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Belarus: How the Lukashenko regime puts pressure on the workers

2020-08-19T17:52:07.384Z


For a long time, the workers in the state-owned companies were loyal supporters of the ruler Lukashenko. Now thousands are turning against him. The regime tries to wear down their protests.


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Officers from the Omon Police Unit in front of the Minsk tractor factory

Photo: Dmitri Lovetsky / AP

Officers from the Omon Police Unit arrived on Wednesday morning. They drove out demonstrators in front of the Minsk Tractor Factory (MTZ) and arrested some people. The protesters stood in front of the plant with white, red and white flags, clapping to show their solidarity for those workers who are on strike. One must say, because the pressure on the employees of the state plants in Belarus is increasing every day.

"The colleagues are very afraid that they will no longer receive a salary or that they will lose their jobs," Sergei Dylewsky told SPIEGEL. The 30-year-old hardens steel parts in the tractor factory. "Those who don't work don't get any more money, the days are now considered absenteeism." In addition, the management of the plant has declared the strikes illegal, which they can if the strike is primarily for political reasons. There are now only around 500 colleagues left who are still on strike, says Dylewskij. More than 15,000 people are employed at MTZ.

Initially, thousands protested at Dylevsky's work alone. Since last week, many more thousands of employees of the country's large state-owned companies have gradually joined the protests against the authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko. Hundreds of workers at the Minsk Wheeled Tractor Plant (MZKT) even dared to boo Lukashenko during his visit. He threatened that the most terrible thing was treason and spoke of a "knife in the back". The workers replied: "Go away, go away!"

Currency broker, instrument of political control

"Very painful" for Lukashenko, the political scientist Valery Karbalevich calls the resistance of the workers of the state companies. Their role is considered crucial to the success of the protests in Belarus:

  • The country is in a permanent economic crisis, around three-quarters of the companies are majority-controlled by the state or are wholly state-owned. Many of the companies, such as the Minsk tractor plant, produce for the foreign market , around half of the vehicles produced there go to Russia. Minsk economist Sergej Tschaly spoke of important foreign exchange sources on the independent Russian broadcaster TV Rain.

  • The state-owned companies are essential for Lukashenko's power system not only as economic but also as political units , Karbalevich told SPIEGEL. "With the help of the state-owned companies, the regime controls the political loyalty of the people." Anyone who signs an employment contract there can be dismissed at any time. For a long time the workers were considered loyal supporters of Lukashenko. The fact that at least parts of the companies have now begun to evade this control is a major problem for the Belarusian leadership.

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Representative of the Coordination Council in Minsk, initiated by the opposition candidate Svetlana Tichanowskaja, Sergej Dylewskij (far right)

Photo: VASILY FEDOSENKO / REUTERS

"The authorities are now going on the counter-offensive, slowly trying to regain everything that the people have achieved in the past few days," says Karbalevich. On Wednesday, the special police broke up demonstrations in front of state television and the Philharmonie where women wanted to hold a funeral march.

How long can the strikers hold out, especially without a salary?

In the case of workers, Lukashenko's regime is helped by the fact that so far only parts of the workforce have joined the demonstrations and that there has been hardly any coordination between the individual groups of workers. In the meantime, Telegram groups have been set up to exchange ideas, but there is no nationwide strike committee that is accepted by all concerned.

The question is also how long the strikers can hold out if their salaries are no longer paid. "If there is no help for the workers, the strike will die," says Olga Karatsch, an activist with the citizens' movement "Our House". Well wasstarted raising funds for support.

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Workers at the fertilizer manufacturer Grodno Azot

Photo: REUTERS

Threats and one-on-one conversations

The situation in the plants changes daily. It currently looks like this in the country:

  • Production has largely ceased in just one, albeit important, company: the world's largest potash producer Belaruskali , about 130 kilometers south of Minsk in Salihorsk. Belaruskali controls up to 20 percent of the global potash supply and is therefore of great importance for Lukashenko. "The plants are only running ten percent," says Andrej, 26, who works in potash mining. On Wednesday a thousand workers gathered again. "Our foremen have already been called in, they have been told to calm people down, otherwise measures would be taken," says Andrej. Dismissals have already been threatened. "We want to fight, but people don't know how to protect themselves and their families who have to support them."

  • In several other companies such as the Belarusian metal works in Shlobin in the south-east of the country and the fertilizer manufacturer Grodno Azot in the westBelarus is still working in part.

  • In other places, such as at the car tire manufacturer Belschina in Babrujsk, the first strike calls were unsuccessful. "We earn well by Belarusian standards, many of them don't want to lose that; they are also asked for one-on-one meetings with the bosses," says one employee.

  • In the Minsk factory for wheeled tractors , the company where Lukashenko was booed, they are now back to normal. A worker, 29, who prefers to remain anonymous, says that the few who had gathered in a parking lot to talk to each other were photographed and filmed. "At the moment we are split up into groups, many, many are very scared," says the man. "The head of a production department was intercepted in front of the gate and threatened that he would lose his bonus payments if he was not at work."

  • The pressure on protesting workers is also increasing at the Minsk vehicle manufacturer MAZ . The management is very nervous, says designer Alexander. There have been the first arrests, there are talk of eleven employees. Other workers have already had to submit written reports as to why they did not show up.  

Work slowly, take sick leave

Political scientist Karbalevich does not believe that Lukashenko's leadership will negotiate any compromises. Already speaks of hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. "The regime is counting on the workers getting tired and being able to take full control again." The employees try to react in their own way, in the Minsk tractor factory some of the employees are now working very slowly, an Italian strike that is called. Others take sick leave or take vacation, as electric gas welder Mikhail Gromov, 34, reports.

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Demonstrators show solidarity with striking workers from the Minsk tractor factory

Photo: Sergei Grits / AP

In many places they prefer to avoid the word strike. According to the Belarusian Labor Code, strikes may be allowed for social and economic reasons, but not for political reasons. You also have to register strikes and collect signatures for them.

Worker Dylevsky wants to continue anyway, he was elected to the leadership of the Coordination Council of the opposition, initiated by the opposition candidate Svetlana Tichanovskaya. The body began its work on Wednesday. "We don't have any freedom, we can't even demonstrate," he says. Isn't he scared? "When I say goodbye to my wife in the morning, I don't know whether I'll see her again in the evening." But he's tired of being scared all the time. "If we stop now, everything will only get worse than before. Then the violent repression begins."

Icon: The mirror

Collaboration: Alexander Chernyshev

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-08-19

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