WORLD WORLDWIDE RUSSIAN News Journal Update - (en) Russia, avtonom: Free to execute and pardon: "Trends of order and chaos", episode 110 - prepared by the Antijob project team. (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Antijob focuses on the topic of labor conflicts, and this episode of the podcast

is dedicated to them. ---- 1. Strike at the Mariinsky mine ---- Last week, the
strike of miners at the Mariinsky mine in the Sverdlovsk region ended. The reason
for its start was the plans of Rostec (RT Capital) to conserve the mine and
change the method of extracting emeralds from underground to open (quarry). As a
result of such changes, the miners would lose their jobs. The owners of
factories, newspapers, steamboats once again pleased with their frankness. The
press secretary of the company Svetlana Miloradova, in an interview with the 4th
channel of Yekaterinburg, stated:
"Most of the employees of the mine have heard us and are ready for a constructive
dialogue. We continue negotiations and believe in the prudence of the initiators
of the strike. But if the sabotage continues, harsh measures will follow - up to
and including dismissal for violation of labor discipline.

In short, the chiefs are free to both pardon and execute. She also lamented that
the workers are allegedly enemies of progress and simply want to work the old
fashioned way and do not want reforms. The fact that people will lose their
earnings, will not be able to feed their families, pay off mortgages and loans,
they do not care. In general, once again the capitalists proved that their method
of dialogue with employees is threats.

Local officials also tried their simple ways to force the workers to stop the
strike. The head of the department of labor galloped around the mine, and the
prosecutor with his retinue even went down to them underground. But neither
threats nor whining could pull the workers out of the ground. There was only one
way out - to meet the miners halfway and find a compromise with them. As a
result, the company that owns the mine announced: there will be no cuts, but a
joint working group will be created, which will include the miners themselves,
representatives of the company's management and the governor of the Sverdlovsk
region - together they will decide on the simultaneous extraction of ore by
underground and open pit, which will save jobs at the mine and reduce company costs.

Obviously, this victory of the miners is an intermediate one, since there are no
guarantees that the owners of the mine will not change their mind at any moment.
In addition, after the end of any strikes, the management usually tries to figure
out the instigators, those who were the most active, and then, by hook or by
crook, fire them so that in the future they could not influence the team and
organize the struggle. Nevertheless, the very fact that the employees forced the
authorities to compromise deserves the greatest respect. In a country where
petitions to the authorities have become the main means of struggle of workers,
arrange a strike and even win a victory, albeit an intermediate one. It costs a lot.

2. Large-scale miners' strike in Georgia
If about 80 people were on strike at the Mariinsky mine, then in the Georgian
city of Chiatura, the number goes to thousands. For a week now there has been a
strike by workers of Georgian Manganese Holding, the largest manganese ore mining
company in Georgia. GMH owns 11 mines and one processing plant, supplying
products to the Russian Federation, the USA, Europe and South America.

According to the strikers, back in January 2023, the company reduced the wages of
workers by 40% for up to three months. After that, it would seem that wages were
increased, but the workload of workers increased disproportionately. The miners
say they have had to work harder for less pay. This caused a natural protest
among employees.

The miners put forward 25 demands, including: increased wages, reduced working
hours, improved working conditions, insurance, and in addition - the solution of
environmental problems in the city caused by production.

Today, none of their mines in Chiatura is working - all the workers are on
strike. They gather outside the city hall building, publicly putting forward
their demands and talking about the situation with salaries and labor protection.
Workers say that the company did not provide the equipment necessary for the job,
but nevertheless requires employees to carry out the plan as if this equipment
was available. The miners report that they do not have a canteen or even health
insurance.

On the fifth day of the protest, the strikers and their families marched through
the city center.

 From Russia, such marches, in which thousands of workers and their loved ones
take part, look like a curiosity. Despite the fact that we, Russians, may have
higher salaries and we may have more social guarantees, we have lost the main
thing - solidarity between people, due to which such a collective struggle is
possible. And last but not least, this was influenced by repressive legislation,
according to which such marches are actually prohibited in Russia. The officials
simply won't agree with you, and the police will harshly disperse the
participants on the spot.

And if you think that the police will only blizzard the "creative class", then
you are sorely mistaken. Watch, for example, a video about the training of
gendarmes in Zlatoust. According to legend, they disperse precisely the strike,
which happened due to the fact that the workers were no longer paid wages. And
even though this training happened 6 years ago, you can be sure that since then
everything has changed only for the worse.

3. History lessons
And now let's take a little excursion into history. Exactly 70 years ago on June
17, 1953, in East Germany, Soviet tanks also dispersed workers' demonstrations.

The communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) offered German
workers to increase their output by 10-15 percent without increasing wages. It is
especially interesting that in the official announcement of the increase in
production rates, it was stated that it was the workers themselves who asked them
to increase them. At the same time, two months before the June events, there was
an increase in prices for public transport, clothing, shoes, bakery products,
meat and sugar-containing products, and according to a participant in those
events, this already caused a wave of indignation.

By the way, such an increase in prices and a decrease in prices for the work
performed in June 1962 will cause a strike of workers already in the USSR, in
Novocherkassk, which will also be brutally suppressed.

So, about price increases. In 1952, the average wage in the GDR was 308 marks. In
stores, a kilogram of sugar cost 12 marks, a kilogram of butter - 24 marks, a
kilogram of pork - 15 marks. This led to a paradoxical situation for the workers.
They were required to fulfill plans to increase labor productivity, while their
wages did not allow them to provide their families with basic things.

The first strike against the increase in production plans began on 9 June. It was
organized by steelworkers in Hennigsdorf. The administration of the enterprise
appointed a bonus of 1000 marks for identifying the leaders of the strike, five
of them were arrested. On June 12, the workers of the people's enterprise "Justus
Perthes" in Gotha, in protest, unfolded all the portraits of the leaders of the
GDR facing the wall.

On June 15, the first strikes began among builders on Stalin Allee in Berlin.
Further events spun even more briskly. Around 7 a.m. on June 16, fermentation
began at the construction site of the Friedrichshain hospital. The latest issue
of the trade-union newspaper Tribuna published a comment in support of the
increase in output standards.

The builders took it as a response to a letter that they had handed over to the
party functionary Otto Grotewohl the day before (the workers tried to convey
through the letter that there was no need to raise production standards). At this
time, the director of the hospital, perhaps without malicious intent, ordered the
gates of the construction site to be closed. There was a rumor on Stalin Alley:
"Our colleagues have been locked up. We need to free them."

At 10:25 the police counted 700 demonstrators. Passing by construction sites,
they loudly chanted: "Colleagues, join us, we want to be free people!" The
demonstration, which as a result reached 10,000 people, headed for the House of
Ministries on Leipzigerstrasse.

Meanwhile, the Politburo of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which met
that day, urgently decided to cancel the increase in standards, but it was too late.

On the morning of June 17, a general strike and mass demonstrations began in
Berlin. By noon, the number of strikers in the city had reached 150,000. Unrest
spread throughout East Germany. Strike committees and workers' councils sprang up
spontaneously in the industrial centers, taking power in the factories and plants
into their own hands. 250 public buildings were besieged and stormed, among them
were 5 district institutions of the Ministry of State Security, two district
committees of the SED, one district directorate of the people's police, as well
as a dozen buildings of the SED and trade unions, police stations and the office
of the burgomaster. About 1,400 prisoners were released from 12 prisons.
According to recent studies, demonstrations and strikes took place in at least
701 settlements in the GDR.

The uprising was crushed by brute force. Moscow demanded that the government of
the GDR declare a state of emergency, and on June 17, around noon, Soviet tanks
were thrown against the protesters. 16 divisions participated in the suppression
of unrest, of which only in Berlin were three divisions with 600 tanks. On the
evening of June 17, about 20,000 Soviet soldiers and 15,000 employees of the
barracks police (the future army of the GDR) operated in the city.

The number of victims of these events is in the tens. From June 17 to June 23, 34
demonstrators, including passers-by and onlookers, were shot by the GDR police or
Soviet soldiers. 5 people were sentenced to death by the Soviet occupation
authorities and executed. 2 people were sentenced to death by the courts of the
GDR and executed. 4 people died in custody. 4 people committed suicide during the
investigation. In total, 1526 people were convicted.

The protests of the workers were suppressed, however, the "communists" had to
make concessions to them. On June 21, 1953, the previous production rates were
restored and the reduction in wages was canceled; in October the government
lowered the prices of consumer goods by 10-25%. The USSR, in turn, hastened to
reduce the demands for reparations (now they amounted to only 5% of the budget of
the GDR), which also contributed to the improvement of the financial situation.

As we can see, all bosses, not only capitalists, but also those who call
themselves "communists", consider themselves kings who are free to pardon and are
free to execute their lackeys. And all of them, without exception, are ready to
use any methods against hired workers - up to brute force, repression and
physical destruction. Therefore, we should not be led either by "social
partnership" with the capitalists, or by the "socialist state" of the communists.

Well, that's all for today! We remind you that in "Trends of Order and Chaos" the
participants of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchist assessments of
current events. Listen to us on YouTube, SoundCloud and other platforms, visit
our website avtonom.org, subscribe to our e-mail newsletter!

Episode 110 prepared the project "Antijob"

https://avtonom.org/news/volny-kaznit-i-milovat-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-110
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