From: DAMN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: DAMN: 03-MAR-1999: Russian workers Take Over Factory in Yasnogorsk
Source: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reference: www.marxist.com
YASNOGORSK, Russia - A Workers' Collective Committee has taken over a
machine-building plant in Yasnogorsk, a town of 20,000 people near Moscow.
The 4,200 workers are battling the Communist Party local authority and the
(Yeltsinite) privatization program for the plant. The Yasnogorsk workers
say, "This is our revolution" and are appealing for international solidarity.
In 1990, the factory was turned into a joint stock company in which the
workers held a majority of shares. Last September the workers and
shareholders of the plant dismissed the Administration at a general
meeting. When the "owners" of the plant refused to recognize the results,
the workers seized control. A workers' committee (the Workers' Collective
Soviet) was set up and now oversees administration, production, selling,
all the finances, distribution of wages and the town as a whole. However,
all the factory bank accounts have been blocked by the authorities and the
company has since
been declared bankrupt by the courts. The questions now are: who will run
the factory in the future and who will buy it later?
The workers realize that if it is sold, they will lose the last shares they
still possess and the previous administration will buy them. For this
reason the workers are demanding the plant be made state-owned or else have
the shares distributed among the workers. The workers and the town see this
as a temporary solution and understand they are fighting against the trend
towards private property and capitalism.
Last December 10,000 people (led by the workers) from Yasnogorsk marched to
block the railway line into Moscow to support demands for the release from
prison of the worker-elected directors of the factory and to stop the
privatization move. It was only the mobilization of special police forces
by the regional administration which prevented the workers from paralyzing
one of the main railways in Russia. The two directors, L. Roschenia and V.
Dronov, were jailed in October but set free as a result of this general
strike by the workers and the threat of railway blockades.
On February 22, special police forces were sent in to prevent workers from
organizing a standard general meeting. The new court-appointed plant
director has issued an order prohibiting all kinds of activity by the
worker's committee and trade-union, demanding the end of the strike and
threatening to fire all those who disobey. At a joint meeting, the workers
decided that they would not return to work until everyone had been paid.
The workers have been without pay for 10 months. The misery in Yasnogorsk
is tremendous and the population is starving. Last Monday, two workers
fainted during meetings in the plant and were hospitalized. Every day one
or more workers are attended to by doctors. One worker says, "We have
nothing except for the potatoes we grow."
The machine-building plant has always been the centre of life for the
people of Yasnogorsk and the only way to make a living for thousands of
workers. The plant is functioning today and its products are being sold and
bartered despite the crisis - this is how the whole town survives. The
workers' committee has received financial assistance from trade-unions and
other organizations. Money is distributed amongst the poorest and to those
who don't even have potatoes any more.
--
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