Mass demonstrations in Russia

By Lisa Taylor

On May 17, 2000, approximately 300,000 workers across Russia participated in protests against the government’s proposal to introduce a draconian new Labor Code. The new legislation removes workers’ rights held for decades, rendering trade unions impotent and enforcing, among other things, a 56 hour working week.

The actions ranged from work stoppages to demonstrations and pickets, often outside the administrative centers of towns. Areas with the largest turnouts included Kaliningrad (150,000 workers), Astrakhan, where years of work building up the local Zaschita union by Oleg Shein, one of the key co-ordinators of the campaign, paid off (10,000), Novosibirsk (8,000), Nizhegorod (where 8,000 workers at one factory participated), Samara nearly 4,000, Moscow area 4,000, Omsk 2,000, republic of Komi, 2,000 (including 1,000 at a rally at Europe’s largest mine). Certain groups of workers distinguished themselves, for example the dockers, 15,000 of whom participated in the ports of Vladivostok, Vostochni, Nakhodka, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Magadan, Archangelsk, Murmansk and Novorossiisk. At Yasnogorsk machine plant, whose courageous workers became famous when their long militant occupation won unprecedented gains, 3,500 workers took part in a stoppage. In Kursk and Vladivostok demonstrations were held despite a local ban. Although the bureaucratic leadership of the FNPR, the country’s largest trade union federation, pressured by grass-roots activists, had put its name to a document condemning the new Labor Code, they did not put any effort or resources into mobilizing for the day. Most of the credit belongs to activists on the ground, especially those of the militant Zaschita and dockers union, coordinated by a committee set up by Oleg Shein (who has recently been elected to the Duma) with the help of veterans of workers’ struggles such as Yasnogorsk and Vyborg, activists of the Movement for a Workers Party, among others.

The secretary of the FNPR, Andrei Isayev, who last year joined forces with millionaire Mayor Luzhkov’s Fatherland All-Russia coalition, submitted an alternative draft Labor Code to the one already submitted by colleagues of Oleg Shein. The draft submitted by Isayev was drawn up in collaboration with a representative from the right-wing Thatcherite Union of Right Forces.

Likewise the Communist Party of Zyuganov (KPRF) was generally noted for its absence from the struggle. This is not surprising considering that, despite their rhetoric, the party leadership has willingly approved every government budget for years and has declared itself in favor of defending ”honest” entrepreneurs. In fact it was on the initiative of KPRF member Selezhnev, the Speaker of the Duma, that the government’s draft Code was rushed onto the table for discussion after some years of delay. Well over a hundred additional organizations and trade unions sent faxes in to protest against the new Labor Code. In April ISWoR held protests in London at the visit of Putin and outside the business expo “Russia -2000” drawing attention to the barbaric new Code

Despite widespread participation in the Day of Action, many workers who are not members of Zaschita or who have never before participated in industrial action felt that the battle against the new Labor Code was not relevant to them. This is because so many Russian workers have long been enduring the conditions to which the new Code gives an official stamp of approval -- payment in kind, arbitrary sacking at the whim of the boss, casual work with no written contracts at all, long hours without any days off. With the collapse of nearly 50% of Russian industry since privatization was brought in, unemployment and non-payment of workers for up to 18 months or more is so common that many people are ready to tolerate any conditions and hours just for the promise of a little cash.

Nevertheless the struggle is sharply relevant to even the millions of workers in casual or non-union (or weak union) labor. Efforts by militant activists who have experience with successful action to unionize casual workers, or to encourage those in inactive unions like the FNPR to fight for their rights, can achieve much. But under the new Labor Code all intervention by unions will be much harder. With top businessmen like the head of Alfa Bank calling on Putin to introduce a “Pinochet-style” regime, the increase in repression against active workers, especially those of Zaschita union, has already begun. Russian workers, who have seen their living conditions plummet and their life expectancy drop from western levels to just 56, will be battling for their lives. The IMF enthusiastically approved the new Code, which also forces pregnant women to work night shifts and cuts maternity leave in half. The western multinationals and their Russian stooges have devastated the lives of Russian workers with their privatization program. Now as a result, ultra-nationalism and a hatred of the west per se, as well as racism against minority groups, have appeared.

The US, quietly acknowledging the emergence of a new anti-western turn, not just in public opinion but also among a significant section of the Russian ultra-rich, is pressing ahead with a “National Missile Defense” program which is targeted in no small way at Russia.

UAW will explore third party candidates

The following is a statement by Stephen P. Yokich, president of United Auto Workers (UAW).

Washington, DC, May 23— President Clinton and Vice President Gore hail the US-China agreement on WTO accession “a hundred percent win” for America that will increase US exports to China and create jobs for American workers. Nice words, but they made the very same claims for NAFTA. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

On this issue of critical importance to working people -- one that could cost hundreds of thousands of American workers their jobs -- President Clinton and Vice President Gore once again have sided with multinational corporations against workers here and abroad.

Over the past weeks, proponents of giving China Permanent Normal Trading Relations (PNTR) have portrayed the same multinational corporations who today are exploiting the Chinese government’s well-documented brutal repression of basic human and workers’ rights to fatten profits as the champions of a more free and open Chinese society. Meanwhile, the labor movement’s insistence that the Chinese government demonstrate progress on human and workers’ rights before the US Congress permanently gives up its power of annual review is dismissed as selfish, myopic, and worse.

We are deeply disappointed that Vice President Gore has failed to speak out against these cynical attacks on the labor movement and our partners in this fight. Instead, he has tried to have it both ways on China PNTR. One moment, presidential candidate Gore is telling the labor movement that he believes human rights, workers’ rights, and environmental protections should be included in core trade agreements; the next, Vice President Gore is holding hands with the profiteers of the world and singing the praises of the US-China WTO accession agreement while lobbying for PNTR for China. And, obviously, we cannot turn to Republican candidate George W. Bush; his positions on issues of concern to working families are far worse.

America’s working families need and deserve a president they can count on to stand with them on their tough issues, not just the easy ones. That’s why we have no choice but to actively explore alternatives to the two major political parties. It’s time to forget about party labels and instead focus on supporting candidates, such as Ralph Nader, who will take a stand based on what is right, not what big money dictates. Supporting those who support us is our political agenda, not just a slogan.

Thousands of Mexican teachers strike

Mexico City, Mexico, May 27— More than 185,000 teachers in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan and Oaxaca have gone on strike to demand better working conditions and decent wages. Some of the teachers from 15 Mexican states and the Federal District set up camps in Mexico City’s central square, across from the Public Education Department and in front of the offices of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE), to press their demands.

On the evening of May 26, some 500 teachers from Guerrero and Michoacán blocked an intersection near the site of a televised debate between the three leading presidential candidates. After the teachers negotiated with authorities for about an hour, 400 riot police were ordered to remove the protesters. At least 12 people were injured in the police action; four required treatment at a hospital.

Source: Grassroots Media Network: rootmedia@mail.com

Police attack protest in Brazil

Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 18— Police violently attacked a peaceful demonstration of several thousand public employees and students in Sao Paulo, Brazil today. As protesters invaded the lanes of an avenue reserved for mass transit, they were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets. At least two protesters were injured.

Brazil’s economic reforms and monetary stability measures have sharply undermined the living standards of the working class and rural poor. At the same time, corporate profits have increased. Officially, there are 54 million poor in Brazil, out of a population of 168 million.

Source: Grassroots Media Network rootmedia@mail.com