Massive Strikes and Mobilizations in Kazakhstan Push Back Against 30 years of Capitalist Dictatorship
Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan is asking for international solidarity in light of the massive strikes and mobilizations of workers which have been met with brutal repression from the government. They are demanding::
- An immediate end to hostilities against their people and the withdrawal of troops from the cities
- Immediate resignation of all Nazarbayev officials, including President Tokayev
- Release of all political prisoners and detainees
- Ensuring the right for workers to create their own trade unions and political parties and to hold strikes and meetings
- Legalization of the activities of the banned Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan
- The Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan calls on all the workers and working people of the country to implement in practice the demand of the executed oil workers of Zhanaozen – to nationalize, under the control of labor collectives, the entire extractive and large-scale industry of the country
Call the Embassy of Kazakhstan and demand an end to the repression: Yerzhan Ashikbayev at (202) 232-5488 ext. 122
Email the U.S. State Department at usakz@state.gov and demand the withdrawal of all U.S. military and all U.S. corporations from Kazakhstan.
Workers Voice Socialist Movement stands with the workers and youth of Kazakhstan who have taken to the streets in the hundreds of thousands to protest high prices, low wages, union busting, and government repression all of which stem from the capitalist takeover of the socialist Kazakh government 30 years ago.
The struggles being waged in the streets and oilfields of Kazakhstan are a genuine expression of protest against the theft and exploitation of the country’s resources and labor by foreign capitalist corporations like ArcelorMittal, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others. This is one of the main reasons US/NATO imperialist powers are desperately deploying their NGOs, reporters, and paid agents to redirect the protests and co-opt them for their own ends.
Some progressives are mistakenly rushing to support the Kazakh government and the deployment of Russian troops to repress the protests, claiming that the uprising is nothing more than a color revolution orchestrated by the imperialist US government. But comparisons with the attempted coup in Belarus or the successful US coup in Ukraine fall short. For one, the now-deposed government of Nazarbayev and his hand-picked successor Tokayev have long been in pockets of U.S. and EU capitalists. These same progressives ought to support the Kazakh workers’ demands to take back ownership of their national resources from US companies ExxonMobil and Chevron. The cries for “stability” among those promoting CSTO intervention care nothing for the stability for the workers of Kazakhstan. Russian and CSTO “peacekeepers” are meant to keep peace for the corporate owners of Kazakhstan’s mines and oilfields, not protect the workers of Kazakhstan, Russia, or any of the other peoples once joined in socialist solidarity as part of the USSR.
The Russian Federation is a capitalist country under attack by US imperialists who seek to reduce Russia to a neo-colony like Ukraine, Poland, etc. For our own sake and the sake of workers in Russia, socialists, progressives, and workers organizations in the US are right to resist any such attempt. But we cannot ignore the internal struggle of workers against capitalists in Russia which is also growing as living standards continue to plummet from the heights once attained in the Soviet Union. This is a major part of the reason that the Russian government is sending troops to put down the workers’ uprising in Kazakhstan. For their part, two of the main Russian communist parties have condemned the deployment of Russian and other CSTO troops and have called for working class solidarity among the nations once united under the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
There is no doubt that the U.S. is feverishly trying to install a capitalist government that serves the interests of Chevron, ExxonMobil, ArcelorMittal, Glencore, etc. all of whom control a large share of the national wealth of Kazakhstan. The US will try different means of gaining the advantage. They will try to undermine the workers’ movement by dividing the multinational working class of Kazakhstan into hostile camps, each aligned with their own bourgeoisie. US imperialists especially want to seize the chance to pit Kazakhs against Russians in order to win from the Russian capitalists a larger share of Kazakhstan’s mineral resources for themselves. The US also wants to expand their military presence in the region in order to threaten and eventually dominate Russia and China. If they can bribe some grouping of the Kazakh ruling class to advance this aim, they will.
No progressive—much less socialist—would dare tell workers and oppressed people not to rebel against miserable conditions. What needs to be soberly and factually assessed is how strong the workers are against the capitalists and the chances for success of any action taken against them. The paid agents of the capitalists are always going to try to exploit and twist workers’ grievances for their own purposes. What is the extent of the capitalists’ influence or infiltration? How much bribing or sabotage are the capitalists willing to undertake? Any attempt to advance the class struggle requires tactics and organization. But just as importantly, it requires the will to step into the fray.
