IUF
Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers World-Wide
Curtain Falls on Unions in Belarus
Posted to the IUF website 24-Sep-2002Share this article.
The farcical "Extraordinary Congress" of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB), which took place on September 19-20, formalizes the destruction of independent trade unionism under the country's authoritarian president Aleksander Lukashenko. In fact, trade unionism effectively came to an end with the September 10 takeover of the the Agroindustrial Workers Union. On that date, union leader Aleksander Yaroshuk � known as a principled opponent of Lukashenko's social policies � was deposed through police manipulaton and blackmail. He was replaced by the candidate of the Agricultural Ministry, with the backing of the state security services.
The process of placing the FTUB under complete state control was then consummated at the organization's Extraordinary Congress, as the largest national trade union center was purged of the last officials considered "unreliable" by the ruling power. In true Stalinist fashion, the so-called congress followed to the letter the scenario scripted in advance. There was in fact no election to the post of President: apparatchik Leonid Kozik, who was imposed in office in July in violation of the union statutes, simply asked the compliant delegates to confirm his authority. Kozik also heads the Belarus-Iraq Friendship Association.
Lukashenko attended the meeting as a delegate (three unions competed for this honor). He openly declared that Belarussian trade unions must be "incorporated into the governmental authorities", and warned the ILO (whose Freedom of Association Committee is currently reviewing massive violations of freedom of association by his regime) not to "push the government." And he rewarded the obedient delegates with the restoration of the check-off system, previously abolished by presidential decree in his war against the unions. Kozik then declared that there was room for only one union organization in the country, thereby signalling the onset of mopping-up operations against the remaining independent union structures in Belarus outside the FTUB.
As we wrote following Lukashenko's capture of our affiliated Agroindustrial union, "We are fully confident that no force can permanently repress the aspirations of workers and of democratic civil society. The IUF will continue to actively work with and support independent trade union organizations in Belarus representing Belarussian workers, as opposed to the government and the police. We urge affiliates to inform their national centers and their governments of the intensification of Lukashenko's dictatorship, and give their solidarity and support to labour activists and all those working to establish democracy in Belarus."
We can only add that it is now time for all trade union organizations who have not yet done so to refuse all recognition of, and contact with, Lukashenko's phoney unions.