We, who have taken part in the 7th International conference of unionists in defence of ILO Conventions and in defence of independence of workers' organisations, have been informed about the repression against unionist leaders in Kazakhstan.
We hereby address to President Nazarbaev, to the ministry of Internal
affairs, Sir Suleimenov, and to the president of the national security
committee, Sir Musayev, to claim for the respect of most elementary democratic
principles.
We demand that the freedom of association be respected, we demand that
the full exercise of democratic rights – especially the union rights –
be guaranteed.
In particular, we demand that the repression against unionist leaders
who are involved in the fight against the consequences of the growing economic
crisis be stopped immediately. We demand that the arbitrary imprisonment
and prosecutions be stopped.
Besides, we demand that the press freedom be guaranteed.
We urge the world's unions to join the resistance against repression in Kazakhstan.
Signatures:
ABUL, Bashar, Bangladesh; ALTMAN, Michael, Germany, ON ASA SPD; ANOR, Albert, Switzerland, SSP; ANOR, Alexandre, Switzerland, member of the Swiss socialist party; BAIBORODOVA, Svetlana, Russia, Association of Trade Unions DEFENSE; BARRIERA, Gabrielle, Switzerland, UCPO; BARROIS, Jean-Pierre, France, ILC.; BEGUELIN, Matthieu, Switzerland, unionist; BERGER , Christof, Switzerland, unionist post; BRAND, Pierre-Alain, Switzerland, UCPO; CASAGRANDE, Marco, Switzerland, UCPO; CHANEL, Didier, France, unionist; CHARALAMBUS, Charlie, GB,; COLLARD, Alain, France, unionist; CSAI, Chongguo, Chine, Chinese Labour Party; DELEY, Luc, Switzerland, unionist SSP; DORIANE, Olivier, France , unionist; ERWIN, Salazar, Peru, ULST-CGTP; FOFANA, Ibrahim, Guinea, SG UGT-G; GBIKPI-BENISSAN, General Secretary of National Federation of Independent Unions of Togo; GLUCKSTEIN, Daniel, France, Labour Party; GROTJOHANN, Anna, Germany, OTV; GUELPA, Severin, Switzerland, unionist; GULZAR, Ahmad. Ch., Pakistan, All Pakistan Trade Union Federation; HEBERT, Patrick, France, unionist (CGT-FO); HOFER, Daniel, Switzerland, UCPO, FTMH; HOMEM, Anisio Garcez, Brazil, Labour party national direction; IMSIROVIC, Pavlusko, Yugoslavia, unionist; ISELI, Claude, Switzerland, SAEN; LANDRY , Abdou, Switzerland, UCPO; LANGALET, Dominique, France, unionist; LICHTSCHLAG, Charles, Switzerland, SSP; LIEGEOIS, A, France, unionist; LINS, Rosana, Brazil, dol Sul programme; MABASA, Tziyani Lybon, South Africa, Political leader; MADDALENA, Silvio, Italy, PRC, UCPO, FTMH; MAILLOT, Dominique, France, unionist, Work conditions inspector; MARQUISET, Jean-Charles, France, unionist; MOSTAFA, Foster ; MOUTOT, Dan, France, ; NKUZIMANA, Paul, Burundi, University workers’ Union; OSTROSKI, Paulo, Brazil, CUT; PALACIOS, Evelyn, Mexico, Sec. SNTE; ROBERT, Max, Switzerland, UCPO; SAGNON, Tol?, Burkina Faso, SG CGT-B; SAGNON, Tol?, Burkina Faso, SG CGT-B; SALAZAR, Erwin, Spain, ; SCHUSTER, H. W., Germany, OTV; SHAPIRA, Daniel, France, Mouvement du manifeste des 500 pour l’ind?pendance syndicale; SOKOL, Markus, Brazil, Labour Parti National Direction; SOW, Bayla, Senegal ; SPADARI, Anna M., Brazil, CGT; SPADARI, Anna-Maria, Brazil, PT San Paulo; STALDER, Yves, Switzerland, UCPO; TAFFAZUL, Hussein, Bangladesh, President BJSF; TAKJUT, Amar, Algeria, unionist UGTA; TCHIMPAGILA, Simon, Congo, SG CDT; TURRA, Julio, Brazil, CUT, national direction; VARALDO, Lorenzo, Italy, unionist; VASQUEZ, Luis, Mexico, ; YAO, K. Fran?ois, C?te d’Ivoire, SG SYNASEG.
From the Executive Committee of Labor Movement of Kazakhstan:
An Appeal to Communist Parties, Workers' Organizations, Revolutionary Labor Unions and Progressive Organizations of the World.