There is a fierce battle underway for the leadership of the protests in Kazakhstan. Socialists, communists, and trade unionists are on the ground organizing assemblies to consolidate their forces. Day and night they are working to advance the progressive demands of the broadest section of workers possible. They are bravely taking to the streets despite dozens of deaths at the hands of government forces. Despite the provocateurs who infiltrate their ranks, despite all the paid agents of the capitalists trying to sabotage their struggle, they are pressing on without any guarantee of victory. We in the Workers Voice Socialist Movement salute them in their struggle and ask you to show your solidarity.
For more info, please see the full statement from the Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan below.
Hands off the workers!
U.S. out of Kazakhstan!
From Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan:
In Kazakhstan, there is now a real popular uprising and from the very beginning the protests were of a social and class nature, since the doubling of the price of liquefied gas on the exchange was just the last straw in an overflowing cup of patience. After all, the demonstrations began precisely in Zhanaozen at the initiative of the oil workers, which became a kind of political headquarters of the entire protest movement.
And the dynamics of this movement is indicative, since it began as a social protest, it then began to expand, and labor collectives used rallies to put forward their own demands for a 100% increase in wages, cancellation of optimization results, improvement of working conditions and freedom of trade union activity. As a result, on January 3, the entire Mangistau region was engulfed in a general strike, which spread to the neighboring Atyrau region.
It is noteworthy that already on January 4, Tengizchevroil oil workers went on strike, where the participation of American companies reaches 75 percent. It was there that in December last year 40,000 workers were laid off and a new series of layoffs was planned. They were subsequently supported during the day by the oilmen of Aktobe and West Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions.
Moreover, in the evening of the same day, strikes of miners from the ArcelorMittal Temirtau company began in the Karaganda region and copper smelters and miners from the Kazakhmys corporation, which can already be regarded as a general strike in the entire mining industry of the country. And here they also put forward demands for higher wages, lowering the retirement age, the right to their own trade unions and strikes.
At the same time, indefinite rallies on Tuesday began already in Atyrau, Uralsk, Aktyubinsk, Kyzyl-Orda, Taraz, Taldykorgan, Turkestan, Shymkent, Ekibastuz, in the cities of the Almaty region and in Almaty itself, where the overlap of streets appeared on the night of January 4-5. in an open clash of demonstrators with the police, as a result of which the city akimat was temporarily seized. This gave rise to Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev to declare a state of emergency.
It should be noted that these mobilizations in Almaty were attended mainly by unemployed youth and internal migrants living in the suburbs of the metropolis and working in temporary or low-paid jobs. And attempts to calm them down with promises by reducing the gas price to 50 tenge, separately for the Mangistau region and Almaty, have not satisfied anyone.
The decision of Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev to dismiss the government, and then removing Nursultan Nazarbayev from the post of chairman of the Security Council, also did not stop the protests, since on January 5, mass protest rallies began in those regional centers of Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan, where they had not previously existed – in Petropavlovsk, Pavlodar, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semipalatinsk. At the same time, attempts were made to storm the buildings of regional akimats (municipal or provincial governments) in Aktobe, Taldykorgan, Shymkent and Almaty.
In Zhanaozen itself, at their indefinite rally, workers formulated new demands – the resignation of the incumbent president and all Nazarbayev officials, the restoration of the 1993 Constitution and the associated freedoms to create parties, trade unions, release political prisoners and end repression. A Council of aksakals was immediately created, which became an informal authority.
Thus, the demands and slogans that are now used in different cities and regions were broadcast to the entire movement, and the struggle received a political content. Attempts are also being made on the ground to create committees and councils to coordinate the struggle.
At the same time, troops were pulled together in Almaty, Aktau and Zhanaozen, and if everything went peacefully in the Mangistau region and the soldiers refused to disperse the protesters, then shootings began in the southern capital, and on the night of January 5-6, special forces were introduced, which began cleanup of the airport and neighborhoods captured by the rebels. According to various sources, there are already dozens of demonstrators killed.
In this situation, there is a danger of violent suppression of all protests and strikes, and here it is necessary to completely paralyze the country with a general strike. Therefore, it is urgent to form a unified action committees on a territorial and production basis in order to provide organized resistance to military and police terror.
In this regard, the support of the entire international workers’ and communist movement, leftist associations is also necessary in order to organize a large-scale campaign in the world.