--------------E46B981C007EC245D9DE4C3E Fellow pen-l'rs, Here are some news regarding the situation with the Russian workers, led by the miners, and their ongoing struggle against the 'reform' agenda of global capital. Of course, the very fact that there is tremendous resistance to these IMF/World Bank-engineered 'austerity measures' (which, it must be noted, have been attempted in Russia for the past 6 years) illustrates boldface the contradictions of global capital, while the fact that they are resisted not only by the workers but also by the indigenous elite, whose economic interests are quite at odds with the interests of the global producers of value and, paradoxically, the all too illegitimate Russian state, exposes the contradictions of imposing 'capitalism from above', in the absence of capitalist production relations. In solidarity, Greg. ***** #1 Miners Challenge Yeltsin in Campsite Protest MOSCOW -- (Agence France Presse) Several hundred striking miners have been camped for two months outside Russian government headquarters in a protest over pay arrears, which opposition politicians say is a clear warning that ordinary Russians' patience is running out. "I fear a social explosion," said the renowned Russian sociologist Leonid Gordon, adding that the miners' dogged determination and their simmering discontent were not to be dismissed lightly. "They reflect the general feeling that enough is enough," Gordon said, endorsing warnings by the political opposition that the threat of popular revolt has never been stronger in post-communist Russia. Added to fellow miners blocking trains in the east of the country, a strike by scientists at the prestigious Arzamas-16 nuclear research center and the recent kidnapping of a manager in the northern mine of Vorkuta, the miners appear to represent the increasing frustration of millions of unpaid state employees. The vast majority of these strikes are supported by the population, even though the latter bear the brunt of the strikers' actions. Gordon says the nonpayment of salaries is considered the last straw by people who have stoically endured the endless economic hardships of recent years, including hyperinflation which sent living standards crashing. Striking miners throughout Russia are demanding 10 months of unpaid wages and are asking the government to honor a pay deal it made to end a protest in May, after they blocked the main railways in Siberia and the North Caucasus for nearly two weeks. The coal industry, where working conditions are very harsh, has been particularly hard-hit by the Russian economic crisis, and more than 100 mines are expected to close soon. "We no longer have anything to lose, so we will stay until we win, until (President Boris) Yeltsin resigns," said one miner among the hundreds who have camped out in Moscow since June 11. The nationwide nature of the miners movement is evident from the presence in the camp of workers from a dozen regions around Russia. Unpaid workers of other state industries have also joined the campers. Three times a day the protesters gather on a bridge leading to the government building to shout "Yeltsin out," and yell obscenities at the government. For these miners their life in tent city is infinitely preferable to carrying out back-breaking work for no or little pay as the Siberian winter begins to bite. For Aleksander Vassilyev, a miner from the northern town of Vorkuta who has not received a wage package for 10 months, this life is "less hard than at Vorkuta, where it's already winter." The camp is laid out like a mini-town, with streets, alley ways and squares. Some tents are equipped with television and substitute kitchens. Financial support is provided by political organizations and sympathetic businessmen, said Aleksander. In general, the miners are given about 140 rubles ($25) a week, almost as much as they receive for a week of shifts down the mine. Local people are supportive and will let the miners into their homes to have a shower, he said. "Women sent here by their party (communist or agrarian) regularly bring us hot dishes," said Vera a Marxist trade union militant from a factory in Rostov-on-Don, which is shortly due to close. "We can't believe anyone any more," said Vadim, a miner from Tula. "All we want is to be treated in a civilized manner," he added. Gordon believes the government can end this most visible sign of discontent by paying the miners. He warned that the government should not become completely obsessed with solving the nation's economic problems and forget the workers themselves. "Social protest is a lot more dangerous," he said. ***** #2 Striking Miners Suspend Trans-Siberian Rail Blockade MOSCOW -- (Agence France Presse, Reuters) Russian miners on strike over unpaid wages suspended a three-week rail blockade near the Ural city of Chelyabinsk, a regional official told AFP Wednesday. The suspension of the blockade on a stretch of the vital Trans-Siberian rail artery runs until Saturday, as the miners wait for the government to pay 25 million rubles ($4 million) in unpaid wages. "If the money is not paid, the blockade will go back up," said the spokesman for the regional administration, Pavel Bolchakov. Some 2,000 police continued to lay siege to 100 miners who were poised to block a new section of the Trans-Siberian, said Bolchakov. On Tuesday, a leader of a Russian coal workers' union was taken in for questioning by police in connection with the miners' blockades, a spokesman for the Independent Union of Mineworkers (NPG) said. Aleksander Sergeyev refused to answer questions, saying he would do so only once his union's members and other workers had been paid in full their long-overdue wages and once criminal investigations