focus upon ne Crucial state-of-the nation address for the 70th Anniversary of the Revolution. *€cording to Gorbachev, Yeltsin broke an Carlier agreement to leave certain }4Uestions until after the anniversary, and aunched into his own assessment of }¥Yatious issues, punctuating it with ireats to resign and personal attacks on other CC members. Few organizations jof any kind in the world would tolerate such behaviour, and the CPSU is not {M0ted for its slack views about discipline and propriety. Furthermore, while Yeltsin may have thought he was waging War on ‘‘conservative forces’’, he was jactually playing into their hands. | In any case, the episode is now finished, and what is most interesting {about it is what it tells us about the level jot political development and change in different segments of the Soviet politic. if First, it needs to be said that from the lop has come an impressive stream of hard information, something almost un- }precedented in a country where leader- ship changes in the past were usually ported in terse, unhelpful little an- nouncements. In the Yeltsin case, all of the speeches at the Moscow Committee meeting that removed him — including his own — have been published in full. Further, a long communication about Jast week’s conference of Central Com- }mittee secretaries has also appeared in - the papers, giving an even fuller picture - jof the Yeltsin affair. (Incidentally, Soviet reports about such meetings these days 'Glasnost and the Yeltsin affair From Moscow Fred Weir often tell much more than Canadians find out about the agenda of cabinet meetings in Ottawa). Perestroika Alive and Well All of this makes perfectly clear that Yeltsin largely self-destructed. The dire predictions of doom, and the death- agony of perestroika — picked up on Moscow streets by Western journalists, and amplified by them — are utter non- sense. Subsequent developments in the Central Committee and other forums have shown that the reform program is firmly on track. From the reaction to Yeltsin’s dismis- sal among the population at large, it seems to me that many individuals — often young people — have evaluated the matter in immature ways, according to outdated reflexes. In the past, with little reliable news about what was happening at the top, people habitually indulged in wild gossip and sublimated their political urges by making bombastic or apocalyp- tic speeches to one another behind the closed doors of their kitchens. Dynamic Political Environment Even though there has been adequate information in the public arena for people to draw reasoned conclusions about Yeltsin’s removal, many seem not to have grasped that this poses them the responsibility of doing so. Yeltsin is very popular, true, and people have pinned a lot of hopes upon him. But the lesson of the episode is probably that people should take more advantage of glasnost and new democratic openings to express their feelings in direct and responsible ways. Many still prefer to duck this conclu- sion and comfort themselves in the old way, with eloquent visions of their own powerlessness. In the current political environment, however, with many things changing, and many more open to change, those visions themselves — though they are couched in rebellious language — are profoundly conserva- tive. I myself have heard quite enough of these melodramatic pronouncements. One young woman, for instance, sol- emnly summed up her view of the matter as follows: ‘‘Perestroika died November 11, 1987”. A new political culture is in the mak- ing, but it is obviously not just a simple matter of increasing the information flow or opening up new channels for citizens’ input into decision-making. People themselves have to take hold of, and clearly understand the meaning of, the new opportunities. They need to learn to stop relying on a Gorbachev, or a Yeltsin, to arrange things for them. This is, in fact, exactly what Gorbachev — and Yeltsin — have been telling them. More Improvements Needed Finally, one is tempted to conclude that many Moscow officials are so mani- festly relieved to see the back of Yeltsin just because his constant sallies against bureaucratic arrogance and _ privilege Boris Yeltsin: An unprecedented stream of information has flowed freely on the affair, affording a clear view of the events. were a pain in the neck for them. But they, too have a point of view, and they say that Yeltsin went too far in his rhetoric, that he was undermining public confidence in city government itself. More seriously, some claim that Yeltsin was just a demagogue, who irresponsibly raised people’s expectations but deli- vered virtually nothing. Indeed, the overall situation in Mos- cow has not gotten better over the past year Or so, but whether this is due to Yeltsin’s mismanagement or other fac- tors — such as conservative resistance, perhaps — is impossible to say. It is cer- tain that the single most impressive thing the new city leadership could do, to firmly re-establish public trust and credi- bility, would be to effect some visible improvements around town in the com- ing few months. And no one should assume that we’ ve seen the last of Boris Yeltsin. In his new job as deputy chairman of the State Committee for Construction he holds the rank of government minister, and will very likely retain his seat on the party Central Committee. He is not aman who suffers silence for long. INTERNATIONAL FOCUS Tom Morris Not happy anywhere... authorities who urged the Americans to observe basic ports them ... rioted in protest. | and they confirmed losers. Besides, they’re Reagan’s lost misfits. The It’s difficult not to say, “‘I told you so’, and smile knowingly up your sleeve as ex-Cubans burned down a U.S. federal detention centre last week. Does anyone remember back in 1980 when these people and others ‘‘fled Cuba to freedom’’ in America? Do you recall President Jimmy Carter’s challenge to- Fidel Castro to open his doors — and Castro’s warn- ing that criminals, misfits, and not ‘freedom fighters”’ were involved? Still, said Castro, the Cuban port of Mariel would accept boats from Florida to pick up whoever wanted to leave. The Mariel ‘‘freedom boat-lift’” was on. Ships of all sizes raced the 90 miles as Yankee skippers saw a marvelous chance to make a fast buck charging by the head. It was a night- mare. Captains greedily and dangerously overloaded their boats. Cuban port safety rules were told they were trying to prevent people from leaving. Even the U.S. Coast Guard was horrified at the spectacle, but the media was delighted. Carter finally put an end to the charade, prohibiting : boats from landing with Cubans. The ‘‘Free- dom Flotilla’ was — grounded. The U.S., since those heady days, has attempted to deport some 2,000 (Pat- riots? Criminals? Misfits?) back to Cuba, many of whom know America only from the inside of a deten- tion centre. Hundreds of others have been jailed for crimes since arriving. America discovered what Cuba knew all along. Now, instead of rioting in Cuban jails, they're rioting in U.S. ones. Instead of mugging Cubans, they mug Americans. Amazingly, Cuba last week agreed to accept these folks back when Reagan de- What a life: from a Cuban jail to a U.S. jail to a Cuban jail... Maybe Jimmy Carter could have a word with them? Contras to Canada? Joe Clark might well be warned by the U.S. experi- ence of Mariel. He should think carefully about open- ing Canada’s borders to contras. It’s fine for hime to make headline-catching ‘‘humani- tarian”’ gestures abroad, but having U.S. mercenaries running free here might be another Tory public rela- tions nightmare later. Some of these contras have been killing people for two decades — first as Somoza National Guards- men, then as Reagan’s ‘Founding Fathers”. They're trained in little else than death, pillage, rape, torture. They’re also PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 2, 1987 e 9 U.S. should open up its doors to its contras ‘‘yearn- ing to breathe free’’. It should clean up its own mess, take in its own garbage. The contra drug-runners will fit perfectly with the Cuban (gusano) mafia in Miami. Together they can prepare a welcome for an influx of white South Afri- can racists, Haitian execu- tioners, Afghan entre- preneurs, Chilean secret police, Guatemalan gener- als and assorted other paid agents America has hired around the globe who will one day be looking for a place to live. Amputee victimsofReagan’s lost misfits.