Workers in Kazakhstan fight back

Russian union organisations report the brutal repression of recent 
labour protests in the former Central Asian Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. 
The Union of Workers' Unions of Russia "Defence", and the Strike Committee 
of Samara, a large Russian industrial city near the border with Kazakhstan, 
believe the police-state regime of Sultan Nazarbaev is preparing further 
repression against Kazakh labour activists.

The Kazakh parliament has already passed, without debate, a new anti-
workers Labour Code. This year Kazakhstan also adopted a new Criminal Code, 
containing a number of articles directed against labour activists.

Criminal trials of labour leaders are not new in Kazakhstan. In 1997 the 
co-chairman of the Kazakhstan Labour 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 League member Sergei Kolokolov, were all sentenced to one 
year of imprisonment (suspended).

Kolokolov died soon after because he was denied medical help while in 
custody.

Thanks to a powerful international union campaign, the Nazarbaev regime did 
not dare to prosecute these comrades for "organising a criminal group" that 
"involved children in criminal activities" and "terrorism".

On August 20, 1999, chemical workers in the city of Jambula (Dzhambul) 
attempted to protest against the failure to pay their overdue wages. The 
regional governor banned the rally.

After a battle with riot police, 200 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 "Khimprom" plant union committee had to go into hiding. 
The head of the union, Baiganov, was put on trial in mid-September.

Also in mid-September, disabled chemical industry workers planned to go on 
an indefinite hunger strike demanding their disability cheques.

On September 3, in the city of Chimkent, workers from the "Phosphor" 
chemical plant attempted to organise a march on the national capital Astana 
after their two-month long hunger strike had failed to convince the 
authorities to pay many months worth of back-wages.

The marchers were violently attacked by a strong force of riot police and 
agents of the National Security Service (NSS). Many activists and union 
leaders were arrested.

The authorities are now preparing severe reprisals against the chemical 
workers of Chimkent.

Since September 1 the workers of the Uralsk military plant "Metallist" have 
been on an indefinite strike and have set up pickets around the plant 
gates. They have established a Strike Committee and hold daily meetings.

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-hour 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 had many centres of industrial significance that were integrated 
into the Soviet economy. The break up of the USSR was economically 
devastating for Kazakhstan.

The new anti-Communist forces quickly launched into privatisation of the 
state sector, but the unions had not yet been destroyed, as they were in 
Russia.

As a result, in 1993-1994, Kazakh workers were able to put up a serious and 
successful resistance which halted the sell-off of the energy sector and a 
number of large industrial enterprises to foreign corporations.

The workers successfully used occupations and strikes and in some instances 
even achieved administrative control over entire cities.

It is feared that 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 former Soviet Union tomorrow.

Unions and other democratic organisations and individuals can help the 
workers of Kazakhstan by sending telegrams, letters, faxes, demanding the 
payment of back wages and an end to the persecution of labour activists by 
law enforcement agencies in the cities of Chimkent, Dzhambul, and Uralsk 
to:

1. 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)

2. The Embassy of Kazakhstan
Chief of Mission
Ambassador Tuleutai S SULEYMENOV
3421 Massachusetts Avenue,
NW, Washington, DC 20008
telephone: (202) 333-4504,
FAX: (202) 333-4509.

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