IUF
Uniting Food, Farm and Hotel Workers World-Wide
Independent Trade Unions in Belarus and the Struggle for Democracy
Posted to the IUF website 02-Sep-2004Share this article.
Fifteen years ago, in July 1989, the Soviet Union was rocked by a wave of miners� strikes. These were the strikes that launched the independent trade union movement in the USSR and in Belarus in particular. Worker activity reached a peak in spring 1991, with as many as a hundred thousand demonstrators assembling in the Minsk central square calling for fundamental economic and political changes. Strike committees were organized at many industrial enterprises, forming the basis for democratic trade unions independent of the official Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (Federatsija Profsouzov Belarusi FPB). Some of the committees, mainly at automobile and agricultural machinery and radio/electronics plants, stayed in the Federation but regained membership control over their union locals, attempting to reform the FPB from within.
The authorities, however, fully understood the threat to their power posed by trade union independence and were determined to reassert strict state control over the FPB. Leonid Kozik, vice-chair of Lukashenko's Presidential Administration, was installed as FPB President at an "extraordinary congress" in 2002 (click here for background). From this position he proceeded to eliminate all union leaders advocating independence from the state apparatus. Through manipulation and pressure, the independent leaders of important sectoral unions - the Agro Industrial Workers' Union, at that time affiliated to IUF, the Agricultural Machinery Workers' Union and the Radio & Electronics Workers' Union - were eliminated from their positions, along with the head of the Minsk regional union of culture & entertainment workers. The Federation and its newspapers were brought under total state control. Kozik announced that the FPB would launch a national referendum for a third term for Lukashenko.
Thus today there are two trade union centers in Belarus: Lukashenko's FPB and the Congress of Democratic Trade Unions of Belarus (Belaruski Kongress Demokraticheskih Profsouzov BKPD), formed in 1996 (the Radio & Electronics Workers' Union quit the FPB following the government takeover but has not yet affiliated to BKPD). The FPB claims a membership of 4 million. BKPD's membership is around 10 thousand. Though the figures are hardly equal, it is the Congress that can be called the only trade union center representing and defending workers rights.
Over the past 10 years, the Belarus state administration has developed an authoritarian system of rule which is in many respects a more vulgar and primitive form of the Soviet system it inherited. The state exercises almost total control over the national economy and monopolizes the mass media. The President possesses an absolute power which dominates the legislative and juridical systems.
The political regime in Belarus has steadily moved towards restricting and suppressing democratic institutions and human rights, including the restoration of trade unions as "transmission belts� of the state which involves forcing workers to give up the defense of their rights and interests. Ideological departments in the enterprises have been revived to monitor the situation at the workplaces. In a break with the former system, individual workplace contracts have been imposed by presidential decree. Contracts with union activists are not renewed, and workers are pressured by all possible means to join the state unions. The state makes it impossible to register an independent trade union, and activity by unregistered ones is forbidden. BKPD affiliates are under constant pressure. When the Air Traffic Controllers Union affiliated to the BKPD, the authorities first pressured members to resign from the organization and then officially dissolved it in August 2003. Twice in the last year the BKPD was deprived of its premises and hence a legal address. An organization without a legal address can be declared illegal at any moment. BKPD officers are harassed and jailed. Workers who gave evidence on violations of trade union rights to the ILO Commission of Enquiry on Belarus have been harassed and in some cases fired.
Yet we have managed to survive Faced with an aggressively authoritarian regime we cannot, for now, adopt more ambitious aims, such as an increase in membership. Our essential aim is to preserve the independent trade union movement. To secure a base for tomorrow, we must fight with all our resources to preserve our organization as an "island of democracy". The experience of workers organizations in other countries has shown that when there is a democratic shift of power in the country, the conditions will be present for an accelerated development of independent trade unionism.
Lukashenko is planning a third presidential term for 2006, which is illegal under the constitution (hence the need for a referendum). It is possible that the authorities will attempt to hold the referendum this autumn, simultaneously with the parliamentary election. We are not a political organization, and we do not allow ourselves to be directly drawn in to politics. But we do intend to play an increasingly active role in consolidating democratic civil society in Belarus, which is essential if we hope to block this travesty of a referendum. There is considerable support among democratic public opinion for the recently-established Civil Committee to Defend the Constitution.
However it will be difficult to sustain an independent trade union movement in Belarus without the solidarity and active support of the international labour movement, the importance of which cannot be overestimated. It is one of the guarantees of our existence, and we again thank the international trade union movement for their solidarity with the workers of Belarus. They can count as well on our current and future support.