were launched into the arrears, the spokesman said. The union claims 80,000 members, making it much smaller than the Rosugleprof union which claims the loyalties of most of the industry's 670,000 workers. Sergeyev was escorted by police from his union's Moscow headquarters for questioning as a witness in a criminal investigation launched into the blockade of the Trans-Siberian railway near Chelyabinsk. He was later released. The government, notably Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov who oversees the energy sector, has taken an increasing hard line against the rail blockades, which some officials have described as "terrorism." Nemtsov warned last week that miners who blocked rail lines would find their regional coal industries starved of federal funds. Parts of the line in the Chelyabinsk region remained blocked on Tuesday despite efforts by local officials to reach an accord with the miners and promises to pay long overdue wages. Miners in the region have been blocking parts of the railway since July in protest over wages unpaid for over nine months. Around 200 million rubles ($32.2 million) are owed in unpaid wages. Similar protests have been underway in other parts of Russia for around six months. ***** #3 Unpaid Worker Kills Accountant, Wounds Boss MOSCOW -- (Reuters) A Russian worker who had not been paid for months shot dead his company's accountant and wounded its director, an official said on Tuesday. A spokesman at the regional governor's office in Volgograd in southern Russia said by telephone that the man, who worked at a local firm that supplies fertilizers, had been told by his boss last Thursday that he was unable to pay him. The employee, who had a criminal record, returned to the director's office later on Thursday with a sawed-off shotgun and shot and wounded him. A woman accountant, who happened to be in the office at the time, was killed accidentally. "He was not drunk. When the police came and took him away, he was asked why he did it. He said: 'Because I had not been paid'," the spokesman said. Many Russians have not been paid for months. The government says low tax revenues have left it short of money to pay workers in the public sector, which includes doctors and teachers. Wage arrears have also piled up at many other companies, including private firms, in a circle of debt in which companies are short of money because the firms they supply cannot pay for their deliveries. -- Gregory Schwartz Dept. of Political Science York University 4700 Keele St. Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada Tel: (416) 736-5265 Fax: (416) 736-5686 Web: http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci --------------E46B981C007EC245D9DE4C3E <HTML> Fellow pen-l'rs, <P>Here are some news regarding the situation with the Russian workers, led by the miners, and their ongoing struggle against the 'reform' agenda of global capital. Of course, the very fact that there is tremendous resistance to these IMF/World Bank-engineered 'austerity measures' (which, it must be noted, have been attempted in Russia for the past 6 years) illustrates boldface the contradictions of global capital, while the fact that they are resisted not only by the workers but also by the indigenous elite, whose economic interests are quite at odds with the interests of the global producers of value and, paradoxically, the all too illegitimate Russian state, exposes the contradictions of imposing 'capitalism from above', in the absence of capitalist production relations. <P>In solidarity, <BR>Greg. <BR> <P>***** <BR>#1 <BR><FONT SIZE=+2>Miners Challenge Yeltsin in Campsite Protest</FONT> <P>MOSCOW -- (Agence France Presse) Several hundred striking miners have been camped for two months outside Russian government headquarters in a protest over pay arrears, which opposition politicians say is a clear warning that ordinary Russians' patience is running out. <P>"I fear a social explosion," said the renowned Russian sociologist Leonid Gordon, adding that the miners' dogged determination and their simmering discontent were not to be dismissed lightly. <P>"They reflect the general feeling that enough is enough," Gordon said, endorsing warnings by the political opposition that the threat of popular revolt has never been stronger in post-communist Russia. <P>Added to fellow miners blocking trains in the east of the country, a strike by scientists at the prestigious Arzamas-16 nuclear research center and the recent kidnapping of a manager in the northern mine of Vorkuta, the miners appear to represent the increasing frustration of millions of unpaid state employees. <P>The vast majority of these strikes are supported by the population, even though the latter bear the brunt of the strikers' actions. <P>Gordon says the nonpayment of salaries is considered the last straw by people who have stoically endured the endless economic hardships of recent years, including hyperinflation which sent living standards crashing. <P>Striking miners throughout Russia are demanding 10 months of unpaid wages and are asking the government to honor a pay deal it made to end a protest in May, after they blocked the main railways in Siberia and the North Caucasus for nearly two weeks. <P>The coal industry, where working conditions are very harsh, has been particularly hard-hit by the Russian economic crisis, and more than 100 mines are expected to close soon. <P>"We no longer have anything to lose, so we will stay until we win, until (President Boris) Yeltsin resigns," said one miner among the hundreds who have camped out in Moscow since June 11. <P>The nationwide nature of the miners movement is evident from the presence in the camp of workers from a dozen regions