“Solidarity” Workers
Movement of
(RDKS)
The first organisation
of the Workers
Movement (RD) emerged in
September, 1990, on the
Alma-Ata Mechanical Engineering Plant named after
S.M.
Kirov. Eugeny N.
Lebedev, foreman of
fitters
brigade, was its initiator. A founding
conference of the
"Workers Movement of Alma-Ata City", which was
registered in April of the same year and attained the
status of juridical person, took place in
February, 1991. Apart from
representatives of the majority of city biggest industrial enterprises, all
trade schools and several trade union organisations entered the movement as
collective members.
The establishment of the movement became an expression of dissatisfaction of
workers with social policies, carried out by the leadership of the
CPSU, its deviation from socialist
principles.
Many party committees, including the central committee of the CP of
Kazakhstan,
tried to counteract the
autonomous self-organisations of workers.
The so called “democratic” (i.e. radical anticommunists) showed a big interest
in the establishment of the "Workers Movement of Alma-Ata City", trying to give an anticommunist character to
the organisation. Quite
a few open anticommunists, whose influence was significant during the first
stages of the organisation activities, were elected in
the city council of the movement.
However, under the influence of the deteriorating economic situation and falling life level of the country population, the anticommunist
attitudes were decisively rejected. At the second Movement conference as of 20 June, 1992, the majority of anticommunist "democrats" were not elected even in the city council of
the Workers Movement.
The fist time that the Alma Ata Workers Movement loudly manifested itself was in May, 1992, defending the monument to V.I.
Lenin, which national democrats tired to
demolish. The whole further Movement activity was taking place exclusively under the red
banner. In November, 1991, the Alma Ata Workers movement supported N. Nazarbayev during presidential elections, but already on 26 July, 1992,
it carried out a big
anti-Nazarbayev meeting. After that nearly all protest in Alma Ata were taking place under the control
of the Workers Movement. Pushing away from these positions all national
democrats, social-democrats, and other anticommunist
organisations.
The re-establishment of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan owes a lot to the Workers Movement, because it is exactly due to the efforts of
Workers Movement participant communists that an initiative group and then an
organizational committee for the re-establishment of CPK were
founded. At the XIX congress of CPK as of 5-6 December, 1991, it was re-established and after long impediments on the part of the
ministry of justice,
in the person of deputy
minister M.Nurbekov, who acted against the registration, the CP was re-registered attaining the status
of juridical person.
Militant workers and the Workers Movement leaders prevailed in the first Central Committee of the
CP and in its bureau after its re-establishment.
Gradually the Alma Ata Workers Movement started to spread its influence to other industrial provinces of
From the time of founding conference of 1993 up to 1995 the RDK regional organisations were reinforced structurally and
organisationally.
Apart from Alma Ata,
strong organisations were formed in
At a congress of Kazakhstani trades unions in 1994, the RDK delegations with support from a number of industrial trade
unions managed to lobby a decision on an
establishment of the national strike committee, virtually headed by one of the RDK
co-chairmen
– M.M.Isnailov.
In February, 1995, the national strike committee carried out the first national protest
action. During this action the intersectoral strike committee of
All that scared the
authorities so much that persecutions followed. By a court decision the acitivities of
The authorities started a
campaign of pressure on trade unions. President Nazarbayev personally threatened the leadership of the Trade Union Federation of
Kazakhstan with its dissolution, the trade union property started to be taken
away. Siyazbek Mukashev,
chairman of TUFK, and his deputy Peter Krepak backed
up and by their own decision, despite demands from trade union members,
dissolved the national strike committee, once more showing the real face of
the "workers defenders".
In 1995-1996 the majority
of RDK members were subject to persecutions: fines, administrative arrests,
dismissals form jobs, etc. In June, 1996, “the first RDK congress gathered in
1997 saw a big growth of civil protest actions around
A criminal case was filed against M.Ismailov for the organisation of that action and he was imprisoned during two months,
of which 27 days in the regime of huger strike. The court sentenced M.Ismailov to one year of correction works with deduction
of 20% of salary into a state
fund. In the same 1997 a "new" criminal case was started against M.Ismailov - for "insulting honour and dignity of the president
of the
Since then the authorities started open repressions aiming
at a destruction of the RDKS. Yu.Vinkov, deputy chairman of the executive committee of
RDKS council, had to
leave
Nevertheless at a meeting in
M. Ismailov
* The meeting gathered
around 30,000 people, which was quite big for a 1.5 million city. It is a sign
of efficient organisational activities (public press
conferences at which it was repeatedly stated that the demo would take place
with or without the sanction; door to door distribution of leaflets). The number
of people could be bigger because the public transport routes from the working
class neighbourhoods (“micro-districts”) were
suspended on that day. The fact that despite government officials barricaded in
their palaces there was no large scale bloodshed – like e.g. during the
insurrection of 1986 when ethnic Russian factory workers were mobilised as police support by the state against their
rebelling Kazakh counter-parts – shows that we were already in the period of
democracy. Special police forces were dispersed a few times (translator’s note)