The political situation in Kazakhstan is extraordinary difficult now. While the Labor Movement has been growing and includes mass protests, strikes, occupation of enterprises, protest marches, mass hunger strikes, and illegal meetings and pickets, its organization "Solidarity" has been destroyed by the repressive apparatus: the Committee of National Security and the Prosecutor's Office. The reason for this is that "Solidarity," as an uncompromising class organization, has become dangerous for the bourgeois state.
The activities of the Labor Movement of Kazakhstan "Solidarity" have been temporarily banned by the General Prosecutors' Office and the Ministry of Information. The organization itself has so far not been banned, but it can no longer work normally. Article 337 of the Criminal Code stipulates a three year prison term for creating and participating in "illegal" public organizations. Practically, millions of industrial workers and other toilers have been deprived of their rights.
We appealed to judicial bodies and courts, but government officials explained to us that this question would never be solved.
Consistent repressions against our activists began after big industrial protests of 1997. They were subjected to physical terror and blackmail. A number of our comrades were imprisoned on false charges. Several activists had to flee the country in fear of their lives. Our publication "Worker's Life" was banned. Those newspapers which began publishing our materials have been warned by authorities to stop or be closed.
As the result, we have now a situation when the majority of workers' protests take place spontaneously, without any national coordination.
This is why we are asking for international solidarity with Kazakhstan workers. Our country is a testing range for transnational corporations. From an industrially developed country, which used to produce high-tech machinery, they have been turning us into a raw-materials appendage. As the result, our working class is being destroyed. It has become usual for workers to commit suicide because they are unable to feed their children.
Since 1993 workers' resistance has been constant and growing. When one protest is suppressed, another begins. The miners of the city Kentau organized twelve marches on Astana, the country's capital, every time overcoming the resistance of the police and the internal troops. Simultaneously, they occupied the City Hall and attempted to establish workers' control over the city.
There are still many cities where labor collectives have been preserved. But they act separately and their protests are being put down.
What is essential now is to restore the regional and national structures of our Movement. The Organizing Committee has decided to hold a reconstruction conference in Kazakhstan or abroad, depending on the situation.
To prepare the conference, it is necessary to print and distribute information materials among all large industrial collectives and activists of the country. We have restored our information network, but we do not have money to print several thousand copies needed. Many workers are not paid their wages. In Kazakhstan wages are delayed for several years, and industrial workers survive by farming their garden plots and occasional temporary work. Because of the financial problems, the reconstruction conference has been postponed several times.
WE ASK TO HELP US TO FINANCE THIS CONFERENCE.
Kazakhstan's Criminal Code stipulates up to one year of imprisonment for contacts with foreign political parties and labor unions and accepting financial aid from them, when, in the opinion of the authorities, it is against the interests of the state. We, therefore, ask to send donations through Russia. Any donation, however small, will be greatly appreciated. The very fact of international solidarity is important for us.
We also ask to support us by publishing information about our struggle in your web sites and in print. We believe that the truth about the catastrophic situation of the working class and repressions against it in the republics of the former Soviet Union does not reach the toiling masses of Europe and America.
Information on Kazakhstan can be found at:
http://www.oocities.org/CapitolHill/Senate/4580/zashchita.html
We ask all labor and democratic organizations, all honest people to
take part in the campaign of protest against the new round of repressions
in Kazakhstan by sending telegrams, letters, and faxes, demanding to provide
the freedom of organization to workers in Kazakhstan and to stop repressions
against the workers of Jambul and Uralsk, to:
1. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev - 473000 Republic of
Kazakhstan,
Astana, ul. Mira, 11, fax 10-(73172)-326172.
2. Minister of Internal Affairs Kairbek Suleimenov - 473000 Republic
of Kazakhstan,
Astana, ul. Abaia, 49.
3. Chairman of the Committee of National Security, Musayev - 480091,
Republic of Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata, ul. Nauryzbai batyra,
108.
fax 10-(73272) - 639626.
4. Kazakhstan Embassy in Russia - Moscow, Chistoprudnyj bulvar, 3 À.
5. The embassy of Kazakhstan in your country.
Please, send us a copy of your letter to Kazakhstan authorities,
so that our comrades could use them in the press as the evidence of international
solidarity, to:
Kazakhstan, 484000, city Jambul, ul. Shchuseva, dom 78,
Chernogorov
Kazakhstan, 486038, city Chimkent, 16 mik-on, dom 18,
kv. 22 , Pentiukov
Kazakhstan, 417000, city Uralsk, ul. Urdinskaya,
dom 1/1, kv. 9, Pozidayev
Signed:
Madel Ismailov, Co-Chairman of the EC Labor Movement of Kazakhstan
Yury Vinkov, Co-Chairman of the EC Labor Movement of Kazakhstan
Ainur Kurmanov, Member of the EC Labor Movement of Kazakhstan
17.11.99 ã.