around Russia. Unpaid workers of other state industries have also joined the campers. <P>Three times a day the protesters gather on a bridge leading to the government building to shout "Yeltsin out," and yell obscenities at the government. <P>For these miners their life in tent city is infinitely preferable to carrying out back-breaking work for no or little pay as the Siberian winter begins to bite. <P>For Aleksander Vassilyev, a miner from the northern town of Vorkuta who has not received a wage package for 10 months, this life is "less hard than at Vorkuta, where it's already winter." <P>The camp is laid out like a mini-town, with streets, alley ways and squares. Some tents are equipped with television and substitute kitchens. <P>Financial support is provided by political organizations and sympathetic businessmen, said Aleksander. <P>In general, the miners are given about 140 rubles ($25) a week, almost as much as they receive for a week of shifts down the mine. Local people are supportive and will let the miners into their homes to have a shower, he said. <P>"Women sent here by their party (communist or agrarian) regularly bring us hot dishes," said Vera a Marxist trade union militant from a factory in Rostov-on-Don, which is shortly due to close. <P>"We can't believe anyone any more," said Vadim, a miner from Tula. "All we want is to be treated in a civilized manner," he added. <P>Gordon believes the government can end this most visible sign of discontent by paying the miners. <P>He warned that the government should not become completely obsessed with solving the nation's economic problems and forget the workers themselves. "Social protest is a lot more dangerous," he said. <P>***** <BR>#2 <BR><FONT SIZE=+2>Striking Miners Suspend Trans-Siberian Rail Blockade</FONT> <P>MOSCOW -- (Agence France Presse, Reuters) Russian miners on strike over unpaid wages suspended a three-week rail blockade near the Ural city of Chelyabinsk, a regional official told AFP Wednesday. <P>The suspension of the blockade on a stretch of the vital Trans-Siberian rail artery runs until Saturday, as the miners wait for the government to pay 25 million rubles ($4 million) in unpaid wages. <P>"If the money is not paid, the blockade will go back up," said the spokesman for the regional administration, Pavel Bolchakov. <P>Some 2,000 police continued to lay siege to 100 miners who were poised to block a new section of the Trans-Siberian, said Bolchakov. <P>On Tuesday, a leader of a Russian coal workers' union was taken in for questioning by police in connection with the miners' blockades, a spokesman for the Independent Union of Mineworkers (NPG) said. <P>Aleksander Sergeyev refused to answer questions, saying he would do so only once his union's members and other workers had been paid in full their long-overdue wages and once criminal investigations were launched into the arrears, the spokesman said. <P>The union claims 80,000 members, making it much smaller than the Rosugleprof union which claims the loyalties of most of the industry's 670,000 workers. <P>Sergeyev was escorted by police from his union's Moscow headquarters for questioning as a witness in a criminal investigation launched into the blockade of the Trans-Siberian railway near Chelyabinsk. He was later released. <P>The government, notably Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov who oversees the energy sector, has taken an increasing hard line against the rail blockades, which some officials have described as "terrorism." <P>Nemtsov warned last week that miners who blocked rail lines would find their regional coal industries starved of federal funds. <P>Parts of the line in the Chelyabinsk region remained blocked on Tuesday despite efforts by local officials to reach an accord with the miners and promises to pay long overdue wages. <P>Miners in the region have been blocking parts of the railway since July in protest over wages unpaid for over nine months. Around 200 million rubles ($32.2 million) are owed in unpaid wages. <P>Similar protests have been underway in other parts of Russia for around six months. <P>***** <BR>#3 <P><FONT SIZE=+2>Unpaid Worker Kills Accountant, Wounds Boss</FONT> <P>MOSCOW -- (Reuters) A Russian worker who had not been paid for months shot dead his company's accountant and wounded its director, an official said on Tuesday. <P>A spokesman at the regional governor's office in Volgograd in southern Russia said by telephone that the man, who worked at a local firm that supplies fertilizers, had been told by his boss last Thursday that he was unable to pay him. <P>The employee, who had a criminal record, returned to the director's office later on Thursday with a sawed-off shotgun and shot and wounded him. A woman accountant, who happened to be in the office at the time, was killed accidentally. <P>"He was not drunk. When the police came and took him away, he was asked why he did it. He said: 'Because I had not been paid'," the spokesman said. <P>Many Russians have not been paid for months. The government says low tax revenues have left it short of money to pay workers in the public sector, which includes doctors and teachers. <P>Wage arrears have also piled up at many other companies, including private firms, in a circle of debt in which companies are short of money because the firms they supply cannot pay for their deliveries. <BR>-- <BR>Gregory Schwartz <BR>Dept. of Political Science <BR>York University <BR>4700 Keele St. <BR>Toronto, Ontario <BR>M3J 1P3 <BR>Canada <P>Tel: (416) 736-5265 <BR>Fax: (416) 736-5686 <BR>Web: <A HREF="http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci">http://www.yorku.ca/dept/polisci</A> <BR> </HTML> --------------E46B981C007EC245D9DE4C3E--
