RUSSIA INFO-LIST from International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - [EMAIL PROTECTED] *********************************************************** If you appreciate receiving this e-mail please distribute it to your friends and post it to internet forums. ISWoR web-site - http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html *********************************************************** BACK THE KAZAKH WORKERS FIGHTBACK NOW! Dear friends and supporters, Below is a description of three major struggles by Kazakh workers. The political situation in Kazakhstan for workers basic democratic rights is worse than it is in any other part of the former Soviet Union. Kazakhstan, 20 times the size of England, had many centres of industrial significance that were integrated into the economy of the former USSR.. The economic and social devastation that capitalism and the break up of the FSU has wrought in Kazakhstan is comparable only with the far east of Russia - it is an understatement to describe it as extremely bad. Such are the lack of freedoms in the country, and general problems with communications, that the appeal below on behalf of all Kazakhstan workers had to come to the attention of the outside world via Russian organisations: the Union of Workers Unions of Russia "Defence", and the Strike Committee of Samara, a large Russian industrial city near the border with Kazakhstan. Many of you will be familiar with these two organisations from articles and appeals ISWoR have put out in the past on their behalf. The letter below speaks of the enormous impact that the outcome of the present Kazakh workers struggle will have on Russia. We would add, that the outcome of the class struggle in Russia, one sixth of the global land mass and still a nuclear giant, in its turn will have an enormous impact on the whole world. We urge all sisters, brothers and comrades internationally to take the immediate actions - as requested below - and we ask you to keep ISWoR informed of any and all activity you take, including protest and solidarity messages. Yours in solidarity - Steve Myers for ISWoR --------------------------------------------------------------------------- STOP THE NEW WAVE OF REPRESSION AGAINST WORKERS IN KAZAKHSTAN! Translation by Vladimir Bilenkin Comrades, Kazakhstan workers are waging a determined, if unequal, struggle for their human dignity against the police regime of Sultan Nazarbaev. We have received news reports about the brutal repression of recent labor protests and the regimes preparation for even worse repressions against labor activists. JAMBULA (Dzhambul) CHEMICAL WORKERS On 20 August, the labor organizations of chemical workers in the city of Jambula (Taraza) opposed the humiliating decision of the regional governor banning their meeting within the city limits. After a battle with the riot police, two hundred workers managed to break through and have a short rally in front of the regional administration building. In response, the authorities began criminal proceedings against many activists. The chairman of the union committee of the plant "Khimprom", Chernogorov, had to go into hiding. The head of the labor union, Baiganov, was put on trial in mid-September. Also in the middle of the month workers disabled by their jobs in the chemical industry planned to go on an indefinite hunger strike demanding their disability cheques. CHIMKENT CHEMICAL WORKERS On September 3, in the city of Chimkent the workers from the chemical plant "Phosphor" attempted to organize a march on Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan) after their two-month long hunger strike had failed to convince the authorities to pay many months worth of back-wages. Immediately after the marchers had left the central square they were attacked and brutally beaten by a strong force of the riot police and the agents of the National Security Service (NSS). Many activists and union leaders were arrested and detained for 3-5 days. The authorities are now preparing severe reprisals against the chemical workers of Chimkent. URALSK METALWORKERS Since the 1st September the workers of the Uralsk military plant "Metallist" have been on an indefinite strike and set up pickets around the plant gates. They have established a Strike Committee and a Commission of Workers Representatives to audit the balance sheets of the administration and its economic activities from 1997 to 1999. The workers collective holds daily meetings which decided early on that workers should not enter the territory of the plant. They intend to control and manage their enterprise. They do not allow any materiel, like non-ferrous metals, to leave the plant. The members of the strike committee are subjected to 24-hr surveillance by state agencies. The co-chairman of the Strike Committee, Ainur Kurmanov, has been summoned to the regional prosecutor to discuss his "political" activities. Comrades! Kazakhstan now serves as a testing ground for bourgeois regimes to develop methods of repression against those workers who refuse to die quietly. What