WORLD WORLDWIDE (en) Russia, Avtonom: Traditional Values: "Trends of Order and Chaos" Episode 136 (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 What is the strength? ---- In everyday life, we all know well how

important friendship and mutual assistance are. But, unfortunately, this
understanding often does not go beyond personal relationships and does
not extend to the public sphere. It's no secret that Russian society is
deeply atomized, split into small groups of friends and relatives, often
unable to unite with each other and solve common problems. Meanwhile,
this ability for collective action largely determines the vector of
development along which society moves. This is very well illustrated by
the news that came this week. We are talking about the confrontation
between Swedish workers and the American company Tesla.

This company is known for its widespread failure to respect the labor
rights of its workers. The head of the company, Elon Musk, has
repeatedly stated that he opposes trade union activities and generally
prohibits "his" workers from joining trade unions.

In Sweden, this approach to people was considered unacceptable. The
Swedish inter-industry trade union IF Metall demanded that Tesla workers
conclude a collective labor agreement and, after the company's refusal,
organized a large-scale strike, which was joined by many Swedish trade
unions, effectively paralyzing Tesla's activities in the country.
Service center mechanics, electricians, dock workers, postal service
employees and many other workers in the auto delivery, sales, repair and
maintenance system refused to work for Tesla until a collective
bargaining agreement was signed.

The corporation's management reacted violently. In addition to emotional
statements addressed to trade unions, Elon Musk even filed a lawsuit
against the Swedish authorities represented by the country's Transport
Administration (lost, according to a preliminary decision).

Among other things, Musk decided to implement a cunning plan: Tesla
tried to enter Sweden "from the other side" - to deliver cars to Danish
ports and then deliver them to Sweden using Danish transport companies.

Having learned about this, the IF Metall trade union did not sit idly
by, but asked the largest Danish inter-industry trade union, 3F
Transport, for help. The Danes immediately showed solidarity with their
Swedish colleagues and supported the union: "We will intervene and put
further pressure on Tesla. We naturally hope that they will sit down at
the negotiating table and sign an agreement as soon as possible."
"Danish dock workers and drivers will not accept or transport Tesla cars
heading to Sweden. Even if you are one of the richest people in the
world, you can't just make your own rules. There are certain agreements
in the Scandinavian labor market and you must comply with them if you
want to do business here," the Danish union said in a statement.

This story shows that in countries where people are capable of
collective struggle, various bosses from business to government have
much less opportunity to push through society and force thousands and
millions of people to live according to their orders. Unfortunately, as
noted above, things in Russia are very bad with this, and the
authorities and business everywhere take advantage of this.

This week it became known that 1.3 thousand employees quit the former
Volkswagen automobile plant in Kaluga, and the new management is
actually dismantling the plant itself piece by piece.

?In May 2023, the Volkswagen plant in Kaluga was bought by the Russian
auto trading company Avilon. However, she was unable to restart the
plant. Not knowing what to do with the plant, the company keeps its
employees idle. In the summer, they began to say that the enterprise
would be retrained for wood processing, but the authorities denied the
rumors and promised to restart the plant by the end of 2023. As usual,
they got away with nothing but promises. The plant is idle until
February 29, 2024.

Gradually, the plant began to get rid of employees, forcing them to
resign on their own, so as not to pay them compensation in the amount of
8 to 10 salaries.

The interregional trade union "Workers' Association" (abbreviated as
MPRA) spoke about methods of squeezing out "unnecessary" plant
employees: canceling the delivery of workers by transport, mandatory
"sitting through" downtime at the plant and, ultimately, reducing
payment for downtime.

As a result, about 1.3 thousand people left the former Volkswagen plant
out of 3.7 thousand remaining by October 1.

There are another 500 "unnecessary" employees in line - they are also
being "processed" so that people quit "of their own free will."

According to the workers, the new owners are simply destroying the
plant: "In addition, the paint shop is used as a covered parking lot for
cars made in China. But the body shop is still being "cleaned out" for
parking of Chinese-assembled cars. Grinders mercilessly cut welding
stations and sell them for scrap. That is, jobs, equipment and
technologies inherited from Volkswagen are being destroyed."

Representatives of the MPRA trade union contacted the state
inspectorate, but they received only replies. The union is currently
working on the issue of a collective lawsuit in court. We can only wish
them to win this trial, but the problem is that the collapse of the
automotive industry in Russia is by no means the result only of the
activities of companies such as Avilon. This is the result of government
policy.

Import substitution is a fairy tale for idiots, because you cannot
suddenly suddenly start developing your own industry after the cock
pecks in the ass and foreign automakers leave your country. Real
development requires a long and consistent policy. Meanwhile, in 2022,
the training of mid-level specialists in the field of mechanical
engineering was stopped in 14 regions of Russia, and in 2023, the
training of such specialists was completely stopped by another 7 regions
of the country. That is, there is no talk of any development, and the
criminal war with Ukraine, because of which foreign car factories were
closed in Russia, is part of the general degradation.

Can you imagine Sweden starting a war against Denmark? Now we can see
how the Swedes and the Danes together have bent international capital in
the person of Elon Musk. In their countries, politicians who, under the
sauce of pseudo-patriotism and pseudo-greatness, would propose to sow
hatred and destruction all around, would simply not have a chance of
success. And they would not have it precisely because society there
needs the most traditional values: friendship, mutual assistance and
collective struggle with those who encroach on common interests.

What can you teach children?
The ability for collective action in a society cannot arise overnight.
The tradition of uniting and fighting has been nurtured for generations.
This is proven by the oil workers of Western Kazakhstan. In the
Mangystau region, oil industry workers constantly resist the
arbitrariness of their bosses.

