>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 15:08:32 EDT >Subject: Mass Demos against New Slave Labour Code in Russia > > >RUSSIA INFO-LIST >from International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR >*********************************************************** >If you appreciate receiving this mail please distribute it to your friends and >post it to internet forums; if not, send a "no more" message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >******************************************************************* >MASS DEMONSTRATIONS > GREET NEW SLAVE LABOUR LAW IN RUSSIA > >On 17 May 2000 approximately 300,000 workers across Russia participated in >protests against the government���s proposal to introduce a draconian new >Labour Code. The new legislation removes workers��� rights held for decades, >rendering trade unions impotent and enforcing among other things a 56 hour >working week. > >The actions ranged from stoppages of work to demonstrations and pickets, >often outside the administrative centres of towns. Areas with the largest >turnouts included Kaliningrad (150,000 workers), Astrakhan, where years of >work building up the local Zaschita union by Oleg Shein, one of the key >co-ordinators of the campaign, paid off (10 000), Novosibirsk (8000), >Nizhegorod (where 8000 workers at one factory participated), Samara nearly >4000, Moscow area 4000, Omsk 2000, republic of Komi , 2000 (including 1000 at >a rally at Europe���s largest mine). Certain groups of workers distinguished >themselves, for example the dockers, 15,000 of whom participated in the ports >of Vladivostok, Vostochni, Nakhodka, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Magadan, >Archangelsk, Murmansk and Novorossiisk. At Yasnogorsk machine plant, whose >courageous workers became famous when their long militant occupation won >unprecedented gains, 3500 workers took part in a stoppage. > >In Kursk and Vladivostok demonstrations were held despite a local ban. > >Although the bureaucratic leadership of the FNPR, the country���s largest >trade >union federation, pressured by grass-roots activists, had put its name to a >document condemning the new Labour-Code, they did not put any effort or >resources into mobilising for the day. Most of the credit belongs to >activists on the ground, especially those of the militant Zaschita and >dockers union, co-ordinated by a committee set up by Oleg Shein (who has >recently been elected to the Duma) with the help of veterans of workers >struggles such as Yasnogorsk and Vyborg, activists of the Movement for a >Workers Party, etc.. > >The secretary of the FNPR, Andrei Isayev, who last year joined forces with >millionaire Mayor Luzhkov���s Fatherland All-Russia coalition, submitted an >alternative draft Labour Code to the one already submitted by colleagues of >Oleg Shein. The draft submitted by Isayev was drawn up in collaboration with >a representative from the right-wing Thatcherite Union of Right Forces. > >Likewise the Communist Party of Zyuganov (KPRF) was generally noted for its >absence from the struggle. This is not surprising considering that, despite >their rhetoric, the party leadership has willingly approved every government >budget for years and has declared itself in favour of defending "honest" >entrepreneurs. In fact it was on the initiative of the KPRF member Selezhnev, >the Speaker of the Duma, that the government���s draft Code was rushed onto >the >table for discussion after some years of delay. > >Well over a hundred additional organisations and trade unions sent faxes in >to protest against the new Labour Code. In April ISWoR held protests in >London at the visit of Putin and outside the business Expo "Russia -2000" >drawing attention to the barbaric new Code. > >Despite the widespread participation in the Day of Action, many workers who >are not members of Zaschita or who have never before participated in >industrial action felt that the battle against the new Labour Code was not >relevant to them. This is because so many Russian workers have long been >enduring the conditions to which the new Code gives an official stamp of >approval - payment in kind, arbitrary sacking at the whim of the boss, casual >work with no written contracts at all, long hours without any days off. With >the collapse of nearly 50% of Russian industry since privatisation was >brought in, unemployment and non-payment of workers for up to 18 months or >more is so common that many people are ready to tolerate any conditions and >hours just for the promise of a little cash. > >Nevertheless the struggle IS sharply relevant to even the millions of workers >in casual or non-union (or weak union) labour. Efforts by militant activists >who have experience of successful action to unionise casual workers, or to >encourage those in inactive unions like the FNPR to fight for their rights >can achieve much. But under the new Labour Code all intervention by unions >will be very much harder. > >With top businessmen like the head of Alfa Bank calling on Putin to introduce >a "Pinochet-style" regime, the increase in repression against active workers, >especially those of Zaschita union, has already begun. Russian workers, who >have seen their living conditions plummet and their life expectancy drop from >western levels to just 56, will be battling for their lives. > >The IMF enthusiastically approved the new Code, which also forces pregnant >women to work night shifts and cuts maternity leave in half. > >The western multinationals and their Russian stooges have devastated the >lives of Russian workers with their privatisation programme. Now as a result, >ultra-nationalism and a hatred of the west per se, as well as racism against >minority groups, have appeared. > >The US, quietly acknowledging the emergence of a new anti-western turn, not >just in public opinion but also among a significant section of the Russian >ultra-rich, is pressing ahead with a "National Missile Defense" programme >which is targeted not least at Russia. > >Workers around the world, following this mass 300,000-strong protest in >Russia, must now show practical solidarity with Russian workers. We must not >bury our heads in the sand while western and Russian governments incite >"patriotic" hatred in preparation to drag us into a nightmare war over >Caspian oil. > >Lisa Taylor >International Solidarity with Workers in Russia (ISWoR-MCPP) > >IMPORTANT NOTICE! > >ISWoR is bringing Oleg Shein, co-ordinator of the committee against the new >Labour Code, to Europe for a speaking tour in the last two weeks of July. If >you would like to be involved or want more information on this, or on how you >can help support the struggles of Russian workers in general, please contact >us now. > >*********************************************************** >The RUSSIA INFO-LIST >puts out information and analysis from a wide range of sources. >If you have something you would like to distribute on Russia Info-List, or >want to help in our practical solidarity work, contact: >[EMAIL PROTECTED]< >Or write to: ISWoR, Box R, 46 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8RZ, England >************************************************************** > ISWoR web-site - http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html >************************************************************** > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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