is happening in Kazakhstan now will happen in Russia and the rest of the FSU tomorrow. The puppet parliament has already passed, without debate, the new anti-workers Labor Code. This year Kazakhstan also adopted a new Criminal Code, containing a number of articles directed against labor activists. Kazakhstan courts have already carried criminal trials of labor leaders. In 1997 the co-chairman of the Kazakhstan Labor Movement "Solidarity", Madel Ismailov, served a one year sentence for "defamation of the President". The first secretary of the Communist Youth League, the Secretary of the western regional committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Ainur Kurmanov, and the League member Sergei Kolokolov, were all sentenced to one year of imprisonment (suspended). The latter died soon after his imprisonment because he was denied medical help while in custody. Only thanks to the powerful international protests of foreign labor organizations, the Nazarbaev court did not dare to prosecute these comrades for "organizing a criminal group," that "involved children in criminal activities," and "terrorism". The harshness of the state repressions can be explained by the fact that while privatization was conducted very fast in Kazakhstan, labor collectives had not yet been destroyed, as they were in Russia. As a result, in 1993-1994, Kazakhstan workers were able to put up a serious and successful resistance which halted the transfer of the energy sector and a number of large industrial enterprises into the hands of foreign corporations. The workers successfully used occupations and strikes and in some instances even achieved administrative control over entire cities. The stubbornness and the scope of industrial actions last August, and the swiftness and brutality of reprisals by the state, are such that we need to begin immediately developing a powerful international campaign in support of Kazakhstan workers. We should not wait until their labor leaders are again thrown behind bars. WE HAVE TO ACT PREVENTATIVELY RATHER THAN REACTING TO EVENTS. And only if our protests are broad and systematic will it be possible to stop the cycle of repression. The present moment is fortuitous for putting international pressure on the Nazarbaev regime. Kazakhstan is in the midst of the campaign for parliamentary elections and spreading information about the anti-labor repressions may have a sobering effect on the authorities. THE WORKERS OF KAZAKHSTAN ARE NOW IN THE VANGUARD OF THE WORLD LABOR MOVEMENT BECAUSE THEY ACT UNITED, IN THEIR OWN INTERESTS, FIGHTING ON TWO FRONTS, BOTH AGAINST THEIR OWN AND THE FOREIGN CAPITALISTS WHO ARE NOW UNITED. This is why we have to do our best to help our comrades in Kazakhstan. The conditions of labor struggle in Russia will depend on the outcome of their struggle. WE ASK LABOR AND DEMOCRATIC ORGANIZATIONS, ALL HONEST PEOPLE, TO JOIN THE CAMPAIGN OF PROTESTS AGAINST THE NEW ROUND OF REPRESSIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN. 1. To send telegrams, letters, faxes, demanding the payment of back wages and to stop the persecution of labor activists by law enforcement agencies in the cities of Chimkent, Dzhambul, and Uralsk to: -- the President of Kazakhstan, Nazarbaev Office of the President pl. Respubliki 4 Akmola 480091 Tel: 00 7 3272 62 30 16 or (62 77 58) Fax: 00 7 3272 63 95 95 or (63 76 33) -- the embassy of Kazakhstan in your country (1) -- the governors of Chimkent, Dzhambul, Uralsk. 2. To disseminate this information about these repressions in the mass media. 3. To set up pickets in front of Kazakhstan embassies abroad. 4. To send letters of solidarity to our comrades in Kazakhstan: Dzhambul, 484000, ul. Schuseva, dom 78, Chernogorovu, M.I. Chimkent, 486038, 16 mic-on, dom 18, kv. 22, Pentiukovu, V.V. Uralsk, 417000, ul. Urdinskaya, dom. 1/1, kv. 9, Pozhidaevu, V.T. SUPPORT THE LABOR MOVEMENT OF KAZAKHSTAN! Signed The Strike Committee of Samara The Union of Workers' Unions of Russia "Defence" (1) Diplomatic representation in the US: chief of mission: Ambassador Tuleutai S. SULEYMENOV chancery: (temporary) 3421 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: (202) 333-4504, (333-4505), (333-4506), (333-4507) FAX: (202) 333-4509 *********************************************************** The RUSSIA INFO-LIST puts out information and analysis from a wide range of sources. Messages posted to Russia Info-List do not necessarily reflect the views of ISWoR. We are a broad united front of individuals and organisations internationally who support Russian workers struggles, who oppose the IMF-Yeltsinite privatisation project, who oppose racism and fascism, and who want to build international solidarity between workers of all lands. 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]< Box R, 46 Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8RZ, England *********************************************************** ISWoR web-site - http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html --- from list [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---
