Kazakhstan – appeal for support


25,000 coal miners on strike

MINERS EMPLOYED by the ‘Mittal Steel Temirtau’ company in Kazakhstan
(a branch of the international corporation ‘Arcelor Mittal’) went on
strike on 25 September.

Members of Socialist Resistance (CWI Kazakhstan)

The workers’ are demanding wage rises and a lower retirement age –
currently they are on $250-$300 a month. The strike began after the
death of 41 miners because of poor working conditions.

The strike began despite the "advice" of the official trade union, ‘Korgau’,
not to take militant action. Now the miners are trying to organise from
below.

Socialist Resistance fully supports the miners and calls for
fighting, democratic trade unions, and for the nationalisation of the
mines and metallurgical industry in Kazakhstan.

This is the first miners’ strike on such a scale, since 1989.
Currently, 25,000 miners are on strike. The strike is also supported by
workers in the Karaganda metallurgical industry, who have their own
battles to fight. These workers held a mass meeting on 30 September, in
Temirtau city and demanded a 40% wage rise.

The striking miners are taking courageous action and flexing their
industrial power, but they need international moral and political
support. The official trade union leaders and the local city and
regional authorities, are trying to divide the workers. Permanent
surveillance of striking miners takes place. The government-run mass
media constantly puts out misinformation about the strikers. We appeal
for telegrams and letters of solidarity to be sent to the striking
miners’ ‘unofficial’ leader, Pavel Shumkin, who was well-known as a
miners’ leader during the 1989 strikes.

Contact Pavel Shumkin at: Loboda St., 13, Apt. 49, 100000, Karaganda,
Republic of Kazakhstan. Phone ++7 3212 41 36 04, mobile ++7 705 574 75
91. Or email: [email protected].

Please send copies to ‘Socialist Resistance (Kazakhstan), email:
[email protected] and
[email protected].
A solidarity fund has been established, see the website:

www.kazakhstan.socialism.ru

We also ask you to contact trade unions in other ‘Arcelor Mittal’
plants in 16 countries across the world, including in the Czech
Republic, Canada, and the USA. Arcelor Mittal’s policy of brutal labour
conditions and low pay is also practised at the ‘Krivorozhstal’ company
in the Ukraine, and in Romania.

An explosive situation is developing in Kazakhstan. A wave of
strikes, and the appearance of new fighting trade unions, can sweep the
country, especially if this dispute is won. Socialists, trade unions and
activists everywhere must support the miners in Kazakhstan. Only through
solidarity and by common struggle can we defend our rights and win real
victories!