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Subject: NEWS - burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx BACK THE KAZAKH WORKERS - FIGHTBACK NOW!
In a message dated 10/11/99 5:19:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Thakin writes:
<<
Title: BACK THE KAZAKH WORKERS - FIGHTBACK NOW!
Date: 03-OCT-99
Author: Steve Myers and Vladimir Bilenkin, tr.
Source: International Solidarity with Workers in Russia - ISWoR@xxxxxxx
Reference: http://members.aol.com/ISWoR/english/index.html
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.
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 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.
STOP THE NEW WAVE OF REPRESSION AGAINST WORKERS IN KAZAKHSTAN!
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 repression against labor
activists.
JAMBULA (Dzhambul) CHEMICAL WORKERS
On 20 August, the labor organizations of chemical workers in the city of
Jambula (Taraza) opposed the 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 numerous months 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 September 1, 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.
Kazakhstan now serves as a testing ground for Western 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 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 repression 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.
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
repression may have a sobering effect on the authorities.
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 people, to join the campaign
of protests against the new round of repression 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. >>