by BILL VAN AUKEN
Darya Mitina (with papers in her hand) and Savas Michael-Matsas at Buenos Aires conference
PHOTO/World Socialist Web Site
It is now over two months since the Partido Obrero (Workers Party) of Argentina hosted a conference of the Committee to Refound the Fourth International (CRFI) in Buenos Aires in which one of the honored guests was a representative of the United Communist Party of Russia (OKP), Darya Mitina.
The World Socialist Web Site published an exposure of the politics of this “reconstruction” and the history of both Mitina—a rabid Stalinist with intimate ties to the Russian state—and the middleman in arranging her presence in Buenos Aires, Savas Michael-Matsas, head of the Greek EEK (Workers Revolutionary Party).
The Partido Obrero has issued no reply to this exposure and has rapidly deleted postings of the article and questions about its contents from the party’s Facebook page. There have been no follow-up articles posted on the PO’s website dealing with the CRFI or any of the groups or individuals who attended it.
It is evident that the leadership of the Partido Obrero around Jorge Altamira fears any discussion of the issues raised in the analysis by the WSWS and wants to conceal from the party’s membership what they are up to.
Altamira and the central leadership have carried out a major political initiative and know exactly what they are doing. The turn to elements like Mitina and Russian Stalinists is part of a broader turn toward developing an alliance with right-wing forces.
Anyone who thinks that Mitina is being won to the perspective of Trotskyism through her association with the CRFI and the Partido Obrero is woefully ignorant and naive.
As the OKP’s secretary of international affairs, Mitina is in the business of forging connections on behalf of the Russian state not just with self-proclaimed socialists and leftists but, with far greater frequency and attention, to far-right and even neo-fascist forces.
A case in point is her role in organizing and speaking at a conference convened in the Crimean city of Yalta in August 2014 titled “Russia, Novorossiya, Ukraine: Global Problems and Challenges.”
It was organized by right-wing Russian nationalists, in particular the Izborsky Club, a far-right “think tank” in which Russian fascists like Alexander Prokhanov and Aleksandr Dugin participate, along with Mitina.
World Socialist Web Site for more