Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 2, 1990 TAG: 9005020580
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: BRYAN BRUMLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
"Food is not a Luxury," read one sign, protesting the failure of Gorbachev's reforms to deliver economic benefits.
"A Dictator is a President Without an Election," said another slogan, referring to Gorbachev's appointment as president in March by a legislature that also granted him sweeping powers beyond those he enjoys as general secretary of the Communist Party.
In a nation where pollsters have not published comprehensive opinion surveys on the leader's popularity, the May Day outburst was the clearest sign yet of rising public anger over a slowdown in reforms under Gorbachev.
Such an outburst may have been just what Gorbachev had in mind when he signed a presidential order last month moving control over demonstrations in Moscow from the city government to the national Council of Ministers. The council, made up of Gorbachev's supporters, approved Tuesday's unofficial demonstration.
"They weren't surprised. They knew exactly what to expect," said Leonid Zhuralev, one of the tens of thousands of protesters who filed through Red Square.
Gorbachev might use the protest to persuade reluctant hard-liners to agree to radical economic reforms that he has promised recently.
He has used the tactic before. On Feb. 4, a crowd officially estimated at 200,000 gathered outside the Kremlin demanding a multiparty system.
Three days later, conservatives on the Communist Party Central Committee bowed to Gorbachev's suggestion that the constitution be amended to deprive the party of its monopoly on power.
In the five years since he became party general secretary, Gorbachev has managed to turn nearly every defeat into a victory, staying a step or two ahead of his opponents on the right and left.
He could be in for the harshest test yet of his political agility in the coming weeks.
The parliament of the Russian Federation, the largest of the 15 Soviet republics, convenes for the first time on May 16, and it could elect Gorbachev's populist rival, Boris Yeltsin, as president of the republic.
The party is in turmoil. It opens a congress on July 2, and is widely expected to split into at least three factions, left and right, with Gorbachev supporters in the middle.
After elections in March, radical reformers took over the Moscow and Leningrad city governments.
Radicals, like many of the May Day protesters, want to move more quickly to a market economy.
Conservatives, such as party officials and many military officers, oppose market reforms and fear the uncertainties of political change.
"Many wise men of economics are calling us to plunge headlong into a market economy, trusting our luck," said Yevgeny Kuznetsov, a union leader who addressed the May Day crowd before the protesters filed through Red Square.
"But we won't be able to trust our luck if we don't beforehand take into account the consequences: growth in prices, a fall in the standard of living, and unemployment," Kuznetsov said.
The conservatives are also angry that Gorbachev allowed the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, and the declaration of independence by Lithuania. The May Day protesters, by contrast, shouted: "Freedom for Lithuania!"
The domestic furor has deflected Soviet attention from an aspect of Gorbachev's policies that has made him popular in the West, the pursuit of arms control and the reduction of world tension.
And that means Gorbachev may not get much of a boost at home from his planned summit meeting with President Bush at the end of what has already started as a very harried month of May.
by CNB