YELTSIN MUST GO, RUSSIAN MINERS SAY. PROTESTS CALLED FOR 7 OCTOBER. Russia's powerful mining unions are increasing their pressure for Boris Yeltsin to step down. As wage arrears continue to mount, other Russian unions are swinging behind the miners' call for a nationwide protest on 7 October, with the single aim of forcing the Russian President's early resignation. Unpaid wages owed to Russia's workers reached 70 billion redenominated roubles by the end of July (US$10 billion at the exchange rates of late July), and the backlog is continuing to grow. Miners have been in the forefront of worker protests. Their action in recent months has included work stoppages, the blockading of railway lines and other communications and, since June, a continuous picket of the White House, the Moscow headquarters of the Russian government. One strong campaigner for Yeltsin's resignation is Alexander Sergeyev, Chairman of the Miners' Independent Trade Union (NPG). Last month, Sergeyev was arrested and detained for several hours in connection with a blockade of the Trans-Siberian railway. "The miners lifted Boris Yeltsin up," Sergeyev says, "and the miners will bring him back down." That deep disillusionment is echoed in a long letter sent to Yeltsin last week by the Independent Coal Employees' Federation of Russia (Rosugleprof). The miners "supported the reforms started by the President and the Russian government," Rosugleprof President I.I. Mokhnachuk reminds Yeltsin. "However, today we have to discover that we are paying for this credulity." Mokhnachuk tells Yeltsin that Rosugleprof's extraordinary congress "suggested to Russia's industry unions to hold an All-Russian protest action on 7 October 1998 with a single demand: the early resignation of the President, who is not capable of guaranteeing the constitutional rights of the Russian citizens ... We call upon you, Boris Nikolayevich, to show civil courage and to resign ... Otherwise, you will oblige us to lead a more decisive struggle against the destruction of the coal industry, the pillage of national resources, the impoverishment of the people and the demolition of Russia." Among other unions backing the miners' call is the influential Oil, Gas and Construction Workers' Union (ROGWU). The chairs of its regions and branches met in Moscow on 19 August and issued an appeal to the union's members throughout Russia. "The oil and gas sectors," they wrote, "which have been guaranteeing an uninterrupted delivery of oil, gas and refined products to the national economy during all the years of transition, and in doing so have in fact been extending credit to the state, are letting their workers starve." Amongst other things, the union calls on oil, gas and construction workers to back the protest action on 7 October. -- Gregory Schwartz Department 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
