Ukraine: appeal to the workers in Belarus
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Zakhyst Pratsi: The Ukrainian workers appeal to the workers in Belarus
PI member “Zakhyst Pratsi”, an independent Ukrainian trade union, appeals to the workers in Belarus to fight against the double threat of neoliberal reforms and autocratic rule.
Dear brothers and sisters in Belarus. We admire the strength and the courage you have shown in your struggle against your anti-grass roots government. The conservative and oligarchic regime feared above all a determined and organised protest by the Belarusian working class and its independent trade unions.
It was your strikes and protests which contributed to put an end to the regime of police violence that terrorises the Belarusian people. Your actions have helped to raise the voices for the annulment of the results of the rigged presidential elections.
We strongly support your democratic demands for substantial changes in Belarusian society. This includes bringing to justice those who falsified the elections as well as the officers of the special police units who committed severe abuses of power against the people.
At the same time, we must not forget the bitter experiences of Ukraine. The just revolt of the people against the Yanukovych regime in 2014 was co-opted by obvious anti-labour and anti-union forces. In Ukraine, these forces are now restricting the democratic rights of workers and trade union activists, they are raising the retirement age and push through a flood of unpopular neoliberal reforms.
Unfortunately, the workers and trade unions of Ukraine weren’t able to play a significant and effective role during the democratic revolution in 2014. They were weak and disorganised. Today we see the same in Belarus where the conservative guardians of the regime are calling on workers to oppose the struggle for democratisation in Belarus, to end their strikes and support the authoritarian capitalist regime of Lukashenka.
We firmly reject these calls for the de facto cooperation with the regime. Only a sustained struggle for democracy can give workers the hope that authoritarianism and violence will end. But the working class and trade unions of Belarus urgently need to develop their own demands - a program that will prevent the future of a free and democratic Belarus from being thwarted by anti-labour neoliberal reforms. Neoliberal reforms and large-scale privatisation in particular will lead back to dictatorship and police violence and restrengthen both the revanchist forces of authoritarianism and those already trying to establish regimes of external control - pro-Western as well as pro-Russian - over Belarus. The struggle for true independence of a democratic Belarus of the workers is one of the most urgent problems of our time.
We, Ukrainian workers and trade union activists, have no right to impose our opinions on our Belarusian brothers and sisters. The Belarusian workers will develop a program for the struggle of workers and trade unions on their own. However, we basically believe that we have the right to express our proposals that can contribute to the development of the labour and union program as well as a package of demands for the Belarusian workers. These include:
The immediate annulment of the anti-labour and anti-union reforms in the Labour Code of Belarus for 2019 which establishes full authority for employers in the country: fixed-term contracts, the possibility of unfair dismissal of workers on the directors’ initiative and a de facto restriction on workers who give up their jobs.
Save the jobs! A ban on fines imposed by company chairmen on workers! As well as a ban on depriving workers of their bonuses!
The immediate annulment of the government's privatisation programme for 2020 and the withdrawal of completed privatisations of leading Belarusian enterprises - their nationalisation and the introduction of democratic management practices. All nationalised enterprises in Belarus must be put under the control of the employees in order for them to be run by the workers and their unions! Self-management of workers instead of bureaucratic administration by the state!
Stop the unpopular "lucascist" reform of the pension system currently planned by the authorities. Stop the increase of the retirement age implemented by Lukashenka in 2020 immediately!
Abolish all legal restrictions on the formation of independent trade unions by Belarusian employees immediately. The workers and the union press must have complete freedom!
The struggle for the implementation of these transitional demands can only be successful under one condition: if the workers of Belarus establish their own stable and strong links between labour collectives, independent trade unions and civil and environmental activists. The right-wing liberal forces now are much more organised and will try to do everything in their power - and much which is not in their power - to ensure that the working class of Belarus will not become an independent political force, but will instead proceed obediently along a path of unpopular neoliberal capitalist reform that is predefined by a new cadre of neoliberal politicians. It would therefore be correct for the independent trade unions of Belarus to consider nominating a candidate for future presidential elections. This candidate could attract all democratic forces as well as those of the workers in Belarus. Such a nomination for the Belarusian presidency could then become a viable strategic alternative, both to the forces of anti-labour authoritarian retaliation and to the numerous candidates with pro-Russian or pro-Western imperialist convictions who are determined to prevent the emergence of a free and democratic Belarus.
Dear Belarusian brothers and sisters in the workers' and trade union struggle: The workers of Ukraine are at your side! You will win the struggle to enforce your rights! People all over the world turned their eyes on you while you are at the forefront of the struggle for real democracy and workers' rights. We wish you courage, determination and good luck!
Central Committee of the National People's Council "Zakhyst Pratsi"