This week, December 16-17, will be the next anniversary of the tragedy
in Zhanaozen. Then, on December 16, 2011, a strike by Ozenmunaigas
workers resulted in clashes with police. 15 people were killed by the
police, hundreds were injured and arrested, and many detainees were
tortured. The next day, in the village of Shetpe, another person died in
clashes with police. On March 27, 2012, a trial began in Aktau on
charges of 37 people participating in the riots. The verdict was
announced on June 4-5, 2012. 13 defendants were sentenced to
imprisonment for a term of 3 to 7 years, 21 defendants were sentenced to
a suspended sentence or to punishment with simultaneous amnesty, three
defendants were acquitted. Three more people received prison sentences
by the decision of the regional court.

These tragic events were preceded by a long series of strikes by
employees of subsidiaries of the state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas
(Karazhanbasmunai and Ozenmunaigas), which had been going on since 2008.

Since 2010, a labor conflict dragged on at the Karazhanbasmunai oil
company, during which a fairly large group of workers began to demand
improved working conditions and higher pay.

The strikes initially took place on the territory of the Karazhanbas
field in the Aktau region from May 17, and from May 26 they were joined
by workers of the Ozenmunaigas production branch in the Zhanaozen
region. In the Aktau region, more than 700 workers have been on strike
since May 17, and the company has lost $1.6 million in probable revenue
in ten days. From the first day, 1.5 thousand oil workers were drawn
into the strike in Zhanaozen.

On June 2, in Aktau, a mass action of strikers took place on the square
in front of the akimat of the Mangistau region, during which they
unsuccessfully tried to meet with the akim Krymbek Kusherbayev to convey
to him an appeal to the Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Since the strikes began, several hundred protesting workers have been
fired from the oil and gas industry. In addition, striking workers were
constantly subjected to attacks, which, of course, were not investigated
by the police.

On January 30 and February 15, 2011, the deputy head of the trade union
of the Karazhanbas Workers' Union, Aslanbek Aidarbaev, was beaten and
armed threats, and his house was set on fire by unknown persons on the
night of May 19-20.

On August 2, trade union activist Zhaksylyk Turbaev was found murdered
in Zhanaozen, and on August 24, the body of the daughter of the chairman
of the trade union committee of the workers of the Ozenmunaigas company,
Kudaibergen Karabalayev, who had disappeared the day before, was
discovered. However, representatives of the Department of Internal
Affairs of the Mangystau region stated that there was no connection
between the murders that occurred and the strike.

The government of Kazakhstan did not react in any way to the demands of
the striking oil workers for 7 months. In the end, it all ended in
tragedy. But is it over?

Despite state repression, the workers continued to fight. It especially
intensified during the Kazakh uprising against the authorities in
January 2022 and after these events.

And this week the news came again. ?In Zhetybai, oil workers from
WestOilSoftware LLP went on strike.

For more than a year now, workers have been demanding equal rights and
wages with oil workers of the national company KazMunayGas - people want
to receive the same wages for the same amount of work performed.
According to the workers, on the meager wages they receive, they cannot
live normally, only somehow exist.

All the demands of the oil workers remained unheeded by management and
authorities. Therefore, the workers created a conciliation commission
and filed a notice of intent to begin a completely legal strike.

"We, WestOil workers in the Mangistau region, previously put forward our
demands within the framework of the law, which were not met. Due to the
failure to comply with these demands, we, using our constitutional
right, took extreme measures, in particular, on December 11, we took to
the streets," a representative of the workers said on social networks.

The workers actually took to the streets. Literally the entire WestOil
company went on strike - 530 people. Even the special forces, which were
brought in to suppress the protest, could not disperse such a meeting of
workers. The special forces were unable to intimidate the oil workers
either with outright threats or physical force, so the strike continued.
The special forces were forced to leave.

The authorities are trying to suppress the peaceful legal protest of
workers by other methods. To begin with, more than 30 oil workers were
summoned to court and investigative authorities. But in the end, almost
all the assembled workers were tried in absentia, in which the local
deputy akim (mayor) played the role of judge. The trial opened at night
in order to declare the strike illegal as soon as possible, justifying
this by the fact that "the Zhetybay Department of Technological
Transport of West Oil Software LLP is a dangerous production facility,
the suspension of activities of which is associated with severe and
dangerous consequences." As a result, 470 oil workers were convicted.
Now their relatives are being pressured to force the workers to leave
the meeting. But the strike continues.

The workers were forbidden to set up tents, but they do not leave, even
though they have to stand in the cold. Almost all residents of Zhetybay
fully support the strikers and bring them food and warm tea, and in
addition, they go to the local akimat (mayor's office) with statements
that the workers' demands must be met. In addition, the strikers were
supported by workers of other oil companies in the Magnistau region.
They recorded video messages in support of the strikers.

However, the authorities do not want to give in to the workers. The
chairman of the board of KazMunayGas flew from Astana to "negotiations"
with oil workers in Zhetybay to report that the strikers would never
have equal rights and salaries with KazMunayGas workers. This caused
indignation among the workers, the "negotiations", of course, failed,
and the strike continues.

More than 10 years have passed between the tragic events in Zhanaozen
and the current strike of oil workers. The authorities still do not want
to make concessions, they still strive to recognize the workers' protest
as illegal and disperse it with the help of special forces. But the
workers also keep their traditions. Those who were still children or
teenagers in 2011 are already participating in the current strike. This
is a connection between generations of workers. Without it, society will
be absolutely powerless against the arbitrariness of capital and the
state. Without her, the Danes and Swedes could not have defeated Elon
Musk. If we want the same thing to happen here, then "grandfathers went
on strike" should replace "grandfathers fought." Otherwise, imaginary
greatness will never be replaced by real strength.

Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order and
Chaos, members 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!

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